September 30, 2019
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
It's All About the Routines and Procedures:
What routines, procedures, expectations, components of room arrangement do I consider paramount to successful instruction, classroom management, and effective use of instructional time?
Is there an area of instruction, classroom management, and/or time management that is not operating as successfully as you need or want? What routines or procedures might be missing here?
We will open PLCs talking about routines, procedures, expectations and room arrangements. Please come prepared to share something reflective about the questions above AND/OR any new learning that might help others. #GetBetter #ConfrontReality
Staff EBA Action Team...October Fun!
You are invited to participate in Boo-ing a Seven Hills Staff Member. Please sign-up below if you would like to participate. Mrs. Bryan will come around on Monday to let those who have signed up draw a participant's name from a bucket. The person's name that you draw will be your Boo Buddy!
Sign-up to Boo here:
https://forms.gle/xggrvzho3r79FBfr8
Here are the guidelines:
Please let Kelly Bryan know if you have any questions! Happy Boo-ing!
Thank you in advance for your help and support of the Big Kahuna fundraising event...a few days remain! Please remember that the money raised will directly support classroom instruction, student incentives, and campus activities...and, with the reduction in campus operating budgets, we are going to be using activity funds to support programs and activities more. Specific uses of these funds include Sharpen the Saw Clubs, Leader in Me initiatives and programs, the 4th Grade Musical, more campus branding (murals), classroom libraries, etc.
We have set the fundraising goal at $10,000 this year! Meeting, and possibly exceeding, this goal will take effort on everyone’s part, but the return on a little investment will be well worth the effort. If you have not already done so, please determine class incentives and hang your poster in your classrooms. Thank you for your continued flexibility, creativity, enthusiasm, and effort!
- Campus Incentive: If we reach the campus goal of $10,000 all staff will be able to wear jeans on designated Wednesdays with our school shirts. If we exceed the fundraising goal, we will wear jeans every Wednesday (with designated shirts), unless we have a campus event, special guests, etc.
- Grade Level Incentive: The grade level with the highest participation levels will win a prize!
- Back Again This Year...Collectibles: As students sell items, they can turn tickets in to the office for the collectibles. Wear them. Trade them. Put them on your backpacks. Fun for all! Teachers, if you will wear one...or two..or 10, the students will get more excited about them.
- ALL students who sell 10 items will go on the party bus! This is a change! Please make sure your students know this!
Thank you for your help with this fundraising effort...and a final push to help us reach or exceed our goal!
Parent Conference Timeline and Expectations:
Repeat information from last week. If you have not done so already, complete the Google form communicating your plan for Parent Conferences. This was due last week.
Seven Hills will offer three nights for parent conferences this fall. Teachers will choose two nights for their homeroom classes. Teachers must complete this Google form https://forms.gle/GUJkrqAi5SAPS8if7 communicating which dates you will hold conferences by the end of the day on Thursday, September 26th:
- Thursday, October 3rd 3:30 - 6:30
- Tuesday, October 8th 3:30 - 6:30
- Tuesday, October 15th 3:30 - 6:30
What an exciting time! Parent conferences are an opportunity to set everyone up for future success, and this year at Seven Hills, we continue to promote student ownership of learning and accountability through student led conferences. All K-5 students will participate in student-led conferences. In order to help everyone be the most prepared they can be for conferences, I have a outlined information below. Leadership Teams will review details in their meeting tomorrow, and share any updates as needed.
- Parent conferences are a district expectation and part of the FLEX hour professional learning plan. The campus calendar says 3:45 - 6:45. I received information after the calendar was printed that conferences can begin at 3:30.
- Student - Led Conferences are a component of a Lighthouse School.
- Student - Led Conference Resources are housed in the 18-19 Seven Hills Google Team Drive.
- If you are confused about what students should share, etc. please start with your ILT representative. They are an excellent resource. If you still need clarification, let me know.
- I will be sharing information with parents this week. There is also a letter in the Team Drive that you can use. The text is copied below if you need to use it.
- Let students lead their part. :) Set them up for success with this conference by making sure all Leadership Notebooks are ready to share, data has been updated, etc. Leadership Notebooks and WIGs should be a point of pride for students! They should look like a point of pride at all times, especially when showcasing them. If you need a reminder about what a Leadership Notebook should look like, please reference the Aligning Academics Leader in Me PD book from last year. Also, PRACTICE with your students...let them practice with a peer and/or you before their conference.
- I know some people are missing items for the Leadership Notebooks. If you need something else, please let me know as soon as possible.
