Bulldog Weekly Update
October 18th - October 22nd
Culture of Achievement
Notes from the Principal's Desk
Wow! What a start to the second month of school! There is so much to celebrate and be proud of this week.
The Annual Back to School BBQ
The Annual BBQ went off without a hitch this Saturday. Over 250 individual guests attended, including Butler teachers with their children and families which was among the most rewarding parts. As seen above in the photo gallery, students participated in games and crafts, enjoyed hotdogs and yummy food, played basketball and kickball for hours, while parents shopped at our library boutique--taking home many necessary items for all their children. We are grateful to the many members of the team who made this event possible. The day-of is always a heavy lift but it's important to remember the countless actions and investments that people have made leading up to the event to make it a success. We can't wait for the next one!
School On Wheels of Massachusetts (SOWMA) Backpack Donation
A huge amount of gratitude goes out to SOWMA who contributed over 80 backpacks stuffed with a battery of school supplies, writing utensils, hand sanitizers, and books for students in grades 5-8. SOWMA provides educational support for school-aged youth living in shelters in southeast Massachusetts. Their educational programming spans across 12 cities and towns over 18 individual sites. These services are fostered in family and women's shelters, scattered site apartments, and community centers. The program's Executive Director, Steve Talismanick, has family in Lowell and relatives who graduated from Butler Middle School. Their Education Director, Jonathan Vincent, and Community Outreach Director, Barbara Fox, coordinated the donation and its delivery. SOWMA is looking into expanding its services and has its sights set on Lowell and Lawrence. We look forward to future collaborations.
Culturally Responsive Best Practice HIghlights
We will start with Mrs. Britton whose Math project on Friday hit all the necessary markers. Above, you can see examples of students' work in action. Students worked to create a visual representation of data on individual poster-sized sheets. Students then shared their work with one another, walking around the class and taking in the careful work of their peers. These are the types of learning-in-action scenarios we are excited to see in the classroom. Learning is tied to a specific standard, the students are up and moving around, sharing knowledge and developing skills in data representation as well as cultivating skills in explaining their thought process to peers.
When we think about culturally responsive practice Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Bills, Mrs. Condon and Mr. Freeman continue to intentionally and purposefully plan lessons to meet the needs of all classroom learners. As seen above Mr. Freeman's class studied how shadows change during the day because the position of the sun changes. Fifth-grade students observed their shadows on the tennis courts then made a sun tracker to record information about the direction and length of shadows during the school day. Students collaborated, discussed, and analyzed their findings.
In the 5th-grade math classes, teachers teamed up to create fun math stations by designing an outdoor scavenger hunt. The students worked together to problem solve and analyze math problems. The scavenger hunt was a fun way to review addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division of decimals.
First Field Trip of the year
This was so exciting and a momentous occasion all in one. Our first school field trip since March of 2019. Mrs. Cahill and Mrs. Papapalardo have been working hard with outside partners, YOP(Youth Opportunities Network), and Elevate to create an outdoor learning experience. They took a group of 30 students to Harold Parker State Park for a backpacking day trip experience. The designed outdoor learning experience to hone students' leadership skills through outdoor exploration and adventures. Students came back excited and ready to share their learning with their peers.
If you have classroom highlights that you would like us to share or a best practice, please let us know so we can come by and see the great work you are doing within your classroom community
Awesome work to all !
Great Job to everyone as we continue to empower, encourage and educate!
Please see a few notes from my desk below.
THANK YOU- To our PTO President Alyson Dumas and the rest of the PTO members for their continued efforts to build our Bulldog community with outreach and meaningful events for students and family.
Hallway Presence - Please remember to be at your post in the hallway. We share a mutual responsibility to ensure student safety. If you hear something concerning, come out of your classroom, look, listen--and get involved.
Bathroom protocol: 10-minute expectation- Bathrooms will remain locked during the first and last 10 minutes of each period. Mr. Chhim and Mrs. Horm will be supporting classrooms and will not be providing additional supervision in hallways. Please make sure you have bathroom logs posted in your classroom for students to sign in and out of class when they leave your classroom. This expectation has been helpful when in place and when we need to follow up on hallway misconduct.
Progress Reports - These go home on Monday, October 18th. Mrs. Watkins will follow up if a student is missing data. Progress reports are to be signed and returned . Please create a system of checks and balances to ensure you receive all student's progress reports signed and returned. This is your documentation that parents received notification before report cards go home.
