Franklin Family Fitness Week

It's Family Fitness Week at the Franklin!  Today I joined my kindergartner, his classmates and several families in Physical Education.  We started by warming up our bodies with marching, jogging, and twisting.  The jumping jacks, squats and the "pendulum" really got us raring to go.

Now that we were ready, Franklin's PE teacher, Sharon Foster, explained the game which involved rolling dice, understanding which number was higher, and running and tabulating laps.  In just thirty minutes, we were able to run a combined total of EIGHT miles.  Not a bad start to the day!

If you haven't yet attended, I highly recommend joining your student for their PE class this week.  It was so much fun.  When we said goodbye, I commented to my son that he is a really fast runner.  His reply was, "I know.  I've had more gym than you."  Classic!

Listening to instructions

Warm up instructions on the board

Almost ready

Warming up

Don't let the smiles fool you...

the competition was cut throat ;)

Running another lap

The eye of the tiger

"I love running!"

Straight off the blocks

The Kindergartners and their families managed to run a total of eight miles!

Behind The Scenes - All School Meeting

December’s all school meeting was led by the first graders, who were learning about insects.  It was also pajama day and the day before the December break. The room buzzed with excitement and colorful bedtime ensembles.

The meeting kicked off with an insect greeting - everyone turned to their neighbor waggling two antennas and said “good morning!”

Insect greeting - try it at your next meeting!

A representative form each grade shared their current science topics.  

• First Grade - Insects
• Second Grade - Force and Motion
• Third Grade - Parts of Trees and the Lifecycle of Trees
• Fourth Grade - Volume and Mass, and Rocks and Minerals
• Fifth Grade - Owl Pellets

Presenting on science is more fun in PJs!

The first grade assembled in the front of the cafetorium and led the school in a rousing rendition of “Head, Thorax, Abdomen” to the tune of “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes”.

This group is really into it!

First grade teachers read allow “Snowmen at Night” and projected the images for all to see. Students delighted in learning what snowmen do while we are sleeping and why they look so different in the morning.

Then all the students and teachers sang “Happy Birthday” to the children celebrating birthdays in December.

December birthdays among the second graders.

The all school meeting ended with the fourth grade singing a song about the perfect winter day.

Principal Coffee – January 2015

Updates:

• In the mornings, 5th graders are now greeting students and their families as they enter the front door.  The greeters are then part of the morning announcements and lead the school in the Pledge of Allegiance over the intercom. The students love it!
• The underwater mural will be revitalized.  The will be a “Sea of Compliments” with a different focus each week, such as respecting others, behavior in the cafeteria, etc.  Two students per class per week will be recognized, and the compliments will be read weekly over the loudspeaker.  The fish will be left up to reinforce a “school” of expectations and good behavior.
• Thank you to the PTO for providing funding to fix up the teachers room.  The room has been cleaned, decluttered, rearranged and some new items have been added.  The teachers are very proud of the space.
• Classes have started or will be starting a Reading Buddies program, pairing up younger and older students.  Each pair will meet once a week and will read together or do other activities such as writing or art projects.
• Chinese exchange students visited with the second graders on January 8th.  Students had the opportunity to learn more about Chinese culture from exciting and enthusiastic high school students.
• Elaine has been busy hiring for aide positions, interviewing and hiring almost every day.  Our part time aides often find full time work elsewhere.  This is a difficult time of year to be hiring as most people looking for an aide position were hired at the beginning of the school year.
• Elaine feels that the transition has gone well, she’s settled in and feels like she’s been here awhile now.  She is getting into a routine of the Franklin school, and is getting ready for the principal search and the new principal.
• Principal search has begun, committees have been formed of both parents and staff.  The committee will meet mid-January to go through the applicants and decide who to interview.  To date, no other newton schools are looking for an elementary principal.  The average tenure for a principal at a school or a district superintendent is three years.  Fewer people are going into leadership/management as the job has changed.  There is lots of top down control as well as lots of state and federal regulations.

Questions from parents:

