FMS @ a Glance
January 15 -19, 2018
Email notices sent out this past week:
*****Breakfast*****
Please share this with students quick today regarding breakfast. Thank you!
o Need to have your breakfast by 7:48 a.m. when the music starts and head to class.
o You can bring your breakfast to class.
o We won’t be handing out passes to class if you get your breakfast late.
o On Block days you have to have your breakfast by 7:40 or get it at Second Chance Breakfast time.
*****After school offerings*****
Good morning everyone,
I just want to take a minute and make sure everyone is up to speed on our activities through the community school. First, our new round of clubs have begun! Registrations are ongoing, and these clubs will run for 6 weeks. Currently, we are offering Young Chefs and Mad Scientists through a partnership with Carleton College, Cultural Dancing and Health/Beauty through a partnership with Somali Community Resettlement Services, art club, and photography club. If you know any students who may be interested, please have them grab a registration form from student services. They may also use the digital copy that has been posted to schoology. If you have students that are enrolled in clubs, they should be reporting to the cafeteria immediately after school. We do not want any students wandering campus unsupervised after hours.
There are also a couple of documents attached. First, I have attached our calendar of evening events for January. These events are all free and open to any person who may be interested. Second, there is a flyer advertising Fare for All, a food distribution program we have recently partnered with. Fare For All offers fruits, vegetables, and frozen meats at wholesale prices. Orders are placed ahead of time, and the pickup location is right here at FMS. This months hot buys are pork riblets (5 pound box for $8, max 1 per household) and honeysuckle white ground turkey (3 pounds for $3, max 2 per household).
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please let me know.
Thanks for all you do,
Charles Cooper | Faribault Community School Coordinator
Faribault Public Schools, ISD 656
710 17th Street SW, Faribault, MN 55021
Office: (507) 333-6384
FMS Community School Parent Nights
February 22 - 2018-2019 7th and 8th graders
If you are interested in helping out please put your name on this form ASAP:
Tentative options for 6th grade Parent Registration evening, January 25th.
The flyers have been distributed to the elementaries, so we might start getting calls with questions (for example, there is no time stated on the flyer). We came up with a couple options for how the schedule could look.
Option 1: Families are given a schedule when they come in. Attendees divided alphabetically into 5 groups. Groups rotate through classes hearing about ELA, Sci, Math, SS, and AVID. Registration is running throughout the evening. Elective information is displayed through the halls.
4:30 - 5:30 -- Dinner
5:00 - 5:30 -- School tours
5:30 - 5:45 -- Block A
5:45 - 6:00 -- B
6:00 - 6:15 -- C
6:15 - 6:30 -- D
6:30 - 6:45 -- E
Option 2: Same rotation idea from option 1. Dinner would feature an elective fair in the atrium with tables featuring elective info. AVID presents to whole group in cafeteria or auditorium.
4:30 - 5:30 -- Dinner, Elective Fair, Tours
5:30 - 5:45 -- AVID Info
5:45 - 6:00 -- Block A
6:00 - 6:15 -- B
6:15 - 6:30 -- C
6:30 - 6:45 -- D
6:45 - ???? -- Registration
Thanks,
Charles Cooper | Faribault Community School Coordinator
Faribault Public Schools, ISD 656
710 17th Street SW, Faribault, MN 55021
Office: (507) 333-6384
Feedback That Fuels Learning
Why don't students use feedback? Sue Brookhart writes that if students don't know how to use feedback or don't understand the learning goal they're applying it to, they're likely to see feedback as evaluative rather than informative. Like a final grade, feedback under these circumstances marks an end to learning, not an opportunity to extend. Raters can be motivators, however, when feedback is timely, specific, actionable, and compassionate. Here's how to put forward-focused feedback to work in your classroom.
Features
Meaghan Hanrahan Dobson
Students need not be held accountable for a year's worth of growth in one writing assignment. Find time for feedback, and turn it into a nonthreatening, accessible tool for writing development, by giving less (but more focused) feedback earlier in the writing process.
More Than a Score: Using Rubrics to Provide Meaningful Formative Feedback
Karin Evans
Analytic rubrics provide a roadmap to a learning goal, but their criteria needs to be contextualized for teachers and students to have a clear image of the destination. These tips will help you use rubrics as part of a more effective feedback loop.
A Time-Out Strategy for Feedback That Motivates Learning
Cristine Sato LaMontagne
While students work in groups or independently, teachers can circulate and gather observational data on sticking points and stellar work. With some common challenges and student exemplars gathered, teachers call a 5-minute "time out" to provide a mini-lesson to address areas of struggle and highlight student strengths.
