Personnel Passport
September 18th-22nd
Message from Mission Control
* I have set the date for our first vertical council meeting for ELAR and Math. The date is November 3rd, and if you are an ELAR or Math rep for your grade level, you should have received a calendar invited. Macie and Angela will be attending the ELAR meeting, and Misty Germaine will be attending the math one. As we get closer, we will discuss specifics of the meeting, but we will look at data, power standards, have discussion, and brainstorm effective ways to communicate across grade levels to ensure fidelity and growth.
* For those of you who have used or thought about using Donor's Choose, or any other type of fundraising site in order to get items/devices for your classroom, please see below. The district has made sure to set up some guidelines so that all staff members are aware of the procedures:
1. Anything you raise money for must be approved by the principal or AP
2. If it's technology related, we must get it approved through technology (ipads are ok, but if it were tablets, etc., we just need to make sure they're all compatible.
3. Anything purchased using Donor's Choose belongs to the school.
That is a stipulation through Donor's Choose. That's one reason it must be
approved, so we can have inventory of the items.
* I wanted to let you know that I will be doing grade book audits every 3 weeks, as this is a new action that all principals will do in order to verify that:
1. grades are being entered on time and in accordance with the grading handbook
2. grades fit the activities/lessons being taught
3. grades are accurate reflections of the learning that is taking place
More information will be coming on this soon, and I will you informed as I'm updated. From what I was told, we will pick a random 5 teachers every 3 weeks to spot check and document what we see. I know you all do what you're supposed to do. I have no question of that, but please work hard to ensure that grades are entered in a timely manner and follow the guidelines in the grading handbook.
* Please make sure your voicemails are set up and correct. If you are having trouble, please let us know. These must be accurate, so when we send parents to voicemails to leave messages, they DO NOT need to hear the wrong teacher or a machine on the recording!
Campus News
* We will be having a coin drive to benefit our adopted school in Conroe ISD. That paper will be going out today, and we will combine forces with Northbrook and Dozier. I have been in contact with the principal, and she said their biggest need is Wal Mart, HEB, Home Depot, etc. gift cards, as they have some families who lost everything. The coin drive will begin NEXT Monday, and we will collect for 2 weeks!
* Sign up times for clubs are this Friday. The excel document should be ready by tomorrow, so I will share it with you, then you will be able to go in and enter your students' picks at your allotted times on Friday.
* Boswell football players will be here this Friday welcoming kids and opening doors. They're also wanting to come to classrooms to read to students. If you are interested in having them come to your classroom (first thing in the morning), please let me know. The kids love it, and I know the boys enjoy it as well.
* Bobby and I will (hopefully) start making it into classrooms for walk throughs this next week. We are completing our goal setting meetings, and we have enjoyed discussing with you your plans and goals for the upcoming school year. I plan to use our One Note notebook (each of you have a section) to communicate with you and provide feedback about the walk throughs. I think this will be a great way to have dialogue about your progress towards your goals.
* We are sending home the letter about attendance incentives this week! We need to improve our attendance percentage, since this year, we were only 96.3%. At minimum, we would like to be at 97%, so we are working to create any sort of incentives in order to accomplish this goal. Please remember to call a student if he/she is out more than 2 days, and document the phone calls in Aware under the "Journal" tab. This allows us to keep a record of documentation. When Bobby or I call, we document under this tab as well.
* Don't forget about our focus of grammar/mechanics and phonics. Supplemental aides have been ordered to help in each particular grade level, but if you haven't been utilizing the supplement in the curriculum guide, this is a "must-do." We need to give our students the structure needed in order to be successful, since that's an area we have noticed them struggling.
Great Expecations
This year, we will be implementing our GE life principles during announcements, as well as having the opportunity for kids to respond using the white interactive papers in the hallway (formerly used for vocabulary).
Each life principle will be talked about during a 1 week period. You will be getting the schedule sent this week, and it will also be posted on the One Note staff portal. We will discuss on announcements, and students will have the opportunity to write (or draw) how they show this life principle. For example, the first one is self discipline. They can write on the paper how they show or can use self discipline. This will require thinking and application... so it brings in the higher levels. We will talk about the expectations of how this will be used on the announcements, so the students are familiar with what is acceptable.
Just as the vocabulary has been done in the past, the life principles will remain posted on the wall, so that the students can see them and refer back to them. The Elk of the Month will be chosen based on the life principles that have been discussed for the month. Each student chosen will not have to demonstrate ALL of the life principles, but one or more.
This week, our life principle is:
Responsibility- making the choice to be reliable and dependable
DATES TO REMEMBER
Thursday, September 21st:
Kori off campus at meeting
Tuesday, September 26th:
Fall Pictures
Friday, September 27th:
Boswell football players here in the morning
Wednesday, September 27th:
Misty Germaine here for math walks- 9:45-11:15
Friday, September 29th:
Clubs Today (club schedule)
Thursday, October 5th:
Kori off campus at meeting
Monday, October 9th:
Elementary district staff development (student holiday)
Tuesday, October 10th:
Professional Development on campus & CPR Certification class
Thursday, October 12th:
Kori off campus at meeting
KORI WERTH - PRINCIPAL
Email: kwerth@ems-isd.net
Website: http://www.emsisd.com/site/Default.aspx?PageID=2336
Location: Fort Worth, TX, United States