Monday Memo
February 19th - 23rd, 2018
“It is more important to be of pure intention than of perfect action.” ― Ilyas Kassam
As a person who thrives on learning, a career in education was the perfect choice for me. There has not been a day since I began teaching that I ever felt like I knew it all. This job provides constant opportunities to evaluate situations/practices through different lenses and modify and adjust as needed to do the best job possible. Last week, I had an opportunity to evaluate what we typically include in our substitute folder and realized we need to make a modification to what we consider standard information. Moving forward, if you have students with behavioral issues significant enough to need a positive behavior checklist, is in a centralized program and participates in your classroom without an aide or is a SpEd student who's behavioral issues are a manifestation of their disability, I need you to include information in your substitute folder about those students. Information that would be important to include would be an explanation of their behavior charts, who to contact if help is needed, behavioral triggers for the students, key strategies you use to help them be successful in the classroom, who they should not engage with, what signals each student uses when they need to cool off, the location of cool off spot and how that works. If you need help with creating this document, please don't hesitate to ask anyone on A-Team or in Special Ed. Our hope is that by keeping our substitutes informed about the strategies we are using to help these students be successful, the ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure.
On Wednesday, we will have our next opportunity for unit planning. Remember when you plan your upcoming units, please make sure that your artifact includes the answers to the questions listed in the Unit and Lesson Planning Questions. In addition, make sure that you send a copy of the artifact to Jaime by the EOD on Thursday, February 22nd. Even if you have previously given her access to the folder your artifact is kept in, with so many teams doing different things, it is much easier to manage if you will just send it to her.
In our last Team Leader Meeting, we discussed instructional rounds and the importance of making this a common practice to support continuous improvement of our own practices. In effort to incentivize this practice, we agreed that once every person on your team has completed an instructional round and completed the data collection form, the team can identify a day other than Tuesdays to wear jeans. Teams will be eligible for this treat once a month. We have also placed a copy of the Instructional Rounds Strengths in McGowen General, McGowen Important Information, Instructional Rounds folder to give you some guidance of who to consider observing if you are interested in a particular topic.
It is that time of year again. With staffing allocations coming out in the next few weeks, we need to begin thinking about staffing for next year. The first step in this process is to know what you are thinking. Many of us have experienced the consequences when teammates are not upfront about wanting a change and then make last-minute decisions that put us in a bind. Please know that while I am not asking for a final decision in this staffing survey, I am asking for honesty about any possibilities you may be considering. Please complete the survey by Friday, March 2nd and let me know if you have any questions.
For those of you attending professional development at Boyd, many principals are asking their teachers to dress professionally tomorrow. I am okay with you wearing jeans, however, I request that you still maintain a professional look and refrain from wearing t-shirts.
Make today count, stay healthy and wash your hands!
JL
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Kudos to Special Education Aide
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Last Minute Info - February 19th Professional Development
Thank you so much for your support for our first Elementary MISD Collaborative Conference! The elementary team has been hard at work to finalize details for the day. See below for a few updates!
- We have added room locations and moved several sessions around to accommodate our popular sessions. As a result, we have opened up a few slots for some of the more popular sessions. We will continue to monitor attendance and do the best we can to open as many seats as possible. Unfortunately, we are limited by room size at Boyd and attendance will eventually have to be capped. Please encourage your teachers to choose alternate sessions if their first choice is already full.
- We will make an exception for the required sessions (4th grade writing and K-1 Dyslexia). If your teachers are having trouble registering for either of those because they show to be full, tell them to attend the session anyway. We will find a way to accommodate teachers for those sessions.
- The schedule at https://emc2february2018.sched.com/ is a live schedule and may continue to change until Monday. Printed schedules are discouraged since they may be out of date by the day of the event. Participants can bookmark the link on their computer for reference. They can also navigate to the link on their phone and they will be prompted to add a mobile app to their phone (see attached screenshot).
- Each campus has been assigned a room (or more for some larger campuses) during the Campus Collaboration time from 3:00-4:00. Room assignments can be found at this link.
We will be using the messaging function of Sched to communicate parking, sign in and other important information for participants. Please help us make sure all of your teachers have
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Layne Pethick is Back!
Behavior and the Brain: Neurological Factors that Affect Behavior and Learning
Participants in this session will gain information on neurological factors that affect the behavior and learning of children and will include such topics as stress and the brain, biological factors of the brain, neurological factors related to attention and emotion and the effect on behavior and learning. This presentation will be an open forum style with several engaging activities and the opportunity for inquiry and discussion by participants (Other topics addressed include: trauma; trauma informed instruction; social-emotional health; mental health, and socioeconomic issues). ** Please note: the main focus is the school environment and all educators and staff that interact with students at all levels. **
3 Part Series:
Part 1
February 5th OR February 6th
Part 2
March 5th OR March 6th
Part 3
April 2nd OR April 3rd
Sign up through Euphoria
All sessions are from 3:30 –5:00
McKinney North Cafeteria
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Action Items
- Sign up for the February 19th Waiver Day training in Eduphoria as well as register for the sessions you would like to attend on Sched.
