December 4, 2017
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
Seven Hills is Managing the Whirlwind and Focusing on the Wildly Important!
Literacy and Math Connecting the Whirlwind to the Wildly Important!
I want to thank Meredith, Jamie, and Hayley for the their leadership last week. I heard positive feedback from several about the professional learning to help us make literacy and math connections...ultimately connecting the whirlwind to the wildly important. Everyone needs to take a few minutes this week to reflect on your learning from Thursday and post your comments on our campus professional learning blog linked below.
7 Hills Leads Blog: http://7hillsleads.blogspot.com/
Note About Professional Learning: The reflections on our blog are part of our campus ongoing professional learning and support T-TESS dimension 4. Thank you for your engagement.
8 Full Days of Instruction...So Much Can Happen in 8 Full Days!
In order to meet our campus end of year proficiency standard in reading, we must be paying careful attention to the MOY goal! Knowing that Christmas slide is just as real as summer slide, we need to push students to meet WIGS and be at their MOY goal before break. To ensure that we reach this goal, these things need to continue to occur over the next 8 Days:
- Guided reading groups happen daily. Should a schedule change impact your day, make sure you are finding time to meet with your struggling readers every day.
- Students should be taking home books to read daily. Remember, Homework Hub is open on Tuesday and Thursday mornings if there are students who need to read to an adult. I strongly encourage you to send extra books home and promote logging for Speeding to Read over the break.
- Students should have the opportunity to write every day. This could be in reading, writing, or even math, science, or lead time (if connected to a WIG).
- LEAD Time happens 3-4 days a week. Don’t forget to track progress on the classroom scoreboard. I have noticed that in most of the classrooms I visit, these scoreboards are not being completed. How can you make this a student job?
- Students should have the opportunity to complete weekly Lexia minutes, and should be tracking progress on a scoreboard. Teachers need to be checking the home screen to make sure that students are progressing through the units as well as completing the minutes. You will be using Lexia data on January 8. The next 14 days should give a good amount of time for students to progress through units and develop more authentic recommended minutes. Remember, you can also encourage students to practice with Lexia at home over the break. The minutes completed at home do not count toward weekly minute goals.
While our campus goal is focused on literacy, we simply cannot forget about the whirlwind over the next 3 weeks. Remember, we have proficiency standards for math too! When determining where you may be able to give and get a little more time, do not take time away from math instruction or the problem solving block. When planning math instruction and intervention, the following need to be considered:
- Problem solving block needs to be occurring regularly to apply the math skills learned during the instructional block/guided math block. This may be a great time to introduce the 3 act problems you learned today as a fun way to engage students in thinking critically.
- Students need to be writing in math at least once a week, working on moving from explanations to justification.
- LEAD Time should happen 3-4 days a week, which would be a great opportunity for students to engage in Think Through Math (3-5).
- 3-5 Students should be completing lessons in Think Through Math. I encourage you to send communication to parents to have students log-in to TTM over the break for practice.
- Students should be spiral reviewing skills and working on computational/fact fluency. I strongly encourage you to send home practice with students on this over the break.
When thinking about WIGs for the 3rd grading period…Make sure you are planning for end of grading period assessments or progress checks on WIG achievement before the break. The end of the grading period is December 22. We look forward to celebrating student success on the 21st and 22nd! What a WONDERFUL way to send students off for the break! Please note that this assessment data will be used on January 8, and will also help you develop new WIGs and Lead Measures for the 4th grading period.
I want you to know that while I do have high expectations for quality instruction and intervention to continue to take place, I am not suggesting you remove all opportunities for a little fun. Choose wisely. Remember, the more consistent the routines, the more engaged students will be. Most importantly, I want to make sure you have the support you need to meet these expectations. Please let me know how my team can support you best. Hayley, Leslie, Jen and I are here for YOU! YOU are our WILDLY IMPORTANT!
Lexia:
UPDATE: I know some have expressed a concern about the fidelity of completion when used at home. You do not have to share the log-in steps. And, remember...the required minutes must be completed at school. Anything done at home would be in addition to the required weekly minutes.
Lexia Logging in at Home:
WIGs, Lead Time, Scoreboards, and Celebration Boards:
Thank you for all your work celebrating student success! We are definitely seeing a shift in student motivation to reach their goals the more that we celebrate their successes. This week find time to recognize something great with EVERY student. This could be a simple “Look at that great leader walking on a zero in the hall.” or “Thank you Kim for sitting in your seat during work time!” The more we add to students emotional bank accounts, the more motivated they will be to continue those positive behaviors and intentional actions. We have had many student reaching their WIGs already this grading period!!! Remember that our grade level WIG success trackers are in your grade level Student Accountability Document in the WIG tab. Simply type the word “Yes” in the 3rd GP box next to their name. You don’t have to wait until the end of the 3rd Grading Period to update this document. Be proactive and update with each celebration.
- Are student WIGs winnable and worthy?
- Are WIGs written in the "from x to y by when" format?
- Are lead measures predictive and influencable? Will work on this task or activity predict success with the goal? Do all students have one lead measure they are influencing specifically? For tier 2 and 3 students, are the teacher influencable lead measures included in the WIG?
- Is LEAD time happening at least 3-4 times per week, providing students an opportunity to put first things first and work on lead measures? Are you tracking progress with LEAD time on the class scoreboard?
- Are students consistently tracking progress on their lead measure scoreboards?
- Are students updating scoreboards regularly?
- Has your grade level team reflected on the grade level public scoreboard feedback and made the necessary adjustments? It was communicated to Lighthouse Team Members and ILT Members that any adjustments should be made by Monday, November 27.
