Staff Newsletter
because it helps to know what's going on
Friday, August 31
All Toward Supporting Students, by Greg Couros from "Connected Principals"
The ability of a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those people pull together as a team.”
This excerpt is from Phil Jackson (Eleven Rings):
The samurai wanted to teach his sons about the power of teamwork. So he gave each of them an arrow and asked them to break it. No problem. Each son did it easily. Then the samurai gave them a bundle of three arrows bound together and asked them to repeat the process. But none of them could. “That’s your lesson,” the samurai said. “If you three stick together, you will never be defeated.”
I have been thinking about the importance of those who work in education that work as teams, instead of adversaries, get so much more done. I am not just talking about teachers, but all roles in education. I have seen the “us vs. them” mentality in a lot of systems, where barriers seem to be put up because there is A) a lack of trust of one group to another or B) the work of the others is not valued as much as it should be.
This week, I was blessed to work with Gina Niccoli-Moen, and she stressed to me how important it was that all of the people she worked with were shown value for their work to support students, no matter their role. It reminded me of this article about a custodian who left messages and artwork for students on the carpet overnight. This was my favorite quote from the piece:
“It really drives home the point that there are so many people that come in here after you’re gone and they work so hard to make a safe, comfortable, and happy place for you to learn.”
What is important to note is that in the environments where “sticking together” doesn’t mean “agreement” all of the time. It is people both pushing and supporting one another in the pursuit of serving students. Conflict is beneficial to the process but only in an environment where we are working together where support is the norm, not the exception.
PLCs
Please don't feel that the current forms being utilized need to remain the way they are. They will and probably should morph to be more user friendly for your group. SIMPLIFY. Feel free to make it as simple as the main questions that need answered; "What is the essential learning we want students to know, How will we know they learned it? What will we do if they don't?"
The administrative team is also going through the same process for our district data team. We met this week to develop our norms and we will be diving deeper into our ISTEP and NWEA data in our upcoming meetings.
Student Learning Objectives (SLOs)
Just a reminder, there is a google doc you can use as an SLO Calculator to determine the number needed for highly effective, effective, improvement necessary and ineffective.
For those with standardized assessments, you may choose to use IREAD (3rd grade), ILEARN, or NWEA as your measure.
If you need help or have questions, please let me know.
We will discuss your SLOs at your fall S2S meeting.
Fall S2S Meeting-Let's Chat!
Reminders
- When sending information to parents in Infinite Campus, remember that attachments cannot go through when you select "inbox." You must send attachments by selecting "email" only.
- Don't forget to "Sign In" each week on the 2018-19 PD Sign in for PGP Verification" Doc
Flyin' High with RTI
Jaymee here! We will be starting Reading Lab (Reading RTI) on Wednesday (NOT Tuesday, as previously shared). Renee and I will be meeting with teachers who will be using RAZ Kids with their Tier 2 students. I will be getting schedules to everyone, so you know your students that will receive Tier 2 and Tier 3 help.
Renee here! I'm sending home ReadUP invitations this week. I will share a final list with you by Wednesday. I am inviting ReadUP students to have lunch with me in the library either on Tuesday or Wednesday, depending on when they turn in their permission slips. I'll make lunch passes for these students. We'll cover procedures and what to expect for the Kickoff, which is Thursday! Regular ReadUP sessions will begin on Monday, the 10th. Reminder that ReadUP is now on Mondays and Thursdays.
Schedules-Need to Know Info
- We will meet in The Meeting Place on Wednesday, September 12th for our Faculty Meeting to cover required district training. (Bullying, Blood Bourne Pathogens, Sexual Harassment)
- We will meet in The Meeting Place on Wednesday, September 26th for our Grade Level/Dept. meeting for important information (Utilizing IA's effectively, Autism training, and ILEARN Ethical Testing training.)
Feeling Social??
Data Team Meetings for the year
October 2, 2018
November 28, 2018
January 23, 2019
March 6, 2019
May 1, 2019
CIC Meetings For The Year
November 2, 2018
January 25, 2019
April 12, 2019
May 10, 2019
Upcoming Dates
Sept. 6: Read Up Kickoff
Sept. 7: CIC Meeting
Sept. 10: School Board Meeting
Sept. 10: Official Start to Read Up (students attend every Mon. and Thurs.)
Sept. 12: Faculty Meeting
Sept. 15: Fall Break begins
Sept. 17: S2S Meetings begin (send Tina a Calendar invite between the 17th and 28th)
Sept. 24: Data Team Meeting
Sept. 26: Grade Level/Dept. Mtg
Oct. 1: Kkids 1st meeting
Oct. 5: Book Fair begins
Oct. 8: Parent/Teacher Conferences begin
Oct. 12: End of quarter 1
Oct. 15: Fall Break begins
Oct. 22: "healthy choices week" begins
Oct. 24: Grade level/Dept. Mtg.
Nov. 2: CIC Meeting
Nov. 9: Veteran's Day Program
Nov. 14: Faculty Meeting
Nov. 21: Thanksgiving break begins
Nov. 28: Data Team Meeting
Nov. 28: Grade Level/Dept. Meeting