Cool Cat News
Principal Brief
March 26-29
Cool Cats,
Wow! WE came back with a bang! If you get a chance on Monday, please take a few minutes to encourage our 4th grade writers. We will have an Author's Celebration from 7-8am in the the library. I am so proud of all of our teachers for preparing them for April 10th! Writing starts in Pre-K and we could not get students to the level of mastery without each of your hard work. The students love hearing the younger kids cheer for them on STAAR days. Please have your class work on a poster of encouragement.
We also start Saturday School this week! The kids love Saturday School. Engaging lessons are taught in small groups and the students beg to be invited! Thanks to all of our teachers that will be here on Saturday!
WISD has applied to be a National School District of Character. Hartman was chosen to receive a site visit on Tuesday, 3/27. Please plan for R time on Tuesday - 7:45-8am. All students and staff are encouraged to wear their blue ribbon shirts. Please do not use a jeans pass on Tuesday. We will have a few student leaders showing them all the great things happening at Hartman.
April 4th is WISD Ripples of Hope Day. We will have kid pools at different locations around the school. Each student will receive a river rock. Please take your class outside and have them throw their river rock in to make a ripple. Students may keep their rock to remember that it only takes one kind word or gesture to start a ripple. We will also provide a boomerang to each student. They will need to write what they are hopeful for on one side and things that give them hope on the other side. You may take them outside to let them use their boomerang as well as explain that giving kindness and hope comes back to the giver as well. Please make sure the students names are on the boomerang and collect them to return to me at the end of the day. We are planning to use them to decorate our school with hope.
I hope you loved your ducky this week! Above the surface ducks look calm & unruffled: Below the surface they are paddling like crazy! Our jobs often leave us continuously treading water. We appreciate how "duck like" you all are.
Thanks for all your hard work!
Shawna #proudprincipal #hartmanpride #nbrs2017
Upcoming Dates
3/23 Pay Day Hey Day Breakfast - Special Services, Spring Picture Day, Staff picture at 6:45am, Celebrate the Arts Honor Choir & Art Show
3/24 Saturday School
3/26 Fourth Grade Author's Breakfast 7-8am, McDonald's Night (Prek) 5-7pm, 2:00 Dessert with Mrs. Ballast for principal award winners
3/27 3rd Grade TELPAS Reading Test, National School District of Character Site Visit 7:15-10:00am, Staff and students wear blue ribbon shirts
3/28 K-2 RTI Meeting, Spring Fun Activity 2nd 7:30-8, 1st- 8-8:30 K- 8:30-9:00, , 3-4 we will have some things planned during lunch for your kids. Pre-K/PPCD - 9:15-9:30 Storytime (in the cafe) Pm Class 2:00 Storytime
3/29 APEX Fun Run During Rotations PPCD 8-8:30am, 11:55-12:25pm, Pre-kam 8:30-9:30am, Pre-k Pm 12:25-1:25, WEHS Prestige Choir Concert @ 8:30am, DL Pre-k Parent Meeting in library at 9:30 and 2pm, Autism Awareness Day- Wear Blue
3/30 Good Friday - No School
4/2 No School
4/3 Team Leader Meeting
4/4 Major Savor Campaign ends, staff meeting, Wylie Way Ripples of Hope Day, If you have a hope shirt please wear it. All staff may wear jeans.
4/6 Pep Rally 7:50am - Super Hero Theme! We would love for you to participate in the super hero theme. Thank you kinder for selecting the theme for us!
4/7 Saturday School
Ideas for Effective Tier 3 Response to Intervention - Take time to look at your Tier 3 kids and think about their gaps and how you are closing them.
Ideas for Effective Tier 3 Response to Intervention
In this article in Teaching Exceptional Children, Lynn Fuchs, Douglas Fuchs, and Amelia Malone (Vanderbilt University) suggest seven principles for choosing and evaluating Tier 3 interventions when a student’s needs haven’t been met at Tier 2:
• Strength – What is the track record of the intervention for students with the specific needs in each situation?
• Dosage – Is this the appropriate instructional group size, number of minutes for each session, and number of sessions each week?
• Alignment – Does this program address the student’s academic and skill deficits, dovetail with grade-appropriate curriculum standards and rigor level, and avoid spending time on skills the student has already mastered?
• Transfer – Does the intervention help the student apply skills in other formats and contexts and see connections between mastered and related skills? “Transfer is a major obstacle for students with severe learning problems,” say the authors, “and research shows the benefits of explicit transfer instruction.”
• Comprehensiveness – Does the intervention explicitly use key principles of learning, including: providing explanations in simple, direct language; modeling efficient solution strategies (versus expecting students to discover them on their own); checking to see if students have the necessary background knowledge and skills to be successful; providing enough practice for mastery; including systematic cumulative review; and gradually fading support as students become proficient?
• Behavioral support – Does the intervention incorporate instruction and monitoring in self-regulation and executive function and include effective strategies to minimize unproductive behavior? “The goal,” say the authors, “is to encourage students with a history of academic failure to persevere through academic struggle and continue to work hard, aim high, and adopt a high standard of coherence, in which students are not satisfied with answers that do not make sense.”
• Individualization – Does the program frequently collect progress-monitoring data and adjust instruction (teach-test-revise) in ways that address the student’s complex learning needs?
“The Taxonomy of Intervention Intensity” by Lynn Fuchs, Douglas Fuchs, and Amelia Malone in Teaching Exceptional Children, March/April 2018 (Vol. 50, #4, p. 194-202), http://bit.ly/2lfj4uX; Lynn Fuchs can be reached at lynn.fuchs@vanderbilt.edu.
Please send Easter eggs to the office as you receive them.
R- Time Every Wednesday!
Rtime for Better Relationships! 10 minutes every Wednesday!
- Show good manners and respect at all times.
- Care for everyone and everything.
- Follow instructions with thought and care.