Freshman Academies in Ascension Parish Every Child Successful in an Ever-changing World Patrice Pujol – Assistant Superintendent Traci McCorkle – Associate Principal Amanda Mayeaux – Associate Principal

Why Freshman Academies?

District Non-negotiables  Associate Principal Dedicated to the Freshman Academy  Teaming  Philosophy of Failure is Not an Option

District Support  Associate Principal Salary  Teaming Staffing Collective Wisdom ~ Problem Solving  Philosophy of Failure is Not an Option Professional Development (Randy Thompson) Collective Wisdom ~ Problem Solving

East Ascension High School Traci McCorkle - Associate Principal

The Challenge Non-Negotiables  PBS  Teaming  Failure Is Not An Option First Year “MUSTS”  Faculty Selection  Team Coordination  Master Schedule  Location  Training

PBS  Success in getting to know students and challenging them to do well as a team  Working as a team with parents and administrators to implement various interventions to help improve student behavior  Looking forward to focusing more on rewards The Ride

Failure Is Not An Option  ABC Not Yet ~ Re-teach/Re-test Show us your EA spirit!  Lunch Lab  Flexibility of schedule  Physical Science failures  Making deliberate strides to achieve our philosophy Consistent practice Professional dialogue The Ride

Teaming  Student Support Thumbs meetings Team/student meetings Being known and valued  Teacher Support Camaraderie Professional dialogue/affirmation  Parent Support Increased contact Parents as partners in the process The Ride

PBS & Failure Is Not An Option thoughts from teachers  “More difficult than teaming…These are very good ideas, but must be fleshed out more completely for us…by us.”  “Our outlook on ‘failure is not an option’ has been a good guide for the teachers as to how we should view individual students and their successes.”  “ABC not yet was another good try, but the logistics were not there yet.” Reflection and Refocus

Teaming thoughts from teachers  “I think that teaming has been very successful in our attempts to produce a true academy.”  “Teaming was not a chore but a time to be able to share concerns/problems about a student and the other person understood what you were talking about.”  “To me, teaming has been the true strength of our academy this year.” Reflection and Refocus

Donaldsonville High School Amanda Mayeaux - Associate Principal

Donaldsonville High School Teaming Easy as A cademics, B ehavior, C ulture

Academics  Standards have been established across the team for grading, homework, make-up work, and test regulations.  Standards for student work are used.  Teams work together to establish assessment standards and to discuss lesson design.  Reading standard is used across the team.

Behavior  Standard behavior expectations across the team.  Team meetings with students and parents.  Freedom to move students between classes as an intervention.  Application of PBS with team incentives.  Frequent communication with home for positive and negative concerns.

 Established culture of high expectations and allowed students to own their team identities.  Portfolio “Show-Off Days” for families  Team-Building activities Culture  Student-driven activities like service-learning projects and field trips

Final Notes  Location, location, location  Ownership  Reflection

Freshman Academies in Ascension Parish Every Child Successful in an Ever-changing World Patrice Pujol – Assistant Superintendent Traci McCorkle – Associate Principal Amanda Mayeaux – Associate Principal