A New Year, Full of Opportunity: What to Look For in 2013-2014

Woodland Heights has been on a steady and rapid progression of school improvement that has even those close to the work reeling with the changes and opportunities presented.  These 'next steps' on our school improvement journey will make our work even more effective, and the experience of the children at our school even more enriching.  Our research-based 'Best Practices' have been embraced by our sister elementary schools here in Laconia, and by great schools all across our nation. 

Here are a few highlights that you can anticipate for the coming year.  Please make every effort to partner with us in this work, and share in our successes, for your child, and OUR school.

An Enduring Commitment to Our Student-Centered School Model --  At Woodland Heights School, it is about the children; first last, and always.  Children, their development, and their needs are at the heart of every decision, every action, and every commitment we make at WHS.  We take a broad view of children's developmental needs and see our role as expansive as an institution to support their growth cognitively, socio-emotionally, and in terms of health and well-being.  Gone are the days in which quality schools can focus exclusively on academics (A, B, Cs, & 1, 2, 3s).  Today, public schools do so much more.  At Woodland Heights School, we are committed to the 'Whole Child'.  What does this mean?  It means that we see and value our critical role in developing young people who are smart, capable, resilient, healthy in body and spirit, and good.  In order to support our students to develop these qualities and capacities, we need to serve as an integrated organization where our staff seamlessly: teaches to rigorous curriculum standards; supports the social, emotional, and moral development of children; and reinforces habits that promote physical health and well-being.  This is no small order, and it would be easier and safer for us to take a narrow view of our responsibilities, as some schools do, but would that maximize learning and growth opportunitities for our children?  At Woodland Heights School, we are in a unique and powerful position to do so much more.  We fully embrace the opportunity.  Spend a few minutes in our school, and you will know that this is true.  You will see it, you will hear it, and you will feel it.  We are Woodland Heights.

Renewing our Commitment to The Responsive Classroom Model --  Although WHS has embraced The Responsive Classroom Approach for many years, this year we are reviewing these practices and renewing our commitment to their skillful implementation in our school.  Using Responsive Classroom strategies and techniques, we create developmentally responsive, rich, engaging, and safe classroom and school climates in which children can thrive.  All students and all staff enjoy the benefits of the caring community we have created using Responsive Classroom practices.  It is at the heart of our socio-emotional skills development program for children, and our effort to create a school climate that is safe, nurturing, and successful for all students and staff.  Responsive Classroom is a key component in supporting our effort to realize our school district mission:  "Ensuring Success with Every Student, Every Day, in Every Way".  Some key practices of the Responsive Classroom include: Morning Message, Morning Meeting, Academic Choice, Rules and Logical Consequences, and Closing Circle.  Ask your child's teacher how The Responsive Classroom Approach has influenced the development of her classroom community.  You will be impressed with how present, how integrated, and how powerful it is!

Rich Teaching and Learning Connected to the Common Core State Standards --  Over recent years, the Laconia School District and Woodland Heights School have committed to implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), recently adopted by the New Hampshire Department of Education and the Laconia School Board as the academic curriculum of our schools.  With the support of our Academic Coordinator for Teaching and Learning -- Elementary (ACTL), Gail Bourn, our teachers and administrators have been engaged on a path to learn and implement the standards in a manner that will be successful for students, and conducive to their attainment of the rigorous standards set forth in the CCSS.  Our efforts to improve curriculum, instruction, and assessment practices have been facilitated by our commitment to Professional Learning Community (PLC) practices, and an ongoing, demanding course of Professional Development for our staff.  Our initiatives connected to development and refinement of our school's academic program include: the creation of 'Non-Negotiable' standards in Reading, Mathematics, and Writing that all students must meet at each grade level; and the implementation of 'Best Practices' for instruction and assessment in each subject area.  It is important to note that Arts education plays a powerful role in our work to implement the CCSS, and foster the development of the Whole Child -- as we broaden the capacity of every child, every day, in every way.  Over the coming year, expect to hear more about our multifaceted efforts to diversify the educational experience of all students, promoting their academic success by meeting their learning needs through providing personalized, 'Differentiated Instruction' -- this involves our continuing effort to support students where they need it, and enriching/extending learning for students who have 'got it'. 

Parent Partnership and Engagement --  To make the most of a child's learning experience, parents and schools must enjoy a highly collaborative, and mutually supportive relationship.  In the coming year we will commit to partnering with parents in a bold and positive way, that will bring lasting benefits to the lives of our students.  We will marshal the support of area agencies and services to support parents as they continue to refine their skills that are exponentially more powerful than any we could offer as a school organization to promote the happiness, health, and well-being of our students.  What children are, and will be, is largely reflective of the family that they are born into, and the learning experiences that they have in the home environment.  All families struggle from time to time, and some struggle more than most.  For our students and our school community to reach its potential we must have the full support of our parent community, and we must fully support our parent community in becoming all it can be.  To achieve this, we will communicate with our parents and the greater Laconia community like never before.  We will also provide more opportunities for parents to join us at WHS and become true collaborative partners in their child's education.  Lastly, we will offer and/or promote educational opportunities for parents so that they can maximize their effectiveness in creating conditions at home that support the physical and mental health of their children, ensure academic learning, and foster the opportunity for their children to learn the social skills that will be critical to their success and happiness in their life to come.  Parents are our students' most powerful teachers, and they always will be.  In supporting our students, we must also collaborate with and support our parents.

