Principal Walder's Monday Memo
For the Week of December 17
Thank you, Legacy!
I hope you find time to relax over the holiday season and enjoy time with your family and friends. It's wonderful to get a get the chance to rest and recharge!
Wishing you many Holiday Blessings,
Samantha
7 Teacher Tips for Surviving the Week Before Holiday Break
Angela Watson is the author of The Cornerstone for Teachers and the Truth for Teachers podcast. I copied her blog post below as it provides a great perspective on the week before a holiday break. Here is her direct link.
1. Don’t build anticipation.
Assemblies, presentations, and other holiday events are unavoidable in December, but you can prevent your class from getting over-excited by staying focused on daily routines instead of special activities. I list my schedule changes in a prominent place for the type of children who need to have a plan, but I don’t mention the special events at all unless we need to prepare. If a student asks when the holiday party is, I point to the schedule, then change the subject.
Right before an event, I explain what’s happening in a calm voice: “We’re going down to the cafeteria now for the chorus performance. That will take up part of our math time. When we get back, we will complete our math warm-ups just like we usually do, and then continue with our graphing activity.”
2. Resist the urge to ease up on your behavioral expectations.
Believe me when I say that easing up will backfire completely. When the teacher is lackadaisical, it just adds to the environment of chaos that the students are slowly creating and makes it harder to get the class back on track. If the kids run to line up, shake your head and nonchalantly tell the whole class to sit back down and try again. “I know you’re excited about the chorus performance. But we need to line up in a quiet and orderly way, just like we always do. Let’s see which table is ready to try again. Watch Team Three as they walk at an appropriate pace over towards the door. Notice how they pushed their chairs in. Do you see how they are facing forward and not talking? Excellent. Team Four, your turn to try.”
Yes, it’s December. And yes, you still have to do this.
3. Review your procedures and expectations.
It’s probably been a few weeks or months since you’ve articulated and modeled some of your classroom procedures for the entire class. (Just because you tell the same four kids over and over that NO, they cannot get a drink in the middle of a lesson, does not mean the rest of the class was paying attention when you reiterated your expectations.)
A fun way to reinforce the rules is with my Class Rules Review Games: Fun paper-based & PowerPoint activities. There’s one PPT slide for each category of expectations (Papers, Homework, Moving Around Campus, Working Cooperatively, etc.), and each slide has questions about related classroom routines. The slides don’t include the answers so that the kids can supply them (bonus: you can modify your rules without redoing the PowerPoint).
This can be used as a teaching tool and to spark discussion, or can be played as a competition between teams (who knows our classroom routines the best?). I always liked to do a few slides each week during December and again when we returned in January, and it made a remarkable difference in how smoothly my classroom ran.
4. Integrate high-interest projects and group work into your regular routines.
I like to finish the majority of my content instruction early in the month so that students can spend most of the last week before break just practicing and applying skills. On the last few days of December, they typically published their narrative essays in writing, completed main idea partner activities in reading, created multiplication fact houses in math, and made landform changes pop-up books in science.
These activities are interesting enough to keep the kids focused on their work, and don’t require them to be sitting still and following along with me. We did, however, continue with regular routines for morning work, reading groups, math, and writing warm-up assignments, and so on, to send the message that this is a regular school day with regular expectations.
The idea is that the kids don’t notice a change in the way the day is run; only you as the teacher are aware of the subtle differences in the way content is presented and activities assigned.
5. Don’t feel pressure to do all of the elaborate holiday stuff that other teachers do.
So what if the teacher across the hall covers her room in tinsel and lights and creates extensive holiday-themed centers which culminate in a life-size replica of the first North Pole expedition? Don’t compare yourself, and don’t wear yourself out trying to keep up. New teachers, especially, need to resist the urge to take on more than they can handle. Figure out some simple festive things you can do that won’t create a lot of stress, and stick with those. You can always add a little more next year. This advice goes double for buying students presents. Your teammate may choose to spend $50 on trinkets, and that’s fine. But you’re not a bad teacher if you don’t.
