Making Diverse Resources Accessible in K-12 Schools: 3.20.22 #ElonEd Chat Archive

Three Tweets About NC MTSS

ALL NC faculty/staff will be part of @ncmtss. #MTSS is a layering of academic & behavioral supports, involving ALL students. #nced #ncadmin

— Craig Smith (@CSmithGoBlue) March 15, 2017

"I Can" Statements and RBT

Weekly Reflection Points

In preparation for the upcoming instructional week, I send a "Weekly Agenda" to all faculty and staff.  Included in each Agenda is a "Reflection" point to generate personal and professional reflection in regards to a wide-range of components.  I believe these reflection points are crucial for school administrators to reflect upon when completing Walk-Through's, engaging in meaningful dialogue with colleagues, and gauging the overall climate of the school.

This list will be updated weekly, with the most recent reflection point at the top:

Co-Teaching Approaches

The following are some Co-Teaching Approaches, specifically geared towards, but not limited to, Inclusion.  These strategies can also be used for Strategic Interventions and Teacher Rotation.

Strategies for Instructional Leadership: 9/10/14 #ncadmin Chat Archive

Open Forum on Instructional Leadership: 7/30/14 #ncadmin chat archive

Strategies for Instructional Leadership: 7/16/14 #ncadmin chat archive

Motivational/Instructional Strategies for Standardized Testing: 5/14/14 #ncadmin Chat Archive

Classroom Visits with Feedback DO Help

A very popular article by Joanne Jacobs is circulating on Social Media titled, "Principal's classroom visits don't help."

14 Days of Instruction: My Three-Week Goal

"A coach's greatest asset is his sense of responsibility - the reliance put on him by his players." - Knute Rockne

The later-than-normal Thanksgiving created a calendar providing three-weeks of instruction sandwiched by our first semester "breaks".  These 15 days of instruction are crucial for our teachers to produce rigorous instruction, maintain high levels of student engagement, and continue to move our students along the hierarchy of Revised Bloom's Taxonomy.  We will only have seven "instructional" days upon returning in 2014 before the North Carolina Final Exams and End-of-Course Exams begin.  These 15 days are pivotal to our entire school academic community.

I like to set short-term goals to maintain my own focus and consider myself to have a goal-oriented leadership style.  Therefore, I set a personal goal over the next 14 days of instruction (I am excluding December 20th):

Instructional Blog: My Initiative for '12-13

This year, I implemented an initiative in my Academy called the "Ashbrook Instructional Blog" to encourage teachers to informally observe their peers and post short reflections on the blog.  

The blog itself is very basic, since my instructional focus was to establish comfort posting observations and reflections for group view.  My primary objective was to allow our teachers to spend time in each other's classrooms, providing opportunities for learning.  

Observations and comments were categorized: Technology, Instructional Strategies, Classroom Environment, & Assessment.

Teachers were asked to spend at least 20 minutes in the classroom and to make contact with the teacher before observing.  Teachers were also asked not to "force" the posting, since the activity was for professional growth, not as a "check-list" item.

In addition, we were able to connect this activity to the PDP's (Professional Development Plans for non-NC educators) of teachers in my Academy.  We were able to create a SMART Goal directly aligned with the North Carolina Educator Evaluation System (NCEES): 

Instructional Reflection Points

Every Monday, I send a "Weekly Update" to my teachers.  Two months ago, I started to include "Reflection" points in an attempt to provoke personal reflection for our teachers in regards to instruction, classroom environment, and content.  I believe these reflection points are crucial for school administrators to reflect upon when completing Walk-Through's, Observations, and engaging in meaningful dialogue with teachers.

This list will be updated weekly, with the most recent reflection point at the top:

Summary of NC Teacher Evaluation #NCADMIN Chats

The final three #ncadmin chats involved the North Carolina Teacher Evaluation System, which continues to be a learning process for all those involved.  Through the engagement of these three chats, principals, assistant principals, teachers, and other educators were able to collaborate and discuss the standards and various elements.

All three chats have been archived in my Storify account.  It is my hope that other administrators and teachers across North Carolina use the collaborative efforts of the #ncadmin PLN as a resource when discussing the NCEES tool.

Part I (Standards I & II)

Part II (Standards III & IV)

Part III (Standards IV cont. & V)


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.

