Perkins Beat
December 10--14
Building Positive Relationships with Parents
Many educators enjoy the advantages of having positive parent relationships. These advantages include better academic results, better classroom behavior, positive classroom culture, reductions in stress and increases in job satisfaction. When educators take on the responsibility of working with a student, they are molding the hopes and dreams of an entire family. As educators, every student we work with is the most important thing in the world to somebody. Parents and Guardians trust us, so we must strive to build positive relations. This will help us to impact our students to the greatest extent.
Please read these three articles on the topic of parent – teacher relationships. Even those of us who are most skilled in this area can find room to grow.
20 Tips for Developing Positive Relationships with Parents https://www.edutopia.org/blog/20-tips-developing-positive-relationships-parents-elena-aguilar
Building Parent – Teacher Relationships http://www.readingrockets.org/article/building-parent-teacher-relationships
The Importance of Building Parent – Teacher Relationships https://www.readinghorizons.com/blog-roll/the-importance-of-building-parent-teacher-relationships
Formative Assessment and Feedback ……Did You Know?
Did you know that formative assessment has some of the greatest impact of all of the practices that we do in education? Did you also know the common practices around formative assessment are not necessarily good practice? That means that one of the most powerful tools at our disposal is often not utilized well. (Geoff Petty, 2014)
For us in Newark that means that we are not alone in improving our practices so that we can have greater impact with our students. We know that if we align our success criteria and formative assessment, we set ourselves up to be able to provide meaningful and connected feedback to our students and offer the opportunity for them to contribute to that feedback.
One way to do this is to provide a medal and a mission.
Medal: information about what you did well in terms of the goal
Mission: a specific target to improve work
As we self-reflect on our feedback practices here is one more did you know to keep in mind. Did you know that research shows that able students are often given medals without a mission….no stretch to keep them moving forward. Weaker students tend to get a mission without a medal….getting non specific acknowledgement such as I am proud of you instead of identifying what they specifically did well. (Geoff Petty, 2014)
“Never stop learning because life never stops teaching”
~author unknown
An athlete is never finished training. We expect doctors to continue to learn the latest life saving practices. We too are always learning and refining our practices.
Differentiating Instruction
Differentiating instruction is the process of matching students’ needs to the requirements for achievement. Differentiated instruction, recognizes students’ varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning, and interests. It provides different avenues for acquiring content, processing or making sense of ideas, and developing products so that each student can learn effectively. In other words, differentiating instruction helps all students reach their learning targets.
Learning targets should help teachers decide how and when to differentiate instruction. In principle, we support giving students choice and variety whenever possible. However, there are degrees to which choices matter for learning. The choices that matter most lie in the ways we deliver content to students, the ways students engage with the content, and the ways students make the content their own. The more directly a differentiation strategy leads to the learning target, the more important it is for learning.
The learning target is central to planning good differentiated instruction right from the beginning. It is the reference point toward which your observations and assessments of students’ readiness, interest & affect, and learning profile need to point for you to plan effective instruction for that specific content or skill.
THINGS TO NOTE THIS WEEK
Announcers for December: Mrs. Bittner's Friends
12/11
- Cookie exchange
- Names for little learnings due
- 1st Grade PLC 2:30
- Tier 1 MTG 8:10
- IST 9:00
- Tier 3 MTG 2:30
- CIC 3:15 HS
- PTA Holiday Shoppe and Movie Night in the Cafeteria 5:30
- 2nd Grade PLC 8:10
- Coaches 11:30
- District Safety Committee MTG 1:00 DO
- Kindergarten PLC 2:30
- Half Day for Students
- Staff Development
- CORE 10:30
Professional Development Day
On December 14th, we have a Half Day Release for UPK-5 for Professional Development. The schedule is below. Please note that any teachers who are currently involved in the Math MSP Grant work will have their own session that afternoon with U of R consultants in the High School LGI from 12:45-3:40. This leaves us with a smaller group of NTA members and TAs and Monitors who will follow the schedule in the boxes below which will all be held at Kelley School.
From 12:45-2:10, Grades 3-5 teachers/NTA members who are not part of Math MSP will work on a self-directed Schoology session that Aaron Sweet has set up. Information will be shared with them as to how to access, but they will be able to remain in their rooms, or perhaps access the Kelley Computer Lab as needed, to do this work.
From 12:45-2:10, UPK-2 teachers/NTA members who are not part of the Math MSP will work with Will Bean in Room 106 at Kelley School for a session on Seesaw. Please note that UPK-2 teachers/NTA members will need to bring an iPad with them to Kelley School for the session (please have them bring one from their classroom/your building and return it the next day).
From 12:45-2:10, any UPK-5 full day or afternoon TAs and Monitors will have a session in the Kelley School Gymnasium with Aaron Sweet on Microsoft 365. *Afternoon TAs may choose to adjust their start and end times (keeping their same total work hours) to accommodate being able to attend the full session as applicable. *TAs and monitors will be free from 2:10 until the end of their work day and may return to their specific schools to complete any work/tasks that you need. If it works better, they will also be able to stay at Kelley School in any of the locations listed (Computer Lab, Room 106 or the Gymnasium) to participate in any tasks that you may need and that they are able to bring materials with them to complete.
From 2:15-3:40, all UPK-5 NTA members who are not part of the Math MSP work will participate in the Cultural Humility follow up session in the Library at Kelley School.
K-5 Teachers participating in the MSP work will be at the HS LGI from 12:45-3:40.
12:45-2:10
2:15-3:40
· 3-5 Teachers/NTA members: Schoology Bootcamp (On Your Own in Your Classroom or in the Kelley Computer Lab using desktops)
· UPK-2 Teachers/NTA members: Seesaw with W. Bean (participants will need to bring an iPad for use) Kelley Room 106
· Full Day and Afternoon TAs & Monitors: Intro to Microsoft 365 with A. Sweet Kelley Gymnasium (Laptops will be provided)
· UPK-5 Teachers/NTA members: Cultural Humility with Kristin Hocker, Dena Swanson Kelley Library 106
Happy Birthday!
12/14 Michelle Renzi
12/17 Christine VanDemortel
12/18 Mandy Crowder
12/27 Rhonda Precourt
Duties
Walkers:
Stopfel
Bus:
Jandreau
Foyer:
Precourt
PM WALKER DUTY:
Ashburn, Puckett, Dewaters
BUS DUTY:
Faust, Bittner
REMINDER
Perkins School
Email: susan.achille@newarkcsd.org
Website: newarkcsd.org
Location: 439 West Maple Avenue, Newark, NY, United States
Phone: 315-332-3315
Twitter: @Newark_PS