Rancho Minerva Handing Out Hope

Tears flowed down her face as she walked out the doors with a cart full of boxes. But the boxes she carried were not just any box, they were blessing boxes.  This parent’s holiday season just took a turn for the better.  In fact, 15 families at Rancho Minerva just felt the result of a team of dedicated, generous, empathetic faculty and staff who pulled together to bless each family.

In early December, a team from Rancho Minerva met with a wonderful idea.  An idea to extend an offer of holiday hope to 15 selected families who were either living homeless or nearly homeless through the circumstances they had been dealt.  You would never know it by the resilient smile each student has walking around the campus, but the outlook of  yet another  holiday season with little to no food, the feeling of being cold and the feeling of disappointment which consumes their thoughts as we neared the final school days of 2015.  The offer of holiday hope literally brought tears to every family as they picked up boxes of goods, filled from our own students, staff and parents.

Students lined the sidewalks on chilly mornings the last few weeks of December collecting goods for families.  Parents chipped in and unloaded boxes of food, clothing, blankets and toiletries.  As the donations came in, the faculty and staff or RMMS stepped in to adopt each family.  15 families  represented as ornaments that  hung from a tree in the office were one by one adopted by teams of teachers and staff.  Bags of new jackets, blankets, socks began to fill our offices as the blessing boxes began to fill.  The generosity of the team at Rancho Minerva overflowed and abounded throughout the boxes and boxes filled for each family.

On the final day before holiday break, one-by-one each family came to pick up their donations.  Every exchange between the RMMS team and the family resulted in tears of joy, relief and hope.  This time of year is about giving.  This year, the team from Rancho Minerva gave our parents and students hope.  Such a wonderful memory for all.

A New Look at Parent Conferences

Rancho Minerva is on a mission.  A mission to provide the BEST experience for our students on a daily basis. In order to make this come to light, we are reimagining the way we do things around here.  Starting in early October, a team of educators met over the course of a month to redesign our parent conference experience.  Inspired by glimpses of success from the previous year’s student-led conferences, the team created a unique plan to include both students and parents.

The Redesign:  We grew tired of seeing the traditional system of parent-teacher conferences become an incubator of negative feelings, finger pointing and a place where our students confidence was damaged.  We desired a meeting focused on goals, strengths, and positive, forward-focused conversations.  

The Product: Teaming up with Thrively, a recent start-up dedicated to helping students discover their strengths and passions, the team at Rancho Minerva designed a self-driven playlist that led students through strengths assessments, goal setting, reflection and career exploration.  The end result was a plan titled, “My Future, My Way”.  Every student at Rancho Minerva developed a plan, then either presented it at parent conferences, or - if not able to come - were charged with presenting at home to their parents.

The Result: It was truly inspiring to hear our students discuss their futures, reflections and plans on how they would redirect their focus to be successful.  Parent pride overflowed at each table, as they had the opportunity to share their hopes and dreams for their child; building them up instead of tearing them down. Teachers were able to ask leading questions as a means of reflecting, and giving feedback to each student.  The evening ended with students leaving not beat up, but encouraged to follow their future, their way.

Meet Digital Discovery

Rancho Minerva has been very fortunate to be part of the Digital Promise Verizon Innovative Schools Grant, which has provided 1:1 iPads with 4G internet connectivity for each student at Rancho Minerva.  This program has been a wonderful kickstart to the innovative direction our school is headed.   Rancho Minerva is on a path to create a one-of-a-kind learning center for students of all backgrounds, at all levels.  We know that in order to achieve this vision, we must make our teaching and learning personal for each student.  When we examined the diverse needs of our students, the data from our current practices and our impact new innovative programs could have on our students, we set forth to create Digital Discovery.

Digital Discovery was created by a team of teachers who volunteered to create an elective course accessible to all students, which included strategic elements embedded in a personalized approach. A primary goal of Personalized Learning is to design learning experiences that give students choice and voice about their own learning.  Similar to packing your car after a trip to IKEA, we were challenged with the task to fit many key elements into this course each week at the same time keeping it engaging for our students.  

