Brooklyn Park Post
Week of March 2nd
Week-at-a-Glance
Mission: Rigorous Instruction, Enriching Experiences, Positive Relationship, No Exceptions..
Walk Through Focus this Week: Intermediate Math
Women's History Month
Social Worker Recognition Week
Dr. Seuss Week @ BPES- See Spirit Days below!!
Monday 03/02- BPES Spirit Day
- Morning Rally @ 8:10
- PJ's/ or BPES Sprit Wear
- Read Across America Day
Tuesday 03/03: Special Ed Meetings
- IEP Meetings
- Teachers K-5: OPTIONAL Title I Planning at 7:10am
- PM PLC : ESOL SIOP Training @ 3:40
- PTA Fundraiser at Bubba' 3:00 - 11:00pm
Wednesday 03/04:
- Intermediate Math Collaborative Planning
- Primary Reading Collaborative Planning
- Title 1 Extended Day
Thursday 03/05:
- Rodney Out- Principal's Meeting
- AM PLC @ 7:40am: Specialized Instruction (SPED/TSI Focus- Part 1)
- Title 1 Extended Day
Friday 02/28:
- Leadership @ 7:30 ( full team)
- Special Education Walk through
Chapter 3: Engage for Positive Class Climate
5 Actions to Create a Positive Class Climate:
- Raise the bar
- Manage mind-body states
- Establish that "we are family"
- Sustain emotional positivity
- Teach positive social and emotional responses
Action 2: Manage Mind-Body States
- "Students' thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and academic performance correlate with their physical, emotional, and cognitive states (Jensen, 2003). " (page 39)
- Attractor State: this is a preferred or default state toward which conditions or systems tend to move. People become attracted to states according to their frequency of occurrence. This is how comfort zones are formed.
Example: A student might be angry all of the time because this is their comfort zone.
- Identify a student's "state" and don't punish them for it. You have a lot of influence over your students. Shift the social conditions in your classroom. (Students can't do this at home, but you can in your classroom)
Example: Whole group, partner activities, brain breaks, independent time, etc. Switch it up and switch it up often! This will keep students in a positive state!
Solutions:
Reduce lecture time: 5-8 minutes of lecture time is recommended for elementary students
Eliminate the "fight, flight, or freeze" response: Make your classroom emotionally safe
Give students more control: Allow students to make some decisions in your classroom. If they feel like they have some input, they are more likely to respect your classroom.
Keep students in suspense: Foster a sense of curiosity in your classroom. This will help keep them on their toes!
Making Students Feel Safe
Math Updates:
Mid Point Assessments are approaching next week for your SLOs. Please let us know how we can support you.
For all of the college basketball fans...March Madness is approaching. Think about how much math is involved!! Maybe you can find a way to include the brackets to support fluency development/growth!
Reading Updates:
During CP, intermediate teachers revisited the Group Diagnostic Focus Checklist to determine the strengths and areas of improvement of the group. The teachers selected a text from the single text bins that addressed the standards and reading behaviors that are needed to move the students to the next level. Teachers had the opportunity to plan a Guided Reading lesson using the DFC and conferring notes.
We saw many good things when we had the Guided Reading walk through. The time and effort teachers put into their lessons was evident. We appreciate all you do to grow our readers every day!
Please let us know how your Literacy team can support you.
Social & Emotional Updates:
From the Principal's Desk
Hello BPES Family,
Let us support Nisa Morris as our candidate for teacher of the year. She is an awesome educator with an amazing story of grit and passion for teaching. Let’s “pack the house” and support Nisa.
As a reminder, tickets to the 2020 Excellence in Education Awards Dinner are available online. For any of your guests who may be interested in purchasing tickets, please ask them to select your name/school when completing the registration form. We will make every attempt to seat family, friends, and colleagues at your table or nearby. The deadline to purchase tickets is Monday, March 23, 2020.
Additional Updates
- PTA- Please support the PTA Event at Bubba's on Tuesday. Our PTA does an amazing job with planning fundraisers and events. All money is used to support you and our building. Come and join me for dinner after PD.
- Dell's are coming.. I requested 15 Dell Vue's to support you with instruction. Allison will be getting them ready for you.. Please see her if your current Dell is not working.
- Racial Bias- Please report any incident of racial bias to the office. We had two situations There is a protocol that needs to be followed and the main office needs to investigate and respond quickly. Please email Aileen if you need a social/emotional lesson to address your classroom culture.
- Parent Teacher Conferences- Details on Monday..hold tight
- Professional Learning Community- As a PLC, we are always learning and looking for ways to address gaps. This means that we will invite central office personnel to help support our SIP. My expectations are the following:
- We come to meetings on time, 3:40pm or 7:40am. We are ready to learn when we arrive.
- We give the presenter our full attention and we are engaged in the PD. I was not happy to hear that all of us were not engaged in Thursday Morning's PD.
- If you are going to be late or need to leave, please let me know via text or email.
- As our ELL Population continues to grow, Tuesday's PD will provide strategies to close our achievement gap ( ESSA House)
- Instructional/Observation Thoughts
- Ensure you open and close with your Outcome/Thinking Job
- Make connections to real world. The students must understand the relevance of your lesson ( how does decimals connect to my life?)
- Make connections to careers and diversity. Have a slide that shows diversity in employment ( race and gender) This can be a picture from the SmartBoard or a phone.
- Videos ( Learn Zillion/Discovery Education) are a great way for motivations.
Have a great weekend...
Additional Notes
Please do not send your students to pick up or copy materials at the Ricoh in the Media Center due to confidentiality. There are some materials that are not meant for all eyes. Please send students to office if copies are needed. Thank you!
Staff Shout Outs
- Ms. Selznick for covering the building while people were out
- Ms. Marine for covering Cultural Arts this week
- To the teachers teaching the Title I: Extended Day - Thank you for helping our students become better readers
- Laurie and Kim for leading the Guided Reading Walk-through ( job well done teachers)