Instructional Coach Weekly Update
Week of August 29 - September 2
Welcome Back!!
It's so great to be back and I felt like we had a great first week! I, like you, have a to-do list a mile long right now! There are about 100 things that I want done right now that I feel would help assist the teachers in our building, but I can only fit so much in a day! I'm working hard on getting everything up and going, but if there's something you need from me please don't hesitate to ask. I've already had several teachers reach out for help this week - what an awesome feeling!
Several of you have asked about those Standards Tracking Books I made for the majority of the 3rd and 4th grade teachers last year - I hope to start working on those in the next week or two. It's a time consuming project, but I was exited to hear teachers were wanting them again this year!
I'll put some coaching "menus" that the four IC's used last year in each of your mailboxes as a reminder of some of the ways I can serve you!
I believe we had a fantastic first week and can't wait for our first full week ahead :)
Leveled Library
The leveled library is not quite put together yet, but as soon as I find more shelves it will be ready for all of us to use this year. In the meantime, I know several of you need to get your hands on some of those books this week - please come find me and we can go down together and find what you need since things are still in piles on the floor :)
There will be a sign out sheet for you to sign out all books you take out and again when you return them. Look for the clipboard to be hanging behind the door.
Some things to remember:
- All books have the lexile level written somewhere on the back cover (most of the time it is written on the top left-hand corner).
- If you get the feeling that a book has been mis-leveled you can double check the lexile level by going to www.lexile.com (some high schoolers helped level these last year so there may be some mistakes).
- Some of these books belong to teachers in the building (meaning the teacher has purchased the books with their own money) so please take extra care of these.
- Mrs. Diveley and I have worked on stamping "CPU Intermediate" on the very first page of every book (whether they are school purchased or teacher purchased books). We are hoping that way if a book does end up with a student they will know to return it to the school.
- These books are only to be used in class and should never be taken out of classrooms. They should never be stored in lockers, cubbies, pendaflex, backpacks, etc.
- Designate a bin/tote/basket in your class for students to return books to each day.
- Keep tabs on how many books you have (missing books will have to be replaced).
- We will not have the kind of money we had this summer to purchase/re-purchase lost or damaged books, so we need to take care of the books so they last us many, many years.
- If you have a parent volunteer it would be great if the books bindings could all be reinforced/repaired with clear plastic tape before the students first use them.
- Tears, rips, damaged pages, etc. should all be repaired right away by the classroom teacher.
- These books won't be numbered, but because students aren't taking them out of the classroom this should not be necessary. If you feel you need the books numbered please let me know because I will need to number the entire set - not just the copies you checked out.
- If you want to use a book but there aren't enough for every student to have one let me know - I can try and purchase more, hunt down some more copies at local libraries, or look into the GWAEA library for more copies (please give me at least a week to find more books!)
- Remember - EVERY STUDENT MUST HAVE THEIR OWN COPY - no sharing books!
Reminders
- Give reading assessments this week (sight word assessments are in your mailboxes in the copy room - make as many copies as you need to).
- Type your last name by all of your students on the UNIVERSAL SCREENING google doc. - 5th grade DONE :)
- Type your students names and your last name on the WRITING SCORES google doc. - 5th grade DONE :)
- Add your science and social studies lessons to your grade level's unit planning (3rd, 4th, 5th) google doc
- Select the first book you are going to use for SGR starting next week
This Week
- Collaborative PD meeting at the primary Monday afternoon
- Instructional Coach training at Cedar Rapids GWAEA all day Tuesday and Wednesday
- Weekly IC meeting Friday afternoon
- Modeling "Personal Narrative" lessons in 4th grade
- Modeling a Walpole "Jot Dots Summary" lesson in 4th grade
- Updating FAST data for current 3rd graders
- Modeling and helping with assessments
- Grade level team planning meetings
- Staff meeting on Walpole Screener
- Completing some "Time on Task" assessments for a teacher
- Helping to plan the first PBIS assembly this Friday
- If you have read this far let me know and I'll put your name in for a gift from me!