I have to
start with thanking Shirley Atencio and Katrina Ruggles for their planning and
execution of our first day of school.A
few years ago, Mrs. Atencio was at a CASB (Colorado Association of School Boards)
convention in Colorado Springs.Mrs.
Atencio attended a session on celebrating the first day of school instead of
the last day of school.Ever since
then, the first day has been amazing.I
know that the students felt welcomed. We
had a great motivational speaker who geared his message towards positive thinking.Overall the day was great and a wonderful way
to kick off the year in a positive way.All of the staff members did an excellent job of following a detailed
plan that was developed by Mrs. Atencio and Mrs. Ruggles.Finally, I would like to thank Andy Hawkins
for his flexibility on this day for allowing our students to use his classroom
(gym) on late notice.With our support ALL children can achieve at
high levels and be successful in life.
Weekly things going on in Center High School We are preparing ALL our students to be successful in life
I want to start the week by explaining the importance of supporting our student athletes. I know that sometimes our students miss class and school due to some activities. When I talk about activities at Center High School, it amazes me how many students are participating. We offer 10 different sporting opportunities. We offer an array of opportunities to support our leadership qualities through our various clubs. We have over 80% of our students participating in extra -curricular activities and clubs. I can speak from my personal experience, that these clubs and activities will help the student later in life. I believe that our students gain much more from these activities. If you have ever been a part of these activities you can probably relate to how much work our student/coaches/sponsors put into to our students. I know that sometimes our student/athletes get out of school because of sports and clubs. As the principal, I know that being in class is going to prepare our students to achieve. As principal and athletic director of Center Schools I do my best to balance our schedules to keep students in class. Sometimes, it is unavoidable to keep kids in class when it comes to certain sports. It is my belief that being involved in sports, knowledge bowl, science fair, stars, band, or key club the students get the opportunity to earn some time out of school. The relationships and character that these opportunities build will last a lifetime.
There is NO excuse for poor quality instruction
With our support ALL children can achieve at high levels
As many of you know, keeping our focus on instruction has become a main priority for everyone in our district. We are all working hard to increase our instruction through planning and preparation. I continue to do my best to see the great qualities of each of our teachers by getting into many of your classes. Our focus this year has been to continue to plan and prepare for each week by turning in lesson plans. We continue to have an expectation of posing a daily objective and DOL (demonstration of learning) visible so students know what they are learning for the day, and how they can prove they learned it. This year our focus has been on student engagement. I was able to visit many classes the first of last week. I want to point out 3 teachers where 100% of their students were on task and related to the content they are teaching. I saw Lee Flood’s (health class), Russ Braiden’s (biology class) and Lauren McEvoy (high school art) classes working very hard on their daily lesson. When I walked into class, all of the students were working very hard. Upon walking into these individual teachers’ classrooms, I observed them fully engaged with their students. It was as if this was a daily routine of the teachers and I was observing something that happens continually in their classrooms. I appreciate their efforts with our students. Students were on task and it was evident that they had planned and prepared for this lesson. Each of these teachers has a different approach of getting students engaged. But, it was evident that learning was happening in each class. Good job…Mr. Flood, Ms. McEvoy and Mr. Braiden!
This past week-
I joined many of our administration staff in Alamosa to meet with Bruce Caugney from CASE. We had our district accountability meeting, and BOE meeting on Monday night. I had the opportunity to get into many classes on Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday we had our 7:00am BLT meeting. I had two behavior meetings, and that afternoon I headed to Denver for Principal Day at the State Capital. Thursday was a great learning experience as I sat in on the house floor and listened to the proposed bills. That afternoon, I represented CASE as a witness. The bill that we were opposed to was requiring each school to teach CPR to each student before they graduate. I can say that I was adequate as a witness, as I was very nervous. But we had the bill shot down in a 5-0 voteJ. That evening I headed to the Pepsi Center to watch our wrestlers, and I ended the night at a dinner with Adams State College and Boettcher Foundation. Friday and Saturday I attended the State wrestling tournament in Denver. On Sunday, we seeded our district basketball tournament.
This next week-
Monday-no school, but we will be playing basketball in La Veta. Girls start at 5:00 and the boys will follow.
Tuesday-I hope to listen in on the new Spark curriculum, and catch some teachers in their classes.
Wednesday-We have our ICAP day and PLC in the afternoon.
Thursday-We have our Monte Vista/Center PLC in the morning. I hope I can be back in classrooms in the afternoon.