Eagles' Notes
Updates for Team GOMM - Week of 10.30
Our Mission
Garden Oaks Montessori Magnet provides authentic public Montessori education to a diverse, PK3 - 8th grade learning community resulting in equitable, high-quality outcomes.
Note from Sebba
Sorry this is so late! And happy Halloween!
Sebba
What's Coming Up
10.31 - Benefits rep on campus 11:30-1:00
11.1 - Summit K12 window closes
11.3 - Sit Down With Sebba
11.3 - Grades 3-8 extended responses due
11.3 - GT recommendations due (2nd graders only)
11.3 and 11.4 - Middle school theater - UIL One-Act Play Competition
11.4 - Campus beautification day
11.7 - Election Day (GOMM will be a polling site)
11.10 - No school for students (PD day)
11.13 - 8th grade trip to magnet fair
11.17 - Children's House field trip to the Zoo
11.17 - Native American Heritage Day - Azteca dance performance from 1-3
11.17 - GEPs due
11.20 - 11.24 - Thanksgiving break
11.28 - Child Find One Source course due
11.28-11.30 - Fall portraits
12.2-12.3 - Barnes and Noble performances
Announcements
Benefits rep on campus NOW
From Nurse Cindy:
To help solve any questions and to help us out see what's new, I requested a rep from the benefits departments to come to our home, Garden Oaks. We will have a rep in the lunchroom from 11:30 to 1pm.
Please spread the word and start looking at the options in https://www.houstonisd.org/Page/196457 so you can come ready with your questions!
<action required> BN performances
Barnes and Noble performances are happening again this year, the first weekend in December. This week, PTO will communicate your class' tentative timeslot so that you can confirm.
In response to concerns about the many moving pieces we are all trying to navigate right now, the enrichment team is able/willing to support with practice for your class during the month of November. This message is from our enrichment lead, Ms. Ludtke:
Dear Teachers,
This year, the Enrichment Team will be dedicating part of our class time to practicing your songs for the upcoming Barnes & Noble bookstore fundraising event. The performance will be during the first week of December.
To give students ample time to practice their songs, we are prepared to start playing the songs with your students on November 1st.
Please email the Enrichment teachers a video example of how you would like your class's song performed. Or, if you prefer, send a digital copy of the song you have selected.
It is important that you introduce the song choice to your students prior to November 1st so that they get the most out of their practice time with their Enrichment teachers.
Students will not be practicing their songs during P.E. due to time constraints with rotating groups.
We are here to support you. 🙂
Staffing change
Grades 3-8 - Review the short-constructed response attachment
2nd grade teachers - GT recs due Friday
Thank you for all your support through our 2nd Grade GT Testing window. One more thing that has to be completed are the recommendations for all your 2nd graders by November 3, 2023. I am attaching the document with steps to follow so that you can complete them. This information was first relayed to everyone at our GT training and in my emails. If you need any help with this please see me.
Lost and found: scooter boards
Summit K12 BOY assessment <November 1>
If you have not had your EBs do this yet--the window closes tomorrow!
[Sharing again] Door to mini-lounge by cafeteria to remain LOCKED
[Sharing again] SpEd accomodations
Going forward, graded assignments should have SpEd and 504 accommodations documented in your gradebook. While you are welcome to continue documenting on the work plan as well -- since this is further evidence that you are providing accommodations -- we will be checking Power School as the primary means of assuring that students are receiving accommodations.
We will review this at our meetings on Wednesday, too, but here are the (helpful) resources that I have on how this process works:
- Link to a video walking through this process
- Link to a one-pager
Both of these links are also posted on the GOMM Link Tree.
[Sharing again] GEPs <due November 17>
It's that time of year when we must update our GT students GEP (Gifted Educational Plan). All GEPs must be completed by November 17, 2023. All identified GT students must have a new or updated GEP for the year. The GEP documents how instruction will be differentiated for our GT learners.
I have placed a copy of resources that can help you navigate the GEP. A word of advice from the GT department is to leave checked boxes untouched when you enter the Special Program tab that will get you the GEP.
A message will be posted on Class Dojo to notify parents if they have, some input that would help you complete the GEP for their students to reach out to you.
I will also have some open lab times please be on the lookout for that email.
[Sharing again] Child find One Source course <November 28>
Child Find is Houston ISD’s federal mandate to identify, locate and evaluate all students suspected of having a disability. To ensure all staff members have a fundamental understanding of the definition and purpose of Child Find, all district staff members will be required to take the Child Find course.
