Greetings, GreenMount Community,
Last week, I began my message by praising our eighth
graders for the excellent test-taking behaviors they displayed, such as going
back and carefully checking their work.
My friend at the assessment office was quick to grade our tests and
returned them in one day. The results
are that our eighth graders scored an average of 88 percent on the reading
portion of the test and an average of 87 percent on the math. This is a little above the results we have
seen over the years as our students consistently score in the 80s.
I believe that
these scores also demonstrate the fine job that our teachers do in preparing
our students for every situation.
Remember, most of the eighth grade students are taking a standardized
test for the first time. Also, the
version of the test they took is meant to assess students at the end of grade eight. Our students took the test only three months
into the school year! The reason they
took the test so early is that the city-wide high schools need the results for
admission to their programs, a process that begins this month. So, congratulations to our students, their
teachers and parents for doing such excellent work!
One
aspect of our Friday staff meetings is the focus on professional development. I am a firm believer that teachers and
administrators must always be learners, constantly improving their craft and
the services that we provide for students.
Therefore, every staff meeting includes an aspect of this learning. Other staff meetings, such as the one we had
last Friday, focus specifically on the professional development of the staff.
This week, we
focused on several articles that the teachers read concerning how we meet the
needs of students who challenge us academically, socially and
behaviorally. The four articles we read
were titled, “First Discover Their Strengths”; “How Other Countries Do
Discipline”; “Cracking the Behavior Code”; and “Ferrari Engines, Bicycle
Brakes”. Each of the articles provided
us with good insight and stimulated great discussion, and we certainly learned
a lot from the articles and each other.
You can probably
guess the content of the articles by the titles, but the last one may puzzle
you. The author of “Ferrari Engines,
Bicycle Brakes” makes the case that students with ADHD have brains that run
like a race car engine, but are governed by a weak ability to slow down and
stop the impulsivity that accompanies such a racing train of thought. The author makes a good case for being positive
about ADHD because he feels that all a student needs is better “brakes” – a set
of strategies to slow down. In fact, he
feels that the impulsivity that accompanies ADHD is a sure sign of
creativity. Distractibility is a sign of
curiosity, and hyperactivity is a sign of energy. So, those of you who may have thought you
were ADHD or were diagnosed as such when you were students, congratulations!
Your creativity, curiosity and energy have probably served you well. And while you may have not had teachers who
were so positive about the abilities you have, we are embracing any of your
children who may be in the same race. At GreenMount we do provide the
opportunities for Ferrari brains to thrive. Our program welcomes the curious,
the creative and the energetic. We
celebrate the different ways children learn and we give the drummer drums to
drum; the talker times to debate; and the ponderer things to ponder. We are still working on those brakes.
Cheers,
Steve
