ENCOURAGE
LV News | 3rd Edition 10.1.16
Dear Loma Vista Staff:
As we enter into our 2nd month of school, I couldn't be more proud of the combined efforts of our amazing staff, students and parents! Talk about fostering a GROWTH MINDSET - WOW! It has been extremely ENCOURAGING to walk classrooms and see Morning Meetings underway, students highly engaged in reading and writing, kids making numbers sense with Counting Collections and STEAM projects fostering curiosity and wonder - all in full swing! The high expectations and rigor are keeping kids engaged and motivated! The intentional community building classroom activities are making kids feel safe and excited to be at school! Thank you!
FEATURED in this Edition:
- CELEBRATIONS
- RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM - Foster social|emotional well-being, inside of strong classroom community = STUDENT LEARNING!
- WW - A Parent's Guide
- RW - Workshop Time: What is the TEACHER doing?
- CGI - Questioning Stems to Support ELLs and student success with SMPs
- PBIS - Definitions and Major|Minor Slips
- TECHNOLOGY - Expectations for Digital Citizenship
We are TUSD - Gettin' it Done at Loma Vista!
Celebrating a Learning Community Hard at Work!
MORNING MEETINGS in a RESPONSIVE CLASSROOM
Thank you for your efforts with cultivating a responsive classroom in support of students' social and emotional well-being and fostering a growth mindset in kids!
GOALS OF MORNING MEETING
- To build community in the classroom and fulfill children's need to belong, feel significant, and have fun
- To build trust and set a positive tone for learning
- To merge social and academic learning
- To practice or reinforce key academics, skills
Click HERE for more background, resources and examples of Morning Meetings, K and beyond.
Reading and Writing: The Workshop Model
Thank you for your very hard work during our All Day PLCs - followed up by an awesome WW Lab Day. Your dedication, passion, commitment, professionalism and sense of humor made the days fun and extremely productive. While our work has only just begun with Writer's Workshop, we are absolutely on the right track for cultivating a community of Readers and Writers|Story Tellers who LOVE to read and write. In an effort to help with fostering a love of writing in our families' homes, we'll provide Parent's Guide document in Eng. and Spa. at parent conferences next week! Click HERE to access! ***Kathi and I will look over the suggested timelines here and align to what we are doing if they don't already match.
The workshop model is an incredibly efficient method of teaching reading and writing. Within the workshop structure, teachers are able to address both the whole group’s needs as well as differentiating for the needs of small groups and individuals. By utilizing this instructional practice, educators are essentially getting the most “bang for their buck!” When successfully implemented, the workshop model allows teachers to not only meet standards but also provide students the time and support they need to grow into fluent readers and writers. Workshop is:
- A component of a balanced literacy block
- Standards based
- Driven by student assessment
- Differentiated instruction (by level, interest, groupings)
Click HERE for planning resources and more!
REFLECTION: What are YOU the TEACHER doing during Workshop, while kids are reading? It is very important that you have a plan in order to achieve your goals with facilitating strategy groups, guided reading groups, behavior observations and conferring. See below and click HERE for planning template ideas.
PBIS at Loma Vista - IMPORTANT
DEFINITIONS
“PBIS” is short for Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports. This language comes directly from the 1997 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). PBIS is used interchangeably with SWPBS, which is short for “School-wide Positive Behavior Supports.”
Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a proactive approach to establishing the behavioral supports and social culture and needed for all students in a school to achieve social, emotional and academic success.
This week our LV PBIS Teir II Team (Lori, Josh, Katy, and Chad) received training on a second layer to the systems, procedures and expectations of positive school-wide systems. One theme that remained was the IMPORTANCE of ALL STAFF being crystal clear on the LV DEFINITIONS that align to Kind, Safe and Responsible behaviors, and what warrants a Minor Slip VS a Major Slip. Josh is going to be putting together a video on LV DEFINITIONS and some more important information that teams will view and discuss at an upcoming grade level PLC meeting. Below, please find the definitions. These will be printed and placed in your boxes as well. Keep these handy to reference as needed. Go HERE to access our LV PBIS Haiku page! Go Cougars!
KEEP THOSE COUGAR CARDS FLOWING! They mean the world to kids! Thanks!
Digital Cizenship in TUSD
A Message from Josh Helpern:
Our (TUSD Technology Dept.'s) big focus this year is on Digital Citizenship. There are 5 lessons per grade level. These lessons are based on the Common Sense Media curriculum. You need to teach all of these lessons and have your students take an assessment for accountability purposes (also so you know if they got it or not).
- Kinder and 1st graders will not be taking online assessments, teachers will just be marking students who are present for the lessons.
- 2nd grade will do attendance for the first two lessons and then their students will take the online assessments for the last three lessons.
- 3rd through 5th students will take online assessments for all five lessons.
I have created a video (embedded below) that shows you how to find the assessments, roster your students, and give the assessments.
Please NOTE: This is a REQUIRED TUSD Curriculum and Assessment program. Thank you.
SUPPORT FOR TEACHERS
Please be sure to have your classes registered in Illuminate by Friday, October 7th. If you need assistance with this, please connect with Josh, Kathi or Katy! Click HERE to access the TUSD Digital Citizenship Haiku page.
As grade level learning communities, please discuss and create a plan for implementing and assessing this very important, 21st century curriculum.