- Specials teachers, SPED and specialists are expected to attend/hold/participate in a minimum of 12 conferences. Because of the change in format this year, we asked that you schedule a time with the parent either right before or right after the student-led parent conference. Please do not take their time to shine.
- All teachers must turn in a conference log after all conferences are held as part of the FLEX agreement requirement.
- It is best practice for teachers to keep a record of the conference notes and details. What topics were discussed, ideas generated, next steps, people in attendance, date and time of conference are minimum expectations when documenting a conference. We do have example conference forms you can use, if you would like examples, please let us know. Teachers have autonomy in the documentation system they feel best meets their needs.
- Enjoy this process! This is a time for your students to SHINE and for you to establish partnerships with parents. Think about it...once students have practiced sharing with their parents, they should have confidence sharing with anyone!
Parent Communication To Be Sent From Me This Week:
To help you better understand what is going on with your child’s learning this year, we will be continuing our student-led conferences this year. We had such great feedback from parents, students, and staff with last year's format, and we look forward to successful parent-student-teacher conferences this year!
Your student will lead the conference and explain to you what he or she has been accomplishing around academic and personal goals. Your child has spent the first weeks of school learning about themselves as a leader and a learner. They are prepared to present their goals, achievements during the first 15 minutes of the conference. The last minutes of the conference can be spent visiting with your child’s teacher.
What to expect:
You and your child will have time to go through the Leadership Notebook.
You and your child will discuss Wildly Important Goals.
You and your child will discuss ways to continue the learning and leading at home.
You will be able to discuss growth opportunities for your child with the classroom teacher.
Students are busy preparing for this conference, so please put first things first in order to attend. This is their chance to show you what their goals are for the year and what steps they will take to achieve them. This should be time to celebrate your Star Leader, and we encourage you to make arrangements for siblings during this time. Your child's teacher has already or will be scheduling conferences.
Seven Hills will offer three nights for parent conferences this fall. Teachers will choose two nights for their homeroom classes. Teachers will begin scheduling conferences soon. Potential Conference Dates:
- Thursday, October 3rd 3:30 - 6:30
- Tuesday, October 8th 3:30 - 6:30
- Tuesday, October 15th 3:30 - 6:30
Units of Study Writing Toolkit Prep Days:
Kindergarten: Wednesday, October 9 morning
1st Grade: Wednesday, October 2 morning
2nd Grade: Wednesday, October 2 afternoon
3rd Grade: Friday, October 4 morning
4th Grade: Friday, October 4 afternoon
5th Grade: Friday, October 4 afternoon
TTESS Goals in Edugence and BOY Conferences:
Repeat from last week. Don't wait until the last minute for your SLO. What help do you need?
Goals: Everyone should have 2 goals. If you are struggling with a goal, remember...One of your goals can/should be linked to our campus goal, instructional focus or one of our lead measures. This is a goal you will have significant evidence to support because it is the work of the campus this year.
Returning Teachers:
Your goals SHOULD have been entered in Edugence for your end of year conference 2018-2019. You need to go in to Edugence and CONFIRM that the goals are in there for this year. If you changed your mind about your goal over the summer, please enter that change in Edugence. Please complete this by the end of the day on Friday, September 27 (This is a district deadline). Make sure you SAVE AND SUBMIT. When you meet in your conference, if the goals change some, we will unlock it for you.
New Teachers: Please come with a plan for your goals to your conference. We will discuss these and you will have a window of time to enter them into Edugence.
SLOs: SLOs from last year wer not able to be viewed in Edugence as of last week. They were working on this. My view is different from your view. It may have been fixed. Some of you mentioned that you needed to see the SLO from last year to create your rubrics for this year. Yes, teams can have common SLOs. I strongly encourage you NOT to simply copy last year's SLO and keep it as this year's.
- Look at your BOY data. In 3-5, what are low performing TEKS that have common skills that might lead to a strong SLO?
- Consider our campus WIG and our Instructional Focus
- What skills would be high leverage for achievement and growth? If we focus on THIS it will have a significant impact?
- SLO Slide Deck: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UWO2euwaa4xhp-bkyQDmvizjVD_YvGvr3yyLRYQzZ10/edit?usp=sharing
- SLO due in Edugence on October 7
Tanya and I have to have everything approved in Edugence by October 18.
Teams Need to Sign Up For Thursday Meeting Snacks!
From Tanya:
Discipline:
Teacher, he won’t play with me.”
“Teacher, she cut in line.”
“Teacher, he took my book.”
