RNNE Team and Family Launcher
Goal-oriented and intentional. Intervention.Authentic Team.
Academic Focus Areas
Sticky Key Points
1. All key points written on an anchor chart – what, why and how
2. [Humanities] Stick Key Points chants on a chart and taught to students
From Data Day Sessions
Enduring Skills
1. Have teacher exemplars written for each question in your lesson plan. Every question in your lesson plan/double packet must have a teacher exemplar so that you have a clear vision of mastery for where you want students to be.
2. Tag your question + exemplars tagged with the key point it aligns to.
3. Review key points in each part of your lesson cycle/block. Be explicit in your model of the key points, and push student thinking throughout the times when they are sharing out whole group and/or practicing on their own. "How do you know? "How did you arrive at that answer?"
Progress:
Based on our network mini-school walkthrough last week with Jaclyn and Gabi as well as in lesson plan review that the Instructional Leadership Team engaged in on Wednesday, there are several points to celebrate!
- Lesson plans and execution are reflecting teachers being explicit about the key points they are using in their Think Alouds/modeling.
- Teachers are referring back to the key points as they are working through questions in the We Do.
Push:
- In lesson plans, tag each of your questions and teacher exemplar responses with the key points the question aligns to so that you 1) you have a clear vision for what you want students to call on from their knowledge base when attempting to answer the question and 2) you are crystal clear on how you need to break this question down to connect to the key points and 3) you have a clear path on how to support a student and know where the point of breakdown is if they are not showing mastery.
- Your coach will be specifically looking for this in your lesson plans this week to provide feedback on.
- Ask the follow up questions of: "How do you know?" "How did you arrive at that answer?" when a student responds to highlight the key points throughout the lesson.
Types of Talk
Goal: 2 minutes of student talk per 5 minutes
RNNE Currently: 1 minute of student talk per 5 minutes.
Progress:
Based on classroom observations and walkthroughs last week:
- Increase in the amount of turn and talks that are taking place in classrooms
- Shout out to Ms. Davis who was named as a highlight classroom on the school walkthrough! She included all of the types of talk in a strategic way during her I Do and had each of them pre-planned for in her lesson plans so that execution of each was seamless in her execution! I am going to set up a video to record one of her I Do's this week and share it out with the team! Keep up the great work, Ms. Davis!
Push:
- Pre-plan turn and talks in your lesson plans so that you are identifying the highest leverage question to have students engage.
- Use this format to increase the amount of thinking and quality of student discussion: Everybody Writes --> turn and talk with a partner ---> discuss as a class/cold call = higher amount of student ratio, thinking and processing
- Everybody Writes can be in the form of dry erase boards on the carpet, double plan notes, etc.
Lesson Plans -
Lesson Plan Submission: Be sure that your lesson plans are submitted on time so that your coach can provide feedback and you have an opportunity to revise before executing them in the classroom.
Teacher-Facing Plans: always have the teacher-facing version of plans with you during your lesson execution so that you are referring back to what you've planned in the lesson cycle as well as in teacher exemplar answers.
Teacher Exemplars: have a teacher exemplar written out for each question that you are posing to students in your lesson plan.
Types of Talk: Code the types of talk that you are including in your lesson plans.
Culture Focus Area
Do It Again/Sweat the Details = 100%
Instill in students their ability to be excellent for themselves and for the future that they want. Do not lower expectations for them or accept anything less than excellent from them. To students, the messages that we convey to them through our words, tone and actions communicate to them the belief and confidence that we have in them to be great.
1.
Have and hold high expectations of 100% for all students.
2. When the expectation is not met fully, immediately have the class/group re-do the expectation so that they understand the value that you place in their education and the urgency in meeting expectations.
3. Use a positive and encouraging tone when having students re-do; use the sentence stems from our Do It Again session on Monday (“That was okay, but I know that you can do it even better…”, “[name of cohort], I know that you show me how to walk in HALLS in even better than that” and one that Ms. Barr shouted Ms. Weber out for – “Try it again. There is nothing wrong with doing it again, it just needs to be better.”
*Be prepared for Coaches to provide “in the moment” coaching to you if/when they recognize a moment in your class where students need to Do It Again – this helps to build your eye and development towards recognizing these moments on your own.
Sweating the Details:
Progress:
From our walkthroughs, there has been some awesome progress made in our staff and student focus on sweating the details!:
-STAR was noticeably tight throughout the building from our school leadership team as well as network visitors. Continue set strong expectations around this and "do it again" when it isn't meeting the bar of excellence.