6. Keep the last day before break low-key.
Three hours before you pack up your whole family and make an eight hour trip to grandma’s house is NOT the time to plan an elaborate fraction-review-gingerbread-house-decorating activity. You’ll be distracted by your own holiday plans, the kids who actually show up to school will be too excited to follow directions, and you’ll be running around like crazy to clean up so you can leave on time.
Instead, give meaningful work assignments that the kids will enjoy completing, and enjoy the last day together. This will also help you…
7. Get prepared for January before you leave.
Try to use the day before break to take down any seasonal decorations you have up, change the calendar, finalize your lesson plans and materials for the first day back, etc. There’s nothing worse than coming back to work after a week off to discover silver glitter and unwritten thank you cards all over your desk. A new year is coming. Give yourself a new start!
Mrs. Walder's Schedule
Monday:
- 9:10- 10:00 4th Grade Music Practice at Legacy Gym
- 10:20- 11:10 3rd Grade Music Practice at Legacy Gym
- 1:20- 2:05 1st Grade PLC in Mrs. Westhoff's Room
- 2:10- 2:55 Kindergarten PLC in Mrs. Snell's Room
- 3:15 Benchmark Student Discussion in Mrs. Preheim's room
Tuesday:
- 7:40 TAT Meeting in Mr. Baker's Room
- 9:00 3rd and 4th Grade Music Practice
- If the weather is nice, students will walk to the high school. Look for an email from Mrs. Krebs on this.
- 1:00 Instructional Leaders Meeting at DEC
- 3rd and 4th Grade Program
Wednesday:
- 9:30- 10:15 4th Grade PLC in Mrs. Rhead's Room
- 10:20- 11:05 3rd Grade PLC in Mr. Westhoff's Room
- 12:30- 1:15 2nd Grade PLC in Mrs. Underberg's Room
Thursday:
- 7:30 TAPTO Appreciation Breakfast at Legacy Teacher Workrooms - Thank you, TAPTO!
- No Teacher Meeting
Friday:
- 8:30- 9:30 Sing-a-long in Gym
- 9:50-10:20 4th Specials (Or sooner when the sing-a-long ends. Please be flexible.)
- 10:20- 11:00 3rd Specials (Pick up students early for lunch.)
- 1:10 Interventionist PLC
- 1:00- 1:30 pm Building Leadership Team Meeting in Ms. Ganschow's Room
Other Notes:
If you plan to do paper letters to Santa, please have them to the office by Noon on December 19th. The student council members will be helping to count them. Thank you!
Friday, December 21st will be a teacher work day. We will have some small group meetings in the afternoon, but no full professional development sessions will take place this day.
3-hour Early Dismissal Schedule
1st 10:45-11:15
3rd 11:00-11:30
2nd 11:20-11:50
4th 11:30-12:00
12:10 Walkers
12:15 Daycare Vans
12:20 Bus Students/TASK
Notes for starting Second Semester:
Lesson Plans due Tuesday, January 1st by Noon
Organized Professional Development all day January 2nd (8:00- 4:00)
Watch your email for directions from Dr. Lowery
Reading Interventions will start January 3rd
Math Interventions will start January 7th
Principal Meetings on January 3rd in Gym:
8:25- 8:45 -- 3rd Grade Please come down right after announcements.
8:50- 9:05 -- 2nd Grade
9:10- 9:30 -- 4th Grade
Principal Meetings on January 4th in Gym:
8:25- 8:45 -- 1st Grade Please come down right after announcements.
8:50- 9:05 -- Kindergarten
Upcoming Dates for 2nd and 3rd Quarter Grades:
Schedule for Grades for Second Quarter:
January 2nd by 8:00 am -- Grades Due
January 3rd -- Report Cards given back to teachers to double check for accuracy
January 7th -- Report Cards mailed home to parents
DIBELS and NWEA Reports sent home by teachers in folders January 7-11
Schedule for Grades for Third Quarter:
March 18th by 8:00 am -- Grades Due
March 19th -- Reports Cards given back to teachers to double check for accuracy
March 20th -- Report Cards mailed home to parents
Contact Mrs. Walder
Email: Samantha.Walder@k12.sd.us
Website: https://www.teaschools.k12.sd.us/
Location: Tea, SD, USA
Phone: 6058817381
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeaAreaLegacy/