Global Gazette
Week of October 14 - October 18
GLA Educators... When Our Scholars See Us..They Should See Greatness!
At GLA we celebrate Indigenous People's Day instead of Columbus Day. Here's How You Can Talk About Christopher Columbus in Your Classroom.
Start with Hello Week was great! Thank you to all staff who pushed this initiative with scholars.
Weekly Challenge: Each week we will give scholars a weekly challenge to complete. This week's challenge is Showing Leadership. This week we are pushing all scholars to show leadership in some way.. On Friday in morning meetings/circles, please have scholars share out about the ways they have shown leadership. Teachers are asked to capture footage of these conversations on video and send footage to your Academy Leader and Principal Tyler.
Weekly Anti-Bullying Classroom Activity: Each week we will focus, as a school, on one assignment/activity to encourage scholars to think about bullying (see attached). For this week, we are asking all classrooms to have scholars complete the third handout in our anti-bullying packet. This week, scholars will work on the "Three Wishes" activity. In this activity scholars will have the chance to reflect on one wish they have for 1) themselves 2) their family and 3) the world. Teachers are encouraged to adjust the rigor based upon your grade. However, we are expecting to see evidence of the final products posted in classrooms/hallways.
School-wide Mentoring Through Reading Buddies: Reading Buddies is underway and is a huge hit. Thank you teachers for protecting this time for relationship building. Continue to document reading buddy exchanges. This week, please encourage reading buddies to learn more about their partners.
STAFF SPIRIT WEEK!
Attire: MOTIVATION MONDAY (Wear a Motivational Shirt)
- Indigenous People's Day
- Morning Huddle 7:50a
- Annotated Lesson Plans Due 8:00a
- Support Staff Morning Huddle 8:15a
Terrific Tuesday
Attire: TEACHING IS A TEAM SPORT (Wear your favorite sports jersey/gear)
- Legendary Academy Harambee
- Instructional Strategy Meetings - Standards Based Grading
- Fashion Show Committee Meeting (Tryouts)
- NHS Committee Meeting
Cultural Wednesday
Attire: STOMP OUT BULLYING (Wear blue shirts and jeans)
- 1p Dismissal
- Cultural Wednesday
- Staff Meeting/Professional Development 1:45p - 4:45p
- Staff Smoothies
- Staff Exercise Club 4:45p - 5:30p
Thrilling Thursday
Attire: WE SUPPORT THE CURE (Wear Pink)
- Rising Stars Academy Harambee
- NHS Meeting 4:00p
- PAC Meeting 6p
- Demonstration of Learning Night Committee Meeting 4:00p
Fantastic Friday
Attire: TWIN IT TO WIN IT (Choose a partner and dress as twins)
- Fitness Friday
- Rising Stars Linvilla Orchards Trip
- Staff Happy Hour
Teaching and Learning Corner (with Ms. Snyder)
Instructional Look For: As we continue our components of a lesson looks for, this week’s focus is academic ownership. How do you shift the cognitive load to scholars? As you plan for your lessons ask yourself the following questions:
- Are all or almost all scholars complete an appropriately challenging amount of the cognitive work during the lesson, such as reading, writing, discussion, analysis, computation, or problem solving, given the focus of the lesson? Do you rarely finishes any of the cognitive work that students could own?
- Are all or almost all scholars provide meaningful oral or written evidence to support their thinking?
Watch the video below to continue to build your teacher toolkit.
WePac: After a successful week 1, WePac will continue with A week. Please reach out with any questions!
This week's Iready champions!
iReady:
Our highest usage classrooms in Reading this week were:
- Stoecker
- Roman
- Kennebrew
Our highest usage classrooms in Math this week were:
- Wolff
- Marazas
- Thompson
Culture and Climate Corner
See below for an important message from our PBIS Champion, Mr. Kennedy!
GLA West colleagues, six weeks in school has passed and our acceptance and implementation of our Global Greatness program has been phenomenal. Staff members have been great in speaking positively to our Scholars daily. Academies and individual homeroom teachers have begun to roll out LiveSchool incentives, which will no doubt strengthen the positive culture and climate in our environment.