-Posture - noticeably tighter throughout the building as compared to December's school walkthrough. Continue to set and maintain high expectations around this. I am a huge advocate for children physically presenting themselves in a manner that demands respect from others; this begins with their posture. Don't allow students to slouch or hold their heads down - teach that they are too intelligent and too phenomenal to not be seen as the regal kings and queens that they are. Kings and queens do not hold their heads down nor do they slouch.
-Student to Teacher Tracking was strong throughout the building! Students are so eager to hear what their teachers are sharing and teaching!
Push/Areas that need to be tighter:
-Shirts untucked - this becoming increasingly more apparent. Be sure that throughout your class and each transition you are noticing that all students have their shirts tucked in. If you walk past a line that is not yours, don't hesitate to give reminders to Rocketeers to have their shirts tucked in. This aligns with my philosophy on presenting themselves as regal kings and queens. By reinforcing shirts tucked in as a staff we are conveying the message and importance to them presenting themselves in a professional and clean cut way. They deserve it.
*As Mrs. Rogers shared with us during our first Data Day, if you have a student who has come to school in an unclean (food debris, marker markings, etc.) uniform shirt, please send them down to the front office so that we can give them a clean shirt to wear so that they feel comfortable at school. The front office will take care of calling home if/when a shirt needs to be replaced for this reason.
Peer-to-peer Tracking: Now that we are ramping up increasing the amount of time students are talking in the class, remember to set high expectations around all students tracking their peers when they speak and share out in class. This is one of the highest form of respect that they can give each other; to allow their teammate's voice to be heard and valued.
Report Cards
Parent/Teacher Conferences Days are scheduled for February 4th-5th.
Report Cards will be ready to print on 1/27/16.
100% of Report Card Conferences are expected to be completed by EOD February 19, 2016. Your grade level coach will be checking the status of your conference completion.
If you would like for your coach to join a conference with you, reach out to them as soon as possible so that they can block of time to join.
All report cards must be returned (signed copies only) to Mrs. Rogers no later than 4:30pm on February 19, 2016. It is imperative that we have all signed report cards by this date as they are legal documents that must be filed in each student’s cum file. When we are audited by the district, they check for updated signed report cards.
Each grade level is responsible for printing their report cards.
THANK YOU, Ms. Barr, for creating the Parent Teacher Conference Scheduler! Teachers, be sure to use the document that Ms. Barr created to schedule your conferences.
As parents are calling in up front, Mrs. Rogers and Ms. Vega will also assist with scheduling conferences, so be sure to keep your tab updated as they will schedule conferences where there is an available spot.
Use this week and next week to call home to families to schedule and confirm conference times.
Please refer to Ms. Barr's e-mail regarding being organized and on your game when it comes to parent/teacher conferences.
IF THERE IS A STUDENT WHO HAS NOT HAD A HOME VISIT, ENSURE THAT THIS HOME VISIT AND CONFERENCE TAKES PLACE.
All signed report cards are due to Mrs. Rogers by 4:30pm on Friday, February 19th. Be relentless in communicating and scheduling conferences with parents/families so that they have an accurate mid-year picture of where their Rocketeer is academically.
Bathroom and Halllway Traffic
Bathroom Usage:
There are still a large amount of students in the hallways going to the bathroom. However, these tend to be the same students every day going to the bathroom during the same class/portion of class (ie independent work).
We have to be urgent and dogged about preserving the time that our students are in class learning. They are taking too much time outside of the classroom during core learning times that will show up in negative growth ways on STEP, cumulative assessments, TN Ready and MAP. Preserve the sacredness of your instructional time.
During class restroom breaks, take your entire class to the break and ensure that all students are using the restroom.
Preserve the sacredness of your instructional teaching time. Students should only be allowed to go to the restroom during independent practice only/end of your block. Only one student should allowed out of your classroom at a time. Monitor the time that students are out of the classroom as well.
Remember:
1. There is only one student out at the restroom at a time for your class - during independent practice time only in emergency situations.
2. Any student out of your class must have either the HALL pass or the BATHROOM pass provided Mrs. Welch and the Operations team. *A change needed to be made to the passes, but Mrs. Welch will have these to you ASAP.
3. Be cognizant of how much time Rocketeers are spending out of class so that extended time periods can be immediately followed up on. When students are out in the hallways at the restrooms, a trend has been that they are not being urgent to get to the restroom nor come back to class quickly.
