Relationships aren't a One Time Event

Highly effective teams take time to build relationships.  It is incredibly powerful for our students to know that we are a team supporting and believing in their future, yet it is also important for our own health and success.  

Relationship building isn’t a one time event.  In fact, with kids it takes early, OFTEN, & ONGOING attention to building relationships.  Thank you for revisiting our values and looking at how we handle challenging situations with our values in mind.  

On Friday, we dedicated our professional learning time to a student. Take a moment this week to think about the student to whom you dedicated Friday to and how can you make a difference in his/her life with your new learning.  Teachers are powerful!

“The quality and nature of the relationships you have with your students has a larger effect on their results than socio-economic status, professional development or Reading Recovery programs.  It is not that these things don’t matter, but rather that your relationships with students matter more.” ~ Hattie, Visible Learning

Empowering Student Voice

Billie Donegan often reminds me that “high yields takes high maintenance”; this is true of student led conferences.  Thank you for taking time to prepare students to have a very powerful conversation with their family.  Student Led Conference requires that students reflect on their current level of knowledge and application as well as set goals for their future levels.  Thanks to your hard work with International Baccalaureate, our students have a common language for sharing.  As I walked around, I heard students say criterion, formative, summative, ATL skills, and Managebac.  Consistency in language and predictability allows our students to be more successful.  Also, we have a grading system that reflects learning and growth.  I am proud to be at a school where staff believes in coaching up kids through multiple opportunities to learn and grow.  Proud to be an #IBHawk!

Culture and Team

Last Wednesday, the Language Acquisition team came together for a unit planning day.  Monica Fernandez and Jenny Banta worked with Coach Billie Donegan to develop an agenda focused on developing lines of inquiry and embedding Approaches to Learning Skills in a unit when planning formative instruction and preparing for summative assessments.  Their work together reminded me of the importance of team and coaching.  Teachers were collaborating to develop and share best practice that supports student learning of skills through inquiry.  Having a coach as a thought partner and work partner is key to continual growth as a team.  Thank you Language Acquisition and coaches for modeling the power of team and further developing our culture of learning.

Empowering Kids through Community Project

The Harvest International Baccalaureate Middle Years Program Community Project launched last week through Individuals and Societies classes.  Thank you to Rosalinda Hurtado and Leo Fajardo for letting Jenny Banta and Julie Jones coach up our 8th grade students on the purpose of the project, the idea of a “ripple effect of kindness”, project requirements, and sample project. As an IB World School, the Community Project demonstrates that we value students serving and acting on their knowledge, developing as IB learners, and applying skills through the design cycle.  If you want to learn more about the Community Project, check out the Community Project blog for up-to-date information.

Mindfulness

Next week the Healthy Kids Survey will be administered to our 7th graders.  This is survey taken yearly that focuses on the school climate and mental health of our students.  When looking at results from HMS and the trends across NVUSD from 2015-2016, there is a noticeable increase in suicidal thoughts, chronic sadness, and anxiety.  Last week I participated in a short activity that made me think about the mindfulness of our students and the impact it has on their emotional wellbeing and academic success.  In AVID Excel, the class stopped for a brain break.  Students took 2-3 minutes to participate in an AVID stretch; as a class they used their bodies to spell the acronym “AVID”.  In the photo, they are stretching to form the letter “d”.  They took a break from their note-taking to energize their body.  As I participated with them, I felt re-energized as well.  With 8 periods and long blocks, I encourage you to think of ways to not only connect to kids and help students connect to school, but also focus on the whole child through mindfulness.  If you want more information about brain breaks or mindfulness, ask one of our AVID Excel teachers.

IBelieve in Common Language

On Friday, Harvest Middle School welcomed visitors from East Contra Costa County Office of Education, Mt. Diablo School District, and Oak Grove Middle School.  Joe Paniagua, Jenny Banta, four students and I shared our International Baccalaureate journey and next steps.  Our 7th and 8th grade students shared their appreciation of formative and summative assessments because it gives them a chance to try again and they acknowledged that classwork and homework are still important because they help on the formatives.  We heard 6th graders talk about being open-minded as they planned their spaghetti towers, a student explained what monochromatic means, and students connected their learning in art to the gender inequity they were learning about in language and literature.

All I can say is “Wow!”  We are doing the right work for kids.  Thank you for opening up your classrooms so that our visitors could experience IB in actions.   We offer students an incredible learning experience at Harvest because of the work you do every day.  Students are connected to their learning, developing skills, inquiring at a deep level, and developing a growth mindset through IB.  Friday was a proud moment for me as the Principal of Harvest Middle School.  I hope you find time to reflect on the power of the work you are doing with pride.

