Sunday Shakedown
Weekly Memo for Washington Elementary
Principal Post
Fabulous Fridays in February-fun times ahead!
For Your Information
TDOE Educator Update
Click here for the link to the TDOE Educator Update. This is a great synopsis of what is happening at the State level that is most relevant to the classroom teacher.
Inaugural Tennessee STEAM Festival Planning
On October 12-22, Tennessee will holds its inaugural Tennessee STEAM Festival in a state-wide event based on the celebration of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math. This is not a one location event...we are invited to sponsor STEAM events in our schools and community. It is suggested that these would be a perfect fit for libraries. The planners of this state-wide event are looking to fill a calendar of events including symposiums, educator/expert talks, lunch and learns, community/family events, entertainment events, etc. for all ages. Other festivals like the Philadelphia Science Festival and North Carolina Science Festival serve as inspiration for what the TN STEAM Festival can be.
Submit your STEAM event by April 3rd and be included in the state wide promotion of the Tennessee STEAM Festival in October. By participating, you will also receive promotional materials to use in marketing your event. Contact Becca Baker at the Blount County Public Library if you have questions.
Library of Congress 2017 Summer Teacher Institute
The Library of Congress is now accepting applications for its week-long summer institutes for K-12 educators. KCS educators who have attended one of these in the past describe them as great professional learning events! Click here for more information. Applications are due on March 17 and require a letter of recommendation. The institute and course materials are provided at no cost to participants, but participants will be responsible for travel expenses and hotel accommodations.
Commissioner McQueen's Town Hall Meeting Regarding ESSA
If you missed seeing Commissioner McQueen’s town hall meetings as she explained the transition to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), click here. On this video, in addition to Dr. McQueen, Executive Director of Consolidated Planning & Monitoring Eve Carney, who has worked directly with the Commissioner in developing this transition, shares how our state is implementing Tennessee Succeeds. The following links may be helpful as you listen to the recorded webinar:
If you have any questions regarding the webinar, send them to Essa.Feedback@tn.gov .
Seeking Tennessee State Teacher Fellows (STFs)
Hope Street Group, the nonpartisan nonprofit that connects classroom teachers with their peers and decision-makers across Tennessee and nationally, will soon be recruiting its next cohort of Tennessee State Teacher Fellows (STFs). The STF program is designed to develop the competencies of teacher leaders, providing them with tools to engage their colleagues and generate solutions for education challenges. Fellows are teachers or instructional coaches who remain in their schools full-time and contribute 10-15 hours each month to Hope Street Group activities including data collections, professional learning sessions, and partner meetings. They receive a $3,000 stipend for the twelve-month Fellowship, with the opportunity to extend into a second year to deepen their work. Interested teachers can learn more by visiting the Hope Street Group webpage. The application period will be January 16 - February 10, 2017. If questions about the Fellowship, please contact Keilani Goggins or Celia Gregory.
We will be celebrating National School Breakfast Week March 6-10. This year’s theme is “Breakfast of Champions” and if you have any ideas to help us promote breakfast during the week let me know. One idea is to invite “champions or heroes” that you know to come and eat breakfast with your students during the week J Your cafeteria staff will be giving each student who eats school breakfast a small surprise that is different each day during this week.
Employee Recognition
This year, there is a new way to highlight the work of these outstanding educators! The KCS Employee Recognition Initiative serves to award those that go above and beyond in their service to the students, staff, and families of KCS.
How can you nominate an employee for this honor?
Simply submit a nomination form to your principal/supervisor by clicking here!
Thanks, celebration and appreciation:
- Thanks to Lisa Marcello for hosting 6th grade teachers last week
- Thanks to Sue, Sue, and Mary Ellen for travelling on a global school visit, we can't wait to hear about it.
- Thanks to Laura for the tea this week celebrating school counselor's week
- Thanks to Peggy Galloway for her service to Washington. We wish her well in her new position at the hospital. We will miss you!
- Thanks to the cafeteria staff for receiving a 100 on their inspection!
- Thanks to all teachers for your dedication to families and taking time to prepare great conferences
- Congratulations to our custodial staff for a 98 on our inspection of health and safety
- Thanks to leadership team for great attendance ideas and to Jayson for offering to lead an initiative.
- Welcome to Erin Hutchison beginning Monday afternoon as our new SPED teacher
- Thanks to Cherie, Katrina and REnee who will assist me in planning the read across america events to go with our theme of "REading saves the day!"
- Thanks to Andy True for letting us share Washington with the Insight group who visited.
Innovation Tool
KCS has developed a new innovation tool to allow all stakeholders to share an idea (new or could be an improvement on a current practice). Sometimes a great idea comes to mind and when we collaborate on it, it gets even better. This tool can assist us in "giving legs" to those great thoughts. If you are like me, these are the ideas that keep you awake at night, but sometimes feel impossible. Lose sleep no longer! Your idea can be submitted and it can help our district constantly grow and develop.
The KCS new Innovation Tool is up and running. KCS wants your ideas! This tool is active for use. It can be accessed here.
Week of Feb 13-17
Shasta will be at GWES-check in with her for some work together
Portfolio training for all k/1 teachers
Faculty Meeting
Tuesday:
Canvas Basics in Blended Learning-by Sara Shaffer 3:45-4:45 at the NEW DB Excel 2nd floor of ASC (can count for extra PL hours)
Wednesday:
Fidelity monitoring during RTI by Sue Trent
Mentor/ mentee luncheon 11-12, please ask an assistant for coverage
Thursday:
Michael Hubbard to attend collaboratives to go over writing data (4-5th)
Pam Stidham to attend collaboratives to go over math data (3rd-5th)
Friday:
Fantastic Friday in February- Look for your celebrity match
First Jeans for Stream Day- for a $5 donation you may wear jeans to school. Amy will have an envelope in the office. This helps fund needed scholarships for KCS students.
Collaborative meetings with K-3
Shasta at GWES
Professional Musings
Jessica Chase is offering a Computer Club at Jefferson on Tuesdays. This week she will focus on the 4C's and how to use Canvas. Email Jessica if you would like to attend jchase@k12k.com
In a recent article in Educational Leadership literacy shifts are discussed, particularly the importance of building knowledge. I know this has been a topic of discussion in some of our collaboratives. The following points were discussed:
- Recent research shows that reading comprehension, deep thinking, and creativity all rely heavily on prior knowledge.
- Knowing things helps us think and read successfully.
- Prior knowledge affects comprehension. The article gives an example of a baseball game in a passage worth your time to read.
- The rate at which readers are expanding their background knowledge as a result of what they are reading is called the absorption rate. Such background knowledge will widen the reading performance gap between those students with higher levels of it vs. those whose background knowledge is much less.
- The approach to nonfiction literature needs to be changed from one that focuses on structure to one that uses a topic of interest and lets students come to an understanding of its purpose and what it contains. This moves students from a disconnected relationship with the text to one of interest and desire for understanding the topic.
- Students of teachers who use an "embedded nonfiction" approach actually learn more about the topic, better understand the context, and end up being more energetically involved in the reading.
- We are often wrong when we assume students who learn skills in one context can apply them in other contexts. Building students' knowledge does more to improve skills such as inference than focusing on the skill in isolation.
- An excellent example of a high-performing school with mostly poor kids is shared in the article and reinforces the impact of building knowledge vs. focusing on reading skills in a more traditional manner.
- The article ends with a suggested change to a read-write-discuss-revise process from a read-discuss-write process. This will give teachers a better understanding of what knowledge is gained and a better plan for next steps in the instruction process.