To PSD Employees and Friends:

I hope each one of you has an enjoyable time with family and friends. Thanksgiving week gives us a wonderful opportunity to be reminded of the many good fortunes we enjoy while so many in our community and across the world face significant challenges and misfortunes.

Personally, I know how fortunate I am to work with employees who share my passion to serve the learning needs of children and youth. In addition, I am thankful for the incredible support we recieve from parents and the community. I have been spending the past few days with board members at the state school board conference. Once again, I am struck by the thoughtful and diligent commitment our board members hold to our work and the success of each student.

Thanks for all you do for the kids!

Have a restful and safe Thanksgiving.
Paul

Sunnyside students took the opportunity on November 10th to honor American Veterans, including their own custodian, Sam Hughes. Students also created a wall of stars to honor family members who have served, or currently serve, the United States.

 

The 2011 Tech Fair impressed parents and staff with demonstrations, exhibits, and vendors.

Visitors had the opportunity to visit vendors, watch demonstrations of technology use in the classroom and talk with district tech staff about recent projects.

 

Congratulations to the Girls Cross Country and Soccer Teams!

Girls Cross Country and Girls Soccer win Academic State Championships!   

Congratulations to the 7th and 8th grade Lincoln Middle School Concert Choir students for an outstanding performance at the SEWMEA Junior High Mass Band and Choir Festival! They received high compliments from their guest director for their performance with 100 (yes, 100!) fellow choir students from the Southeast region of Washington.

Our Pullman students were definitely vocal leaders in the Mass Choir showing great musicianship and confidence. They were outstanding representatives of Lincoln Middle School and the Pullman Community.

Congratulations LMS Choir Students! 

Principals’ Report on November 2, 2011 Collaboration Day Work

Jefferson began the afternoon with a whole building meeting to discuss the common core standards in math the state will be using in three years.  Documents from OSPI were reviewed to assist with the upcoming changes.  The teachers and paraprofessionals then broke into grade level and department groups to collaborate about how the changes affect students at their levels.  Each group began to answer the three main questions:

What do students need to know?
How do we determine that they have learned it?
What do we do if they didn’t learn it?

Each grade level and department submitted a written report to the principal listing accomplishments and goals for the next collaboration.

Next month, we will be collaborating with teachers across the elementary schools to determine how the standards can be addressed consistently across the district.

Mr. Craig Nelson, Principal
Jefferson Elementary School

On Wednesday, November 2, the Pullman High School staff continued the School Improvement Plan work that was identified as goals for the 2011-12 school year.  Several departments met with teachers and staff from Lincoln Middle School.  Those departments were; Special Education met to work on transition plans for students, Math worked on incorporating the newly adopted Common Core standards for Mathematics, Art and Music continued work on scope and sequence for teaching and learning in their curriculum areas.  The remaining PHS staff worked as departments on identifying the types of writing and presentations that are done in each curriculum areas and at each grade level.  This is the preliminary work that needs to be done to develop a consistent rubric for writing across all curriculum areas.  Collecting the information on presentations skills and expectations will allow the high school to develop a sequence of skills that we will expect students to obtain at each grade level.

Mr. Joe Thornton, Principal
Pullman High School

At Franklin Elementary, we continued work on our 2011-12 school improvement plan specifically in the areas of math and science. Our K-3 teams worked in grade level pairs to complete a math foundational skill matrix. Each grade has identified a foundational skill to focus on this year. Teams are now building common plans for assessment and interventions around those foundational math skills at each grade level. Our 4-5 team worked to further develop our science framework that outlines key skills (power standards) that all students need to master to be able to meet state standard. The elementary physical education team met at Franklin and worked to better define the critical skills that all students need at each grade level. They also spent time discussing common skill checklists and sharing teaching strategies. Elementary music and art both travelled to Lincoln Middle School to partner with middle school colleagues. Our special education team worked  together to ensure we have program alignment between our resource room, speech services, and occupational/physical therapists.

Mr. Brian Moore, Principal
Franklin Elementary School

At Lincoln Middle School we began our day reviewing our commitments to each other and the process of collaboration.  We reviewed our four guiding questions and our promise to the community that this time to be used to ensure student learning.  A number of our teams focused on the creation of "power standards" or "big ideas".  This is a focus on what students need to know and understand to be successful at the next grade level.  Some examples include:

Language Arts -  Aligning our Grade Level Expectations to the new Common Core Standards in the area of reading.  Our 6th and 7th grade teams discussed this together with a focus on what exactly students need to know and understand to be successful.  Our 8th grade team did the same while discussing common assessments for their Civics and Washington State history course.

