Maude Saunders Newsletter
Week of November 19, 2019
At Maude Saunders, we are...
One School
One Team
with One Mission:
EXCELLENCE A+
Goals:
- Have a positive mindset each day toward students, parents, & staff.
- Build team efficacy through collaboration.
- Create a school culture reflecting excellence in ourselves and our students.
- Build cognitive capacity in our students through high expectations.
Mission & Vision:
To be a place where all students succeed and achieve to their maximum potential with a curriculum that is a dynamic response to each student's needs.
Vision:
Maude Saunders Elementary School will create and sustain a school climate that encourages student success.
IN THE SPOTLIGHT - 4th & 5th Grade Teams
ONE TEAM: Goal 2 - Build team efficacy
I am so proud of our 4th and 5th Grade Teams! In spite of challenges they have faced so far this school year, they have overcome through coming together and making adjustments and individual sacrifices for the betterment of their students and our school. Please join me in recognizing and thanking them for their dedication to EXCELLENCE.
Thank you!
Katy Dahl, Shannon Morrison, Stormy Overby, Tamara Graham, Katie Baur, Beverly Smigielski, Ashanti Kee, & Sarah Infinger
Thought for the Week - Let's Celebrate the improvements in our STAR Scores!
Differentiated Accountability: We are proudly educating 542 future leaders.
Preventing and Solving Discipline Problems - We will be exploring behavioral strategies each week, including how to deal with challenging students.
Mrs. Smigielski's Classroom Tip of the Month:
Shake it up:
Yes..shake up your classroom routine on occasion. Students need structure and routine, but even the best strategies need to be shaken up a bit. Students become comfortable with each other after a few weeks we begin to see "sibling" behavior. Students begin to act like brothers and sisters and we see more acting out with each other in particular. One way to change the dynamics in the classroom is to change things up. New seating arrangements (I change them monthly) can change the dynamics a bit. It also allows students the opportunity to establish new connections with students they don't gravitate toward.
Try a "backwards" day. Begin with the last thing in your routine...such as writing in planners or reading a story first thing. Have a music intro...or put on smartboard a photo of an everyday item magnified...there are great ones on the internet and have students "guess" what it is.
The idea is just to shake things up on occasion when things begin to get "stale". It helps change the mindset a bit of the students...but also you as you try to come up with ways to "shake up your classroom"..
INSTRUCTIONAL FOCUS - Deliberate Practice
Baseline Edge has been rolled over to the 2019-20 School Year! Go ahead and type in your Deliberate Practice for the 19-20 SY. I will be scheduling a 30 minute block of time with each of you to finalize your Deliberate Practice and complete a Domain 1 Walk-through (Lesson Planning). I will send you the date we will be meeting when I have it on the calendar.
What to bring to the meeting? Lesson Plan Book
How will the meeting look?
- I will have Baseline Edge open on my computer.
- You will log into Baseline Edge on another computer.
- We will review your Deliberate Practice Goals and Progress Points and make any revisions at that time.
- You will sign your DP and I will sign your DP
- Once the DP is complete, we will look at your lesson plans together.
PLEASE NOTE: All teachers new to MSE this year does not have access to Baseline Edge at this point. I will be emailing a Deliberate Practice form to you so we can go ahead and complete our Deliberate Practice for this school year.
Professional Development Updates
Who: All 5th Grade Math Teachers – Geometry
What: Grade 5 and Secondary Math PD
When: December 5 from 8am-3pm
Where: CHAT Center (555 Walton Road, DeFuniak Springs, FL 32433)
Top 10 Achievement Boosters For Students ©2016 Eric Jensen
5. SPACED LEARNING
WHAT THIS MEANS: In general, the longer you stretch out learning (vs. bunch it up into less time), the better quality the learning. At UCSD, lead researcher Dr. Hal Pashler and colleagues have studied this for years (Cepeda, et al, 2008; Cepeda et al, 2009). They have done action research studies in real classes to show the power of this strategy. This process has a robust 0.71 effect size, yet it is routinely ignored. Research suggests that the best ratio for new learning is about 50% content and 50%of the time for processing (Russell, Hendricson, & Herbert, 1984). There are many easy ways to make this happen.