- Complete online TELPAS Basic Training by Monday, February 19th.
- Email Jaime a copy of your Unit Planning artifact by Thursday, February 22nd.
- Update your substitute folders to include critical information about high needs students by Friday, February 23rd.
- Complete the Staffing Survey by Friday, March 2nd.
- TELPAS writing samples and Rating Roster due by SL by EOD on Wednesday, March 28th.
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Shoparoo
Did you know that each week I give out jeans passes to the three highest scoring staff members on Shoparoo? I know that many of you have already joined, but if you haven't, it is not too late. Simply go to www.shoparoo.com to create your account. Please feel free to push this information out to your parents as well.
Congratulations to Krista Daniel, Barbara Peebles and Jennifer Little for being the highest three staff contributors to Shoparoo this week!
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Focus for 2017 - 2018
In order to help all children achieve their personal best, McGowen teachers and staff will:
- Knowledgeably speak about our current practices that contribute to McGowen becoming a Level 2 Certified High Reliability School.
- Engage in collaborative team planning and lesson design that addresses the four essential questions of a PLC.
- Present lessons in such a way that students understand and can speak knowledgeably about posted learning and language targets.
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Remind for Staff
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APPRECIATIONS
- I WANT TO THANK MRS McCARTNEY because she has not only helped me with Jayce but with my personal fear of the big horrendous C word, cancer. I had a second biopsy done, and I did not want to call back the doctor because I was afraid. Even with a classroom full of students, she helped me. Because I was filling in for Jayce's aide, I did not always know what to do, but she was there everytime I asked for help. She is an amazing lady. Mrs. Roof helped me as well, but I just want to sent out a special appreciation to Mrs. McCartney for all that she has done to help me last week. -Lupita
- JL- Thank you SO much for all of your help with 1st grade’s project! -Krista
- O’Connor: Thank you for covering my duty! I appreciate you! -Noble
- Third Grade Team: I am so thankful for each of you! Thank you for taking care of my sub while I was out!-Noble
- Tara, thank you for the sweet compliment; it was much needed this week! –Haas
- Sunshine, thank you for the delicious hot chocolate! -Haas
- Sylvia~ The shoes- WOW!!! Thank you!!!!! ~KT
- I appreciate all the well wishes while I was out,. Thank you, Everyone! Coach Shambo
- Tanya - thank you for delivering my V-Day loot. It was a nice surprise. Gaby
- Thank you to everyone who so quickly got liquid glue to our classroom when we needed it!!!!! ~KT
- Maria~ Thank you so much for waiting with me while I waited for my friend to get picked up from tutoring! You’re the best!!! ~KT
- 2nd Grade~ Love y’all. ~KT
- Office Team - Much love and appreciation to you for helping out however you can when there is no room in the inn. I don't know what I'd do without you! -JL
- Jaime - Many thanks to you for all of your support with a soon to be friend. -JL
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GT Training Opportunity
- Foundations 1: April 21st at Cockrill MS Library
- Foundations 2: May 19th at Cockrill MS Library
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BAD DUDE
Please join us in recognizing Lori Roof as this week’s Bad Dude! Lori is always willing to jump in and be a calming force in any challenging situation regardless if the student is hers or not. She is a model of grace under fire when responding to student behavior and volunteers to take on the toughest situations. She is flexible with her schedule and collaborates with teachers to meet the needs of her students.
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McKinney ISD's Vision, Mission and Beliefs
Any time we have an idea, concern, solution and/or comment, this is the filter through which we should speak. Let's help each other live up to our vision, mission, and beliefs.
Vision:
We are a cohesive, diverse community providing engaging learning experiences for all.
We will provide engaging learning experiences so students can become effective communicators, quality contributors and socially responsible citizens.
Beliefs:
- Partnerships between students, parents, community members and staff are foundational to educational success.
- Positive school culture and a safe environment foster growth.
- Everyone has inherent value and deserves to be treated with dignity and respect.
- Learning is an active process requiring engaging tasks and engaging minds.
- Relevant and authentic experiences ignite continuous, deeper learning.
- Meaningful relationships enrich learning.
- Confidence fuels risk taking and higher achievement.
- Financial stewardship ensures a tomorrow for education.