January 6, 2020
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
My New Year's Wish For You:
Take time at the start of this new year to define your voice! Look at the picture below. At the nexus of these 3 circles, if you answer all 4 questions, you will find your voice. Step in to that voice, and lead others to find theirs!
1) What are your greatest passions? What do you love to do?
2) What are your skills and talents? What do you do best?
3) Think about how that could benefit other people. How did you create value for others?
4) Is this the right thing to do? Does it fulfill you with meaning? Is your conscience giving you green light?
Your voice is the right thing to do with your knowledge, passion/attitude and your skills to help other people. Use your voice to discover and inspire GREATNESS!
Congratulations!
- Kelly Bryan
- Laura Sammons
- Courtney Sparks
- Kara Jones
- Lauren Grady
- Nicole Wallis
- Kevyn Austin
These nominees will complete an application packet which will be reviewed by a campus committee against a district created rubric. The results of this review will determine our campus Exemplar Educator.
Preparing for Monday and Tuesday Professional Learning Days:
District Professional Learning: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZJGY69NIpX1_fOnCRJUHmM3TgOQa6gaI8WmAuvFut44/preview
Campus Professional Learning Agenda: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mQ6wZnWWXHQEdbFbKL1SmIM4lPkwYzSHltVz2AdVyKM/edit?usp=sharing
Soup & Salad Lunch Sign-Ups: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0E4BACA82AA46-january
Notes About Professional Learning Days:
Monday is a district professional learning day.
- If you have not yet selected your sessions...you need to do so. If you have questions about what to attend, please call Kim Blackburn before Monday. The sessions are linked above.
- Jeans and a school shirt are appropriate.
- Please be prepared with the resources and materials you need. Read the session descriptions, etc. so that you are prepared. Do not show up to district professional learning without the materials and resources you need.
- Based on the session descriptions, you will have some planning time on Monday. Use this time wisely.
Tuesday is a campus professional learning day.
- Please understand that this is a full day of professional learning at the campus. We will use the day to focus on the wildly important. I strongly encourage you to be as prepared for the the week with students before you return on January 7. You will notice in the agenda linked above that there is planning time built in, but please do not assume that you will have time for grading, copying, etc. Begin with the end in mind...you don't want to be frustrated when you return.
- We will begin promptly at 8 am in the cafeteria.
- Light breakfast will be served.
- Dress comfortably.
- EL and Title I paras will be at district PD. All other paras are invited to join the morning session.
- Bring device fully charged for data dive.
- Bring any data you will want for planning and goal setting purposes that is not in Edugence or our campus lag measure data Google form.
- Bring 3 student Leadership Notebooks...conser this selection criteria...students in each category: Meets Standard, Approaching Standard, and Does Not Meet Standard.
- Lunch is an opportunity to synergize, sharpen the saw and fill emotional bank accounts. Staff need to sign up to bring, soups, salads, deserts, etc. Remember, this is to feed staff...plan the amount of food you bring accordingly. What a fun way to kick off the year! Sign-Up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0E4BACA82AA46-january
On both days...bring a proactive and abundance mindset with a put first things first energy! These days are designed to increase capabilities as we work to achieve the results we want.
Consider This as You Prepare to Return From Break:
- Star Leader invites need to be sent before the break in the mail and a phone call made to parents. Also, please complete the Google formby Tuesday (see below).
- Don’t forget about Progress Check One in SLO’s. The data needs to be entered in Edugence in February, however many of you will be using data collected in December. I encourage you to begin with the end in mind and put first things first to take action on this task.
- Remember, this is end of the grading period and semester. Make sure you are prepared for report card grade entry deadlines.
- Make sure all CBA, DRA, etc. data is entered in Edugence.
- Update Student Achievement/Lag Mease Data Document with CBA data, MOY DRA data, etc. Also, make sure Math TEKs Checks (grades 3-5) are current and up to date. We will use this data on January 7.
- Remind parents to check Lost and Found.
- Please make sure Christmas decorations are taken down by the time students return from Winter Break.
