WEEKLY STAFF BULLETIN
January 6-10
WEEKLY STAFF BULLETIN
Good morning,
I hope that the holidays gave you a chance to rest and enjoy time with friends and family. The new year brings new opportunities to make an impact in the lives of our students and in one another.
Hard to believe we are starting the third nine weeks and we are halfway through the school year. I am sure the second half will go as quickly as the first with all the upcoming events. With the state tests right around the corner, please focus on intervention, focused instruction, and make sure to use released test questions within your lessons. We were fortunate to have the information provided to us on the most tested standards along with sample questions. Please make sure to take advantage of this opportunity.
On another note, the character trait for the month of January is Honesty. At the end of the month we will take part in the Great Kindness Challenge again. That was such a great week last year that really does impact the students and overall building climate.
January is School Board recognition month. Please think of a way your students can show appreciation for our school board. This can be doing a video or writing thank you cards. They will be recognized at the next board meeting.
Have a wonderful week and welcome back.
Aim High and Dream Big!!
Trish
What's Going This Week
This week is Science Supervision
Monday- Basketball -Girl's Home ( Bethel-Tate)
Tuesday- Submit Grades
Wednesday- Basketball -Girl's Home ( CNE) EH
Thursday- Heather's Birthday
Friday- Barricade drill @1:50; Report Cards Go Home; Byways Field Trip
Upcoming Events
January 17th- 8th Grade Grant Visit
January 20- No School - Martin Luther King Day
January 22- Basketball- Boy's Home ( New Richmond)
January 24th-Pep Assembly
January 27- Basketball- Girl's Home ( Hamersville)- Great Kindness Week Begins
January 29th- High School Scheduling Fair
Friendly Reminders
Submit Weekly Team meeting notes.
Articles/pictures/newsletters for Parent Newsletter
TLC
Week of 1-6 to 1-10 M, W,F- 2:15-2:30
Go over weekly agenda
Set goals for the week
Talk about Winter Break
Discuss ways they have used their strengths and what strengths they can work on
Gratitude, Bravery, Perseverance, Self-Control and/or Honesty journal each day
1-7 (Tuesday)
Show the video, Kids With Character: Honesty (about 2 minutes)
Discussion questions
How do you use honesty?
Is there one form or situations that is hardest for you?
As a class, go over the definition of Honesty.
The quality of being fair and truthful both by speaking the truth and by being genuine and authentic in the way you live. An honest person is likely to own up to his/her behaviors.
Journal entry and/or discussion question:
Is it easier to catch yourself starting to tell a lie or catching someone else in a lie? Why?
1-9 (Thursday)
Show the video Amazing Lesson in Honesty (about 4 minutes)
Class discussion
What would you have done in this family’s situation?
How many lies do you get to tell before you are a liar?
Do you consider yourself to be an honest person? Why?
What would you do if you found $10,000 on the shelf beneath an ATM machine and nobody saw you find it (and there are no cameras around)?
People often rationalize their own dishonesty by saying, “That’s the way the world is so why should I be different?” What do you think of this reasoning?
Top 10 New Year Quotes 2020 | New Year Greetings and Wishes | Best 2020 Quotes
PD TIP
Professional Development
Collaboration Corner: Looking at Differentiation Resources and Ideas
Here are a few links to help set up differentiated instruction opportunities in the classroom. The article from Edutopia has outlined some great articles and categorized them. We wanted to share those articles below in an effort to provide more resources. If you have strategies you have had success with to differentiate instruction in your classroom, please share those with administration. We would love to highlight those ideas and resources in order to share them with staff in our Collaboration Corner of the newsletter.
