Intermediate Staff Newsletter
For the Week of March 5, 2018
Dear Staff,
With our third trimester beginning, we are seeing Spring Fever set in throughout the building. Students are testing limits and at times their short fuses can ignite. We are happy to support you on an individual student basis, a class discussion or a Wing Assembly. We need your help! Please review RISE expectation and hold students accountable to the classroom management routines you have set in place. As a reminder, we do have Friday Night School for students who are sent to the office multiple times. While we do our best to communicate between the three of us, if you feel a behavior has escalated to the need for a Friday Night School, please come talk with one of us. If you have documented behavior, contacted families and still do not see a behavior changing, we will support you with an appropriate response/consequence. This time of year can be challenging, but it does require us to teach students how to appropriately behave when they are bursting inside to have a break from each other and from school.
Here’s to a great week of conferences!
Katie, Kate and Barry
Supporting Our Students
I liked this article for the tips they listed "During the Conference". Most were common sense but sometimes reading through them again helped me get my mind right.
If you know you have some hard conversations to have, you might like this article. It talks about several different types of difficult parents including Parent in Denial, Aggressive Parents, Uncooperative Parents, and Absent Parents.
And if you need a little comic relief check out this video by Gerry Brooks with "Patti the Parent Teacher Doll". If this doesn't make you laugh during a stressful time, I'm not sure what will! Enjoy!
Spring Fever on the Rise:
We've noticed an increase in office visits and overall disrespect among our students. Whether it is being unkind in the lunch room, disrespecting a lunch teacher or classroom teacher, or just generally not caring. Here is a copy of the Office Referral Form. Minor offenses can be handled in the classroom by filling out a form and contacting the parent. After the second minor then an office referral is made and the consequences can come from the office. Reviewing this plan with students may help deter some of the behaviors we have seen or heard about recently.
Let's not forget though that expected behaviors should be taught over and over again. This website has great ideas for how to address many types of behavior. One of the hardest parts, when a student is misbehaving, is avoiding engaging in a Power Struggle. If you want to know more about this topic, I thought there were some good ideas here.
Don't forget to have your class vote this week!
News to Share
2. We are very excited for our Arts Inspired event coming up on March 12th and 13th. Please add this to your portals or other home communication tools to help get the word out. See below for a link to the flier.
3. Conference Dinners will be provided on Tuesday and Thursday. Head to room 137 to grab a bite to eat and fuel up for your conferences. Meals will be ready to go beginning at 3:00.
4. Until we track down the student(s) who has been misusing the restroom, please keep a restroom sign out log. We will send an email out with the time of an incident to see if you had students in the restroom. If you have concerns that it may be a student you know, please come and see us. Whoever is doing this, needs help! Please help us by keeping a restroom log in your classroom.
5. Don't forget to turn in your R Factor student groups to Kate. You can access the presentation from February 20th here. We are still trying to secure one more guest speaker. Do you have someone in mind that has a great story of how E+R=O applies to their real life? If so, please help us out!
6. All staff involved with giving the OST either in a large group or small group setting needs to plan to attend the staff meeting on 3/13 where we will go over OST information and testing procedures.
7. MARCH 14, 2018- Late Start and Peace Rallies at MS/HS
Our final two hour delay PD day is next week on Wednesday, March 14. An agenda will be sent this week. The middle school and high school will be holding peace rallies that morning at 10 am as an alternative to having students walk-out at 10 am which some national groups are encouraging in response to school violence. For fourth and fifth grade, students are not yet on campus due to the late start, arriving at 11am. For sixth graders, they will have the option to participate in the peace events happening at NAMS during their first period electives class. A message to sixth grade parents with more details will be sent soon. A local law firm prepared a document to help explain the issues for staff and students with walk-out events. If interested, you can read it here.
Science Super Stars: NAIS Science Fair
Week at a Glance
Announcements: S Wing- 4th Graders- See Pledge Schedule
Monday, March 5th- No Meetings
Tuesday, March 6th- No Meetings; 7:00 6th Grade Band Concert
Wednesday, March 7th- No Meetings; 6:30 6th Orchestra Concert
Thursday, March 8th- No Meetings; PTO Meeting after school
Friday, March 9th- PAC meeting