Goal Setting

Goal Setting

Incredibly, the first quarter of the year has come to an end and your son will be receiving his first report card of the year.  These report cards will be coming in the mail on November 5 with parent teacher conferences scheduled for November 9 to discuss your son's progress to this point in the year.  It is my hope that both pieces of this assessment process will focus on setting goals for your son in four major areas of his school experiences.

1. Service (S)-I am hopeful that each boy at St. Mary's will be able to set a goal to serve others with 10 hours of service during the second quarter.
2. Team Work (T)-21st Century Learning skills will have working as part of a team  central to these skills.  I am hopeful that each boy will commit to being a part of a team in some aspect of their lives during second quarter.
3. Academics (A)-In my view of the world, the importance of setting academic goals is not about an absolute performance but rather about setting goals for improvement.  I am hopeful that each boy at St. Mary's Middle School will identify one or two areas of academic improvement that they will focus on during second quarter.
4. Responsibility (R)-Finally, being a citizen for the 21st Century is going to mean that we all  need to be increasingly responsible in multiple areas of our collective lives.  I am hopeful that all boys at St. Mary's will see the importance of responsible behavior in terms of accepting responsibility for the decisions on a daily basis in relationship to behavior, punctuality, appearance, interpersonal interactions and for what goes on in the community.

I will be sending home a STAR goal setting sheet with the report card to complete focusing on #1-4 listed above.  If your son achieves the goals that you have jointly identified, an activity day will be scheduled for February 1 with specific details about it coming out during the next few weeks.  I asked that each boy completes a STAR sheet with their parents and return it to me at St. Mary's with the hope that we continue to build momentum for creating a school culture based on achievement.  More on this will be communicated about this program in the coming weeks.

Home and School Partnerships

Parent Meeting

Thanks to the nearly 30 parents who attended the Middle School Meeting yesterday at St. Mary's.  I learned much about what is important to you as parents, the energy was good and the conversation was focused on how to develop responsible, respectful, relational and responsive young men for the 21st Century.  The partnership that we can develop between home and school is one of the most important ones in the academic, social/emotional, physical and creative growth of your son.

As was mentioned many times during the discussion, the world is changing at an ever increasingly fast rate.  The questions about what this means for all of us are many and are complex but they are especially complicated as we seek what is best for the education of your son for the 21st Century.  I do think that interpersonal relationships and the ability to work collaboratively with others will not lessen in importance but will only become more central to what it means to be a productive and responsible member of society.  I applaud your efforts to establish a direct relationship with the school and with your interest in seeking ways to improve the relationships that your sons have with teachers, with their peers and with the world around them.  I look forward to many lively and engaging conversations similar to the one we had yesterday.

Ken Robinson is a very forward and innovative thinker related to the future of education.  You may be interested in learning more about his thinking by checking out the link I have provided and by searching TED Talks for more of his work.

Again, thanks for your involvement with yesterday's discussion.  I look forward to working with you and your sons this year.

Standardized Testing

Standardized Testing

Each student in the St. Mary's Middle School will be taking a standardized test over the next two weeks.  These tests provide an opportunity for your son to demonstrate their skills in specific academic areas and to allow them to measure their skills against other students taking the same test all around the world.  This information can also provide an opportunity for the school to better understand your child and to help them with areas that may need strengthening.

It is important that we keep a balanced perspective on what these tests mean for your son.  They certainly don't tell the whole story about academic performance and they aren't particularly good predictors about how your son is going to do academically in the future or about how successful they might be as a person.  I am a firm believer that the most important attributes in life (honesty, respect, responsibility, compassion, kindness.....St. Mary's Core Values) are the most difficult to measure and certainly aren't measured on a standardized test.

