Mr. Gregory Leavitt is the principal of Draper Park Middle School in Draper, UT. Draper Park has experienced some great success recently as a top-scoring school in the state in Math, ELA, and Science. He was the 2013 Canyons District Administrator of the Year Award Winner.
In this episode we talk about the following:
Cross Curricular Teaming and PLCs.
- Agenda consists of activities, common vocabulary, student problem solving, and team activities and celebrations
- Vocabulary is a powerful way to connect content areas.
- How he reviews all 9 PLC teams’ notes.
- Consistency as key to long-term success.
- How they use a Friday late start collaboration time.
Subject Area Teaming and PLCs
- Large focus on data
- Common Formative Assessments
- Bringing everybody up, instead of comparing for comparison sake.
- Easy to take big end-of-year test when you are assessing for mastery to the standards all throughout the year.
- No need for a big push at the end.
- Nothing fancy, just some Google Docs that are shared between the team.
Standards-Based Grading
- 100% of grades are based on assessments, what the kids can actually demonstrate as mastery.
- Rick Wormeli - “Fair Isn’t Always Equal”
- Objective Tracker, student-reported grades, and success.
How you can be a transformative principal:
Pick one thing that you can sustain for the next 5–7 years and stick with it.
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Please follow me on Twitter: @jethrojones for the host and @TrnFrmPrincipal for the show.
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Show notes on TransformativePrincipal.com
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