April 22, 2019
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
Habit Focus of the Week: Habit 1: Be Proactive
I promise I do not simply copy and paste the habit reviews from blog sites each week...I actually put thought into them...careful reflection...:)...
"Do not build your emotional life around what others do and say or don't do or say. It's not what people do to us that hurts us, its how we respond to what they do that hurts us."
We have the freedom to choose our actions between stimulus and response. When you are proactive you:
- Pause and respond based on principles and desired results.
- Use proactive language.
- Focus on your Circle of Influence.
- Become a Transition Person.
What you may not know is that I begin each week's S'more with the Habit connection. It is my greatest joy...connecting to the habit focus, providing some nugget of information that might help you in your personal or professional life, giving a new insight that might inspire your Habit Huddle. Yes, the S'more is intended to be a communication tool, but it's original purpose was professional learning!
Anyway, as I prepared this week, my notes in the margins kept jumping off the pages as I reread the Habit 1 section of the white binder. Maybe it is the anticipation of the Lighthouse Review determination...maybe it is the fact that the assessment windows for our campus WIG are 3 weeks away...maybe it is the realization that we only have 6 weeks of school remaining to make a positive impact on our Star Leaders...maybe it is joy that we get to celebrate employees this week...maybe its all of these things and so many more....
Whatever the reason...my S'more and Habit Focus is going to take a little bit different turn this week...I hope you find value in the communication, because Seven Hills will operate in a highly effective paradigm for the remainder of the year...why? because we have the power to choose!
Now...to get things started...consider this quote:
"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
C.S. Lewis
Pause and Respond Based on Principles and Desired Results:
- When people are reactive, they allow outide influences such as mood, feelings, and circumstances to control their responses.
- When people are proactive, they pause to allow themselves the freedom to choose their response based on principles and desired results.
Reactive behavior looks like:
- getting angry and saying things your regret
- not accepting responsiblily for your actions
- complaining
- blaming other people, things, or circumstances
- acting like a victim
Proactive behavior looks like:
- remaining calm - even when you are super frustrated
- accepting responsiblity
- thinking before acting - "What do I want to come out of this situation?"
- focusing on solutions rather than problems
- taking initiative to make things happen - even if you are not the leader of the team, asked, or directly impacted
Remember, we are in control of 3 things...our thoughts, our words and our actions. Over the next 6 weeks we are going to be faced with students, parents, and teammates that push our patience to the limits. Stop and think before you react. What do you want the end result to be? Focus your energy on the solution rather than fueling the fire and adding to the problem. Trust me, you will be happier and healthier in the long run and the relationship will be kept in tact.
Stop and Think Charts Can Help Teach Students How To Pause and Respond...You Might Find Them Highly Beneficial Too:
Use Proactive Language:
"Proactive language is the language of leadership."
- Rajan Kaicker
Reactive language is powerless, damaging, and is shapes how we see ourselve and how others see us.
Proactive language not only affirms our capacity to have the power to make our own choices, but it builds confidence, trust, and is empowering.
Self monitor your language choice over the next few days. Are you using more proactive or reactive language? If you are using reactive language, set a personal WIG and hold yourself accountable to change it! Your students need to hear the language of leaders!
Focus on Your Circle of Influence:
We actually have control over so much within the school day. How we spend our instructional time. How we spend our planning time. Which instructional materials we choose. Instruction, intervention, and enrichment student groups and activities. How empowering our classrooms are. The level of rigor and relevance in instruction. Student relationships.
My challenge to you today is to use the Circle of Control Quality Tool to help you focus on what you can control and what you can control and influence over the next 6 weeks. It will help you and your teams engage in activities that will improve our campus situation, your team situation, your classroom situation, and possibly even a personal situation for a student! It will defintely help remind us that we have the power to create positive outcomes for the future...even with only 6 weeks left in the school year!
Directions:
- Draw two circles one nested inside of the other.
- List the things you can control or influence in the inner circle.
- List the things you can't control but are concerned about in the outer circle.
- Use the information collected to reflect on what is you will choose to focus your greatest efforts on in the next 6 weeks.
Help Your Students Identify What is Within Their Circle of Control:
"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending."
C.S. Lewis
How will you practice Habit 1: Be Proactive in order to change the ending?
If you are struggling with Habit 1, I strongly encourage you to reach out to your accountability partner or seek out a transition person. Please know that yout campus leadership team is willing anad available to help. Our goal is to change the ending for all leaders! :)
A Message About Proactive Classroom Management from the Assistant Principal:
Like much of classroom management, ensuring a smooth ride to the end of the year takes a proactive approach.
You must beat misbehavior to the punch, by reviewing your classroom expectations and respect agreements.
Make the final weeks of school a new and bigger challenge. Prepare them for the road ahead by pushing the limits of your grade level. Keep them busy and focused and striving to the end by planning highly engaged lessons.
