Monday Memo
January 9th-13th
It is not only what we do, but also what we do not do, for which we are accountable. -Moliere
First, I want to thank you for your work on PLCs and HRS. With your help, we have finished McGowen's HRS webpage and are ready to submit it as our evidence for Level 1 Certification. I strongly encourage you to refer back to the HRS guide frequently until you are able to easily explain the relationship between High Reliability Schools, Professional Learning Communities, and Stages of Team Development. Understanding and embracing these frameworks is critical from moving past compliance to ownership and will certainly expedite achieving our goals for student success.
Specific to PLCs, I want to express how proud I was of your videos. While we have decided to use Kinder Q3, 2nd Q1, 3rd Reading Q2 and 4th Writing Q6, we had a deep pool of options to choose from and could have easily used many others. I hope utilizing this protocol at the beginning of your units will continue to help your teams adhere to PLC planning practices. As a small token of my appreciation for your work, this Thursday, January 12th, will be a free jeans day for everyone.
Tuesday night will be our next PTA Board Meeting. If you haven't done so already, please be sure to write a thank you note to them for wrapping our Christmas gifts. I don't know about you, but receiving that gift of time at one of the busiest times of year is always a special treat for me. Regardless, notes of appreciation from you goes a long way with them, and they always pass your cards around the table to share with each other.
Make today count,
JL
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MAP Reminders
- Testing Window ~ January 9th – February 6th
- NWEA recommends that if you are using IE or Chrome, to make sure you clear your browser cache before starting or managing Test Sessions. You will see this reminder at that top of your screen when you login.
- Any student that was not in the system by 9:30 on January 5th, will need to be added to MAP manually(see Creating a Student Profile attached)
- Don’t forget to use the generic login ~ xxxstu for all online testing
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Calendar Change for Two Wednesday Meetings
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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. If you use veft4467 as a referral code, McGowen will earn money for you just signing up. Please feel free to push this information out to your parents as well. Once you sign up, Shoparoo will give you a referral code for your parents to use when they sign up. Schools with just 40 supporters are earning an average of $1,000 every year.
Congratulations to Krista Daniel, Barbara Peebles and Laura Garro for being the highest three staff contributors to Shoparoo this week!
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Focus for 2016 - 2017
In order to help every child their personal best, McGowen teachers and staff will:
- Knowledgeably speak about our current practices that contribute to McGowen becoming a Level 1 Certified High Reliability School.
- Actively participate in grade level and content Professional Learning Communities.
- 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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Happy Birthday!
January
Laura Garro - 10th
Renata Sanchez - 10th
Trent South - 10th
Martha Gordon - 15th
Lisa Pedersen - 15th
Jean Possehl - 16th
Holly Bianchetta - 19th
Stacie Bullock - 19th
Krystina Ticehurst - 24th
Shani Beeman - 30th
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Appreciations
- Gaby & Tanya - Thank you for all of your help registering our new family Tuesday morning. What a day for the online system to be down! You were lifesavers!- Barbara
- Lynn- Thank you for always being available when I need to bring parents to the library to use the computers for registration. - Barbara
- I would like to thank EVERYONE for their incredible work on Monday. I greatly appreciated your focus and amazing conversations. Like I said, we have the best staff in the world! - Michelle C.
- Lori – Thank you so much for covering my duty when I have to be off campus. You are a life saver! - Michelle C.
- Teams: I appreciate all of the lagging indicators that you submitted for HRS! This was very valuable as we created our campus presentation! SL
- Teams: Thanks for you’re the time and effort you put into your PLC videos! SL
- JD, thanks for your support and always listening! You rock and I am blessed to have you! - Chit
- I would like to give APPRECIATION for Melanie Burford, I had more than usual technology needs this week and she was very helpful as alwaysl! Mrs. Oliphant
- Sylvia and Jennifer, thank you so much for the 15 days of Christmas treats. What a thoughtful way to surprise us each day! It’s the little things that matter, so thank you very much!! KWard
- Tracey S., thank you so much for taking my tutoring student on Thursday! The gift of time is incredibly valuable and I appreciate it! KWard
Sifferman – Thank you for helping me out with the workbooks for my friends! They have been a big help and I appreciate it!
Relle – Thanks for coming to get my when my kindergarten kiddo was “stuck” in the bathroom! Haha! It takes a village!
SPED Team - thank you for so gracefully allowing me this extended time off and for loving me through it !! Words aren't enough to express my gratitude and appreciation for you all ! I am blessed to work with you everyday and to have you as my friends !! - Angie
Fun times !!!!
Donna - thank you for always taking care of me and all my issues no matter what they are !! You are a true blessing !! - Angie
“Renata, Lupita, Stephanie, and Lori = Thank you so much for working with our students and helping them in their inclusion classes. You guys are the best!”
-From Jenny
Teams: I appreciate all of the lagging indicators that you submitted for HRS! This was very valuable as we created our campus presentation! SL
Teams: Thanks for you’re the time and effort you put into your PLC videos! SL
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Bad Dude
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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.