Prelude to the Faculty Meeting

We'll meet at 3:30 on Wednesday, August 27 in the media center for our monthly faculty meeting. We'll again be working together in a flipped faculty meeting format. Included in this flyer are several items you'll need to review prior to the meeting so we can maximize our time together. I anticipate it will take about 15 minutes to read and view the included items, so we'll plan to end the meeting by 4:15 rather than 4:30.

We truly have much to be thankful for and much to celebrate. Below is the list of reasons accumulated in our quad discussion groups.

Reasons to Celebrate

Faculty

• Outstanding hardworking faculty
  
• Art teachers are professionals in their fields
  
• Great new hires
  
• Willingness of staff to go above and beyond/passionate
• Friendly, helpful teachers
  
• Faculty with sense of humor
  
• Clerical staff excellent
  
• Great principal/awesome assistant principals
• New management in cafeteria
• Organization/leadership

Students

• Student achievement in the arts/art majors awards
• Alumni doing great things
  
• Accepting tolerant diverse student body and staff
  
• Students with passion for art
  
• All graduated without summer school
  
• College scholarships/student at Harvard
• Scholarships to summer programs
  
• Gifted children
  
• Open and inviting students are a reflection of the faculty
  
• Everyone expects to succeed here
  
• Incoming 6th graders
  
• Diversity of talent
  

Programs/classes

• Well-integrated, growing deaf education program
• Increased electives/elective courses in sciences
• Math every day for 8th graders who need it
  
• Growing programs/new fashion and costume major

Scores

• PASS scores
• AP scores
  
• EOC pass rate

More reasons to Celebrate

• We are the best school in the state/nation
• Great work environment
  
• Parents that support school financially and with their time
  
• SOA supports the children on the other end of the NCLB spectrum
  
• Scholastic awards
  
• Jefferson service national award
  
• This is our 20th year anniversary
  
• No bad press
  
• New ELA textbooks
• Green school
  
• Opportunities to succeed
  
• Healthy food
  
• Out of the box thinkers
  
• Growing minority population
  
• Community involvement
  
• Efforts underway to increase diversity
  
• More outreach to district elementary schools

Which of these warrant an organized celebration or some publicity?

**List the elements or items you think need to be highlighted and a couple of ways that could best be accomplished. We'll collect these and begin planning!

One of our school goals is to implement a system of interventions that ensures all of our students are receiving the support they need to be successful.

Our goal for the meeting this week is to look at the strategies suggested in our last meeting, think about specific students who have struggled and identify some universal interventions that will form the basis of our system of intervention.

This short video, not quite 4 minutes long, provides information about tiered systems of intervention. How can we work smarter to support students so we are not all working as individuals, and in addition identify every student who needs support?

Below is a list of the strategies we created in our quad groups. We need to identify strategies we can implement across departments and grade levels to form the framework for our system of interventions. Jot down those you think should be implemented for all struggling students.

Suggested Interventions

Communication

• One on one communication
  
• Get to know students individually
  
• Open and better communication
  
• Circle sharing/connecting
  
• Parent contact/communicate with parent/speed conferencing with parents
• Laugh often with students
  
• Ask the student “What can you do to make the school a better school?”
  
• Encourage, empathize, support
  
• Involve art teachers
  
• Enforce policy for make-up work
  
• Publicize achievement
  
• School-wide celebrations

Connections

• Link up successful HS student from similar background
• Build relationships early
  
• Mutual respect
  
• Pull in homebound students
  
• Create social outlets/clubs
  
• More small groups, more real world connections
  
• Attend performances
  
• Cross curricular integration
  
• Teach kids first, content second
  
• Show students we care about them individually
  

Educating

• Teach time management skills
  
• Tutoring in local communities
  
• Teach parents about technology (like parent portal)
  
• Tutoring after school
  
• Mandatory tutoring
  
• Early feedback on progress
• Make lessons relevant
  
• SOA content, expectations all students need to know

Identify...

• What are the real reasons for struggle?
• What are teachers expectations for time on homework?
  
• What enrichment opportunities exist?
  
• What are the acceptable and unacceptable reasons for a student changing their mind about attending SOA?
  
• What are the non-negotiables for teachers and students

Programs/Procedures

• Relaxation
  
• Activity
  
• Have school supplies available
  
• Place struggling students in art teachers' advisory class
  
• Committees work on interventions and faculty meetings
  
• Support during school day/create built-in tutoring period
• Give students more choices
  
• Don’t stereotype students who aren’t successful
  
• Focus on careers in arts and academics
  
• Add minors (art areas)
• Maximize advisor/advisee

**Write down the strategies you think should be implemented for all struggling students. Come prepared to work on a framework that would incorporate your suggested strategies.

Click on the link below to access a PowerPoint shared with you via Google Drive entitled "Special Education and 504 Framework, What General Educators Need to Know."

We'll have a form for you to sign to indicate you've viewed, understand and will implement the information presented in the PowerPoint.

https://drive.google.com/a/charleston.k12.sc.us/file/d/0BycDKaJwqjOgdTI5bUZHbFNELUk/edit?usp=sharing

The Special Education Coordinator for SOA is requiring all teachers to submit documentation indicating accommodations have been provided for our students with special needs. Whenever an accommodation is made, we will need to document the accommodation on the form included below, which was also shared with you via Google Drive. We would encourage you to also keep a record of the accommodations you provide.

Teachers may email or pass along a hard copy of the completed form to the special ed teacher who is the case manager for the student. If you have questions or concerns about an accommodation, please contact the appropriate case manager- Patti Hawthorne for HS, Jill Bright for MS, Tracy Duffy for HI.

If you're interested in finding out more about the SCARF assessment, you can take a self-assessment with the link below.

http://www.scarfsolutions.com/SelfAssessment.aspx