My Vision Assessment
Teacher Name______Date______
Directions: Highlight in Pink, at least two areas or concepts within this vision that you believe we have attained. Highlight in Blue, at least two areas that you have personally worked to help TCHS attain, and highlight in orange, at least two areas that we still need to work toward or to modify.
Welcome to TCHS. You are in for an invigorating educational tour that will inspire you and make you proud of the AmericanHigh School.
As a guest, you are struck by the friendly lobby environment where your needs and student safety needs are met immediately. The plasma on the wall is displaying student-produced programming featuring advertisements, skits and news reports about a variety of activities. Although you have been checked in and greeted by a student tour guide, you stand still captivated by the promotion created by the Sports, Recreation and Entertainment Marketing students related to the upcoming Senior Culminating Project Showcase. Your tour guide explains that the showcase, supported by a collection of our community/business partners will involve many of our students presenting their award winning capstone projects. These project presentations have been judged by a joint panel of topic experts, to be evidence of core learning at high levels across the curriculum.
Your tour guide explains that he will take you to the high tech engineering lab. It is lunchtime so the courtyard is thriving with activity. You notice students are sitting outside and teachers and staff are mingling with them. As lunch is nearing the end, you notice students all cleaning up their areas. You ask one student if this is typical, she explains that the students take great pride and ownership of their campus.
Once in the engineering lab, you see students working in teams to build projects. These students tell you about the two local engineers that came by yesterday and challenged them to solve a community problem that they are working on. They explain how the math teacher in the engineering small learning community is incorporating components of this community project. They are eager to work with this engineers and busy planning.
Your next visit is to the medical small learning community quad. As you enter, you notice an impressive work of art prominently displayed on the gallery wall. Your guide explains that the art students partnered with the medical students to design a painting concept depicting healthy living habits. You notice that the classrooms are thriving with collaboration as two adjoining classrooms have their walls open and students are interacting in an extended learning space. You join a group working with a laptop. They explain how their language arts and social studies teachers designed this assignment and related it to their medical career interests. They explain further that they are expected to design their own presentation using either the Wow Design Qualities or the Rigor and Relevance Model.
They will present their lesson in a week to the 9th graders as part of the their freshmen seminar. They have been charged with teaching the freshmen about the medical field and their SLC before student registration begins. Moving through the room you find another group brainstorming what type of tool they will use to measure engagement after the presentations next week. One group member explains that last year the 9th grade students took tours of each SLC but didn’t hear from the students. However, during one of the regular student forums, students asked to be able to provide lessons to the 9th grade. This suggestion was implemented immediately.
The tour guide explains that it is time to go to the October New Student Orientation because he is part of the Teacher/Student Induction Team that develops regular orientations, tours, new employee packets and all other induction programming.
As you head back to the front office, you overhear a teacher talking with a parent. The last thing you hear as you head out the door is the teacher saying, “There is no place else I would rather work; the teachers love teaching, learning, and students and the students meet high expectations and know we care.” You glance at the A School banner as you drive away and you know how they earned it!