Cobra Connect
Staff Newsletter - 4-8-2019
Home of the Cobras
Collins Intermediate is committed to academic success and general well-being of all students. Through collaboration and teamwork, we will provide meaningful strategies and interventions for all students to reach their learning goals.
Website: http://collins.conroeisd.net/
Location: 6020 Shadowbend Place, The Woodlands, TX, USA
Phone: 281-298-3800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Collins
Twitter: @CollinsCobras
the parent newsletter. Information due Monday - Noon. Targeted publication Monday PM or Tuesday AM.
Two Plus Weeks at a Glance
Please check Parent Calendar, Collins Staff Forum, and your personal Outlook Calendar in the event an event was missed.
Monday 4/8 - Friday 4/12
- Spirit Week @ Marble Slab (share HR teacher name and LC when visiting)
Monday, April 8th
- PTO meeting 1:15 PM
- Emily Out in PM
- 5th Math STAAR
Wednesday, April 10th
- 5th Reading STAAR
Thursday, April 11th
- Cobra Focus Meeting 8 AM PLC Room
- STAAR Make Up day
- Spirit Night @ Potbelly & Vineyard Vines (see school newsletter for more info)
- Sunshine Club Greeting @ front and back of Collins
- Possible STAAR Make Up Day
Saturday, April 13th
- 6th Band/Orchestra Solo and Ensemble
Monday, April 15th
- 4th Graders visit Collins 9 AM
- 4th Grade Parent Information Night 6:30 PM Collins Gym
- Emily out in PM
Tuesday, April 16th
- Core Leader Meeting 7:45 AM - PLC Room
- 4th Grade Parent Information Day (Repeat Session) 9 AM Collins Library
- CISD School Board - College Park Feeder Schools Recognition 6 PM
- Shelli Out - Principal Meeting 8 AM - 12 PM
- Fire Drill 3 PM
- Shelli Out - District Site Based 3:35 till 5:45 PM
Thursday, April 18th
- Faculty Meeting 7:45 AM - Library (Change in start time - Baby Shower!!!)
- Dr. Phillips Visit 9:30 - 10:45 AM Visit Classrooms during visit
- Hispanic Achievement Recognition Awards Ceremony - Conroe HS 6PM
Friday, April 19th
- School Holiday
Monday, April 22nd
- School Holiday
Tuesday, April 23rd
- Load Button Goes On to upload Grades
Thursday, April 25th
- RtI Meeting 7:45 AM - Front Conference Room
- Lighthouse 8 AM - PLC room
- Karen out
Friday, April 26th
- Shelli Off campus CISD Education Foundation - Scholarship Breakfast 7:00 - 9:30 AM
- Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast
- Progress Report Sent Home
- Karen out
TOY/HOY/Rising Star/FOE/ Banquet Ticket Information
Good Morning,
Attached is the form for the ticket sales for the Thursday, May 9th Salute to Education Ceremony.
It will be held at the The Woodlands United Methodist Church- Harvest Hall
Tickets are $10.00 Hors d'oeuvres will start at 5:00 PM, seating in the hall at 5:30 pm and the ceremony will begin at 6 pm.
Tickets for the TOY,HOY and Rising Star will be purchased by the district. Attire is casual formal- ( Dressy Church Clothes) .
If you are planning on attending, please fill out the attached form along with payment, and I will send it in for our campus.
Ticket sales are starting today April 1- April 26th or until sold out.
Our campus will provide a guest ticket for each of our winners. All others will need a ticket, including children
Any questions, please email or come see me.
Thanks,
Karen
Why Do You Matter?
STAAR
Remember to take time to review, not only the official State of Texas, testing manual and procedures, but also our Collins' process and steps for testing. We want to be purposeful and methodical so that we have a great testing week. Review the accommodations - making sure each and every child has the correct testing environment and tools for the tests. Our 110% effort and preparedness will result in no adult errors!
Love you all!
Shelli
How important is self regulation to a child's ability to learn?
Self Regulation is the ability to calm yourself down when you're upset or excited and cheer yourself up when you're down. Essentially the ability to regulate your own emotions. So, how does that come into play with learning?
Think about it this way - everyone has two brains - our Hulk brain and our Bruce Banner brain. What would it be like to teach the HULK anything new? Do you think he can learn? Of course not, the Hulk is unable to self-regulate. High emotion and rational thinking cannot exist in the brain at the same time.
