The Action Team met on Wednesday, November 4th for another great session. Team members were treated to a presentation from Piney Branch principal Bertram Generlette.
Lots of Hats Working for Good
Bertram opened the presentation by asking Team members to choose a number from 1 to 16. Beforehand each number had been assigned the name of a school stakeholder—i.e. teacher, student, parent of a GT student, university partner, team leader, PTA president, etc.
Team members then wrote the name of their assigned stakeholder onto a newspaper hat. By putting on the hat, participants took on that persona. Bertram then began to share a bit about the make-up and work of each school improvement team. The list of teams included:
(1) The Core team, (2) Professional Learning Community Institute, (3) Instructional Focus Team, (4) PTA, (5) School Improvement Team, and (6) Piney Branch Action Team.
Team members then wrote the name of their assigned stakeholder onto a newspaper hat. By putting on the hat, participants took on that persona. Bertram then began to share a bit about the make-up and work of each school improvement team. The list of teams included:
(1) The Core team, (2) Professional Learning Community Institute, (3) Instructional Focus Team, (4) PTA, (5) School Improvement Team, and (6) Piney Branch Action Team.
When explaining the make-up of the team, Bertram had each “stakeholder” come into the middle of the room. It was a great way to visually understand who is on each team.
Team Blogging
Those following this blog should soon see that many members of the PBAT are posting to it. That's because Team members have decided to adopt a team blogging approach to broadcasting the work of the Action Team.
We've decided on this approach for a couple of reasons. Team blogging should help to ensure that the content of the blog stays pretty fresh. It will help to build even more collaboration within our Team. And lastly, the hope is that that spirit of collaboration will spread out to the larger community.
We're excited about the work that we're doing and we want people to know about it. Team blogging allows us each to share information, opinions and revelations in a way that is easy and has almost endless reach.
How Are the Projects Going?
Parent-teacher conferences are this week! What's the progress on the action projects?
*We are partnering with the PTA to set-up a hospitality table that will be at the conferences. It will have multicultural goodies and "peace offering" cards. PBAT members will be manning the table to answer questions about the Action Team and to offer general assistance.
*A Parent-Teacher Conference Planner went home with kids on Tuesday. The planner gives tips and offers questions for parents to consider as they prepare to meet with teachers. The handout will also be available on the day of the conferences for parents who are there early and have not had a chance to review it.
*Arrangements have been made to have report cards copied and handed out as parents enter the school. In the past, parents were handed report cards once they arrived at the conference—this didn’t give them much time to process the information and formulate questions. Paraeducators will be helping to distribute the report cards.
*All of the classroom teachers have been “flipped” and the remaining staff will be filmed on Thursday. A member of IMPACT's staff has offered to edit the video. The video (which is meant to provide an opportunity for parents to get to know teachers on a personal level) will be burned to DVD and shown throughout the building on several TVs.
*We have one team member who will serve as a multicultural guide. He will be on-hand in the lobby of the school to engage and guide immigrant parents who are new to the conferences. He suggested that he would like to wear a button announcing that he is a Piney Branch Action Team Ambassador.
*The PBES assistant principal will work on creating a parent evaluation that will be given out in the lobby. The evaluation will try to measure the positive effectiveness of the PBAT actions on parents' conference experience.
*A Parent-Teacher Conference Planner went home with kids on Tuesday. The planner gives tips and offers questions for parents to consider as they prepare to meet with teachers. The handout will also be available on the day of the conferences for parents who are there early and have not had a chance to review it.
*Arrangements have been made to have report cards copied and handed out as parents enter the school. In the past, parents were handed report cards once they arrived at the conference—this didn’t give them much time to process the information and formulate questions. Paraeducators will be helping to distribute the report cards.
*All of the classroom teachers have been “flipped” and the remaining staff will be filmed on Thursday. A member of IMPACT's staff has offered to edit the video. The video (which is meant to provide an opportunity for parents to get to know teachers on a personal level) will be burned to DVD and shown throughout the building on several TVs.
*We have one team member who will serve as a multicultural guide. He will be on-hand in the lobby of the school to engage and guide immigrant parents who are new to the conferences. He suggested that he would like to wear a button announcing that he is a Piney Branch Action Team Ambassador.
*The PBES assistant principal will work on creating a parent evaluation that will be given out in the lobby. The evaluation will try to measure the positive effectiveness of the PBAT actions on parents' conference experience.
Team members have been working hard to make these projects happen. We hope that they will help to make the PBES parent-teacher conferences more meaningful for parents and teachers.
Conferences are November 11th and 12th.
Check back in with the blog to find out how things go!!!
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