"Everybody's a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid."
In these Ohio Graduation Test and PARCC high stakes testing days, I simply cannot get this quote out of my head.
Because of these tests, are any of our students leaving their testing rooms thinking they are stupid? I am guessing the answer is yes, and as a high school principal, it pains me greatly.
What if they think they are stupid because our curriculum scope and sequence did not reach one of the topics on the PARCC Geometry? This is most likely a distinct possibility, for how do we get students ready for a test that we have never seen? Especially in the first year the test is given, despite the best efforts of our district and our staff in their collaborative Professional Learning Community work. Or in English? Or in Physical Science?
You see, by every external indicator, we are a high-performing high school. A National Blue Ribbon School, one of only 41 high schools in the nation the year we were selected and less than half of those were public. On the International PISA test, we outscored the highest performing school system in the world, Shanghai, in reading, math and science, and in Ohio, we had the highest PI score on last year's Ohio Graduation Test of any other public high school in Ohio.
We have wonderfully hard-working students, educated parents who value education, and a staff that is committed to the best Professional Learning Community principles every day, in every classroom, for every class period, for every student.
And yet, in this era of new generation assessments such as PARCC, I feel that our students are leaving the assessments feeling like a fish required to climb a tree-- hopeless.
Schools should be places full of hope, full of dreams, for every single student. IEP students. English Language Learner students, 504 students, AP students, IB students, Hispanic students, Muslim students. All students. Every student.
My daughter is a high school ELL teacher who wrote a beautiful post Defeated about her wonderful, motivated students who work so hard for her. But they too, most likely, feel like a fish being tested on how well he climbs a tree.
Normally we enter testing with staff and students brimming with confidence, for we employ best practices and our students always strive to excel.
But after now 5 days of PARCC testing, I worry and wonder, do our students feel like geniuses, for many of them have gifts seen and unseen, or do they feel like fish being judged by their ability to climb a tree. And if they do, what do we now do to better help and support them?
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Monday, March 2, 2015
Good things come to those . . .
Normally this quote would end, "Good things come to those who but wait." But today's quote is a new twist: "Good things come to those who go get them."
I never did understand the waiting ending of this quote anyway, but the go get 'em part, yes. That resonates and defines me so much better.
In life, I have been "all in" at every stage. I have never been able to wait and hope for good things to come; I would much rather go hard and fast after them.
I went to college on the GI Bill thanks to my WWII Marine father, my hero. His sacrifice by going in on Day 1 of Iwo Jima and his subsequent paralysis by being shot in the spine by a Japanese sniper gave me the opportunity to get a college education. It is funny that a tragic life sacrifice can lead to hope for me.
While I did not attend what most would consider a high performing high school I received a solid education. As a first-generation college student, I completed all of the forms myself and with my father's advice decided to attend The Ohio State University. The defining decision for its selection? We knew how to get to Columbus on the interstate. Ohio State was three times the size of my small southeastern Ohio hometown of Marietta and I had never set foot on campus until orientation. I had never seen a "city"so big but I immediately loved it! And with the GI Bill I had 12 quarters, no more, to graduate.
I jumped into my studies with a headfirst dive and never came up for a breath for four years. I studied, and studied, every day, every night, including Friday and Saturday night. Poor even by southern Ohio Appalachian standards, I never had enough money anyway to go out to restaurants and bars on High Street and so my life revolved around being "all in" in being the best student at Ohio State.
I graduated first in the College of Education with a perfect 4.0, had 10 consecutive quarters of 4.0, and spent my time pursuing perfection. By "going and getting" my opportunity I opened doors with other scholarships and with numerous academic honors I never thought possible.
As life has gone on, I have discovered that this pursuit for excellence, for good things achieved with hard work, was not an anomaly, Whether it was as a young Mom, as an English teacher, or now as a high school principal of Dublin Jerome High School, I have actively pursued and sought life with great enthusiasm, professionally and personally.