The key elements included in Digital Discovery include:

• Digital Game-based Math Intervention for all students (ST Math)
• Targeted Literacy using multiple forms of media
• Sustained Silent Reading
• Personalized Project Playlists
• Mentoring Time
• Restorative Circles/Table Talk
• Homeroom
• Digital Citizenship
• Digital Tools and use
• Introduce Self Directed Learning Behaviors
• and much more

Each week, Digital Discovery students set out on a personal learning path, as teachers serve as facilitators of learning and mentors.  Students have access to a web-based Personal Learning Playlist each week which guides them through their expected outcomes.  In the first week of this course, the excitement was felt by both students and teachers.  One teacher remarked, “I have never had this much fun teaching, I am learning so much!” in reference to learning alongside students in the class.

We know that this class serves as first steps of the PL transformation that is happening at Rancho Minerva.  Teachers collaborate daily on the course and transition and make real-time adjustments of the course.  This course is our working laboratory as we seek to continue along the path towards a true personalized learning environment at Rancho Minerva. 






Even teachers who are not teaching the course are beginning to explore implementing Personalized Learning components into their curriculum, based on what they have been hearing from both teachers and students about the Digital Discovery experience.  Check back for updates as we walk down this personalized learning path together this year.

Students recently finished their first unit on digital photography. In order to show demonstrate compentency, students worked through a playlist reading non-fictional text, exploring various articles, websites and resources. Students completed the unit by building a presentation on a platform of their choosing. The results were simply amazing. Each student selected a photo to enter into the RMMS Photo Gallery (set up in our flexible learning cafe), then all students voted for the top photos that will later be put on display at a local arts festival.



We are learning a lot through this class, however the early results have been very encouraging. Giving students choice, relevance, audience and a teacher who is in their corner as a mentor has been quite fascinating to observe.

#RMMSFAM
#WAVE

Building Community: One Family at a Time

Rancho Minerva Middle School faculty and staff kicked off the 2015-2016 school year in a very unique way.  On the first day back to school, RMMS ditched their welcome back meeting and PD for a community building activity that made a huge impact. Teams of teachers spread out through the community to visit students’ homes and send them the message, “We are excited to have you back at Rancho Minerva.”  The home visits were the latest effort in building the #RMMSFAM community.  Teams of 4-5 teachers, spent an hour visiting and building relationships with 10 families throughout Vista.  Teachers were given a brief orientation prior to heading out, which included a message from Jacinto Noriega, Professional Learning Manager from Digital Promise. "Some of the nerves you may be feeling prior to heading into the homes of our students, are the same nerves our parents feel stepping on our campus", remarked assistant principal Anna Lozano prior to hitting the streets.

RMMS Teachers welcome new student to the #RMMSFAM at her home

The home visits continued as each team invited the (10) families to a community lunch in the park.  We strategically picked the small park in the center of the community where a majority of our students live.  We wanted to be on their turf, to show them we care and to give many of our teachers a better sense of the community in which their students live.  The event culminated with each family getting a goodie bag, and an invite to the first principal’s coffee.

The impact of this event went far beyond the day.  Teacher reflections following the visits revealed many had an eye opening experience, truly seeing how students live after the bell rings.  “This was the best day of my teaching career” stated a teacher following the event.  Another teacher reflected,  “Today reinforced that relationships are the foundation of all that we do.” The lasting impact on our RMMS team continues as we strive to create a learning environment that meets the needs of the diverse backgrounds, living situations, and needs of our students and their families..

The impact in the #RMMSFAM parent community continued as parents were invited to the first principal coffee.  For many of the families who attended, this was their first school event, sitting down with the principal, administration, parent community liaison and teachers to discuss the direction of the school.  One parent remarked, “This school is different, I have never felt this way about a school, You are beautiful people the way you reach out to us”.  

We decided to do this event to help build community.  Through leveraging the willingness of our amazing staff, support from Digital Promise and our willingness to take risks, we are making our mark within the community of Vista.

#UnBULLievable

Last week, a team of RMMS teachers visited Philidelphia to take place in an #Unbullievable experience at the #DPVILS convening and #ISTE2015 Conference. Rancho Minerva was invited to present on our 1:1 Journey, where teachers shared about our year-long experience. Here is a recap of our time in Philidelphia:

Our Journey Continues

I recently spoke at the National University National Board P20 Leadership Summit.  Amongst the fine leaders at the summit were teachers and leaders from all over the country.  I was greatly humbled to share a bit of the #RMMSFAM story, as we have come so far in such a short bit of time.  In closing the 2014-2015 school year, I'd like to share some of the thoughts shared at the Summit:

Where we have come from:

