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School Goals and Progress (PLP)
School Goals and Progress (PLP)
The West Rocks Middle School (WRMS) staff have made concerted efforts throughout our first full year in the VILS program to address goals laid out in the school's Professional Learning Plan (PLP). Special consideration has been made to increase opportunities for digital collaboration among students. This goal is important since it is the track we belong to in the VILS Academy but also because of the priority Norwalk Public Schools (NPS) and WRMS have placed on students' future readiness.
School and district leaders have taken an active role in the learning process by participating in VILS learning experiences as well as prioritizing professional learning around digital collaboration during district-initiated opportunities for teacher professional learning.
school and district leadership
school and district leadership
Norwalk Public School District Leadership
Superintendent
Dr. Alexandra Estrella
Assistant Superintendent for Digital Learning and Innovation
Ralph Valenzisi
VILS District Lead
Tina Henckel
Coordinator of Digital Learning
Lynn Payton
VILS IT Lead
Evan Sacks
West Rocks Middle School Leadership
Principal
Dr. Adam Reynolds
Assistant Principal
Beth Amaral
VILS Instructional Coach
Dr. Dan Kreiness
House Leaders
Rebecca Sabol
Sara Golding
Dee Walters
Library Media Specialist
Krista Surprenant
IT Technician
Luis Garcia
The school leadership team consists of the principal, assistant principal, house leaders, instructional coach, dean of students, subject area leaders, and anyone else who wishes to join. The team meets weekly to discuss ways to work toward school goals and initiatives. The leadership team has implemented best practices gained from leadership calls by scheduling and facilitating committee meetings and Professional Learning Communities (PLC) to support future-ready initiatives and opportunities for digital learning and collaboration.
The Norwalk Public Schools district leadership team has supported innovation and creativity by setting it as one of their highest values as part of a newly created strategic operating plan for 2021-2026.
Teacher leader corps (TLC)
Teacher leader corps (TLC)
West Rocks Middle School values teacher collaboration and leadership through a Professional Community (PLC) model. As such, several committees exist within the school to promote teacher empowerment. The Teacher Leader Corps (TLC) is a committee comprised of 12 teacher leaders. The TLC meets regularly once per month. Between formal meetings, TLC members and the VILS Coach meet one-on-one as part of coaching cycles and in small groups when possible to work on being ambassadors for digital learning platforms. One example shown in the photo to the right is when some teachers and members of the TLC wanted to incorporate a translation app for better accessibility for students with language barriers.
The TLC has impacted school improvement efforts and student learning by being eager to try new digital learning tools and instructional strategies. The TLC searches for ways to make learning more relevant and authentic. Additionally, the TLC models these new strategies for other teachers on grade level and content area teams.
In this photo, a member of the TLC tries out a tool called Plickers to scan QR codes that students are holding for a quick check for understanding and valuable formative assessment.
In this photo, a teacher PLC that includes members of the TLC is learning how to use Microsoft Translate to roll the platform out to other teachers to better support students who are Multi Language Learners.
In this photo, a TLC member displays an activity adapted from a VILS learning experience. The activity provided opportunities for student choice and differentiation of content, process, and product.
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