I hope everything is going well for all of you. I wanted to tell you of three exciting things for me that have occurred recently. First, I have created my own web site and blog. It is linked from the Swift Creek web site where the Principal’s page used to be. There is a variety of information on there that I hope will be helpful to you as parents and students. Also, Ms. Pittman has been working extremely hard to keep our school web site updated and informative. I hope you will visit both of these sites and give us your feedback. The web address is http://swiftcreekes.wcpss.net/.
Speaking of feedback, the other exciting news involves gathering input to help Swift Creek continuously improve! I went to the Superintendent’s Summit the other day. This meeting included teachers, principals, central office staff, support staff, parents and members of the business community. We all sat around and worked in small groups to give the Superintendent feedback and share our voices and opinions on items that are important for the Wake County Public School System. It got me thinking and I decided that this was something that we needed to do. Therefore, I am going to be creating a Swift Creek Principal’s summit that will meet quarterly. I plan to invite teachers, teacher assistants, bus drivers, custodians, office staff, specialists, parents, and central office staff to discuss things that are important to Swift Creek. We need to keep the group size manageable, but please let me know if you are interested in attending I will be sending out invitations in the next week. The first summit will be on February 19th (which is a teacher workday) from 8:00-12:00. We will be discussing Swift Creek’s vision, 21st Century Learning, and determining future topics of exploration. I am looking forward to this day and I hope that many of you can attend or at least give me your feedback on the event.
I also want to tell you about our celebration of academics. If you have seen the front lobby lately, you will notice the display of high quality academic work. We will be displaying several pieces over the coming months. We are also working on an academic celebration with the students… more to come on that!
Finally, a special thanks to all the volunteers that made for a great book fair. We had record turnouts and a fabulous time!
Until next time, keep on ROARing!
To listen to this post as a pod cast please click here.
Jim
Friday, December 7, 2007
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
November 27
A friend of mine just got a Nintendo Wii. Now, originally, this did nothing for me. Having been out of the gaming community since my college years – I really did not care. Then I saw it. It is an incredible piece of technology. My wife and I started thinking about getting one. As the conversation continued we reminisced about Atari 2600 and Colecovision and Qbert and Pong and all our favorite games. It was then that she said the thing that absolutely floored me. She said, “You know, our kids will be talking about the Wii the way we are talking about Donkey Kong and Pac-Man. Can you imagine what their kids games are going to look like?” I couldn’t even respond. Can you imagine that? Will a robot literally come out of the TV and challenge you (that is to assume we are still using TVs).
I guess it is with this thought in mind that the North Carolina State Board of Education adopted a new set of Professional Teaching Standards along with a new mission. Their new mission states, “ Every public school student will graduate from high school, globally competitive for work and postsecondary education and prepared for life in the 21st century.” I have to tell you, that is a far cry from the three R’s we grew up with. It entails leadership skills, collaboration, research, critical thinking, and problem solving. It is actually pretty exciting and a very interesting read. There is a very interesting document and information at the following web-address: http://www.ncptsc.org/. I challenge you to read it and see how dynamic and fascinating your child’s education will be for the rest of their lives.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is ready to get back into the swing of things. It is hard to believe we only have a month left in 2007! Until then, here’s to dreams of that Wii showing up at the Argent household – and even better dreams of the next generation of technology to come.
Jim
To listen to this message as a podcast, please click here.
I guess it is with this thought in mind that the North Carolina State Board of Education adopted a new set of Professional Teaching Standards along with a new mission. Their new mission states, “ Every public school student will graduate from high school, globally competitive for work and postsecondary education and prepared for life in the 21st century.” I have to tell you, that is a far cry from the three R’s we grew up with. It entails leadership skills, collaboration, research, critical thinking, and problem solving. It is actually pretty exciting and a very interesting read. There is a very interesting document and information at the following web-address: http://www.ncptsc.org/. I challenge you to read it and see how dynamic and fascinating your child’s education will be for the rest of their lives.
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is ready to get back into the swing of things. It is hard to believe we only have a month left in 2007! Until then, here’s to dreams of that Wii showing up at the Argent household – and even better dreams of the next generation of technology to come.
