Anchor Weekly
A newsletter for Alta Vista Staff~Week of September 18, 2017
Don't Forget! Next Week's Calendar
- Region 12 Math Coaching Follow up on Tuesday, September 19
- Faculty Meeting on Wednesday, September 20
- Ms. Alvarado's Baby Shower on Thursday, September 21
- Reading PLCs on Friday, September 22
- Mayborn Discovery Box Day with 3rd Grade on Friday, September 22
COMING UP! 1st Six Weeks Ends on 9/29/17
Calendar Link: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/embed?src=wacoisd.org_ok91siiqr44vtt9t99o7ije19k%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/Chicago
Reading PLC Meetings on Friday, September 22
Enrichment for Intervention Time
Regular interventions will start on September 25 with math. Materials should be prepared and ready to go ahead of time. See Mrs. Helton if you have questions.
Math Professional Development
Opportunities:
- Lesson Design
- Differentiation with Envision
- Data Driven Decision
- Building Common Assessments
- Diagramming the TEKS
- Activities for Small Group Instruction
- Making Use of Manipulatives
- Intervening with Pearson Black Box
From Your Captain
We have multiple behavior situations this week that occurred when teachers were not supervising students. This happened when they were talking to other adults or left the classroom unsupervised. DO NOT LEAVE STUDENTS UNSUPERVISED. If you need to leave the room for a bathroom break, to make copies, or get materials, call the office for assistance.
Several parents have asked why they could not see grades in Parent Portal. When we checked on the situation, there were no grades to view. It is a campus expectation that grades are entered weekly into TEAMS so that parents have accurate information regarding their students' progress.
Lesson plans MUST be copied over to your personal planner because district personnel do not have access to view your team planners.
Behavior Team Notes
Students cannot learn if they are not connected to the class. As academic demands increase, we are seeing an increase in behavior issues as well. Keep working on routines, procedures, and activities that connect you with your students, and connect your students with each other. Morning meetings should be happening in every class every morning. If you need help getting morning meetings started in your class, contact Ms. Freeman or Ms. Maynard.
If you have a behavior situation and need assistance, call the office or text the entire behavior team. If you just text one person, he/she may not be able to provide the assistance you need in a timely manner due to other interventions.
As per our campus behavior management plan, teachers should be calling parents about behavior issues. If you need to call someone from the behavior team to assist with an issue, then you need to follow up with parents. Mrs. Freeman and her team should not be making the first phone calls to parents in regards to ongoing behavior incidents.
STEM Night Plans
Each grade level has been assigned a book that teachers will read to the class ahead of time. During the even, each grade level will have a STEM activity that relates a science and math concept to the book. For more details or to give input, please see Mrs. Helton.
STEM Night will be replacing our annual Science Night. 5th grade students will be expected to create a science fair project for display (TEK: design an experiment that tests the effect of force on an object). All other classes are asked to create a classroom project using the scientific method to test a current science objective (IE: forces, heating/cooling, properties of matter). The point of the project is to walk students through the scientific method as it relates to the science topic you are currently teaching.
Science Penguin has a great foldable for the scientific method. Click on the link above (Writing/Journaling Resources) to also download this FREE resource.
September Makerspace
You can choose from 2 different books: Toy Boat (recommended for younger students) or Journey (wordless picture book).
The lesson plans can be found here: https://docs.google.com/a/wacoisd.org/document/d/1JPwQNAKXQdbkk78LWzEK33NY9BdnYstYNG8j8ddIHQU/edit?usp=sharing
Growth Mindset Weekly Lessons
The theme for September is: Everyone Can Learn!
Here are the lessons for September: https://docs.google.com/a/wacoisd.org/document/d/1N2rvGC75KWNYlSoeDKP8kygizUhcu359-2ke4SjFQ64/edit?usp=sharing
Lesson Plans & Team Planning
Don't forget to add to Google Drive and Make a Copy so you can edit and share with your team.
Here is the new form to use for team planning (instead of the paper version): https://goo.gl/forms/NucE5LaMdzwjk6mY2
Writing/Journaling Resources
Check out the resource here: http://thesciencepenguin.com/2017/05/science-penguin-free-resource-library.html (you have to sign up for FREE first!)