LVHS Weekly!
Excellence In All We Do.
February 24, 2020
CALENDAR THIS WEEK:
Monday, February 24 -
A Day
Social Studies PLC - Common planning meeting and TELPAS writing collection check-in
PROGRESS REPORTS GRADES NEED TO BE UPDATED IN TX CONNECT BY 3:30 PM TODAY, FEBRUARY 24. STUDENTS CAN REGAIN ELIGIBILITY BUT CANNOT LOSE AT THIS GRADING PERIOD.
Boys Bi-District Game vs Comfort HS at Llano HS, 7:00 pm
Tuesday, February 25 -
B Day
PLC - Math - Common planning meeting and TELPAS writing collection check-in
JV Baseball at home
JV and Varsity Softball at Manor
Wednesday, February 26 -
Faculty Meeting, 7:20 am, Coach Kassell's Room
A Day
PLC - Science - Common planning meeting and TELPAS writing collection check-in
Senior Scholarship Meeting, 5:30-6:30 pm, PAC
Thursday, February 27 -
B Day
Powerlifting Meet at home, beginning at 4:00 pm
PLC - ELA - Common planning meeting and TELPAS writing collection check-in
Varsity Baseball at Marion Tournament
Friday, February 28 -
A Day
JV and Varsity Baseball at home, 4:00 pm
Varsity Baseball at Marion Tournament
Social emotional tidbit of the week...
Changing behaviors using explicit and scripted instructions (aka - assuming positive intent)
From the book, Switch, How to Change Things When Change is Hard, by Chip and Dan Heath:
"In 2004, a study was conducted of 110 parents who had abused their children. Seventy-three percent of them had assaulted their kids—hitting or punching them with their fists. Twenty percent had engaged in even more violent assaults, resulting in broken bones or severe lacerations; The parents tended to blame their abusive behavior on their kids. “They’ll say, I had to discipline my child this way because he's so rotten and he won't listen,’ ” said Beverly Funderburk, a research professor at the University of Oklahoma’s Health Sciences Center. The parents believed that they’d gotten a “bad kid,” or a stubborn one, and that violence was the only way they could get their kids to obey.
The mission of Funderburk’s team was to change these parents, to stop their abuse. If you think that sounds naive and even hopeless, you’re in good company. That’s also what Funderburk worried about when she first began the work. She'd practiced what’s called parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), which tries to disrupt the escalating cycles of coercion and frustration that characterize abusive situations. In the first step of PCIT, parents are given an assignment: “We want you to play with your child for five minutes a day. Here are the rules: You are going to devote 100% of your attention to them, you're not going to answer the phone, you are not going to teach them their ABC's. You're just going to enjoy them.”
The parents are incredulous that five minutes will accomplish anything. “For goodness sake,” said one parent, “I spend every minute of every day on this child.” At first, these five-minute play periods take place in a laboratory setting. The parent and child sit in an empty room with only a table and chairs. Three or four toys are put on the tabletop. The parents are instructed to let the child lead the play session, and they are forbidden to give commands, to criticize, even to ask questions.
Letting their child direct the action is incredibly difficult for them. During the play session, a therapist watches the parents through a one-way mirror and gives real-time coaching by means of an earpiece. Funderburk describes a typical interaction: The parent and child might start coloring, and the parent tries to play along by coloring on the child's paper. The child objects. So we tell the parent, “Okay, get a separate piece of paper and imitate what your child is doing.” If the child is coloring a rainbow, the parent colors a rainbow too, saying, “I'm coloring a rainbow just like you. You're using green, I'm going to use green.” And some kids, if they're particularly oppositional, might reach over and grab the parent's green crayon yelling, “I want that.” And we teach the parents to say, “Okay, I’d be happy to share that crayon with you ... in fact, let me put all the crayons over by you so you can reach them all.” Or perhaps the parent says, “I’m going to color my rainbow with pink now.” And the child says, “Pink is ugly, don't do pink!” If the child has been particularly nasty we may just ask the parents to ignore the comment, but otherwise, we coach the parents to agree with their child, “You’re right! Pink is not a good color for the rainbow! I think I’ll do red.” We try to get the parents to bend like a reed. Whatever the child is doing, the parent offers no resistance, so the child has nothing to fight against.
An abusive parent typically finds the five-minute exercise utterly exhausting. (And you understand why—the parent's Rider has to supervise every single moment.) Funderburk and her colleagues demand that the parents practice the same set of behaviors (called “child-directed interaction”) every day, whether in the lab or at home so that the behaviors gradually become instinctive. The more instinctive a behavior becomes, the less self- control from the Rider it requires, and thus the more sustainable it becomes. Parents are taught skills that feel unnatural at first. They are taught to look for opportunities to praise their kids’ behavior. (“I like how hard you’re working.” “Good job. You’re being very kind to that doll.”) They are taught to simply describe their child’s behavior so that the child feels noticed. (“Oh, look, now you’re putting the car in the garage.”)
