Grade+Group+09

6/6/2011 We talked about failures (for the last time) and how to gauge if a kid should be given the benefit of the doubt & a D instead of an F.

We talked about focusing more on informing kids about college and career information early on in freshmen year next year. We want to reach out to the counselors to establish a program. The 9th graders are very clueless yet very curious. We want them to look at the data young so they know what they realistically need to do to achieve their goals. We also want to expose them to new, different colleges that actually match what they are looking for.

We talked briefly about Spirit Week.

5/24/11 Hey guys, thanks for everything pertaining to your group. Kiana sent out the potential failure lists today and as always reach out those who are in need of support. I also advised Tami to do final CSAP and document, I am sure she will pass it on to Chris and Jamie. The incoming night was on the May calendar and Aichele was to remind staff on Tuesday the 17th. We only had a few sign up to be available for the summer orientation 18-20th. Best, A Chew

5/23/11 We filled out the NHS ratings to return to Mr. Dyke. Mr. K updated us on the NYC trip tomorrow. He went over timing, participants, etc.

5/16/11 We didn't meet last week because a bunch of people have coverages. Today we put together our lists of likely Ds & Fs for the year. We also talked a bit about grade recovery. Then we also talked about the incoming freshman night on Thursday, because some teachers didn't know about it.

5/4/11 Great trip by the way:) Thank you to teachers that attended the Harrisburg trip. Thank you for utilizing Achieve 3000 we do not have the funds to purchase next year. I appreciate the work you are doing for students that are failing, the plans you have created and the support in general. This is it !! Best A Chew

4/25/11 Mr. K talked about the NYC trip (Mr. K, Ms. Wittman, and some parents are chaperoning on 5/24/11) and the Harrisburg trip.

We will continue to use Achieve3000 this year. The kids are assigned 2 articles a week, which is the suggested amount. It seems that more than 50% are completing the work, which is about typical for homework completion. Which set of data indicated that no one was using it?

We compared failure lists, categorizing them by no change (kids who had failed before and did not change) and change for the worse (kids who had not failed before.) We each have our own individual plan to talk with these at risk students.

4/12/11 Hey guys, yes her suggestions to me were to use the program Achieve 3000 more. I know computer lab and laptops carts may at times be an issue however, we have to try harder with our non AP classes. The other part is that if this program is designed to support reading comprehension then by next year we should see gains in 10th grade reading. We won't be able to afford this program this year but according to the data no one is really using it. You guys did the training so I hope you will get the most out of this program this year and not let thousands of dollars go unused. A Chew

4/11/2011 We discussed the Achieve 3000 check in from Friday. The trainer had concerns with our implementation, but we are not sure what her suggestions are. We discussed the trip to Harrisburg and recommended students. We discussed Gearhart's "Lawyer for a Day" trip and recommended students.

4/4/2011 We discussed Achieve 3000 strategies and issues we want to bring up with the representative this Friday. We discussed some particular students and trends in their academics and behavior.

3/28/2011 Mr. K has successfully met with all but two of the students on the dropout risk list. He has a plan to meet with those two today during 6th period. He walked us through the list and told us what the kids said about their failures and asked us for updates so that he knows exactly where they stand.

3/25/2011 THANKS GUYS FOR ALL THAT YOU DO. INTERVENING WITH STUDENTS ON THE EARLY WARNING INDICATOR SHEET IS ESSENTIAL NOW FOR SUCCESS AT THIRD AND FINAL REPORT. ONE ON ONES REVEAL SOME INTERESTING "STUFF" THAT OUR STUDENTS BRING WITH THEM TO SCHOOL DAILY. SUCH BARRIERS DO IMPEDE LEARNING. SO THANKS FOR LISTENING TO THEM. WE ARE GOING TO MAKE DAILY ANNOUNCEMENTS AT THE END OF THE DAY WHEN FINAL GRADE RECOVERY STARTS. IF OUR BUDGET CAN AFFORD IT MAYBE WE CAN OFFER A SNACK BEFORE THE SESSIONS BEGIN PROVIDING AFTER SCHOOL ENERGY. CHEW

3/21/2011 We are having a CSAP meeting with GB & Ms. Tillman today during our regular GG time. In the meantime, we followed up on freshman attendance during the week of 3/14 & Mr. K is intervening with the kids on the potential drop out list.

