Spartan Scoop #22
January 31, 2016
Thought for the week:
Powerful, passionate, accomplished teachers are those who:
– focus on students’ cognitive engagement with the content of what it is that is being taught;
– focus on developing a way of thinking and reasoning that emphasizes problem-solving and teaching strategies relating to the content that they wish students to learn;
– focus on imparting new knowledge and understanding, and then monitor how students gain fluency and appreciation in this new knowledge;
– focus on providing feedback in an appropriate and timely manner to help students to attain the worthwhile goals of the lesson;
– seek feedback about their effect on the progress and proficiency of all their students;
– have deep understanding about how we learn; and
– focus on seeking learning through the eyes of students, appreciating their fits and starts in learning, and their often non-linear progressions to the goals, supporting their deliberate practice, providing feedback about their errors and misdirections, and caring that the students get to the goals and that the students share the teacher’s passion for the material being learnt.”
(P19-20, ‘Visible Learning for Teachers’ by John Hattie)
These are things we see our teachers doing every day at GBE! Thank you for knowing our students and igniting them as learners!
Building Items:
Be on time- Please be on time when picking your students up from Specials and lunch. Being late to pick up students from Specials means that you are putting other co-workers in a bind for time and taking other students' Specials time away. Please be respectful of everyone's time. Being on time for lunch is important because as students wait for you in the commons area, they begin to get into trouble. I need you there on time to prevent student behavior issues. I also need you there on time because every minute of the school day counts. I expect you to be utilizing your time with students wisely so high levels of learning can take place all day long.
Drills last week - The tornado drill went very well last week. I saw all of you doing a nice job of making sure students were covered up and being safe. The fire drill was not as good because there were students making loud noises, mocking the sound of the alarm, and classroom doors were left open. Remember that during a fire drill you need to turn lights off, close doors, take your yellow bags and have students walking safely and quietly down the halls and out of the building. If students want to know why they need to be quiet, tell them it is for everyone's safety. We are quiet so we can listen for special safety announcements that will help everyone stay safe during the event.
Teacher Work Rooms/Lounges - No students are allowed in the work rooms for any reason. Please adhere to this.
Floating Work Day Explanation - The Floating Work Day is designed to assist you in possibly leaving for summer vacation one day early at the end of the school year. If you have logged 8 hours that you have worked outside of your contracted time and you have been officially checked out by Angie or me, you do not have to come back for that last day after students have gone home for the summer. This being said, if you are not officially checked out by an administrator or your room is not "summerized" you must come back to work until those items are complete. Please submit the Floating Work Day to me by May 1. CO wants the hours documented in 2 hour increments.
PBIS Challenges for Students: Mrs. Doss announced the winners of the hat day competition for achieving 5s at lunch for two school weeks. The had day will be on Tuesday, 2/2.
Vision Items:
Summer School Data: Mrs. Bell will be contacting classroom teachers for some information to gather data for our Summer school preparation. Make sure to respond to her requests in a timely manner.
RTI Committee: We have had several interested staff members sign up to start our RTI committee. This committee is now formed and I have visited with a few teachers about being Co-Chairs to help organize and facilitate our meetings and work. If you have signed up to be on the committee you will be receiving communication from Mrs. McDowell, Ms. Wright or Mrs. Bell about meeting dates and times. I will send out an email to the group to verify those that were interested and signed up during the December break.
Digital Data Wall: This has had some changes done in two CLT sessions. Most recently the discrepancies noted have been discussed and are being ironed out. We will move forward to look at our Topic tests and coding them. A guide will be added to the cover pages to move forward with this work. We then will look at who are our highest need students to continue to Progress Monitor and review on CLT Mondays. We will also need to make sure teachers are getting time to review interventions and review what you are using during this push back time for Math. If we see growth in students from particular teachers those conversations need to be taking place as to what that teacher is doing to move their students.
Monday CLT: We will meet again in the Computer Lab. We will first take the BAT survey. On the first question note that you will need to put that we are with the Columbia, (Hook Center) region. Second we will take time to look at our PBS Data that the team members will share. After this discussion and share we will need to have some time set aside for work with our Data Wall. We do need to do some clarifying with the Star Scores and the discrepancies that were seen.
Calendar:
Monday, 2/1 - PLC in the computer lab. We have a BAT survey to complete and our monthly PBIS data will be shared. Please be prompt.
Monday, 2/1 - PTO Mtg. at 5:30.
Monday, 2/1 - Spartan Tutoring
Tuesday, 2/2 - Stand up meeting in the Library for Classroom Teachers Only @ 4 to 4:15
Tuesday, 2/2 - Math Fun Night 5:00 - 6:30 - This is created more for 4th and 5th grade students, but 3rd grade students are welcome too. Advertise this to your students. It is a fun event.
Tuesday, 2/2 - Hat Day for classes that had 5s at lunch from 1/19 - 1/29.
Tuesday, 2/2 - Angie's Coaching Day
Wednesday, 2/3 - Reading Counts Lunch with the Principals - 11:30
Wednesday, 2/3 - Dave's Coaching Day
Wednesday, 2/3 - Spartan Tutoring
Thursday, 2/4 - District Literacy Council @ GBE Library - 4:00 - 5:00
Friday, 2/5 - Angie and Dave out at NE Principal's Association Mtg.
Peer Observations are due to Dave by March 1, 2016. Dave will take digital and hard copies of these forms.
Floating Work Day Logs are due to Dave by May 1, 2016. Please send them to Dave digitally.
PD Logs are also due to Dave by May 1, 2016.
Lollipop Moments:
Dee and Melissa, you kept me sane last week! Thank you for your teamwork and support. - Dave
Coach Bell, Tymica Wright, Mr. Burris and Mrs. Doss, thank you for assisting when a particular student had a bad day. - Dave
Megan and Vicky, you two are tremendous with flexibility and patience. Working with students in two of the most unstructured settings takes a lot of energy and you two do this daily without complaining. Thank you for being you. - Dave
Thank you to Mrs. Showalter, Mrs. Rivera and Mrs. Mathis for teaching an ELL student who knows very little, un poco, English. You are doing everything you can to help this child become successful with learning English. - Dave
Thank you to Dee for reminding me to smile no matter how crazy my day is. :) Emily S.
Thank you to Jessica David for always being happy, energetic and you juggle SO MUCH to help our students! Emily S.
Thank you to Ashely Patrick: You have come to my rescue on more than one occasion to help guide my Buddy Pack Volunteers! Emily S.
Thank you to Melissa Slater: You always know the answer to all of my questions! Emily S.
Thank you to Emily Enslen: You care so deeply about your students and show an enormous amount of Patience! Emily S.
Thank you to Brandy and all the teachers and staff for encouraging our students in our Reading Counts program to work toward earning those points and the new incentive. Today my day was made when a student from third grade saw me at Wal-Mart and yelled from across the aisle-- "Mrs. Doss! You are GOING to be sleeping in that Library ALLLLL night! Wait and see!" It was the best trip to Wal-Mart I have ever had! :) Angie D.