Later in the program, after parents have become better at having short positive interactions with their kids, they are taught how to give commands so that their kids will listen and obey. They are taught a very specific formula for a command—combining a command with a reason so the command doesn’t feel arbitrary. (“Johnny, it's almost time for the bus to come, so please put your shoes on now.”)
Funderburk and her team at the University of Oklahoma studied 110 parents who had abused their children. Half of them were randomly assigned to take 12 sessions of PCIT, and the other half were assigned to take 12 sessions of a form of anger-management therapy, focused on helping them control their emotions—the standard treatment for abusive parents. After the therapy sessions concluded, the parents were tracked for 3 years. Across 3 years, 60 percent of the anger-management-therapy group committed another act of child abuse. In contrast, only 20 percent of the PCIT parents re-offended. PCIT did not eliminate the problem: One in five parents abused his or her kids again. But, from the perspective of behavior change, the results are staggering.
Most of us believe in our hearts that child abusers are irredeemably flawed. Who could hit a child other than someone who is disturbed in some basic way? It simply boggles the mind to think that the behavior of child abusers could be altered by only twelve sessions of therapy concentrating on such simple instructions. Funderburk said, “In my experience, the physically abusive parent has the same goals as a normal parent; it’s their method and their ideas that are wrong. They think that their child is woeful, because they told their 3-year-old to just play in the front yard, and then he wandered off into the street. And they don’t understand that a 3-year-old might forget an instruction, or might not have that kind of impulse control, so they think they have to punish the child for his own good because he was disobedient and dangerous.” Earlier, we said that what looks like stubbornness or opposition may actually be a lack of clarity. The PCIT intervention suggests that child abuse, too, may be partly the result of a lack of understanding, a lack of clear instruction or guidance on what to do.
This is not to excuse the parents’ behavior, of course. It is simply to point out that simple scripting has power beyond what any of us could have predicted. Even child abusers become pliable in its presence."
How can you apply this story to working with young adults? Working with your own children? Trying to change a behavior of others or yourself?
LVISDEF GRANT APPLICATIONS ARE DUE MARCH 24th!
Click here to access the form: http://www.lagovistaisd.net/default.aspx?name=edfound.application
Faculty Meeting this Week!
SCHOOL SAFETY - YOU ARE A BIG PART OF IT
A couple of reminders:
- Keep your classroom door locked.
- Always make sure visitors have a badge. If not, alert the front office immediately. Ask the visitor to go get checked in.
- Never prop open doors, including the outside doors.
- Encourage students to share concerns about other students - using SafeAlert (you should have an info poster in your room) or by confiding in an adult.
- Take concerns and threats seriously - contact the office if concerns arise.
- Be in the hallways during passing periods.
- Don't be afraid to be a little paranoid - alert the office if you have a concern ASAP.
- If you see something that should result in a lockdown (think active shooter), be prepared to use the phone system to alert the school. Do not count on someone else to make that call.
New duty!!!
Change in Duty Area for Afternoon Teachers!!!
Same day, same time, just a different area beginning next Monday!
You should have received a shared google doc from Stu with the updated assignments if you are impacted by the change.
3rd nine weeks testing
The third nine weeks testing is optional at LVHS. OF course, you should be giving assessments frequently to guide your instruction, but because of spring benchmarks, you are not required to give one.
The week before Spring Break, 9th graders will be affected by testing on the following days:
Tuesday, March 3 - Algebra benchmark
Wednesday, March 4 - Biology benchmark
IF YOU TEACH math, science, or social studies - read carefully...
The TELPAS Writing collection window opened February 10, so you can begin collecting their writing right away. Please make sure the student's full name and the date are at the top of the paper. Cathy Evans included a list of our ELLs and the teacher responsible for collecting samples, and those English teachers will be communicating with you as well.
The deadline to get samples to the student's English/Language Arts teacher is March 2. Please return samples directly to the English teacher of record, or to Stu Taylor- do not leave them in a teacher's mailbox! They are regarded as official testing documents.
TELPAS testing and Computer Lab use this week:
Just wanted to touch base to let you know that we will be using the Computer Lab (next door to the Tech office) for TELPAS practice sessions on the following days; both are B days.
Tues. Feb. 25: 1:00-2:00 for TELPAS Listening & Speaking
Thurs. Feb. 27: 1:00-2:00 for TELPAS Reading
The TELPAS Testing Administrations will be on the following dates. The tests are untimed.
Thursday, March 5 @ 8:15 (Listening & Speaking)
Friday, March 6 @ 8:15 (Reading)
If you need a sub...