Refinements to Our Tier II & III Behavioral Intervention Systems --  In order to promote and ensure our school's safe and orderly environment, and to suport students who are challenged to exhibit behaviors consistent with those espoused in our school's motto ("At Woodland Heights School, we are a Caring Community of Responsible, Respectful, and Reflective Learners."), we continue to refine our processes of behavioral intervention and support.  Though our Project Wildcat initiative, we have developed a comprehensive system for the teaching and reinforcement of prosocial citizenship skills for all students, and a PBIS-like system of supports for students who would benefit from remediation in this area.  Our school's Student Support Room (SSR) and Student Support Services office work closely to offer what students need to assist them with becoming exemplary 'Wildcats' here at Woodland Heights Schhol.

Maintaining Our Focus on the Development of 21st Century Skills -- Three years ago, Woodland Heights School committed to becoming a 21st Century Learning Community.  We have developed much of our programming and employ teaching practices that we know will support our students' success in the learning environments and workplaces of tomorrow.  They will need fluency in technology skills, and the '5 Cs' (Communication, Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking, and Global Citizenship).  At WHS, we give our students opportunities to develop these abilities so that they may become happy, healthy, and actively contributing members of our school commmunity now, and our society in the time to come.  If we are not preparing students for the world that they will inherit, what are we achieving?  We are doing all that we can at Woodland Heights to make certain that our students will be ready for both the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

If you have any questions about the work that we have committed to, please do not hesitate to contact me at our school office by phone, or by email anytime.  We are excited for the potential we have this year to 'turn the corner' and witness large gains and rewards from the investments we have made together in recent years.  Please join us in making the coming year one of the greatest, most fulfilling, and most successful in recent memory at Woodland Heights School.  Your children and our staff are well worth it!

This Past Summer, Your teachers have Been BUSY!! With Our Laconia 'Summer Institutes', the Learning Never Stops!

Over the past weeks of summer, your friends at Woodland Heights have tried hard to rest, relax, and recharge.  However, as life-long learners with an eye to ongoing professional and dedicated to continuous school improvement, WHS educators were very actively engaged in professional development institutes, workshops, conferences, and independent study (i.e., book studies) over the past summer.  For our teachers, the learning never stops, and the quest to refine their professional practice is continuous.  In our exceptionally dynamic environment, guided by high expectations for teacher performance and student achievement, it can be no other way.

During the summer our teachers and staff have been engaged in graduate courses, conferences and workshops 'out-of-district' which will bring us new insights and practices for certain, but perhaps the most influential experiences have come for our very own professional development opportunities, crafted and facilitated by our district Academic Coordinators for Teaching and Learning (ACTLs).  These Laconia School District Summer Institutes are directly tied to our school and district improvement initiatives, as well as national curriculum iniatiatives and the most contemporary, research-based 'Best Practices' for teaching and learning.  We are extremely fortunate, as a school district, to be able to afford these professional development opportunities for our teachers, principals, and staff.  Our teachers work alongisde their grade level counterparts from Pleasant Street School and Elm Street School, as well as our Laconia Middle and High School.  The institutes bring our community of educators together, get us on the same page, establish common high expectations, and create a climate of collaboration and cooperation that could not exist otherwise.

Here is a sampling of professional development activities that our teachers participated in over the Summer of 2013:  "Responsive Classroom I", "Common Core State Standards -- Reading and Writing Across the Disciplines", "Laconia School District Reading Non-Negotiable Reading Standards", "Para-Educators:  Supporting Reading and Mathematics", "Implementing the Common Core with Understanding by Design", "CCSS, UbD, and Curriculum Mapping in the Laconia School District", and "Supporting Students with Challenging Behaviors".

Yes, your teachers have been busy this summer, preparing to serve you better.  Now the fun begins and magic happens.  It is time to open Woodland Heights for another spectacular year of teaching, learning, and growing.  We look forward to seeing you soon, and partnering with you for the most productive and most enjoyable year at Woodland Heights EVER!

Welcome to a New Year at WHS!

All of your friends at WHS hope that you and your family have enjoyed a happy and healthy summer. As we near our school opening on Tuesday, August 27th, the pace of preparation at WHS increases considerably.  Over recent days our custodial staff have put the finishing touches on a number of cleaning projects and facility improvement projects.  They have also been very busy helping teachers set up their classrooms (and in several cases, move their classrooms to a new pod).  The school is looking just fantastic, and we can't wait to show it off!

Over the past weeks of summer, our school has been alive with activity and learning as we hosted our district's Extended School Year Program and our own Kindergarten Camp program.  We have also hired a few new staff members (details will be shared in a future blog post), engaged in a lot of professional development activities (workshops, conferences, and institutes), registered many new students and families, and took a little time off for ourselves.  It has been a GREAT summer at WHS.

Now we are ready to welcome you back, and begin another fabulous year filled with learning and gorwing.  Please join us for our annual 'Warm Woodland Welcome' which will be held on Thursday evening, August 22nd, from 5:00-6:00pm.  At our Warm Woodland Welcome, you will have an opportunity to bring your family into the school before opening day, find classrooms, meet teachers, and reconnect with friends.  The Warm Woodland Welcome is always a great way to start our school year with a relaxing visit to the school before the serious business of schooling begins.  We hope to see you then!