I have never believed that I should sit back and wait for whether life's good things could or would come to me. Perhaps it was growing up poor and realizing that life had no promises, no guarantees, no entitlement. If I wanted something I would have to work hard for it, and my Dad, my hero was my impetus. For a Marine, nothing is ever good enough. And life, he knew, would be hard. I am who I am for I am the daughter of a US Marine, the few and the proud. In the end, his toughness would become a blessing in my life, for life brings hardships and toughness is essential.
Sit and watch life go by? Not for me. Carpe diem. Seize the day. You bet. Yes, good things come to those who go get them, and I am always ready for the next challenge. I am in it to win it. For I know no other way. And for me, I hope that my drive for servant leadership as a high school principal, for the pursuit of excellence, has resulted in bettering the lives of our students, parents, and staff. I pursue the good things for them and know this pursuit has been my calling as a high school principal.
Perhaps author and motivational speaker Jon Gordon says it best:
.JPG)
I never did understand the waiting ending of this quote anyway, but the go get 'em part, yes. That resonates and defines me so much better.
In life, I have been "all in" at every stage. I have never been able to wait and hope for good things to come; I would much rather go hard and fast after them.
I went to college on the GI Bill thanks to my WWII Marine father, my hero. His sacrifice by going in on Day 1 of Iwo Jima and his subsequent paralysis by being shot in the spine by a Japanese sniper gave me the opportunity to get a college education. It is funny that a tragic life sacrifice can lead to hope for me.
While I did not attend what most would consider a high performing high school I received a solid education. As a first-generation college student, I completed all of the forms myself and with my father's advice decided to attend The Ohio State University. The defining decision for its selection? We knew how to get to Columbus on the interstate. Ohio State was three times the size of my small southeastern Ohio hometown of Marietta and I had never set foot on campus until orientation. I had never seen a "city"so big but I immediately loved it! And with the GI Bill I had 12 quarters, no more, to graduate.
I jumped into my studies with a headfirst dive and never came up for a breath for four years. I studied, and studied, every day, every night, including Friday and Saturday night. Poor even by southern Ohio Appalachian standards, I never had enough money anyway to go out to restaurants and bars on High Street and so my life revolved around being "all in" in being the best student at Ohio State.
I graduated first in the College of Education with a perfect 4.0, had 10 consecutive quarters of 4.0, and spent my time pursuing perfection. By "going and getting" my opportunity I opened doors with other scholarships and with numerous academic honors I never thought possible.
As life has gone on, I have discovered that this pursuit for excellence, for good things achieved with hard work, was not an anomaly, Whether it was as a young Mom, as an English teacher, or now as a high school principal of Dublin Jerome High School, I have actively pursued and sought life with great enthusiasm, professionally and personally.
I have never believed that I should sit back and wait for whether life's good things could or would come to me. Perhaps it was growing up poor and realizing that life had no promises, no guarantees, no entitlement. If I wanted something I would have to work hard for it, and my Dad, my hero was my impetus. For a Marine, nothing is ever good enough. And life, he knew, would be hard. I am who I am for I am the daughter of a US Marine, the few and the proud. In the end, his toughness would become a blessing in my life, for life brings hardships and toughness is essential.
Sit and watch life go by? Not for me. Carpe diem. Seize the day. You bet. Yes, good things come to those who go get them, and I am always ready for the next challenge. I am in it to win it. For I know no other way. And for me, I hope that my drive for servant leadership as a high school principal, for the pursuit of excellence, has resulted in bettering the lives of our students, parents, and staff. I pursue the good things for them and know this pursuit has been my calling as a high school principal.
Perhaps author and motivational speaker Jon Gordon says it best:
Sunday, March 1, 2015
The Presence of Wonder
"Always be on the lookout for the presence of wonder." -- EB White
.jpg)
On the first day of the Slice of Life Challenge, there is one side of me that nervously dreads what lies ahead. 31 consecutive days of writing. What am I thinking? I am a high school principal for heavens sake. In a huge testing month. The Ohio Graduation Test (OGT). PARCC. OGT and PARCC the same week. Why would I ever consider writing for 31 days? I can hear the little voice (or is it shouting) in my head.
