Good afternoon BHS Community-
Thank you all for another outstanding week of powerful teaching and learning both in your classrooms and in our time together in professional development & ILT. It was exciting to see such universal readiness for the work we are doing to meet the challenge of our instructional focus this year. We believe by focusing instruction on explicit strategies to improve student comprehension and interpretation of complex texts across all content areas we can improve student outcomes in many ways. As you plan instruction with the strengths and needs of your students in mind, consider also the rigor and demands of the texts you're using and how you're building your students' capacity to meet those challenges. I love the idea of deepening our understanding of this learning challenge by interviewing our students...asking them what it feels like to navigate and struggle with complex text. They are the richest data source we have. I'd love to hear what kids have to say: please email me noteworthy student interview questions and responses related to the experience of a complex text throughout the week. Onward!
This Week:
Classroom visits:
- This week the Admin Team will be coming in to classrooms individually and in pairs to calibrate observations and instructional trends school wide. Thank you for unlocking classrooms whenever possible to minimize disruptions to learning the arrival and departure of observers can cause.
- This Thursday morning beginning at 8:00am, Jonathan Landman (Principal Leader to BHS) & Tommy Chang (Superintendent of BPS) will be visiting BHS classrooms with me to observe instruction in a variety of classroom settings. Classrooms will be chosen at random. Thank you in advance for your flexibility in accommodating this unique visit.
Monday:
The SEI Department will have its start of year assembly on Monday at 12:10. All SEI teachers are asked to listen for an announcement and to file to the Auditorium with their classes. Thank you to everyone who participated in last week's grade level assemblies.
Tuesday:
- Let's get connected! Advisory begins this Tuesday, September 22! Resources to support your first session can be found in the opening day PPT and a calendar of Advisory sessions by topic can be found here. Please see the email from Karen Coyle for full details and support.
- The PBIS team will meet for this first time this year Tuesday in the Library from 2:15-3pm and every other Tuesday opposite of ILT meetings.
This team helps manage, plan and implement the many wonderful things happening at Brighton High to maintain a positive school climate & learning environment for our students. All are welcome! No prior experience needed! Email Laura Schachmut with any questions!
- There will be a meeting of all staff working on the Prieto Retirement Party on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at 2:10 in Room 112. Please note the change of location, and see Margaret Judges with questions.
Wednesday:
- Wednesday is our first Early Release schedule of the year! Dismissal is at 12:53, and Department meetings convene from 1-3pm.
- Departments will meet from 1-3pm this Wednesday in order to finalize Student Learning goals and to articulate instructional next steps toward eroding the challenges of complex texts for our students.
Thursday:
- This Thursday morning beginning at 8:00am, Jonathan Landman (Principal Leader to BHS) & Tommy Chang (Superintendent of BPS) will be visiting BHS classrooms with me to observe instruction in a variety of classroom settings. Classrooms will be chosen at random. Thank you in advance for your flexibility in accommodating this unique visit.
- An open call for Restorative Practices in Action! As we work to ingrain Restorative practices into the very fabric of our school culture, please share examples of successes you've had or witnessed of Restorative practices in action. We can also learn a lot from what not to do! Examples of pitfalls to avoid are also welcome.
Finally, BHS, I want you to know that I get asked a lot how I'm doing. Or how it's going. I have developed any number of deflective go-to responses for a question I feel generally ill-equipped to answer just yet...but on my way out of the building last Friday I saw this sketch. If you've never seen it (as I had not), it is in the hallway outside Ms. Kent's classroom leading to the back parking lot. For me, this image embodies the truest, clearest, most honest response I have for these questions right now. I just love it. How am I doing? How is it going? I'm beginning to see it, all of it, emerging day by day, challenge by challenge, and solution by solution. I see it in the work you're doing everyday with kids, in the conversations you're having with me and with one another, and in our students as they rise to meet new challenges everyday. Thank you all for your help and persistence in taking responsibility for answering these questions with me everyday and fully articulating our vision for BHS together.
With Gratitude-
Emily Bozeman
Interim Headmaster
Brighton High School
