Betsy's Bits
February 7, 2016
In Case You Missed It:
I want to thank all of you which participated in the Admin survey. If you were unable to do so, I encourage you to do so in the future. It is anonymous and the feedback helps us to grow and know what we need to do to support groups more effectively. As we said in our meeting, our doors are always open. Between the three of us, there should be at least one which you feel comfortable enough to speak with about issues and problems. I appreciated everyone which participated in our modified Fish Bowl through asking tough questions of The Admin Team. Thanks to our counselors for being tagged into the middle so you could hear from them concerning student choice and changes in schedules. Please know we are all part of the same team and there is no conspiracy against anyone or group. If something is unclear, ask. We try our BEST to keep everyone informed. Sometimes the communication ball does get dropped. This is not on purpose...it just happens. Remember, the most effective means of communication when passing on information in such a large school is via email. Everyone should check email regularly (at least 3x's daily - morning, planning, before leaving) to stay in the loop.
I want to introduce you all to the newest additon of our Stallion Team, Chelsea Francis. Chelsea is our new Intro to Ag Science/Intro to BioTech teacher and will start on Monday. Ellen Duncan will be her mentor. She is a hometown girl which graduated from Lee County High School, NC State, and has a masters from Clemson. Ms. Francis has taught for a year in Richmond County at Richmond Sr. HS where she developed their FFA program which had been nonexistent. I think she will be a positive addition to our elective team. Please stop by and introduce yourself this week. .
Jen Conrad, 7th grade math teacher, will be leaving SanLee on February 19. She has two school-aged children in the Wake Co School System and been traveling from Cary to work with us this year. This has proven to be too overwhelming for Jen and her family. We wish her luck as she takes on position at a Charter school a couple of miles from her home and near her children's school.
Shane Long, AVID elective teacher, will be leaving SanLee on February 26. Shane also travels daily from Wake County to teach at SLMS and has for three and a half year. The travel on US1 has become too much with a small child. Shane will be taking a job at an all boy's magnet school a few miles from his home. A space has opened up for Evan at a great day care close to his home, as well. We wish Shane well on this next chapter of his professional career.
Magazine sales go until Tuesday. Please make sure to send all the orders and monies to the library for Drea and Jane.
Language Arts and Math teachers learned a lot about iReady at Wednesday afternoon's training. I know we were all tired after a long day, but it was great information that we needed. iReady is required for after school and during school tutorials. It is optional in your classroom. I encourage you to do the initial assessment with any child/children you can't figure out (new transfers from other states/districts that we do not have testing on). I also encourage you to use this as an intervention for students in SST. Mark Hildreth passed on this bit of information that I feel you all should be aware: Students placed in the phonics (initial consonant/consonant blends) MAY have not used their headphones. He had a conversation with a student put in the kindergarten level and discovered that was the problem. We do not want kids wasting their time doing sections that they do not need, so please use this as one piece of data. If it does not support what you are seeing in the classroom, ask questions. Mark is going to reset the test for this student and make sure he has headphones that are working.
Please make sure to take the surveys that Robin sent out on Mastery Connect and McGraw Hill. When I was in PLC's this week there were several questions on both. Robin is going to research and then go directly to a teacher come to a PLC or a dept. meeting(depending on the nature of the question) to help us utilize these online programs more efficiently and effectively.
Reading and math teachers: Benchmarks were delivered to CO Wednesday afternoon and sent off Thursday morning. I will get an email when the reports are loaded into a folder by Case 21. I will then send you your individual reports. ELA teachers got these last benchmark. Math teacher: BE PREPARED...there are several reports for each of your cores. Admin will meet with math PLC's to help learn the reports like Joanna did with ELA last time. It will be great for our ELA to have reports to compare and see growth from 1st to 2nd benchmark. Don't forget to share data with EC teachers :)
A high-five and shout out goes to Jessica Stone and the students that ride her bus. Natalie got a call this week from the bus garage telling of their stellar behavior when the mechanics were called out on the side of the road for mechanical difficulties. They said the students were respectful, thankful, and appreciative. The mechanics went on to say they had never experienced a bus so well-behaved while out on-call. Natalie got on the bus the next morning and told them of the wonderful call we received. I thought everyone should be made aware.
Sums US up pretty well!
National Counselors Week: Thank you to our counselors for all they do for us EVERY day @SLMS
Coming Up:
Mark Your Calendars:
Love the Bus @SanLee! We appreciate our wonderful bus drivers at SLMS!
Tuesday: Math Power Hour, LCS Board of Ed Meeting @ 6pm @LCHS
Wednesday: NC Soil and Water competiton @ McSwain Center (9 participants 6th and 8th)]
Thursday: 7th Grade AR Field Trip - Sky Zone, Away Basketball @East Lee, Ready Power Hour, District AVID Meeting @ East Lee @3:30pm
Friday: 8th Grade AR field Trip - Jelly Beans