BARBER BULLETIN
October 15-19 Creating Joyful Leaders and Learners
Are you WILD about WIGS or are WIGS driving you WILD? Please read this!
Our 2nd-5th grade students have been hard at work in Habit Huddle these past few weeks writing WIGS.
Why are we spending so much time on these?? These goals help our students begin with the end in mind and focus on an area where they really need improvement- a Wildly Important Gap. Tracking their own progress weekly helps students take ownership for their goals- and meeting with an accountability partner to discuss their progress drives their motivation for success. We truly believe that when we get WIGS right, we will see our students' growth really explode!
The Lighthouse Team is aware there has been some confusion with WIGS- and let's face it, this is HARD for all of us. We are not at the place yet where this is natural for any of us. Your Lighthouse Team is here to help! Please expect a LH team member to check in with you about WIGS this week to answer any questions or concerns you may have. This is a vital piece of our LIM journey this year, and we want to synergize with you to set our students up for success!
If you would like to see some examples of WIGS from Pontiac students' Leadership Notebooks, please click here.
Last week's "Leader in Me Weekly" had some really timely articles about WIGS. We know your time is limited, but please take a moment to read through these articles. They are full of amazing ideas to make WIG writing easier and more targeted- ideas like giving students pick lists for goal and lead measures! Would your students find that helpful (and would that help them select an important and achiveable goal?) Check them out below! We plan to discuss these in more detail at a faculty meeting soon.
MEET JOVEN!
Joven comes from a big family! He is the 6th child among 10 siblings! There are 5 boys and 5 girls! They have all graduated and work very hard! He comes from a province in the Phillipines where one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, Bocaray, is located!
He enjoys coaching special education students in BOCCE! He has been a winning coach for three years in this sport! He also loves to sing and bake!
USC Project MATRS ---- Will you consider participating?
The project is looking to assess our students in Grades 1-5. The researchers hope to be as minimally distracting to your classroom as possible. Any participation of staff or students is voluntary.
A survey conducted after last year's pilot study indicated to us that the experience was positive for all who participated (e.g. "The whole experience was a real positive for my students. They were able to see firsthand how research takes place and data is gathered. Thank you for inviting us to be a part of your research.")
To give you more information about our timeline, the researchers are looking to begin our testing cycle in mid/late September and conclude by the December break. They will provide our school with copies of parent consent forms and ask that the teachers send them home with their students and collect them when they are returned.
What's involved if you choose to participate?
We are planning for a team of about 5 evaluators per day. Our interactions with each student participant will require 1 individual session (no more than 30min) plus 1 group session (no more than 30min).
Please let K.Barber know if you would be willing to participate in this research study!
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS DAY!
Our Special Education Team is so excited for Understanding Others Day this year! As you can see from the schedule below- we are trying a different schedule this year, but are still confident that it will be a great day!
Schedule (** All lunches will be within the classroom)
3rd-5th Schedule
8:30-9:30- Classroom Discussion via VBrick using clips from the movie WONDER.
9:30-10:00- Classroom Time (Teachers feel free to use as instructional time)
Cafeteria Activities/Schedule for grades 3-5
10:00-10:30- LM’s 3rd graders plus UM
10:35-11:05- Fourth Grade in Cafeteria
11:10-11:40- Third Grade in Cafeteria
11:45-12:15- Fifth Grade
PM, CD, K-2 focus on PAALS (Extra PE Room)
9:00-9:30: Primary Montessori
9:35-10:05- Kindergarten + Child Development
10:10-10:40- 1st grade (plus Montessori First Graders)
10:45-11:15- 2nd grade (plus Montessori Second graders)
A special note to 3rd-5th grade teachers- if you could please prep your students that there is going to be a service dog in the cafeteria as one of the "stations". That would be great. Please remind them that they aren't to try and touch or pet the dog since it is "on duty".
In regards to Global- global teachers will come and cover your classroom for your normally scheduled times.
Also, as a thank you to PAALS- we are going to be collecting the following items next week at school- if you could copy and paste this that is below in your newsletters- that would be awesome!
Next week is Understanding Others Day which is all about getting to know how people who are different than us can do the same things, even though it may look a little different. PAALS, which stands for Palmetto Animal Assisted Life Services is coming to share about their program to Kindergarten-2nd graders. To help support this wonderful service, we are asking for donations for the following things:
Paper Towels
Trash bags
Dog Toys
Small milk bones
LOOKING FOR INNOVATORS!
As you know, innovation is one of our principle practices on our pathway to premier here in Richland School District Two.
And I'm happy to announce an innovation opportunity for all teachers and staff!
Our superintendent is kicking off an innovation collaboration which will be the first for 2018-19 school year and one in which everyone has the opportunity to participate. In partnership with R2 Innovates, we're launching a collaboration using our Brightidea platform to gather ideas for creating innovative classroom and school learning spaces that will spark learning and engage students in ways that meet their diverse needs.
The goal is to have every school participate and contribute to a repository of ideas to be shared across the district. Attached is a flyer which includes details on the collaboration as well as information on logging in and posting ideas to the platform. Ideas can be posted through October 26.
As an added bonus, the school with the highest percentage of participants will receive help with creating an innovation lab/think tank space. Winning ideas will be prototyped and the grand prize winner will receive a classroom makeover.
So, each administrator is looking for a partner or team to help develop their ideas! Please let one of us know if you'd be willing to let us join you and INNOVATE your SPACE!
A LOOK AT OUR WEEK AHEAD:
3:30pm Team Collaboration
Admin will share schoolwide goals through VBrick for 10 minutes. Please turn on VBrick.
Tuesday:
3:30pm Baby Shower for Nurse Larck
6:30pm School Board Candidate Forum
Wednesday:
UNDERSTANDING OTHERS DAY
3:30pm AVID site team meeting
Thursday:
Assessment Reviews during grade level planning for K-2 in classroom - please bring current assessment with you!
Extended Planning with Angel Brown for grades 3-5 in Brainforest
Friday:
Carol Sample meets with K, PM, and 3rd during planning in BrainForest
CD field study to Fox Farm
Media Center will be closed