Owen Overview

Additional Planning for 2007-2008

In case you missed my earlier post about planning for next year, I want to reiterate my desire for parent communication and input as plans are set. While the School Board change to Policy 672 formalizes that collaborative planning, I have sought this participation throughout the year and will continue to do so henceforth. There are many parents I thank for their feedback on ideas and their contributions to many of our plans and the jointly shared plans with PTA. While many elementary schools are waiting for the secondary calendars to be finalized before we can solidify our dates, the planning of events is still ongoing. Here are some of the ideas I have already discussed with faculty, students, PTA exec board and parents:

I'd like to propose a fall event day similar only vaguely to field day. This event would focus on expanding the team building activities all teachers do with theri classes into a building-wide event. I am hopeful that we can create several problem-solving type team activities to engage our students in collaborative effort and group dynamics improvements. This event would need to take place very early in the year so it can actually enhance the team-building process that takes place annually in every classroom. Specific events must still be brainstormed and planned.

The trend at Owen over the last several years, beginning with my predecessor and continuing with me, has been to reduce the emphasis on Halloween during the school day. After talking with several other elementary principals, many parents, faculty, and PTA executive board members, I suggested in the early winter that we prepare an evening event called a Monster Mash or Halloween Howl or some other mellifluous name. I originally focused only on an evening because I saw how many more parents were able to attend Donuts with Dads or or Movie Night versus our mid-day assemblies or Fall Festival. I think it is important that we include as many parents as possible. I should have also suggested a weekend as a possibility. Certainly either can work depending on what our plan looks like. By doing this outside the school day, we can make it a potentially larger event than we could manage during the school day.

There will be additional suggestions posted via this blog over the summer as I move further into the year with my planning. Please let me know what you think of these two ideas. I do not yet know what mechanism the School Board may require for collaboration, but I hope the use of technology is part of it. If you do not feel comfortable posting your thoughts about these ideas with your name, I understand that. I would ask that you send me an email to let me know who to contact if I have questions or would like to know more about your ideas.

Field Trips

On Friday, our kindergarteners are going on a field trip to the Morton Arboretum. I am fortunate to be able to accompany them for this trip and it reminds me of my own excitement relating to field trips as a child. As I wrote in an earlier posting, I remember walking down Eola Road holding onto a tug-of-war rope with all of my classmates from Indian Plains on our way to see the animals at one staff member's home. We also took a long bus ride to Brookfield Zoo while in elementary school. Those plastic figurines from the Museum of Science and Industry or the Zoo were among our favorite items to bring home. I think they may have been as inexpensive as 50 cents back then- Yikes!

Our kindergarteners will have a chance to learn about the growth of a plant from a seed and see the wonderful West Side of the Arboretum. It's on this side that one of my favorite pictures from my childhood was taken. I must have been four or so when the pictures were taken and the daffodils were in bloom. My mother set me down to wander in the flowers and took a picture of me bending over to smell the flowers. I was not much taller than the endless sea of yellow daffodils and I love the exploration aspect of the experience. When I had my own children, I took them to the Arboretum and staged a similar photo opportunity. I hope our students are amazed by the size of the Arboretum and the wonder of how a tiny seed can turn into a giant tree. As education continues to change over time, I think the value of experiential learning will remain and giving our students experiences in the world will also be of great value. I think this will be a great field trip and can hardly wait for tomorrow.

Looking to the future

Just before spring break, I showed the following video at our staff meeting. There is too rarely time for educators to really examine the long-term futures of our students and try to anticipate what will happen. The video was originally created by Karl Fisch for his a fall faculty meeting at Arapahoe High School in Colorado. It was then modified by Scott McLeod to make it more universal. As both a principal at an elementary school and the father of a to-be kindergartener and a to-be two year old, these ideas resonate with me. I think the faculty was a little surprised by the video and I plan to show it again in the fall to help us remember the larger context of what we do.

I'd love to hear what you think about both the video itself and the ideas contained therein.

Bullying

By no means are we the only school facing the issue of bullying. The combination of tragic events at other schools in this country and the occurrence of bullying at Owen has been a topic we are trying to address. Mrs. Johnson attended a conference on bullying where the presenter cited data that showed the greatest incidence of bullying takes place in grades 3-6. I saw this video posted at Leadertalk, another educational blog, and thought it did a nice job of showing how this is an issue that we can all work together to eradicate.

Thanks to Rick at Leadertalk for including this video in his posting.

4th Grade State Fair

Tonight, our 4th grade students hosted our annual state fair for friends, parents and other family members. A couple posts back, I mentioned a desire to help expose our students to the world and learning about the 50 states is a nice building block for that goal. Our 4th grade teachers changed one thing this year. Instead of projects built at home, most of the work took place in the classroom and utilized resources available in our LMC. The feedback from parents was very supportive and it looks like we will continue with this model next year. That willingness to try something new is one of the things I most value as an administrator. Our 4th grade teachers did a great job of engaging the students and the students did a fantastic job of becoming experts on each state. I listened to parts of three different presentations on Rhode Island, the smallest state. Each presentation had detail and contained different information. That three students could find different information on the smallest state meant that every presentation about a larger state had exciting details available also. Our students did a great job presenting their knowledge and using public speaking skills. It was a great event begun by two songs sung by our students about this country. I truly enjoy these types of events because it allows me to see another side of students and for their learning to be demonstrated for many others to witness. Great job 4th Grade students and teachers!

