MONDAY MEMO
Shawnee Trail Elementary, April 11, 2016
SHAWNEE TRAIL MISSION: Why do we exist? What is our fundamental purpose?
- To create a safe, nurturing and inclusive environment, to inspire ALL students to become passionate, lifelong learners.
- To make meaningful and enjoyable connections as we educate the whole child academically, emotionally, and socially.
At Shawnee Trail we believe ALL Means ALL:
- ALL students will learn at their highest levels.
- ALL decisions are based on what is best for students and are aligned with the mission of our school.
- ALL, students and teachers, learn by doing and building on our own strengths and the strengths of others.
Collective Commitments:
Cultivate a collaborative culture of continuous improvement:
- Read all resources before collaborative learning meetings.
- Be prepared to share, listen and participate in all group discussions.
Foster a save supportive and trusting environment:
- Start on time.
- Be engaged 100% of the time. (Leave unnecessary distractions behind and focus wholly on the tasks at hand.)
- Collaborate and contribute equally and meaningfully
Practice all of these collective commitments by asking, “How did we do? Are we holding ourselves accountable for the team’s norms?”
- Be willing to apologize or confront with passion and purpose when a team member fails to honor the commitments.
Celebrate success large and small.
CELEBRATIONS AND SHOUT-OUTS!
Shout out to all the TELPAS raters, Mrs. Cox, and Mrs. Schaeffer for their help and support with TELPAS. We are officially done with TELPAS...for this year.
- To my sped peeps for helping me get STAAR ALT finished and entered within a week!
- To my 3rd grade team for always being transparent, authentic, caring, and ALWAYS willing to help.
- And to Shannon for continually pushing our learning deeper.
- To kinder and 2nd grades for using Seesaw and other apps to not only engage learners but to provide a way for students to explain their thinking and show what they know in all subjects! Our kinder friends are doing a lot of app smashing!
- Kinder for sending technology integration examples that the math coordinators can share with the school board!
- And to 3rd grade for using Google Docs to write their research paper, Book Creator to publish it, and then sharing their work on Seesaw so parents and classmates can view their published ebook!
- To Kim and Shaheen for putting together such a special video!
- To Mrs. Meza for being so helpful with TELPAS.
- Gale & Adella - I want to recognize them for their hard work on all the preparation for STAAR.
- Cristi and Jodi - for working late last night for Kindergarten Round-Up and making our new families feel welcome.
- Morris & Feichtinger -for being vulnerable in SST and asking great questions about classroom management and strategy groups.
- First grade wants to thank Margaret for all her "eggselent" work and being willing to take on the baby chicks in science.
- Also, we want to welcome Mrs. R to first grade, and thank her for doing a great job.
- Also thanks to kinder and second grade teachers for being willing to allow first grade teachers to learn from them during learning walks.
- The Olweus committee wants to thank Gale, 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade teachers for all their help with rolling out our survey to the students
- Shout out to Shannon for always being the support kinder needs!
- Adella for her help with our second grade author study.
- To Seda, Campos and Abbas for always stepping in to provide support when I have to help some of my friends through tough moments -even when they already have a room full of kids, they welcome my groups without any questions and make the time meaningful!
- To Shaheen Rahman for her enthusiastic help in loading iPads with a coding & programing app for QUEST.
- A shout out to Nurse Larsen, Gale, Shelby, Thi, Margaret, Amy, Heather R., and Pam for their genuine care and concern for me Thursday morning when I slammed my finger in the car door. Thanks to the amazing ST staff for all their well wishes. I appreciate you so much!
...And Digital Learning
DON'T FORGET!
Professional Learning
Meaningful Discussion/Academic Discourse
SMART GOAL: Increase student’s advanced academic performance by 5% on campus based CFAs by improving meaningful peer conversations (academic discourse).
STRATEGY: Teacher will teach mini lessons, demonstrate, and provide practice using sentence stems and conversations structures. (Seravallo, Lone STAAR Problem Solving, Kagan Structures and Exemplars)
FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT: Administrative walk-throughs and campus CFAs will be used to measure progress.
Character Matters
In a recent New York Times article, “grit” researcher Angela Duckworth (University of Pennsylvania) says she’s pleased with the growing recognition of non-cognitive skills as a key element in students’ life success, including these three clusters:
- Tenacity, self-control, and optimism – these help students reach their goals;
- Social intelligence and gratitude – these help students relate to and help others;
- Curiosity, open-mindedness, and zest for learning – these enable independent thinking.
Duckworth concludes with these observations on the burgeoning study of non-cognitive skills:
- Character is not just innate – it can be cultivated by specific interventions.
- Getting students to self-assess on character traits can lead to important self-discovery.
- The ways in which we give students feedback on character can be improved.
- Scientists and educators need to collaborate to improve character education
- Measures of character should not be used as high-stakes accountability metrics.
March and April Character Trait Focus is Social Emotional Intelligence
Although there is some disagreement about the exact terminology to use, social and emotional intelligence both refer to the ability to understand your own and others’ feelings and emotions and then to use this understanding to inform your decisions and actions. Socially/emotionally intelligent people solve interpersonal problems quickly by understanding what is upsetting others and being empathetic to these concerns. They tend to recognize when they've said something that made someone uncomfortable and know what makes others "tick.” Socially/emotionally intelligent people are able to thrive in many different relationships and settings because they quickly learn the social rules.
https://characterlab.org/resources/social-emotional-intelligence
Observing Social/Emotional Intelligence
As a teacher, it’s important to recognize that social intelligence is different from just “getting along” with others or following rules. Put a different way: a child who acts out or doesn’t get along with others doesn’t necessarily have a challenge with social intelligence—a myriad of other challenges could be at play. That said, socially intelligent behaviors are also the ones that a teacher might prize in a peaceful classroom. Being socially intelligent could involve:
- Finding solutions during conflicts with others
- Demonstrating respect for the feelings of others
- Adapting to different social situations
https://characterlab.org/resources/social-emotional-intelligence
Birthdays
Jennifer Graves 4/5
Jill Grawe 4/15
Angela Gowan 4/20
Hortensia Hernandez 4/25
Casie Schneider 4/26
Jennifer Trickett 4/26
REMINDERS
National Autism Awareness Month
World Health Day on Thursday
Wednesday, April 13th
- Staff Meeting in Pod 3 (3:20-4:20)
Thursday, April 14th
- Olweus Committee Meeting in room 405 (3:15)
Friday, April 15th
- Teacher Preview for the Book Fair
- Good Morning Shawnee Trail
- Staff Bowling Party!!
Shawnee Trail Elementary
Email: schaeffp@friscoisd.org
Website: http://schools.friscoisd.org/ES/shawnee-trail/site/home
Location: 10701 Preston Vineyard Drive, Frisco, TX, United States
Phone: (469) 633-2500
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShawneeTrailElm
Twitter: @shawneetrailelm