Principal Powell's Blog

Shearer Elementary School

On April 19, 2012, the Shearer Elementary School Decision Making Council selected Regina M. Dawson for the position of Principal at Shearer Elementary School. Ms. Dawson holds a Rank II Principal certification. She graduated from Carlow College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education and obtained her Masters of Education from the University of Kentucky, where she continues as an Educational Leadership Doctoral student.

Ms. Dawson is currently Administrative Dean at Julius Marks Elementary in Fayette County, where she has served as an Elementary Teacher, Instructional Coach, Extended School Services Coordinator, and Title I Lead Teacher. She has also served as a Secondary Academic Consultant for the Kentucky Department of Education. Ms. Dawson is a highly respected and experienced educator.

We are so excited to have her leadership here at Shearer Elementary School.

Shearer Elementary School is having a Math Night for parents and students on Thursday, February 2, 2012 from 5:30 – 7:00.  There will be math stations set up in the cafeteria, library, computer lab, and gym.  You can experience the math curriculum in action as you travel from station to station seeing how your child plays games to enhance their math knowledge.  There will be a light supper provided by the PTO, prizes awarded from the FRC, and math manipulatives given to every child in attendance provided by Title I and Shearer School.  We hope you will come experience this collaborative effort and see the varied ways children learn math skills at Shearer Elementary.  You will also have the opportunity to sign up for Parent Portal from iCampus where you can track your child’s grades and attendance.  I look forward to seeing you on Thursday.

It is extremely important that children be in school each and everyday.  When children miss school they miss all instruction in reading, math, science, social studies, etc.  With the increase of hands on instruction taking place in the classroom, it is very difficult for the students to make-up missed class work.  No longer can teachers send home worksheets that contain all the content missed when a child is not in school. 

Attendance in Kindergarten is as important as first thru fifth grade.  Children are learning the foundations to all the skills they will need to be successful throughout their academic career.  This foundation is crucial to each child’s success.  When children are in school they are more successful in all areas of academics.

Spring will be here before we know it and we are less than 70 days away from the State Assessment window.  Teachers and students have a great deal of work to be completed before the test begins.  We want to see everyone at school each and every day!

We have begun Re-teach and Enrich Fridays at Shearer.  Core content will be taught throughout the week and assessed on a daily basis.  Based on the formative data we will be re-teaching skills that have not been mastered by the students on Fridays.  This will help to ensure mastery before moving on to the next skill in reading and math.

Teachers will be providing enrichment activities for those students who have demonstrated mastery on the skills.  This may include chapter books, special projects, and other academic endeavors.

We are looking forward to the progress that the students will make as we ensure mastery of the content in weekly increments.

Our goal is to have every student on grade level by the end of third and fifth grade in reading and math.  We feel that our Re-teach and Enrich Friday will be one way to help students be on grade level at the end of the school year.

The winter Map testing began last week and the students are working very hard on the Reading and Math Assessments.  Kindergarten through 5th grade are to be congratulated for their hard work and success.  We have seen huge gains in the student scores from the fall assessment.

Keep up the great work!

I am so excited to be serving as the interim principal at Shearer Elementary.  It is like I have returned home.  I officially started on October 4 and began working with the teachers in disaggregating the spring testing data as well as planning for the 2011 – 2012 school year.  I am looking forward working with the teachers and students at Shearer. 

I was born and raised in Winchester and attended the public schools for 12 years.  My entire 32 years of teaching have been in Clark County.  I taught at Conkwright Middle School 20 years before transferring to Shearer Elementary School and Trapp Elementary.  After four year as an elementary physical education teacher I finished my career as principal of Strode Station Elementary.

Thank you to the parents, teachers, and students for making my transition so smooth.  Great things are happening at Shearer and I look forward to working with each one to ensure success for each student.

 There are only three ways to improve student learning at scale:

• You can raise the level of the content that students are taught.
• You can increase the skill and knowledge that teachers bring to the teaching of that content.
• And you can increase the level of students’ active learning of the content.