Use the Five Rs to Avoid the Forbidden Fruitlessness of Feedback
Eric J. Mendelson
If your idea of hell is a stack of ungraded essays, take heed. A high school English teacher shares his formula for getting students to do the work of reviewing, reflecting, researching, and revising during the feedback process so that he can focus on reinforcing their new learning.
Seven Characteristics (and Six Tools) That Support Meaningful Feedback
Esther Ntuli
Use this matrix to reflect on how message and medium can affect how students respond to feedback. Learn how to tailor feedback to be more actionable and explore tech resources that make anytime, elaborative feedback accessible.
Four Questions to Help Students Positively Reframe Feedback
Aaron Zimmerman
Feedback intended to help may hurt if students hear it as an indictment of their current and future abilities. Use this reflective strategy to challenge students' pessimistic interpretations of critical feedback.
Creating a Positive Feedback Culture
Pauline Zdonek
Get students to see feedback as a valuable part of the learning process by modeling how to give and receive feedback, separating evaluation from feedback, and rewarding improvement.
Week @ a Glance
Monday, January 15
MLK Jr. Day - No School
Tuesday, January 16
Student Services meets with CPT
6:45 am SITE Council meeting
7:30 am Finance Committee meeting
3:00 pm AVID Site Team meeting
3:30 pm Curriculum Advisory Committee meeting
Wednesday, January 17
Staff meeting
9:00 am PST meeting
10:30 am student iPad support available in Media Center
Thursday, January 18
7:00 am Department Chair meeting
9:00 am Principal PLC with Colleen C.
3:00 pm Collaborative Inquiry Team meeting
Friday, January 19
Meihak out of building
7:15 am FMS Technology Committee meeting
A look ahead:
1/22 Workday
1/23 Registration presentation Roosevelt Elementary
1/23 Registration presentation Lincoln Elementary
1/24 Registration presentation Jefferson Elementary
1/25 McDermott out - PBIS
1/25 Community School meeting
1/25 Community School Parent Registration Evening
Volunteers needed:
Supporting our FMS Family
If you are interested in helping out the Lul Ahmed family there a couple ways to do so. Lul was the student who was hit by a car earlier in the fall. Please click on her GoFundMe page to read more.
You can support the family in several ways:
- by contributing to the GoFundMe page
- https://www.gofundme.com/csab6-lul-ahmed-family-fund
- sharing the GoFundMe page on your social media
- helping in various ways with the 2018 Charity Ice Golf Event.
This year's event will be on Saturday, February 24th and the event will be for the Lul Ahmed family. Please contact Kelly McDermott if you would like to help. We are looking for help organizing a silent auction, selling food, and running different tables.
Kelly McDermott: 507.333.6322 office or 507.330.0581 cell
Helpful hints from our Behavior Interventionist:
Behavior Idea of the Week
One-on-one conversations.
One-on-one conversations can be very powerful. The wording of the conversation is key. Seek to find out more information rather than scold. Use questions such as: Can you tell me what you were thinking? How did your actions impact others? How can we make this situation better? How can we both get our needs met?
The timing of one-on-one conversations is also important. During the class while the behavior is happening is not always the best time. Sometimes before or after school, during lunch or CPT time is better. Not all students can process during the
behavior. They might be more reflective after the fact.
Buddy Rooms:
Buddy Rooms were discussed in a previous Smore. Remember it’s a spot in your room where a student from another class comes to take a break. If you are interested in being a Buddy Room please let me know. You do not have to be a Buddy Room for someone in your team or grade.
Thanks,
Amber
Mrs. Amber Dahlstrom | Behavior Intervention Coordinator
Faribault Middle School | 704 17th Street SW - Faribault, MN 55021
Direct: 507.333.6425 Fax: 507.333.6400
All-Star Breakfast
The more staff the better. Wear your Falcon Strong shirt and support our deserving students.
***** Reminders from past newsletters *****
ACCESS Testing
Staff,
We will be ACCESS testing January 29-February 2 and February 5-9. The media center will be closed during this time. We are not testing on the iPads this year.
The EL department will communicate more details with you in the near future.
Thank you!
Recording your classroom
To be as blunt as possible - don't do it. I had some staff inquiries about this and so I asked our school attorney to advise and their clear message was: do not record students (or yourself) in the classroom. This does not include projects that have recording requirements, what I am talking about is setting up a camera to record yourself for professional growth or record your students to monitor their behavior.
If you have questions please visit with me.
Schoology v. IC
Please be sure to use Infinite Campus as your "official" grade book and communication tool for students, parents, and other staff members. As you know, Schoology and IC do not merge records and it is important that we have a consistent report that can be shared to report academic progress.
Your extra efforts of keeping your Infinite Campus grade book updated is appreciated.