Not all kids exhibit typical Hulk behaviors during heightened emotion. Do you have kids who exhibit these behaviors?
All of these behaviors show a current state of inability to regulate emotions. For some kids that is a short period of time and for others it is long. Any time these behaviors are shown the student is not ready to learn.
Think about it, we expect kids to have the skills of self-regulation because as adults we have figured this skill out. We forget how much practice we have had. We also tend to underestimate how often children have to self-regulate in any given school day.
- Wake up and work up energy to go to school
- Sibling interactions that lead to conflict
- Boredom on the bus
- Excitement of seeing their friends
- Walking past a student who upset you the day before
- Getting called on by a teacher when you don't know the answer
- Getting rejected by a boy or girl you have been waiting to go on a date with
- Not doing well on a test even though you studied
- Last period of the day on a Friday...need a say more
- Disappointment at not making the team you tried out for
So what exactly are the skills needed for self-regulation or emotional regulation?
According to Alice Boyes PhD, there are ten skills of emotional self-regulation that we need to master by the time we are adults.
- Identifying which specific emotions you’re feeling.
- Identifying which specific emotions someone else is feeling.
- The ability to start and persist in pursuing goals even when you feel anxious.
- The ability to tolerate awkwardness.
- The ability to have intimate conversations rather than stonewall, avoid, or flee.
- The ability not to crumble when someone is pressuring you.
- The ability to soothe your own emotions.
- The ability to soothe other people’s emotions.
- The ability to not go over the top with positive emotion.
- The ability to delay gratification.
Are we intentionally teaching kids these skills? If we want them to learn we probably should be.
Tech Time
Summer CISD Connects Academy
Here are flyers describing tech trainings available through the summer. I would LOVE to have a good showing at the CISD Connects Academy, July 25th-26th, which is going to feature a really interesting, motivating, and challenging speaker and Tech leader named Alan November. He is really engaging and very approachable, and really interested in helping teachers engage today's students.
Sign up for all in Eduphoria....I could not find the classes from the Canvas flyer in Eduphoria, so I emailed the district to see if there is a glitch.
:)Kellie
Assistant Principal Prose
The updated 6 hours must be completed by beginning of May.
Please turn in certificate of completion as early as possible to Sabrina Pomales.
Bond Reminders
Avengers Assemble - Whatever it takes!
504 & ARD Compliance
Please be aware of the email sent last week about online signatures.
If you received a letter in your box today, it will have the names of the students that you have yet to sign for their accommodations, and the date it was sent to you.
*Please note these accommodations need to be printed out and in a folder in your room
*The most recent documents sent to you are what should be printed
*Even if you receive two shares (one usually is an update/change) - BOTH shares need to be signed.
***Printing in the copier room - Please secure print any 504 Teacher Bundles or IEP documents.
Too many confidential documents are being left on the printer or the counter.
If you have trouble setting this up, please let me know and I can help.
Thank you for your time and understanding the importance of keeping our School Compliant.
RtI Tier II Progress Reports
Just a friendly reminder that RTI Tier II Progress Reports are due tomorrow. Please place them in my mailbox once your forms are complete.
Should you have any questions or need any help please let me know.
Thank you for all you do,
Doreen
SLO - Progress Check In Number 2
Sign In - Sign Out
Every staff member - no matter the reason that leaves campus should go to Eduphoria and electronically sign out and then sign back in when they return. Even for a quick McDonald's lunch run!
Click on Image for Steps in Eduphoria for Sign Out/In
Attendance - Taking it on Time
We still working on 100% attendance taken at 10:00 AM each day by teachers. We will be moving the reminder bell to 9:45 AM so that attendance is in the computer by 10 AM. I completely understand that it is not always easy to stop in the middle of teaching to take attendance, however it is required by the state. The district is really cracking down, on this issue, this year. Please read the email below that was sent to all PEIMS clerks.
We have been hearing for some time that TEA is very concerned about the actual time that attendance is taken for ADA. At the beginning of this year, the principals were reminded that we would be looking into this issue.
ADA attendance is a point in time, not a period. The time for your campus must be set before school starts and should be in the 2nd or 5th hour of instruction. Our campuses almost all use the 2nd hour. Having said that, it is a POINT IN TIME and not the entire 2nd period for the correct attendance taking time by teachers. For instance, if your campus ADA time is 10:00 and attendance is taken at 10:45, that is not correct. During an audit, funding would be lost for that class. As it was explained to us by TEA, if TEA audits your campus or your district, and finds that the attendance time is not being met, they will take away funding. The example we were given is that they could take away $30 per student per class of all classes with the time outside of the actual time. If you have a class of 30 students and the teacher is not taking attendance promptly, you would loose $900 per day per class, multiplied by the number of days that the time was incorrect, potentially a staggering amount of funding to be lost on each class.
