GAME ON!
Zitzman Elementary- Week of August 28th
What's Happening This Week:
Tuesday: B Day. SPED PLC @ 7:45am in Lighthouse Lounge. Ed Counsel meetings from 8:50-4:15 (see schedule below).
Wednesday: C Day.
Thursday: D Day. Lighthouse Team Meeting @ 7:45am. Girls Scout Recruitment Night @ 6:00-7:00 in ZE Gym.
Friday: A Day. Fall Picture Day! Specials PLC @ 2:50 in Lighthouse Lounge.
United Way
Last year Zitzman raised $897.11 with 10 out of 54 staff members raising those funds. Our goal is to double our participation to 20 contributing staff members and raise $2,000 in funds.
Leadership Rally
It's time to begin planning our first September 5th Leadership Rally. Refer back to the google form to review your role with our Leadership Days.
- Leadership Team Sponsors should get with their team to prepare a short commercial or skit to promote your Leadership Team. Students in grades 3-5 will sign up for a Leadership Team after the assembly. The google form is attached. New teachers should sign up for a Leadership Team or Sponsor a Tribe group. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1u7yycDZmxKDsz-3NJ8NmLj-otCInUX4aVdq8Errzt9A/edit
- Sample Leadership Rallies from other schools.
MVR-III Gifted Program
Below are links to Odyssey referral forms--electronic and printable. Please complete a form for a student to begin the testing process. Please look for students showing abstract and higher order thinking skills. With access to information, classic signs like detailed and deep knowledge are harder to notice, but consider asking a student to elaborate without informational aide and see if that knowledge base is deep. Also, there is a lowering percent of female students entering Odyssey. Classroom teachers are a great source for referrals. Please help us with your continued great work and insight.
Referral Form as Google Form - Mr. Walz will contact you to confirm receipt
Printable Form
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n2NBqsY6q-u7vA2pHIiz3-frRpMipA2w-zXmjuRvIpo
About the process, parents are informed via email each step of the process unless they opt out. After the permission to test is received, I am in contact with the parents through results. After parents are informed, I send the results and test reports to the building principal.
Kyle Walz Ed. S.
Odyssey Coordinator and Teacher
Evaluate Assessment Dates
Evaluate will be given 4 times throughout the school year. The goal is to complete the ELA and Math assessments the last week of September, November, February, and April. If scheduling is difficult due to other assessments or special events. See Ketina to reschedule the assessment.
Second through Fifth Grade
Evaluate will be given to students monthly. The first week of the month will be the ELA Evaluate assessment and the second week of the month will be the math Evaluate assessment.
**All teachers will complete a blue Evaluate assessment form for math and ELA. The information on the form will be used as talking points at our building level PLC Meetings and District Grade Level Meetings.
EdCounsel Meetings- Tuesday, August 28
8:50-9:30 a.m.Fifth Grade Teachers
9:40-10:20 a.m.Fourth Grade Teachers
10:30-11:10 a.m. Third Grade Teachers
11:10-11:45 a.m.Lunch
11:50-12:30 p.m.Second Grade Teachers
12:40-1:20 p.m.First Grade Teachers
1:30-2:10 p.m.Kdg. Teachers
2:20-2:50 p.m. Elective and Special Education Teachers (Library)
3:45-4:15 p.m.Paraprofessionals, Aides, & Secretaries (Library)
Emergency Drills
In Reflection:
- The quickest way to check your class and numbering your kiddos, having them in number order, and doing a quick count. I know we are still learning classes and names and faces so I get it! I just want to remind you to work towards the count when checking instead of roll call. All in all we did 4 drills in 13 minutes which is IMPRESSIVE!
- Also, I can elaborate at our next staff meeting or you can come talk to me if you have questions but I think we need to have the blanket statement that if the student is on your ROSTER then you account for them.
- For example if the student is SPED and they are hardly in your room we still need you to be RED until we have checked with SPED and have that student accounted for. Yes this is tedious and may make extra communication steps BUT in the long run it makes us more efficient and holds us accountable!
August Drills=Done!
Behavior:
Now we GO and we go CONSISTENTLY!
Google Folder link to all things ZE Behavior:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1dk0XAD7bac6RM-NNjoaOXa0Ztc5-T5mT
Remember you have support and everything in place to help your students be successful. At ZE we are truly a team model - Use each other! I was reading an article and this quote stuck out to me “The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull together as a team.”
With that here is a reminder for those tough moments with students.
“Never let an eight-year-old ruin your day.”
I am saying that it is important that many of the things that I took personally as a teacher were not personal at all. They were about the student and not me. This is a great reminder “Challenging behavior occurs when the demands and expectations being placed upon a child outstrip the skills he has to respond adaptively.”
Challenging behaviors can be just that; challenging. But in my own experience, I have found that the best way to move forward was to care more for the student at that moment as they needed it. It didn’t solve all of the problems I faced but it did help my mindset and supported the relationship.
Our expectations for our students should always be high but just a reminder that many of our negative interactions are more about the student than anything. We need to do our best to help them grow in that moment and place the focus on them.