Showcase Celebrations

If I asked you to share with me how you have been empowered to explore, discover and understand the world around you and the passions within you, what might you say?

Or if I asked you to tell me about how you have been a creative, reflective fulfilled individual what would you answer? How about how you have been an active, compassionate citizen over the past year? In what ways could you speak to being a courageous builder of a harmonious and sustainable world?


This is exactly what our students have been engaged reflecting about and using their creativity to prepare presentations to share their discoveries. These presentations are what we are calling Showcase Celebrations. Students are analyzing and evaluating their personal journey of living the mission of Renaissance.

Our journey as a school this year included analyzing and evaluating all of our school practices. It was time to take a look at Portfolio Showcases. We are committed to this important opportunity for students to speak about themselves - who they are becoming as people and as learners.

We recognized that a physical portfolio (whether that be a binder or an electronic version) was limiting the opportunities for students to be innovative and creative. We identified that our table of contents was not aligned with our mission statement and was outdated.

Moving forward, starting this year, students are creating personalized 'Showcase Celebrations'. We are dropping the word 'portfolio' from the title of this experience as the portfolio is really only a body of evidence that students are using to support their presentations.

The evaluation of this experience will be prior to the formal presentation, and in the form of feedback that students can use to strengthen their presentation. The Showcase Celebration gives students the opportunity to reflect on and share their learning and discoveries with an audience outside of their parents and teachers—much like a thesis or professional presentation. The Showcase is an authentic opportunity for students to use presentation, creativity, communication and critical thinking skills. Students gain a sense of pride and accomplishment through this experience and, through this process, students develop a deeper understanding of an Expeditionary Learning Design Principal—responsibility for learning.

All students will participate in a Showcase Celebration. Students in K, 1st, 2nd, 4th,  and 5th grades will present to peers and parents.  In third and sixth grade, our students present to a panel of adults. We are taking a risk this year to personalize it for students and let go of the constraints we had on this experience in the past. It's a bit anxiety inducing for teachers - the first time we try something is when we learn what we really needed to know to ensure success. So support us as we try this and learn from doing it.

We need your help! In order to make this experience successful we build panels to act as the audience for student Showcase Celebrations.  Showcase panels consist of community members, district personnel, school staff and parents of peers. Please take a look at this link and see if you can arrange your schedule to participate as a panelist for 3rd and/or 6th grade. No prior experience necessary! We pair you with a more experienced panel member and you learn 'on the job'. Panel members listen and talk with students about their learning.  Following the presentation, they write a letter to each student.

Should you be a parent of a third and sixth grader - please don't sign up for the same grade level as your student. You'll want to be available after they present to celebrate with them!

Serving on a panel is one of the best experiences you can have as a parent at Renaissance. It's so difficult to 'tell' people what is unique and special about Renaissance - rather it has to be experienced.  This is one of those special opportunities!!

Sign up link below:
Wednesday, May 18th: Third Grade Showcase Celebration  1:30 - 4:30 p.m.
Wednesday, May  25th: Sixth Grade Showcase Celebration 1:30 - 4:30 p.m.

Here's what some of our panelist, who participated last year, have to say:

* My two cents about my panel experience:

I didn't fully believe we were crew until I walked away from the panel feeling the same pride for those kids as I feel for my own children. It gave me hope and perspective.

* I was incredibly impressed at the insight these kids had. The self awareness blew me away. They knew what their strengths were. They knew where they were challenged and they knew what they did not do well at. 

Perseverance was a key theme with each kid I spoke with. They knew hard work was necessary to overcome obstacles. They knew they had to rely on both themselves and sometimes the help of others. 

* I am pretty sure other kids in 3rd and 6th grade who attend a more traditional educational setting do not have these insights. It was an impressive group of kids. They knew how they learned best. I don't think I knew that until college. 

* It was like having a glimpse in to the future and finding that it was surprisingly bright.

 * I was on a third grade panel last year.  As parent new to Renaissance I had no idea what to expect.  I was most impressed by how hard the children had worked on their presentations.  It seemed to be a very positive experience for them.   The kids were all very nervous going in, and seemed very encouraged leaving.   I sat in on three Showcases and they were all different, and personal to each child.   Each child showed their individual learning with a very different style and emphasis.   Being a part of the panels last year really helped me understand what Renaissance offers as a school.   I am excited to take part in the Showcases again this year.  

