A Crucial Conversation

This is a short post, but a story I felt needed to be shared:

During 2nd Block, I was completing an Informal Observation of a Career teacher with decades (literally) of experience.  After the conclusion of the observation, as students were working collaboratively, we began discussing various teachers in regards to peer observations.

He mentioned someone in his department of which he spoke very highly of.  In fact, our conversation persuaded the following Tweet:

Craig Smith ‏@CSmithGoBlue

It's quite a compliment when a veteran teacher describes a beginning teacher as "someone who was born to teach". #edchat

I was in total agreement, as even though she is in her third-year, she is in the top 10% of those I have ever worked with or supervised in her given content-area.  If I were to create a staff from scratch, she would be one of the first teachers I would encourage to join.

Later in the day, I passed by the Beginning Teacher in the hallway and stopped her.  I told her about the compliment payed by the veteran teacher and how impressed I was for the veteran teacher to go out of their way to let me know.

She paused, looked at me, clearly emotional, and said, "Mr. Smith, I have been strongly considering if I really want to continue teaching." 

This is coming from a fantastic teacher; she's one of my "go to" teachers (previous post: Who Are Your Go To Teachers?).

More importantly, she followed this up with:

"I really needed to hear that.  Thank you."

Now that's a crucial conversation.

Thanks for reading and follow me @CSmithGoBlue.

CS

The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith     and do not represent the school or district in which he works.

Connected Educator Month Thank You

The following is a copy of the "Connected Educator Month" letter I received earlier this week:

November 14, 2012

Dear Craig,

We would like to extend you and your colleague, Derek McCoy, a huge thank you for participating in Connected Educator Month.  Together, we reached tens of thousands of educators, created a social media phenomenon, and developed a sense of shared investment in being and supporting connected educators that we are confident will continue to bear fruit well into the future.  We also appreciate your contributions to the Connected Educator Month archives, which will be available soon, and thank you advance for your feedback on our forthcoming report, which will share what we learned from the month's events.  We hope you will continue to collaborate with us as we embark on envisioning Connected Educator Month's next incarnation.

Yours truly,

Darren Cambridge, American Institute for Research
Karen Cator, U.S. Department of Education


Check out the Connected Educators Site: http://connectededucators.org/

More about "Connected Educators Month": http://connectededucators.org/cem/about/

Check out #NCADMIN: http://www.ncadmin.blogspot.com/

CS



The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith     and do not represent the school or district in which he works.

Key Info Regarding Delay in Reporting Scores

Key information was recently shared with LEA Superintendents and Charter School Directors regarding the delay in reporting scores for the new End-of-Course assessments.  Rebecca Garland, Chief Academic Officer and Angela Quick, Deputy Chief Academic Officer, officially sent the information out on October 30, 2012.  The following is a summary of key info for districts administering EOC's in January:

"NCDPI is required to establish new academic achievement levels based on the data from the 2012-2013 administration of the newly revised assessments."

"The scores for these assessments will be delayed until October 2013, pending the scaling and standard-setting process...by the State Board of Education."

"In late January 2013, the NCDPI will provide LEA's with a 0-100 score for each EOC assessment to use for calculating the final grade for the course and to make placement and/or graduation decisions."

"Students assessed on the Algbera I/Integrated I, Biology, and English II EOC's during the fall of 2012-2013 should be assigned 'incompletes' until the 0-100 score is available."

"Once the final grade...is determined, the LEA must determine if students are inappropriately enrolled in spring 2013 courses...The new deadline to drop students...is February 28, 2013." (this will be known as the 10/20 Day Rule-normally students cannot be removed from an EOC course after the 10th instructional day of the semester.)

"The NCHSAA will allow students affected by this delay to continue to participate in athletes if they meet all other eligibility requirements."

"Once the score is available...the score must be used as at least 25% of the student's final grade for the course."

More can be found at the Department of Public Instruction's website.  This is simply to assist with communication throughout the state. 


CS



The opinions shared in this blog belong to Craig Smith     and do not represent the school or district in which he works.