Sunday, June 3, 2018

NewsNotes 6/3/2018

The month of June is filled with activity at Horace Mann.  The space below is an attempt to share some of what is going on these last few weeks of school:
  • Assessments - We are currently conducting a variety of assessments to measure student learning in math, writing, and reading.  This information will help teachers to write progress reports.  It will also serve as a starting point for assessments and instruction in the fall.
  • Progress Reports - Spring reports will be published on June 21st on the new Student Information System call ASPEN. Details will be coming soon.
  • Placement - We are well underway with regard to creating class placements for next year.  In many cases, teachers create class lists for a given grade 3 or 4 times.  In the younger grades, we also set up class “playdates” with the new groupings to get a sense of the dynamics.  If we need to make adjustments, we reconvene the team.  In some case, we start over again from scratch.
  • Celebrations - Lots of classrooms are inviting families in to see a culminating project, a variety of work samples, or a performance.  Some of the work taking place in classrooms is dedicated to 
  • Closure - Teachers are also engaging students in activities that offer a chance for reflection and closure to the classroom experience. 
  • Schedule Review - Each spring, we look at our master schedule and make adjustments to the way we systematically allocate resources to maximize how we use staff, how we run interventions, etc.

Fitness for Life - Another awesome day…as always, thanks to David Tynes for the inspiration for this event, as well as the tremendous effort it takes to organize, practice, setup, and put away all of the activities.   Thanks to the staff who ran activities, to Rose Mariano for helping with logistics, and to Elissa Matloff for tending to the children with allergies, scrapes and bruises, etc. Thanks also to all of our classroom teachers and other staff who worked with students to cooperate, take risks, and have fun. Finally, a huge thank you to all of the parents who contributed to organizing snacks, ordering water bottles and food, setting up grills and cooking, and for being present at the event. This event is a great way to summarize and showcase all that it means to be part of the HM community.

Carr School Planning - Now that the School Committee has voted to move us to Carr for September of 2019, we have begun to think about our planning needs in earnest. On Tuesday, June 5th, I will be bringing a small team of people (including central office staff) to do a walk-through at Carr to discuss requests around classroom space, storage space, and other things that might come up.  Shortly thereafter, I will update the community on what we hope to achieve.

Return Library Books - Because Ms. Karam is split between schools, I’d like to support her efforts to collect library books from students over the next two weeks.  If you have a book signed out, please remember to turn it back in as soon as you can!  Thank you!

Articles -  Came across a few articles over the weekend that I thought were worth sharing…might make for some interesting discussion out on the playgrounds or sports fields this spring...
For the first one, I thought sharing might provide families with a window into our philosophy and thinking about what is important in making schools a productive place:

 http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/inside-school-research/2018/03/how_principals_drive_student_improvement.html

The second two articles are on a completely different topic but related to one another.  I know my wife and I struggle with decisions around access to screen time, independence, decision-making, responsibility, and more.  The two articles delve into both.

The first features an interview with the author of a new book titled Why Children Aren’t Behaving and What You Can Do About It

https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/06/02/611082566/why-children-arent-behaving-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

The second talks about how little independence our kids truly have these days.  If you can’t access it directly frorm the link, try searching for it in your Apple News app on your IOS device

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-overprotected-american-child-1527865038