3/14/2011 We had a CSAP meeting with KB & his dad & Ms. Tillman today during our regular GG time.

3/7/2011 I AM HAPPY TO SEE SCIENCE, SS AND ENGLISH ARE USING ACHIEVE 3000. WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ADDITIONAL TRAINING IN APRIL SO BRING ALL KINKS QUESTIONS TO THE TRAINING OR YOU CAN EMAIL HER. 3/7/2011 Science used Achieve 3000 last week; English is using it this week; Social Studies is using it next week. Science found students responded pretty well, but there are a few kinks to work out.

We have a suggestion that freshmen teachers have freshmen advisories next year and so on. We think this would help with communication and organization and most of all staying on top of attendance. We also think we need to revisit student absentee policies to work out a good flow of information and cut down on miscommunication and redundancies. IN YOUR MAILBOXES I HAVE PLACED THE SDP ATTENDANCE PROTOCOL POLICY WHICH WAS GIVEN EARLIER IN THE YEAR SO PLEASE REVIEW AND I HOPE IT WILL CLARIFY YOUR QUESTIONS.

We are all going to double & triple check that we've filled out CSAP II forms for all of our failures individually. GREAT AND THANKS!

We want to have meetings with a few really urgent cases & counselors this week, eg. NA, IT, NR, GB. Aichele is going to e-mail this request to Tillman & Donnelly. SOUNDS PROACTIVE AND POSITIVE. THANKS FOR ALL THE WORK YOU DO! CHEW 2/28/2011

We discussed Achieve 3000. Gearhart, Aichele, and Ledgister are working on getting everyone level set. Aichele and Gearhart are trying it out first. We are going to ask Alvarez about some of his strategies because he seems to be using it successfully.

Since the goal is to have the kids use the program 2x a week, we want to do a rotating schedule. One week would be science, one english, and one social studies... then we'd repeat. We would ideally be in the lab once a week and assign it for homework once a week (assigned on Monday to be completed by Friday.) This rotating schedule would cut down on issues booking the lab and redundancies.

Prelim schedule: week of 2/28: Science week of 3/7: English week of 3/14: Social Studies

We also compiled a list of 30 students who have 10 or more absences for the year to try to intervene.

2/7/2011 We discussed whether or not there'd be any more field trips for the freshmen this year. We asked each other about some students we have trouble with. We discussed some students who have left and one new student who just came.
 * HI ALL I JUST SENT STU AND DEBBIE INFORMATION ON TRIPS TO NY THAT ALIGN WITH STANDARDS IN MATH SS AND LITERACY/LANGUAGE ARTS...CHECK IT OUT THEY MAY BE REASONABLE IN PRICE AND INTERESTING! YES WE HAVE TWO NEW FRESHMAN GIRLS..ONE IN PARTICULAR WHO SEEMS TROUBLING SEE ME OR THOMPSON FOR DETAILS.**

2/1/2011 We discussed January students of the month and started compiling a list. We discussed grade recovery strategies. We discussed ACHIEVE 3000 training & use.
 * YES WE MUST REALLY USE ACHIEVE 3000 AS YOU KNOW FROM THE TRAINING IT DIFFERENTIATES FOR STUDENTS ACCORDING TO THEIR LEVELS TO ACCELERATE THEIR ACADEMIC PERFORMANCES (THERE ARE TWO MORE SCHEDULED TO SUPPORT TEACHERS..45 MINS EACH)**

