Daily
Bell Schedule including Monday Late StartJust what is a late start Monday
used for?
On alternating weeks our Pierce
teachers meet by departments (Math, Social Studies, etc.) or by grade
level (6, 7, and 8). During meetings, teachers are shifting from a
focus on teaching…to a focus on learning. School mission statements
that “promise learning for all” have become a cliché. However, when a
school’s faculty takes that statement literally, as opposed to being
politically correct, profound changes will begin to take place. Our
teachers are building shared knowledge during this collaborative time
as we explore four critical questions:
1) What do we want each student
to learn?
2) How will we know when each
student has learned it?
3) How will we respond when a
student experiences difficulty in learning?
4) How will we respond when a
student already knows it?
Collaborative conversation calls on
team members to share what has traditionally been private-goals,
strategies, materials, pacing, questions, concerns and results. These
discussions are intended to give every teacher someone to turn to and
talk to, and they are explicitly structured to improve the classroom
practice of teachers-individually and collectively.