Coming Home to Excellence

There’s a way to do better… find it.

~Thomas Edison (1847-1931) American Inventor

Week 6 in Review

I learned so much last week.  Let me start by saying thank you once again for everyone’s work on Super Assessment Day.  I know there were areas we can improve in the process, but when you look at the big picture  — the day was a tremendous success.  We appreciate everyone’s feedback on how to make our newly named Radical Assessment Day better next year.  We will definitely implement many of your suggestions.  They were very helpful, and we learned specific ways to make the process better.

On Friday we met with the students again in our CAMP Congress.  Thank you for sending your CAMP representative to our session with the collaborative input of your class on the upcoming technology pilot implementation.  The students’ questions were very helpful in giving me an idea of what information we need to communicate better.  We will be sending out a FAQ sheet shortly with answers available to continue to improve the process.  The students also asked to meet more often, so we will be meeting weekly now to offer more opportunity for student voice in guiding the direction of our school.  Please make sure you take the time to allow the students to debrief with your CAMP and to prepare for each session.  It really is helping us find the exact ways to make Benton better.

Week 7 — A Look Ahead

It’s HOMECOMING!  The week is here and the kids are excited!  Please join them in the celebration and share in the festivities.  If you are not into the “dress up days,” that’s okay, just make sure you support our students and encourage their participation.  Also don’t forget to share the announcements, which will include the names and photos of our homecoming court candidates.  Thursday is special because not only do we vote on whom the students want to see as their homecoming royalty, but we are also kicking off our ACT Academy with 12 students heading downtown to the Northwest Center for some intense learning.  On Friday, we are going to have an incredible assembly, which will start at 1:40 p.m. where we find out the freshmen, sophomore and junior court winners.  The King and Queen winners will be announced right before the game that night.  It’s going to be an incredible event!

Don’t forget, we have departmental professional development this week during your plan/collaboration period.  We will send out a reminder tomorrow for times and locations.  The topic of learning is data teams, and your department will be learning about the process, setting a timeline for the research, as well as drafting your improvement plan.  Your admin team and instructional coach will be leading the PD, and we are excited to work with you on getting this process going.

Excellence is journey not a destination.

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