1/24/2011 We looked over our 2nd quarter failures. Some aren't finalized for sure, but we are collecting lists. There are strong trends of the same kids failing 2nd quarter who failed 1st. We will put together a list and ask the counselors to get some parents to our upcoming meetings. 1/20/11
 * YES CSAP TIER 2 IS WHERE WE ARE LACKING PARENTS ATTENDING MEETINGS IS A MUST. ADDITIONALLY IF YOU LOOK AT OUR LATEST DATA ON HS PERFORMANCE TARGETS. ALL THE TARGETS WE ARE CURRENTLY MISSING DEAL WITH NON ATTENDERS AND FAILURES (ON TRACK TO GRADUATION).**
 * Great work with all and congrats on the 9th grade class having the best attendance and rewards for the month.**
 * Chew**

1/19/11 We discussed nominees for some recent opportunities that have come our way.

South Philly Review: IB, CN --Ms. Wittman brought this opportunity forward & is leading the nominations.

Emergency Aid of Pennsylvania Foundation Founders Award: TG, SP, NH, TB, AB, QT (nomination form & essay due 2/20/2011) --Mr. K will give these 6 students the form, they will fill it out and return by 2/10/2011 to Mr. K. Then he/we will choose the 3 who have the best chance at winning & fill out the Sponsor form. (Only three may be nominated)

Mr. Stairiker also came to our meeting to specifically discuss EF and some recent developments.


 * Thank you for working hard with CSAP to get information to Mr. Weaver. Mr. K has established the location of the school store on the fifth floor and will be establishing an account with Cheryl. He expressed to me that he needs additional staff support to make it run effectively during the year. He is also in the process of creating a "needs" inventory of things to sell. Nayowith had a meeting pertaining to a 9th grade bullying incident. See her for details so you can be aware and lookout for anything further.**
 * Chew**
 * 1/11/11**

1/10/11 We completed CSAP Tier II forms and handed in to Mr. Weaver. Some of the teachers had a CSAP meeting with BL-R's family & Mr. Weaver. We briefly discussed the new school store.

1/3/11 We looked at the midterm exam timeline and report card timeline and confirmed our test dates & our last day that we'll accept late/make-up work. Mr. K updated on us some student government news. Then we started actually filling out the CSAP tier two forms. We'll finish on our own during the week and then group them together & copy them & deliver to Mr. Weaver at next Monday's meeting.

12/17/10 Thank you guys you are doing a great job and I appreciate your ability to work so nicely as a team for the benefit of your students. HAVE A WONDERFUL WINTER BREAK Adrienne Chew

12/13/2010 We did not meet as a group today. Group members were either at the CSAP for KB or at the CSAP for MJ. Next time we meet we'll fill out CSAP II forms. We also had a CSAP meeting on Friday 5th period with MC and his parents.

12/6/2010 Re: comments below. We didn't know of any bullying. Nayowith brought it to our attention. We don't see any of this in our classrooms. It seems limited to bathrooms, lunchrooms, etc.

Today we discussed some specific students. EF came up again as a particularly difficult case.

We are looking forward to CSAP training this week and the meetings that Tillman scheduled for failing students. We are looking forward to them.

We discussed our experiences at parent/teacher report card conferences. We shared some information gathered from parents. We were overall pleased with the support of our parents.

Otherwise, we talked about staffing for next year, what the size of the freshmen class might be, etc.

11/29/10 We used Weaver's e-mail to divvy up the freshmen who failed many classes in order to encourage their parents to come to the meetings. Berberich will call MJ's home; Aichele will call AH's home. We are waiting until we have the same lists from Tillman and Donnelly to divvy up the CSAPII process. An e-mail is out to them, so we hope to have the list by next Monday's meeting.


 * GREAT STRATEGY**

Nayowith had requested that we discuss the freshmen girls issue. We would think that the first step is to find out who the main culprits and victims are. One idea would be to repaint the bathrooms, then have a female teacher check the bathroom at the end of the day, and meanwhile have teachers keep bathroom logs that they turn in daily to the Dean's mailbox. On days when graffiti appears, we can check the bathroom logs & move forward from there. If this is too much, we'd suggest locking all bathrooms except those on the first floor until some of the kids start telling us who the perps are. Another idea is to use the peer mediation program to address some of the deeper issues. Another idea would be for the teachers (Aichele already does it) to have teachers talk about the seriousness of this during class. Maybe the counselors have access to lists of speakers in the Philadelphia area who can come talk to the girls about female solidarity and bullying?


