The Instructional Core

Many of you know that I am an avid tennis player and fan.  I enjoy playing it, watching it, and following it.  While I would not qualify myself as "good" at it, I am completely committed to getting better every time I get the opportunity.  The frustrating part is that it seems that every time I walk out there I have to relearn something that I already knew.  It is like I have a tennis disability.  Unfortunately my job here is like that a lot of times as well.  I find myself hitting my forehead and saying that I knew better than that.  (Some would argue that I have an administrative disability as well).

This phenomenon occurs often when I am going through some stuff that I have learned over the years.  As a matter of fact, I just reread one of the more influential articles that I have read in my career.  I felt like it was a good place to start with this conversation, and I thought it might provide a little insight into what is important to me as an administrator.  Here is the link to the article:

The Instructional Core

I find myself coming back to the contents of this article time and again, and relearning, as it were, the concepts embedded within it.  The article is written in such plain straightforward language that it really doesn't take much translation.  One of the things that seems so interesting about it is that it seems to explain so many of the different issues that have arisen in education over the years.  Why do we seem to struggle to make significant changes in instruction?  Why do so many "initiatives" fail? Why does professional development always seem so useless?  What is wrong with our education schools? 

All of us do so much throughout the course of a day that is probably is worth spending some time thinking about which of those things that we do actually touch the instructional core.  Probably a lot less than we think.  I have reflected on this quite a bit as we talk through our data in PLCs.  While the conversations are necessary, and may even be helpful, unless we are able to translate them into terms which impact the core, we are probably not really accomplishing much.

I also received this week a document from DPI asking me to look at our readiness to adopt the Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) model in our school.  I was thinking about this terms of the idea of instructional core, because the two seem to go together so nicely.  How do we get our tier one instructional practices in order such that we know exactly who to move into tier three or tier two?  It is even more relevant if we embrace the ideas in the article surrounding "tasks predicting performance."  We often think of how well we did something in terms of how well we did the task.  But in education how well we do something is really connected to how well others did their work.  That is a tough mental hurdle to get over for some, but it is absolutely necessary.  Is the work that we are asking students to do really accomplishing what we are trying to get done?  It is the central question of Tier 1 in MTSS.  Is our core instruction teaching students.

I will leave you with this thought.  If our students are getting good grades, but our nationally-normed achievement test scores are dropping are the tasks that we are assigning them teaching them what they need?

Cardinal Countdown 3/21/16

Week two of the new format!  Believe it or not, it actually is a lot easier for me than just typing an email.  Hopefully no one had any problems accessing it or using it.  A few reminders for the week:

• It is a short week.  No school Friday and a 1/2 day for all on Thursday.
• Please stay on the kids on Monday.  It will set the tone for the rest of the week.  Let us know if you need assistance with anyone.
• Remember that it is spirit week this week @ the K-8 -
• Monday = Character Day.
• Tuesday = Team Day
• Wednesday = Wacky/Tacky Day
• Thursday = Grade level color day.
• If students are wearing things that are inappropriate, please contact the main office and let an administrator know.  We will give you a second opinion if necessary.  Please ask them to remove masks if they have them on.   
• 8th grade is traveling to the high school on Thursday.  Please let Mr. Pugh know if you have questions.  The students are doing the bulk of the planning so it should be a great day.
• Please talk to your students about the tardies as well.  It is helpful if you reinforce the message for students.
• Anyone willing to help with the playground procurement stuff for next year, please let me know.  The PTO is spearheading it, but they could use some hands to help with the review and planning, etc...
• 3rd quarter ends on Wednesday.  Please make sure your grades are in order for Jen!
• Grade levels that have not done their data chats, please check the schedule from Erin that was emailed out last week.  

Some Thank-Yous:

• Thanks to Tracy Marshall-Becker for the art show on Saturday night, it was a big success.
• Thanks to everyone that helped make sure the talent show went off without a hitch.  It was great to see HS students there helping as well as parents and teachers working together on it.  Big hand for Mr. Webb for stepping in at the last minute and MC-ing it.

Other Events of the week (on the calendar at least):

• College admissions panel on Tuesday night.
• SST Teams meet this Monday.
• 4th Grade goes to Raleigh on Wednesday
• Kindergarten goes to Old Salem on Wednesday also.
• Character Ed meeting is Tuesday night at 7:00

Have a great week!!!

Week of 3/13/16

Dear Cardinal Colleagues,

Welcome to my new blog.  (Doesn't it seem that blogs are a bit antiquated anymore?).  However, I find myself doing a fair amount of writing in this job, and I wanted an easy to way to try to contain all of it.  I figured it would be just as easy to look at this as glance at an email, and perhaps you can pull some more from it rather than just basic information.  I will do my best to update it early each week to make sure that you have any particular notes for the week.

• Try to hit Jersey Mike's this week, as it is a fundraiser for the PTO.
• S.I.T. meets on Monday at 3:45
• Board meeting is Tuesday at 4:00, with a town hall meeting to follow at 7:00 p.m.
• Remember that Friday is a 1/2 day for students. We do not have anything planned for you at this time.
• Friday is also a jean and spirit day.
• Thursday night is Skate Night.
• I know that daylight savings time is over, and that messes with everyone's schedule a little.  Please be mindful about being in your supervision positions in a timely manner.  Students are likely to come a little more wired up this week and next.
• We will send out end of the year testing dates this week for everyone.

Let's have a great week!

Joe