Six Walk-Through Check-Points

There are many data points to look for when completing Walk-Through's, and it is easy for administrators to be overwhelmed when trying to complete an effective five-minute Walk-Through.  I've put together six basic "Check-Points" to assist on assessing instruction during a Walk-Through.

"Six Walk-Through Check-Points"

"How to be a Common Core Instructional Leader"

Chat from 9/5: "How to be a Common Core Instructional Leader"

This is a summary from the September 5th #NCADMIN chat:

#NCADMIN Chat Summary

CS



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

Vice-principals: The Unsung Heroes: Instructional Leadership

Vice-principals: The Unsung Heroes: Instructional Leadership


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

My Response to GCS Pinnacle Technology Integration

This is a response to the blog post published on the GCS Pinnacle Blogspot regarding Technology Integration

To the GCS Instructional Tech. Facilitators and Pinnacle team,

I hope you don't mind a member of the GCS administrative team sharing my thoughts:

Through the school-based recommendations and professional development, along with the fantastic collaborative opportunities our Pinnacle teachers receive, it would be safe to say the majority of you would "Meet" and/or "Exceed" on these essential conditions.  As I picture the teachers in my building who integrate technology regularly and effectively, positively impacting student-learning, I believe they would also be rated similarly.

I believe the primary issue is the lengthy gap between teachers meeting theses standards and teachers far from reaching the technology standard.  Consequently, this alters the essential standard rating for the entire school and, more importantly, limit the adequate 21st-Century based (sorry, we agreed to simply call this "learning") learning necessary for our students to be successful.

On that note, I challenge all of our Pinnacle teachers to be technology integration leaders in your grade-level teams, PLC/PLN's, and schools, both formally and informally.  The primary reason non-tech savvy teachers shy aware from incorporating these instructional strategies is fear.  Help eliminate the fear through proactive support and collaboration, ensuring EVERY teacher MEETS these essential technology conditions.

Thank you to our Pinnacle Leaders.  Keep up the great work!!

Thanks for reading and follow me on Twitter @CSmithGoBlue.

CS

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

The Value of Self-Reflection

In the final summary meeting with my teachers yesterday, I focused on self-reflection and planning, planning for next year, and professional growth.  I made sure to clearly communicate how much I appreciate their hard work, celebrated their success, yet stressed the importance of reflection on how we can (and need to) improve.


To begin the meeting, I provided a note card to every teacher, along with a list of good self-reflection questions, which I owe credit to The Value of Self-Reflection.  I asked everyone to select one question, take a few moments to reflect, and subsequently write their response on the card.  I did not ask them to share their responses, nor did I ask for the teachers to turn the note cards in to me.  The purpose was to provide every teacher to take an opportunity to reflect on their teaching and hopefully encourage every teacher to self-reflect on their own.


In the spirit of serving as an instructional leader, I wanted to share some of my own reflections from this school-year, using some of the same questions provided to my teachers.

     What is my top teaching goal for the coming year?

      My top teaching goal is for our teachers to capitalize on instructional "Best Practices" from within the school through digital collaboration.  Our teachers do a great job of working within Professional Learning Communities and would even go as far to say we are a "PLC Model" school.  Yet, I do not believe our teachers take advantage of collaborating with instructional strategies within the school.  My top goal is to provide opportunities for this to occur.

     What types of students do I tend to ignore or do I need to spend more time serving?

      We need to spend more time serving our LEP/ESL population.  Our ESL teacher, who is incredible, has discussed various ideas to be implemented next year involving, but certainly not limited to, strategic scheduling of LEP students to coincide with our tested courses and a school website in Spanish to coincide with our primary school website, increasing awareness for our ESL community.

     What can I do to be more proactive in my professional development? 

      I discussed the importance of this summer's preparation for instructional design to align with the Common Core curriculum with teachers yesterday.  It would be hypocritical for me to not spend the necessary time becoming acclimated with the core content changes, as well.

     How can I increase valuable parental involvement? 

      In a casual conversation a few weeks ago, my principal and I talked about how to get more Dad's, or generally speaking, more men, involved in the school.  The timing was perfect, because I had just read some great ideas via Twitter that other principal's had done at their schools to engage "Dad's" and encourage the men that serve as parents to be involved in the school. 