Focus on positive reinforcement that comes from acknowledging and rewarding appropriate behavior. The overarching purpose is to provide an incentive for students to repeat desired behaviors. In other words, by providing students with a positive outcome when they accomplish achievements or display certain behaviors, students are encouraged to do so again. Some benefits of using positive reinforcement are
1.) Positive reinforcement leads to a greater sense of community in the class.
2.) When positive reinforcement is used, students are more motivated.
Some helpful tips for positive reinforcement:
Offer praise. Praise that is sincere and references specific examples of effort or accomplishment can inspire the class, improve a student’s self-esteem, and reinforce the rules and values that you wish to see. This form of social reinforcement encourages students to repeat positive behavior.
Build excitement for content. By keeping lessons really engaging, you can interest the students in your teaching agenda. It also helps to dissuade misbehavior.
Interview students, particularly those who are struggling academically or behaviorally, in order to learn how to manage them. Find out, from such students, things that can help them focus, with whom they tend to work well with, their preferred types of lessons, their favorite activities in class and the type of exercises that help them recall key content.
Let’s reward good behavior with “ Positive office referrals”.
I will place some positive office referrals in your box for your convenience. The aim of employing these classroom management strategies is to create an orderly – but still engaging and friendly – learning environment and optimize teacher-student and student-student interactions.Habit 2 and 3 Final Focus...A Career Day Plan
The Habit Huddle and Events Action Teams came together to begin planning this year's career pathways focus for our leaders. As a Lighthouse Team, it was determined that we wanted to alternate years where we had BIG career day/community leadership day events with career pathways and career awareness events. This year we will spend 2 weeks focusing on career pathways and career awareness. This is an awesome opportunity for your Habit Huddle, as the habit learning might be getting a little flat!
The team has already started planning:
Week of April 29th:
- K-1 will take two days to “begin with the end in mind” and have the students participate in activities and worksheets that will help them identify what they like to do and what kinds of jobs they might like
- 2-5 will use the interest surveys from either Morales or Wallis. They will “begin with the end in mind” by taking the surveys to see what kinds of job possibilities would be right for them
- We will use the rest of the week to do buddy classes and STS clubs
Week of May 6th:
- K-1 will learn about various careers
- 2-5 will research a job they are interested in and learn how they can put first things first. Each grade level will decide on what end product they want the kids to have.
- Friday students will be able to come to school dressed as a career of their choice. We will have a parade.
Jen Morales has some NISD career pathways information we can provide grade levels.
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
Don't let spring fever set in...Duty assignments are made to ensure student safety at arrival and dismissal.
- Please make sure you are on time to your scheduled duty in the mornings. If you are going to be out, it is your responsibility to get coverage.
- Please remind students about Leader Expectations during dismissal. Staff must both model and hold students accountable to these expectations. These expectations are in place to ensure safe and efficient dismissal of all students.
- Save the Date for NISD 2019 - 2020 Professional Learning: The NISD PD calendar has been approved. I attached a document outlining the dates and other important PD information/requirements in the weekly update email. Please read carefully. We will discuss your PD plan for next year in summative conferences.
- Attendance Snapshot Time: Staff, it is imperative that attendance be completed DAILY at the 9:30 reporting time. Funding is connected to this reporting, and should the district/campus be audited, failure to report attendance at the snapshot time could result in loss of funding for all of the students in your classroom on each day that attendance was not completed at the reporting time. Please be advised that reporting attendance is connected to T-TESS discipline 4.
Save the Date:
Notes:
- PTA Carnival on Friday April 26 - Please consider joining the carnival for at least a little while...the community will LOVE seeing teachers at the event and the PTA is incredibly supportive of teachers. This is one of the largest fundraisers of the year for the PTA.
- Girls on the Run 5K - April 27
- Night of Wonder at CTMS - May 2
- Kindergarten Round-Up Evening Event May 1 5:00 - 6:30 pm
- Senior Walk Friday, May 3 at 8:30
Monday, April 22:
- ILT Meeting, 3:30 pm
- PS It's My Body Letter goes home to parents
- NISD Elementary Art Show
- Grade Level PLCs
- Employee Recognitions, 3:30 - 4:40 pm
- NISD Elementary Art Show
Wednesday, April 24:
- Kim and Tanya NISL
- Adminsitrative Professionals Day (Marina, Lacy, Wilma)
- Kinder Graduation Pictures
- Staff may wear jeans and a 7 Hills shirt as part of a fundraising incentive from the fall
Thursday, April 25:
- Kim and Tanya NISL
Friday, April 26:
- Sharpen the Saw Clubs
- Northwest Reads 9:00 - 10:00 am
- PTA Carnival 5:30 - 7:30
Happy Birthday to You:
Whitney Beck 4/25
Lauren Grady 4/25
Kaylan Russell 4/26
Missy Wood 4/27