Have you found yourself faced with any of these situations recently? I know I have dealt with several incidents in the past few weeks. Below are some tips/strategies on how to teach conflict resolution. It’s a perfect opportunity through Habit Huddle.
Teach students how to:
Cooling off when upset
Speaking directly to each other
Speaking assertively, honestly, and kindly
Listening carefully to others and accurately paraphrasing their words
Proposing solutions and agreeing on a solution to try
When we patiently guide children in using basic problem-solving skills when conflict erupts, we get them back on track so they can continue their academic and social learning. But we also accomplish much more than that. We give children a chance to experience themselves as problem-solvers, able to take responsibility for dealing directly with one another when they’re upset. We nurture in them kindness, consideration of others, respectful assertion of their needs, and cooperation. These are habits and skills that will serve them well for a lifetime.
When issues arise, make sure you are referring to our campus flowchart found in our google classroom for discipline issues and next steps.
Positive Office Referrals- Thank you to those who have already recognized students this year. Please nominate a student by filling out the positive office referral form located in my mailbox.. I will publicly announce them on the announcements.
From the CIT:
Have you been thinking about a makeover for your classroom library and the challenge of “when do I have time?” is getting in your way? Kelli Palmer, our new 3-5 instructional reading coach, and I teamed together to help Kaylan Russell with this task. Her class was beyond excited at the reveal and we saw firsthand the motivation to read take over! These pictures say it all:
So, if you are ready to take the plunge and have your students making “just right books” more accessible in your classroom, let me know and Kelli and I can coordinate a time and assist. Also, if you want to know more about classroom libraries, check out this powerpoint that was shared from our Prairie View friends:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=14YN_YCYfpNwribVhO_fmrQh_AamOxOv_6ePTbxIxO8s
Assessments this week:
Kinder
September 10-26
KMath.BOY 19-20
September 23- 27
Kinder DRA2, Letter Sounds
1st
September 10-26:
1Math.BOY 19-20
2nd
September 10-26:
2Math.BOY 19-20
3rd
September 10-26
3Math.BOY 19-20
4th-5th
None
From the Librarian:
This week is Week B for the library. Please be sure to check what day and time your slot is. If a class misses their time slot, it’s not always easy to find another time. Also, If you know you can not come on your time/day let me know so it can be offered to another class. It might help to print this out and have a copy of your own.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zibbTjF6jaGPeWdlEJfIUqJIGbOBEcaM_4JMKHQsBXg/edit?usp=sharing
This Friday is the last day to turn in permission slips for the Ultimate Book Challenge. Please remind your students about the deadline. If you are interested in using one of the UBC books for a class read aloud, I have copies to give away.
There is a cart in the lounge, please take any books you can use. I will be adding books on a regular basis.
I’m available to sponsor a STS club if you have any students looking for a teacher sponsor.
I will send out info for the Literacy Pumpkin Patch soon. The Dollar Store has craft pumpkins that are perfect for this project. I bought 12 and gave them to Idalia, if you would like to purchase some to offer to your students, that would be wonderful.
Campus Reminders and Updates:
Quality Tools Posters: We are working to have these printed and laminated for you.
Digital Citizenship Lessons: The Digital Citizenship Courses are available in Moodle for you to begin using with your students. Jeremy will be sending out details on how to make sure you register for the courses so that you get credit for completing them. All lessons must be completed by the end of the first grading period. This is a campus expectation. https://moodle.nisdtx.org/course/search.php?search=digital+citizenship
Hall Preparation and Displays: Please make sure we are getting all hall displays completed. Also, please take time to review campus expectations with your students. We are leaders at Seven Hills Elementary. We take pride in our school. We do not tear things off the wall. We do not write on the walls, etc.
Annual Required Trainings:
Certain trainings for staff members are an annual requirement. In an effort to have employees well informed and to have them have the ability to access staff development at their own pace, the district has provided Annual Required Training eCourses in Moodle.
Please note that employees new to our district must complete the Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse and the Suicide Prevention Plan Review trainings BEFORE the first day of school. All other employees will need to complete the trainings by October 11.
A few helpful tips to make your training go smoothly:
1. Be sure you are logged into your NISD google account while in Moodle.
2. Read the directions in this link carefully, especially the steps on enrolling in the course.
A visual of the steps to enroll in your training can be seen in the image below.
Habit Huddle Connection:
Habit 5 is all about effective communication. How well do you listen before you respond or react...to your peers? to your students? your family members?
From The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey:
"Communication is the most important skill in life. You spend years learning how to read and write, and years learning how to speak. But what about listening? What training have you had that enables you to listen so you really, deeply understand another human being? Probably none, right?