ELL Paperwork - Deirdre will be putting some ELL paperwork in teachers' boxes this week. These documents need to go home with Progress Reports. Documents include 2021 ACCESS Reports plus translation and Annual Letters (C2). Please reach out with any questions. Thank you.
Week at a Glance
Monday 10/18
SEL
Progress Reports Due
School Operation 3:15- 3:45 (in the small conference room)
Tuesday 10/19
- 8:30 Student Support
Wednesday 10/20
Pena - Leadership
Thursday 10/21
Moody - Leadership
Last Meet Cross Country Meet 4:30 Shedd Park
Friday 10/22
Fun FriYAY! Wear your favorite New England sportswear(Red Sox, Pats, Bruins) or wear your Butler Pride gear
ILT Updates
Teachers participated in a whole-school professional development on Wednesday, October 6. This training was centered on expanding our resources and knowledge PBIS at Butler. The training elicited continued conversation and sharing around how we can continue to support Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 students. Staff also participated in a direct training with universal design for learning (UDL) coach Dr. Laurie Casna on lesson planning and acceleration. Earlier this week, Laurie Casna hosted an online training focused on optimal utilization of special educators, paraprofessionals, and co-teachers in the classroom.
RJLT (click Bulldog to see video)
Creating a culture of communication to resolve conflict
"Rules without relationship inspire rebellion".
Taken from Amplify RJ
If you want a rabbit to get into a hole, you smack it with a stick. You can also use motivation and dangle a carrot over the opening until the rabbit is tricked and falls into the hole. But neither of these teaches the rabbit the value of going into the hole. Neither method makes the rabbit actually want to go into the hole. Further, both tactics are a bit unfair; the rabbit doesn't see the hole until he falls into it. Likewise, our current systems either force or incentivize students to change. They don't teach the students the reason for the change - and they don't ask why the students were acting the way they were in the first place. Simply put, we must find a way to make students want the change, instead of forcing it on them. We need to hear what they're trying to tell us through their behavior and use that to guide them in a different direction. By saying "Let's Talk" and by asking questions, we demonstrate that this meeting is not a punishment it is a conversation.
See Lori Casey for SEL assistance.
PBIS
Routines and Rituals are essential to building classroom community. See your PBIS grade level representative for assistance
"Go to https://tinyurl.com/butlerpawsshop to take a sneak peek at the Butler PAWS shop, coming in Q2!"
Coaches Corner
DESSA Update:
You should have watched the DESSA rater video which explains the purpose and intent of the utilizing this assessment tool as well as how to use the online tool. This is the video and slide deck for future reference:
Video: https://vimeo.com/607620980
Slide Deck:
You should have received an email on Friday from Aperture to set-up your new account. If you did not receive this email, please reach out to Lori Casey ASAP. Please set-up your account and make sure that students in your homeroom are assigned to you.
If you come across a student that does not belong in your homeroom, please email Lori Casey so that this student can be assigned to the correct teacher. Also, if you have a student that has recently arrived to the Butler, under 4 weeks, and you feel that you do not have enough knowledge of the student to rate him/her, also let Lori know.
Admin CPT time this week will be provided to teachers to rate students. If you need additional time, please let Lori know.
SEL Update:
As we begin to assess our students in the 5 competency areas of Social Emotional Learning, it seems appropriate for all of us to become more familiar with these competencies. Therefore, there will be a theme each month to highlight one of the competencies so that we all might gain a further in-depth understanding of these competencies and how they play out each and every day for us and our students.
Theme for October & November is: Social Awareness
Social Awareness: is recognizing the strengths in others, and identifying diverse social norms. This also including identifying and recognizing unjust norms as well. It is the ability to "read a room" and be able to take that information n and make a "smart guess" based on the information as to what it going on in the room and what is expected of you.
Skills that are necessary in being successful in this competency are : listening, observing, and asking curious questions as a means of gaining more insight into what is going on.
Monthly Motivation
It's always great to start on an inspiring note.
Staff Birthday Shoutouts ~ October
Adrianna Anstiss - 10/3
Colleen Farrell - 10/3
Mae Watkins - 10/4
Chelsea Ewing - 10/8
Kevin Gibson - 10/14
Fernanda Lopes - 10/15
Gerry Manolopoulos - 10/19
Karen Tanguay - 10/20
Butler Community
Email: jmoody@lowell.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.lowell.k12.ma.us/Domain/10
Location: 1140 Gorham Street, Lowell, MA, USA
Phone: 978-937-8973
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lpsdbutler/