HOW TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN: Conceptually, the easy way to understand and embed this path is to think, “10-80-10.” That means you might invest 10% of your time IN ADVANCE of your unit to prepare the learners. Use pre-exposure with introductory videos, cues, gathering background information, finding out what students want to learn, using advance organizers and a pre-quiz. Then invest only 80% (vs. 100%) of your time during the unit on the content. Why 80%? Each chunk of time you allocated for a unity must allow for time to be adding in the 10% from the last unit and adding the 10% for the next unit. This effectively stretches or spaces the learning out over a much longer. After you finish the 80%, then stretch the unit another 10% into the next unit. Use mind maps to tie it into the new content (or the last few months). Have students submit review Qs to develop simple partner practice. Let students work as a team to prepare a new quiz once a week for 3 more weeks. The main rule is, “Keep the content alive longer.”
From the desk of our own Krisy Spence
As parents of students at a Title 1 school, our students’ families have certain rights, including:
- The right to be involved and request regular meetings to express opinions and concerns
- The right to be provided information on their child’s level of achievement
- The right to receive information on the qualifications of their child’s teacher
- The right to preview district report cards and provide feedback on their content
As a Title 1 school, MSE ensures each parent’s rights are met.
Math Tips from Mrs. Lathinghouse
Planning Exit Ticket:
- Always assign the Exit Ticket. This will help you determine how to plan for the next lesson.
- Bottom line: Pay attention to the standards and skills they require from students in each lesson.
Ask yourself “What part of the Exit Ticket is my focus?” and “How will it help me plan for the next day?” You only need to score the main part of the Exit Ticket, not the entire thing (you choose what the main part is – the skill you absolutely want them to understand). Students should still attempt the entire Exit Ticket, but you, the teacher, may only need to look at one question to determine understanding.
- When scoring student tickets, make 3 piles – got it, getting there, don’t have it. Remember, you’re only looking at the question(s) you determined to be necessary for next steps.
I will be at MSE all day on Monday (11/18).
Important Information
- November Faculty Meeting Cancelled: In lieu of having a faculty meeting, we are having a Christmas Decorating Social.
- December Faculty Meeting: Please change the December Faculty Meeting to Tuesday, December 4th at 3:00. The SIP Goal Committee Meeting has been changed to December 10th.
- Review Proposed Standards: In a Just Read, Florida! presentation yesterday, they boiled the most significant proposed changes in the new standards to the items listed below. Please review the standards and submit feedback through this link: https://www.floridastandardsreview.org/
- Skyward: Anyone that has submitted TDE into Skyward must upload an attachment (agenda, email requesting you attend, etc.). If you did not do this, please go back and upload your attachment. NOTE: You do NOT have to submit TDE into Skyward for trainings we have on our campus. This was just clarified at my Principals' Meeting. So for our Data Chats, you do NOT have to upload an attachment.
- Comp Time: Please do NOT enter comp time for Faculty Meetings. Loveta will enter Faculty Meeting Comp Time into Skyward for all that attend. If you leave early, make sure you write the time you leave by your name. Also, please remember that comp time must be pre-approved. For parent meetings, please upload an attachment to indicate the time-frame in which the conference was held.
- Lesson Plans: Please make sure your lesson plans are on your desk and accessible each day. I may need to refer to them when doing a walk-through.
- FOCUS: Please keep your grades updated and make sure your grades are standards-based and you have the correct number of grades per the SPP.
- Parent Communication: How are the positive phone calls home progressing?
- Safety: Please keep all classroom doors locked.
- Attendance: Attendance should be completed by 8:30 a.m.
- Transportation Notes: Please make sure these are sent to the front office no later than 8:30 a.m. Also, make sure transportation notes are picked up from your box before dismissal.
- Principals Meeting: I will be out on Thursday, 11/14/19. If you need me, text me or email me.
Calendar Additions:
NOTE: Please let Mrs. Bonnie know if you have events that need to be added to the master calendar. Ms. Bonnie will begin this week entering what we have on the master calendar so far.
Christmas Decorating Social
Tuesday, Nov 19, 2019, 03:00 PM
Multi-Purpose Room
Thanksgiving Lunch
Thursday, Nov 21, 2019, 10:30 AM
Maude Saunders Elementary
Tropicana School Speech Competitions
4th Grade - 9:15