The Weekly Update #4

This month KUDOS go out to our October 2024 Employees of the Month. Our Certificated Employee of the month (pictured on the right) is our School Counselor, Malena Schoch. After graduating from U.C. Santa Cruz, and getting her Master’s Degree at San Jose State, Mrs. Schoch began working in the district in 1998 as the (only) school counselor for – at that time, the only two elementary schools in Soledad – Gabilan and San Vicente, as well as Main Street Middle School. When Rose Ferrero opened, she came here and has been here ever since. Mrs. Schoch not only delivers our Tier 1 SEL lessons to all students at every grade level, she is the go-to for any and all students struggling (with non-academic issues) at school. She helps students with the conflicts they experience at school, and she is just that calming voice and caring person all students have all come to rely on. If you ask Mrs. Schoch, she will tell you that the best part of being a school counselor is not only being around the students every day but watching them “blossom and grow.” To her, there is no more of a rewarding feeling than working with a student for a period of time, and seeing them become more confident in themselves due to the help that she was able to provide.

Our Classified Employee of the Month is our Attendance Technician, Flor Canety. Mrs. Canety (pictured on the left) began working at Rose Ferrero in 2016 when the “Clerk-Typist” position was first created. Once the attendance duties were removed from the Health Aides, Mrs. Canety decided to become our full-time Attendance Technician. Mrs. Canety is very dedicated to her work and performs her duties in a highly efficient manner. She also is a part of our C.O.S.T. and brings to our attention any and all students that are struggling with attendance issues. She is in constant contact with our parents regarding tardies and absences, and also assists parents, our teachers, and the administrator with the Short-Term Independent Study Program. When asked, Mrs. Canety will tell you that she loves being around our students every day and enjoys the interactions she has with her peers in the office, where she pitches in and helps out whenever help is needed.

Congratulations to both of you – our Employees of the Month of November 2024. Having both of you on our team helps make Rose Ferrero the best it can be.

Last week, Rose Ferrero teachers listened to Doug Fisher speak regarding his thoughts on how, some, teachers have a “perception problem” … in that they have the “perception” that their students cannot read at high levels, that they do not have the power to teach their students to read at high levels, and thus, these teachers actually look for evidence that their students cannot read at high levels to confirm their beliefs. He later explained that, as teachers, we not only must believe in our students’ ability to read at high levels, but we must believe in our abilities as well! That is, we must believe that we, as educators, have the skills and the power to teach our students to learn at high levels.

This brings one to the topic of “teaching up,” which is a concept, or a big idea. What is meant here is that teaching up is not a recipe or a list of to-dos that a teacher can tick off as evidence of quality practice. It does not lend itself to scripted texts. Teaching up is a choice, and it asks teachers to push against labels and stereotypes that lead to categorizing students as “low,” “average,” or “high” and to instead assume every student has the capacity to become something much grander than a category. It asks us to think, plan, and teach as though every learner in our class is “smart.” Teachers who make the choice to teach up know that brains are malleable and thrive in rich environments. They also know, perhaps from research, perhaps from their own experiences as learners or as classroom observers, that students who have teachers that set high expectations are more likely to flourish than students who have teachers that set lower expectations.

When teachers plan a unit or lesson, they typically take one of three approaches. In the first approach, they might begin by asking themselves, “What do I need to cover with the students tomorrow (or in this unit)?” While there are clear reasons this might be a common starting point, we can do better. We have abundant evidence in research and in our own classroom experience that a cover-the-content approach fails many, if not most, learners. This is because learning must happen in the learner, not to them. Coverage is concerned with making sure students are exposed to content—not that they process it, come to understand it, own it, and value it. A second option teachers might consider as they plan instruction is to focus on who rather than what—in other words, planning with students and their needs in the foreground, rather than worrying about coverage. We might, then, plan first for students who are roughly working on grade level. That seems to make sense because standards, materials, and even placement in a certain class encourage that focus. Alternatively, we might plan first for students who are lagging behind with key content. We might worry that if the unit or lesson doesn’t help those students move forward, the learning challenges they face will only accelerate. While this approach reflects our empathy and desire to make a meaningful difference for students who find school discouraging, it often results in “teaching down,” because we believe those students must do work that is less robust than others in the class.