Understanding Differentiated Instruction
· Summer DI Readings List: 150+ Seedlings for Growing Stronger Learners: Browse a bountiful reading list as you plan your garden of differentiated-instruction methods and strategies for the year. (Edutopia, 2015)
· Myth-Busting Differentiated Instruction: 3 Myths and 3 Truths: Get to the bottom of common misconceptions about differentiated instruction. For a quick reference on what differentiated is -- and what it isn't -- Differentiation Is / Differentiation Is Not, a set of infographics from ASCD, is also worth checking out. (Edutopia, 2015)
· Defining Differentiated Instruction: Take a look at a few specific examples to better understand differentiated instruction in practice: using graphic organizers, offering alternative assignments, and providing extended work time. (Edutopia, Updated 2014)
· Differentiation Concept Map: Reference a flowchart that shows key elements of differentiated instruction and relationships among those elements. (Differentiation Central/Carol Tomlinson, 2010)
Planning and Implementation Ideas
· Levels of Understanding: Learning That Fits All: Learn how to develop a framework to support creating homework or practice to meet the needs of all learners. (Edutopia, 2015)
· Making Failure Harder Work Than Passing: Discover how one chemistry teacher uses incremental learning goals, formative assessments, and differentiation to inspire students to work hard and reach their potential. (Edutopia, 2015)
· 5 More Ways to "Remove the Walls" From Your Classroom: Explore five ways to rearrange students across the usual groupings and grade levels while differentiating, hitting the standards, ensuring proficiency, and boosting engagement. (Edutopia, 2015)
· Students Matter: 3 Steps for Effective Differentiated Instruction: Check out three strategies for differentiated instruction: knowing students' strengths, involving them in planning, and leveraging the strengths of fellow educators. (Edutopia, 2014)
· 3 Ways to Plan for Diverse Learners: What Teachers Do: To differentiate learning in the classroom, focus on content, process, and product. For more planning tips, also see 15+ Readiness Resources for Driving Student Success, which provides resources to help teachers meet the readiness needs of all students. (Edutopia, 2014)
Knowing and Assessing Students
· Make Learning Last: How Diverse Learners Can Process Their Understanding: Find out how quick reflections, surveys, and diverse-perspective assessments can help students to process more deeply and check their own understanding. (Edutopia, 2016)
· How Learning Profiles Can Strengthen Your Teaching: Explore ways that collecting data about learners can inform differentiation. (Edutopia, 2014)
· 3 Guidelines to Eliminating Assessment Fog: Break through assessment fog by identifying and communicating clear learning targets, separating logistical guidelines (like following directions) from academic learning targets, and providing students with different ways to demonstrate their learning. (Edutopia, 2014)
· Dipsticks: Efficient Ways to Check for Understanding: Within this primer to formative assessment, you'll find a printable list of 53 ways to check for student understanding. For more ideas, you might also want to check out David Wees’ community post with 56 Examples of Formative Assessment and Edutopia’s formative assessment page. (Edutopia, 2014)
· Tools for Teaching: Ditching the Deficit Model: Read about how to gain knowledge of students' strengths, interests, and hidden talents in order to best determine out how to meet their needs. (Edutopia, 2013)
Teaching Diverse Learners
· Equity vs. Equality: 6 Steps Toward Equity: Explore seven steps toward classroom equity: knowing every child, celebrating their potential, recognizing their challenges, becoming flexible, acknowledging inequity, and using culture as a resource. (Edutopia, 2016)
· Serving Gifted Students in General Ed Classrooms: Consider do's and don'ts for meeting the needs of gifted students. (Edutopia, 2015)
· Bridging the ADHD Gap: To support the needs of children with ADHD, make the learning child-centered, differentiate, integrate movement and mindfulness, create supportive learning environments, and document the process. (Edutopia, 2015)
· Integrating ELL Students in General Education Classes: Learn about differentiated-instruction and formative-assessment strategies that can help general-education teachers of English-Language Learners (ELLs).
· The Power of Introverts: An Essential Understanding for Teachers: Understand the characteristics of an introvert to better serve shy and quiet students. (Edutopia, 2013)
Differentiating With Technology
· Integrating Technology and Literacy: Explore digital tools for text and video annotations, teacher feedback, and formative assessment. (Edutopia, 2016)
· 100+ Tools for Differentiating Instruction Through Social Media: Find out how social media can enhance differentiated instruction if the tools are selected with a careful eye on individual students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles. (Edutopia, Updated 2016)
· Mixing it Up With Mangahigh: Using Games to Differentiate Instruction: Learn how one teachers uses the online math game site Mangahigh to better differentiate instruction. (Edutopia, 2014)
· Enhancing Learning Through Differentiated Technology: Discover three tech tools -- SAS Curriculum Pathways, Newsela, and EDpuzzle -- that can help differentiate instruction by showing where students are and offering appropriate formative assessment. (Edutopia, 2015)
Differentiation in Project-Based Learning
· Tools for Differentiating Instruction in PBL: Differentiate the content, process, and product of your PBL lessons with tools and practices like Learning Profile Cards, narrative feedback, and design thinking. (Edutopia, 2016)
· 6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning: Learn about six simple, effective approaches to differentiated instruction in project-based learning. (Edutopia, Updated 2016)
· How Does PBL Support Differentiated Instruction?: Understand how PBL can be designed and managed to factor in students' readiness, interests, and learning profiles. (Buck Institute for Education, 2012)
BETTER LEARNING THROUGH STRUCTURED TEACHING DISCUSSION FORM
TLC
If you have any new students that haven't taken the VIA survey, please find a time this week that they can take it. Here are the survey links:
* Password: FelicityTLC19> *
5th grade URL: https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/classes/Register?classCode=FFMS5
> * 6th grade URL: https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/classes/Register?classCode=FFMS6
> * 7th grade URL: https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/classes/Register?classCode=FFMS7
> * 8th grade URL: https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/classes/Register?classCode=FFMS8
STRENGTH SPOTTING
Please use this form to nominate fellow staff members who do extraordinary things! We will draw from these nominations to raffle gift cards throughout the year. Teachers who submit a strength spotting will also be in a drawing.
This weeks teachers nominated were:
None last week.
Winners: