A time to reflect and grow

As we do each summer, we try to utilize this time to engage in some professional development for either ongoing initiatives or programs that we are embedding to further fulfill our vision of how we can best support all students at SKHS. This coming year, we will have one team of ninth grade teachers from the four core content areas who will be sharing their students and common planning time. That group of teachers met with a consultant in July to map out a structure for their planning time as well as to begin to identify common expectations for all of the students. I’m very excited at the prospect of being able to replicate the middle school model of teaming to provide a third of our freshmen with additional support in the form of a common team of teachers. In the next few weeks, a group of teachers will be meeting to continue to assess the portfolio system, reviewing student data from last year and making recommendations to improve the structure and communication of the portfolio. Our Teacher Learning Center (TLC) facilitators will also be meeting to further define the structure and process teachers will utilize to grow as teachers so they can better support students in their classroom (more on TLC and how it works later).

Students are also in the building. We are in the middle of our Summer Success Program, an opportunity we provided for all incoming ninth graders to get a head start on their high school experience. 38 students are receiving support in reading or writing, math, study skills as well as an orientation of the building. These same students will be leading the student tours at our Freshman & New Student Orientation later this month. Unlike many summer school programs that solely focus on remediation, we are hoping to establish a summer school program which will empower and support students who want to take more challenging classes, for instance, a student who wants to get a head start on an AP class they will be taking in the fall. Finally, we also will be providing training for a group of upperclassmen who will be serving as freshman mentors so they can also help in transitioning this year’s freshmen class to SKHS. So while there is plenty of time to play, we’ll continue to offer opportunities for students and teachers to grow during their summer vacation as well.