Jim
To listen to this message as a podcast, please click here.
November 5
I hope everyone enjoyed the Parade of Pumpkins. It is hard to believe I am talking about that already and that it is already the second quarter. We have had a great start to the school year and there are so many things to celebrate. One major celebration is how hard the students and teachers are working to ensure that quality learning is occurring on a daily basis.
With that being said, I want to inform you of a new process that we will be using at Swift Creek to make sure that all students are successful. We have been hard at work analyzing student data and work samples. One thing we have noticed is that some of our students are struggling on work completion. As you know, we have character education assemblies on every Tuesday for grades K-2 and every Thursday for grades 3-5. With this in mind, we have decided to open a learning lab for students in grades 3-5 every Thursday during the character education assemblies. Students that have missing assignments will have the opportunity to go to the learning lab and complete the assignments. We want to give every opportunity to give access to the high quality assignments and we do not want to leave any excuses for missed assignments. This is just another way that we are working to achieve our school vision: Everyone will learn and succeed!
Finally, I have had several parents recently ask about after school clubs. If you remember, we had after school clubs last school year. We wanted to give everyone a heads up that we will begin this program again during the second semester. If you have a particular skill, gift, or talent that you would like to share with our students, please let us know and we can try and create an enjoyable after school club for the students. Last year’s clubs were a “ROAR”ing success!
Thanks for all you do for the students of Swift Creek and remember to keep on “ROAR”ing!
Jim
With that being said, I want to inform you of a new process that we will be using at Swift Creek to make sure that all students are successful. We have been hard at work analyzing student data and work samples. One thing we have noticed is that some of our students are struggling on work completion. As you know, we have character education assemblies on every Tuesday for grades K-2 and every Thursday for grades 3-5. With this in mind, we have decided to open a learning lab for students in grades 3-5 every Thursday during the character education assemblies. Students that have missing assignments will have the opportunity to go to the learning lab and complete the assignments. We want to give every opportunity to give access to the high quality assignments and we do not want to leave any excuses for missed assignments. This is just another way that we are working to achieve our school vision: Everyone will learn and succeed!
Finally, I have had several parents recently ask about after school clubs. If you remember, we had after school clubs last school year. We wanted to give everyone a heads up that we will begin this program again during the second semester. If you have a particular skill, gift, or talent that you would like to share with our students, please let us know and we can try and create an enjoyable after school club for the students. Last year’s clubs were a “ROAR”ing success!
Thanks for all you do for the students of Swift Creek and remember to keep on “ROAR”ing!
Jim
October 23
Let me start by thanking everyone for all of his or her support over the last few weeks. First it was the Cougar Fun Run, next it was McTeacher Night, and finally Principal Appreciation Week. With everything that you have been doing, it is easy to recognize that Swift Creek is loved by all of you!
As most of you know, I love quotes. I heard a phenomenal quote the other day that is so appropriate for this school year. It is by Jim Collins, who wrote the book Good to Great. “You are always good … relative to what you can become.” Now, I happen to believe we have a great school. But I also recognize that our school is relative to what we can become. That is why it is important for us to focus on the findings of the WCPSS Curriculum Management Audit and work hard through the School Improvement Process to ensure that we are continually improving for our students and for our own professional development.
We have recently begun the task of creating a School Improvement Plan. This plan will require the intensive study of data and current practices in place at Swift Creek. It will then allow us to analyze what we have been doing and make sure we are utilizing the best practices to meet the needs of ALL of our students.
You may wonder why I am telling you this. Well it is important that your voice is heard in this process. The PTA recently elected Ms. Jeannie Chang, a parent of a kindergarten and second grade student, as the parent representative for the School Improvement Team. She will be your representative and your voice. Therefore, I offer you two challenges: 1) Go to the WCPSS website and review the Curriculum Management Audit and 2) Contact Ms. Chang or me if you have suggestions for school improvement. We meet on the fourth Monday of every month and will definitely be able to use your feedback. You are also more than welcome to attend these meetings also.
