September 18, 2020

 No Excuses University – Collaboration

Culture of Universal Achievement

Collaboration

Standards Alignment

Assessment Plan

Data Analysis

Interventions

“This is the first and most important system that needs to be developed. Once a clearly understood and agreed-to system for collaboration is in place, a staff is equipped to develop the remaining essential systems and address any other learning challenges they encounter.”

When a school embraces a system of collaboration, there are four attributes that need to be included. As identified at the Turn Around Schools Institute, the attributes are:

#1: Based on action oriented commitments

#2: Scheduled well in advance

#3: Driven by professional attitudes

#4: Focused on results

Now…before you move on, re-read the four statements and think about if they represent the collaboration that takes place on our campus.

Based on action oriented commitments: When our teams come together to collaborate, do you leave with “we talked about…” statements or are there actions that are going to be immediately implemented to impact student learning?

Scheduled well in advance: Do we plan for collaboration or does it just happen? True collaboration includes bringing in data (not perceptions or hearsay) and making decisions based on the collected information. Such a process has to be planned so that the proper data can be collected and is the foundation for good decisions.

Driven by professional attitudes: When our team discusses issues, is it done in a professional way? Do you praise one another during times of success and be honest with one another as you respectfully confront concerns. Does our site benefit from strong professional relationships?

Focused on results: Is our collaborative time focused on student results? Do we come to the table and offer solutions? Are decisions based on student needs?

If you don’t collaborate around your students’ academic achievement data, then how do you know if you have alignment?

Progress reports are due to me on Sept. 25th. 

Naming Conventions in Google Classroom/Aeries/Illuminate (CHANGE)

A group met on Friday, September 4, 2020. The group included site administrators and teachers including a representative from FSUTA. They met to discuss the easiest way to name assignments so that when they pull reports they can easily identify what work was assigned for Synchronous(S) time and what work was assigned for Asynchronous(A) time. The team all agreed that when an assignment is created in Aeries, Google Classroom, or Illuminate they would use the following naming convention:

              [S] Assignment Title

 [A] Assignment Title 

They want the final assignment in Aeries or Illuminate to reflect the naming convention so that they can run reports.  The goal is to have all of FSUSD having fully implemented this approach with the start of the new grading period at the end of September.

Another great outcome of this process is that once we are consistently using this naming convention there will not be a need to use the DL tracking sheet for our Special Education teachers.

**No teacher should be asked to go back and retroactively change naming conventions. This would be for assignments moving forward. We are still in the timeframe of teachers getting familiar and used to the process and want everyone on board with the consistent naming conventions effective October 1, 2020.**

Observable Fish Moments at SV:

Be There: Wow- thank you so much for being there for each other during MAP testing!! This was our last week so now we can take our data and plan interventions.

Play:  Make sure you take some time to RELAX.

 Choose your attitude: BE POSITIVE!!!

Make Their Day:  I loved my lunch with the Principal on Monday. Thank you Daniel and Heather M. for joining us as well. So FUN!! :)