Sepulveda 2010-2011

1. Sepulveda2010-2011 Proposal for a new school year

2. The Belief • Firm belief that our students are capable of high cognitive content work. • Confidence in the capabilities of the resident experts to be significant partners in refining the art of teaching through professional development and practice. • Certainty that Professional Learning Communities (Learning Teams) represent a sustainable system for continued improvement.

3. The Mission • Nourish a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and community. • Foster distributed leadership • Build capacity. • Maintain a safe, appealing, and emotionally secure learning environment. • Exceed 800 on the API

4. The Vision • Students will benefit from the enhanced instructional strategies developed when teachers work together to agree upon “the best way to teach” a given standard. • Teachers will find satisfaction in establishing and growing a collaborative culture where the free flow of ideas and supports supplants isolation.

5. “If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow.” John Dewey, 1916

6. Let’s Frame the Picture • Sepulveda increased 8 points on the Academic Performance Index in 2009. • The school narrowly escaped becoming a “Focus School” eligible for charter participation proposals. • To continue to qualify for QEIA funds Sepulveda must improve 16 points overall on the Academic Performance Index. • “These are Extraordinary times”

7. Plan of Action • A new plan must be created that is significantly different from any plan we’ve previously submitted. • Professional Learning Communities for the purpose of stimulating explosive growth in personalization will be the cornerstone of the new plan. • Time will be restructured to provide training for successful implementation of new teaching practices. • The relationship between the students and teachers around curriculum will be enhanced.

8. Every organization is perfectly structured to get the results that it gets. Linda Darling-Hammond

9. Homeroom Objectives • Build a relationship between a small group of students and one caring adult (Personalization.) • Develop and maintain the reading program. • Provide academic monitoring and timely intervention (RTI.) • Promote the culture of the “Sepulveda Way”. • Protect instructional minutes from announcements, rule reviews, mandatory handouts, report cards, etc. • Provide a single destination during drills. • Facilitate grouping for testing needs.

10. “One looks with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is the vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child.” Carl Jung

11. Restructuring Time • Block schedule will allow for longer, college schedule type instructional periods. (classes on Monday/Thursday or Wednesday/Friday. Tuesdays remain unchanged.) • Less attendance taking. • Less distribution and collection of materials. • Less time spent on giving instructions; more time spent on instruction.

12. Secondary Benefits • An additional discipline “lever” for teachers with each period ending in a meal period or dismissal. • Half as many passing period mean fewer “Tardy” students per day. • Fewer required ISIS attendance reporting. • “Total Student Load” per day significantly reduced.

13. “As teachers, we must constantly try to improve schools and we must keep working at changing and experimenting and trying until we have developed ways of reaching every child.” Albert Shanker

14. Professional Learning Communities • The Block Schedule will require a reevaluation of teaching practices. • Professional Development will be on site during the regular business day, preserving our Saturdays, avoiding after school sessions, and promoting coherence among all staff members. • Excellence will be a collaboratively discussed and mutually agreed upon commodity.

15. “If you want to feel secure, do what you already know how to do. If you want to be a true professional and continue to grow, go to the cutting edge of your competence, which means a temporary loss of security. So whenever you don't quite know what you're doing, know you are growing.” Madeline Hunter

16. Extraordinary Measures • Sepulveda must demonstrate proactive attempts to significantly overcome our obstacles through innovative, and sustainable improvements in practices. • The Charter movement was created to promote competition; let’s give them more competition than they ever envisioned.

17. Words of Wisdom One definition of insanity is doing the exact same thing over and over, and expecting different results. Attributed to the well known, and often quoted, ancient Greek philosopher: Anonymous

18. Are there costs? Are there “pain points?” Will the supports to make it work be provided? Does the Principal believe it will have a positive impact on student achievement and student well-being? Are you willing to venture into that unknown for a chance at something extraordinary? Yes Yes Yes Yes To be determined Why Vote Yes?

19. “One learns by doing a thing; for though you think you know it, you have no certainty until you try.” Sophocles

20. Thank you for your kind attention.