August 27, 2018
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
Seven Hills Elementary...The Adventure Begins HERE!
First Day and Week Reminders:
Attendance: The front office will provide you with attendance rosters and directions for completing first day attendance. It is imperative that you follow the directions. If you have questions please contact the front office.
Routines and Procedures: The first few days of school are spent establishing routines and procedures that will set the tone for your classroom and our campus for the year. Taking time to build trust, create rituals and routines, review, model, and practice campus Leader Expectations, etc. is time well spent. Don't rush these things. Teach. Model. Practice. Repeat.
Support Staff: Tanya will be sending communication with where we need help on the first day of school. This will include help at arrival duty in the back, support during lunch duty, and help with backpack tags.
Attire: All staff wear black "Jam" shirt with professional pants/skirt of your choice. And, wear a smile! :)
Arrival: Parking will be at a premium. Please plan on arriving early on Monday. The doors will open at 7:20. Classroom teachers should be at their classroom doors at 7:20 to greet students.
Parents & Visitors: Due to the high volume of parents bringing students to school on the first day, we will not be signing in at the front office. That being said, PLEASE DO NOT let parents enter from the side or back doors.
Tears and Cheers: The PTA will be hosting Tears and Cheers in the library on Monday morning for parents after they drop students off in their classrooms.
Photo Ops: We will have a yard sign for students, families, and classes to take pictures on Monday and Tuesday. We will also have signs in the front by the camping scene. Please use the hashtag #nisdfirstday and #7HillsLEADS for any social media posts.
Student Access to the Building Practice: During the 1st week, all homeroom classes must practice the procedure for what to do should a student find themselves locked out of the building. Practice going different routes around the building. Make sure you have students practice opening the front door and show them the window to knock on should they not be able to open the door. After you have completed this, sign the sign in sheet and indicate the date completed. If you have questions about the route to take around the building, please ask Tanya or Kim.
The Power of Positive Parent Relationships
- Specials teachers will call 15 - 20 parents (You may be calling the same parents. At this point in the year, this is ok. Please do not call SPED/Dyslexia students. Share your names with classroom teachers.).
- SPED/Dyslexia/Etc. will call all parents.
For some of you, this is the first time you have made calls like this to parents. I suggest creating a script to follow, and plan out your talking points for each student before making your calls. You might consider something along the lines of:
- Hello, this is ___________, your child's ____________ teacher.
- I want to tell you how much I have enjoyed spending the last few weeks getting to know your child.
- Follow this statement with something positive about their child that you would like to share. For example, how they have been a leader, something that stands out about the student, work ethic, etc.
- We will be scheduling parent conferences in the month of October. I look forward to visiting with you more about _____________, their beginning of year assessments, and goals for the 2nd grading period, and more at this time.
- Thank you so much for your time. I am looking forward to a great year!
Please let Kim, Tanya, or Molly know if you need help developing a script for these calls.
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
- Student Attendance Trackers: These go in Leadership Notebooks and should be updated daily by students.
- Lag Measure Attendance Scoreboards: Please post these in your classrooms, not outside the classroom door. Color in a letter each day that your class reaches 100% attendance.
- Work Orders: If you see a facilities issue that needs to be addressed, email Wilma with the exact location, description of the problem, and attach any pictures if necessary. This will expedite the process in getting the issues taken care of. When you tell someone in passing, it might not get back to Wilma to be entered.
- Beginning of Year Checklists: will be provided at the staff meeting on Thursday. This is meant to help staff make sure they take care of all of the beginning of year whirlwind tasks.
- Master Calendars: Master calendars will be provided this week. This calendar should be kept in a safe place and referenced frequently. Every effort has been made to schedule all campus activities in advance. Please understand that we will have to add events or make adjustments to the calendar periodically. All adjustments will be communicated in an email or in the S'more. It is your responsibility to keep your calendar up to date. The S'more will have a week at a glance calendar check.
- Student Pictures: As we work to complete the registration and residency verification process, we will provide each homeroom teacher with a list of students who cannot be photographed.
Habit Huddle Connection:
- Leader in Me 1st 8 Days curriculum
- Campus Leader Expectation review and practice (updated posters have been placed in Google classroom for you to use with your students and hang in your rooms. Posters have been placed around the school as well.)
- Creating class respect agreements (should be posted in your room when finished)
- Creating class mission (should be posted in your room when finished)
- Answering the question..."What is a Leader?"
