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.