While we have our current year of teaching and planning, we have already begun our shift into the 2011-12 school year. Cambridge, Master Schedule, Elective Programs, etc. are all being discussed and set up for the most successful opportunities possible for students and teachers.
It is no secret that I believe without discipline and common expectations, the stuff we know and teach will not meet the potential with our students. In a world of high expectations, we MUST provide a disciplined, safe environment for our students.
The team of adults at Kofa High School is a large one. If one of us does not support the whole, it weakens our team.
A small group of teachers have been meeting with Mr. Keegan in an effort to establish campus expectations that will be common among all of us. From that we hope to move towards classroom expectations that support our overall mission.
I will be posting their recommendations for you.
#1 ACADEMIC RESPONSIBILITY
Students will come to class prepared for the day's academic challenges.
Evidence: All students will carry binder to class.
Ideas: Binders will be specifically organized at the Freshman levels. This will be a "taught" skill and requirement in all freshman courses. The Freshman teams will agree upon the order of the binder and will support the development throughout the year.
All other grade levels will have organzied binders. Teachers who wish to move forward in the development and expectation would need to form a teacher team that would bring the ideas to the teachers for discussion.
#2 SOCIAL RESPECT
Students will demonstrate respect in their campus surroundings.
Evidence: All students will participate with their classroom teacher in cleaning a part of the campus as assigned on a weekly basis.
Idea: Ms. Leenerts has a proposal to present to our teachers on this idea.
#3 BEHAVIOR / INTEGRITY
All students will demonstrate personal integrity and appropriate behavior.
Evidence: All students will abide by the code of conduct. All teachers will enforce the code of conduct equally. All athletes will dress appropriately daily as well as dressing as directed by their coach for "game day".
ISSUES the Campus Expectations Team has discussed in addition to putting forth these suggestions:
$$ for campus cleaning materials
The faculty must be able to TEACH, MODEL and ENFORCE the student code of conduct and agreed upon expectations.
The lack of enforcement by all teachers for simple expectations makes life tough for the teachers who do it.
I like the idea of making students use a binder. As painful as it might be for us in the beginning, I think organization is something that is lacking for most of our students, across the board.
ReplyDeleteI am interested to see the proposal for mandated cleanings...
@Mr. Randall, I agree, I think that it will be a pain in the beginning but once we get it up and running proper organization is something that all of our students could use and greatly benefit from.
ReplyDeleteHopefully we can all work together to get this plan to a good start. I believe consistency is a key to its success.
ReplyDeleteThe Expectations Committee has proposed a scheme to clean up the campus and perhaps instill some campus pride. The process will take a few years to develop but by the time the Freshman are Seniors, all homerooms will be involved once a week.
ReplyDeleteIt is our plan to begin the process with next school year's Freshmen. Each Freshman homeroom will have a specific area of the quad to clean up. The following year when this group becomes Sophomores and their homeroom will continue with the plan but they will move to a different area and the new Freshmen will take over the quad. The following year the Sophomores will be Juniors and move to another area. The new Sophomores will now have the area the old Sophomores were responsible for and the incoming Freshmen take over the quad area. When the first group of Freshmen are Seniors they have a new area and each class moves into the area the old class was responsible for cleaning up. By now the routine has become accepted and the entire student body is involved...and keeping the campus clean becomes the duty of everyone. How's that sound? Workable?
That seems like a pretty decent homeroom activity Ms. Leenerts.
ReplyDeleteThe proposal for the campus clean up will be a success as long as all staff has a consistency in participation. This is a campus teamwork project.
ReplyDelete@ Sandra Leenerts, will non-freshman homerooms be able to help next year if the teacher wants?
ReplyDeleteWe didn't consider this...but I don't know why this wouldn't be okay...the more the merrier and the campus will be the better for it...I will run it up the flag pole at the next committee meeting...
ReplyDeleteAs I have experienced the AVID Binder approach from an educator AND parent perspective, there are so many things I appreciate about the organizational aspect. Organization is essentially a personal aspect of self-discipline. Without that being taught and practiced in the educational environment, students rarely have the opportunity to learn it at all.
ReplyDeleteI really hope that ALL homerooms would participate. Have you seen the work that Norm and Brad in CTE have started behind the technology lab building? They have cleaned out the area, dug holes for trees and now are digging trenches for water line! Go check it out!
I have to agree with my colleagues that students need to have good organizational skills in order to be successful. The use of the binder is essential for their performance in student learning and will also help the teacher to keep track of their work.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great dialog has started on these topics ! Congratulations to the entire Kofa community / team .
ReplyDeleteHey , being the economics guy , one of the first principles taught in the curriculum is that " people respond to incentives " , and generally better to positive ones than negative ones ( depends on the topic / issue / desired behavior ) . As Adam Smith said , you need both , the reward and fear of punishment .
So , at Kofa we have realized some success over the past couple of year with offering positive incentives to condition student behavior . Might we be able to figure out some " promotional incentive program " to kick this off next year ? Rewards can come in all combinations of forms ; recgonition , payments / vouchers , etc . There should also be some measurement aspect / support for this .
I guess this is a topic for the committee to consider . Just some thoughts here .
Great idea Mr. Rothschild -
ReplyDeleteIn our educational psychology classes they called this Positive Reinforcement - but the principle is the same - if you want to modify a behavior, you get better effects than you do from punishment.
I have nothing else to offer this discussion at the moment, but I like the idea.
I'm wondering what the incentive for teens would be and the ones we can afford. I think this would be a great idea to propose to student council when our new members are elected this spring.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think?
I'm in avid, I have to do 6 Cornell notes a day on friday I'm supposed to have 24 Cornell notes. I'm thinking of dropping that class and going to reading WS instead, that much work and on top of that it doesnt help i get home at 4 and don't finish my hw till 8. Its not right. it changed so much from last year. Im a current sohpmore at a CPS school.
ReplyDelete