in Education

     All throughout the history of public education in America, there has been a plethora of best practices for teaching and learning and initiatives that have come and gone.   In today's educational landscape, we are seeing several consistent themes nation-wide.   Just as the 1957 Russian launch of Sputnik prioritized the need for more rigorous science education in the United States, we are now seeing the need for the U.S. to remain on top of the global economy.  This has caused a national focus on preparing students to be creative problem solvers in the work force.  You've probably heard the term "21st Century Learner" a great deal.  Put simply, 21st Century Learning focuses on providing students as many opportunities as possible to apply critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creative skills in "real world" scenarios.  The hope is that this focus applied to all content areas will develop students who have a firm grip on global awareness, business and financial matters, active citizenship, use of technology and promote innovative thinking.

Here are some other "buzz" words floating around the world of education these days that you may be curious of their meaning:

College & Career Readiness:  Due to what has been seen as a gap between what students are being asked to do in the classroom and what they asked to do in the workplace, schools are now focused on developing more real world applications.  This is closely related to "21st Century Learning Skills" that are defined above.

Common Core Standards:  Springing from the need to push for stronger college and career ready students, state leaders from across the nation developed the CCS  to provide standards to define what all U.S. students should know and be able to do in order to maximize their fullest potential.  These standards are guidelines to help schools and educators develop effective direction for teaching and learning (curriculum guides) in there districts.

PARCC: In line with the development of the Common Core Standards (which sets guidelines of the content and skills that all U.S. students should know and be able to do), many state educational leaders felt there was a need to develop a common assessment that provided consistent feedback to help educators identify strengths and needs of their students.  To date, eleven  states have adopted the PARCC as their standardized state assessment.  While Massachusetts initially seemed in line to adopt the assessment to replace the current state standardized assessment (MCAS), they are now looking to create a different and new state assessment that would blend PARCC and the current MCAS assessments (Next Generation MCAS).  This assessment would be aligned to the Common Core Standards.

BYOD:  One of the elements of 21st century learning involves developing strong technology and information skills in students.  To that end, many schools are working to integrate technology in o the learning process on a regular basis.  Due to the high costs involved with providing more technology in schools, many districts have initiated "Bring Your Own Device" programs to encourage more technology in the classroom.  Students utilize their own laptops, pads and other technology tools to engage in all sorts of research, writing, reading and problem solving skills.

As we get ready to kick off the new school year, it is always important to establish some goals for the year.  At ELHS, we take a collaborative approach to developing what we call SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused, and Timely). Our goals are designed with the best interest of our students in mind.  Here are the 2015-16 ELHS SMART goals:  

SMART GOAL #1:  ELHS will work to remain above the state MCAS target for ELA and improve MCAS achievement scores in the area of Math.

While this goal is targeted toward improving MCAS scores, we believe that the actions steps we put in place to achieve this goals will benefit ALL students in improving their literacy, computation and problem solving skills. Our newly developed common assessments in ALL content areas will give our teachers detailed information on how students are progressing in their mastery of their course standards both on an individual, class and school  level.

SMART GOAL #2: 100% of our instructional staff will collaborate to provide a solid core instructional block that consistently includes the effective, research- based instructional strategies related to objectives, activators, student engagement activities, mini lessons and wrap ups to support standards-based curriculum planning.

Our district has adopted a common instructional block format that has been proven to increase student engagement and critical thinking.  We also encourage our teachers to be members of professional learning communities (PLC) that are focused on improving student achievement in our building.  These PLCs meet regularly throughout the year and then present their findings to the full staff at the end of the year.  ELHS continues to explore the use of technology to support student engagement and other 21st century learning skills such as creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and communication.  Lastly, we have adopted the Understanding by Design model for our curriculum guides to ensure that we provide a relevant and rigorous curriculum.

SMART GOAL #3: All ELHS staff will foster a safe, positive, and respectful learning/working environment resulting in an increase in stakeholder (staff, parents, students) satisfaction. 

ELHS maintains several collaborative decision-making groups that work together to improve all aspects of school climate.  These groups include our school council, principal's advisory committee and department chairs.   We utilize school data, student surveys and other input from our stakeholders to establish various policies, procedures and practices. Additionally, we are in the process of creating advisory groups for our students 

Hang in There Seniors & Senior Parents

   

     As we enter second semester, our seniors (and their parents) will soon be finalizing post high school plans.  Speaking from personal experience, this can be a very emotional and stressful time for both.  Between waiting to hear about college acceptance, taking SATs and keeping grades up, many seniors can easily experience heightened levels of anxiety.
     Additionally, once seniors have been "accepted" into colleges, many become increasingly bored with their school year and tend to "slack off."  Bad idea.  With the college admission process become more and more competitive, many schools withdraw acceptance letters if a student's final grade report reflects a lack of effort at the end.
     As parents, we may be tempted to increase our "motivational speeches" with our children in our attempt to keep them on track.  Our children sometimes may translate our attempts to help them as increased pressure and may react negatively to our guidance.  An article I recently read summed up this dynamic best by stating, "Remember that during this time, your children don't hate you.  They are afraid of leaving.  Try to stay calm at all times."
     With all the pressure that our seniors face, they can easily forget to live in the present moment and enjoy their last days of high school.  Between senior semi, senior banquet, senior prom and graduation, ELHS offers many opportunities for our 12th graders to bask in the celebration of all their hard work thus far.  To all our seniors...stay focused, be safe and have fun.  To all our senior parents...hang in there and stay calm.  I look forward to celebrating graduation day with this great group of young adults and their families.