The other side? I am so excited. This is my second year of the Slice of Life Challenge and I was introduced (insert encouraged, prodded) by my National Writing Project and ELL Teacher daughter Jennifer. She is an amazing educator and writer and last year I enjoyed reading all of the wonderful, even stunning entries. This year I even have a plan to guide my entries. I heard Penny Kittle speak at last year's Dublin (OH) Literacy Conference and she said that readers and writers have plans. So this year I have collected quotes over the last several months that speak to my heart. I hope and plan to base my entries on a selected quote each day.
And so it begins--
As an educator today, especially in this busy three weeks of state-mandated testing that affects the high school graduation of our freshmen and sophomores, it would be easy to lose perspective on testing and life. I see the stress in the eyes of our students, our parents, and our staff. I feel their frustration of what appears to be ending instruction and devoting what will be for us 10 days of assessment in 11 school days. Is education about producing good test takers or good people? I hear and feel this question in my heart.
And so, where is the presence of wonder that EB White wrote in the above quote?
This morning as I worked on my staff blog post with the week's events, I plodded across our kitchen with two overflowing baskets of laundry and a motion caught my eye at our suet feeder hanging next to our sliding glass door. And then-- a flash of red. Oh my goodness, my mind flinched, could it be?
Yes. I whispered loudly to my husband as to not disturb this presence of wonder. "Come see, it's a flicker."
And just like that, we two busy adults stood mesmerized by this beautiful black and white speckled bird with a long black beak and red crown, whispering so as not to disturb the reverie produced by this unexpected visitor to our home.
Testing? What testing? Stress? What stress? For at least three minutes we watched it flitter from one square on the suet feeder to another. Even better? Its long beak pounded into the frozen cake and we could hear the muted rat-a-tat-tat over and over.
A wonder of nature made our day, and the excitement of this scarlet-crested backyard visitor will stay with us as the events of the day and week start piling up like the laundry in a basket.
But for a few special moments we looked out through our glass door at the wondrous presence of nature-- and that made all the difference in our day.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Be curious, not judgmental: I wonder why . . .
Walt Whitman wrote 'Be Curious, Not Judgmental."
I seriously doubt if he was thinking about a high school administrator when he did so, and although I was an English major, I cannot place the context of this quote.
I do fervently believe, however, that curiosity is certainly one of the best characteristics that we should embody as a school administrator, and we should do our best to inculcate and inspire our staff's curiosity as well.
Why? For one reason, curiosity about all of our decisions about student learning, indeed deep analysis about all of our Professional Learning Community work can only lead to getting better every day at it. And if we can improve our actions, our mindsets, our dedication to answering the four questions of PLC work, then our student learning can and will be enhanced.
Imagine if every administrator, every teacher, and every same-subject team collaboratively posed "I wonder why" . . . to these questions as we meet regularly and analyze our student data:
1. What is it we want students to learn? (I wonder why our scope and sequence is effective? is not effective? I wonder why our learning target work is effective? is not effective?
2. How do we know our students learned it? ( I wonder why our students did not perform to their highest ability on our common assessment?) (I wonder why our D and F rate is higher on the semester exam than on the short cycle common assessments?) (I wonder why there is such disparity on student performance on agreed upon standards by various same-subject team members?)
3. What do we do when students do not learn it? ( I wonder why your students did so much better on vocabulary acquisition on our common assessment?) (I wonder why some teachers on my team enact effective re-take policies while others do not?)
4. What do we do when students already know it? ( I wonder how we can better use diagnostic data to differentiate for enrichment?) ( I wonder how we can better implement flexible groupings for enrichment as an instructional practice.)
Certainly posing "I wonder . . ." statements as a collective same-subject team can only lead to best PLC practices and higher student achievement.
In addition, it keeps same-subject team collaboration non-threatening and collegial. "I wonder . . " statements focus on curiosity among team members and propagates positive team culture and climate rather than negative judgmental comments which may close doors of discussion rather then open them.
As administrators, it is also something important for us to remember. When we look at same-subject team and/or teacher D and F data, it is important that we choose curiosity and "I wonder" statements in our administrative team conversations and with our staff. Covey stated it another way: Seek first to understand. Choose curiosity over judgment.