A third possibility for lessons or unit planning—and the one most promising for student growth even as it is also the least common—begins with a teacher designing instruction for the most advanced learners in the class. Opting for this approach—to capture students’ imaginations, to stretch them academically and intellectually—is the first step in teaching up. It is the choice we make if we opt to teach as though all our students are capable of and would benefit from engaging, complex learning opportunities as standard fare. While these teachers plan to raise ceilings of expectation for every student, they simultaneously plan a variety of scaffolding to support a broad range of students in accessing rich, meaningful learning opportunities.

Few teachers have had the opportunity to explore the best current professional knowledge about what constitutes effective teaching for students who are advanced beyond expectations for their age or grade level, or for those students who are the focus of PLC Question #4 – “What do we do for students who have already mastered the standard?” They may default to common practices that are not very effective, such as assigning more work to students they deem to be “smart.” The “more-work/less-work” approach serves neither group well. Quantity of work rarely mirrors quality of work. Therefore, if teaching advanced learners effectively isn’t quantitatively different from teaching students who are less advanced, what does it mean to effectively teach students who are learning, or could be learning, significantly beyond grade-level expectations? While there is no universally agreed-upon set of descriptors for teaching advanced learners (who themselves are a heterogeneous group), there are some generally accepted characteristics.

Advanced learners thrive in an environment that is welcoming, affirming, supportive, and challenging, where they feel connected to their teacher and to one another in positive and productive ways. They enjoy an atmosphere of shared high expectations and high support where learning is dynamic, purposeful, and authentic. Advanced learners, then, can be described as reasoners, problem-solvers, collaborators, and idea-creators. They learn to use a variety of resources skillfully and to adjust their approaches to learning depending on the task at hand. Throughout that process, they ­increasingly understand themselves, others, what they learn, how to learn, and the world around them in multifaceted and empowering ways. Teaching up asks us to choose to translate those understandings into powerful classroom practices that benefit the widest possible range of learners.

There is no single right way to begin a quest to teach up, but one logical next step in moving forward is reflecting deeply about the ­students you teach. For example:

1. Take stock of how connected each of your students feels to you, how connected you feel to them, and how well you know them as individual human beings and learners. Learn about their strengths and dreams. Watch them. Create opportunities to talk with them, to affirm their strengths, and to acknowledge when they take risks in learning.

2. Be sure students have ample opportunity to see you value each member of the class for who they are and what they bring to the group. Find ongoing ways to help ­students learn more about one another. Begin using short-term flexible groupings for a range of instructional purposes. Model close listening, respect, and empathy for each student and ask them to model those traits for one another as well.

3. Consider how connected each of your students feel to other students in the classroom. Provide frequent opportunities for them to collaborate in a wide variety of flexibly constructed groups. Observe them carefully. Teach them skills needed for successful collaboration. Point out successes—and opportunities for growth.

4. Think about how your students respond to various aspects of the curriculum you teach and to instruction. When are they curious or jazzed about ideas, engaged in problem solving, generating ideas, or having meaningful conversations with peers? When are they “in neutral” or tuned out? Think about who is often tuned out, why, and what you might do in terms of curriculum design to make learning more inviting.

5. Use formative assessment even more regularly in your classroom than you may be already and apply what you discover as you plan upcoming learning experiences.

6. Reflect on ways you already scaffold student progress as they encounter learning challenges. As students work, ask them what would help them feel more confident and be more successful. Begin to expand your repertoire of scaffolds.

