Holy Cross Staff Memo
Monday, January 28, 2019
Registration is starting soon!
1. Please do not make a point of asking your kids in class about who are and are not returning to Holy Cross and squelch conversation about this in class. However, DO report information you hear about this so that we know how to handle financial matters with the family. For example, if we know a child is not returning, different tactics may be used for collections.
2. KEEP YOUR ROOMS VISIT READY. Parents will come and will want tours and to visit classrooms. Some of your rooms are definitely not ready for visitors. Have this taken care of by the Feb. 19 and then be mindful of this going forward.
3.. If you have a child in your class who you feel should not be invited back to Holy Cross, please send me an email and give specific reasons. This is a recommendation. Sometimes there are other things going on in the background that you may not be aware of.
MAP testing update
We are almost done, hang in there.
As soon as we finish the classes, we will go back and retest all of the kids who are missing an entire test (or 2) as one large group, then we will allow the kids who did not finish, finish their test. The system is set up so that only one test session can be live at one time, so we have to work around this.
MAKE SURE THAT LIST ALL OF YOUR MISSING KIDS ON THE GOOGLEDOC.
IF YOU HAVE STUDENTS WHO DID NOT FINISH THE TEST, PUT THEM ON THE GOOGLEDOC.
When we are done, I will print reports. Your responsibility is:
1. Looking at your students growth in comparison to what their growth should have been. The predicted growth assume that the student in keeping pace but is not losing ground or making any gains. Did they grow more than predicted (making gains) , or less than expected (they are losing ground). Interventions must be made for those students who are losing ground.
2. 3rd-8th grade - you must update KHAN academy Mappers with the students new numbers so that they can be corrected placed in the test.
3. You should have a 2-3 minute conference with every student, showing them where they are now and setting goals for the next test.
Recommending students for summer school and retention
THE DEADLINE WAS FRIDAY. NOT EVERYONE COMPLETED THIS TASK. THIS MUST BE DONE BY TOMORROW, NO EXCEPTIONS. Understand that if you did not give me this information, you are holding me up from doing my job.
Bear in mind that these are your recommendations at this point. Final decisions will be made in the 4th quarter.
1. Students who may need to go to summer school, based on grades, test scores (MAP) and teacher's observations.
2. Students who may be to be retained (it is understood by me that they are low and if they are not retained they will go to summer school)
KNOW WHAT APPROPRIATE GRADE LEVEL EXPECTATIONS ARE especially for younger students. This is very different than DESIRED EXPECTATIONS. For example, we would love for every child entering first grade to be reading somewhat, and that is a desired expectation. However, it is not an appropriate grade level expectation because not all incoming first graders will be ready to read.
Grading and Renweb Issues ( repeating this again)
So, once again with gusto:
Grades must be put in WITHIN 3 DAYS of any assignment or test. Only exception to this would be term papers or other larger projects that take additional time. Those need to be done within ONE WEEK.
There must be at least TWO GRADES PER WEEK in all CORE CLASSES and at least ONE GRADE PER WEEK in non-core classes.
There was a lot of conversation about Grade 1 thru 5 are figuring out conduct and effort grades. To be clear, you must input one grade per week using whatever apparatus you are using to determine conduct grades. I will be changing the 4th-5th grade gradebooks this week to reflect the new system.
LESSON PLANS must be done by Monday for the week. Lesson plans need to give enough information that a parent, substitute teacher or anyone else who looked at them would be able to understand and follow along.
If you are scheduling a test or other long-term project, you cannot just put it in once and forget about it. It does not carry over. Put in reminders.
100th Day of School
Children's Trust visit
Orderly dismissal and transition from teacher to OOS staff is paramount.
5th grade students in praise group should go to Matthew at 3:00
We will let you know about track.
Yearbook
Gala
Please be working on your baskets. Put the theme on the googledoc.
Baskets are due on February 25th.
Parent(s) can sponsor your ticket, either in whole or in part. The cost is $100 per ticket.
If we have extra sponsorships, we will distribute the funds in a fair manner among teachers who do not have a sponsorship and plan to attend.
Please invite others that you know and if you have contacts in businesses, please try to get silent auction items. Everyone knows someone who can donate something.
Karega's company will sponsor the STEP AND REPEAT. Thank you.
On the day of the Gala (March 1) there is no school except for 3 hours of VPK. (sorry, we could not change the schedule). All hands are expected to be on deck with Gala preparations both here and at the site.
Rummage Sale coming soon
Nathan and Roslyn are planning this. Donations will be accepted and in addition, you can rent a table for $25 and sell your own things. Please see Roslyn if you want to rent a table. More info to follow about how and when donations can be brought in and where they should go.
If you see something on the stage that you may be interested in, please see Roslyn.
Do not take anything off of the stage without doing this.