News from the Nest
Week of October 30, 2017 Related Arts "C" Week
Vision
"Wendell Phillips 63 will establish a positive, engaging, and rigorous learning environment that allows each child to “SOAR to Excellence” as a member of the Cardinal Family."
Places to be!!!
Oct. 30- Lesson Plans Due in Google Drive (9:00 am)
Oct. 31- K-7 ELA PLC's
Nov. 1- K-7 Math PLC's
Nov. 2- PIVOT ELA Testing, Grades 3-7
Nov. 3- Jeans Day
General Need to Knows
Let's set that bar high and keep it there. My call to action last week when it comes to our behavioral expectations. We cannot allow our classroom management plans or school-wide expectations to slide backwards. Continue to teach, practice, reinforce, and repeat. Class Dojo dollars will be in your mailboxes by Monday morning for use as a tangible reinforcer for our students.
Every minute counts. Plan with this in mind to maximize your instruction. Look at where you can get time back- transitions, routines, handing out materials, etc. How are you creating the sense of urgency in your classroom without it becoming panic? Take a look at the article below about high yield practices that lead to building urgency in your classroom. What do you currently do? What might you change after reading the article?
Finally, we are in the season of mini observations! Between now and winter break, your evaluator will be completing two mini observations. These are 5-8 minutes in length. While this is not a long time in the room, we will be providing constructive feedback on your practices. We will be scoring Domain 3C for everyone, as well if you chose a specific domain and indicator for your personal goal.
Vision Aligned Thought Provokers
Positive classrooms: Behavior is something that needs to be taught, as we are all aware. We sometimes lose perspective on this...I have done this myself on several occasions. When we respond to behavioral issues in the classroom, we use restorative practices to drive our decision making when it comes to a consequence for the student's action. We need to teach the appropriate behaviors to our students, because many of them have not been taught. Check out the article below about restorative practices....more PD for you to come!
Engaging instruction: I have seen improvement in the engagement of our students. As I walk into classrooms, more students can tell me what they are working on and why. This tells me you are drilling the purpose of the lesson into students...and they are buying what you are selling! Keep up the good work, and continue to engage your students by setting goals and focusing on the instruction they need to meet those goals.
RIGOROUS Instruction: Speaking of goals- do your students know their current academic levels? If I were to walk into a classroom and ask a student what their reading level is, can they tell me? Can they show me through a student data folder? Below is a link about student data folders. Be prepared to discuss in PLC's this coming week.