Scarlet News and Notes
September 14, 2018
Assuring Learning Excellence and Readiness for a Changing World
The Week at a Glance
Monday:
Home events: Girls Soccer 7:00 Caswell
Tuesday: Our first PLC of the year will be held at West this Tuesday 9/18. Here is a link to the PLC Action Plan for your team to use throughout the 2018-19 school year. Department Chairs please make a copy of this document and share it with your department and Building CIC.
Please continue to focus on student work this year and emphasize the Study Phase of the PDSA Cycle. Here is a link to 3 examples of Student Work Analysis Protocols for your team to use as you look at student work and place it at the center of your PLC discussions. This link is also embedded within the PLC Action Plan Document.
Home events: Girls Soccer at 7:00 at Caswell
Wednesday: Lock Down Drill during Scarlet Time, Staff Meeting at 3:15 in the Media Center
Thursday: Game On!
Events: Girls Swim/Dive at East at 6:30
Friday:
Home Events: Football 7:00
Saturday:
Home Events: Tennis - 9:00 am, Pack the Stands at Caswell - Boys Soccer 1:00, Girls Soccer 3:00
Champion Students
Now that we are a couple of weeks in, it is time to start making a difference for our Champion Students. I have made some adjustments, as some students had more than one teacher wanting to be their Champion. There are still over 25 kids needing a Champion. Please look over the list, check to see which of your choices have been assigned to you, and let's make sure that every kid has a Champion by the end of the week.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1qIPhvvRin0hegvmV5MPYd_szfnEQC_oSMW6b7OFw3pI/edit?usp=sharing
New Course Proposals
If you are thinking about submitting a new course proposal, the deadline is coming up soon.
Engagement and Collaboration
Wow! There are great things happening in our classrooms! This week I observed students engaging in socratic seminars, focused note taking, small group discussions, independent reading, think/pair/share, creating power point presentations and collaborative analysis. In some classrooms, students were leading the instruction!
Remember to keep your doors open on Thursday and to get into each others classrooms, it's amazing all the exciting things happening in classrooms. Game On!
Restorative Practices Update
Thank you to all of you who have engaged in Restorative Practices! Molly Fox shared a summary of what has been happening in our building in just the first two weeks.
1st week of school: 6 classroom introduction "get to know you" Restorative Circles with teacher participation.
Next week: 6 9th grade math classrooms scheduled and 1 10th grade health class. (All 9th graders will have experienced 1 circle by the end of next week.) The circle takes approximately 20 minutes with a classroom of 30.
Counselor/Admin/Social Worker did 1 re-entry with a student and family after OSS. Questions were provided to the parents and student the day before the re entry meeting. This went very well and the parents were extremely receptive.
The purpose and promotion of doing classroom circles is for the students to get to know each other better, to understand that this is what we will be using to resolve conflicts so all have a voice. Teachers who have participated also talked about doing this throughout the year with their students.
If you are interested in doing a circle in your classroom, please contact Molly and she will facilitate. The circle takes approximately 20 minutes with a classroom of 30.
5 Things I Want You to Know (saw this on twitter, and thought of you)
1. I value you and your grit, not test scores.
2. You have the hardest job out there.
3. You make YOU amazing, not any strategy.
4. Thank you for placing your students' interests over your own.
Social Media
West High School Staff Resources website
Please bookmark this website https://sites.google.com/isd77.k12.mn.us/weststaffresources/home and read through the site for important information. If you see mistakes, or think of something that should be included in this site, please let me know.