• How are the preparations for PARCC going? From an academic perspective, students are covering core standards and doing benchmark assessments.  From a logistics perspective, students are practicing test taking skills to get them used to the test format.  Sometimes it’s the format that throws students.  The district schedules the tests and provides the IT support.  The Franklin has enough laptops for one class to take the test.  PARCC was piloted by the district and the glitches were not as severe as they had anticipated.
• Will there be bandwidth issues? It’s certainly possible, some districts are going to do one more year paper and pen but Newton has opted to administer the test online.  There will be a backup plan for technology and staff from the Newton Public Schools will be on hand to troubleshoot.
• How is the PARCC schedule different from MCAS?  For MCAS, everyone in the state took the long composition the same day.  The rest was fluid and schools had 2-3 weeks to complete it.
• Is there anything that parents can do to help students prepare for online testing?  “Type to Learn” is a good program to help your child prepare for the typing portion of the test.  Tests are taken on Macs. They are open ended questions so they will need to be able to type their answers. PARCC is timed.  As with any test, an online test may bring anxiety but Elaine still believes it’s better than the MCAS where you spent all day on the long writing composition which was more endurance training than anything else.
• Several parents voiced concerns about how typing ability will impact the test results, not just letters but also the ability to know how to make fractions, or for example where is the slash key? As opposed to our school experiences, children are being raised with technology from birth and know things like an asterisk is the symbol for multiplication.
• What hinges on these scores? In MCAS, if you become an under performing school year after year, the state could come in and fire everyone.  For elementary students the test has little impact – it goes in their folder to demonstrate where the child needs support.  Scores are widely broadcast but too much emphasis is placed on the scores.  For example, two kids can swing the whole ratio, and absent kids get zeroes.  For a particular child what were the circumstances when they were taking the test, was there an argument on the way to school, are they not feeling well, etc.  Students are being told that the test is to look at the school and what the school is teaching the children.  “Do the best you can.  Your score only helps us to do better.”  First year of PARCC will provide a baseline but you cannot analyze one year of data.
• A students individual scores will come home in the fall.  Families will need to understand the statistics.  For example, there are only 30 questions so if a child got a few wrong it really lowers their score.  And if a teacher focuses on measurement in September and students are tested on it in April they are not going to do as well. It becomes concerning if your child is not performing year after year.  If your child’s scores are low and you are concerned, take it to their teacher to get to the root of the challenges.  Is it subject knowledge or test format that is resulting in low scores?
• Are you hearing from teachers themes on what they wish parents were doing more of? Overall, staff is appreciative of the PTO and feel that the PTO is very supportive and appreciative of the staff.  Teachers want parents to support what they do.  If they call you because your child has an infraction or is struggling with something, ideally you will partner with them rather than adopt the stance of “not my child” or blaming the teachers.  Teachers are sensitive and negative comments really concern them. Don’t send an email when you are angry.  Take a breath and reread or write it when you are calm.  Or setup a time to meet.  In general, staff is very happy with the parent community here. Remember to thank your teacher in the same way you hope that your child’s teacher will contact you with something positive. And finally, don’t send your email to the entire school or hit “reply all”.
• The meetings in December regarding the principal search were organized as focus groups for parents and teachers and included an online survey.  Did they aggregate the data?  Elaine was not sure and the info will only be shared with the committee. The last parent meeting was not well attended but the discussion was rich.  If you are interested, you can contact the committee and express your concerns.  Based on Elaine’s experience, parents and teachers are looking for very similar things in a competent principal. Someone who is child centric, can help them to be the best they can be, is approachable for students, families and staff.  And this is a good school, the staff really cares about the kids.
• In your time here have you been surprised by anything? Elaine is working on consistent structures in the building and common understandings of how things work.  For example, making sure that everybody is aware that if they have a student that needs support what the procedure is, where do they, go who their contact person is. Elaine is also making sure there is a common understanding of language and terminology with an eventual goal to provide a booklet for parents of educational jargon. She wants to ensure consistency for the students.  Elaine is also working on school culture to help students feel more ownership of the building. Really the work has been mainly tweaking and refining things to get to a good place and get everyone on the same page.  As far as in the classroom and academic instruction, staff is doing what they should be doing and the students have been great.
• Do you see a lot of similarities between the schools? The three schools (where Elaine has served as interim principal) have all been different, just the curriculum is the same.  That’s not a negative, it reflects the personality of the principal and the staff.  The things that should be consistent are consistent.  But you don’t want everything to be cookie cutter.
• What’s Franklin’s greatest strength? Parent support is unbelievable here.  This is not the same in other schools.  Teachers feel supported and appreciated.  Teacher’s commitment to kids is a strength.  Everyone is working to give your child the best experience possible.  Responsive Classroom is consistent, the professional learning community is strong.  The students are great – they are a strength themselves, they come in happy, they are engaged.
• Looking ahead to middle school, is there an area that kids need to shore upon before going to Day? Amy had always mentioned keyboarding but Elaine feels that she hasn’t been here long enough to make a comparison.  Parents shared their own experiences:
• Hardest thing for my daughter was to get put on a team and your friends aren’t necessarily on the team, five other schools feed in, whole new social environment, may not see your friends until lunch, workload is bigger but they were prepared for that.
• One parent’s child had an easy transition, now that the fifth graders are getting more practice with binders and organization.  The fifth graders are loving changing classes.