• 2 Years ago Rancho Minerva topped the charts with discipline incidents.  RMMS was the school with the most suspensions, referrals and argueablly the most disengaged group of students in the district.
• 2 Years ago, Rancho Minerva had a computer lab that could be checked out by 1 teacher per period.  Computers were an event where students would access from time to time.
• 2 Years ago, Rancho Minerva was known for being the school up the hill with the tough kids, discipline problems and interventions in lieu of electives.
• However, 2 Years ago, we began down a journey encouraging everybody to take risks.  To be innovative and challenge one another to grow as we move to 21st Century teaching.  We asked teachers, administrators and staff to work together, move beyond their comfort zones and create an innovative environment that not only challenges students, but embraces each unique student that we have.

Through hard work, strategic moves and driven teacher leadership; we are proud of where we have come as a school family.  We have reduced our suspensions by over 85%, we have created a true #RMMSFAM with our students, families, faculty and staff.  We have created an environment where students want to be, where students thrive and where students overcome many of the challenges they face.  Along our way, we took 3 steps that have helped us grow as a school tremendously, as we have continued to pursue being THE model of excellence in innovation.

1. We are Building Relationships
We asked each other to champion our students.  To build relationships, listen, show genuine interest and concern.  We asked our seek to understand our students, to empower our students and to show them that they matter.  To that end, we have seen a dramatic reduction in our school behavior issues. Students feel like family.  Students are empowered to rise above the noise and obstacles that may come in their way.

2. We are Empowering our Faculty/Staff and Students
We align the right staff at the right time, challenge them and then get out of the way.  We are seeing teachers and staff lead professioal development, share experiences good and bad, lead critical conversations that are driving change at the school.  We are empowering our students to step up, take the lead and change as well.  We redesigned our offices, where students, faculty and staff may come and collaborate in the "bull pen".  A collaborative environment where we work togther everyday.

3. We are Taking Risks
If you want to innovate, you have to be comfortable with taking risks.  These last 2 years we have asked each other to embrace technology in the classroom and try new ways of teaching.  We created plans were teachers had weekly access to devices in every subject area, every week.  A year ago, we were noticed and asked to apply for a 1:1 iPad grant.  Through the generous donations of Digital Promise and the Verizon Foundation, we became 1 out of 8 schools that would go 1:1.

This year, we have seen continued growth and have been blown away by the way the RMMS teachers, staff and students have embraced our 1:1 program.  Many feared this project may be too risky.  But what we have found is that both teachers and our students have risen to the occasion.

Looking forward, we are excited to continue our journey as we are taking the lead as one of the VUSD Personalized Learning Challenge Schools. We are excited to see how we as a #RMMSFAM can create a school community which embraces every learner as an individual, creating a personalized learning pathway for everyone.

Through the hard work of everyone at Rancho Minerva, we are on the pathway to wonderful things.  As we continue to build relationships, empower all stakeholders and take risks, the future of Rancho Minerva is looking bright!

I am excited to see what next year brings!

Positive Behavior at Rancho Minerva Middle School

According to the California Department of Education, there has been a significant decline in suspensions of students at Rancho Minerva Middle School approximately 78.5% from 2013 to 2014.  What has caused the drastic decline in suspensions?  As the previous blog discussed a significant aspect has been building positive relationships with our students. Rather than approaching discipline from a punitive model, we have begun positive behavior programs at Rancho Minerva Middle.  Teachers, the counselor, and administration participated in a two-day workshop that focused on increasing positive behaviors on campus. One system we have in place is our Rancho Rewards Program.  When students demonstrate positive behaviors, (i.e., helping others in class, picking up trash, or following directions) teachers, administrators, and support staff gives the student a Rancho Reward card.  Students turn in their Rancho Rewards cards in the main office.  Every Friday, we draw names for Rancho Rewards.  The weekly winners can opt for various prizes such as front of the lunch line tickets, free snack from our student store, or an opportunity to spend their lunch in our game room, (where students can play on any of the game consoles such as the Wii, Play Station, and Xbox).  A team of teachers, counselors, and administrators visit the weekly winners in class and recognize the students in front of their classmates. The program is a true success. Students who are selected reflect pride and increase confidence.

            Some tips you could use may include the 4:1 ratio. For every negative comment made, four positive comments are given in return.  It can be something as simple as: “Great job today in class, Good job in participating in class.”  Small yet powerful comments can truly make a powerful difference.