Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays to everyone. I finished my visits with Dry Creek yesterday, December 15, 2009. The week before a two-week break is always an exciting time for children, and I was able to play math games with a couple of second grade students, be a word detective with fourth graders, and watch whales take shape in the second grade classroom. In addition, a mulit-cultural calendar gift for parents was being created in the 5th grade, and Rudolph was coming to life in the Kindergarten. The first graders and I listened to a holiday story about Danny, and in the other kinder room, activity time was in full swing. Since there will be a strings concert this week, the students were preparing by practicing their violins and violas. What a treat to visit with everyone and engage in all of the learning taking place at Dry Creek.
I have visited 141 classrooms and have 126 to go!

I want to wish everyone a relaxing and happy holiday season!

See you in 2010!

Dry Creek

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to visit eight more classrooms at Dry Creek Elementary School. I was able to watch students measuring shapes, dividing seven brownies equally among four students, estimating answers to math problems, with one class was even taking a Math test. Additionally, I saw students writing their stories about the storms we had a few weeks ago, and the impact on their families. Another group of students were making new words by changing the first or last letter. Additionally, students in a sixth grade class were reading science articles about plants and pollen. It was a fabulous visit and I now have visited 126 classrooms with more visits scheduled next week at Lincoln HS and Dry Creek before the holiday break.
287-126=161 classes to go!

Welcome to the Little House

In November I was invited to have lunch at the Little House on the PAHS campus. It was a delightful experience. I had wonderful food fixed by the students and great discussions on their classes and lives. One young woman created a beautiful stain glass sailboat she graciously agreed to share with the Central Services Building. It is hanging in our Board Room.

Roosevelt Visits

Over the past two weeks I have been able to visit Roosevelt Elementary School. It was fabulous listening to the band play their songs. They played five songs and I recognized each of them. Great Job! In Kindergarten, students were sequencing their pumpkin stories and then coloring them. One little girl exclaimed, "I love patterns, so I am coloring my story in patterns." Additionally, I was able to sing the "Ti Ti Ta" song and have a reading buddy in the first grade. As I moved through the grade levels, lots of Response to Intervention Training going on in the 1st -3rd grades. Fabulous to see students excited about their learning. Onto 4th -6th grades where students were learning math. Students were discussing and explaining how they arrived at a math answer and learning was taking place for our students. Additionally, all of the posters indicating graduating classes all over the school were a welcome sight! Go Roosevelt students! Keep up the great work!

PAHS Homecoming!

Homecoming at PAHS! GO ROUGHRIDERS!

Franklin Visits

It has been a real treat to visit Franklin Elementary School Classrooms, and tomorrow I wrap up my visits. It is inspiring to observe students learning to write , enjoying math and science activities throughout their day, listening to stories being read, and reading during the Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) time. Students also are learning to tumble on the mats in their PE classes and discuss their view points on personal narratives. So far I have been able to visit 18 classes and will visit the last 6 classes tomorrow. 287-88= 199 classes to go! By tomorrow I will have completed the last 6 classes so I will have 193 classes to go! In addition we had our Japanese contingency visiting the Port Angeles School District a few weeks ago. What a fabulous experience for all of us!

Last Class Visits at PAHS/ Japanese Exchange Visit

On Wednesday and Thursday, October 7 and 8, were my last two days of visiting the High School. I was able to visit one class for each teacher over the past month. My visits this week included a couple of the Science 9 classes where observations vs inference discussions were taking place. I also was able to visit the Guidance and Counseling Office where I met a student who was planning his life after he graduates in 2010. Go Class of 2010! It was refreshing to see that when I stopped in one of the Geometry classes the students were not only excited about the subject matter, but their progress in the class as well. The NJROTC class was another opportunity that I was able to experience. Students were making sure they were ready for their inspections, and were at attention when I walked in to their class. I have completed my visits to the HS and will be heading to Franklin Elementary School beginning October 13, 2009.
287-70=217 to go!

After I left the HS, I prepared for the visitors from Japan. They arrived at the HS around 5:00 pm on thursday afternoon, and we met up with all of them at 6:30 at the Bushwacker Restaurant. It was very nice to meet them, and as they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words."

Class Visits Days 5 and 6

Day 5: On Tuesday of this past week, I visited with a teacher who lived in Madera Canyon, AZ (an area near where I spent 25 years of my educational career) for two summers as an entomologist. We had a lively discussion on the area surrounding Madera Canyon and how it has changed since he had lived there. He was also explaining plate tectonics to his students during his class. It was a very interesting time on both topics. Physics made easy...that is what I gleaned from my visit there. If one does the conversions correctly one will never have trouble understanding physics. It was amazing to watch. Additionally, in the next science class, the topic of conversation was myth busters and why experiments may or may not work. Several variables were thrown out and a lively discussion took place. Great thought processes verbalized. Teen stress and how to do deal with it was the topic in the next class, and different religions of the world were presented to students towards the end of my visit.

