April 6, 2012

Welcome back.  The principals' blog is up to 80 followers.  Wow!

Today is opening day for my White Sox.  In all honesty, I am not expecting much from my boys this year, but opening day is still special.  My dad took me to opening day at old Comisky Park in 1971.  They lost.  I also attended opening day at the new ballpark.  They lost, 16-0.  Still, hope springs eternal.  The Cubs lost yesterday, but their future looks promising.

It was great to see everyone the last two nights at our student/teacher/parent conferences. I hope that parents were able to get a good insight into the progress of their student, from their student's point of  view.

STANDARDS BASED REPORT CARDS:
How will work habits "count" if you're measuring student progress on specific academic learning targets?
As I've described, a standards-based report card is one that depicts student learning by specific curriculum targets. For example, each specific skill a student has learned during the course of a trimester would be reported on individually. This will give the student and the parent a clear picture of what the student can do, and where he/she needs to continue to improve.

With that said, we continue to value developing students who do their best, make good behavioral decisions, and are independent and organized with their work. To that end, we will report on work habits within each content area in addition to specific academic target mastery. We have teams conducting an informal trial with this now in order to develop our own understanding of how to separate skill mastery from work habits. As specifics of these measures become more clear, you can expect that we will share information with you as well as ask for your input on the process.

To learn more about the middle school standards-based report card, please plan to attend the Middle School Standards-Based Report Card Parent Info Session coming up on April 18 @ 7:00 pm in the Woodlawn Gym. Twin Groves and Woodlawn parents are welcome to attend! As always, if you have specific questions, please feel free to contact me directly.


I hope that everyone has a safe and healthy holiday weekend.


Greg Grana