HomeMy WebLinkAbout2016-05-09-LHS-min
Lexington High School
251 Waltham Street Lexington, Massachusetts 02421
Laura Lasa
781- 861-2320, x69103
Principal
lasa@sch.ci.lexington.ma.us
FAX: 781-861-2440
To: The Lexington High School Council
From: Laura J Lasa
Re: May Meeting
LHS School Site Council Meeting met on May 9, 2016 from 6:15-7:45 PM in the Library Media Center
in the Arts and Humanities building.
Attendance: Laura Lasa, Suzanne Lau, Katherine Manning, Sharon Kendall, Nancy Shepard, Liz Curtin,
Anne Redmon, Kristin Tissera and Alex McLaughlin
Absent: Walter Richardson, Polly Kienle, Elise Santiago, Elise Rowley, Dave Wininger
I. April 11 minutes approved with no changes.
II. Announcements from Council members
The Freshman Dance was a success; approximately 260 students attended.
Lex Model UN was a success; the topics covered at the conference were: The Syrian Refugee
Crisis, Human Trafficking, Considerations for Olympic Sites, Space Use in 2060, and
Sustainable Economic Stabilization.
Thank you to Jennifer Wolfrum for her collaboration with SHAC and best wishes on her
retirement.
III. School Improvement Plan for 2016-2017
The 2016-2017 block schedule will include 3 flexible blocks to provide time for students to
receive academic support, social emotional support, complete work in a directed study, make
up assessments or labs, et cetera. All students will be scheduled for the blocks (teacher
assignment or student selected).
The main themes for implementation steps in 2016-2017 include: homework and
extracurricular loads, assessing how best to provide progress information for standards-based
grading, interventions and academic support, assessing technology tools, credit recovery
programs, and school safety.
IV.Evaluating Competitive School Culture, Part III Brainstorm
1.What steps can the LHS community take to educate and among students,
increase awareness
parents, and faculty about the negative aspects of a competitive culture?
More of what has been going on: Community Coalition, committees on stress reduction.
Better communication: Format of newsletter, communication via Aspen (?), better
presentation to alert community to events, announcements.
Guest speaker on social issues, such as driving under the influence, generates
conversation among students around a shared experience.
2.What can be done at LHS to encourage a to counteract
more collaborative and sharing culture
the negative aspects of a competitive environment?
Discourage Ådoing schoolÆ while promoting collaborative group work.
Emphasize the purpose of instruction and assessment. Do students know why they are
learning what they are learning?
Over assessment? and test anxiety?
When doing group work, are there ways that students can be held responsible for their
individual part?
How do we balance grading for individual work with group collaboration?
Socratic seminars
Lab reports
Standards based grading
What is cheating? What is collaboration?
Collaboration can generate more stress for students, especially around grading BUT
collaboration can establish a shared knowledge base between students
Frustrated to be graded on others work
Group optional
Easier to do group work in higher level classes
3.How can we encourage a sense of school spirit and inclusive celebration at LHS?
Starting and maintaining school traditions; pass on traditions
School store
Interdisciplinary exchange of groups/clubs/sports teams around a common event
Whole class/grade fundraiser-passes on year to year
Mascot?
Integrating other clubs/teams into football games
Humans of LHS on Facebook
V. Adjournment 7:45