Monday, May 25, 2015

In Honor of our BRAVE Men and Women of the Armed Forces

As we end our long four day weekend we need to make sure we reflect on the reason we had time off. Memorial Day is a solemn day of remembrance for everyone who has died serving in the American armed forces. The holiday, originally known as Decoration Day, started after the Civil War to honor the Union and Confederate dead.

Remember Them: Helping Their Sacrifice Live On http://mymemorialday.org/remember/

On Thursday of last week, Math teacher, Jeff Macloud conducted a lesson on Memorial Day with his students. Here are a a few reflections from some of our very own FHS students on what Memorial Day is and what it means to them.

"Memorial Day, to me, is a day of solemn remembrance of not only our country's history, but our history as humans. From the peak of the first industrial revolution to the day man utilized fire, human civilization has grown and diversified in countless ways that one can never truly comprehend. The American Civil War is only one of countless conflicts that permeate our history, and to remember it alone does not do history justice. We'd remember WWI, WWII, The Thirty Years' War, and so on. Conflict is ever present and it is near impossible to consolidate a single day for a single tragic war."

"Memorial Day to me is the day that we honor many of the soldiers that have fallen. It is a day we visit graves of family members and friends who have passed. It is also a day I visit my grandpa to appreciate that he is still with us. Every year on Memorial Day I go to his house and watch the parades. Over all Memorial Day is the day to appreciate the fallen soldiers the active members and the veterans."

"Memorial Day is a national holiday where Americans gather around to celebrate and honor the men and women that lost their lives fighting for our country . To me Memorial Day means to get together with my family and honor the men and woman that have died in the service. Our family usually gets together and have a barbecue or when it's a nice warm day , we go to the lake or beach. My uncle Noel served in the military as a military police . He's still alive but we still give him thanks for what he has done for this country . I give thanks to all that have done great things for this country ."

Our ONE goal: To graduate every Fairfield High Student and to ensure that they leave FHS college and career ready!!!

Inspire, Engage, Excite, Lead, Foster, Create, Empower!!

Many more great things are in store for Fairfield High!

Continue to be innovative, creative, and a model of excellence!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

Sunday, May 17, 2015

Transformation and Motivation

This last week I attended the Solano County Work Ready Certification and had the honor of hearing guest speaker William Wesley. Mr. Wesley began his speech by saying he is not a motivational speaker but a transformational speaker. He emphasized that he doesn't want to speak to crowds to merely pump them up and get them excited, but he wants to leave them with takeaways that if put into action will transform their lives.

Merriam Webster Dictionary defines motivation as, "The act or process of giving someone a reason for doing something: the act or process of motivating someone." Merriam Webster Dictionary defines transformation as, "A complete or major change in someone's or something's appearance, form, etc."

Two quotes of Mr. Wesley's that I found the most inspiring were:

"Think It, Believe It, Plan It, Achieve It."

AND

"Nothing can stop a human being who refuses to lose."

As educators we help transform lives. We also motivate our students, but the real power comes when transformation occurs. Never forget the impact you make each and every day on your students. Every student matters and every student has greatness inside him/her. As educators it is our duty to help foster the greatness inside every student.

Another Great Week in Review @FHS

Colonel Avery, Cadet Ryan and Cadet Elder

JROTC Cadets Nic Elder and Layne Ryan holding up the Proclamation from Solano County Board of Supervisors

Certificated Staff that were Made in FSUSD

ROTC Awards Ceremony

The 2015-2016 Leaders for ROTC

Special Honorees at the ROTC Awards Ceremony

Cadet Kaloi and Colonel Avery alongside the Air Force representatives

The Staff versus Student Softball Game!!

Lesley Martinez the Fairfield High Student of the Year!

Our Saturday Garden Project: Building the Raised Planter Boxes

Our ONE goal: To graduate every Fairfield High Student and to ensure that they leave FHS college and career ready!!!

Inspire, Engage, Excite, Lead, Foster, Create, Empower!!

Many more great things are in store for Fairfield High!