Colleagues, always remember that learning new skills both behaviorally and academically requires lots of teaching…and re-teaching! We help our Scholars by continually and consistently teaching and re-teaching Global Greatness expectations. Remember to provide feedback, and allow opportunities to redo a skill correctly while strengthening our relationship with our Scholars. When guiding Scholars to improve behavioral skills, we as a staff can also reflect on ways to prevent unexpected behavior. What routine or procedure do I need to reteach? Do I need to increase my active supervision? Am I acknowledging Scholars frequently enough for showing the expected behavior?
Here at GLA West, we will be steadfast in focusing on various prevention strategies to increase the likelihood of appropriate behavior.
Global Greatness Tips:
· Re-teach Global Greatness lesson plans in appropriate area when necessary
· Focus on WHAT you are giving out LiveSchool dollars for, rather than just utilizing system.
- Use LiveSchool dollars to reward expected behaviors - not as coercion
- “If you don’t do this, I’m not giving you a LiveSchool dollar.”
This Week in Wellness!
All Week:
- Fundraise for JDRF
- Finalize HYPE members
10/14 - Perfect Attendance Incentive
10/16 - All Staff Smoothie Day, delivered to classrooms in the am
Staff Workout 4:45p
10/16 - Gardening Day @ GLAW. Garden Club Kick Off (during the day)
10/17 - Yoga in the Classroom (select classes)
10/20 - GLA @ JDRF One Walk, 8am meet up, Citizens Bank Park
FFVP Snacks:
M: Clementines
T: Baby Carrots
Th: Cantaloupe
F: Banana
Kudos Corner!
Kudos to Mr. Thomson for an awesome keynote during our New Teacher Breakfast on Friday. Your words were powerful and your growth is inspiring. Thank you!
Thank you to Ms. Hatcher for your leadership of our Staff Exercise Club. The first class was great and your passion for wellness is infectious. A special kudos to Ms. Davis and Ms. Joyner for attending last week. We hope more staff will come out this week!
Kudos to Ms. McGregor for creating an incredible attendance board for the school.
Kudos to Ms. Robinson for never backing down from a challenge and being the epitome of a team player. We don't take for granted your investment and commitment to our scholars.
- Kudos to Mr. Kennebrew, Mr. Wright, Mr. Montgomery and Ms. Prieto for your homebound instruction for a scholar who is out on medical leave.
- Thank you Mr. Thomson and Mr. Williams for your awesome leadership during Harambee last week. You came with your "A" Game and the scholars were highly engaged and full of energy.
How sweet it is to have the light shine on you! A heartfelt thank you goes out to all of the Rising Stars Champion Educators for affirming one another and not allowing your team members to fall short. Continue to encourage, uplift and inspire!
Way to go, Ms. Amber Davis for Teaching Like a Champion and believing that all of your scholars can learn and be successful. Your message was so profound to them, as you boldly and lovingly stated, "I will not let you fail". The world needs more Educators like you, who will not give up on our children.
Mrs. Zimmerman is rocking it out when working with her small groups each day. Your passion, radiant smile, lovingkindness and zeal you bring to the scholars and teachers in our Academy is greatly appreciated and admired.
A special thank you goes out to Mrs. Fulton and Mrs. Hannibal, for allowing me the opportunity to read to The Rainbow Stars. It was such a joy and I look forward to bringing books alive on my next visit.
Ms. Cain, Ms. Hatcher and Ms. Sanchez for building great classroom culture
Top 10 LiveSchool users: Marazas, Sanchez, Hatcher, Lawrence, Wolff, Kennebrew, Cain, Stoecker, Forrest
Mrs. Dawson for supporting culture reset with excellence
Ms. Davis for her calm presence and resiliency
Mrs. Forrest for building wonderful relationships with scholars
Important Reminders!
Interim Reports: Be sure to keep your grade book up to date. Oct. 21st is the deadline for the October interims.
Dismissal: Please dismiss scholars according to the announcements and not on their own. Bathroom and water use ends at 3:00p. Scholars should not be sent out of the rooms for any reason after 3:00pm. Getting water is not an emergency!
october calendar
Happy Birthday to Our October Babies!
Ms. Wilson - 10/2
Mrs. Greene - 10/3
Ms. Griffin - 10/3
Ms. Simpson - 10/6
Mrs. Anderson - 10/7
Ms. Thompson - 10/8
Mr. Montgomery - 10/17
Ms. Martinez - 10/18
Ms. MacElvaney - 10/18
Ms. Thomas - 10/19
Mr. Webster - 10/23