Last Friday, teachers spent a day working on furthering our collective knowledge and proficiency with assessments, Common Core Standards, learning objectives and targets with our consultant Tom Schimmer. This is the third time Mr. Schimmer has come to work with us and each time we build on what we learned earlier.
- One thing that will be implemented this year is a support for students, Work Completion Detention, that we will run during advisory period. Our pass/failure data shows that many of our students who do NOT complete their homework do NOT do well academically and lose credits which means they have to make them up during the summer (at a cost to parents...) or during the school year (at a cost to their free time...). All students are expected to complete their assigned homework daily as part of GLO#1 -- Self Directed Learner -- which is also reflected on each student's report card. If students do NOT complete their HW, they will have to fill out a slip which asks them to reflect on why they didn't do it and their plan to not let it happen again. Then they report to the cafe during advisory where we have assigned one of our teachers to supervise. Students who do not show up for assigned Work Completion Detention will be assigned to after school detention, so it's very important for everyone to understand that we expect all students to learn and to take their education seriously.
- GLO grades as mentioned above will still be part of each student's report card. This year we will assess students on GLO#1 and GLO#6 - Effective and ethical users of technology as we are a Future Ready school and have greatly increased the number of devices on campus for student use. On Tuesday August 4th, I'll go over the DOE Acceptable User of Internet Policy and the Digital Device User Policy with all students via a morning MTV3 broadcast. All students will get the same message and will take a quiz to assess whether they understand the school and state expectations for internet and computer usage. It's important to keep speaking to your students about their GLO grades as they do count -- students receive 3 grades from each teacher: an academic grade that reflects their progress towards the class' standards and 2 GLO grades of either a S (satisfactory) or U (unsatisfactory) for the two GLOs mentioned (#1 and #6). Students who receive 3 or more U grades will be restricted from participating in extra curricular activities for two weeks -- until they clear grades and GLO. We implemented GLO grades last year as part of our WASC recommendations for accreditation but we stress and support GLO grades because we're teaching our students valuable skills that they'll need to be successful adults after they leave WHS.
- Technology will be utilized much more this year by teachers and students as part of our school being in the Future Ready Pathway. Teachers will be required to maintain an electronic grade book that will be shared with parents/students. Teachers are learning how to use Google Apps for Education (GAFE) and other apps and software to encourage collaboration and student-driven learning in their classes. During our faculty meetings,we've been practicing using new resources and instructional strategies to help get each of our students college and career ready. Students learn very differently in the 21st century -- our task as a staff is to be sure that we're working to meet them there.
We will be hosting our Open House on Wednesday August 19th starting at 6 pm in the band room. We will also have a book fair in the cafeteria and a representative from Achieve3000 to share information about the program and offer suggestions on how parents can support their student at home. More information will be forthcoming soon.... please save the date though so we can partner together and work to support each student at WHS,
Please check out the calendar to the right for the latest happenings at WHS.
Have a great week!
Mrs. Anguay :)