 * AICHELE'S IDEA OF TALKING SEEMS BEST..LOCKING BATHROOMS WITH SIGNAGE WORKS WELL..RALPH IS REPAINTING BATHROOMS SOON...DAILY BATHROOM LOGS IS A BIT MUCH TO TURN INTO THE DEANS OFFICE. I HAVE NOT HEARD ANY REPORTS OF BULLYING PLEASE BE MORE SPECIFIC.**

We are going to pick Students of the Month for November. Aichele, Berberich, and Wittman already chose theirs.

11/22/10

Regarding last week's comments:

10/22 (today) is the freshman trip.

Some teachers have let the secretaries know who should not have shadows - eg. JB, and the student showed up with a shadow the next week. Could the secretaries send us a list of the kids who they selected, and then we can look over the list and give one coordinated response (rather than waiting for problems)?


 * SECRETARIES HAVE A LIST. THE LIST WAS CREATED TO AVOID JACKSON'S ENGLISH CLASS AND HAVE STUDENTS GO WITH STUDENTS THAT HAVE GEARHART FOR ENGLISH. WHEN I SECURE TRAN'S STUDENT TEACHER FOR ENGLISH 1 IN JANUARY MORE STUDENT SHADOWERS WILL BE AVAILABLE. TALK TO THE SECRETARIES FOR CLARITY DON'T ASSUME THEY ARE NOT WILLING TO SUPPORT YOU. INITIAL SELECTIONS WERE NOT DONE BY THE SECRETARIES.**

We totally understand that we have to support our IEP population. (We weren't complaining, we were strategizing.) For example, Ms. Gearhart had explained how she gave chapter previews in advance to kids so they could do some reading at home at their own pace before a unit was introduced in class. We would like an updated list of student IEPs since there was so much movement at the beginning of the year.


 * THEN PLEASE ASK STAIRIKER FOR THE LIST HE IS OUR SP. ED. TEACHER.**

This week:

We discussed future trips (possibly Bio & Mutter Museum) but are awaiting feedback from class sponsors about this trip. We talked about Arianna Pedulla being out and are going to reach out to Donnelly to figure out what's going on. We are going to reach out to Ms. Thompson for a list of freshmen failures to start on CSAP Level II. We talked about report card conferences being November 30 & December 1 (because some of us didn't know this.) We will choose November students of the month at our next meeting (November 29.) We chose our September ones at the end of September and our October ones at the end of October. We keep these updated on the 5th floor bulletin. Unfortunately, we cannot do it differently or earlier because we cannot really decide who performed best in November until November is over. 11/15/10
 * OK**
 * CONCUSSION SHOULD BE HERE ON MONDAY WITH ACCOMMODATIONS THAT DONNELLY AND EILEEN WILL SHARE**
 * OK**
 * OMG ITS ON THE CALENDAR:)**
 * OK**

We met and reviewed the Ds & Fs for 1st quarter report card grades. We looked at benchmarks and noted trends. __Good and a push to the homes to get students in for tutoring seems appropriate. After noting trends then.......__

We conjectured what next Monday would be like. __Next Monday the 22nd what is happening then?__

We discussed our concerns about the shadow process. Many of the kids who have shadows are not handling it well and seem overwhelmed. __I am sure some students seem overwhelmed..what do you mean not handling it well..be more specific.If we need not to use some then let us know which ones. Based on my observations I am willing to broaden the scope of teachers but I still want to avoid English until Jackson returns or when in January I get a permanent certified English 1 teacher. Students are shopping for schools its a trend that occurs in your special admit schools, I don't have another way of students getting the experience.__