In the end, the more curious we are, the better we engage in conversations that help us understand the work our teachers and teams are doing each day with our students. And shared understanding leads to progress and improvement for every student, every day, in every classroom by every teacher. And no one has to ask "I wonder why" to understand the importance of getting better every day and the difference it will make in our students' lives.
Words really can and do make the difference. And now I have data work to do: I wonder why . . .
I seriously doubt if he was thinking about a high school administrator when he did so, and although I was an English major, I cannot place the context of this quote.
I do fervently believe, however, that curiosity is certainly one of the best characteristics that we should embody as a school administrator, and we should do our best to inculcate and inspire our staff's curiosity as well.
Why? For one reason, curiosity about all of our decisions about student learning, indeed deep analysis about all of our Professional Learning Community work can only lead to getting better every day at it. And if we can improve our actions, our mindsets, our dedication to answering the four questions of PLC work, then our student learning can and will be enhanced.
Imagine if every administrator, every teacher, and every same-subject team collaboratively posed "I wonder why" . . . to these questions as we meet regularly and analyze our student data:
1. What is it we want students to learn? (I wonder why our scope and sequence is effective? is not effective? I wonder why our learning target work is effective? is not effective?
2. How do we know our students learned it? ( I wonder why our students did not perform to their highest ability on our common assessment?) (I wonder why our D and F rate is higher on the semester exam than on the short cycle common assessments?) (I wonder why there is such disparity on student performance on agreed upon standards by various same-subject team members?)
3. What do we do when students do not learn it? ( I wonder why your students did so much better on vocabulary acquisition on our common assessment?) (I wonder why some teachers on my team enact effective re-take policies while others do not?)
4. What do we do when students already know it? ( I wonder how we can better use diagnostic data to differentiate for enrichment?) ( I wonder how we can better implement flexible groupings for enrichment as an instructional practice.)
Certainly posing "I wonder . . ." statements as a collective same-subject team can only lead to best PLC practices and higher student achievement.
In addition, it keeps same-subject team collaboration non-threatening and collegial. "I wonder . . " statements focus on curiosity among team members and propagates positive team culture and climate rather than negative judgmental comments which may close doors of discussion rather then open them.
As administrators, it is also something important for us to remember. When we look at same-subject team and/or teacher D and F data, it is important that we choose curiosity and "I wonder" statements in our administrative team conversations and with our staff. Covey stated it another way: Seek first to understand. Choose curiosity over judgment.
In the end, the more curious we are, the better we engage in conversations that help us understand the work our teachers and teams are doing each day with our students. And shared understanding leads to progress and improvement for every student, every day, in every classroom by every teacher. And no one has to ask "I wonder why" to understand the importance of getting better every day and the difference it will make in our students' lives.
Words really can and do make the difference. And now I have data work to do: I wonder why . . .
Sunday, December 14, 2014
How does being a PLC affect student exam week?
If you are like most high school principals as I am this time of year, your students are very likely to either be taking exams this week or soon after Winter Break.
For us, Tuesday - Friday is exam time, with Periods 1-2 on Tuesday, periods 3-4 on Wednesday, periods 5-6 on Thursday and period 7 on Friday. Students take two exams per day, and preceding each exam is a preparation period with their teachers.
If you are a professional learning community as we are, does your exam week look different then for students and staff within this schedule?
Yes. For our students who have tiered privileges and incentives based on their grade level and their earned letter grades, only junior and seniors who have A's, B's and C's cumulatively for their first semester have earned the privilege of coming and going during exam week. All juniors and seniors who have a D or F cumulatively are required to attend exam week in its entirety. When they are not taking an exam the students report to the cafeteria where content lab teachers have duties based on the teacher exam schedule. Students are required to choose a subject area, most likely the area of their D and F, and teachers provide targeted academic help and support.
Freshmen and sophomores have not yet established a successful history of exam success, and they are also required to attend exam week in its entirety. These students are also able to receive academic support from content area teachers when they are not scheduled for an exam.
What about the impact on staff? Staff members value requiring students to receive extra time and support for learning during exam week and they turn in these students' names to our Attendance Office so that the students required to be here stay. They also inform the students of who has lost the privilege of coming and going.