      What minor and/or major changes can I make to my academic program in order to directly increase my students' learning?

      The administrative team was heavily involved with the PLC's of our tested areas this second semester.  Personally, I worked closely with the Biology PLC with data analysis of Common Assessments and Probability Prediction data.  The Biology PLC used a number of interventions during the school-day, such as objective-based remediation grouping.  All three of our tested area's proficiency improved approximately 16-17% (no joke, all three had same improvement) from first semester.  This proves that our strategies and focus this past semester worked.  More importantly, it showed that it needs to continue.

My aspirations are to encourage all of our teachers, administrators, and staff to take some time for quality self-reflection as the school-year winds down.  We owe it to ourselves as educators to recognize our strengths and identify needed areas of improvement.


Thanks for reading and follow me via Twitter @CSmithGoBlue.  



CS


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

#thankateacher = awesome

National Teacher Appreciation Week is concluding Friday.  Elementary, Middle, and High Schools across the country have been recognizing and praising their teachers in various ways.  School leaders, students, and PTSA's have provided meals and gifts as tokens of appreciation.  Most have simply sent personal messages to the teachers that have made a difference in their lives.

I have utilized Twitter throughout the week to provide simple thank you's to our teachers in various instances, sometimes with specific teachers in mind.  These have all taken the form of "________ = awesome. #thankateacher".

My online PLN has shared my acknowledgement through numerous Retweet's and Favorite's.  The best part is the diversity of WHO has been responding, ranging from principals and teachers to former students of mine now in college.  This has motivated me to do the following:

I am asking my Twitter folks to reply to my post with their own "When a teacher _______ = awesome. #thankateacher", filling in the blanks with their own characteristics of great teachers.  I will be doing my best to retweet every response that I receive tomorrow (Friday, May 11).

Please feel free to to post message comments at the bottom instead of taking your post to Twitter.

I will be adding all of the responses here throughout the day and weekend:

Make sure to respond to one of my tweets and include the hashtag #thankateacher

(blue indicates my own)

When a teacher advocates for respect and equality = awesome.


When a teacher comes early and stays late = awesome.


Teachers that provide remediation to students during their planning period = awesome.


Teachers writing letters of recommendation for students, even when it was requested at the last minute = awesome.


Teachers providing a safe environment to a student, when they won't have one anywhere else = awesome.


Great coaches who are also great teachers, since both involve teaching, just a different environment = awesome.


Teachers who send a quick email or place a call to inform parents of something positive = awesome.


Teachers looking out for each other and truly working as a TEAM = awesome.


Teachers who aren't afraid of failure when implementing new instructional strategies = awesome.


Teachers arriving early (really early) or staying late (sometimes really late) for tutoring or test re-takes = awesome.


Teachers taking ownership of their students' learning and growth = awesome.


The teacher/teachers alumni want to see when they visit the school = awesome.


When a college student realizes why their teacher pushed them so hard in high school = awesome.


Teachers giving their students options for projects/assessments = awesome.


Genuine enthusiasm displayed while teaching = awesome.


When staff members (non-teachers) still find ways to teach students in other capacities = awesome.


Teachers who teach every day like they will be formally observed = awesome.


Teachers that consistently maximize instructional time = awesome.


When a teacher makes accountability a way of life rather than just for a student's instructional year = awesome.


When a teacher teaches a student who later becomes a celebrity and gets on VH1 for an interview = awesome.


When a teacher allows students to learn by searching for their own answers (and they like it!) = awesome.

When a teacher takes the time to also take the role of counselor/parent = awesome.

When a teacher teaches WITH former students = awesome.

When a teacher goes the extra mile to communicate with a parent = awesome.

When a teacher buys shoes for a kid = awesome.


When a student wishes a former teacher Happy Mother's Day = awesome.

________________________________________________________________

Please at least take a moment to thank someone who dedicated their career to teaching.  Thank you to every educator, everywhere.

Thanks for reading and follow me via Twitter @CSmithGoBlue.  Also, a big thank you to Ann Doss Helms (@anndosshelms) of the Charlotte Observer for including this post in her blog.

CS

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

(I always put this disclaimer in my posts, but this time, I hope the opinions are shared by ALL employers!)