WELCOME TO

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WELCOME TO 2012-2013
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OPENING

• INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO SOMEONE 
• YOU DON'T KNOW.
• WHAT'S YOUR NAME?
• WHO IS YOUR CHILD?
• WHAT TOWN DO YOU LIVE IN?

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AGENDA

• 1.  LEARNING TARGETS 
• 2.  THE YEAR AHEAD
• 3.  COMMUNICATION
• 4.  ASSESSMENT, GRADING, AND FOCUS
• 5.  GROWTH MINDSET
• 6.  KUDOS AND CONCERNS

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LEARNING TARGETS

• 1.  I can explain how the school communicates
  with families.  
• 2.  I can can explain the school's approach to
  grading.
• 3.  I can explain the idea of "Growth Mindset"
  and how it applies to my child's education at
  Four Rivers.
• 4.  I know what to do when I have any questions
  about any aspect of the school.

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THE SCHOOL MISSION

• PREPARATION FOR 
• LIVES OF 
• LEARNING AND SERVICE

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THE YEAR AHEAD

• OUR SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT PLAN
• INSPIRE A CULTURE OF ACHIEVEMENT
• BUILD COMMUNITY
• PROVIDE CLARITY, CONSISTENCY, SUPPORT
• 4.  CHARTER RENEWAL

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• 16,500
• 1,145

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NO (FEW) SURPRISES PLEDGE

• STAFF PLEDGE
• IF WE KNOW SOMETHING IMPORTANT ABOUT YOUR STUDENT
  OR SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO YOUR ROLE AS A PARENT
  IN OUR SCHOOL, WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO GIVE YOU
  TIMELY, CLEAR INFORMATION.
• STUDENT AND FAMILY PLEDGE
• WE WILL DO OUR BEST TO READ COMMUNICATIONS FROM
  THE SCHOOL -- IN THE FLASH, THE CURRENTS, OR THE
  HANDBOOK -- SO WE KNOW WHATS GOING ON AND HOW
  THINGS WORK AT THE SCHOOL.

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PUBLICATIONS

1. WEEKLY FLASH
2. CURRENTS
3. TEACHER WEB PAGES
4. FOCUS
5. THE WEBSITE

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FOCUS

• QUICK TOUR
• UPDATED ON THE 1ST AND 15TH OF THE MONTH
• FINAL GRADES FOR EACH STANDARD NOT DETERMINED
  UNTIL THE END OF THE TERM 
• ACADEMIC STATUS FLAG ALWAYS SET -- YOUR
  RESPONSIBILITY TO CHECK
• DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS IN HANDBOOK OR ON WEBSITE
  UNDER "LINKS AND DOCUMENTS" 

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ASSESSMENT

• STANDARDS-BASED GRADING -- teachers identify what
  students need to know and be able to do through
  their learning.
• Provide multiple opportunities for students to
  demonstrate their skills and knowledge
• Hold students accountable for on time, good faith
  effort.
• ASSESSMENT FOR LEARNING/ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
• COURSE STANDARDS -- Grades to reflect what a
  student knows and is able to do.
• REVISION -- Students learn from revising.  
• HOWLs -- We value and assess students habits of
  work and learning.

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assessment FOR learning

• CLEAR TARGETS Provide students with a clear and
  understandable vision of the learning target. Use
  examples and models of strong and weak
  work.EFFECTIVE FEEDBACK Offer regular
  descriptive feedback. Teach students to
  self-assess and set goals.FOCUSED TEACHING AND
  REVISION Design lessons to focus on one learning
  target or aspect of quality at a time. Teach
  students focused revision.

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GRADING

• Beginning (Bg)  The students performance is
  rudimentary and just beginning to meet the
  standards of grade-level work at Four Rivers.
  Improvement is needed if the student expects to
  pass to the next grade.
• Approaching (Ap)  The students performance is
  approaching the standards of grade-level work at
  Four Rivers. It shows an improving level of
  quality but is not yet consistently satisfactory
  work.
• Meeting (Mt)  The students performance is
  meeting the standards of grade-level work at Four
  Rivers. It shows good quality and is fully
  satisfactory.
• Exceeding (Ex)  The students performance is
  exceeding the standards of grade-level work at
  Four Rivers. It shows effort and accomplishment
  well beyond what was required for meeting the
  standard.

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EXAMPLE -- PAPER AIRPLANES

•  

•  

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CRITERIA FOR A GOOD PAPER AIRPLANE

• It flies
• solid craftsmanship
• good lift
• survives landing
• balanced -- (paper clip on front)
• quality paper
• aesthetically pleasing
• fun -- it works in fun ways
• elegance
• creative
• distance

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DEBRIEF -- WHAT'S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS APPROACH?

•  

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THE GROWTH MINDSET

• WHAT IS ONE THING THAT YOU ARE GOOD AT?
• WHAT IS ONE THING YOU ARE NOT GOOD AT?

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• FIXED MINDSET
• HUMAN QUALITIES ARE FIXED IN STONE.

• GROWTH MINDSET
• HUMAN QUALITIES CAN BE CULTIVATED THROUGH EFFORT.

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Carol Dweck, MINDSET

• Through research over years and with hundreds of
  kids
• Praising children's intelligence harms motivation
  and performance.  (If success means they're
  smart, then failure means they're dumb.)
• Praise for what a students accomplished through
  practice, study, persistence, and good strategies
  builds deep confidence.
• The best thing teachers and parents can do is to
  teach children to love challenges, be intrigued
  by mistakes, enjoy effort, and keep on learning.

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from a workshop designed to teach students a
growth mindset

• "Many people believe that a person is born either
  smart, average, or dumb -- and stays that way for
  life.  But new research shows that the brain is
  more like a muscle -- it changes and gets
  stronger when you use it."
• "When you learn new things, these tiny
  connections in the brain actually multiply and
  get stronger.  The more that you challenge your
  mind to learn, the more your brain cells grow.
   Then, things that you once found very hard or
  even impossible -- like speaking a foreign
  language or doing algebra -- seem to become easy.
   The result is a stronger, smarter brain."

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• NO ONE SAYS THAT BABIES ARE DUMB BECAUSE THEY
  DON'T KNOW HOW TO SPEAK.
• THEY JUST HAVEN'T LEARNED YET.

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• KUDOS
• WHAT'S GOING WELL FOR YOU SO FAR? 
• AND 
• CONCERNS
• WHAT QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE?

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WHEN IN DOUBT . . . 

• CHECK THE HANDBOOK
• CALL CAROLYN  413-775-4577
• EMAIL CAROLYN  cwood_at_fourriverscharter.org
• EMAIL PETER  pgarbus_at_fourriverscharter.org

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QUESTIONS

•  cwood_at_fourriverscharter.org
• pgarbus_at_fourriverscharter.org