What else is different during exam week for us? All exams are common exams except those singletons, and since our district has three high schools, some of the exams are district-common and some are building-common.
What does your analysis for your exam data tell you? We carefully track the percentage of students who receive D's and F's on exams, as we do at Interim and Quarterly. We have found that our quarterly grades are historically higher than exam grades and looked at various reasons.
When we engaged our students in these discussions, we found that even on same-subject teams that gave common exams were engaging in different exam preparation strategies. In other words, some students all in English I or Biology, for example, were getting different review practices depending on their teachers. We also examined post-exam practices, and found that teachers who developed common exams were also employing very different follow-up strategies with our students. While some teachers utilized exams as formative for the second semester, some barely followed up at all with students on their performance.
In addition, we also looking this year at how each same-subject team is utilizing the class period prior to each exam, as we believe the teacher and student usage of this time also affects our exam data. We are continuing to work every day to not only improve our common assessments, but also to improve our exam preparation and follow-up, so that every student has an opportunity to do his/her best on assessments every day, and during exam week.
For us, Tuesday - Friday is exam time, with Periods 1-2 on Tuesday, periods 3-4 on Wednesday, periods 5-6 on Thursday and period 7 on Friday. Students take two exams per day, and preceding each exam is a preparation period with their teachers.
If you are a professional learning community as we are, does your exam week look different then for students and staff within this schedule?
Yes. For our students who have tiered privileges and incentives based on their grade level and their earned letter grades, only junior and seniors who have A's, B's and C's cumulatively for their first semester have earned the privilege of coming and going during exam week. All juniors and seniors who have a D or F cumulatively are required to attend exam week in its entirety. When they are not taking an exam the students report to the cafeteria where content lab teachers have duties based on the teacher exam schedule. Students are required to choose a subject area, most likely the area of their D and F, and teachers provide targeted academic help and support.
Freshmen and sophomores have not yet established a successful history of exam success, and they are also required to attend exam week in its entirety. These students are also able to receive academic support from content area teachers when they are not scheduled for an exam.
What about the impact on staff? Staff members value requiring students to receive extra time and support for learning during exam week and they turn in these students' names to our Attendance Office so that the students required to be here stay. They also inform the students of who has lost the privilege of coming and going.
What else is different during exam week for us? All exams are common exams except those singletons, and since our district has three high schools, some of the exams are district-common and some are building-common.
What does your analysis for your exam data tell you? We carefully track the percentage of students who receive D's and F's on exams, as we do at Interim and Quarterly. We have found that our quarterly grades are historically higher than exam grades and looked at various reasons.
When we engaged our students in these discussions, we found that even on same-subject teams that gave common exams were engaging in different exam preparation strategies. In other words, some students all in English I or Biology, for example, were getting different review practices depending on their teachers. We also examined post-exam practices, and found that teachers who developed common exams were also employing very different follow-up strategies with our students. While some teachers utilized exams as formative for the second semester, some barely followed up at all with students on their performance.
In addition, we also looking this year at how each same-subject team is utilizing the class period prior to each exam, as we believe the teacher and student usage of this time also affects our exam data. We are continuing to work every day to not only improve our common assessments, but also to improve our exam preparation and follow-up, so that every student has an opportunity to do his/her best on assessments every day, and during exam week.
Wednesday, September 24, 2014
PLC: Systemic Response to a Learning Emergency
In many high schools, this week is Interim Week, the week where students and parents are informed about student progress halfway through the grading period.
At Dublin Jerome High School, a National Model Professional Learning Community at Work School and National Blue Ribbon School, not only do we communicate student progress, we act on it.
Do you carefully monitor student progress regularly? We do-- at the middle and end of four quarterly grading periods per year. More importantly, do you act on the D's and F's that individual students receive? For us, it is a learning emergency. And emergencies need immediate attention.
Here are the series of steps that we take as a Professional Learning Community to provide mandated intervention for students who need additional academic support to be successful:
1. We run a D and F report by grade level, by individual student and by individual teacher. This allows for data analysis for academic trends as well as identifying individual academic concerns. Both the grade level data and individual student data is provided to every staff member.
