Holmes Weekly Update
Week Ending 4/26/19
What's Happening this Week?
Monday: 4/22/19 - BAS Window Opens - Be sure to start testing
- Ad Leadership - Christine out of the building 10:30
Tuesday: 4/23/19
- Service Team Meetings
- NBCT Cohort Meetings: Section A - Mann Media Center 3:45-5:45
Wednesday: 4/24/19
- Hawk' Nest 8:30-9:30 - See Lesson Plan Below
- District-wide Grade level team meetings 3:00-4:00
Thursday: 4/25/19
- MTSS Meetings (See Schedule Below)
- Some Staff - LIM Visit - Kipling school 9:00-11:15
- BLT 3:15-4:15
Friday: 4/26/19
- Problem Solving Meetings 8:15-11:15
This Week's Announcements: Information Item
This week's parent Update: Information Item
Please feel free to copy/paste any portion to include in your weekly/monthly communication.
Hawks' Nest Lesson: Information Item
Coaching Corner - April - Information Items
8 weeks and counting...
Student-Centered Coaching
How can I utilize my instructional coach in
the last few weeks of school?
As this year comes to a close and a new school year quickly approaches, remember that you have a coach, colleague, and friend available to work with you to create the classroom of your dreams!
I know we are ALL busy, so I’ll share a quick pep talk to get us going strong!
I don’t have time in my schedule to meet?
•Planning for your students is something that you do every day. Why not have a thought partner to help with the workload?
I am a veteran, experienced teacher. I don’t need coaching.
•2 heads together are better than one… 1+1=3. Synergize. We are all still learning.
We only have a few weeks left of school and there are a lot of other events going on.
•End of year events do take up a lot of our time, but our students are still craving a challenging and engaging workload. Let’s work together to help them reach their goals.
Some of my students are still not “getting it”. The year is almost over and there is not enough time to catch them up.
• Let’s brainstorm “third alternatives” for student engagement, behavior, or grade level standards. Synergizing will help students WIN
PBIS Update: Information Items
Town Hall Meetings - Thank you to all who participated in our Town Hall Meetings so far, what a huge hit and an eye-opening experience! Students were engaged in the data and excited about the opportunity. Your PBIS team will be reviewing the student feedback and deciding as a team what our next steps are. One of the big takeaways was that students would like to know when they are getting a referral, please communicate that to students going forward.
Hawks Cafe - Our very own student leadership team spoke out about some changes they would like to see in the Hawks Cafe. We are going to try and run the lunchroom with NO MICROPHONE. Please have a conversation with your class about this and
Tier 1 Walkthroughs - As a reminder, a PBIS team member and an Administrator will be coming through your classroom to do a Tier 1 walkthrough sometime in the upcoming weeks. This is simply to collect data to drive our work as a community in building up our Tier 1 systems and routines. This is non-evaluative, we are not collecting teacher names nor grade levels, simply looking at the environment and systems in place to drive our work.
Multicultural Parade: Information and Action Item
Please talk this up with your students and parents!!! We'd love to have a strong Holmes showing!
Please be sure to highlight our participation in your weekly newsletters.
Tweets of the Week
Pop-Up PD - Upcoming Events - Information Item
Our talented HolmesHawks have developed some exciting and relevant Pop-Up PD sessions.
Here is our list of upcoming events:
5/8 - Teach Like a Champion Book Study
Mark you Calendar for These Important End of School Events - Information and Action Item
Book Swap - June 3
Kindergarten Tribute to Excellence - June 4
5th Grade Completion Ceremony - June 5
Olympic Day - June 6
Last Day of School - June 6
BAS: Norming our Practices! - Action Item
Here are some of the most important points that were discussed at our BAS norming lunch and learn.
Keep testing to the HIGHEST INSTRUCTIONAL LEVEL, especially if a student is not meeting expectations If a student skips a line- prompt them to go back and correct, if they don’t it is 1 error for each word skipped If a student is Independent at one level, but hard at the next- it is your discretion to mark their "recommended level"- Suggestion is to mark it as the level that was hard If you don’t have more current data, Start testing at the NEXT LEVEL UP from where they were last benchmark - if it is hard- you do not have to retest the level from winter
Problem Solving Meetings: Action Item
We meet every other Friday. Here are our upcoming meeting dates for the remainder of the year:
May 10
May 24
Ed Hartman will be our sub for these meetings and he will cover your class while we meet and problem solve.
Leader in Me Weekly: Action Item
It's always great to be reminded of previous habits and bring them to the forefront. Please remind your students of this one:
Think Win-Win
Highly Effective Practices
Build your Emotional Bank Account with others
Have an abundance mentality
Balance courage and consideration
Consider other people’s wins as well as your own
Create Win-Win Agreements
Race in Oak Park: Action Item
Has taken the implicit bias quiz on your to-do list but you haven't taken it yet. Set taking this quiz as a goal for this week.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/
How is your 30-day plan going? Be sure to discuss and share with your team at your PLC meetings.
Staff Shout Outs - Action Item
Holmes School Mission
Keeping the End in Mind - This is our end in mind and our plan to get there.
Vision:
Create a positive learning environment for all District 97 students that is equitable, inclusive and focused on the whole child.
Mission:
At Holmes School our mission is to:
establish positive relationships by celebrating differences and embracing diversity
engage students in equitable learning experiences
empower students to be proactive, collaborative leaders
prepare students to be successful lifelong learners and productive citizens