Wednesday Words
September 19-26, 2018
Nurture-Personalize-Engage-Succeed
New Prospect Elementary School Staff Notes
I'm so glad Diana replaced those boxes with a rug!
College Pride!
Heather hard at work leading PLCs!
Staff Spotlight
This week our staff spotlights are on our amazing CSTs Heather Welch and Diana Zarzour. Both of these ladies understand the challenges of teaching in an ever-evolving system. They work hard to stay ahead of the game so they know how to best support you.
Diana is passionate about math education. She began growing her own expertise in the classroom using the Math in Practice books to help her understand the standards and how to help students when they don’t understand a concept. She is constantly searching for new tools and resources that can take the burden off of teachers. She grills a mean burger too!
Heather is focusing on increasing our student’s reading and writing abilities specifically by supporting you with implementing the Reading and Writing Units of Study with fidelity. There is a lot of information built into these texts and it can be overwhelming. Heather is developing a plan to tackle this piece by manageable piece. She also had spent hours unpacking, sorting and organizing the new science materials and is our student placement guru.
Both of them have also been teaching on Brain Building days and will be tailoring these lesson to STEM standards on which students need additional support.We are so grateful to have both of these ladies supporting our work!
ACTION ITEMS:
1. All 3rd-5th grade homeroom teachers-e-mail Stephanie Haga by October 4 with a the DRC Insight status on all student computers (see below)
2. Submit Updated Transportation Rosters to Cindy Heibel
3. Check to make sure you are up to date with RTI (see below)
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK
Happy 40th! (Printed with permission :)) to Brandy Davis on 9/20!!!
Janet Boyce 9/26
UPCOMING EVENTS
September 19th - Welch meets with Grade Levels during planning -RUOS/WUOS
September 19th-Balance Night!
September 20th-TKES Pre-conference Meetings
September 20th - Special Ed Dept Meeting in collab. room @2:45
September 20th-PAWS PD in Alterman's Room
September 20th-PTA Spirit Night at Bruster's
September 21st-Amy Out
September 21- Social at Chuey's
September 24th-Leadership 2:45
September 25th-Staff Meeting 2:45-4
September 28th-Pops, Pizza & Hoops
October 5th- Workday
October 8th-No School-Holiday
October 9th-RFF Day
IOWA Prep
Action Item!
All 3-5 homeroom teachers, please ask your students to click on the DRC Insight Icon on their Chromebooks to ensure that the program will open. Please make note of any computers that do not have the icon (see picture above) or on which it will not open and e-mail this list to Stephanie Haga by October 4th. If all of your computers are checked and work fine, please e-mail Stephanie and let me know all of yours are working.
RTI Reminder
Please ensure that you have completed the following for all students in RTI:
- Language Checklist (if ESOL/EIP complete with input from those teachers)
- Skills Inventory
- RTI Plan - turn into Christina
- Progress monitoring on Fastbridge
If students are tiered for behavior, please remember to complete the SAEBRS, MySAEBRS, and enter progress monitoring on fastbridge by the end of this week.
If you are following the flowchart from the RTI training, you would be notifying parents/Christina/Diana prior to bringing a student up for RTI. This includes all referrals to EIP. Please let Diana or Christina know if you have any questions about these steps.
ESOL/Reading Interventions: Please note that if a student is in K-3 and is pulled for ESOL services, the language development program they use does NOT count as a reading intervention. If you have any questions about what intervention to use/ how to do it in your room please contact Diana Z.
Update Transportation Rosters!-Action Item
Lesson Plan Requirements
Lesson Plans
Daily lesson plans should be prepared by each teacher. Lesson plans should be completed per TKES components, and be based on grade level/content standards.
NPE teachers will need to have lesson plans available whenever asked. You may design your own lesson plan template as long as it includes the required components.
All plans should include the following:
1) Georgia Standard for Excellence (GSE) if you are focusing on the same standard all week then put it in a box right above the plans for that subject. No need to retype or copy it over and over. Please just list the one standard that you are focusing on.
2) RUOS/ WUOS (Reading and Writing Units of Study)
Mini Lesson session: (Book #, Lesson #) If lesson notes are within the books (sticky notes, highlighting, paraphrasing, etc.) then please just note to refer to that book and lesson pages. If it is not in the book, then please type the following paraphrases out in your lesson plans.
Connection
Teaching Point
Teach
Active Engagement
Link
*Small Group/Individual Instruction does not need to be written in your lesson plans, however, this planning needs to be available upon request
3) Math
Problem of the Day/Number Talk: Specifically, what routines or problems will students be doing?
Mini Lesson: Standard
Concept or Learning Goal
Brief Description
Please Consider Do You have Engaging Strategies Built In? (How will you maximize the number of students participating throughout the lesson?)
Math Stations: Name of Activity
Please consider, Do you have a Learning Goal for Each Station?
Formative Assessment: What formative assessment will students be asked to complete as a reflection of the learning goals?
News from the Media Center
The Media Center is on the shared drive: Look for FCS instructions re: classroom video usage, principal’s movie/video approval form, parent’s movie/video approval form, directions for FCS Guest password login, and info about teacher’s digital citizenship PD requirements.
Digital Citizenship for Teachers: If you are on TKES, you must complete digital citizenship PD by Oct. 31. This does not replace your PAWS PD requirement. Please see the attachment for the how to’s.
Teacher iPads
Teachers, if you are not using your teacher iPad, could you turn it in to the Media Center so that a K-2 student could use it? Also, if you are new and want a teacher iPad, please contact Cecilia Bercher.