LRMS: Week at a Glance
February 8 - 12, 2016
Sayings from Skinner
News You Can Use
Read Here and Be IN THE KNOW!
- Congrats to Michael Ladd, Amanda Sparks, Sarah Craig, and Lisa Wells for working collaboratively together on our amazing Building and Media Center Inventories. We were able to account for 100% of our "things." This will earn us a point on next year's WSA! Thanks to ALL who helped them complete these HUGE tasks!!!!
- Congrats and WELL DONE to our Dance Team -- under the direction of Shamira Pierson-Porter. They performed in front of all of the GCPS Principals, district leadership, and GCPS Counselors this past week at the Counseling Recognition Breakfast -- and did an amazing job -- and our own Natasha Southerland sang "Stand By Me" as a part of the celebration -- all of these ladies "knocked it out of the park" and I'm STILL receiving emails about how awesome our kids are! Special shout-out to Lauralie Connell and Rasheedra Nelson for making sure the girls made it to the event!!!!!
- Congrats and THANKS to the 8th grade teachers for an incredibly successful OSCOR Registration Process -- I know the time was tight, but y'all did AWESOME!! The high school called me to rave about how great y'all did!! THANKS!
- Congrats to our own namesake Mrs. Louise Radloff, who was named GCPS's Counseling Advocate of the Year -- and in a wonderful tribute, that award is being renamed as the Louise Radloff Counseling Advocate of the Year going forward for her unwavering commitment to our schools, our students, our community, and public/mental health -- she has been a HUGE proponent for many years for ensuring that our students get the support within and outside of school so that they can be ready to learn! Way to go, Mrs. Radloff!!!
2) ELT & Advisement
Teachers -- please remember that these two initiatives are KEY to our continuing success with students -- to helping them build better "schooling skills" and to "filling in the gaps" with their numeracy and literacy -- we are ALL working to help our math teachers reclaim some time for on-calendar/course content --- THANKS to the many of you who are truly doing a bang-up job!! And please don't forget we should ALL be teaching literacy in our contents --- please make sure you continue to work through the skills of "identifying and analyzing the central idea as it evolves through a text" AND the new skill is "citing textual evidence," having students go back into a text and finding exact examples from within the text to support their ideas and understandings!!! We each should be incorporating these skills daily in each of our classrooms!! (LA and MA teachers -- please make sure you are collecting the data on your students' progress via the ELT assessments!)
3) Black History Month Celebration Continues
Please help our amazing Black History Month Committee in spreading the good word and participating fully (and encouraging our students to do so) with all the great activities that have been planned as a part of Black History Month!
4) 4 1/2-week progress reports are here!
Don't forget that Friday will be the day to send home 4 1/2-week progress reports!! (yes, we are a quarter of the way through the second semester -- and time is flying!) Please help the kids realize the urgency there is for them completing their work, studying and reading daily, and applying their best efforts -- and make sure parent communication is staying strong!
5) Speaking of Parent Communication -- Early Release Conferences are Coming!
Remember that you all may start these next week . . try to meet with AS MANY PARENTS as you can--yes, this means ALL!!!!! Use this time to celebrate successes, identify struggles, and make a PLAN for continuing strong or getting stronger --- if we don't act now, our kids will fall short by Milestones and also by the end of the year!!! If you're having a group "celebration," please make sure you alert the admin and counselor for your grade level (and feel free to invite me as well) -- we LOVE to come and gush over kids (and parents) who are "doing the right things!" Also, the expectation is for each team to stay later one evening (traditionally on Wednesday) to accommodate parents' schedules) and then, to leave a little early on Thursday (IF all conferences have been completed). NO ONE should be leaving super early -- all teachers should be committed to having good conversations with parents and using this time for intervention. Conferences may be held before school, during planning, or after school the week prior to Early Release and the week after -- and these may still be counted in your total number of conferences.
