[BHS Etree] ADMIN - Greetings from Principal Scuderi

[BHS etree]

Dear BHS Families:

Welcome back to school. I was generally pleased with our opening and our current staff and student community appears poised to sustain the collective focus necessary for a positive and productive year. 

We have determined critical academic needs by way of the WASC process, as well as set clear priorities in the areas of attendance, instruction, and assessment. 

Administrators will continue to increase the amount of time they spend in classrooms and I will continue the practice we started late last year of spending at least two full days per week observing classroom instruction and providing support and feedback. 

Our aim is to continue to develop a culture where teachers, their peers, students, and administrators talk openly and respectfully about instruction.

As we design, examine, and adjust our classroom practices, my expectation is that we look at things from a generalized set of instructional concepts; concepts that are then filled in, rounded out, and detailed by the content knowledge and creative sensibilities of our teachers. 

I have communicated to staff my deep belief in the concept that clear administrative direction and maximized teacher creativity can not only coexist, but that significant research suggests that the coupling of those two concepts is a proven way for schools to make continuous improvement their everyday operating state.

My expectations will borrow heavily from three proven essentials summarized by education writer Mike Schmoker. These essentials, echoed by decades of research, are cost-effective fundamentals that include things that educators have known to be successful for decades, but that few large high schools implement consistently. These essentials or fundamentals are the foundation of what you and I should expect to see in our classrooms. They are...

1. Reasonably Coherent Curriculum

Simply put, a decent, coherent curriculum with topics and standards collectively selected by a team of teachers. Robert Marzano refers to this as a “guaranteed and viable curriculum.”

2. Sound Lesson Design

Structurally and soundly designed lessons should include clear lesson objectives, relevant introductions, and lots of modeling and guided practice; specifically, brief intervals where students are allowed to practice or apply what has been modeled or taught while teachers observe and guide that work.

Sound lessons should build in regular checks for understanding and make a “conscientious effort, throughout the lesson, to ensure that all students are learning each segment of the lesson before moving to the next one.”

Sound lessons should also build in “frequent opportunities for students to work in pairs and occasionally in groups, as they are often the best teachers and translators of what we just taught.”

3. Far More Purposeful Reading, Writing and Discussion in Every Discipline

Students should be consistently engaged in literacy activities. Among countless other examples, students should be annotating primary source documents, writing extensive lab reports, reading to infer, interpret, and draw conclusions, and be regularly engaged in well-structured discussions with equitable participation; discussions that require them to support arguments with evidence. Students should write extensively on complex issues and topics and in general see an increase in the amount and quality of writing they are expected to produce.

Examples of literacy and college-level skill-building that we would like to see in the content areas are by no means limited to the examples listed here. I do not mean to completely disparage the use of things like film, technology, and direct teacher lecture in classrooms -their use is on occasion relevant and supportive- but I am asking that we use these modalities thoughtfully and consider the fact they they are not in any way research-proven substitutes for the literacy endeavors mentioned above, particularly when it comes to building skills that will make students successful in college and help us to narrow the often discussed achievement gap. 

I firmly believe that a concerted effort to make these instructional fundamentals strong and consistent across the disciplines has the potential to have the greatest positive impact on the performance of all students. Not only should these three essentials be prioritized and be given higher priority than any trendy or transient initiatives, but we should be extremely conscious of the credible research that suggests that new programs or initiatives rarely succeed if the foundations of coherent curriculum, soundly designed lessons, and consistent literacy activities are not in place.

I am looking forward to watching our instruction move into a mode of continuous improvement and enrich the educational experience for all of our students.

Attendance

BHS is investing significant time and resources this year to improve overall attendance and reduce truancy. District staff and the Board of Education have helped provide us with resources to manage these efforts, and chief among those resources was the acquisition of a  Dean of Attendance, Daniel Roose. 
Mr. Roose and his staff will maintain accurate attendance data, manage the implementation of the formal processes dealing with truancy as determined by state law, and also implement a systematized way of tracking our efforts to connect with parents of students who are regularly truant.

A detailed document attendance policy will be sent to families tomorrow via e-tree from Mr. Roose and the Attendance Office Staff.


Get BHS Information on Twitter! Right Here Right Now!

  @BHSinfo

Please sign-up for a Twitter account and follow us on your phone or computer. While Twitter will not in any way replace e-tree for general news and information, it does offer a channel through which we can provide calendar changes, important date reminders, extremely brief school news items and, in the event of an emergency or irregular situation, real-time info that can be sent directly to your mobile device from the Principal. 

Please encourage your students to follow as well as this would be a great way for us to convey the same information to parents and students in an emergency or other situation. You can assure them that BHS will NOT follow their accounts so they need not worry about us reading their "tweets." 

For non-emergency situations, take comfort in the fact that "tweets" are limited to 140 characters so you won't be inundated by a slew of overly long messages. 

Again, sign-up for a Twitter account and follow us by searching for @BHSinfo.

Changes in Campus Access

Please note, and review with students, that the main office doors near the corner of Allston and Milvia will no longer be a student entrance. 

Students can use the "A" gate about 30 feet west of the main office. We believe that this change is helpful for a few reasons: 
all students will now enter campus through a monitored and supervised entrance 
restricting the main office doors for visitors use only will reduce the flow of traffic there and allow staff to more carefully monitor guests and keep tighter controls on visitor's passes
If student's are late, or arriving at odd hours due to appointments, etc, they may enter the campus by showing a current BHS I.D. to campus monitors at either the "A" gate or the gate at Milvia and Bancroft between the old gym and the new pool building.

PLEASE WORK WITH US TO ENSURE THAT ALL STUDENTS HAVE CURRENT BHS ID ON THEIR PERSON AT ALL TIMES DURING THE SCHOOL DAY.

Counselor Availability and Scheduling

Counselors will be unavailable this week for drop in appointments as they complete new student schedules and process Schedule Change Requests. Change Requests should have been submitted by this time.  However, if a student is placed in the wrong level class, has an incomplete schedule, or needs a course for graduation or college, s/he may still make a Change Request. 

Students should attend all classes on their official schedule as changes, whether due to student request or course balancing need, will be delivered to the student’s class.  

Changes will not be made for teacher preference or dislike of current classes or schedule. Changes to a course request (ie dropping a course a student requested or adding a course not requested) require administrator approval.

Starting Thursday, 9/2 students may make an appointment to see their counselor before school, at lunch, or after school.

We appreciate your cooperation as we work to get the 2011-12 school year off to a smooth start. 

Dinesh Kumar

We continue to think positively for our colleague, custodian Dinesh Kumar, who was gravely injured in a home robbery last Friday in Richmond. Sadly, Dinesh's mother was killed in an incident that has now been given significant coverage in the local media.

Our staff is still somewhat shocked by the horrible and brutal dimensions of this act, but we are pleased to report that Dinesh appears to be on the road to a full, albeit difficult recovery. 

We are accepting donations that will be provided to the family here at BHS, or, you can donate to the "Kumar Family Benefit" at any Mechanics Bank branch.


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Pat Anderson, Diane Douglas, Marguerite Fa-Kaji and Lisa Sibony are the parent-volunteer facilitators of the etree; please direct any questions to them at bhs-owner at lmi.net. 
BHS etree archives: http://lists.lmi.net/pipermail/bhs/; BHS PTSA website: http://www.bhs.berkeleypta.org/. To unsubscribe from the etree, send an email to bhs-request at lmi.net with one word only in the subject line: 'unsubscribe'.   To post a message, send to: bhs at lmi.net
 




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