RNNE Team and Family Launcher
Goal-oriented and intentional. Intervention.Authentic Team.
The Fierce Urgency of Now.
I hope that you all enjoyed your weekend!
As we embark on a new week, let's anchor our focus and our instructional intentions on the "fierce urgency of now."
Dr. King once quoted, "We are faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination is still the thief of time...We must move past indecision to action."
With ~12 weeks of core instruction remaining in the school year, we must become obsessive in our work as educators -- during the season of the "fierce urgency of now".
As passionate educators, we owe it to our Rocketeers, their families and ourselves to push ourselves to a new level of focus and urgency towards our goals. As Dan Quinn, Falcons Head Coach, once stated, "...It's in you. Find it."
We have to be obsessive about our data. Knowing where are students are, how they are mastering our content and what changes we are committing to make in order for them to achieve. We have to be obsessive about our planning and execution. We have to be aware of how each of our student quartile groups in our classes are growing, why they may not be growing and what our changes will be. Are we planning the right stuff and delivering it to our Rocketeers in the right way? We have to be obsessive about maximizing time with our lesson execution pacing, hallway transitions being orderly and silent and our work with students being purposeful and engaging. We have to be obsessive in our thirst to identify our "wins" and ways that we want to improve the next day on a daily basis.
We just simply have to be obsessive about not just crawling past the finish line in May with our end of year assessments, but soaring past it.
We are the team that can make this happen. We are the team that has proven that we can do it. Let's do it.
Love you all always,
Christa
Academic Focus Areas
Math:
- Creating and executing on exit tickets - 3x per week
- Using daily exit tickets to analyze mastery strengths and areas of focus for the following day/with that objective - analyze exit tickets to have a clear understanding of who mastered, almost mastered and did not master the objective.
K-2 Humanities:
- Creating rigorous phonics tasks for students
- Using data to inform phonics instruction
- Independent Reading Bags
3-4 Humanities:
- Using the TN Ready Framework to guide instruction for your TN Ready Block each day
- New Assessment Day: Thursday
- Analyze TN Ready Weekly Assessment during Thursday PD
- Friday CPT: Norm on exemplars, key points and TN Ready objective focus for the following week; create next steps from prior week's assessment data
- Ensuring that every Rocketeer has an Independent Reading Book to travel with
In this past week's lesson plan review, the Instructional Leadership Team has noticed progress in:
- Teachers writing an exemplar response to questions posed to students throughout the lesson - this was a specific increase point of progress from the last lesson plan review we engaged in. Great work in making improvements in this area of lesson planning in just one week!
- Having sticky what/how/why key points
- Including oral drills in their lessons
- Naming the specific type of talk in their lessons
Our push for this week in lesson plans is:
- Tagging Key Points: In writing your exemplar response, tag (name/copy and paste) the specific key point(s) that align with your exemplar so that you are able to quickly help a student if they get stuck in their understanding of the objective.
Note: These areas of progress and push should also be reflected in your guided reading/corrective instruction plans as well.
Lesson Planning Shout Out!:
- Check out Mrs. Potter's sticky "what/why/how" key points!
Culture Focus Area: Work the Clock
Progress:
- Bathroom/Hallway Traffic - There has been a decrease in the amount of Rocketeers in the hallway during teaching time! This means that your hard work in planning engaging lessons, investing your students and being cognizant of the amount of time students are out of the classroom is paying off! Keep up the awesome work and progress in this area, team!
Push:
We have lost a lot of instructional time with our Rocketeers. We only have 12 solid weeks of instruction left with them before school year comes to a close. We have to operate with a fierce of urgency of now:
- Tight HALLS: Having tight hallway transitions. Stay focused on holding tight lines that are following HALLS with no gaps.
- 2nd -3rd Grade: We have noticed a transition cultural breakdown on the 2nd floor hallway after 2nd/3rd grade lunch/recess. 2nd and 3rd grade teachers, please reference Mrs. Welch's update, below, about you new hallway routes to relieve some of the hallway traffic jams on the 2nd floor after you transition from lunch/recess.
- Work the Clock - create a sense of urgency and momentum in your classrooms by incorporating/refreshing your execution with the "Work the Clock" technique that we rolled out last semester. Use this cheat sheet as you are planning to tighten in this area this week. Shout out to Josh Pacos, Rocketship DC, for sharing this resource with us!
Work the Clock
Work the Clock chapter from "Teach Like a Champion 2.0"
Online Timer (can be displayed from your computer or tablet)
If you need a small timer, we have ordered a few, so grab one from the counter in the copy room.
Student-Facing Urgency Focus:
April is creating a set of stickers for each teacher to give out to students as they are showing "urgency" throughout the school day. Be sure to reward your Rocketeers for their urgency towards their goals throughout the week!
April is creating "Urgency" focused Core Value Rockets this week.