2, Teachers submit grades electronically and then determine which students with D's or F's receive a Gold Card ( named after one of our school colors). A Gold Card outlines mandated intervention procedures for students. Teachers meet with each of their Gold Card students and explain the procedures, which include a student getting 8 signatures that verify the extra academic support the student seeks and receives. The responsibility then lies with the student. The teacher issuing the card is the first signature and the last signature, signifying it is complete within 4.5 weeks. Students who receive a Gold Card but seek no assistance meet with an administrator and receive school discipline for insubordination.
3. Teachers send the names, grade level, subject and letter grade to a guidance secretary. Guidance Counselors, with case loads by alphabet, individually meet with every Gold Card student and also initial the card, ensuring students understand how to get academic intervention according to our pyramid of interventions. Counselors also inform students with a Gold Card of a loss of privileges.
4. Students who receive a Gold Card are subject to a loss of privileges. For examples, seniors with early release or late arrival forfeit that privilege with a Gold Card for at least 4.5 weeks. A section of study hall is built by our registrar so that the period 1 and period 7 study halls account for these new study hall students with attendance.
5. Students with Gold Cards must make arrangements either with their teachers before or after school or during planning time or lunch, or with academic content lab duty teachers to get extra academic intervention with the goal of achieving learning goals, including raising their grades to all A's, B's and C's.
In addition, students with all A's. B's and C's at Interim receive a sticker on their ID every interim and end of the grading period denoting that they have earned special privileges such as being able to leave study hall and go to a number of specially designated comfortable seating areas around the building.
Student success drives every decision we make and a D or F signals a learning emergency that necessitates a systemic response by a number of staff members. Intervention by invitation doesn't work. How do you respond when a student is not learning?
At Dublin Jerome High School, a National Model Professional Learning Community at Work School and National Blue Ribbon School, not only do we communicate student progress, we act on it.
Do you carefully monitor student progress regularly? We do-- at the middle and end of four quarterly grading periods per year. More importantly, do you act on the D's and F's that individual students receive? For us, it is a learning emergency. And emergencies need immediate attention.
Here are the series of steps that we take as a Professional Learning Community to provide mandated intervention for students who need additional academic support to be successful:
1. We run a D and F report by grade level, by individual student and by individual teacher. This allows for data analysis for academic trends as well as identifying individual academic concerns. Both the grade level data and individual student data is provided to every staff member.
2, Teachers submit grades electronically and then determine which students with D's or F's receive a Gold Card ( named after one of our school colors). A Gold Card outlines mandated intervention procedures for students. Teachers meet with each of their Gold Card students and explain the procedures, which include a student getting 8 signatures that verify the extra academic support the student seeks and receives. The responsibility then lies with the student. The teacher issuing the card is the first signature and the last signature, signifying it is complete within 4.5 weeks. Students who receive a Gold Card but seek no assistance meet with an administrator and receive school discipline for insubordination.
3. Teachers send the names, grade level, subject and letter grade to a guidance secretary. Guidance Counselors, with case loads by alphabet, individually meet with every Gold Card student and also initial the card, ensuring students understand how to get academic intervention according to our pyramid of interventions. Counselors also inform students with a Gold Card of a loss of privileges.
4. Students who receive a Gold Card are subject to a loss of privileges. For examples, seniors with early release or late arrival forfeit that privilege with a Gold Card for at least 4.5 weeks. A section of study hall is built by our registrar so that the period 1 and period 7 study halls account for these new study hall students with attendance.
5. Students with Gold Cards must make arrangements either with their teachers before or after school or during planning time or lunch, or with academic content lab duty teachers to get extra academic intervention with the goal of achieving learning goals, including raising their grades to all A's, B's and C's.
In addition, students with all A's. B's and C's at Interim receive a sticker on their ID every interim and end of the grading period denoting that they have earned special privileges such as being able to leave study hall and go to a number of specially designated comfortable seating areas around the building.
