Sunday Shakedown
Weekly Memo for Washington Elementary
Principal Post:
Thank yous, appreciations, and celebrations:
- Welcome to Kim Elliot our new SLE assistant
- Hoping we can welcome Amy Ardire back on Tuesday if all goes well with her recovery.
- Thanks to Kristian for saving the day several times when we needed someone to call cars. We really do hate to ask, but for those who always step in, we truly appreciate you.
- Well done to Jenna Mischelli for planning a terrific See You At the Pole event
- Thanks to KPD and all of you who worked over or came back for our Active Shooter drill. Your support and desire to keep our children safe is appreciated.
- Thanks to all involved with field day for flexibility and quick planning of alternative plans, Roger has made the theme an exciting new one! We will gather at 8:30 out front for an "opening ceremony" on Thursday.
- Once again, thanks to our wonderful assistants who have protected learning and kept school as normal as possible when a teacher is out
Week of September 24-28
Tailgate meal day in conference room
Student Support team meeting 11:45-3:30
Tuesday:
LCC and LCF RTI meeting
General PTA meeting at 7:00 pm
Wednesday:
PTA board meeting 9:15
Fall picture retakes
Wolf at principal's meeting after 10:00
Thursday:
Field day
SPDG grant cohort community of practice 3:00-5:00 (ASC)
Friday:
No school for students
Morning inservice at various locations, afternoon at GWES to be used for project planning, collaborative team meetings
Coming soon:
Scholastic book fair begins Oct 8, look for a sign up for a preview in the office.
Faculty meeting-Oct 8 Lead by Dr. Cate
October 11 Leadership team meeting
Storytelling group on a field trip October 11
FYI and Reminders:
As a reminder, time off directly before or after a school break must have superintendent approval. This should go through the principal. In addition, time off for personal reasons may be declined if more than 10% of staff is already scheduled to be off that day. Also remember, you have 1 hour or under of time during a day in which you can be out of the building without taking leave. This is a courtesy and should only be taken if you have coverage for your class by an assistant. You should not double up classes or request another teacher take your class. You should also notify and sign out in the office when this is a necessity. Calling Candice to record it for you is sufficient. Lastly, please remember to save personal time for your children's awards days, graduations,etc. You cannot attend these and get back to school within an hour. Although we want to be family friendly, in order to be equitable, you should adhere to these policies.
At the beginning of the school year, you attended a presentation by Sarah Good. You can access her ELL/WIDA Presentation Survey (Responses) in your Google Drive. If you have not taken the quiz to verify your training, please do so by October 5th. If you are a general education teacher who works with an ESL student or students, please complete the course survey found on the link below:
Social committee is "Booing people" again this year. If you find your mailbox holding a bucket with a treat, please refill and pay it forward to another staff member. Please check to person's name off the list. Also, last year, we planned for cross school partnerships to help us focus on levels of appreciation, that will continue this year.
The principals are preparing to have a discussion on field trips. As nursing responsibilities will keep them from traveling as much, we will need to plan ahead. In an effort to consider what trips are valuable and provide the most support for learning/child development, I would like you to complete a simple survey, please respond by Wednesday. The link is here.
Certified staff observations have begun. To ensure that all staff are prepared for the changes in the planning view of the rubric, administrators and InDes have taken your input and created guiding questions for you to reflect upon and be ready to address in pre-conferences during an observation that uses the planning rubric. These questions are attached below and are also in the GWES Team Drive.
Please note the following things in relation to these questions:
- You may not be asked ALL of the questions, these are just a bank of questions that principals and associates will use to guide the conversation either before or after the classroom observation.
- You do NOT need to write down the answers to the questions. You should be able to articulate answers to all of them, but you don't need written responses to any of them when you come to your pre/post conference.
- Related arts will have a separate set of questions that will come out for you to work with later this week. I will NOT be observing any related arts teachers until you also have time to review and prepare for the bank of questions that are connected to your content.
- Counselors and Librarians will need to speak to how their lessons are connected to year long programming goals or broader concepts taught through out the year. You both have different rubrics than teachers and Leigh Anne and I will be working off the planning rubric that is attached to your specific positions.
- If you have questions or are in need of clarification please ask. This process is very important to our effort to grow and develop our craft in the name of success for students.
There are lots of great things happening here at Washington and the observation process helps us continue to grow to meet the needs of our students during instruction. We hope that these questions will be another layer of support as you reflect on your practice as an educator.