Day 6: As I continued my travels through the district, I was able to observe the machine shop students utilizing their skills with the lathes. Additionally, I was able to visit a geometry class who was reviewing for a quiz coming up Wednesday of this week, and of Mice and Men is being read and discussed by all 10th grade English classes. As I entered into the French IV class, a discussion was taking place in French regarding the art work that was displayed on the screen and what the meaning of the artist was who created it. It was fascinating to listen to the students and the instructor engaged in a lively conversation in French. From French I went to Spanish and that was wonderful as well, because I understood a little bit more of what was being said since living in the southwestern part of the US for such a lengthy period of time. American Studies class was discussing the reasons why Jefferson and Franklin were unhappy with their current situation. Last, I was able to visit the Klallam Language class where I was graciously invited to read their new text books and was given history on the the students were studying.

Fabulous visit both days. I am about to conclude my visitations to the HS next week as I will have been able to attend at least one class for each teacher.

I have now visited another 15 classes so I have: 257-15 = 242 classes to go!

Board Docs Training

I attended BoardDocs training and was unable to blog during this week about school visits, because I was not able to visit any schools. Our guest speaker at the conference was Kevin Carroll. He discussed play and how vital play is to all of us both in the workplace and away from it. Kevin wrote the book, The Red Rubber Ball, and he asked us these questions.... Where do you get your energy? What replenishes you?

Class Visits Day 4

We had the Salt Creek Cross Country Invitational on Saturday September 19, 2009. It was a huge success....

Classroom Visits
Thursday, September 24, 2009 was another great day to visit the Port Angeles High School classes. My visit started out in a Contemporary Issues class with a discussion revolving around the Middle East. Next a visit to the American History class where a jeopardy game was taking place to help students review for an upcoming test. Groups A, B, and C had answered almost the same number of questions and were pretty evenly matched when I went into a World History class. What students were learning in this class was the Ming (Dynasty) Meant Quality, and students should understand this concept. After leaving this class I visited the wood shop class where students were learning to use the equipment safely, and then onto Collision Repair. Students were working on repairing parts of a vehicle and then painting that portion of it. Last, but never least, I visited the AP Art class where serious painting was taking place. I have now visited 30 of the 287 classes.

287-30 = 257 To Go!

Class Visits Day 3

I was able to ride the Kindergarten bus with several five and six year olds. If you ever want to have some fun I would highly recommend you sign up for a bus ride.

I was able to visit seven more classes in my quest around the district. Today I was able to see a group of students reading and discussing Of Mice and Men. Next I traveled to the Cates Team room to observe students engaged in a range of activities. Following my visit there, I attended the Little House Life Skills program. This is an environment that is set up to assist students in learning how to cook, clean, do laundry, shopping and cooking. It was fabulous to see the engagement of all of the students attending this program. I was also able to witness the Science 10 class working on speed of fishing boats in different directions. The teacher demonstrated with clarity the concept of the current and what play it will have on moving an object through water. Next on to the Geometry class where angles were being explained and students were engaged in questions regarding the probability of supplementary angles. The last class visited today was Contemporary Issues and a lively discussion was taking place where students were engaged in thoughtful discussion with the topic being presented. It was a fabulous day and I am looking forward to Thursday September 24 where I am able to visit eight more classrooms.

287-23=264 classes left to visit!

Today was Day 2 of my visits at the High School. I was able to visit the Men's Choir and the Symphonic Band classes where I heard beautiful music being played. I also was fortunate enough to visit a Language Arts class where a lively discussion took place on their vocabulary words,and a sophomore Science class where the question of the day was, "What does the change in clay indicate?" Next, I was able to visit two Microsoft Office classes and a Digi-tools' class where students were practicing their word processing skills. It was fabulous to be at the HS and I am finding my way around pretty well after my second full visit. So now I have visited 16 classrooms and have 271 to go!

Additionally, today Mr. Doug Hayman sent my photos of the posters that are hanging in the windows of Roosevelt Elementary School. Which class are you?

Welcome to the Superintendent's Blog in the Port Angeles School District!

Welcome to PASD. I am excited you have visited us. I want to be the first to share what great educational experiences are happening for our students in our classrooms. My goal is to visit every teacher's class before the end of the 2009-10 school year. I have 287 classrooms to visit in 175 days.

Yesterday, September 8, 2009, was my first visit to the Port Angeles High School, which included seven Math classes and one Advanced Marketing class. Students were figuring out everything from marketing their entrepreneurial plan, determining speeds of moving objects, and solving algebraic equations so they were equal on both sides of the equations. Go PAHS students. 287-8=279.....

279 classes to go and my second visit of eight classes at PAHS is tomorrow, September 10, 2009.