If you have any questions, please let me know. Together, the parents and staff of Swift Creek can ensure that we are always becoming “greater”.
Keep on “ROAR”ing
Jim
As most of you know, I love quotes. I heard a phenomenal quote the other day that is so appropriate for this school year. It is by Jim Collins, who wrote the book Good to Great. “You are always good … relative to what you can become.” Now, I happen to believe we have a great school. But I also recognize that our school is relative to what we can become. That is why it is important for us to focus on the findings of the WCPSS Curriculum Management Audit and work hard through the School Improvement Process to ensure that we are continually improving for our students and for our own professional development.
We have recently begun the task of creating a School Improvement Plan. This plan will require the intensive study of data and current practices in place at Swift Creek. It will then allow us to analyze what we have been doing and make sure we are utilizing the best practices to meet the needs of ALL of our students.
You may wonder why I am telling you this. Well it is important that your voice is heard in this process. The PTA recently elected Ms. Jeannie Chang, a parent of a kindergarten and second grade student, as the parent representative for the School Improvement Team. She will be your representative and your voice. Therefore, I offer you two challenges: 1) Go to the WCPSS website and review the Curriculum Management Audit and 2) Contact Ms. Chang or me if you have suggestions for school improvement. We meet on the fourth Monday of every month and will definitely be able to use your feedback. You are also more than welcome to attend these meetings also.
If you have any questions, please let me know. Together, the parents and staff of Swift Creek can ensure that we are always becoming “greater”.
Keep on “ROAR”ing
Jim
October 9
It is so important to teach children expectations. We work really hard in teaching our PBS ROAR expectations and our children are doing a beautiful job. I wanted to give you some positives about PBS and how well it is working for us. We track the data of office referrals at Swift Creek. We have had a 50% drop in office referrals this year compared to last year. Furthermore, we have had an 80% drop in the physical aggression category. I really attribute this to having consistent school wide expectations and positive rewards. On the flip side, October is usually one of the months when there are discipline referral spikes. We talk to the teachers about making sure they continue to celebrate students following expectations and to use behavioral strategies to tightly monitor during this month. I hope you will reinforce this at home and continue to help teach the PBS ROAR expectations and to celebrate when your child is doing what is right!
One additional and important note about our expectations at Swift Creek. Please remember our safety expectations at Swift Creek carpool. Recently, we have had many complaints about safety issues at carpool with people going in to the building to check out there child or pick them up during dismissal time. We all have emergencies or situations when we need to get out of carpool in a hurry. What we need to remember is to try to limit these occasions. Please try not to check out your child after 3:30. If it is after 3:30, we will ask you to wait in carpool. This is an extremely busy time of the day for teachers and students and it is very hard to get a student ready to leave at that point. Also, please do not get out of your car after 3:30 and go to the dismissal area unless you have arranged that with administration. Both of these situations cause safety issues and help to create confusion with the children that have learned our ROAR expectations for carpool. Thank you so much for your assistance in keeping Swift Creek safe and for being a model for your child.
Until next time, have a ROARing week! We hope to see you at the Fun Run on Thursday!
Jim
One additional and important note about our expectations at Swift Creek. Please remember our safety expectations at Swift Creek carpool. Recently, we have had many complaints about safety issues at carpool with people going in to the building to check out there child or pick them up during dismissal time. We all have emergencies or situations when we need to get out of carpool in a hurry. What we need to remember is to try to limit these occasions. Please try not to check out your child after 3:30. If it is after 3:30, we will ask you to wait in carpool. This is an extremely busy time of the day for teachers and students and it is very hard to get a student ready to leave at that point. Also, please do not get out of your car after 3:30 and go to the dismissal area unless you have arranged that with administration. Both of these situations cause safety issues and help to create confusion with the children that have learned our ROAR expectations for carpool. Thank you so much for your assistance in keeping Swift Creek safe and for being a model for your child.
Until next time, have a ROARing week! We hope to see you at the Fun Run on Thursday!
Jim
September 25
I was recently doing some educational reading and came across this posting on a teacher’s blog about giftedness and education for children. I truly think it applies to all children and what we do as educators at Swift Creek to meet the needs of all children and assure that they all achieve maximum growth. Please enjoy this analogy.