I am increasingly convinced that hard work, delayed gratification, giving of one's best effort, resilience, passion, creativity, flexibility, humility initiative, and a spirit of cooperation are all some of the other attributes that will take your son much farther in life than mere high standardized test scores.  I do believe, however, that whenever a task is set before your son it is important that their best effort provides an opportunity for us, as adults, to use these results to better help your son grow as a student.  Without a good night's rest, a serious attitude, a good breakfast in preparation for the tests and a confident attitude the results will not be a measure by which we can be confident that they are a reflection of your son's abilities.  Please help us make these tests as meaningful as possible.

More information on what we can learn from Standardized Testing.

Good vs. Responsible Parenting

Good vs. Responsible Parenting

Much emphasis has been placed on the importance of having a good teacher in front of the classroom each day of a child's education from kindergarten through university.  There is no arguing that this is fundamentally important but it is also clear that responsible parenting has a significant impact on the achievement of students.  Even just asking students about their day, or reading to them (yes, even throughout their middle school years), or engaging them in conversation over a meal, or having a family game night when everyone unplugs everything related to entertainment and focuses on  interacting over  something fun (we used to call it "Forced Family Fun" or FFF for short) or planning a family outing on the weekend makes a significant difference in the achievement of your child.

There are some alarming statistics about how little middle school students spend in conversation with a significant adult role model in their lives.  Some estimate this to be around 7 or 8 minutes a day for an average with many students having less time than this on a regular basis to talk about important issues in their lives and to engage in conversation around important topics.  There is a misconception that keeping kids "happy" (my definition of a "Good Parent") is the same as being a "responsible" parent which takes time effort, some level of discomfort on both the child and parents part to work toward common goals and which is not always easy but, in the end, develops the kinds of qualities that are going to contribute to a responsible student and citizen.

There will be a parent coffee on Tuesday, Oct. 9 from 9:00-10:30 in Room 110 on the North Campus as St. Mary's where ideas will be shared about the important partnerships required to maximize your student learning this year at the middle school.  We will talk about setting the direction for your child's education, about communication and Power School, and about continuing the discussion about how we can work together to make this a great year for your child.  Hope to see you there.

Thomas Friedman "The World is Flat" on responsible parenting.

High Achievement Cultures

Creating a Culture of High Achievement

Catch students reading not because they have to but because they want to.  Watch as student engage in a competitive game of chess and then congratulate their opponent whether they win or whether they lose.  Listen as students carry on a discussion about what they are learning in science as they head down the hall to their next class.  See students helping each other struggle with a math problem that stretches them beyond their comfort zone.  Welcome students early in the morning because they have an art project they need to finish.  

This is the kind of achievement oriented culture I hope to create at the St. Mary's International Middle School this year.  I am cautiously optimistic that we are on a path to make this happen but the path isn't necessarily straight nor is it necessarily easy and it will take the cooperative efforts of all of us who are part of the middle school learning community.  It also takes a sustained effort over a long period of time to make a cultural shift or to make a shift in habits so we all must be persistent as we hit bumps along this path.

Although I am far from anti-technology, I do have worries about the impact of technology on cultural norms and about students' abilities to interact in public places with appropriate behaviors and with appropriate communication.  I suspect there is some qualitative difference between interacting face-to-face with a person sitting a meter from you as opposed to shooting off a text message for that same person to read.  I find it particularly rude to being having a conversation with a person while they are, at the same time, checking their text messages every three minutes or so.  I believe there is value in having spontaneous conversations with people you might know or might not know as opposed to staying connected with more familiar people in your lives through chain cell phone calls.

Your efforts as parents are certainly welcome as we try to create this achievement oriented culture at the St. Mary's Middle School.  I visualize this culture as going beyond a good report card and includes supporting other students who might be struggling with some aspect of their life.  "Together Along the Way," the theme for this at St. Mary's International School, is about creating cultures of achievement together and to define the strength of this culture not by the strongest and the most competent individuals within the culture but rather how we help and empower those who are the most vulnerable.  This is my vision for St. Mary's and I ask for your support along the way.