Full Throttle at GCMS!

Cougar Notes:

Things are going full throttle at GCMS this week!  We had a great turnout for parent/teacher conferences on Monday night and another big crowd for Meet the GCMS Lady Cougars Night on Tuesday evening!  Bow tie Tuesday was a big hit, and thanks again to the Board of Education for hosting a Family Fun Night for employees and their families on Tuesday evening.  With our GCMS football team at home to host Butler County this evening, we continue this busy week.  I hope that you can get out to support the team tonight and/or Tuesday night of next week.  I have enjoyed getting into lots of classrooms this past week.  I have found your learning targets posted on the board and activities matching up with the targets.  I have also been impressed that I am seeing very similar work going on within CSI teams.  It is clear that you are coordinating your plans within the same grade/same subject area for the benefit of our students.  Keep up the great work!

Personnel:

Please remember your GCMS family.  I know that several staff members are dealing with health issues and have family members with health issues right now.  Also, please say a prayer for Chailey Maples.  She has been in the hospital this week with some issues.

GCMS Parents Blog:

I am planning to start including more parent information in my blog.  The Cougar Notes entries are typically geared toward GCMS staff members, so I am also going to start doing some entries geared more toward our students’ parents.  I want our GCMS parents to always feel well informed about what is going on at our school, and I hope that expanding the blog plus doing a weekly announcements call through School Messenger will be steps in that direction. 

Monday’s Faculty Meeting:

Just a reminder, our September faculty meeting will be Monday, Sept. 15 and will be dedicated to Testing Ethics and Accommodations Training.  We need everyone to plan to stay for our meeting.  We will try to start as early as possible (hopefully 2:50), since we are required to have everyone participate in both parts this year.  Those with late duty should come straight to the library from duty. 

Observations:

If any teachers would like to go ahead and schedule your observation, please contact the administrator in charge of your evaluation.  We can go ahead and observe for any teacher who is in year one or year two of your evaluation cycle.  This will be a "mini" observation which will last 20-30 minutes.  For non-tenured and other teachers in your summative year (year 3), the peer observation must be completed before your full observation by a principal.  Mr. Shane Decker gets the door prize for having Mr. Whitmore conduct our first mini observation today!

 

All Things PGES (I am going to start intentionally touching on a specific area of PGES on a regular basis in the Cougar Notes.  This week’s entry addresses peer observation.)

Peer Observations:  (this pertains to teachers in the summative evaluation year: all 8^th grade teachers and all non-tenured teachers)

As we start the process of peer observations, I want everyone to keep in mind that this process has basically three parts:

1.            Pre-observation conference…Please start thinking about when you would like to have your peer observation and get together for a pre-conference a day or two beforehand.  Please let the office know if you need someone to cover part of a class to free you up for your conference.  Typical pre-conferences will take about 15-20  minutes.  Peer observers will be looking for evidence in Domains 2 and/or 3.  I think it would be ideal for the teacher being observed to suggest a component to focus on (for example 2C Classroom Procedures or 3B. questioning, etc.).  Perhaps the component that you focused on in your PGP would be the best choice.  The pre-observation forms in our CEP are fine to use, but that is optional.  You will not be required to turn these in to the office.  The only required documentation will be what needs to be entered into CIITS. 

2.            Observation…The peer observation falls into the category of “mini or partial” observation and should last 20-30 minutes.  When the peer observer logs into CIITs, you will need to find “my observation caseload” and your 3 or 4 teachers should be listed.  You will click on “new” over to the right of that teacher’s name; you can click “announced” to set up the date and time, and then “partial” to open the observation.  You can do your scripting on a laptop by clicking “notepad” or you may prefer to do this in a Word document.  You might prefer to just do your scripting by hand instead of on the computer and then enter your evidence into CIITS after the observation.  If you use the notepad or a Word document, you will need to copy/paste statements of evidence into appropriate component boxes for Domains 2 and/or 3.  A piece of evidence might match more than one component.  You do not have to worry about entering anything for Domains 1 or 4 for peer observations.

3.            Post-observation conference…after the observation, the peer observer should complete the entry of evidence in CIITS and then click “share draft”.  This will send an automated email to the teacher who has been observed with the evidence that the peer observer has entered.  The observed teacher then enters information into the appropriate boxes in CIITS as teacher feedback.  This could be further explanation, clarifications, supporting examples, and/or artifacts.  Artifacts can be attached in the categories of documents, videos, or images.  The observed teacher clicks share to send an automated email back to the peer observer.  After these steps have been completed, the post conference can be held.  Remember, the peer observer does not rate the teachers observed.  Only the principals will assign the 1-4 ratings for each component.  Peer observers should click “submit observation” after the post conference has been completed.  Post conferences (like those that principals do) should be completed within 5 school days after the observation.

Peer observation is for information purposes, not ratings or evaluation.  This should take much of the pressure out of the situation.  The peer observation process should be a great way for us to help each other improve our practice and ultimately benefit our students.

All Window 1 Peer Observations should be completed by November 7.

If any (or all) of this is unclear, I will be glad to sit down with you during your planning time and try to help.  Just let me know.

I considered just setting up days for everyone to pre-conference, for everyone to peer observe, and for everyone to post-conference and hiring subs to cover classes….but I know that everyone is at a different point on readiness and when you would prefer to have the peer observation.  With all that said, just contact the office, and either one of the administrators, counselors, Mrs. Pearl, or a classified staff member will cover for either the peer observer or the observed teacher for your pre-conference, for your observation, and for your post-conference.  With Mrs. Pearl and Mrs. Holley’s schedules, there is more flexibility and covering shouldn’t be required, but it will be needed for Mr. Helm, Mr. Parker, and Mrs. Mullins.

Quote of the Day:

“Life is an echo; what you send out comes back.” ~Chinese Proverb

Coming Attractions:

Sept. 15…September Faculty Meeting (testing ethics training), 2:50

Sept. 16…Staff Tailgate/Corn hole before the GCMS home football game (game time is 5:30)

Sept. 16…District-wide GATE Parent meeting at the BOE, 6:00-7:00

Sept. 16-18…KY Dept. of Agriculture Mobile Science Center at GCMS (7th grade)

Sept. 17…GCMS SBDMC Meeting, 3:15

Sept. 22-23…EXPLORE Test for 7th and 8th grade

Sept. 24…Pinocchio Play at GCMS (for all 3 grades)

Sept. 30…Manufacturing Day field trip (8th grade to local factories)

Oct. 2…GCMS Walkathon

Oct. 3-10…Fall Break

Oct. 17…KIP Survey (6th and 8th graders)