Pinkston Feeder Pattern
Week At A Glance -February 15 , 2016
Core Beliefs
Core Beliefs
Our main purpose is to improve student academic achievement.
Effective instruction makes the most difference in student academic performance.
There is no excuse for poor quality instruction.
With our help, at risk students will achieve at the same rate as non-at risk students.
Staff members must have a commitment to children and a commitment to the pursuit of excellence.
Carr kicks off UNCF
Viking Wrestlers headed to Regionals!
Pinkston HS competed at the Dallas ISD Wrestling District Championships. For the first time in Pinkston HS history, they have 2 District Champions. Andy Martinez and Izaiah Salazar are 2016 District Champs. Romello Chandler brought home 3rd place. All three will be competing in Regionals!
MLEP.. Newcomers on the Block
Author reads to C. F. Carr!
Sidney lanier
Carver Scientists
In the News.....
I hope everyone had an awesome Valentines Day!!!!!!
A BIG Happy Birthday Shout out goes to Alyssa Peraza. The feeder pattern wishes you an awesome day for an awesome lady!
Congratulations and Shout Outs:
- We had an awesome showing to the MLEP training last week. Thirty-one teachers across the feeder joined and received 1,000 dollars in materials!
Thank you for hosting feeder meetings and Professional Development
- Mrs. West and QMS for hosting our MLEP Training last week!
- Mr. Simmons and PHS for hosting our TTM Training this week!
- Ms. Peraza and SLES for hosting our ES 4th grade Writing Roundtable!
- Thank you Cameron Ramirez and Dawna Duke for being open to paving the way so all DISD teachers can learn from you how Stevens Park delivers quality lessons!
- Congratulations Arcadia Park, Lanier, DeZavala, Carr, Earhart, Martinez for meeting the district Reasoning Mind weekly goal! (results in Google folder)
- The district science department donated of $20,000 worth of science equipment to Pinkston HS! Congratulations LGPHS Science Dept.! A BIG thank you goes to the District Science Department!!!
Superintendent Comes to Pinkston Feeder
Please promote the superintendent visit to the speak with staff and community, Thursday, February 18th at Pinkston HS. The staff portion of the meeting is scheduled 4:45PM-5:45PM and community 6:00PM -7:00PM. Please invite your staff and community. The superintendent will review the district goals and will want to hear form the community. It would be great to have a full house representing our feeder pattern. I would like for all principals to attend and it would be great to also have your assistant principals. If for some reason you are unable to attend, please call me to discuss. The expectation is that we support this event with our attendance.
March and April Feeder Pattern Meeting
Guess What?????? We will have Lisa Almeida from Solution Tree join our March feeder pattern meeting to provide professional development focused on PLC's. She was only available on March 9th, so please make a change on your calendars that we will hold our feeder pattern meeting Wednesday, March 9th NOT March 10th.
We will also have Tammy return for our April 14th feeder pattern meeting. This meeting will be 9:00AM - 3:00PM. Once I confirm a location, I will send the invite. Tammy will focus on Level 2 in High Reliability Schools - Quality of Instruction for this day long professional development.
District-wide Principal Meeting
Wednesday, February 17th at the new location 1:00PM - 5:00PM. The superintendent will share a few remarks and the group will be released to participate in rotating workshops. The agenda is in this week's Google folder.
Failure Rates
This week marks another end to a 6 week grading period. Please conduct your weekly Grade Speed check and hold conversations with teachers who have failure rates that exceed the district threshold. If you have the same classes with excessive failures, the interventions are not working or are not being implemented. What are the next steps? This 6 week period should result in a decrease of failures based on the interventions you and staff have put in place. The goal is to see less failures this 6 weeks than last 6 weeks.
DOL Trackers
Thank you Cameron and Leadership team! The DOL templates used in the calibration video are in the Google Folder for your use.
Performance Descriptors and Performance Levels
In the event you don't have the link to the performance descriptors and the new performance levels (scaled scores), I've included them in the Google folder for your review. Are you using the performance with your teachers to develop lesson plans? These are great to ensure DOL's are aligned to rigor of standard.