Lesson Planning Template
Student-centered Warm-Up
Anticipatory Set
Content
Guided Practice
Formative Assessment
Individual Practice
Formative Assessment
Here it is if you would like to check it out: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IsGfFVeDAcb5snYG7ICXI1oXrNexQfo10vypEt7Imbk/edit?usp=sharing
Semester Exam Exemptions
Juniors and Seniors at Lago Vista High School with no outstanding fines or monetary obligations may be exempt from a final (second semester ONLY) exam if they meet the following criteria and follow the guidelines as written below:
Attendance Criteria:
Perfect Attendance during the second semester in ALL YOUR CLASSES: EXEMPT 3 FINALS.
NO MORE THAN 1 DAY ABSENT TOTAL in the second semester: EXEMPT 2 FINALS.
NO MORE THAN 2 DAYS ABSENT TOTAL in the second semester: EXEMPT 1 FINAL.
A student who has missed more than 6 absences per period in any class for the year may not be eligible to exempt ANY exams.
Grade Criteria: At least an 80% semester average and an 75% final (yearly) average in the class the student is exempting.
Guidelines:
· Exempting a final exam does not entitle a student to be absent on the day or period of the final. Students must still attend classes, regardless of exemptions earned. Students absent during finals will lose their exemptions in accordance with the above exemption criteria.
· For the sake of exemptions, any attendance disputes must be addressed and resolved with the attendance clerk within 3 school days of the absence or tardy.
· If you fail to meet the attendance eligibility requirements because of additional absences, you will receive an Incomplete in the course you requested to exempt. You will have 10 school days to come in and take the missed exam before a zero is recorded in its place.
The following absences do not affect exemption status:
1. Medical appointments which are documented with a doctor’s note furnished to the attendance office upon return to school.
2. Funeral for immediate family members up to 3 days.
3. School functions.
4. Religious holidays.
5. Military deployment of an immediate family member.
6. Required court dates.
7. College days (up to 2 per year).
Oldies but goodies...
FIRST 15, LAST 15 MINUTES OF CLASS ARE A NO FLY ZONE. DON'T ALLOW STUDENTS TO LEAVE YOUR CLASS DURING THESE TIMES. FIRST 5, LAST 5 DURING ADVISORY.
Attendance Errors
If you need to correct an attendance error, you must complete the following form for documentation purposes:
Any correction that Abigayle makes must have a paper trail leading back to you!
Thanks!
Anonymous Alert System
Users may anonymously report concerns 24-7-365 via the StayALERT website, an e-mail, a phone call to a recorded and monitored line, or via a text message from a cell phone. Photos and video clips pertaining to the StayALERT report may be included. No special app required! Reportable information will be forwarded in a timely manner to a pre-designated school official for review.
To make a report, use one of the methods below:
Website: stayalert.info
Call or Text: (206) 406-6485
Email: report@stayalert.info
Positive Affirmations for students and staff!
https://forms.gle/rVbYxwAZmvh2Wgma6
Club or UIL Academic Sponsor?
Please add your meeting time to this schedule so we know who has what and when -
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zgVbittNBpzB1B96FC6iGsTBKkfMI9ro0ZT6RFNxn5Y/edit?usp=sharing
Students will need to have passes to leave advisory to go to a club. If we can't get this organized and we end up having a lot of students wandering the hallways, we will have to go back to clubs only on Fridays. :(
Read this- put in zeroes for missing work
Please be sure to enter zeroes as they happen. You will also notice that students are often quicker to turn in their late assignments when there is a zero as a placeholder instead of an X.
Of course, when they turn in the assignment late, you can change it (Stu wanted me to put that part in there in case you were confused).
Thank you!!!!
Does the re-do policy apply to nine weeks tests?
However, remember, they need to submit the re-do form within 2 days of receiving their posted grade.
That might mean you have to turn in an incomplete for them and then they have until the following Friday at 4:00 pm to update the grade.
Advisory Changes Protocol
If you would like to make a change to a student in your advisory, you need to send an email requesting the change to Mrs. Huerta and include the teacher who is the current advisory teacher of the student.
That way everyone is in the loop.
If you don't do it this way, Mrs. Huerta will send the email back to you!
check this out! Students must complete this form to retest/redo!
hall passes
Access it here: https://drive.google.com/a/lagovista.txed.net/file/d/0B9GUQCF2uqLcN1luZTFtZUtVYkU/view?usp=sharing
UPDATED - Minimum Number of Assignments (LVISD policy):
• Daily = 20% - minimum of 9 required per 9 weeks
• Formative Assessment = 35% - minimum of 6 required per 9 weeks
• Major Grades = 45% - minimum of 4 required per 9 weeks
Remember, grades must be updated WEEKLY.
At least 3 of the formative and/or daily assignments must be a writing assignment each 9 weeks.
Every Wednesday in LVISD is college day! Be sure to sport your favorite college's gear.
positive behavior reinforcers.
Make sure you sign it (legibly) and then the students write their name on it and come to the reception desk to put their tickets in the bucket. Please do not send them during instructional time (I know...you wouldn't think of it)! Thanks!