Math - Collaboration with the high school math team to begin a process of creating big ideas for each secondary course.  The focus of the work on Wednesday was structured around Algebra 1.

Social Studies -  The focus was to align the current curriculum with state standards while focusing on scope and sequence within the building in our Geography classes.

Science - The focus was creating power standards at each grade level with a focus on assessments that ensure learning.

Fitness, Movement, and Sport - Looked at the district scope and sequence and discussed possible changes regarding grading and the annual CBA assessment.

Music - Worked together as a district team to go over the grade level expectations and strategies to ensure learning in each area.  Differentiation of instruction for students at different levels in the same class was also a topic.

Art -  Worked together as a district team creating a scope and sequence K-12.                                                                                                                                                             
Special Education - High School and Middle School teams discussed how to improve their services/abilities through collaboration.  Each teacher discussed their common assessments and their use of data tracking for students on Individual Learning Plans.

Overall this was a great day of progress at Lincoln Middle School and truly showed our commitment to the collaborative process and ensuring student learning.

Mr. Cameron Grow, Principal
Lincoln Middle School

During the second collaboration day we revisited our Sunnyside Elementary School Improvement Plan (SIP) and group norms which guide our collaboration work.  The building grade level teams collaborated to discuss needs at specific grade levels and to set math goals which we identified as the “Big Ideas.”  Using the Common Core State Standards for mathematics we answered the questions: What exactly do students need to know and be able to do? How will we know if they have learned it? How will we respond if they don't learn it? What are the instructional strategies needed to meet different learning styles and/or levels of learners?  Our building instructional team shared the work to create a stronger understanding of the K-5 “Big Ideas” in the area of math.  We are ready to support the district’s math adoption process and we look forward to collaborating with Jefferson and Franklin in December.

Dr. Rick Bates, Principal
Sunnyside Elementary School

Jefferson students enjoyed an entire afternoon of science!

18 pre-service teachers from WSU joined the Jefferson staff to participate in an afternoon of science lessons focused on air, wind, weather and seasons. 

 

 

Sixth grade art students created posters based on the P.R.O.U.D. motto that we have adopted this year at LMS. Groups of students were given a theme from our motto, Positive, Respectful, On Time, Unified, and Daring. Then using the elements of art and principles of design students were to show this theme using visual symbols and words. When finished students hung their posters around the building.

Here are some of the many examples of excellent work from our students:

 

 

 

Collaborative Teams at Work Impacting Student Learning in a Professional Learning Community

The Whitman County Principals Association planned and organized the event. Franklin Elementary principal, Brian Moore, led the work of coordinating the event.

In my view, the day was a success on several fronts:

• Whitman County teachers and administrators came together (nearly 350 signed in) to hear and discuss a common message about professional learning.
• The common message can serve as a framework for ongoing discussions about what the work of collaborating means, what its purposes are, how to best use the gift of time, and what we and our community expect to get from it.
• A key message was for teachers to schedule the teaching of content and classroom assessments together so that collaboration occurs around common student learning.
• A strong message was given about leadership and setting the parameters for the work by administrators and teacher leaders working together.

There are surely other messages to take from the event that may emerge as we continue to work and dialog with each other to help kids achieve.

At the end of the day, the overarching theme for me was that of working together to help every child/student to learn at the highest level we can, from the struggling learner to the highest achieving.

"Collaboration" is not an end in itself. However, when done well, the principles of professional learning communities are proven to bring greater achievement to more students.

“There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequals.”
Dr. Robert Eaker

PULLMAN HIGH SCHOOL CELEBRATES

THE OPENING OF SCULPTURE GARDEN

October 7, 2011, 5:30pm Ribbon Cutting

Five years ago, PHS art teacher Rob McPherson imagined using green space behind PHS to feature PHS student and alumni work. On Friday, October 7^th, the community will have the opportunity to see Mr. McPherson’s concept come to life. For the past several years he has worked with students and volunteers to build a sculpture garden at Pullman High School, from landscaping, paving, and installing work. The grand opening will feature student and alumni work including a ceramic sculpture by PHS alum Alice Wilcox, live jazz music from the PHS Jazz combo group, and appetizers from the PHS gourmet foods students.