Mission and Vision Followup...

In September, I asked you in team meetings...

What would it look like if no matter if we were virtual or in-person, we KNEW WITHOUT A DOUBT that our families say, "you know your child is going to have an experience of excellence at Paint Lick?'

I asked you...What are we Striving FOR?

What is so beautiful that we will not stop until we get there?

Pandemic Year Vision: This is what you said...

Reflect...

1.  Reflect:  Read the "Pandemic Year Vision" (what you all said) 

2.  Decide:  How did we do with that vision as a school community this year?  

3.  Think about:  How does that impact where we are headed now in our post-pandemic world and as we revise and craft our vision/mission? How did you do with that vision personally?

4.  Read: what I compiled from our "Campfire Staff Meeting" when you reflected on our values and the values generated by the district strategic planning...

5.  Write down: anything else that needs to be revised or added to our values.  Keep it somewhere safe.  

Our next steps will be:

1.  To revisit the values one more time to see if we decide as a staff that anything should be added or revised.

2.  Review the final draft of the district mission and vision statements and craft our mission and vision.

Change is in the air...

Why??? FIRST and Foremost - to make our vision our reality

This pandemic has given us an incredible wealth of resources to boost our curricular and instructional materials.  It's the perfect storm of opportunity, resources, and district support and leadership to make amazing things happen.  

Low Road Reason...It's how we are held accountable...

Our KPREP Scrimmage showed us how the revised standards will be tested.  In science and social studies or students are being asked to analyze documents, charts, diagrams, and apply knowledge.  This means we will have to change how we teach.  We will have to show our students how to analyze and apply knowledge through science and social studies and provide them opportunities to do that.  It's no longer okay just to expose our students to fun experiments or stories of history.  

High Road...It's good for kids...

We know that it is much better for students to learn high-level skills like analyzing and application than factual knowledge.  Now we know how those expectations translate to assessment.  

We know teaching our students science and social studies is the right thing to do...it's just hard to do without time in our schedule, materials, curriculum, and training.  We will have all of those...this year we start with math and science.  

We know our kids (and adults!) need to be more active, but we haven't had the resources to do that...now we are getting exercise equipment AND perhaps more resources for physical activity! (more on that later)

We know music, technology, and the arts are soooo good for our kids in so many ways, but we didn't have the district support to focus on those until now...(more on that later) 

We know social-emotional learning is crucial but we haven't had the training or resources for that until now...

and ethically?  It's our moral imperative to prepare our students to be successful not just on the 3rd-5th tests for school accountability, but to prepare them for future success.  How do PLE kids perform in middle school?  High School?  On the ACT?  in College? in Career Readiness?  In life???

 

How will this affect you? 

Schedules...

• will include SEL time again and we will have access to and training on Second Steps to use during the SEL time.  
• will be more conducive to science instruction.  
• may include more PE! Perhaps we can even hire an assistant to help with this!  

AND we will need to change the way we teach:

• The 2021-22 school year, 3rd through 5th-grade teachers will be given time to analyze KPREP assessment questions to see what's required of students and will use backwards planning to create assessments and learning experiences that are congruent to the standards and that will be good for our kids.  
• Now that we have the technology (Chromebooks) we will need to be more intentional about incorporating technology learning into our instruction.  

Upcoming....

Next Week:

Monday:  Movie Night Planning Meeting

Summer Program Updates - Fill out the form Shani Sent!!

On Friday we will send home a form to gauge interest from parents.  Paint Lick will be responsible for the intervention piece and can limit our participants to those students who really need it. We would like to offer breaks/recess/fun with the intervention, but the enrichment camps will be coordinated by Laura Perry.  These will most likely take place at the high school.