Dear Mundo Verde Families,
With the completion of our first trimester of learning, I’m writing to provide updates on progress towards the school’s priorities, specifically through the launch of expanded school structures that ensure our faculty are well supported and that students, including those with individual educational plans (IEPs), have the additional assistance they need.
Creating a Strong Staff Culture
Furthering our organizational priority of creating a strong staff culture, the academic leadership team has expanded to better meet the faculty needs. The principals, academic deans, directors and managers of teaching and learning, and coaches in residence (11 instructional leader positions in total - see in the Academic Team chart below) have together been focused on engaging teachers with a focus on curriculum and instruction, supervision, coaching, and management, school culture, student assessments, and ongoing professional learning. Every teacher is assigned to one of the above instructional leaders to receive personalized feedback and support on a weekly basis over the course of the school year. Instructional leaders also meet weekly with grade-level teaching teams to focus on planning for the needs of specific students. The coaches in-training, each deeply experienced early childhood educators with more than a decade of experience at Mundo Verde, are provided release time from their teaching schedule to support PreK teachers across their respective campuses.
Academic Team Organizational Structure
To support teachers in their learning and development, the Directors and Managers of Teaching and Learning have refined and updated professional development materials to be uniquely relevant for the 2022-2023 school year, a year of continued recovery for students and their families, as well as staff, and a year in which everyone is eager to re-establish a sense of normalcy. The professional development being implemented is aligned to organizational priorities; focused on teaching and learning, data analysis, or practice and planning; and differentiated, that is, specifically designed to meet the varied needs, experiences and interests of individual teachers. Among the structures to support these goals are:
A professional development facilitation guide with learning targets that are clear and measurable, practical, and offer high leverage for implementation into everyday practice.
Protocols that support educators in building trust, taking risks, and exploring new practices that will lead to increased student achievement.
A Strategy Café, a once-a-month a la carte professional learning experience that provides an opportunity for teachers to choose from a menu of sessions designed to meet individual interests and needs.
Promoting Anti-Racism & Equity
In addition to changes that benefit all students, and in line with our organizational priority focused on anti-racism and equity, I am happy to announce continued improvements to our support for individual students. We welcomed the new Director of Student Services, Ms. Delmy Rodriguez in early September and she is working alongside Co-Director, Mr. Fikayo Olu-Ayeni, who counts on deep recent experience in the classroom as a special education teacher. Delmy and Fikayo are leading our school’s transition to a co-teaching model, in which special education teachers work inside classrooms for the full day alongside lead teachers. The pairing of general and special education teachers in this way better meets the needs of individual students that need additional support, better meets the needs of the entire class, and ensures a more inclusive classroom for all students.
In addition, to more deeply meet the individual needs of some of our most vulnerable students, we have added two new layers of service for students receiving services under an individualized education plan (IEP): an enrichment program and a self-contained classroom. Each campus counts on an enrichment classroom where students receive individualized services while still remaining within a general education class for most learning. The self-contained classroom allows students with high levels of need to participate in a smaller class and receive dedicated small group and one-on-one lessons. I am grateful to the leadership of Delmy and Fikayo, as well as to each special education and intervention staff member for leaning in to lead these wonderful programs.
Driving Improved Learning for All Students
As a base of understanding how students are doing, the school is sending individual PARCC reports to all students that participated in testing in Spring of 2022, and has developed a short report on our school’s results, including performance by grade level and among specific groups. I encourage you to take a look at that report, linked here.
As part of their learning and growing, students are now busy at work on their first expedition of the school year. The school’s expeditionary learning (EL Education) curriculum is designed around expeditions - long-term, in-depth studies of real-world sustainability issues grounded in social studies and science concepts. Students make connections across core content areas, such as reading to research and writing to teach or engage in the persuasion of others. Regardless of their grade or ability, these hands-on projects are meant to spark curiosity, promote active learning, encourage teamwork, build character, and enhance students’ innate spirit of adventure. I encourage parents/caregivers to ask your child about their expeditions, and to join us when students present their expedition work in January.
In addition, our faculty and staff are launching Personalized Learning Time (PLT) for students, intentionally aligned with our organizational priority of driving improved learning for students. This additional daily academic support is tailored to individual student needs, and is built into the Master Schedule. To prepare for this structure, teachers review student data in student profiles, running records, and classroom-based assessments. The PLT approach benefits from having more adults in our classrooms - I am grateful to Academic Helper volunteers for making this possible! If you are interested in volunteering to support students in this way, please contact your school principal.
The entire team is looking forward to seeing parents and caregivers during Parent Teacher Conferences today and tomorrow, Thursday! Conferences are designed to provide parents/caregivers the opportunity to discuss with teachers current student strengths and needs. Also, I am pleased to announce that Mundo Verde will be reintroducing student portfolios in Kindergarten through Second Grade (you may hear teachers refer to this as a student portfolio or a planner). The portfolios/planners will be used to communicate with parents/caregivers of the school’s younger students on a more frequent basis, to support you in seeing the work your children are doing in the classroom. You can expect to receive weekly updates from teachers via ParentSquare, and can count on us to continue returning over this school year to Mundo Verde’s Core Elements of Communication re: Student Progress, as outlined in pages 41-42 of the family handbook (English / Spanish).
As I close, I want to thank parents and caregivers for choosing Mundo Verde and for continuing to give our school the opportunity to educate your children, and to thank our faculty and staff for their daily commitment to the school’s priorities and for making the Mundo Verde learning experience possible.
¡Sí se puede!
Joseph Rodriguez
Interim CSO