Student success drives every decision we make and a D or F signals a learning emergency that necessitates a systemic response by a number of staff members. Intervention by invitation doesn't work. How do you respond when a student is not learning?
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Want more student involvement? Try student leadership
As educators we all know that research states that student involvement increases the likelihood of student success and achievement. If you are a principal as I am, you have probably spent time communicating to your staff, your parents, and more importantly, your students, about the importance of becoming involved and staying involved in extracurricular activities.
Why? Because students can list it on their resumes for college applications? Hardly. We know that we want students to become involved in clubs or organizations because students can practice forming strong relationships with other students and adults, develop important organizational and leadership skills, and yes, become better people, And isn't that our larger goal? If we develop academic success data but fail to create better people who can change other lives is that really an education? No.
As Aristotle said, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."
But having principals or teachers make announcements encouraging students to "become involved" is largely ineffective. We can encourage, but student voice and encouragement is much more powerful. We have found this out through trial and error and many other tries at encouraging student involvement, most of which were barely effective at best.
That is why today was another amazing day at Dublin Jerome. Why? Because our student leaders organized a Club Fair attended by hundreds of students during all three of our lunch periods.
These student leaders are our Celtic Advisory Program (CAP) mentors, part of our freshman transition program leaders, who first notify teachers via their advisers' school email the date and location of the Club Fair.
As part of the email, they sent out a template for the adviser to pass along to their club or organization's officers or student leaders. The template serves as a model for a half-page handout each organization distributes at the club fair to interested students. It lists the club name, adviser, basic purpose of the club, meeting information etc.
Advertised to all parents and students through social media, enewsletters and announcements, the Club Fair is open to every students during his/her lunch period. Students leaders also make announcements in the cafeteria during all three lunches. Although the CAP mentors specifically work with freshmen in freshman advisory periods, all students can enter the gym which is completely rimmed by tables and various club displays manned by enthusiastic student leaders.
Official clubs and unofficial interest clubs have sign-up sheets and exhort students using baked goods, interactive displays, and candy to sign up for their clubs. Good-natured competition and fun embody the Club Fair culture and climate, with smiles all around.
Students leading students, students helping students. And in doing so, student grow into better people, And in the end, that is really what education is really about.
Why? Because students can list it on their resumes for college applications? Hardly. We know that we want students to become involved in clubs or organizations because students can practice forming strong relationships with other students and adults, develop important organizational and leadership skills, and yes, become better people, And isn't that our larger goal? If we develop academic success data but fail to create better people who can change other lives is that really an education? No.
As Aristotle said, "Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all."
But having principals or teachers make announcements encouraging students to "become involved" is largely ineffective. We can encourage, but student voice and encouragement is much more powerful. We have found this out through trial and error and many other tries at encouraging student involvement, most of which were barely effective at best.
That is why today was another amazing day at Dublin Jerome. Why? Because our student leaders organized a Club Fair attended by hundreds of students during all three of our lunch periods.
.JPG) |
| Students at the Club Fair can even try out their skills, such as taking on other students in Chess Club. |
These student leaders are our Celtic Advisory Program (CAP) mentors, part of our freshman transition program leaders, who first notify teachers via their advisers' school email the date and location of the Club Fair.
As part of the email, they sent out a template for the adviser to pass along to their club or organization's officers or student leaders. The template serves as a model for a half-page handout each organization distributes at the club fair to interested students. It lists the club name, adviser, basic purpose of the club, meeting information etc.
Advertised to all parents and students through social media, enewsletters and announcements, the Club Fair is open to every students during his/her lunch period. Students leaders also make announcements in the cafeteria during all three lunches. Although the CAP mentors specifically work with freshmen in freshman advisory periods, all students can enter the gym which is completely rimmed by tables and various club displays manned by enthusiastic student leaders.
.JPG) |
| Smiles abound as students pore over club and organization exhibits. |
Official clubs and unofficial interest clubs have sign-up sheets and exhort students using baked goods, interactive displays, and candy to sign up for their clubs. Good-natured competition and fun embody the Club Fair culture and climate, with smiles all around.
Students leading students, students helping students. And in doing so, student grow into better people, And in the end, that is really what education is really about.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)