Our Impact Year

Friday August 26th, 2011 was the 2nd day of school for us at West Middle School and we are off to a great start! Students are in the school eager to learn, teachers are eager to make a difference and we are all charged to move forward!


As I visited classes today, I took several pictures that really struck me and gave some great validation that we are going to have a turning point year. All three pictures are related to the same topic, one of the big three of the PLCs - collaboration:

This is a picture of two 6th grade social studies/science teachers. They were both leading the class in a great activity centered around mobius strips. I'm shortchanging the description of the activity, the rigor, and the engagement but trust me this was a great lesson. Both teachers were on the exact same page, literally. They obviously collaborated on creating the questions, shared the Word document between them [even same font] and conducted a great lesson in each of their classes. It was awesome to see them blowing the minds of two different classes the exact same way.

The is equally exciting. This is a sneak shot of a 7th grade math planning session. The two first year teachers, sitting with their backs to me are planning with an EC teacher [who looped with her students last year] and an experienced, seriously impactful teacher [93% proficiency rate last year]. I've had talks with all of them that they would have to plan together and build their greatness. It was awesome to see them getting to the good work on a Friday afternoon!


I'm appreciative of all these educators hard work! This is our first step in having our impact year! Our focus and mission is to be data driven, committed to student achievement and collaborative. These teacher leaders provide examples of what we need to be about and the excellence we reach for.