Operations Action Items - From April
Beginning Tuesday, January 19th, car riders: Please have car riders ready to be dismissed from class at 3:45 daily. A member of Support Staff will come to each class to pick them up and escort them to the Cafeteria. Students can or should have a book in their hand so that this transition is in Zone Zero. Please make sure that they have all their belongings and they are ready to go.
Students will not be allowed to go back to their bookbags during their lunch period to get their lunches. Remind students that it's there "core value of RESPONSIBILITY to put their lunches in the bin.
Beginning on Tuesday 01/19/16 please do not put lunch bins in the hallways. Support Staff will enter classrooms during breakfast clean up to collect them. This will help ensure that all lunches are going directly from the classroom straight to the cafeteria. It will also help with lunches they come up missing.
If you have made plans to have students in your classroom during lunch, you are responsible for walking with each student back up from the cafeteria to your room. No students will be sent to classrooms during lunch without a teacher accompanying them.
Dress Code
Purple jackets and sweaters inside of the building,
Build in time for students to get their outerwear coats, hats and gloves before leaving for lunch/recess.
Build in time for students to put their outerwear coats, hats and gloves when coming back from lunch/recess. Be sure to check for 100% dress code compliance after the lunch/recess period with your cohort.
*If the temperature is 35 degrees or below, recess will be held inside.
Teacher Evaluations
Teacher Evaluation meetings will begin taking place with your manager soon. You will receive a specific invite for a Teacher Evaluation meeting in the next few weeks.
(1) A full 1-5 rating scale with data cut-offs for all student achievement and parent metrics is now available. (In the summer we provided the metrics and level 4 rating but not the full 1-5 scale). Rating scale may be found in this powerpoint.
(2) A complete Teaching Performance Rubric that details what a 1-5 rating looks like, in alignment with our updated instructional model is available. The categories are the same as in previous years and what was shared in the summer but there is now a full rubric. You may view the full rubric here.
Dismissal
Weekly Events
Monday:
Teacher Interview Day
Kindergarten Field Trip - Meharry Medical School
2nd Grade Field Trip - Meharry Medical School
Weekly Reports go home
Low/limited School Leader Support - Thomas interviewing all day, Song teaching, Blackwell on Field Trips
Tuesday:
Tom Joy Head Start Visits (60+ visitors) - classrooms
3rd Awards Ceremony - 8:00am
4th Grade Awards Ceremony - 9:00am
Fitness Class - 4:30-5:30pm
Wednesday:
Preston Visits
3rd/4th Grade Field Trip - TSU Basketball Game
Kindergarten Ceremony
1st Grade Awards Ceremony
2nd Grade Awards Ceremony
Fitness Class 4:30-5:30pm
Thursday:
Parent Teacher Conference Day #1
Friday:
Parent Teacher Conference Day #2
School Closing/Snow Days
Planning Committee Interest: Real Men Read
This celebration is relatively low key. We invite men in from various careers, backgrounds and interest areas to come in and read to our students in their classrooms. My threshold goal is to confirm at least one male for each classroom during the 8-10am time period.
If you are interested in helping to plan this event (breakfast for the readers, a tour of the school and coordination of the classroom readers, etc.), then reach out to me via e-mail to let me know. I'm looking for at least 3-5 volunteers to chair the following committees:
- Male Reader Recruitment
- Welcome + Breakfast for the male readers
- Organizing Classroom Assignments for the Male Readers
- Staff Communication about the event
- Parent/Family Communication about the event
- Securing book donations for every Rocketeer to receive a book as a gift from each reader
Below, are some examples of the various ways Real Men Read is implemented in schools throughout the country:
Students Outside of the Classroom
LiveSchool School Report
Let's continue to keep the momentum of our high positive: low negative ratio, positive narration, positive adult tone throughout the building!
Remember to make it habit to give out Core Value Rockets and LiveSchool Positive points to students throughout your instructional block!
As reported in last week's Launcher, be sure to check out our LiveSchool school-wide data from semester 1 and some of our Rockstar teachers!
SHOUT OUT to the top 5 Recording Teachers with strong positive to negative ratio!
Ms. Sanders
Mrs. Harriel
Mrs. Plever
Ms. Koenen
Ms. Barr
WooHoo!!! Keep up the amazing work!
SHOUT OUT to the entire staff for a STRONG positive: negative ratio of 10:1! Let's continue this trend and increase our positive even more!
Yes!!! Let's continue to make our student culture positive, warm and joyful for our Rocketeers! They deserve it!