Have students selected a celebration or work that is a point of pride from the 2nd grading period to showcase on celebration boards? Have students written or recorded a response stating why their work is a point of pride? Please makes sure that the work displayed reflects high quality work. The celebration board purpose and expectations document is linked here for your reflection. We will walk these boards as an ILT and LHT, providing feedback to grade levels. https://docs.google.com/a/nisdtx.org/document/d/10yaKU67RIHzl3pabsDAms8RXKcj1K19zFc8Kx02zOBU/edit?usp=sharing
And, an important reminder...we can only focus on the wildly important when the whirlwind is running effectively and efficiently. Time, effort, and energy must be given to the whirlwind...the day to day tasks, classroom management, teaching the 7 Habits, and most importantly the core content.
Aligning Academics Professional Learning:
4Dx With Staff:
- Have you posted all of your reflections on the blog? http://7hillsleads.blogspot.com/
- We will move into part 2 of the book next. Read pages 105 - 117 by December 6. Continue reading part 2, as we will use in PD and post on the blog in January.
Note About Professional Learning: The reflections on our blog are part of our campus ongoing professional learning and support T-TESS dimension 4. Thank you for your engagement.
4Dx With Students:
- Don’t forget these awesome 4DX readers theaters from The Leader in Me Website. This will help students see the connection between their work on their WIGs and the scoreboards! :) If you haven’t already shared these with students, this week during Habit Huddle would be great! https://theleaderinmeonline.org/en/student-learning/readers-theater.html
Habit Focus for the Week: Habit 6: Synergize
Wonder
Precept for the Week: Nothing will work unless you do. - Maya Angelou
If your students write reflections about the weekly precept, please place on the counter by the phone for announcements.
Speeding to Read:
Our campus Wildly Important Goal is that all students will meet or exceed end of year expectations in reading. In order to reach this goal, Seven Hills Leaders need to be reading every day! For Turns 2, 3 and 4, the minimum goal is 25 books per turn for Kindergarten–2nd-grade students and six (6) chapter books for 3rd–5th-grade students.
We encourage students to set high goals and read over the minimum number of books each turn. We had many students read over the minimum and we’d like even more this time! Turn 2 ends THIS WEEK...on Tuesday, December 12! Make sure your students are logging all of the books they read! Please remind parents of the importance of reading every night and logging their books.
Note: Each turn starts over with the count of books. The books read in turn 1 do not count in turn 2.
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
Latest Edition of the C&I Newsletter: https://www.smore.com/aefhd
Take a look at the highlights from November’s Edition of teaching children mathematics. There are several problem solving ideas, games and other math activities in this issue! Check it out! Q will barcode it and you can check it out! Questions! Ask Hayley!
There are several CBA’s coming up. Please make sure you are looking at the dates window for your CBA and the dates for scanning data in as well! Please let Hayley know if you have any questions! :)
Duty...Please make sure you are on time to all duty assignments.
Habit Huddle: teachers and staff without homeroom classes, please make sure you are going to your assigned classrooms for Habit Huddle every day.
Recess Monitoring: Staff on duty at recess MUST actively monitor all areas of the playground. One staff member needs to be monitoring the field and another needs to be monitoring the playground and blacktop. The best places to stand are down by the backstop, between the chickens and the backstop, and at the top of the hill on the backside of the playground. If you have three staff members, the third staff member can stand on the blacktop side of the playground. Thank you for your active monitoring to ensure student safety.
Students need to check the lost and found.
New changes to STAAR! ALL students are now allowed to use both a dictionary and thesaurus on both the reading and writing STAAR tests!!! WooHoo! In order to make sure we have enough supplies for testing days, ALL teachers please complete the following form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeYFemNFDEpERL4pWW9I9S5zBLW87Vt53GvzKFSfcSzpo0XAw/viewform
7 Hills Staff Holiday Party:
Join us to celebrate with the entire Seven Hills Staff! on Thursday, December 14!
Here are some details about our staff Christmas party on December 14th.
- We will have a table decorating contest. Each group will decorate an octagon table right after school in the cafeteria. There will be awards given out so get creative! Everyone will be grouped as follows: Kinder, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, Sped, Specials, Pre-K & PPCD, Admin(Russell, Blackburn, Sample, Q & Jen), Office Staff (Dora, Lecia, Wilma & Joy), Specialists(GT, Reading Recovery, Star, Speech, Diag) & Café/Janitorial.
- Also, for those that want to participate, we will be having an ornament exchange. The ornament should cost between $8-10. Please bring these wrapped for our exchange game.
- In the lounge, there will be a sign sheet for everyone to sign up to bring either a sweet or salty snack or beverages. Please know that we will be providing snacks for about 80 with all the staff kids joining us.
- Faculty members with children, we will be providing a craft, activity book and movie for the kids during the party. They will be able to eat with us as well.
Please contact a Lighthouse Team member if you have any questions.
Save the Date:
Habit Focus: Habit 6: Synergize
- LHT Meeting, 3:30
- NISD School Board Meeting, 6:30 pm - Kim Blackburn will accept an NISD Partners in Education plaque honoring the new partnership with a local company. The company has gifted $2,500 this year and has promised $5,000 next year in support of The Leader in Me programs and activities.
- Grade Level PLCs
- Speeding to Read Turn 2 Ends
- Kim, Leslie, Hayley off campus at Leadership Team
December 13:
- Math Planning with Math Coaches
- Speeding to Read Turn 3 Begins and Turn 2 Results due
December 14:
- Staff Christmas Party
December 15:
- SST E
- CTMS Holiday Fine Arts Tour, 9:45 Gym
- Sharpen the Saw Clubs
Mark Your Calendars:
- Spelling Bee moved to December 20
- TLIM Training Opportunity for ILT, Campus Leadership, and Lighthouse Team on December 18 and 19. More details to come.
Happy Birthday to You: