Growth Mindset
I don’t like to use too many professional sports examples, but this one is too good to pass up. Baseball statistics have always fascinated me. When I was kid, there were a few teachers who used baseball very effectively to teach math and my father is really into these stats (I mean really into it!). Anyway, the Washington D.C. Nationals had a 0.1% to win the National League pennant on May 25th. Their entire season from that point on was characterized by hard lessons that provoked individual and team growth on a massive scale. This week that growth mindset triumphed over more talented, statically better-performing opponents for both the National League Championships and the World Series. The Nats could have easily taken a look at their record and accepted their place as the inferior team. The major lesson learned is this; using a growth mindset works. It works in sports. It works in business, both small and corporate. It works with engineering and science. And it works with education.
Gary sent the following out to principals this week, so I am sharing the good news with you too;
State Report Card- I want to thank all of you for the great things you are doing academically. We have so much going on and so many things to think about, we often forget about the basics and forget about celebrating our successes. Despite the distractions, we are doing better than ever. According to the state report card, in 18-19, BLP elementary schools had our highest ELA and math smarter balance scores ever. 65.2% of our 3rd-5th grade students met or exceeded in ELA. This is 4.4% higher than three years ago. 58.9% of our students met or exceeded in math. This is 3.3% higher than three years ago. For comparison’s sake, Check out the scores of four large districts in Oregon with three-year improvement in parenthesis.
Eugene- ELA- 55.7 (2.4)/ Math- 46.8 (2.4)
Beaverton– ELA- 65.6 (2.8)/ Math- 58.9 (-.9)
Portland– ELA-58 (1)/ Math- 48.4 (-.1)
Tigard/Tualatin- ELA- 59.1 (-.3)/ Math- 53.6 (-.8)
I looked at 6 other districts (Salem, W. Linn, N. Clackamas, Newberg, Sherwood, and Lake Oswego). None of them had a larger increase in ELA or Math. The next highest increase in ELA was Beaverton (2.8%), and the next highest improvement in math was Eugene (2.4%). Wow. Fantastic work. Our scores are growing significantly- we are not far from level 4 in ELA and Math. This is not an accident. You can feel good about where we are and it is proof that we can continue to improve and grow. As we move forward and work to close gaps, remember that we have lots of opportunity for growth, especially with our historically under-served groups. Thanks for leading all of the progress to date!
Veterans Day Lunch
Friday next week is the Veterans Day Lunch so we expect to have another decent crowd which means we will need your help. There’s virtually no chance of us fitting everyone downstairs so we will need to allow families and students to eat in classrooms. Here’s what I am proposing;
- 2/3 and 4/5 classes eat in the classrooms (It will be OK for some students to stay in the cafeteria for these groups, but since they can carry their food easier than the little kids, this will work better for everyone.)
- K and 1 classes eat in the cafeteria.
Also, we will distribute some cards to you. These are meant for students to either write a note directly to their relative who served or is serving OR write a general note of appreciation that will be sent to troops.
Before School Recess
- 7:30 – 7:40 students dropped off during this time are directed to the cafeteria (since most of these students are getting breakfast).
- 7:40 – 7:55 the playground opens, outside supervision starts.
- 7:55 – first bell – all students enter the building and head to your classrooms.
- When the temp drops below 20, but it’s relatively nice outside, students will be permitted to enter the cafeteria if they don’t want to stay outside and Elizabeth will join the group inside for an additional person for supervision.
- If students head upstairs, you can either send them back downstairs or allow them in your room with your supervision or send them outside.
- If at all possible I want to avoid starting the day with a movie or cartoon since this is one of the worst ways to prime the brain for learning. It’s also not a very long period of time since the largest bulk of kids arrive after 7:45.
- When the weather is nasty and being outside is not an option we can resort to a video in the library, however, I would love to explore some alternatives that are not a one-size-fits-all and provide a more productive start to our students’ day.
Safetouch Lessons – Just an FYI – I will be starting Safetouch lessons with the 4/5 classes next week. I will also hit three of the 2/3 classes before winter break.
Fall MAC Survey day is Thursday, November 7th.
Meetings:
- Tuesday 11/5 2:45-3:30 PLC – Storyline
- Wednesday 11/6, SIW – District:
- All k-2 teachers (except school-wide Dreambox users):
You will sign up for a SIW session on Performance Matters. Here is a short video on how to access and sign up on Performance Matters: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DqfYWU8t4ynYAS9wdyAIv1WGekYg-O16/view?usp=sharing
- 2-5 Teachers Dreambox Webinar
- Thursday 11/7, Leadership 2:45-3:30
Wonders Issue and Fix – From Christie Boen
I just wanted to let you know that the new iOS is now available for students and we have had some reports of Wonders not working when in Safari for students that have run the update. The issue appears to be that the pop-up blocker is turned on. Here are the directions for how to turn off the pop-up blocker:
- Open Settings
- Tap Safari on the left-hand menu
- Find “Block Pop-ups” on the right-hand menu and turn the toggle OFF
- This may not be an issue for all students, some may already have that toggled OFF. It might be worth 5 minutes to have everyone check after their iPad has been updated.
Nurse Change – Just in case you have not already heard, Alice will be leaving us as her family is moving out of state. Tami Pike is working on hiring a replacement soon, but until that hiring occurs we may see Angelina on occasion filling in. Please join me in wishing Alice all the best.