Closing Out - Semester 1 Reflections

Well, it's been a whole ass semester that I've been doing this job. It's been wild. I feel like the first few weeks of this was like drinking from a fire hose. There seemed to be a new facet of my job that popped up every day and from a different direction. I was having a hard time keeping track, so anxiety and being overwhelmed was a consistent state. Ugh. I pushed through, though, and now I'm feeling pretty good about being in this position and looking ahead to what I have left to do.

Right now we're closing out first semester with testing, and it's been pretty smooth so far. The teachers are getting used to my overcommunication and my preparedness, so I think that they're seeing me as a resource and someone to rely on to make their jobs easier. We've had a few bumps with testing, but nothing too bad or outside of the normal. State testing begins on Friday, and I feel like we're prepared for it. All we need is for the kids (and the teachers) to show up and do the thing.

Speaking of that, chronic absenteeism continues to be an issue. It's always been an issue, but at a school like this, it's a bit more of an issue and concern. I think that the grading and assessment practices that I've been using and researching will have a great impact here to address that issue. I've got a teacher who's moving forward with it into second semester, so let's see what happens with her and her students' performance.

It'll be nice to have a few days coming up soon to relax and recuperate. I need to get through next Friday, and then I can take a bit of a break. The next big testing milestones will be WIDA/ACCESS testing for our EL students and then the ACT/WorkKeys for our juniors and a few seniors. I've already been through ACT and WorkKeys, so the second round shouldn't be too bad. After that, it'll be great to have a few months to really focus on coaching, teacher development, and making the change happen here. 

Time to get the last testing block started for today. Then I can get ready for tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll be able to find some more time to update this blog a bit more regularly.