* I have participated in the portfolio review process, two times, for third graders.  I am continually amazed at how well-spoken the students at REMS are!  The are confident, well-prepared and are able to articulate their thoughts in a clear manner and manage multiple questions from the panelists with ease.

*As a parent of a 5th grader and 1st grader, I find it interesting how much the portfolio process has changed due to the technology available to our children today.  In the beginning, everything went into a binder.  Now, it goes into Google Drive. I love the collaboration with their teachers using technology and was very impressed by the student's ability to use graphics and sound to enhance their pieces of work.

I would highly recommend sitting on a panel if you can.  It is an enlightening and heartwarming experience to witness!  It really helps bring everything about REMS together in one place.  It is also fun to learn about the experience of other children outside of my own.

* Last year I had the pleasure of serving as a panelist for third grade portfolios.  I was quite impressed by the presenters’ academic and technical accomplishments, but even more so by their confidence and poise.  The experience that the children gain from participating in this process will serve them well in the years to come.  It was a wonderful experience, and I plan to participate again. 

*"I have served as a panelist for both 3rd and 6th grade portfolio showcases.  These showcases are part of what makes Renaissance profoundly unique, and being a panelist on one will be one of the most enlightening and moving experiences you will have in connection with Renaissance.

I was impressed, and initially surprised, by the amount of thought and effort that the students put into their portfolios.  The students love demonstrating how hard they've worked on their portfolios and how much they've learned while at Renaissance.  Some students are very shy, some are very outgoing, and some are in between, and it is enjoyable to see how these students with different personalities and presentation styles effectively demonstrate their cumulative learning.  It's very cool to see the progress they make year to year.

Being a panelist only reaffirms our choice to have our kids attend Renaissance.  It's such a unique opportunity for both students and parents to be involved in this type of activity.  Take advantage of it while you can!"

What is iReady?

We have been using iReady (a diagnostic tool) to monitor student growth in reading and math. The results from the diagnostic at the beginning, middle and end of year are one tool for teachers to see how much students have progressed and determines whether a student is on track to meet expected growth.

iReady is a vertical scale score - think of it like a growth chart for your child. iReady uses the vertical scale to measure what skills students have gained from one point in time to the next, on a "chart" of skills that spans K through 12th grade.  This "chart" consists of those skills expected of students at each grade level. iReady is focused on skills - and therefore wouldn't be the only measurement of student growth.

While iReady measures growth - we need other measurements to get a full picture (we like to call this a body of evidence).  This is our second year of using this tool. We were skeptics the first year - hence we didn't share much of our findings as we weren't sure that this tool would have a value to us. In our second year, we are seeing correlations between our authentic assessments, teacher observations, and iReady data. 

In order to be in compliance with legislation, we needed an assessment that was approved to identify struggling students (READ Act) and iReady was one approved assessment. We also needed student growth data above and beyond the State assessments (PARC) that could be uploaded for teacher evaluation. These two requirements were not optional. 

 We sought out an assessment that could meet the criteria of all these mandated requirements AND be an assessment we valued for instruction. iReady is meeting that need for us. It is also an on-line assessment with positive student feedback. The assessment can be done in short chunks of time and under the time line of a teacher. iReady also has components that give teachers detailed information that they can use for instruction, along with some on-line instructional tools.

We are happy to share information with you face to face. We are still learning to read and make sense of all the information that is supplied in a report. For that reason, we want to be sure to make meaning of the results together. As with any standardized assessment, it is one piece of evidence that stands with a bigger body of evidence on how students are growing and learning.

Transportation update:

Thanks to the generosity of our community, with funds raised at Life Is Art, we have submitted a purchase requisition to purchase two 14 passenger white buses at a cost of $60,000.  Woo hoo!!!

District transportation will be inspecting the buses prior to purchase and we hope to have this process completed by the end of May. Meetings are in the works to document agreements between the district and Renaissance on the maintenance of these vehicles.

In the meantime, 14 of our staff, have completed the district driving certification and hold licenses to drive these buses! 

Stand by for more blog posts...

With plans underway for next year, they'll be more information coming your way! 

Warmly,

Ms. Deborah