We discussed our concerns about providing kids with IEPs alternate materials that are easy enough for them. __LeGare our special ed mandate is not going to go away we MUST support, instruct, and assess our special ed population fairly.__

We discussed using test corrections to allow students to bring up grades, but found that not many students take advantage of this opportunity. __I know its sad, parents have to know also. Thanks for the great meeting discussions.__

11/9/10 Excellent and please check out the benckmark data and discuss at your meetings as well. Thank you. Dr. Chew

11/8/10 We met and filled out CSAP Tier I forms for our 26 students that we have completed the process for. We finished the forms, indicating our interventions, student strengths, dates, and whether they are showing progress or not. Mr. Weaver has the forms.

We briefly discussed the November field trip & how students are not really handing in permission slips. Even though most of us aren't freshmen advisers, we plan to put reminders up in our rooms and let students know that they should attend.

11/5/10 The admissions team has already started to look at the applications, we have a process. Invite me to your next grade group so I can explain further and you can explain to me your proposal.

11/1 We would definitely volunteer to stay M-F after school for interviews. Our belief is that time spent investing now in the screening process (interviews) would help us avoid some extra work during the year. We request that this is discussed at the next PD so a timeline and process can be organized.

We reviewed Donnelly's list, but it mostly aligned with the list we had already put together. We reviewed which students had not returned the daily report (most of them) so that mentors could call home. Mr. K is also hosting a meeting during advisory on Wednesday to remind kids about daily reports. If the kids still don't get them to us by Thursday, Aichele will hold a detention on Friday after school.

We also started getting together our October students of the month.

10/29 Hi everyone, thank you for your work and selecting students to mentor..mentoring works:)! Yes I have interviewed students before with Ms. Thompson, however not as much with the over 1,700 applications I expect to receive. I am not against that process for students whose applications are borderline, but consider time, scheduling and cost to keep building open on a Saturday. Dr. Chew

10/25 We had a second round meeting today, and 14 of the remaining 16 students showed up. After they left, we finalized the mentoring list so everyone on the team has 2-4 students who they should mentor. They will be responsible for checking agendas, calling home, and forming a relationship with the student. The list was e-mailed out by Berberich.

We also informally discussed the selection/recruitment process. We wondered if an interview component has ever been considered?

10/22 We had the meeting today, and 10 of the 26 students showed up. We gave them copies of interims & grade reports, advice on succeeding at A@P, and a daily report to begin using on Monday. We are giving the other 16 kids a second opportunity to attend Monday 5th period or face a detention.

10/19 Thank you so much excellent work folks and I love the meeting and mentoring ideas!! Dr. Chew

10/18 We did not have a meeting last Monday because of Columbus Day, but we did meet the previous Friday with Ms. Tillman to review PSAT proctoring guidelines.

Today, we met and discussed interims & CSAP.

We are starting to CSAP 26 freshmen students who were are worried about.

The list of freshmen students who are on track to fail 2-4 classes according to the people who came to the freshmen grade group meeting was e-mailed to all freshmen teachers and counselors.

Our plan is to call them to Ms. Gearhart's room on Friday during 5th period and have a chat about strategies to succeed. Ms. Gearhart is making the passes to excuse them from class. We would like to give them all Daily Reports at that meeting.

Another great idea Ms. Gearhart had was to each choose 4 kids to "mentor" and stay on top of. Freshmen grade group members are getting back to Ms. Berberich and she is compiling the list of mentors. We hope to get these kids back on track with some strategies to succeed freshmen year.

10/15 Great and thanks for a coordinated shadow day experience. Congratulations to your officers! Dr. Chew President-RW Vice Pres - AB Co-secretaries-KW MJ Treasurer

10/5/10 Great about the orientation with students. I informed the secretaries to work with you on shadowing day issues. LS is who...but if it is the ninth grader that I think you are referring to see Donnelly her counselor. Make sure you post your students of the month:) thanks!

GRADE GROUP 10/4/2010

The Shadow Orientation will be this Thursday in 8th period with Mr. Aichele. Teachers have been e-mailed a list of the selected students so they can send them to the orientation.