In March of each year, I marvel at my lawn. Unlike most other yards, it remains relatively green throughout the winter (when it is not snow-covered). When spring arrives, and without any prompting from me, it rapidly grows into a lush carpet. I don’t water it. I don’t weed it. I barely manage to mow it (we all know how hectic spring is for teachers!) Yet even lacking my help, my yard is amazingly gorgeous and healthy in springtime. As others struggle to green up their lawns in spring, mine (seemingly) needs no attention.My yard is gifted. It’s the soil… My neighborhood used to be a dairy farm and my particular lot was a holding pen. The soil beneath my yard is pretty much well-aged manure. No wonder I don’t even have to try and yet still end up with a gorgeous lawn when the snow melts!I take it for granted, though. As the summer heat comes and I jaunt off around the country to various conferences or to visit relatives, my yard still doesn’t get watered. It still doesn’t get weeded. It still barely gets mowed. And despite the fact that its soil is second-generation manure, the neglect now clearly shows. My lawn isn’t anywhere near what it could be. It DOES need attention; it does need the nurturing I often neglect to give it because I am otherwise occupied or because I think it will be okay without my help.It is inevitable that we teachers, at one point or another, will have students in our classrooms who somehow ended up with great soil. Academically and intellectually, they often seem to blossom all on their own. They are “where they need to be” (or, more often than not, are well beyond) according to state standards for children their age. With – let’s admit it – sometimes very little effort on the teacher’s part, they learn everything they’re supposed to learn that year, or they already knew it before the year began. They are easily overlooked because it’s a safe bet that they will test as “Proficient,” while so many others are in the danger zone.I’m not saying that we shouldn’t put forth every effort to help our struggling students. Of course we should! Part of the beauty of America is that we believe in the possibilities within everyone.The blog continues for a few more paragraphs, but I think this part gives the gist of the story. This analogy makes me think that we need to make sure we are taking care of ALL of our lawns here at Swift Creek. Whether they look like my real lawn at my house (which is almost dried up and definitely weed ridden) or whether they look like the professionally manicured lawn. We need to make sure that all of our lawns maximize their potential!
One quick reminder, we will have a parent information session tonight at 6:00 in the media center about EOG results. Hope to see you there!
Jim
In March of each year, I marvel at my lawn. Unlike most other yards, it remains relatively green throughout the winter (when it is not snow-covered). When spring arrives, and without any prompting from me, it rapidly grows into a lush carpet. I don’t water it. I don’t weed it. I barely manage to mow it (we all know how hectic spring is for teachers!) Yet even lacking my help, my yard is amazingly gorgeous and healthy in springtime. As others struggle to green up their lawns in spring, mine (seemingly) needs no attention.My yard is gifted. It’s the soil… My neighborhood used to be a dairy farm and my particular lot was a holding pen. The soil beneath my yard is pretty much well-aged manure. No wonder I don’t even have to try and yet still end up with a gorgeous lawn when the snow melts!I take it for granted, though. As the summer heat comes and I jaunt off around the country to various conferences or to visit relatives, my yard still doesn’t get watered. It still doesn’t get weeded. It still barely gets mowed. And despite the fact that its soil is second-generation manure, the neglect now clearly shows. My lawn isn’t anywhere near what it could be. It DOES need attention; it does need the nurturing I often neglect to give it because I am otherwise occupied or because I think it will be okay without my help.It is inevitable that we teachers, at one point or another, will have students in our classrooms who somehow ended up with great soil. Academically and intellectually, they often seem to blossom all on their own. They are “where they need to be” (or, more often than not, are well beyond) according to state standards for children their age. With – let’s admit it – sometimes very little effort on the teacher’s part, they learn everything they’re supposed to learn that year, or they already knew it before the year began. They are easily overlooked because it’s a safe bet that they will test as “Proficient,” while so many others are in the danger zone.I’m not saying that we shouldn’t put forth every effort to help our struggling students. Of course we should! Part of the beauty of America is that we believe in the possibilities within everyone.The blog continues for a few more paragraphs, but I think this part gives the gist of the story. This analogy makes me think that we need to make sure we are taking care of ALL of our lawns here at Swift Creek. Whether they look like my real lawn at my house (which is almost dried up and definitely weed ridden) or whether they look like the professionally manicured lawn. We need to make sure that all of our lawns maximize their potential!