Change

I am the first to acknowledge that taking a chance to change things is not always going to be well received. In fact, sometimes there is outright protest at the change. As I have seen this year, there are decisions I made that produced the desired results and those that did not. While I am going to commit to a decision in the year that I must make it, that does not mean it will be in place forever. My ten years as an educational professional have shown me that pedagogy and school culture evolve constantly and change with society.

At the root of all decisions I make is the aim to do what is best for students. Some of these decisions are to continue policies enacted by my predecessor, but many also represent a change in those policies. Continued dialogue with parents, students and staff gives me new ideas and helps plan for future. On our May 4th SIP day, I spent half of the day with our Building Leadership Team asking what our staff would like to see from me next year. The key to this professional growth goal is that my teachers are willing to share feedback with me and engage in dialogue. I appreciate the staff's willingness to express their goals for the school, for me as the principal and for themselves as individual teachers and grade level teams. That is how we will continue to develop our teaching talents and our connections with students and parents. I hope to hear from many parents as time goes on and that this blog becomes a better opportunity for dialogue rather than simply my thoughts.

Teaching students about the world

One of our School Improvement Plan activities for May 4th is less academic than focusing on reading or math. I feel this area is just as important as reading and math, but it is not tested by the state. I think we will be tested on this when our students become adults and must work in a global economy of many different cultures. The world is much different today than when I was a child and schools need to change over time to reflect these paradigm shifts. I expect our world will continue to change and become more globally integrated. While I appreciate that many families are able to travel and experience many parts of this country and this world, the school is a place where we can give students the experience of many cultures without leaving home.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am working on planning events for the 2007-2008 school year. I also previously mentioned an evening Halloween event that can be bigger than what can be done during a school day and allow more parents to participate is being developed with the help of PTA. As details of this plan become more solidly set, I will share them via this blog.

One of the new ideas I have begun recently sharing with staff and parents relates to a winter event. I don't have a title or a date planned, but here is the concept as I have currently conceived it. I'd like to create a cultural fair of sorts. On whichever date we select, I'd like to see multiple locations set up throughout the building. We'd have various fall, winter and/or early spring holidays represented in this event. It is my hope that we could have information on the holiday, representative clothing and music to share with students, possible food items from each culture and a craft/game from each tradition. I think this event will only reach the heights of success I seek if we can involve significant elements of our school community, including parents and staff, in the planning and execution of this idea. As this vague explanation shows, I need many voices to chime in and help me plan this event. PTA has been involved and continues to help me move forward with this plan. As summer approaches and I continue developing this and other ideas, I truly need feedback on ideas. I hope you will post comments offering suggestions and cautions as this moves forward. I look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions as these plans move forward.

Kindergarten Roundup

I want to thank the parents who attended tonight's Kindergarten information session. I enjoyed meeting the excited parents who have children preparing to enter our kindergarten class. I too am the parent of a child entering kindergarten in the fall. As I saw while speaking, many parents nodded in agreement with the anxiety we feel as we think about our children leaving home without us, excitement as the next stage in their lives begins and hope that all of our dreams for our children will become reality over the next 17 or so years of education. To those parents, I say welcome and I look forward to spending the next several years helping your child reach his/her full potential. I also ask that you also become a part of the Owen School community in whatever ways you can. As I begin the conversations with staff, parents and the PTA regarding next year, I know I will rely again on the many talents of our parent community. If any of those parents have questions, please feel free to post them here or to email me directly. Thank you again for joining us for tonight's session.

Planning for 2007-2008

Spring signals not only the return of pleasant temperatures and increased outdoor activity but also the beginning of planning for the next school year. The school district calendar with holidays, School Improvement Planning Days, Spring Break, Conferences, etc has been approved by the school board. The PTA is transitioning to a new executive board of officers following their election. Our students are mostly focused on exciting and fun-filled summer days more than the return to classes at the end of August, but the teachers and I are beginning to plan for the fall. May 4th is a School Improvement Planning Day with no student attendance. Many of the activities planned for this day have impact next year as well as through the end of the current term. I have begun conversations with the PTA to discuss ideas I have for jointly sponsored activities to add to the already significant contributions our teachers and parents make via Movie Nights and other events. I am very excited about the possibilities to make Owen an even more engaging site for activities that link our entire school community. As those plans move from the very abstract to the more concrete, I will be posting information in this blog.

It is my sincere hope that I can draw feedback from parents regarding these ideas and any suggestions they might have to improve those ideas or to offer any other suggestions. Please feel free to post comments to my blog with ideas or questions. You can access this from anywhere you might go and I know how many families travel for work or vacation over the summer. I truly look forward to expanding the school-community communication process.