Secondary Master Schedule
Guidance on master scheduling is located in the this week's Google folder for your review. Secondary principals, please review the Hillcrest sample presentation and be prepared to review/discuss your draft with me on my next visit (either this week or early next week). Please review the endorsement documents in the Google folder as you prepare for course selection next year. We want to ensure our students are set up for success and can take full advantage of courses that will lead to appropriate endorsements. There will be representatives from all departments who will provide feedback based on your master. If you are making significant changes to your master, please let me know right away. (I already know about Pinkston). The time is extremely structured, so the team must go into the meeting prepared. I will need a master schedule with the current number of students in each section. If you have not sent that to me, please send to me by Thursday, February 18th. Quintanilla, Edison and Pinkston are scheduled for February 26th 3:00PM - 5:00PM and DESA March 25th 1:00PM-3:00PM
Elementary Master Schedule
A draft of the elementary course requirements are included in the Google Folder for your review as you prepare and design next year's master schedule.
Summer School
Due to the time constraint, our summer school agenda item went VERY quickly. I want to make sure everyone knows the significant change in summer school for this year for elementary and middle schools. All elementary and middle school campuses will hold their own summer school, not just for SSI but also summer readiness. This means all the students who need to attend summer school defined by board policy will attend at their home school. Summer school will be help during the 8 identified days follow the last day of school.
Campus teams should identify the borderline students now and develop an intervention plan that begin immediately through the summer school section. We should not look at the 8 day summer school as the solution to ensuring students are ready for the next level. This will be an agenda item I will want to discuss with you during my campus visit.
- Identification criteria used
- List of students identified
- Plan for students (February 25th - June19th
The summer school documents are in the Google folder for your review. If you are considering offering a Stand Alone summer program, you will need to complete the Stand Alone document and submit by March 11th. The date is non-negotiable and applications will not be accepted after March 11th. The district is partnering with Big Thought to input all city-wide summer offerings (including ours) into one database so parent can access the offerings in their area as well as any around Dallas. The offerings will also include partner organizations like Boys and Girls Club, Thriving Minds etc..... Your Stand Alones can be created for a certain group of students, (ie: Carver drama students) but the offering will still be included in the database. Please begin working on completing this application now if you will offer a Stand Alone. Remember, Stand Alones offered after the summer school dates, must be paid by the school (Jump Start, Fish Camp, Summer bridge...).
6 Week Common Assessment
This week, will be our first Imagine 2020/ACE common assessment. Please remember to give the MOCK to the following grade levels and subject areas:
4th Grade Writing
5th grade Math and Reading
8th Grade Math and Reading
English 1 and 2
All other grade levels and subject areas will use the 6 week assessment online in Curriculum Central. In next week's WAG I will explain the feedback loop for the consideration of changes to the 5th six week common assessment.
Brochure
In an effort to promote our feeder pattern, I'd like to enlist your help with doing 2 things:
- Send Eliza the name and contact information of the person you identified as writing a campus highlight blurb(s) and sending pictures of events each month to Eliza. The information should be sent to Eliza one week prior to the 1st of each month. February's highlights and pictures should be sent to Eliza by February 22nd. Please make sure someone double checks the grammar and syntax to ensure the article is publish ready. Our goal is to have the feeder pattern monthly newsletter disseminated to the community the 1st of each month.
- Review the brochure in the Google folder Desoto created to promote their schools. I'd like to design a similar brochure for our schools. Please write a short blurb describing and highlighting programs at your school and send to Eliza by March 4th. I will work with the district communication/marketing dept. to compile the information into a professional and eye catching portfolio. This will also support our recruitment efforts for the new Pinkston Preparatory Collegiate Academy.
I appreciate your support!!!!!
Reasoning Mind
The district's weekly goal for Reasoning Mind is 2 hours per week for grades 2-4. For those campuses not meeting the goal, please work with your team to problem solve ways to meet the goal. If you need me to brainstorm with you, please let me know.
