A. Fire Drills
Since we now have four fire alarm areas, we can conduct fire drills in different areas. There is no need to evacuate every building at once during a drill. Please review the Policy and schedule for our 2018-19 drills. The routes are outlined in the portal - follow the link below for details (it is a good idea to print your route diagram and post it in your classroom).
BOE Policy #8420
School staff members, upon receiving notice the school needs to be evacuated, will:
- Direct pupils to gather personal belongings in the classroom or within their immediate area;
- Instruct pupils not to use any electronic communication device until instructed otherwise;
- Close the windows and doors of their vacated rooms and turn off any light or electrical switch;
- Take the pupil roster and the day’s attendance;
- Lead their class or the pupils under their supervision upon receiving the evacuation notice to the evacuation area;
- Take attendance when arriving at the evacuation area and report any additional pupils or missing pupils to the Principal or designee;
- Not allow any pupil to re-enter the building, leave the evacuation area, or be dismissed from school unless authorized by the Principal or designee or law enforcement officials
Fire Drills for 2018-2019
All other buildings will go into "Shelter In Place" as the drills are conducted.
| Month | Location |
| September | STEM Building |
| October | Main Building |
| November | Rocco and T Building |
| December | Athletic Center |
| January | STEM Building |
| February | Rocco and T Building |
| March | Main Building |
| April | Athletic Center |
| May | STEM Building |
| June | Rocco and T Building |
B. Timed writing assessments
When issuing writing assessments (RSTs for example) that will be used as pre-assessments or benchmarks, please make sure they are "in-class, timed" writing assessments. These assessments should not be assignments that are completed at home. Ideally, they should be hand-written so that we can ensure their authenticity and be able to gauge their "raw" writing talent. If you choose to issue these assessments digitally, you must monitor the students as they are taking the exam to ensure they are not surfing the internet for assistance as they write. Digital assessments also can employ the help of spellcheck and Grammarly, so that would have to be taken into consideration as well. If the assessments are digital, they should be run through Turnitin or utilize the tools offered in Canvas.
C. Notes regarding documentation logs and evaluations (more details will be discussed at our next department meeting, but here are a few things to consider and suggestions...)
D. I will be out of the office on Monday, October 1st, so if you need immediate assistance, please contact Dr. Sabbath. I will not have access to email as I will be working at the Golf Outing.
C. Notes regarding documentation logs and evaluations (more details will be discussed at our next department meeting, but here are a few things to consider and suggestions...)
- Non-tenured teachers should enter artifacts as they move through the school year. Tenured teachers can wait until the Spring, however, we all know this practice only causes us to have to rush to load everything at the end. It is your choice how you handle this, but in the years where I forced myself to do "a little at a time," I was much happier in April. We reap what we sow, so reap away!
- Only enter 3-4 Artifacts per strand. These should be things that ARE NOT observable in your observations (this way you cover a range of bases). They should also be "high quality" artifacts. The STRONGE evaluation rubric does not rate teachers as "highly effective" by the number of artifacts entered. In the same way, entering artifacts that cover every performance indicator in a strand also does not denote "highly effective" on the rubric. Choose fewer artifacts but ones that pack a "big punch." Over the summer, Dr. Parent expressed to the newly appointed staff members that we are all striving for an effective rating. Highly effective is "unusual" and "not the norm." We will discuss the language in the standards in detail as to what brings the "effective" rating up to a "highly effective" rating at our next department meeting.
- Strands, performance indicators, artifact suggestions/examples - I will be giving you all of this in the coming weeks. Most of you probably will not need the resources, however since I have been looking at this from "the other side," there are things that I would like to pass on to you that may be helpful.
- Student Surveys - not sure how many of you use these, but they are solid artifacts that can be used in your documentation logs. It is suggested that they are issued to students in late Fall and then possibly again in the Spring (however one is sufficient - based on student responses, you can show how you have reacted to the data in future lessons, plans, etc.... It is an easy way to show how you use student data). I have "ready-made" examples I will pass on, but if you already have your own, you do not have to change what you are doing. REQUEST - If anyone uses a method for issuing student surveys such as Google Forms, Survey Mondy, etc., please volunteer to give a quick demonstration at our meeting. This is not a presentation, just an informal mini-PD for your colleagues. As simple as things seem to us sometimes, they may not be as simple to others.
- Student PIPs - We used to call PGPs by another acronym, but it's all the same really. Consider instituting this with your students. It is a good way to show that students are participating in their academic progress and that you are promoting self-assessment as yet another form of 'assessment" in your arsenal of artifacts. Eg. After another month or so, ask students to identify 3 aspects in their writing that are in need of improvement - things that they repeatedly do and that reflect patterns. Have them create their own "official" PIP and submit it to you. Along the way, you can have them reflect on these things and note progress. In the Spring you can ask them to rate their progress - you can design these documents yourself. Again, this is a solid artifact and possible a set of artifacts that show that you are involving students in self-evaluation (without making things too complicated).
D. I will be out of the office on Monday, October 1st, so if you need immediate assistance, please contact Dr. Sabbath. I will not have access to email as I will be working at the Golf Outing.
Our "something wonderful" this week is Christian and his bride celebrating their honeymoon in Scotland.
Congratulations and best wishes on your new journey together!
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