Cordata Weekly Bulletin
11/19/2018
Happy Monday, Cordata Team!
The week ahead - 11/19 - 11/23
- Communication Skills lessons in Positive Discipline
- Mutual Respect and Cooperation lessons in Positive Discipline
- Mistakes and How to Fix Them lessons in Positive Discipline
- Zones: Expected and Unexpected Behavior (focusing on a challenging time of day)
Upcoming Dates
- Nov. 19 - Gratitude Lunch in the Cordata Cafeteria!
- Nov. 19 - 5:30-6:45 - General PTA meeting - Dr. Baker visiting
- Nov. 20 - 3:00-4:30 - Cordata Leadership Meeting
- Nov. 20 - PD day for MTSS intervention team
- Nov. 21 - early release, day before Thanksgiving
- Nov. 22 and 23 - no school for Thanksgiving Holiday. (one person caught that I accidentally scheduled a meeting on Thanksgiving in the previous bulletin... oops! :-)
- Nov. 26 - Unity Care Dental clinic at Cordata
- nov. 29 - 1:00 - 3:00 - kindergarten SGC
- Nov. 30 - Family Glow Dance Party in the cafeteria and gym - a family fun event sponsored by our PTA
- Dec. 4 - 2:45-3:45 - staff meeting
- Dec. 4 - 6:30-8:30 - Family Engagement evening - dinner and Darkness to Light presentation. See Dan for details.
- Dec. 6 - Sound Discipline consult for behavior data team (1:00-2:00), and Tier 3 behavior team (3:00-4:00)
- Dec. 11 - 3:00-4:30 - tentatively scheduled, this will be our first after school Tech Integration PD time to fulfill the 7.5 hour Tech PD allocation this year. More info in next week's bulletin.
- Dec. 14 - 8:45-9:15 - School-wide Buddies event!
Other News and Information
- Staff, thank you to all who have completed the school culture survey ! If you haven't done so yet, please do - I hope to receive responses from everyone! Your input matters!
- Hmmm...this is an especially short list of news and information this week. I hope it will give you a little extra time to chew on the information in closing below.
In closing . . .
A few take-aways from the La Cosecha conference
For starters, here are just a few quotes that are really sticking in my mind . . .
On culturally responsive teaching:
- "The achievement gap is not a deficiency in the student him or herself. The achievement gap is not a result of a deficiency in the student's family or community."
- "If culturally responsive teaching were just good teaching, we wouldn't have an achievement gap."
- "Culturally responsive teaching is about priming brains to learn - and students from collectivist cultures and oral traditions need to be primed differently than what we in mainstream culture may be used to."
- "Culturally responsive teaching is about wiring families and communities into the classroom. It is about funds of knowledge, and a counter-narrative to our dominant culture's assumptions."
Remember that our exploration into Culturally Responsive Teaching last year is what got us to the place of looking at deep learning and inquiry as a way to build independent learners, and in doing so to close the achievement gap. What stood out to me at this conference is that culturally responsive teaching is about social justice and equity. It is about repudiating a history of racism. And it is something that will take time for me, as a product of and member of the dominant white culture in this country to learn about and implement.
Lastly, a quote from Dr. Jose Medina, dual language guru. There is a lot to think about when we look at language learning as a matter of social justice! I'd love to connect if you want to learn more!