If you're like most people, you probably seek first to be understood; you want to get your point across. And in doing so, you may ignore the other person completely, pretend that you're listening, selectively hear only certain parts of the conversation or attentively focus on only the words being said, but miss the meaning entirely. So why does this happen? Because most people listen with the intent to reply, not to understand. You listen to yourself as you prepare in your mind what you are going to say, the questions you are going to ask, etc. You filter everything you hear through your life experiences, your frame of reference. You check what you hear against your autobiography and see how it measures up. And consequently, you decide prematurely what the other person means before he/she finishes communicating. Do any of the following sound familiar?
"Oh, I know just how you feel. I felt the same way." "I had that same thing happen to me." "Let me tell you what I did in a similar situation."
Because you so often listen autobiographically, you tend to respond in one of four ways:
Evaluating:You judge and then either agree or disagree.
Probing:You ask questions from your own frame of reference.
Advising:You give counsel, advice, and solutions to problems.
Interpreting:You analyze others' motives and behaviors based on your own experiences.
Save the Date:
BIG KAHUNA FUNDRAISER CONTINUES!
Jean-Tober Begins! Woot Woot!
Monday, September 30:
- ILT MEeting; 3:30 Location TBA
- Kim and Tanya engaging in Goal Setting Conferences with Staff
- Flamingo Meeting in Gym immediately after dismissal
Tuesday, October 1:
- Grade Level PLCs
- Herr's Bridal Shower 3:30
- Due to the Bridal Shower, Action Teams need to find a time on your own to meet on or before next Tuesday, October 8. There are several teams with pressing items to discuss
Wednesday, October 2:
- National Custodial Worker's Day - What can your class or grade level do to show your appreciation?
- 1st and 2nd Writing Toolkit Prep Day
- Accountability Team Meeting, 3:15 - 3:45
- 4th and 5th Lunch and Learn: Math 3 Reads
- Wear stripe 7 Hills shirt and professional pants/skirt
Thursday, October 3:
- Kim and Tanya continue Goal Setting Conferences
- Parent Conferences, FLEX, 3:30 - 6:30
Friday, October 4:
- Round 1 Sharpen the Saw Clubs
- Kim, Tanya, Molly off campus morning only
- 3-5 Writing Toolkit Prep
- TTESS Appraisal Window Opens
- Positive Parent Phone Calls Due - turn logs in to Kim Blackburn
Happy Birthday to You:
Brenda Franks 10/3
Please Add This to Your Parent Communication:
Check Out the Latest Edition of the Campus Newsletter:
Last week we kicked off our campus fundraising event with Big Kahuna. We appreciate your support of this fundraising effort. All funds raised will support our Leader in Me initiative and reading incentives and programs this year. One of our main goals this year will be to add more books to classroom libraries, and some of the funds raised through this fundraiser will support this goal. You can read more about our campus goal, fundraising, campus events and the upcoming PTA Family Fun Night in the latest edition of the campus newsletter linked below. Thank you for your continued support of Seven Hills Elementary!
School Lunch Application Due October 1:
October 1st is the 2019 - 2020 Free & Reduced Application Deadline
If your children received free or reduced-priced meals last school year, they are automatically receiving the meal benefits for the first 30 days of the 2019-2020 school year. On October 1st, only students whose parents submitted a 2019 - 2020 application and qualified for the program, will receive free or reduced-priced meals.
At any time during the school year, you may apply for your children to receive free or reduced rate breakfast and lunch meals. If your household income changes or a new member joins your family, you may apply for the first time or reapply with the update information.
To apply online
· Go to http://northwestisd.schoollunchapp.com
· Please follow the application directions carefully so your application can be processed quickly. If you have more than one child attending NISD schools, combine their names on one application.
· A new application must be completed each school year.
· An application cannot be approved until all requested fields have been completed and signed by an adult household member.
· If your Pre-K child was automatically enrolled on the free and reduced program, your other children will NOT automatically be on the program. You must complete an application for all other children.
Paper applications are available at all schools or at the NISD Food Service Office.
If you have any questions, please contact the school office
PTA Reflections:
Entries are Due October 4:
21 Day Fitness Challenge:
Encourage your elementary student to snack healthy for 21 days. The 21-Day Challenge starts October 7th. Click on the link below and sign up today! You can also find healthy snack recipes created by schools from across North Texas, including our very own Byron Bistro. Every child who completes the 21-Day Challenge will receive a reward from Medical City Children's Hospital.
https://kids-teaching-kids.com/sign-up/
YouTube Link