- Assistant Principals Conference (November 17-18): Friday, November 17: 7:45 Report to Indiana Ballroom A/B. Registration on this day runs from 7:45-8:45 with the 1st General Session beginning at 8:45am. Your registration materials will be available in the room. We will meet for about 30 minutes This will count as our November meeting. All you will need to do after this is get your picture taken for your name badge prior to the start of the conference.
- Fall Professionals Conference (November 19-21).
School Visits Update:
Thanks to Amanda and Adam for hosting me for our Fall School Visit this past week. It was great to talk about NPHS's Pathways program and the great literacy efforts at JB Stephens! Each of the school visits has left me with lots of confidence and trust in our cohort's leaders! I look forward to visiting Deryck at Hendricks Elementary this coming week!
Check It Out: School leadership blog at Think Strategic: http://thinkstrategicforschools.com/blog/
Helping a Colleague! Weigh in with your feedback!
From Nicci Sargent (Oct 22)
Need to pick your brains for a minute:) I am working with my staff to create more of a culture of literacy. In the past we have used Reading Counts as our only means of rewarding reading, but Reading Counts has not been proven to grow readers. I want to focus more on growing readers than on students earning points for passing RC quizzes, which are only level one questions.
What are some strategies that your schools use to encourage reading growth? How do you measure growth? How do you help students become lovers of reading or to keep the love they have when they are little?
Hope all is well with everyone!
Response from Cole Zook (October 23)
Our younger grade levels monitor their lexile through NWEA and create books tubs for their students based on their lexiles. That way all the books are at their level and not too difficult.
Grades 3-6 use Achieve 3000 which monitors their lexile each time they use the program and only offers reading materials that are in their lexile. You can assign stretch articles to push them though.
The teachers each have their own ways to celebrate lexile/reading growth. With grades 3-6 having the ability to monitor lexile growth more frequently, they celebrate the top 5 lexile growth students each month and they get to choose a reward that the class decided on at the beginning of the year. 5th grade also does a 30 book challenge where the students have to read 30 books of different genres before the end of the year and are rewarded for that. The younger grades try to set more long term goals since they only get lexile growth 2 times a year. One of our second grade classes has a challenge to read 10,000 books on their level by the end of the year and our Superintendent will kiss a pig!
What we have noticed over the years is that giving them reading material within their lexile range keeps them interested in reading. The more they read the better they read which in turn allows them to grow. Achieve 3000 has been a huge factor in raising our ISTEP scores in reading.
From Mark Kern (October 29)
Great question, Nicci! Nice response, Cole!
Cole mentioned using NWEA as a tool. This reminded me of a tool within the NWEA Suite that we encouraged teachers to use: Goal Setting. Working one on one with students, teachers (and parents, too, when possible), it is great to set year-end NWEA goals with interim check points along with strategies to reach those goals. Keep in mind that a shorter (non-goals) NWEA assessment can be used in between the Fall-Winter-Spring benchmarks to provide some additional formative data!
Twitter Highlights
- From NASSP: Change is the only thing we can count on, which means we’ll always need to cultivate resilience. https://twitter.com/NASSP/status/924613811260350464
- From IPLI: How School Leaders Can Attend to the Emotional Side of Change https://twitter.com/INPLI1/status/923893089336483841
- From ASCD:Why good principals are also teachers https://twitter.com/INPLI1/status/923960331705225216
- From IPLI: Check out IPLI Mentor Rhonda Roos' blog - I Don’t Have Time for One More Thing! https://twitter.com/INPLI1/status/923992935837896705
- From NAESP: Every kid is one caring adult away from being a success story. https://twitter.com/NAESP/status/922794817226121216
- New from IASP: Monday at 9 PM: #IASPChat https://twitter.com/adamddrummond/status/924660732968488971
- From NAESP: Education is not the filling of the pail, but the lighting of a fire. https://twitter.com/NAESP/status/924636953697452033
From the Mailbag:
- People will leave if your organizational culture degrades
- Cynical leaders can bring a team down
- Report to Parents:So Many Activities,So Little Time
Dr. McCormick's Weekly Update from the Indiana Department of Education for October 27. Use this link to check out the latest news on the topics below: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/INDOE/bulletins/1bff45b
Accountability2017 Graduation Rate Audit
Assessment
ISTEP+ & IREAD-3 Assessment Manual Guidance
ILEARN Assessment Overview:
Educator EffectivenessEducation Evaluation Rating (DOE-ER) Data Collection
Teacher Appreciation Grant (TAG) Policies
Legislative Affairs
Cursive Writing Report.
Title Grants and Support
Title I Carryover Funds
Title I Excess Carryover
SAVE THE DATE!An Important IDOE Roadshow: Assessment - Accountability - Statute Flexibility
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