6) Girls Academy Retreat -- February 27-28
Just FYI -- for the first time in GA, Radloff will be hosting Girls Academy -- it is an overnight retreat, which will be hosted by a group of women from Emory University and a set of nationally-trained volunteers, who will run an overnight self-esteem building/goal setting retreat for 50 of our female students. The Counselors are working to inform the students that they have been selected to participate -- and getting all the forms to the girls. Their Parents will also be invited to a portion of the Academy on the 28th, and there will be a parenting class during that time, where we will be discussing "strategies for dealing with teenage girls" and "suggestions for having girls be academically successful." We anticipate this will be a very awesome opportunity for a number of our students!
7) Common Assessments --- A Few Reminders
Common Assessments MUST be common. This means that the number of answer choices, the questions themselves, the wording/everything must be common (even the general time frame in which they are given) -- the only exceptions would be if the student has an IEP or TPP that requires some type of accommodation. As you all work in CATs, please make sure that Common Assessments represent DOK Levels 2 & 3, and not just Level 1 questions. Please work with your content AP if you have questions!
8) Check your Emails Daily -- and follow all schedules as given (particularly with ACCESS and other testing!)
Reading email is NOT a luxury -- it is a duty and expectation. Please do not get caught "not knowing" because you haven't read your emails!!!!
EVENTS OF THE WEEK
ACCESS Testing
GUFG Teachers -- HS Registration Week
8:15 a.m. -- ESOL Team Meeting
8:50 a.m. -- Counselors' Meeting
9:30 a.m. -- ELT
9:45 a.m. -- GUFG Students Visit MHS for Tour
Tuesday, February 9
ACCESS Testing
9:30 a.m. -- ELT
10:15 a.m. -- 7th CAT Planning -- LA/MA
2:50 p.m. -- 6th CAT Planning -- LA/MA
Wednesday, February 10
ACCESS Testing
STEAM Academy Informational Week for 6th & 7th graders
8:15 a.m. -- School-wide Tutoring
9:30 a.m. -- Advisement/Raider Pride
Thursday, February 11
ACCESS Testing
STEAM Academy Informational Week for 6th & 7th graders
Staff Development Tech Training -- by invite only
Staff Development -- MATH teachers --- model lessons
8:00 a.m. -- SPED Department -- Rising 9th grade Registration meeting -- Pratt-Clark's room
8:15 a.m. -- PBIS Meeting
9:30 a.m. -- ELT
10:15 a.m. -- 7th CAT Planning -- SC/SS
12:45 p.m. -- 8th CAT Planning -- LA/MA/SC/SS
2:50 p.m. -- 6th CAT Planning -- SC/SS
Friday, February 12
PROGRESS REPORTS -- 4 1/2- week ones go home!!
ACCESS Testing
STEAM Academy Informational Week for 6th & 7th graders
8:00 a.m. -- GUFG Academy Meeting
9:30 a.m. -- ELT
9:30 a.m. -- FT -- Lavoie Team
Upcoming Events -- Mark Your Calendars!
- Monday, February 15th -- Staff Development Day (Student Holiday) -- Faculty Meeting begins at 8:45 a.m.
- Tuesday, February 16th -- 8:00 a.m. -- ILT
- Tuesday, February 16th --6:00 p.m. -- Athletic Banquet
- Thursday, February 18th -- 8:00 a.m. -- New Teacher Network
- Wednesday, February 24th - Thursday, February 25th --- Early Release Conference Days
- Friday, February 25th -- Paloozas during all Connections; Black History Luncheon for Staff
- Thursday, March 3 -- 6:00 p.m. -- Family STEAM Night
- Wednesday, March 9 - Tuesday, March 15 -- DA Interim Testing
- Friday, March 11 --- Student/Teacher Holiday (Snow Day Make-up, if needed)
- Tuesday, March 15 -- 8;00 a.m. --ILT
- Tuesday, March 15; Thursday, March 17; Friday, March 18 -- Raider Round-ups during HR
- Thursday, March 17 -- 8:00 a.m. -- New Teacher Network meeting
- Friday, March 18 -- 8:00 a.m. -- Faculty Meeting
- Monday, March 21 - Thursday, March 24 -- Extended Planning for Content Teachers
- Thursday, March 24 -- 4;45 p.m. -- Local School Council Meeting
- Friday, March 25 -- Flipped schedule (6th and 8th grades) for Career Fair for 8th graders
- Friday, March 25th -- Grade Level Meetings