Continue to be innovative, creative, and a model of excellence!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

Saturday, May 9, 2015

FHS Understands and Embraces #FutureReady

I had the privilege of attending the Future Ready Summit with Superintendent Corey, Tim Goree, Roxane Liu, and Melissa Farrar on Monday and Tuesday of this week. We collaborated with other districts and worked on building our district plan that will support all of our schools in becoming #FutureReady. What is a #FutureReady school? A school that has robust, rigorous resources, engaged students with equitable access, active parents for deeper engagement, dedicated educators, and a "yes culture" of leadership.

After attending the summit and speaking with other educators, I couldn't help but focus on the idea of modeling what we want to see in the classroom. As I was speaking with a teacher from St. Helena he said to me, "Every time I leave a conference like this I tell myself I need to do it differently in the classroom with my students. I can't forget how hard it is to sit for so long with no breaks. I go back and I start out strong and then fall back to my old ways." This stuck with me and is a CRITICAL reflection for all of us. If I as a leader of a school continue to run meetings in a traditional fasion, how can I ever expect the teachers to transform their classrooms? If we want educators to "disrupt" education we need to do the "disruption" in all the facets. To that end I had a staff meeting the day I returned to work. There were a few "nuts and bolts" pieces of information that were shared for the first 20 minutes. Then, it was time to truly mix it up. I utilized an app called GooseChase that I was introduced to at the summit. I told the staff that for the remainder of the meeting they were going to engage in a form of a digital scavenger hunt. I further stated that they would not need to return to the library to end our meeting, that the time was flexible. I wanted them to engage in conversation and collaboration with their departments. I wanted it to be organic but directed by the "missions" that I had prepared for them to complete. This was an effort to model a tool that could be used in their classroom with the students and additionally show the importance of changing our delivery of information.

What took place was exactly what I had hoped for. The teams took off on their missions and another benefit; hearing teachers talk about ways of incorporating GooseChase into their classroom. One teacher saw a way of using the application as a form of "choice" for his students. FHS understands and embraces the fundamental structure of being a #FutureReady school. We need to continue with this focus and connect all of our students with not only devices for school and home, but also work to ensure connectivity at home.

Follow @FutureReady on Twitter

Blog with great information for High School news & policy: http://all4ed.org/high-school-soup/

Here are a few snapshots of completed "missions" from the staff GooseChase.

Our ONE goal: To graduate every Fairfield High Student and to ensure that they leave FHS college and career ready!!!

Inspire, Engage, Excite, Lead, Foster, Create, Empower!!

Many more great things are in store for Fairfield High!

Continue to be innovative, creative, and a model of excellence!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK

Sunday, May 3, 2015

A Great Week to be a Fairfield High Falcon

This past week Fairfield High had some very memorable moments. It was a great week to be a FALCON.

On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday we had our WASC visit. Tuesday afternoon the WASC committee shared an exceptional report for Fairfield High. We are making progress towards all of our action goals and working closer to achieving our over goal of graduating all students and ensuring they are prepared for college and career.

Wednesday evening, our very own Shari Patterson, was named Solano County Teacher of the Year. Shari now holds the following titles: 2015 Fairfield High Teacher of the Year, 2015 Fairfield-Suisun Unified District Teacher of the Year, and 2015 Solano County Teacher of the Year. Shari now goes on to compete to potentially be named as California State Teacher of the Year. Shari is an exceptional educator and continues to make huge impacts on both our students and staff. Congratulations, Shari!!

Thursday at lunch marked day one of the First Annual 3 vs. 3 intramural soccer tournament. Teacher, Steve Duncan, worked hard to create the roster and mark off the soccer field on our quad. The quad was packed at lunch with students cheering their friends on. This tournament continues at lunch for the next few weeks.

Thursday afternoon was our Third Annual Let's Make a Deal Assembly. Over 700 students were recognized and rewarded for the academic and character traits. Students received prizes that had been donated by staff and local businesses. This is one more step in reinforcing the academic and character traits as we continue to build our Culture of Universal Achievement, a fundamental pillar of what it means to be a No Excuses University school.