Preparing for Second Grading Period Lighthouse Leader Awards:
Believe it or not, it’s time to think about Lighthouse Leader Awards for the 2nd Grading Period already! The timing for these decisions is paramount, as invitations must go out before we leave for break. The Lighthouse Leader Assembly is Friday, January 10.
- Each homeroom will give out TWO Lighthouse Leader Awards recognizing two students who have exemplified the qualities of a leader for the grading period. Remember we moved to 2 per grading period because of the change to 9 week grading cycles.
- Parents of the students receiving the awards, will be sent a formal invitation in the mail and personal phone call inviting them to the awards ceremony. Paper invitations and envelopes are in in mailboxes today. These need to be turned in to the office no later than Tuesday, December 17 so they can be sent in the mail before we leave for break
- Complete the Lighthouse Leader award using the link below so that the award certificate can be created for each student before Friday’s assembly.
- We will have an adjusted schedule for specials on this day:
Lighthouse Leader Awards Schedule:
- K-2 8:00 - 8:30
- 3-5 8:30 - 9:00
Lighthouse Leader Google Form Due Tuesday, January 7
Please take a few moments to vote for Staff Lighthouse Leader. Please vote by Thursday, December 19th.
Reminder:
Habit Huddle Classroom Awards:
· Each homeroom has established a classroom culture and family over the last 9 weeks. Celebrations are an important part of continuing to foster this family and culture, while also filling emotional bank accounts. To honor the work and success from the grading period, each homeroom will have classroom celebrations during Habit Huddle on Lighthouse Leader Assembly days.
· The traditional awards (A honor roll, A/B honor roll, perfect attendance, etc.) will be recognized during this time.
· Each grade level team must be consistent in what awards are given during class Habit Huddle awards assemblies.
· The following Spirit Sticks are available for awards and can be found in the “drawer box” behind the front desk:
· Perfect Attendance
· A Honor Roll
· A-B Honor Roll
· Citizenship/Leadership:
· There are tags for specific habits that could be used for citizenship as well.
· Each student will need a ring to get started with. We will place rings in baggies and place them in teacher mailboxes next week.
· There are “brag tags” left over too. These are available on a first come first served basis. We will not reorder these.
· Should the drawer for a specific Spirit Stick be empty. There is not need to panic or be angry. Or be frustrated. Simply ask, and we will refill. If you take the last Spirit Stick, you might pay it forward and let someone know so that we can get the drawer refilled before causing anyone any undue stress.
· Please only take what you need. We will reorder if we run out.
January Positive Parent Calls:
We began the school year with the expectation that each teacher would make a positive parent phone call to parents by the end of September. We will begin the second semester with the same proactive approach to making connections to support student achievement. All classroom teachers will make a positive parent phone call for each student by Friday, January 31. Specials teachers will call 15 - 20 parents (please coordinate so that you are not calling the same parents). SPED/Dyslexia/Etc. will call all parents. This is a quick call to share something positive about their child. This is not intended to be a parent conference. If you plan this out, it could be as few as 3-6 calls per week depending on the size of your class. Staff will keep a log to track their calls. Thank you in advance for investing this time into supporting student achievement and building relationships between the home and school.
From the Librarian:
Wednesday - Friday will be open library send students individually or in small groups to swap out books.
Next week we will start with Week A schedule: https://docs.google.com/document/d/12YyxQLcg83SMeiLeayduQZrVVEmCL-ruWW08I4UywlE/edit?usp=sharing
If we have made changes in your library time and it is not on the doc, please let me know and feel free to make the change on the doc.
My lessons will focus on students reviewing and mastering how to check in and out books on their own the first 2 weeks. Please make every effort to bring your classes for their scheduled time. These lessons will require a lot of team work.
BOOK FAIR TIME!! January 24-31st. It will be the same set up as the one we had in November.
Campus UBC competition will be Friday, January 17 at 1:30.
Whew! Sorry for library information overload!! ;-)
Habit Huddle Connection:
"The proactive approach to a mistake is to acknowledge it instantly, correct and learn from it."