Bell Schedules
The district has determined a universal bell schedule that all school will adhere to for the 2016-17 school year. There will be very few exceptions, but one of those exceptions will be Imagine 2020 and ACE schools. I will give you further information as more decisions have been made on these programs. I wanted to keep you in the loop although our schools will most likely have our extended day.
AP Focus Group
The Assistant Principal Focus Group minutes are in the Google folder for your review.
Code of Conduct Task Force
A BIG thank you to Diana and Dwain for serving on the Code of Conduct task Force. Minutes and consideration of changes from this meeting is included in the Google folder for your review.
Title I Employees (100% funded)
If you have one hundred percent federally-funded employees (Title I, Title II or Title III), they CANNOT compliantly participate in testing. Fully- funded federal employees will be asked to complete the Semi-Annual Certification for the second semester. Participating in the monitoring would be a violation of the terms of the certification.
Feeder Pattern Minutes - Thank you Edwina for the fantastic minutes from last week's feeder pattern meeting! They are in Google folder.
Employee Relations
Please read the document in Google Folder regarding documentation. ER has opened the documentation review window for February 29th - March 4th. You will need to schedule an appointment. The contact information is included. Please keep me current on your reviews with ER.
Imagine 2020
Nora Douglas, our internal evaluator, is scheduled to conduct demo coach focus group and a department chair focus group. All demo coaches (elementary) will meet as a group at DeZavala, February 16th from 3:30 - 4:30 in the library. The questions are in Feb. 8th Google folder. Please meet with your demo coach to inform them of the purpose for the meeting and review the questions. These discussions will help inform the impact this work has to the Imagine 2020 goals.
Federal Report Cards
Schools must make the federal report card information readily accessible to the public, and parents must be notified of the availability of the federal report card information no later than Monday, March 7, 2016.
Think Through Math:
TTM Training for Math CICs
Thursday, February 18th
9:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.
Pinkston High School; Room 312
TTM is available for all 5th - Algebra students
TTM Training:
- Accessing TTM student accounts; Access TTM reports; Implementation of program with fidelity
Presenter: Lonzetta Duncan
ISTATION for SSI:
Eligible students should be loaded onto istation. Elementary should double check for 5th graders and Middle school should double check for 8th graders. If you have any questions, or in need of training, please notify Christian.
ES Writing Roundtable:
Pinkston Feeder ES Writing Roundtable
Thursday, February 18, 2016 from 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.
Sidney Lanier ES
Who is invited: ALL 4th grade Writing Teachers, ALL ES Reading CICs
Please be prepared to bring:
5 RANDOM Writing Samples for Calibration PER SCHOOL [English and Spanish]
Agenda [Draft]:
- Rubric review [highlights and key words]
- Small group work:
1. Schools will be paired for composition scoring [and language]
2. After scoring, teams will identify trends
- Whole group:
1. Identify trends across the schools and feeder
2. Identify strategies to address trends
3. Sharing of resources
Please ensure we forward the invitation to our 4th grade Writing Teachers!
Special Education ES Inclusion Teachers:
Special Education Teacher meeting will be offered for Pinkston Elementary Inclusion Teachers on the following items:
- Preparing students for the STAAR
- Using supplemental aids & manipulatives for all special education students
- Updates on STAAR- A
Please be prepared to bring to the meeting a challenge and a classroom supplemental aid success to discuss and share. The meeting will be held February 25th from 4:30 until 5:30 pm at Gabe P. Allen ES.
Math Resource (Link also has elementary resources)
If you’re interested, Region 13 is offering Algebra 1 mini-interventions (at a cost) for teachers who are struggling to help their students with “gaps” they may have missed. In this new tool, teachers will be able to access strategies to help students with what they are missing. There are two tools, one that covers Quadratics and Exponential Functions and one that covers Linear Functions and Inequalities. Each new Algebra 1 Student Expectation is presented in a user friendly digital format. Here is what is included:
- A description of the SE with background TEKS that reach back to 7th and 8th grade and through our popular K-8 Click On TEKS, provide hands-on strategies as well as specificity of the vertically aligned SE that precedes Algebra 1.
