Week 15: Teaching Mastery is a Lifelong Journey

Happy Friday!

Thanks for all you did this week to model for our students the concept of lifelong learning! Working with Bailey Group, Solution Tree, and DESE consultants has caused much professional conversation about how to hone our abilities to make sure our students are getting what they need to be prepared and successful. It is a never-ending cycle of planning, doing, checking, and reflecting. As we continue our work, we will embrace these enriching experiences and collaborative efforts, ensuring that every step we take is a stride toward excellence in education and a brighter future for our students.

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, our role as educators extends far beyond the traditional boundaries of teaching. We are, in essence, perpetual students ourselves, constantly adapting and growing alongside the educational environment that surrounds us. This continuous journey of learning does not just enrich our teaching methodologies; it also allows us to model the very essence of lifelong learning for our students. By embracing new challenges, staying abreast of the latest educational trends, and reflecting critically on our practices, we not only enhance our expertise but also foster a culture of curiosity and resilience. As we evolve in our mastery, we demonstrate to our students that learning is a dynamic and endless journey, not just a destination to be reached.

For those just beginning their journey in this noble profession, it is important to remember that feeling a sense of inadequacy due to a lack of experience is a natural part of the growth process. Every seasoned educator has stood where you are now, and it is through consistent experience, learning, and the supportive guidance of peers that one's confidence and expertise are built. Embrace this phase as a crucial step in your professional development, knowing that with each passing day, you are gaining invaluable insights and skills that will shape you into the exceptional educator you are destined to become. It is okay to be where you are in your knowledge and skill level right now. Just be determined not to stay there.

All of us are still learning how to become better at what we do. I want to use this Wrap-up to not only share the latest data but also explain how we are using it in our leadership PLC meetings to find our weaknesses, develop better plans, and ask better questions.

Performance Target Insights

I have been reporting for weeks now that our attendance rates remain steady and on target and that our discipline has been increasing each week. You can see that latest update here. For our district leadership PLC team meeting, I asked the principals to bring detailed discipline reports to look for details, causes, and solutions. Here are some things we determined:

* We are more thorough with recording our discipline data this year compared to the last two years. So, it is obvious that we will see an increase because all of our discipline is being counted. This makes last year’s success less meaningful but we can admit our mistakes and move forward doing better.

* Our building and classroom discipline is not changing for the worse. It is actually somewhat better than in the past. We have had incidents outside the classrooms that have been larger scale involving multiple students, and that has had an impact.

* We continue to have a high rate of bus discipline referrals. In fact, there were several examples of students who have never had office referrals except from the bus.

So, what are we going to do?

* We will continue to record discipline as we are now and expect to finish the year with a likely increase knowing that our previous success was not accurate.

* We will revisit the BX3 process for buses and provide more support for true implementation.

* Ask the DeQueen-Mena Cooperative to offer classroom management sessions this summer.

* Provide more classroom management resources and support ourselves.

Our attendance targets are a different, more positive story. Overall, we are doing better as a district than we were a year ago. We can attribute this to our incentives and communication with families. There are individuals like Mrs. Craig and Mrs. Watts who are tracking students and putting the incentives together but it is also the result of each one of us being more aware of and working on the attendance problem.

This morning I created the latest attendance report comparing this year to last year-to-date and asked ChatGPT to provide an analysis comparing grade levels from this year to last and to evaluate the attendance of cohort groups of students. There are positive and encouraging results! Check them out here. I want to add that creating this analysis the old way would have taken an hour and this was done in five minutes or less.

Collective Teacher Efficacy

Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE) is the collective belief of teachers in their ability to positively affect students. I call this “going from ‘I can’t’ to ‘WE CAN’”. John Hattie’s research has determined CTE to have the highest effect size (d=1.57) strongly correlated with student achievement. Your principals have or will be sharing information about this with you in the future as we determine how we rate in CTE and work to make it better than it already is. We know that the key to this is in our PLC work.

Hattie’s work is a collection of numerous studies, but specific research has shown that schools achieve more when teachers are involved in “structured, sustained, and supported instructional discussions” and are “investigating the relationships between instructional practices and student work”. This is how we create new knowledge as educators and improve our teaching, never feeling defeated by whatever issues we or our students face. This is also how our early career educators will become more knowledgeable and skillful.

Closing

Here is a big shout-out to Mrs. Chaney, Chung, and Albin for the Mena Middle School Library Book Tasting. It was like a multi-course gourmet meal, only with books. Check out the video.

Our basketball teams have gotten off to a good start this year and so has our wrestling team defeating Fort Smith Southside last night. Congratulations!

Congratulations to our Quiz Bowl team who won the Montgomery/Polk Counties Quiz Bowl Tournament!

Thanks go out to all of the drivers and teachers who took our Louise Durham students to see the Holiday Train on Wednesday. It was a lot of fun and Mena was able to give them a good crowd to perform for.

Please keep expectations high as we are in the home stretch of the fall semester! It goes fast!

At Mena Public Schools our students are prepared, our staff is supported, and our community is confident.

Have a nice weekend!

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