We are officially one week away from the most deserved spring break. It is our hope that there is an understanding of the level of appreciation shared for the roles you serve at DCES. Schools are great schools, because they have great teachers and great support staff.
This year spring break is not just signifying an important break, but also the finality of formal observations/evaluations process. This process brings stress and worry to many and honestly, it brings stress and worry to Keli and me as well. Our stress and worry comes from knowing that if we want DCES to keep improving then there has to be a focus on improving teaching and learning. Our stress and worry comes from giving the best feedback and assisting this staff towards continuous improvement. I believe that standards are important. I believe that using the correct materials are important. I also believe that proven effective programs are important. However, nothing and I stress nothing makes as much difference as the quality of our teachers and staff.
Moving forward, we heard the voice of the staff loud and clear in the survey before Christmas. You want Keli and I more present during classroom instruction. We agree. We have shared our application and selection into the Community of Leaders Academy (COLA) with the FL DOE where the focus is on performing classroom walkthroughs. This has added a lot to our schedule, but we applied because again we know that the only way to keep improving our school is to keep improving teaching and learning. This week we are going to be reaching out to individual teachers that would be willing to assist us in continual improvement of our observation/walkthrough techniques by filming classrooms lessons. These videos will allow our cohort leaders to coach us as we practice giving feedback. We thank these teachers in advance. Also in the next few months, we will be working with PPC and other school leaders to assist in developing classroom “look-fors”. Our goal will be creating a general understanding of what quality instructions look like at DCES and the techniques that Keli and I should see as we increase walkthroughs.
I will close where I started. We are one week away from the most deserving break for a staff that we cannot thank enough. We thank you all for your support and appreciate your efforts to make DCES the best place possible for our students. We know we have a great school because of you and we with your commitment we want to keep making it better.
Have a great week and then enjoy your break.
Social Worker Week March 7 - 13
This week is Social Worker Appreciation week. I would like to thank Marie Navarro for all the love and support she provides our DCES students. Definitely a caring lady that goes above and beyond. Thank you, Marie.
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