Teachers who make the choice to teach up do not abandon required learning standards but experiment with teaching them in authentic and meaningful ways. They do not ignore student differences in learning but rather build ladders of support that enable learners from a broad spectrum of strengths and needs to find success. The primary benefit of teaching up is, of course, seeing the transformation that takes place in students when they begin to understand their own power as learners and as human beings. A fringe benefit for those who choose to teach up is a sense of renewal of their energy and enthusiasm for teaching—and for their own deeper learning.

Continuing a long-standing tradition, the Soledad Rotary Club was at Rose Ferrero this past

Wednesday the 29th to hand out dictionaries to all our third-grade students. Students in our DLI classrooms also received a Spanish/English dictionary as well. Representing the Rotary Club was April Liedtke and Crystal Reyes. In addition, Soledad Unified School District Superintendent, Randy Bangs, former SUSD Superintendent, Tim Vanoli, along with SUSD

Board President, Ivan Ibarra-Mora, took part in the distribution and presentation of the

dictionaries for the students, who absolutely LOVED their dictionaries (and have been using them in class when ever they get the chance).

Yesterday morning we held our annual Halloween Parade, and Here, There and Everywhere were princesses, monsters, superheroes, witches, villains, ghosts, werewolves, cartoon

characters, military and law enforcement officers, and various animals. Though a bit on the cool side out there yesterday morning, everyone enjoyed seeing others dressed in their Halloween best.

This morning we held our second Academic Awards Assemblies of the year. During the Kinder & First Grade Assembly and Second-Third Grade Assembly, teachers recognized students with the Growth Mindset Award, the Reader of the Month, and the Mathematician of the Month. The Fourth thru Sixth Grade Assembly was similar, with the addition of teachers recognizing their Writer of the Month. Many parents were in attendance, and it is always one of the best days of the month when we are able to recognize our top scholars.

It is hard to believe that the end of the first trimester is just a week away but is … and thus below contains the timeline for report card data entry.

Report Cards Printed/Distributed Conference Week

No Site or District Meetings: 11/04/2024-11/08/2024

1) Teachers: Please remember what we learned from Doug Fisher – that students learn language (and get better speaking the language) by producing language – the words need to come out of their mouths. Therefore, we want to set the goal of making 50% of our lessons have a student-to-student collaboration piece, where students talk with one another using the language of instruction.

2) Teachers: Teachers: Number Talks involve mental math. During a number talk, we present our students with a math problem and ask them to mentally solve it without the use of writing tools or manipulatives. Then we ask our students to share not only their answers but the thought processes and strategies they used while problem-solving. It’s important to note that the purpose of Number Talks is not in finding the “right answer,” but is the process our students go through. During Number Talks, students are always asked to explain their thinking. When they do this, it gives them a chance to self-correct, which further deepens their number sense.

3) Teachers: Please remember to get your $250 ESSER order into Anabel as soon as possible. (Our deadline is Friday, Nov. 22nd, but the sooner you place your order, the sooner you will receive the items you ordered.)

November 4-8, 2024

Morning Recess

1st & 4th

Afternoon Recess

2nd & 5th

Dismissal Duty

3rd & 6th

November 12-15, 2024

Morning Recess

2nd & 5th grade

Afternoon Recess

3rd & 6th grade

Dismissal Duty

1st & 4th grade

November 18-22, 2024

Morning Recess

3rd & 6th grade

Afternoon Recess

1st & 4th grade

Dismissal Duty

2nd & 5th grade

• November 1- Aeries Opens for Report Card Data Entry
• November 3-Daylight Savings Time
• November 6-Grade Level Meeting @ 2:00pm
• November 6-ELAC Meeting @ 6:30pm
• November 8-1st Trimester Ends
• November 11-Veteran's Day
• November 12-Staff Meeting @ 3:25pm
• November 12-2nd Trimester Begins
• November 13-Food Bank Distribution
• November 13-Grade Level Meeting @ 2:00pm
• November 13-Fire Drill
• November 14-Aeries Closes for Report Card Data Entry
• November 18-22-Parent/Teacher Conferences, Dismissal @ 1:00pm
• November 25-29-THANKSGIVING BREAK