Checking In

Checking In

Now that our SLOs have been in place for several weeks, and the end of the trimester is drawing near, it's a great time to check-in.  It's a great opportunity to see how far students have come, as well as identify specific steps that can be taken to keep things moving toward the attainment of your goals. Here are 2 questions to consider:

1.  How can students be involved?
When students are involved, you get better results.  If you give them the ability to visualize their own growth, even students in the earliest grades can have a clear understanding of what it means to work toward their goals.  This can be done by helping students understand:

• what it looks like to know and be able to use specific skills or strategies
• what specific activities they can do to help themselves move toward their goal
• how they’ll know if they’re on the right track (self-reflection, in-class assessments, a conference with their teacher) to reaching their goal

2. What are some things that can be done to help ensure the students are on track?

Because SLOs are often set for the whole year, one of the most important keys to success is to break down these big-picture goals into tangible mini-goals.  Without this systematic checkpoint, it can be difficult to have a clear picture of whether or not the class is on track.  This kind of progress check can be done through common assessments, student reading observations, or other formal/informal  measures.  Using these results allows teachers to identify where things are at, and if there's a need to course-correct.

Teachers are to enter their current F&P scores into Skyward by Friday, Dec. 2nd.  We will be using this data for our grade level roll-throughs during PLC time on Tuesday, December 6th.  For these roll-throughs, we are going to look at grade level reading intervention and enrichment groups, and if time, math intervention groups. 

In addition, here's the Report Card Schedule:

• Early Release Friday, Dec. 2nd to work on report cards
• Monday, Dec. 5th - first print
• Changes and finalization by Wed. Dec. 7th
• Send home Thursday, Dec. 8th

Please let me know if you have any questions!
Sue

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing our Houlton family 

a restful and blessed Thanksgiving.  

I am thankful for the heartfelt dedication you commit to the well-being of our Houlton students, the hard work and diligence you put into your instruction, and the passion and energy you put into everything you do, each and every day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Community Strength

The Power of the Houlton Community

For those of you that were able to be a part of yesterday's Houlton Bazaar, 

you will know what I'm talking about...

The Houlton Community was in it's finest state yesterday, where all members came together for an amazing outcome.

Thank you to the many staff members that came to help, whether it was punch card sales, kitchen, classroom baskets, games, pet adoption, playground fundraising, set up, clean up - it was great to have your help, and even greater to see the kids' excitement in seeing you there!

Thank you to Dan and Jodi - I'm not sure who got the "better deal"... Jodi was there for set up, running to get everything ready, and Dan was there for clean up, trying to get classrooms back in shape for Monday.  What a great team!

Thank you to the office staff for their help with raffle tickets and other "organizational help"!  It's a busy week for them as they help to get everything ready!

Thank you to the Houlton students who returned to help!  We had a lot of alumni, excited to be back to see their teachers and to be back in the Houlton community.  We had a great turnout from NHS volunteers as well.

Thank you to the River Community Church who donated all of the food, so the sales were 100% profit for Houlton.

Thank you to the countless families and parents who helped in ways they could - organizing, helping, creating, publicizing, setting up, cleaning up - all for the benefit of Houlton Elementary School.

Even though this is an event intended to provide fun and entertainment for our students, I wanted you to know about some of them...

• Mary Prescott set up her entire classroom for Mr. Sahli.
• Micah Rambo made muffins to sell for MDA, to fundraise for his friend Logan.
• Kate Likness, the Skwira girls, and the Schmucker boys made and donated crafts to sell for the playground.
• The Alms girls were there Friday to set up, and for a long day on Saturday to set up and clean up.

There are many other contributors that I'm sure I have forgotten - but it is my intention to praise and give thanks to our amazing Houlton community!

Have a great, calmer week -
Sue

Closing the Gender Gap

As we've discussed, the "Closing the Gap" aspect of the Houlton SMART Goal is focused on closing the gender gap, as our girls are outperforming our boys.  Everywhere around us, boys want to learn, but they aren't learning as well as girls are. Boys are behind on state tests in all 50 states, and they drop out of high school at higher rates than girls. Many boys feel that they are inherently defective in today's education world.

The Assocciaton for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) has recently published an article on the gender gap, based on two decades of research, which includes ways we can address it in our classrooms.  A number of schools in the research base closed gender gaps and raised student performance. The study's research identified strategies that help build success for our male learners.  I hope you find some of the suggestions helpful!

1. Teachers increase the use of graphics, pictures, and storyboards in literacy-related classes and assignments. When teachers use pictures and graphics more often (even well into high school), boys write with more detail, retain more information, and perform better on written work across the curriculum.
2. Classroom methodology includes project-based education in which the teacher facilitates hands-on, kinesthetic learning. The more learning is project-driven and kinesthetic, the more boys' bodies will be engaged in learning—causing more information to be retained, remembered, and displayed on tests and assignments.
3. Teachers provide competitive learning opportunities, even while holding to cooperative learning frameworks. Competitive learning includes classroom debates, content-related games, and goal-oriented activities; these are often essential for boy-learning and highly useful for the life success of girls, too.
4. Approximately 50 percent of reading and writing choices in a classroom are left up to the students themselves. Regularly including nontraditional materials, such as graphic novels, magazines, and comic books, increases boys' engagement in reading and improves both creative and expository writing.
5. Teachers move around their classrooms as they teach. Instructors' physical movement increases boys' engagement, and includes the teacher leading students in physical "brain breaks"—quick, one-minute brain-awakening activities—that keep boys' minds engaged.
6. Students are allowed to move around as needed in classrooms, and they are taught how to practice self-discipline in their movement. This strategy is especially useful when male students are reading or writing—when certain boys twitch, tap their feet, stand up, or pace, they are often learning better than if they sit still.
7. Male mentoring systems permeate the school culture, including use of parent-mentors, male teachers, vertical mentoring (e.g., high school students mentoring elementary students), and male peer mentoring. 
8. Teachers use boys-only (and girls-only) group work and discussion groups in core classes such as language arts, math, science, and technology. Some boys and girls who do not flourish in the social distraction of coed classes get a chance to flourish in new ways in single-sex groupings.

Essential Strategies for Teaching Boys Effectively