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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