Monday, November 5, 2007
Welcome to N.S.L.J.
Welcome to the N.S.L.J. official blog page. Being a technology driven school, staff members will use this page to communicate with each other, responding to various NSLJ issues, participating in professional development, and sharing ideas. This is one of the many tools that we are planning to use to encourage the use of web resources.
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10 comments:
Where can I find the school report card online?
Is this a question from the future??? I think maybe Ms. Peterson's "today" is for tomorrow's PD. Should be interesting. Until then...au revoir.
Locked and Loaded
Today I spent an entire day observing classes and teachers at the Port Chester Middle School. This school is interesting in that it could be considered a suburban school; however, 64% of its students are considered from "Poverty," and the ethnic make-up is approximately 65% Hispanic, 15% African-American and 20% white. The school is considered a "Blue Ribbon" school, identified for the progress made in the past nine years moving from one of the lowest performing schools in Westchester to a school where at least 50% of the students are on grade level.
The Principal was very gracious and candid about how his staff collaborated to move the school. What was obvious to me was that the school is very traditional. The students sit in rows and every student was involved in some sort of test prep or work sheet aligned with a recently read story or new vocabulary words. All subject area teachers reinforce reading skills and although I saw approx. 25 students in a S.S. class, there were only 15-20 students in an ELA class.
The artwork around the school was phenomenal. There were murals in the cafeteria, staircases, and hallways. There was a sense of calm about the school and although there were a few student flare-ups here and there, they were dealt with quickly by teachers who monitored the hallways.
I had an extensive discussion with the ELA staff developer which I will share with our literacy teachers at some point within the next week.
(I also met Mr. Gryzlo's charming brother who is a math teacher at the school).
If you have any questions about my visit today, please feel free to ask.
It's interesting that this school is successful AND traditional; maybe decades ago educators actually did know what they were doing. Just about every thing I've read about schools that are successful or have been turned around points to smaller class size as a major enabling factor in their success. I feel that unless we, as a society, start to really value education and adequately fund it we will not be able to climb out of the hole we find ourselves in.
I agree. There is much to be said about traditional schools and their methods, which are obviously working. Is this school in Port Chester a public school? No one will argue that smaller class sizes are not beneficial to all students, but the issue is much larger than a specific school, it is the entire education system. However; we must deal with what we have and make the best of what we have by learning from others.
I apologize for responsing to a post from almost a month ago, but I just read Ms. Peterson's post about her visit to Port Chester MS.
"There was a sense of calm about the school and although there were a few student flare-ups here and there, they were dealt with quickly by teachers who monitored the hallways."
Our school has quite the opposite atmosphere. Students wander the hallways everyday, and are loud and disruptive when they are in the halls.
What steps do we need to take as a team to change the tone in our school to one that is more calm and controlled?
I'm logging on to make sure I can leave a posting.
You just said it when you posed the question, "What can we do as a team?" Schools are a microcosmos of the society/culture around us. No one is an island. What happens in one part of the school affects other parts. Now, let me ask a question. What kind of educational culture do we want or better yet, what kind are we capable of establishing? I believe if we begin a complicated conversation we can achieve the type of school visited by Mrs. Peterson. In fact, I believe we can even surpassed it. We need to set an agenda to that end. We have the within our school the wisdom of age and the energy of youth. We need to all come together and understand that we are in this together. We need to bring out the best our society has to offer.
Hasta luego.
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