Key Actions:
- All applicable employees will be auto-registered for the Child Find course by the district as part of their compliance course curriculum.
- Employees complete the Texas Education Agency Child Find course by Tuesday, November 28, 2023.
[Sharing again] Have broken items?
Happy birthday to our GOMM team members!
10.23 - Ms. Salazar Rosales
10.27 - Ms. A. Ortiz
10.28 - Mr. Trevino and Ms. Mendivil
10.29 - Ms. Winscott
Acknowledgements
We'd like to acknowledge...
Ms. Eisenhauer (UE) for her leadership and willingness to jump right in with Ms. Achord's students to ensure that they don't miss anything during this transition time.
Ms. Green (UE) for modifying a document that Ms. McCord had made for Lower El and sharing it across UE. The document gives students a place to plan and capture their Readworks responses. We love this collaboration!
Coach Garza (enrichment) for his flexibility while the gym is being used for Boosterthon, voting, etc.
Ms. Dupnick (LE) for creating a poster with visuals for work cycle expectations.
Mr. Faber (CH) for using photographs to make it super clear for kids what their recess and enrichment location is.
Ms. van der Pol for always sharing resources and expertise with our team.
Ms. Staples (CH) for going above and beyond with her float in the Storybook Character Parade.
Ms. Mendivil (CH) for being such an active assistant while supporting in Mr. Faber's class.
From the Edu-Sphere: Research and Expert Strategies
Literacy As a Springboard for Student Empowerment
In this article in Language Arts, Chris Hass (James Madison University) says that as a second- and third-grade teacher, he used to ask his students, What is reading? At first they said reading was figuring out unfamiliar words and learning new vocabulary, but as he continued to ask the question, their responses evolved:
- Reading is imagining you’re the character in a book.
- It’s trying to figure out what might happen next.
- It’s forgetting what’s going on around you because you’re so into the story.
“The power of returning to this question over time,” says Hass, “was that it scaffolded my students to continue thinking more deeply about their practice as well as their relationship to reading.”
Then he began asking a follow-up question: Why is it important that we’re growing as readers, writers, and speakers? At first, students’ responses were pedestrian: to get ready for fourth grade, do well on “those tests,” go to a good college and get a well-paying job.
But one day a quiet student raised her hand and suggested, “So we’ll be able to stand up for ourselves.” This comment got the class thinking about literacy at a different level. Students recalled reading Malala Yousafzai’s story, doing a project on saving sea animals, lobbying a state legislator, and writing letters to a city council member.
“Once they had the eyes to see how literacy and democratic practices go hand in hand,” said Hass, “they could not help but continue to share more expansive visions of literacy…”
– talking out disagreements, reading a news article about unfair dress codes, exploring reports of problems around the world. Hass built on this pivotal discussion for the remainder of the school year, continuing to see literacy as a tool for students standing up for themselves and others. There were three main vehicles for the theme:
• Keeping classroom journals – As part of morning meetings, students added to journals (made of stapled sheets of art paper) that explored a wide range of questions: Why do worms crawl on the driveway when it rains? Why do things look darker when they’re wet? Why do people want to ban books at school? Why aren’t there any female presidents? Why is there racism? “The discussions that grew from these questions,” says Hass, “created a culture of inquiry in the classroom – one that positioned each of us to think more critically about the workings of the world around us.”
• Inquiring about activism – Hass purchased a set of books with stories about different types of community advocacy – the 1909 Shirtwaist Factory strike, protecting Egypt’s treasured books, African-American freedom fighters, how Selma’s teachers changed history – and led discussions about the problems confronted in each story. Students took the books home and reported back on insights from discussions with family members. Realizing that they all had the power to create change, students generated a list of what taking action looks like in practice.
• Acting on their convictions – Hass asked each student to choose one issue from the list that was especially important to them. Kids read a variety of texts on their chosen issue, conducted surveys and interviews, and created a culminating project. There were petitions, schoolwide signature drives, and letters sent to city officials and state legislators, school board members, food service providers, and the school’s principal.
“By the end of the school year,” Hass says, “my students learned there is much more to reading than simply decoding words or gaining skills to do well on a test.” Students were informed about issues in their communities and around the world, built understanding and empathy for others, became more-critical consumers of information, and took action on issues that were important to them.
“Learning to Stand Up for Themselves: Using Literacy As a Vehicle for Change” by Chris Hass in Language Arts, September 2023 (Vol. 101, #1, pp. 65-68); Hass can be reached at hasscl@jmu.edu.