WEBVTT

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[Music]

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I'm Jason Cameron.

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I'm the principal at
Woodbridge Elementary School,

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in Greenwood, Delaware.

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When I go into a classroom,
I expect to see engagement

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and the students involved.

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It starts with the teacher
first knowing the content

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and knowing the strategy, and it
starts with them being excited.

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The students have to know
that we care for them,

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and we have to find a way
to engage them every day.

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I had a board member last
year, whose daughter was

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in fourth grade, say
to me, "You know,

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I just can't keep
my child in books."

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I said, "Well, you're
welcome, sir,"

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because that's what
we want to do;

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we want to have them
excited about reading.

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My job is the master motivator.

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I have to find a way to
keep my teachers motivated;

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the same thing I said about
keeping a student motivated

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for 177 days is keeping
the staff motivated.

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A big part of my role is
being in the classroom.

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I do walk-throughs; there's
about three different types

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of walk-throughs that I do.

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The first one, I call
it the "drop-in."

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That's where I go in,
generally by myself; I'm in for,

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I'd say, about ten minutes.

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And it could be for any
subject, and I am looking

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for good instructional
strategies.

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We at Woodbridge -- the school
district has a teacher model

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that has eight components, and
they include like a warm-up

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and closure, and engagement,

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and calling on volunteers
and nonvolunteers.

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So I usually keep a little
laminated copy of that with me

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with my walk-throughs, and I'm
not necessarily just looking

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for those things, but I try to
comment on those that I see.

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The second type consists
of myself going

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through with either our
math specialist or one

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of my reading coaches,
where we pick a grade level

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and we go through.

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On those days, I
am looking to see,

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is everybody having the
same essential question,

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is there curriculum fidelity,

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am I seeing the same
thing in each classroom?

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Obviously not looking for the
same delivery, but I'm looking

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to see, are we all on page 46 or
are we all on Unit 4, Lesson 5?

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Because that's another reason
we've been very successful is

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the curriculum fidelity; you
can go into eight sections

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of third grade, and they
are all in the same place.

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The third one, which
is new to us this year,

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is we have a read-aloud time,
interactive read-aloud time.

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It's more of a checklist
versus a walk-through,

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and it has about ten things
on it that we are looking

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through in the read-aloud.

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It was something that,

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at a professional development
day, we taught to them.

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Just like with the student,
we would teach a rubric

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to a student first; well,
I taught the checklist

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to the teachers first, so they
know what we're looking for.

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One thing that I can't recreate

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for you is the dedication
of this staff.

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The nice thing is they have
seen the results of their labor.

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[Music]