Independent Reading
Thank you in advance to our entire team for always working towards eradicating statistics like the one above! Based on our growth last semester, RNNE tied for second place as a school who made the most about of growth and increase of moving students into the 50th percentile (on grade level reading) based on Fall to Winter MAP growth. These are the ways that we directly ensure that our Rocketeers won't have to experience the effects of statistics like the one above.
I've directly felt the impact of those statistics when I've witnessed students become involved with gangs and violence in middle school as result of being disinvested in school and lacking the skills and confidence to even read and comprehend a third grade level text as a seventh grader. As a 13 year old, that's incredibly defeating. As a teacher of 13 year olds like that, it was heartbreaking.
The focus on independent reading throughout our building is a concrete action that displays "the fierce urgency of now" that our Humanities teachers are engaging in by having Rocketeers maximize every minute of reading and having their eyes on text.
Our goal is for our Rocketeers to have their eyes on text at least 100 minutes every day! This is certainly a shared goal as our Math teachers do an awesome job of having students engage with math story problems throughout their blocks as well as incoporating math-related texts into their lessons!
I first recognized the power of maximizing every minute of day through independent reading as a teacher at KIPP. Not only did having students travel with independent reading books result in some of the highest academic MAP results in the city of Chicago for reading, but it ignited a love for reading in our students. The latter is what continues to warm my heart the most.
Encourage your Rocketeers with their independent reading growth by:
- Asking them about the book(s) they are reading ("What book are you reading?" "What do you like best about your book/the story?" "What has been something that has made you stop and think in your book?" etc.)
- Asking for them to show you their independent reading bags (provide them with an opportunity to "show off" their bags! or chapter books!)
- Join them in reading the same book with them - I do this with the 4th graders each week and they are always so geeked that I choose to read the same book as them. We discuss it with each other, have competitions for who can read the most pages throughout the week (they always beat me in this area!) and we debate about the plot of the book.
Below, are a few pictures from my time as a KIPP teacher with my KIPPsters maximizing their time to read throughout the day - bathroom break and as their early finisher task.
Operations Updates from April
Thank You Teachers for being on point for our Meal Audit! You all gave 100% and it is truly appreciated! Please continue to be compliant with our Breakfast service for our Rocketeers- This is who we impact the most!
Focus of the week for Lunch/Recess Transitions: Mrs. Welch would like to see a formal hand-off from from Teachers to Support Staff when transitioning students from classrooms to recess and lunch. Our Rocketship expectation is for Teachers to walk their class to the Recess station and before leaving, handing off their class to the Support Staff with a greeting, similar to greeting students when they enter class first thing in the morning.
One suggestion would be: "Rocketeers, you are now going to recess/lunch with Ms._________(say Recess teacher name), let's greet Ms.___________, I want to hear a good report about how recess/lunch went today!
(This is only an example)
On Tuesday February 23rd, we will have a lock down drill at some point during the day. The time of the lockdown is unknown. Teachers please be ready to execute once the announcement is made over the intercom.
Teacher Expectaions immediatley when annoucement is made:
1. Lock your classroom door
2.Turn off your lights and close your blinds
3. Grab your walkie and make sure it is on Channel 2
4. On your computer pull up the Lockdown Attendance doc and update it (April will share with everyone)
3rd/4th Grade Guided Reading Groups: I will follow up with you on special instructions for how to enter your student names.
2nd and 3rd Grade Teachers: Updated Transition Routes post-Lunch and Recess
To help cut down on the slow transitions from classes to recess and lunch we will begin utilizing the back stairwell. This will also help students with staying in HALLS while not being distracted by other classes.
All 2nd grade classes coming to the cafeteria will continue using the main stairwell.
All 3rd grade classes going to recess from the 2nd floor will need to use the back stairwell and come down the Kinder/1st grade hallway.
Weekly Events
Monday:
Tuesday:
Fitness Class| 4:30pm
Frederick Douglass Head Start Visits our Kindergarten Classess/Tour the School -
10-11:30am
Lockdown Drill (Be ready for it to take place at some point during the day; the specific time cannot be shared beforehand in order to protect the integrity of the drill.)
Wednesday:
Fitness Class| 4:30pm
Thursday:
OFF PD
Black History Program - begins at 6:00pm
Friday:
College Friday - Jeans and College Shirts for Teachers
College Friday - College Shirts for Students
No Landing - several school leaders and rising school leaders will be off campus for a PD beginning at 2:30pm
Black History Program
An additional shout out to Ms. Sanders for creating and executing on the vision of "Protest, Profess and Peace"! She's worked hard to identify a special performance for each grade level as well as individual Rocketeers based on this vision and theme!
We still need a lot of manpower to help ensure that this program is an amazing experience for our Rocketeers and their families!
If you are available to help support the event, please sign up for a volunteer task here. Let's be sure to support our Rocketeers for their first performance of the school year! We are asking that staff volunteers arrive back on campus by 4:30pm on Thursday.
Students Outside of the Classroom
Students Sent to the Office
Sending out of your space to go to the office is a safety issue as well as a cultural issue as the student is roaming the hallways unsupervised.
No student should report to the office for behavioral reasons unless brought there by a school leader.