I am receiving emails from the PEIMS office reminding us of the attendance rules , and also reminders at audits. We have been asked to send letters to the teachers explaining the consequences, that the school will face, if their attendance is not taken exactly at the attendance time. Thank you for your understanding in this matter.
Breakfast
We look forward to your feedback during the trial of this new timeline.
Warm Up Wednesday
Pants
Black warm up pants of your of your choice (either solid or a stripe down the sides)
Shirt
Current PTO Collins school shirt "Work Hard, Be Kind, Dream Big, Collins Cobras"
An LC created team shirt (that the entire team is wearing)
A PLC created team shirt (that the entire team is wearing)
IF we were to create a Collins Staff shirt - it could be worn in the future.
To conclude - four shirt options and one warm up pant option.
If jeans are worn on Wednesday - staff member must use a "Jeans Pass".
Please remember for our staff picture we are are wearing the Gray "Work Hard, Be Kind, Dream Big, Collins Cobras".
CARE Team - Foundations
Heather Ramsey: LC 5-1, 5-2, 5-3
Paige Kirbo: LC 5-4, 5-5
Melanie Cockshott & Julie Berg: LC 6-1 & support staff
Shawna Yates: LC 6-2, 6-3
Lisa Lackey: LC 6-4, 6-5
Collin Henry: PE and Fine Arts
One-liners
★ Check your Feet
★ Third Tile - Single File
★ Check your Hands
★ Check your Voice
★ Right Side, Safe Side
★ Hats/Hoods off
****** Next Meeting Thursday, March 7th********
Copy Machine Important Update - Dark Print
Teachers & Staff.... regarding item #4 below....in addition to dark borders creating issues with printing and possible jamming problems, it also sucks up toner. Sooo, when printing items with a dark border, please erase those edges.
Something new regarding cardstock copying...
Not only do you have to:
- load the card stock in the side (tray 5)
- select the appropriate paper weight (heavy)
- select the correct paper size
- ensure orientation of the inserted paper matches the selection of the paper size
But, you also should NOT use the duplex function. If you need your card stock to be 2-sided, you should run 1 side...collect your copies and turn them over to run the second side.
Ugh...I know...it's a pain in the tail to have so many rules and processes and procedures, but know they are for the good of us all so our beloved copy machine stays in tip-top shape. Thanks for being rule-followers!
Copy Machine - Please review #5
- When loading paper in his trays, be patient...wait for the tray to completely lower before dropping in a ream of paper. He looks like a strong, tough guy...but he doesn't like surprises and his tray cables are more delicate than we think. They can't handle the force of a ream of paper being dropped in unexpectedly.
- Before loading a ream of paper, it may even be helpful to slightly thumb through/fan the paper to help separate those sheets of paper.
- Mr. Copy Machine is smart. Follow his instructions - in order. In the event of a paper jam, he will tell you how to locate the jam in great detail....be sure to follow the steps listed on his display monitor. Don't automatically assume that the jam initiated in the paper tray. Following his steps in the order listed will reduce the potential for ripped paper pieces getting stuck in unreachable areas of the machine. If it states to turn knob 3, then open tray 1, then remove the paper from slot C...that's what you should do (even if you see the paper in slot C sticking up and waving at you). I can't stress it enough....please FOLLOW the sequence of instructions listed on the display screen.
- Please ensure that all of his levers & lids are shut, lowered and/or replaced properly before pushing the guts back in the machine after clearing a mis-feed/jam.
When things aren't closed properly, it throws off the alignments and sensors to allow paper to flow freely and correctly.
- If you are printing something with a dark border, please make sure the margins are set to at least .4 - anything smaller/narrower than that confuses our otherwise brilliant copy machine and will create problems when printing.
Cardstock...this is a biggie and requires it's own set of bullets
cardstock should always be loaded in the side bypass tray 5 (never in the main trays)
- always identify the paper as heavy weight
- always verify the correct size & orientation of the paper
- If staples need to be replaced, please check with me or Karen Kline to obtain staple cartridge & instructions on the replacement process.