HOWL
September 10, 2020
Celebrating a Culture of Joy
- The Walk Up Song saga continues this week. We are celebrating Megan Gleason for matching Hypnotize by Notorious B.I.G. with one of our colleagues. She won a $100 Apple gift card. At the staff meeting last night, we celebrated Jump Around by House of Pain. Thank you to everyone for dancing along. You can join the game this week by texting your name and your best guess for who has Jump Around as his or her walk up song to 920-323-0925.
- Virtual Notebooks are a thing and they are super amazing. If you are interested in seeing how they work- ask one of our ELA teachers. They are working super hard to make these usable for our students!!!!
- Week 2 for us, but Day 2 for our students in the building. For some of our students the nerves were still present, but the excitement in their faces to see their teachers was so contagious. Our students love you and are excited to be here!!
- During Flex, we have lessons happening about identity and agency. Read A Louds to spark questions and conversations around equity. WOW- thank you for daring mighty things!
- Thank you for your work to create joy in our classrooms. Your work is making our students lives better. As we think about planning content based lessons to start next week, it is a good time to reflect on four tools for building a culture of joy : Gratitude, Community, Sense of Wonder, and Play. Please take five minutes tomorrow to reflect with your content team on how you might include gratitude into your classroom routines.
SWIRL
We hope that tomorrow will be a small first step toward our goal. Together, we will take many steps in that direction this year. In thinking about the goal for the course of the whole year, we have developed a Washington Staff Learning Plan that explains some of the support structures in place to help us move toward our goal. Please take the time to review the Learning Plan prior to the staff meeting next Wednesday at 3:15. That will be another small step toward our goal.
Character Education
Circle Up
Creating a classroom environment where circle up is just how we do things establishes the foundation for restorative practices. It is up to each of us to lay the groundwork. Ultimately, the time investment is proactive or reactive. Ask yourself where that time is better spent. The first step to impactful restorative practices is the norm of talking about feelings, celebrations, stories, and struggles. Our goal is to make the circle a safe place to share, both in the classroom and virtually.
Here are some ways to get started:
Set those expectations TOGETHER (connected to PACK)
State the purpose of the circle
Create a question that everyone can answer (culturally responsive)
Have a way for each person to answer
Chat
Thumbs up/ thumbs down/ thumb to side
Fist to Five
A Talking Piece
We are unable to pass around a talking piece right now, but the general practice is still possible. Each student could hold up an item, like a pen or pencil when they speak. So, why use a talking piece?
It focuses the attention and energy in one place - to whom are we listening and preparing to respond?
It’s a visual reminder of the expectation that one person speaks at a time.
Personally, I like to hold a piece of paper or a pen while I talk to act as a fidget and help me calm my nerves. I would guess that most of you didn’t even notice that I use that strategy. Let’s extend that courtesy to our students and give them an extra boost of confidence while sharing.
We’ve got this!
Student Engagement
See, Megan, Lisa, or Courtney would like to be apart of the house team meetings. A schedule- through December is included- as to who to invite to your meetings. We would like to support the goals of:
- Student Engagement
- Parent/ Family Connections
Reminders & Communication
- We are so grateful for your patience and perseverance through these first few weeks of blended learning. It is hard to find a way to give you what you need and deserve: more time. However, we are trying. With that goal in mind, we have created an adjustment to our virtual schedule for core teachers during the 90 minute virtual learning blocks and also during the longer virtual learning blocks on Monday and Friday. Please take a look at the schedule with adjustments. In any place you see a blank, take a break, take time for yourself, you deserve it. We are looking forward to conversations with teams about how we can improve our virtual learning schedules. Thank you.
- THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU all for hanging up the PACK posters in your classrooms. We would like every classroom to have a PACK posters. You will also see it through out the halls!!! Please let Lisa D know if you need a PACK poster for your classroom!
- We want to highlight our amazing students and our fabulous staff, so if you are taking pictures please upload them into the drive Gavin shared with us.
- Hot Spots are available for families who do not have WiFi- Hot Spot Information
- Support with ALL technology must have a Web Help Ticket. Thank you for using the help system. #ticketsplease.
- Please post and share the STUDENT Web Help Ticket for their Chromebooks
- PAST REMINDERS & COMMUNICATIONS
Survey Time
Update on Power Standards
- When you create a new assessment that was never given before, what would that assessment look like if it were to measure student learning in each standard?
- If this was the only thing they learned . . . a)Would they be ready for next year? b) Would they be ready for life beyond school?
- When a parent is looking at these standards on the progress report, would these standards accurately represent the majority of the student learning in that classroom each quarter?
Next Steps
- Meet with cross-river content teams on Monday September 14 from 7:45-8:45. The links to your team meeting are linked here.
- Beginning the week of Sept. 21, we will enter the power standards you have shared into Infinite Campus. These will be the categories from which you will select when you enter an assessment or an assignment into IC.
- On Sept 24th, teams will work to create common assessments for each power standard during your professional development time. Teams will determine when each assessment will be given within a window of one week or less.
- Teams will have three PD Days (9/24, 11/18, 12/15) during the first semester to create common assessments for all power standards.
- Teams will also be given days, in which teams will use their PLC time on Mondays or Fridays to work with their cross-river content teams to calibrate what success looks like for each power standard.
Staff Meeting Recap
- Thank you Marly for the Tips and Trick for Google Meets. Here is the video for "How to schedule Google Meets quickly and easily"
- Angela shared a SWIRL strategy about Showing students how a reader approaches a new text. Every lesson next week could include this strategy. Thank you Angela.
- Courtney highlighted her marigolds for the week- thank you for your passion and smile Angie S and Lisa D
- Virtual Circle Up ideas, tips and tricks from Courtney
- Spreadsheet of Fun- thank you Chris for starting this for us