April 26 - Open House Ideas

Open House Ideas

Here are some notes that I collected with others concerning open house. Please take a look and let me know if you have any other ideas. Let’s make open house great again!

Time frame: Have it later; maybe early November after the fall sports. Last year, far too many people couldn’t make it because of sports.

Possibly homecoming week?
Coordinate not to conflict with athletics

Make it a showcase of sorts. Various groups could have displays and short presentations.

Trap Club, Art Club, etc.
Poetry reading in the library

Include some sort of treasure hunt. That might get people to visit various areas.
Think about having all teachers in one or two areas - atrium, gym, etc.
Feed ‘em! We could have various small servings available in different areas. Maybe a fund raiser for one or several groups? Or get a few businesses/individuals to donate food.
Helpers: NHS (community service), sports teams, others.

Get music or sports boosters involved.

A few tutorials for parents (safe digital use, drug info session, etc.)
Advertise it!
Have a babysitting room

Monday, April 24

April 14 2017 lockdown
Notes:

State police and Officer Anderson helped out, which is appreciated.
Most doors were locked correctly and students could not be seen. A few issues (below) that we'll address.
One person was still teaching when checking doors. We will see if hearing the announcement was the issue.
Some people were visible during door checks. I will speak with those folks.
Some lights were on. Lights should be turned off.
Locker rooms were an issue. I'll work with Ken and Anne an how to address challenges.
We missed unlocking a few rooms.

Challenges:

Teachers have to lock from outside the door. This should be fixed with our new locks.
Hearing the announcements are a challenge in the cafeterias, gym, weight room, and shops.
Rest rooms can't be locked. I'm not sure what we can do with that, but I'll check.

Suggestions:

Assemblies to review with kids
Shove desks in front of door when you can’t lock.
Announce when we're unlocking. Some younger kids were quite nervous when Tim was opening the doors.
Meet with maintenance staff
Have someone at door with delivery drivers.
Keys for police. Give a set to state police.

Master Schedule 17-18
This is by no means finished, but it's at 90% for MS and 50% for HS and shared. Duties/lunches/preps/etc. to follow.

Summer PD form
Please fill in this form for any desired PD funding.

Articles

Solving the Homework Problem By Flipping the Classroom
This ASCD product might help you to make some positive changes in your classroom. This type of work would definitely work for summer PD.

Beyond Power Tools: How Maker Learning Can Improve Social Dynamics

Thursday, April 13

First plants in the Community Garden

Patty Parsons is doing some work with students in the garden. Thanks Patty.

The Southern Seneca County Day of Service is April 29th. Please let Theresa Lehr know if you're interested. Her email is mtlahr@gmail.com. You could help with the garden or one of their other projects.

Have a great break!

TST Tribune
There's a nice article about an auto body project. I'm sure that Tim Borden had something to do with this.

TST Weekly Bulletin from Barry Derfel

Quinton's newspaper article
The kid was beaming about this. It's a cool production.

Nice video from PR folks
If you haven't seen the video that was pasted on Facebook, click the title. The PR folks could do something similar for you.

Construction update Due to the construction work going on at the site of the new track/ball field, we are asking that any students and staff walking to the baseball/softball fields from the school please keep to the north of the tennis court and continue on the north side of the score board to the ball fields.

PD opps:
ASCD Digital Learning
ASCD - Peer Feedback in the Classroom

Articles
Is a 10th grade education asking too much?

Monday, April 3

Industrial Arts Courses
John Barkee shared this info with me. Feel free to share it with your students. I put it on Facebook and asked our PR folks to share it.

This is a great way to promote what's happening in your classes (thanks John). If you'd like to do something similar, please send me some info. I'd be happy to disseminate it.

Faculty meeting idea
Missy and I like to make sure we're talking about what's on your mind. If you have any questions that you'd like us to find answers for, please send them to me prior to any meetings. We can research answers that we can share with everyone. This might help us to maximize the time we have for meetings. Our next faculty meetings are scheduled for Tuesday, April 11. Thanks.

Rob's students do a cool news video
Click the title for a news story that some Digital Media Production students created on the community garden.

Communities that Care Survey Results
I just received this from BOCES. This student survey was taken back in October. Please feel free to review it. I'm sure there is some good information we can use.

Here are some good resources for PD (from Jody Gale)

The EBCSO Collection database in our MHS library website is a great professional Development resource for everyone. It allows searches any topic related to education and finds the most recent info available for that topic. I use it for my grad classes and thought it would be very helpful for all of us educators.

TO find it:

GO to MHS LIBRARY home page
Click the Research tab
Find the EBSCO Collection Database then log in using the
Username: sseneca
Password: library
Now check the Professional Development Collection box
Next, Search for whatever content you need/want

Book - The Perfect Assessment System
I'll look into buying a few copies of books like this one for our PD library.
In The Perfect Assessment System, Rick Stiggins calls for the ground-up redevelopment of assessment in U.S. education. Speaking from more than 40 years of experience in the field, Stiggins maps out the adjustments in practice and culture necessary to generate both accurate accountability data and the specific evidence of individual mastery that will support sound instructional decision making and better learning in the classroom. He addresses

Article on school shootings (thanks Brooke)
School shooting prevented
This situation highlights the fact that it's a team effort between the school and parents/guardians.

Teq Online PD

I'm trying to find out how much these courses cost, but for now they're worth a look. If anyone is interested, please let me know. It might be something we could do in the summer and into next year.

Online Professional Development now has NYS CTLE-approved courses. This is an easy way for teachers to maintain their state license requirements. You receive:

Multiple live PD broadcasts each week, including Mondays 3-4 PM
Over 200 archived courses
Exclusive certification tracks for Google/G Suite, Apple, Microsoft, SMART, and more
Instructional topics include STEM, PBL, flipped classroom, and more
“nOw” on-demand instructional support via live chat, email, or a scheduled online conference

June testing
The link here is to the PDF from the state. Cathy is working on the spreadsheet and should be done soon. When she has more info plugged in, I'll share that too. Thanks Cathy.