Beating the Odds
Lakeview Staff Newsletter - Nov 2
Talk about Practice, Talk about Students
How do we know if the conversations we are having are the right conversations that impact student achievement and character?
I've thought a lot about this over the years and decided that if we are talking about the following two topics, then we're spending our time the right way:
• Teachers talking about teacher practices
• Teachers talking about supporting individual students
Right now, we are very purposefully spending our conversation time on these two topics.
#1 - Teachers talking about teacher practices
On Wednesday, a smaller group of staff members continued the discussion about our vision for high-quality instruction. We talked about why we need a vision and the "Community Building" section of the document. The vision is a roadmap, and it is meant to guide our journey for several years. Each individual bullet point in the document could become a topic for our professional discussions in the future. For example, some schools spend an entire year talking about "formative assessment". I know that you all talk about practice every day, but it's even more powerful if we are all talking about practices in the same way and coming to a common understanding so that as students move from grade to grade, they see alignment. That is why we create a vision document.
#2 - Teachers talking about supporting individual students
Our conversations about data over the last month, though at times overwhelming, have finally brought us to a point where we can talk about individual students. 2nd and 3rd grades met this week, and 4th and 5th grades meet on Monday. It was truly powerful to have classroom teachers, special ed teachers, intervention teachers, coaches, and myself sitting around a table discussing every student that is not projected to be proficient. It was powerful because we know that we have a plan for every one of those students. So far, those plans have included: Student is receiving a daily strategy group, Student is in a classroom intervention for 30 min/day, Student is close enough to proficiency that we just need to monitor for increased engagement during independent time, Student is using Dreambox, Student is using MobyMax, Teacher is in contact with parents, Student has an IEP goal, Student is receiving Title I intervention services, etc. As we continue meetings like this in the future, I hope we can talk about how this ties back to our universal curriculum as well.
These two conversations are not by accident. They are how we continue to beat the odds!
(By the way, if you would like to join the conversation about the vision document, we meet on Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. in the library.)
Looking Ahead
Tuesday, November 6
No students ~ election day ~ PD day
Lakeview PTO Fundraiser Day at MOD Pizza - flyer link - need lunch this day? The flyer says you can even phone ahead with your order, but not valid for online orders.
Wednesday, November 7
Picture make-up day
Book Room Health Check Consultants 2 p.m.
Chris & Rachel - School board presentation of AGR strategies & goals
November 8 - PTO meeting in the Lakeview library from 7-8 p.m.
Friday, November 9
All-school assembly from 11:00-11:30
This is your last week to reinforce with Golden Lions before the assembly. Students are excited. Roxanne and Cortney really do a great job of making our kids feel positive about coming to the office with their tickets.
Students leave at 11:45. Teaching staff are here in the afternoon.
Monday, November 12
Math drop-in day at Lakeview. Please be ready for families to join you during your math block.
Tuesday, November 13
Sunshine hosts a sandwich luncheon!
Thursday, November 15 - Lakeview Movie Evening.
This is a Thursday dinner-time event. Students will vote on the movie. Thank you to our PTO for sponsoring this event!
Personalized PD Logs
• After 3pm on 11/6, add a new entry and follow up on September's entry
• Your Personalized PD work should really align to your SLO and PPG
• Although I imagine most people will work in teams during Personalized PD time (see above "Teachers talking about teacher practices"), your reflections do not all need to be the same. It's personalized for you and the needs of your students. I would rather see reflections that are particular for your practice and your students than worded exactly the same as teammates.
• Please complete the reflection by the end of the day on November 9th. Once again, I will go through all reflections and look for common themes.
• Remember - Please do not hit "submit" on the document in Google Classroom. I can see it.
• No reflection is needed for the half day on November 9th.
Small Successes
Structural Items
Family newsletter - Here is a link to this week's family newsletter.
Veteran's Day cards - If your class is participating, you have two options to turn them in: Give them to Roxanne by the end of the day on November 5th, or you may drop them off yourself in the PDC during the PD day on November 6th.
Indoor recess clarification - A few weeks ago, I mentioned the importance of setting up classroom expectations for indoor recess. Luckily, we haven't needed these much. Please include this expectation: "No youtube." If you are looking for some positive tech ideas for indoor recess, coding on Scratch is a great idea.
Google Calendar - This is my fault. I asked people to use Google Calendar to invite me to meetings, but I never told you how to do that. When you create an event, there is a box on the right that says "Add guests". That's where you actually add people to the invite list. If you don't do this last step, you only added it to your own calendar.
SLO's
Transparency has always been big for me, and it is in our cultural values that we developed for ourselves. Why? Because nobody should work towards a goal alone at Lakeview (see above, "Teachers talking about teacher practice"). I propose this: A sign that hangs outside each of our doors that lists
• Your SLO and PPG in parent/student friendly language
• Undergraduate degree and college
• Additional degrees and colleges and/or additional training (NBCT, Microcredentials, etc.)
• A favorite inspirational quote
This makes it a bigger description of whom each person is as a professional rather than just this year's SLO and PPG. It also speaks to the importance of higher education for our students and visitors. If you have thoughts about this or additional ideas to include, please let me know. If we think it works for us as a staff, I will automate the sign-making process through a Google Form (translation: If we like the idea, I'll make the actual signs for you).
Reminder for Continuing Year 3 teachers
Character Dares & Trauma Sensitive Schools
Lakeview Elementary School
Email: csepersky@sdsm.k12.wi.us
Website: lakeview.sdsm.k12.wi.us
Location: 711 Marion Avenue, South Milwaukee, WI, USA
Phone: 414-766-5252
Twitter: @sepersky