- A Pre-Assessment to help teachers know what prior learning has been mastered or may need additional help.
- A Spiraling section that indicates what Algebra 1 TEKS are prerequisite skills including examples
- A Teaching section that includes vocabulary, formulas, and activities
- A Foundation TEKS section that reaches further back into prior learning and utilize the Click on TEKS to provide information and activities
- And finally a Post Assessment to see if students have mastered the targeted SE for this module.
http://store.esc13.net/index.php/curriculum-instruction/math.html
Flyer is in Google folder
WAIP Summary in the Google folder
Pinkston HS
Pinkston HS
Amelia Earhart
Campus Visits - Focus - Observations & Summer School Preparation
Monday - Holiday
Tuesday - Arcadia Park; Stevens Park; Quintanilla (ED Calibration Walk); Pinkston (LGPPCA Map, Sequence of courses; Superintendent Meeting; Earhart
Wednesday - Gabe Allen; ECHS Meeting; District-wide Principal Meeting
Thursday - Carver, DeZavala; Carr; Pinkston
Article of the Week
Humility Pays Off for Rookie Managers
In this Harvard Business Review article, Liz Wiseman says there are two reasons most new managers tend to be ineffective – sometimes disastrously so – in their first six months after being promoted. First, they keep doing the stuff that got them promoted – “They haven’t realized that their new role is to enable others to do the work, not to do it themselves,” says Wiseman. Second, they tend to try too hard at being leaders: “Feeling pressure to justify their newfound authority, they make decisions too quickly and too emphatically and look to play the hero. They play too big, causing their teams to play small.”
Some rookie managers take a very different approach that gets much better results: they embrace their rookie status, advertise their areas of ignorance, and open themselves as learners. Some specifics:
• List the things you don’t know. As a new CEO, Shane Atchison periodically jots down the 7 Things I Don’t Know. “This is easily the most important part of my toolkit,” he says, “because it forces me to get out of my own bubble and take a critical look at what’s going on around me.” It helps him shift from the assumption of knowing to an attitude of inquiry.
• Confess your limitations. Cliff Bean, when he was promoted to a new position in the U.S. Navy, started his first meeting by saying, “Hi. My name is Cliff, and I don’t know what I’m doing.” There was an audible sigh of relief in the room, and his proactive confession prompted other officers to admit that they felt like they had been faking expertise they didn’t actually possess.
• Ask questions. “While your value used to come from having all the answers,” says Wiseman, “your new value will come from asking the right questions and letting your team find the answers… As a rookie manager, avoid asking stupid questions that lack intelligence and common sense. But do ask the naïve questions that cut to the core, reveal problems, and prompt your team to think differently and find fresh solutions.”
• Do less; challenge more. “If you want the people on your team to step up and do more,” says Wiseman, “you have to be willing to do less: less talking, less responding, less convincing, and less rescuing of others who need to struggle and learn for themselves. Instead of contributing big ideas, offer big challenges that require your team to develop big ideas.”
“New Managers: Embrace Your Rookie Status” by Liz Wiseman in Harvard Business Review, October 2, 2015
Resources
Reading/Writing: Literacy Cadre - Text Dependent Questions
Science:
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1FLYkbeQfmUgxcvluAxTMzBO4s0EHue0bRgRMNMikImU/edit#slide=id.p4
Have an awesome learning week!
Calendar of Events
- No school
Tuesday, February 16th
Wednesday, February 17th
- Districtwide Principal Meeting
Thursday, February 18th
- Think Through Math Training for Math CICs [5th grade through Algebra] - 9 a.m. - 11 a.m. - Pinkston High School - Room 312
- ES Writing Roundtable for 4th Writing Teachers and ES RLA CICS - 3:30 - 5:30 p.m. - Lanier ES
Friday, February 19th
- 2016 RME Research to Practice Conferene @ SMU
Upcoming Events:
February 22nd - RLA Training - TIER 1 CICs - 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.
- February 25th - Math Training - TIER 1 CICs
8 - 11:30 a.m. - MS/HS Science and 12:30 - 4:00 p.m. - ES Science