- Creating class jobs
- Discussing the importance of attendance and introducing attendance trackers and scoreboards
- BUILDING TRUST!
The Leader in Me online is a FABULOUS resource for mission statement building ideas, Habit Huddle lessons, class jobs, and much more! If you are not logging in to use this resource you should be!
Save the Date:
- First Day of School
- PTA Tears and Cheers in the library at 7:40
- Flamingo meeting in the cafeteria after dismissal
Tuesday, August 28:
Wednesday, August 29:
- Wear maroon "Adventure" shirt and professional pants/skirt of your choice
Thursday, August 30:
- Staff Meeting, 3:15 - 4:30 in the cafeteria
Friday, August 31:
- Wear jeans and student "Adventure" shirt
- Leader Rally in the gym at 7:40 (all students go directly to the gym when they arrive or after they eat breakfast. Teachers monitor students in the gym, and stand in the halls directing them to the gym)
Monday, September 4:
- School Holiday
Happy Birthday to You:
- Melissa Quisenberry 8/29
- Kevyn Austin 8/29
- Wilma Adams 8/30
Annual Required Trainings:
Certain trainings for staff members are an annual requirement. In an effort to have employees well informed and to have them have the ability to access staff development at their own pace, the district has provided Annual Required Training eCourses. These courses are located in Eduphoria under the tab “eCourses.”
Required annual trainings may be counted towards the "online options" in order for some employees to receive waiver hours for 11/19/18 and 11/20/18. (See staff calendars at http://northwest.ss10.sharpschool.com/staff/staff_calendars/) Attached you will find a copy of the updated Annual Required Trainings that all staff members will be a part of.
In addition, the on-line presentations have been reviewed and updated.
- Employees can now sign off directly on the form when they have viewed the required trainings.
- Employees DO NOT have to turn in multiple certificates to you.
- In addition, I have left a blank at the bottom of the form in case you would like for your staff to sign off on campus handbooks, or any other documents.
- Employees will turn in their sheet to whomever does their evaluations by September 28, 2018 (end of the first 6 weeks). Principals have the discretion to allow extensions, under extenuating circumstances. This will ensure that all employees have completed the necessary training.
Please note that employees new to our district must complete the Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse and the Suicide Prevention Plan Review trainings BEFORE the first day of school. All other employees will need to complete the trainings by September 28th.
If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing, please feel free to contact Paula Taylor at 817-215-0021 or Dr. Suzie McNeese at 817-215-0982
Directions for Annual Required Training Access
1.) Log in to Eduphoria - Workshop. (You can access this site from the Staff web page.)
2.) Select the Annual Required Training icon 2018-19.
3.) Select the appropriate course title (i.e., "Annual Required Training for Administrators, Teachers and Professional Certified Support Staff").
4.) Click Register.
5.) Now at the top of the course screen, you will see some tabs: Course Overview, Course Content, Instructor Notes, and Discussion...you will need to click on the Course Content tab.
6.) Once in Course Content, select View for each Chapter topic of required training
7.) A new window will appear...click View Topic Files in the left top corner
8.) Select the training module denoted by a blue paperclip and view the presentation. (If you get a popup blocker while accessing materials...right click the top bar to allow the download.)
9.) You may then close out the screen for that Chapter, and a checkmark will appear on the Chapter icon or you can advance to the next training topic using the blue directional arrows at the top right of your screen.
10.) Once completed with all chapters you should see a green check mark by each chapter reviewed. You may Request Credit at the top of the screen. If you do not have an option to Request Credit, verify that each chapter has been viewed and has a green check mark.
Staff Shirts!
Don't forget to pay Wilma!
Polos:
We have a campus polo that we wear for events, on specific days, etc. If you are new to the campus, need a new polo, etc. you will need to purchase a polo this year. We will order the first part of September. Polo Pricing (mens and ladies cut):
- S-XL - $31
- 2XL - $32
- 3XL-4XL - $35
T-Shirts:
We have 2 staff shirts this year! Shirt pricing is listed below. These will be the Wednesday shirts. The shirts have been ordered for all staff. Please pay Wilma.
- S - XL $8 each...$16 total
- 2XL-4XL $10.50 each...$21 total
Staff will be given a student shirt for field trips, Fridays, etc.
All shirts are pictured below.