Killingly Public Schools “Great Things Happen Here!”

What does it mean to you to be College and Career Ready (CCR)?  Sharing of ideas

Examples of CCR attributes  Able to communicate effectively  Able to problem solve  Able to work collaboratively  Able to self-advocate socially, emotionally, and academically  To have a self-awareness of strengths and weaknesses  To have the academic skills necessary to be successful in college or career

THINK: A forum on the Future of Leadership  Uploaded on Oct 7, 2011  THINK: A Forum on the Future of Leadership, a major event during IBM's centennial year, brought together innovative leaders from across the globe to deepen our collective understanding of the keys to success on a smarter planet. Watch more highlights from the event, September , New York city, at

How will you support your students in being College and Career Ready?  We understand that there are simultaneous needs for educators in today’s classroom  Essentially we are talking about 21 st century skills  Content Knowledge  Managing the rate of societal changes and the hardships of the economic times

Issues facing children on a daily basis  There are ongoing societal issues relating to social media, video games, an invasion of targeted marketing, economic disparity, abuse, neglect, and children living in drug endangered environment.  However, Killingly consistently combats these issues with ever increasingly success rates!  Our five year trends continue to show improvement in attendance, discipline, graduation rates, standardized assessments, percentage of students reading at goal, and improved math scores.  All the important metrics of success are there. We will always see dips and spikes in our data, however, the trend data continues to be positive.  I believe the cornerstone to our success the last five years has been a consistent effort to purposely focus on relationships with students and families

Joy and Fear  See video

Emotional Traits that are hardwired  Sadness  Joy  Disgust  Anger  Surprise  Fear

Emotional traits that are taught  Compassion  Empathy  Humility  Forgiveness  Optimism  Patience  Cooperation  Gratitude

Building a sense of community in the classroom  One of our strengths as a district is our purposeful efforts to build relationships  We continue to model and teach behaviors that are necessary for a complex social environment-–like a classroom  Many building-wide efforts include  Responsive Classroom  Capturing Kids’ Hearts  Restorative Practices  Second Step  The Superflex Curriculum

Collectively We Make a Difference  As we welcome many new faces this year, there will be change  What will be constant, is our persistence to help all children  Building upon a shared belief, is the spring board to drive our actions

“The Tree”  This video conveys a strong message that a collective effort can make a great difference

What is your “Tree”?  What do you believe will move our district forward?  With a common vision our goals can be accomplished  My ”Tree” is a belief that all children can learn at high levels:  I believe all children can achieve CCR skills and the characteristics we discussed  I believe all children can take a position, defend it with research based facts, and communicate effectively  I believe all children can solve complex task that requires systems thinking, cooperative efforts, and to be persistent  I believe all children can work cooperatively to achieve a singular goal  I believe all children can discover their inner-self and finds modes of expression through music, athletics, and the arts in order to communicate with the world in various ways

What is your ”Tree”?  What do you believe we need, to collectively ensure our students are ready?  Teaching in no longer an isolated craft  The challenges are too great  We must work together

Killingly BOE Goals - Approved March 2016  Ensure graduates are college and career ready  Provide students with the necessary foundation for learning, specifically in the area of literacy  Engage the community in a 5-year strategic planning process  Continue to improve school climate in each building  Strengthen community partnership in order to increase community involvement with in the school system

Happy New Year! and in the great words of Maryann McGillivray, “Be kind and patient with one another”

Resources  “Teaching with Poverty in Mind” by Eric Jenson (2009)  You Tube videos:  Think: A forum on the Future of Leadership   Emerson – Mommy’s Nose is Scary  oxmRT2YWw&feature=s2lp&src_vid=qBppBPvMTk8&v=N9oxm RT2YWw oxmRT2YWw&feature=s2lp&src_vid=qBppBPvMTk8&v=N9oxm RT2YWw  Lead India – The Tree: 