One quick reminder, we will have a parent information session tonight at 6:00 in the media center about EOG results. Hope to see you there!
Jim
September 11
Welcome to the 2007-2008 school year! We currently have 578 students enrolled. That is a far cry from the little over 400 students Swift Creek had when I arrived a little over 2 years ago. From a principal’s perspective, we have the perfect size school. With 578 students, you earn enough months of employment to implement our current instructional program and yet, we are still small enough for me to know all the students names! I can still even learn everyone’s carpool number to help that run efficiently.
Speaking of our instructional program (nice transition huh?), I hope everyone has had a chance to go to our newly improved website. THANK YOU, Ms. Pittman for your hard work this summer. We have added many helpful pieces to the web site, including a tab for Swift Creek Academics. Within this tab, there is useful information and links to our work in Positive Behavior Support (PBS), Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), Guided Reading, Science Kits, Writer’s Workshop, Cognitive Guided Instruction (CGI), 21st Century Learning, and many other things. The grade level pages are also updated with pertinent information about each grade level, which includes their Essential Learning Outcomes – the MUST HAVES for all students. Furthermore, there is new information about school supply lists, bus routes, helpful resources for parents and students, and even an incredible PTA website (thanks to Victoria Stephens for that!). Several of our teachers even have their own website linked from ours. The web site promises to be updated frequently to keep parents and students abreast. I hope you all find this a useful tool and will keep us informed as to how to continually improve it to meet your needs
Finally, I wanted to tell you of a book I recently read entitled, How to Fill Your Bucket. In this book it talked told a parable about everyone having an invisible bucket that is constantly filled and emptied depending upon how we treated others and how others treated us. When we treat others well and when other people treat us well, our bucket is filled. Conversely, our buckets are emptied when we mistreat others or when others mistreat us. Obviously, we perform better and feel better when our bucket is full. Now, it is probably impossible to always fill your and others buckets – I mean we all have bad days and moments. But, it did get me thinking: Do I help fill others buckets on a daily basis. I told this story to the Swift Creek staff and we are going to emphasize filling everyone’s bucket in the Swift Creek community. I hope it gets you thinking about that, too!
Speaking of our instructional program (nice transition huh?), I hope everyone has had a chance to go to our newly improved website. THANK YOU, Ms. Pittman for your hard work this summer. We have added many helpful pieces to the web site, including a tab for Swift Creek Academics. Within this tab, there is useful information and links to our work in Positive Behavior Support (PBS), Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), Guided Reading, Science Kits, Writer’s Workshop, Cognitive Guided Instruction (CGI), 21st Century Learning, and many other things. The grade level pages are also updated with pertinent information about each grade level, which includes their Essential Learning Outcomes – the MUST HAVES for all students. Furthermore, there is new information about school supply lists, bus routes, helpful resources for parents and students, and even an incredible PTA website (thanks to Victoria Stephens for that!). Several of our teachers even have their own website linked from ours. The web site promises to be updated frequently to keep parents and students abreast. I hope you all find this a useful tool and will keep us informed as to how to continually improve it to meet your needs
Finally, I wanted to tell you of a book I recently read entitled, How to Fill Your Bucket. In this book it talked told a parable about everyone having an invisible bucket that is constantly filled and emptied depending upon how we treated others and how others treated us. When we treat others well and when other people treat us well, our bucket is filled. Conversely, our buckets are emptied when we mistreat others or when others mistreat us. Obviously, we perform better and feel better when our bucket is full. Now, it is probably impossible to always fill your and others buckets – I mean we all have bad days and moments. But, it did get me thinking: Do I help fill others buckets on a daily basis. I told this story to the Swift Creek staff and we are going to emphasize filling everyone’s bucket in the Swift Creek community. I hope it gets you thinking about that, too!
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