We also discussed CSAP-ing student LS. She has a frightening amount of absences and cuts, and we want a meeting at school with a parent and counselor.

Next, we discussed communicating with the 9th grade sponsors to only allow students who are responsible in class to participate in activities, and October's Student of the Month. Ms. Gearhart will discuss concerns with Ms. Mullins.

Finally, we chose September students of the month.
 * Biology: TG, EB
 * Social Studies: AD, AP
 * English: QC
 * Math: TBD
 * Language: TBD


 * 10/1/10**
 * Hello, you are welcome. Love the idea about knowing before hand so my suggestion is to appoint a 9th grade teacher as "shadowing point person" that will communicate with/work with the shadowing day secretary in the office daily or 2-3 days a week about the upcoming appointments/guests to make sure the welcoming atmosphere you request occurs, and additionally the correct student matches occur.**


 * As for the two weeks before and two weeks after request I'm not getting it..... why? Instruction and climate one week before and one week after may be challenging but two? We will go with one week before and that may be subject to change depending on the shadowing volume. Your point person can keep and eye on that.**
 * Dr Chew**

GRADE GROUP 9/27/2010

Thanks for reading our suggestions.

If you'd like us to have 3 days available, let's choose Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday.

Also, if you are uncomfortable with leaving out December & January, could we agree to block out the 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after winter break?

Finally, we'd like to request some notification when guests or groups will be visiting the school, so that we can be most welcoming. Even a brightly colored post-it note on the staff sign in would be helpful. (Example, today's visitors from Meredith)

(We also reviewed IEPs.) GRADE GROUP9/20/2010 FEEDBACK: I THINK YOUR SUGGESTIONS FOR OUR SHADOW DAY PROGRAM ARE VALID. WITH THE HS EXPO NEXT WEEKEND WE WILL BE GETTING CALLS. I HAVE ALWAYS THOUGHT SCREENING OUR STUDENTS WAS IMPORTANT TO A SUCCESSFUL SHADOW DAY.
 * I HAVE BLOCKED OUT TESTING DAYS.
 * I CAN DO CERTAIN DAYS BUT TWO MAY NOT OFFER THE OPPORTUNITY FOR ALL POTENTIAL SHADOWS. REMEMBER THE COMPETITION AGAINST THE OTHER SPECIAL ADMIT SCHOOLS EXISTS, THREE IS A MORE REASONABLE NUMBER
 * TO LEAVE OUT TWO MONTHS IS NOT FEASIBLE EITHER. SELECT CERTAIN DAYS DURING THOSE MONTHS
 * YES WE CAN HAVE NO MORE THAN 5 PER DAY
 * YES SELECT DIFFERENT STUDENTS EACH SEMESTER OR MONTH... THANK YOU!

The Shadow Process

Today we discussed the "shadow" process. Reflecting on the fact that the presence of shadows caused disruptions in our classrooms last year and that with an even larger group of freshmen and larger class sizes, we agreed that the process for scheduling shadows needs to be reformed. Our recommendations follow.

1. Freshmen teachers should pick 12 freshmen boys and 12 freshmen girls to become shadows. Students who are not on our list should not be given a shadow. We will meet with the recommended students (once this process is approved) and outline the expectations for the program. The recommended students can choose to take themselves off the list if they are not comfortable performing as a shadow. We will revisit the list of students each semester. Our current list of students follows below.
 * Girls: DG, RW **(REMOVED FROM LIST 10/5/2010)**, NB, CN, PP, TG, KW, SM, Dora last name unknown, AP, AS, LJ, Bianca last name unknow
 * Boys: JA, TF, IB, DP, JW, Tyredell last name unknown, RM, EJ, Nicholas last name unknown, HP, FD, AN

2. We should restrict the time that shadows are allowed in the building, in order to minimize disruptions for our current students. We suggest that shadows are scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays only and for the months of October, November, February, March, and April only. We further suggest that during the weeks of October 25-29, November 22-26, and April 18-22 shadows are not scheduled, due to testing.