-DR. STEPHEN R. COVEY
Habit 1 Connection:
Proactive people focus their efforts on the Circle of Influence. Their energy is positive, enlarging, and magnifying, causing their Circle of Influence to increase. Reactive people, on the other hand, focus their efforts on the Circle of Concern. The negative energy generated by that focus causes the Circle of Influence to shrink. Think about this...How much energy do you spend on things you cannot control? Is your Circle of Influence growing or shrinking? Try this...Think about a problem or opportunity you have right now. Make a list of everything you can do within your Circle of Influence. If something is within your Circle of Concern, let it go.
- Circle of Influence: includes those things we can affect directly.
- Circle of Concern: includes those things we worry about, but over which we have no control.
Reminders and Announcements:
Habit Huddle: teachers and staff without homeroom classes, please make sure you are going to your assigned classrooms for Habit Huddle every day. New assignments will be posted on Monday when we return.
Recess Monitoring: Staff on duty at recess MUST actively monitor all areas of the playground. One staff member needs to be monitoring the field and another needs to be monitoring the playground and blacktop. The best places to stand are down by the backstop, between the chickens and the backstop, and at the top of the hill on the backside of the playground. If you have three staff members, the third staff member can stand on the blacktop side of the playground. Thank you for your active monitoring to ensure student safety.
Building Access: Do ALL students know how to get in the building using the doorbell system? Make sure you have reviewed this the first week back. You have new students. Please do not assume they know.
Leaving Campus: Make sure you sign out using the Google Form any time you leave campus during the day or before your contract time. This is a safety measure. Also, please make sure you have cleared leaving early with an administrator before you leave.
Employee Absences: Policy is attached to email:
Staff wanting to request a personal day need to submit that request in the Outlook Calendar linked in the Google Classroom. Simply entering the absence in Edugence is not sufficient. If there is no availability to enter an absence on the date you are wanting to request personal leave, then you will not be able to take the personal leave. The calendar is set up in such a way that we are in accordance with policy...for example, no requests may be made on days before and after a holiday, only a % of staff may be out on personal leave on one given day, etc.
Please understand that given the change in policy, not all requests will be approved. The details for the policy are outlined below. One thing I want to point out is that Monday and Tuesday professional learning days. I also want to point out that when multiple requests from one team or the entire grade level are made, personal leave requests may not be granted. My expectation is that staff be aware of the policy and mindful when making personal leave requests.
Many of you are doing an excellent job of securing your Guest Educators well in advance of your leave. This is appreciated not only by myself and the office team who work to fill positions and find coverage when GEs don’t show up, but also your team. Make sure you check with Marina if you are looking for a sub in advance. She may have new preferred names to share with you. Remember, all staff MUST have their emergency sub plans prepared. Be mindful when asking your team to prepare plans for you. We all know that emergencies and unexpected absences come up. And, I feel confident that everyone is willing to support their teammates in the event they have to be out unexpectedly. That being said, a note of appreciation, Sonic drink, and candy as tokens of appreciation go a long way with your peers.
Our sub fill rate is very low. We do not have the extra, available staff to cover absences. Thank you in advance for reviewing the policy, securing GEs in advance of planned absences, and preparing plans.
Save the Date:
Note: All of the Friday events are typed on Saturday in the campus calendar for January. Please adjust your calendars accordingly. My apologies for the typo.
Monday, January 6:
- District PD Day (see notes above); jeans and school shirt are appropriate
- Campus PD Day (see notes above); dress comfortably
- Staff Soup and Salad Potluck (Sign- Up Here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/70A0E4BACA82AA46-january)
Wednesday, January 8:
- Staff may wear jeans with a school shirt as fundraising incentive reward
- Accountability Teams Meeting, 3:15
Thursday, January 9:
- Kim off campus for DLT
- Tanya off campus part of the day for Leading and Learning
Friday, January 10
- Lighthouse Leader Assemblies
Happy Birthday to You:
Meghan Tucker 1/12