Spartan Scoop #24
February 27, 2016
Thought for the week: Excerpt From "Thoughts on Teaching and Learning" by Richard E. Klinck 1965 National Teacher of the Year
Building Items:
SLOs are due into TalentEd Monday, 2/29. Let us know if you are having any problems getting your information to submit.
Continue with positive reinforcement of behaviors - data is still looking good. Only 8 students received a major or a minor referral last week.
Student Advisory Committee will meet on Wednesdays at 8:45. Send your kiddos to the office at that time.
Books at Lunch and Recess - Teachers, please do not allow students to bring books to the lunchroom or to recess. Even if the book is the student’s personal book, they cannot bring it to lunch or recess. It would be far too difficult for lunch and recess staff to determine what is a library book, classroom book or personal book. Please put this in your sub plans as well so the substitute teachers have it in writing.
Incentive - Mr. Samuel is giving a hat day on March 1 for good lunchroom behavior. The following classes qualified for the hat day: Andrews, Easley, Buxton, Simms, Sander, Ragsdale, Childs, Propst, Oestreich, Taulbee, Enslen, Mefford, Showalter, Power, Gilmore, McDowell, Wright, Foreman, Stilwell, Ross and Herron. Congratulations to your students for their good lunchroom behavior.
Patience - This is the time of the year where our patience can run thin. Please follow the same PBS protocols today as you did in August or September. Just because a student exhibits the same behaviors 3 or more days a week every week, that does not mean that his/her typical behavior jumps from a think sheet to a minor. If it was a think sheet in August, it is still a think sheet in February, March, April and May.
Recent Common Behaviors
Pre-corrects for those behaviors
Cheating
We can assume that a student should not use books while they take Reading Counts quizzes, but I want you to remind them of this prior to testing. When giving assignments be very direct on whether students should be doing this on their own or if they may work with a partner or partners.
Physical Contact
Prior to recess or going in the halls, remind students to keep hands to themselves for safety purposes.
Bus Safety
Before going home remind students to have a safe ride home and to follow our guidelines of being respectful, responsible and safe.
Theft
Remind students that if something does not belong to them that they cannot take it. This is stealing.
Away from the Assigned Area
Remind students that they must take the most direct route to another location. In fact, if a student is going to the office, tell them exactly how you want them to get there.
Disrespect to Staff
Let students know that as adults you ask a lot out of them. One thing you will not do is ask them to do something that is unsafe. Any request you give is a reasonable request and they should follow it without rolling eyes, making a noise, or refusing to follow the request. Let the students know that they have a choice to follow the request or not. Following the request results in a positive outcome, choosing not to follow the request will result in a negative outcome.
How to Check your Lunch Account: Go to SIS
click on the little house in the left corner
Click on the arrow button in the Actions box (in the middle of your screen)
Then click my lunch account
**This is a reminder that staff members cannot carry a negative balance on their meal accounts. Central Office keeps a close eye on this and expects you to have a positive balance. Please make a payment as soon as you can.
Peer Observation is due March 1 to Dave.
Floating Work Day Form is due May 1 to Dave.
PD Log is due to Dave May 1.
Mr. Samuel's Weekly Challenge - Use at least one cooperative learning strategy every day. I will guarantee that you will see academic growth very soon.
Calendar Items:
Monday, 2/29 - CLT - Meet in the Music room
Tuesday, 3/1 - Angie out all day, BLT @ 7:45 in the Library, PBS Lesson @ 9:20
Wednesday, 3/2 - SPED Staffing 7:45, Dave’s Coaching Day, Dr. Seuss’ Birthday - Dress like a Dr. Seuss character, Drop Everything and Read from 2:00 - 2:30, Invite a guest reader to read this day or any day this week. (suggestions; CO staff, building principals from the district or GBE, any other special guest) As long as the guest readers are school district personnel, not on the registered sex offender list and not left alone from students, we do not need a background check.
Use the above link for other great ideas for this special day.
3/2 will also be the Reading Counts Lunch with the Principals lunch at 12:00.Thursday, 3/3 - Dave out all day, Angie’s Coaching Day, Major Savor Card kickoff assembly at 8:30. The major saver fundraiser is how the Moberly Public Schools Foundation raises money for mini and super grants. This is a big fundraiser and it helps many of you to receive funds for wonderful classroom resources. This fundraiser will go through March 15., 5th Grade Awards @ 2:50, SHWAC @ 3:00
Friday, 3/4 - Bowl For Kids’ Sake $2 Jeans Day; Intruder Drill for Staff using 3 Button Alert 7:55
Vision Items:
CLT: Meet in the Music Room-- bring a pen and paper for notes. You will receive all items you need for MAP training at that time. Ken Bailey will be there to go over any questions from the training videos and the tool training/practice that we have been doing these last few weeks.
I will also discuss the Journeys Visit to St. Charles that has been planned.
RTI: We are in the pre-planning stages. Dr. Erica Lembke from MU, a leading RTI guru, has volunteered to assist us in our planning stages for next year. I am looking also at writing an MPER grant in order to have some funding while working with Dr. Lembke. Katelyn Wright, who has known Dr. Lembke for years, has acted as a liaison between us and Dr. Lembke getting meeting dates set with Dave and I. She will then meet in April with our entire RTI team. A big thanks to Katelyn who took the initiative for our school to seek out this well respected individual.
Make sure you are updating your team CLT Log that needs to be shared or turned into Angie at the end of the year. If it is on the share drive I just ask that you move it into Google to share with me by the end of the year. I cannot access the share drive from home.
Data Wall: As you give your topic tests and SLO's please enter these scores into the Data Wall yourself OR you can send them to Mrs. Patrick to do so. We would like to try to move to everyone entering these themselves to save time and get us used to entering our data and coding it for data discussions in the future.
SMART GOALS-- those of you that are not doing an SLO will have a Smart Goal that you have been working on this year. This is required to also be updated with the data by the end of the month. This allows us to also print these off and use when we go over Summatives with each of you.
CWG DATA MUST be kept up to date and shared with Sheila Thurman form NE-RPDC. We are required to give her five set data points. Please make sure to keep these up to date and shared with Sheila and myself. I have sent out her email previously, but will again. She has emailed me this weekend asking for all data to be updated in order to keep our funding from the grant.
Her email is: sthurman@truman.edu
District Items:
- No Tax Bond Issue in April: Remember we as district employees can ONLY educate while on contracted time and we can not use district resources to promote the Bond Issue. Please do not use your school email to encourage people to vote for the Bond issue. The main pieces of this issue to communicate is
- This is a NO TAX INCREASE $9.5 Million Bond Issue
- This issue will address safety and security. Every building except the HS will have the main entrance addressed for security reasons.
- NP and EP will be handicap accessible through the main entrance
- NP and SP will have additional classrooms build to alleviate the need for the trailers
- The Performing Arts area of the HS will be renovated. This will include the Band and Choir rooms.
Staff Birthdays:
February
Dawn Rasdale-8th
Brandy Forsyth- 12th
Tessa Rivera- 16th
Dee Noel-17th
Melissa Slater - 21st
Ashley Patrick-21st