3. We should restrict the number of shadows scheduled each day to 4 or fewer, so as to minimize the likelihood that a classroom becomes overcrowded or cannot accommodate the shadow.

We await feedback on our recommendations!

GRADE GROUP9/13/2010ESSENTIAL DISCUSSION/QUESTIONS Dr. Pedro Nogurea discusses technical versus adaptive work. Technical work is the routine sensible things we do in schools on a daily basis. Adaptive work has substance, meaning and purpose. It is about the culture we create in changing our environment. Adaptive work is done proactively and is based on reflection. In schools we must achieve a balance between technical vs. adaptive work. With this in mind, use the following questions to determine what we want to be and what does it take to educate the children you serve?

Key Adaptive Questions:

How do children/young adults learn?
 * Students learn from modeled behavior
 * interaction with peers
 * using multiple intellegences
 * bring experience
 * trail and error/ experimentation

How do/will they use literacy and math in a global environment?


 * They will need to become more aware of the global economy.
 * Become more literate and understand banking/financial daily practices ie: interest, taxes, mortgage rates, compound interest, & student loans.
 * Provide experiences to help in needy communities.
 * Problem solving skills such as analyzing cross-curriculum mathematics.
 * How can they communicate with other cultures.

What are your students interested in? How do we find out?
 * Instant gratification
 * Music
 * Traveling discussions in History class.
 * Facebook
 * Discovery during first day inventories.
 * Discussions during the school year as thoughts may change.
 * Journals & social websites

How are we going to use this information to develop our programs and instructional strategies?
 * Incorporate the above technologies into curriculum.
 * Incorporate the above into classroom activities such as "Historical Figure Facebook Page"
 * Create poems, raps, stories, shorts, skits, and comic book stories into projects.

What challenges do students and their parents face?
 * Financial struggles.
 * Lack of necessary materials.
 * Lack of supervision.
 * Needing to carry out the role of a parent.
 * Peer pressure.
 * Inability to see the connection between the curricula and daily life.

What are their needs that may impact learning?
 * Sleep
 * Food
 * Stability
 * Medical Attention
 * Love
 * Acceptance
 * Vision of their future

What are their dreams and aspirations? How do we find out? >
 * Conversations
 * Journals
 * Discussions
 * Little interactions
 * Goal setting with counselors
 * Be famous! Star, athlete, etc.
 * Be rich!
 * Go to college

If knowledge is power how do we make it relevant?
 * Connection to Current Events
 * Connection to their culture
 * Set tangible goals
 * Allow students to create own goals, review goals quarterly
 * Encourage use of imagination
 * Encourage development of skills

What does the data tell you about your students?
 * That some lack basic skills
 * Spot potential problems, attempt to prevent
 * Spot correlations between social issues (attendance, lateness) and academics (test scores)

How do our students take control over their learning?
 * Keep assignment planner up to date
 * Make academic plan on schoolnet
 * Keep track of grades, monitor grades online
 * Choice boards
 * Attend tutoring, sign up for peer tutoring
 * Join clubs
 * Participate in class
 * Help to create school culture

How do we talk to our students?
 * Respectfully
 * At their level
 * By name
 * Firmly, at times
 * Modeling appropriate language and behavior

How do we talk to our parents?
 * Respectfully
 * With specific information
 * Positive news along with criticism
 * Try to create personal relationships with parents, so they feel part of the child's learning process
 * On site when possible - invite parents to school activities, lure with food, take advantage of existing opportunities to connect (multicultural fest, career day, talent show & evening concerts, fall feast)
 * Find out what skills, experiences parents can share with the school (eg. caterers, counselors, public speakers, etc.)
 * By phone, by e-mail

How are we going to better connect to our community?
 * Newsletters
 * Wikipages
 * Better sign outside of our building
 * Solicit donations from area businesses
 * Solicit internships from area businesses