That’s it. Everything else is instrumental. That is, everything that’s not in the instructional core can only affect student learning and performance by, in some way, influencing what goes on inside the core. Schools don’t improve through political and managerial incantation; they improve through the complex and demanding work of teaching and learning.  Richard F. Elmore

The instructional core will be the focus of the Clark County district this year.  What happens in the classroom is most important.  Focus will be on effective and improved teaching and learning.  Results  are expected in the classroom.  It is imperative that teachers give children what they need to be successful in the classroom.   

Teachers have spent a great deal of time this summer preparing for the new Common Core Standards in Reading and Math.  These national standards increase the rigor of the instruction and the tasks that will be required by the childen.  The real accountability system is in the task that the students will be asked to do.

There will be a series of instructional rounds where there is a four-step process.

1. Identification of a problem of practice
2. Classroom observations
3. Debriefing on what was observed during the observations
4. Focus on the next level of work to improve instruction

Through this process the educational leaders and teachers develop a shared understanding of what high quality instruction looks like and what to do to support that instruction. 

Sometimes circumstances happen in life that make us change direction in the way we must go.  As of June 30, 2011 I will be embarking upon a change in my life.  After 31 years of service to the children of Clark County I have decided to retire and spend additional time with my family. 

I will miss both the teachers and the students of Strode Station.  There have been many student and teacher successes that we have celebrated.  I expect that these successes to continue throughout the upcoming year. 

I consider the seven years I have been at Strode Station to be the best of my career.  I have see the students and teachers grow so much.  The district, as well as, the school are moving toward having each student proficient and beyond. 

Thank you for your support and prayers.

Beginning May 2 – 20 Strode Station students in 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th grade will begin their state testing.  This is a test to show your child’s progress toward proficiency and beyond.  The federal No Child Left Behind Law mandates that all children reach proficiency in Reading and Math by the year 2014.  Students will be tested in Reading, Math, Social Studies, Science, and On Demand Writing. This is the test (KCCT) on the Kentucky Core Contents Standards.  The testing window for the KCCT is May 2 – 13, 2011.

The following week the students will take a national norm-referenced test (NRT). The Iowa Test of Basic Skills assesses the each student’s knowledge compared to other students in the nation.  Both tests are important to the students and the school. 

The results from both the KCCT and NRT help the teachers make decisions in curriculum, instructional programs, and intervention programs. 

To help your child perform well on these assessments some things to remember is to: 

1. Students need to be at school each day and on time.
2. Get plenty of rest.
3. Eat a good breakfast.
4. Send your child off with a word of confidence – “You’ll do great!  I love you!”
5. Remember to read all the directions carefully and look at answers before choosing one. 
6. Tell your child to check his or her answers before finishing the test.
7. Schedule all appointments after 2:30 during the test window – May 2 – 20.

The students and teachers have worked extremely hard in the classrooms this year.  We expect each child to do their best.   Strode Station - Where EXCELLENCE Begins!

The weather gave us a break this week and we finally were in school for the entire week.  Everyone has been working very hard to get back into the classroom routines.  Teachers are back on track following the district curriculum map for all content areas.  Students are completing Common Assessments in all subject areas.   We have missed eight days of school due to weather related issues and have been playing catch up since the first of December.

It is extremely important that children be in school each and everyday.  When children miss school they miss all instruction in reading, math, science, social studies, etc.  With the increase of hands on instruction taking place in the classroom, it is very difficult for the students to make-up missed class work.  No longer can teachers send home worksheets that contain all the content missed when a child is not in school. 

Attendance in Kindergarten is as important as first thru fifth grade.  Children are learning the foundations to all the skills they will need to be successful throughout their academic career.  This foundation is crucial to each child’s success.  When children are in school they are more successful in all areas of academics.

Spring is just around the corner and we are only 45 days away from the KCCT assessment window.  Teachers and students have a great deal of work to be completed before the test begins.  We will see everyone at school each and every day!