Go Together

“If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.” ~ African Proverb

Families, students, teachers, support staff, and administrators make up Team Harvest and are the ingredients to supporting all students.  Back to School Night demonstrated the importance of team.  I saw parents and teachers building relationships that will help students succeed at Harvest. Yet, the most powerful part of the night for me was standing in front of a gym full of our families with three students translating.  It served as a reminder of the child we are seeking to create as an International Baccalaureate World School.  Our students demonstrated risk-taking and communication by using two languages to help all of our families have access to the information they need to support their child.  Our students also showed their knowledge of language and just as important their care for our school community.  Tuesday night, our students were leaders and models of an IB education.  Thank you to the teachers who have enabled these students to listen carefully, speak with confidence, take risks with the understanding that mistakes are fixable, and instilled in them the importance of servant leadership.    

Success: What it really looks like!

On Thursday, September 15, 2016, we will complete the 21st day of our school year.  As a team, we were challenged to go slow to go fast and build team because “kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.  Take time on Thursday to reflect.  Think about:

• How did the start of the school year feel?
• What do you know about your students?  How does your knowledge about your students impact your teaching?
• How is the culture in your classroom?  What created that culture?
• How are you going to deepen connections in the next 21 days?
• How do you feel as an educator?

Once you take time to reflect, remember culture and team as you teach and assess inquiry learning.  Empower students to take ownership of their learning.  Finally, think about what success really looks like and use the connection and knowledge of your students to help your classroom team get to success.

Share Humanity

Thank you, Harvest Hawks, for coming together as a school for our Share Humanity Assembly. I saw teachers involved in organizing, tending to behaviors, diving into class competitions, sweating in the mascot, and cheering with their students.  Our leadership students took risks by planning and performing in front of the whole school.  Each grade level had students demonstrate many IB Learner Profile Traits as they tried to stay connected and unravel their human web.  Thank you Jessica DiGregorio and Marie Zorn for making it possible! Culture is important.  It is built by all members of our school, including students.  As we focus on building teams and relationships with each other and students, we are tending to our school culture.  During the rally, it was evident that we are building school culture and we still have work to be done.  I know that our focus on early, often, and ongoing will help us develop a positive learning culture for all students at HMS.  

Relationship Building is the Foundation to Culture

Last week our AVID and AVID Excel students committed to individual determination in signing their AVID contracts.  They heard a former Napa High AVID senior and Harvest alumni talk about AVID as a family.  In Parker Totty’s speech, he highlights the culture of a family: challenge and support.  Also, Totty notes that he grew as a human being because relationship building was valued.  A family challenges its members to be better--to set the bar higher--and supports its members to make it over the high bar.  As we focus on building team in our classroom and schoolwide for the first 21 days, challenge and support are keys to our success and can’t be limited to the walls of an AVID classroom.  We have to know our students--their past, present, and future--in order to connect and challenge them and more importantly to know how to support them to rise to those challenges. Continue to take time to build a foundation for a healthy classroom culture.  John Hattie, a well published educational researcher, reminds us why this work is important.

Team Harvest

As the Olympic Games come to a close today, I have a sense of disappointment in knowing that we will have to wait two more years for the Winter Games to see the passion and determination in the eyes of Olympic athletes, but I know Team Harvest will continue to light the flame in the hearts and minds of our students.  This week Team Harvest did just that by welcoming our new 6th and 7th grade students on Tuesday with high fives, IB activities, cheers, and more.  Check out the video of our newest #ibhawks with our very own Liz McRae as Harvey!  Team Harvest took a risk in putting together an orientation and in doing so demonstrated that we care about our students. Our staff is holding a poster full of goals set by our newest hawks.  In this photo, I am inspired and convicted of the power and responsibility we have to cultivate the passion and determination of our students so that they are high school ready and college bound.  As I reflect on the words shared during our community circle with Eric Butler last week, I am encouraged that we value “when the light goes on” for a student because I know in those moments your why is fulfilled and our students are on their way to becoming confident learners.

It's a 6th Grade Thing

Teachers are creative and passionate.  Last week, I had the pleasure of spending a day with our 6th Grade Team and coaches (Billie Donegan, Jenny Banta and Tom Lewis).  The day focused on one question: As a 6th grade team, what climate and community-building experiences do we want to develop or revise that will permit us to create more student ownership in the demands and design of an IB classroom?  As we explored highly effective schools and their practice, our team designed learning experiences that focus on building relationships.  I was reminded that we have to go slow to go fast.  I want to give you permission to go slow to go fast.  Spend time getting to know your students: their past, present and future.  After all, “kids don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”