During in-service training on Monday, October 8th, our middle school teachers spent the morning learning about the new teacher evaluation process that is being implemented statewide for the 2013-14 school year. This process involves a comprehensive observation procedure comprised of 22 components within 4 general domains tied to effective teaching. The system is based on a model that was researched and developed by Charlotte Danielson. To get teachers acclimated to the new observation process, we will be piloting the observation procedure this year with any teacher who would like to volunteer to go through the process. So far response has been strong. Observations will count for 50% of a teacher's annual evaluation, while student achievement data will count for the other 50%. The second half of our day was spent with each teacher developing a data plan for their classes and sharing strategies to make sure all students can be successful this school year. We ended the day by narrowing down our Middle School vision statements to two finalists, which our staff will be voting on soon.
Student Council fundraiser orders and money are due by this Friday, October 12. The goal that has been set is to sell $35,000 worth of orders. As of this moment, we are about half way to that goal. Profits from the fundraiser will go toward funding student activities during the school year. If we meet our quota of $35,000 sold, Mr. Santini will have to wear Pitt gear, and a blue and gold Pitt mohawk wig, for a day at school. Here's hoping we finish at $34,999!
For any student who leaves a cell phone on their school bus, from this point forward you can expect to receive the phone back the next day from either the bus driver or our coordinator of transportation. We do not have staff available to search school buses every evening for missing phones, so this will be the new procedure moving forward. The best way to avoid this issue is to encourage your child to be responsible for securing their cell phone while on the school bus.
Please continue to cut out and collect Box Tops for Education. The money we receive from this program will be used to purchase materials for our library. Send your box tops in with your child to turn in during first period every Friday. So far, Ms. Vescovi's class leadds with 347 box tops collected, but there are some other classes close behind. We will declare a winning class each marking period, with the contest starting over every 9 weeks.
Our Halloween Dance is tentatively scheduled for Thursday, October 25th from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. More details will be coming out about this event.
We are up to 519 page views on our blog, and 19 followers on our Twitter account. When we get to 30 parents or community members following us on Twitter, we are going to randomly select one of our followers for a prize that I will determine at that point. For every 10 local followers we get beyond 30, we will draw another winner. So, if you haven't already, follow us on Twitter to keep up to date with events taking place at the Middle School!
As always, if you have any questions about anything in this blog post or in general, feel free to email me at csantini@cencam.org.
