Monclova Primary
Weekly Bulletin
Events for Week of February 25 - March 3
Monday, February 25
Fruit Tray from the District Wellness Committee - 8:00 am - Lounge
Fire Drill - 1:45 pm
Tuesday, February 26
2nd Grade IOWA Testing
Parenting in the Digital Age - 6:30 pm
Wednesday, February 27
2nd Grade IOWA Testing
Spring Pictures - see shared schedule
Thursday, February 28
2nd Grade IOWA Testing
Admin Meeting - 9:00 - 11:00 am (Betsey out)
K-1 Dental Visits - see shared schedule
Friday, March 1
2nd Grade IOWA Testing
Announcements
Thank you:
Staff that opened up their classroom to BGSU students on Thursday. Your professionalism and teaching is definitely something I want others to see!
Nicole, Michelle and Chris for presenting at the staff meeting. You guys are great resources for the staff in so many areas!
Jillian Pellek for obtaining a 5 out of 5 star rating in Step Up to Quality. This was Monclova and Jillian's first time going through the process. It is a ton of work and the rating is well deserved! Great job, Miss Jillian and team! Check out what this means: http://education.ohio.gov/Topics/Early-Learning/Step-Up-To-Quality-SUTQ
Reminders:
Spring pictures are Wednesday please remind your families through class communications. Also, ordering is online, only, this year.
Tuesday is our rescheduled date for the "Parenting in the Digital Age." Please continue to share the flyer for the event.
It is very important that you get your absent forms for turned in as soon as you are back from a sick day. Also, if you need to submit for a personal day, it must be done at least a day or two in advance or it will not be approved. Emergency situations will be treated differently.
As we are halfway through the 3rd quarter, make sure that any of your students with intense academic concerns are have been communicated to parents. Any conferences can be logged as part of the required extra three hours. If you have finished the 3 hours, please turn them in to me for documentation.
Words of Wisdom and Action..............................
Below is a great reminder of why we focus so much on culture in our district and building. Each year we talk about the importance of building relationships with your students, peers and families. These relationships which lead to our teaching of non-cognitive skills has the biggest impact on students. These skills are woven into daily lessons, conversations and student interactions with mindfulness, growth mindset, 21st century skills and PBIS.
Understanding a Teacher’s Long-Term Impact - By Youki Terada February 4, 2019
Fostering skills like self-regulation does more to improve students’ future outcomes than helping them raise their test scores.
As every teacher knows, they teach not just content but a range of skills students will need to be successful as adults. A recent study shows just how important fostering those skills is: Teachers who help students improve non-cognitive skills such as self-regulation raise their grades and likelihood of graduating from high school more than teachers who help them improve their standardized test scores do.
“Good teachers may affect students much more broadly than through their impact on achievement test scores,” explains the study’s author, C. Kirabo Jackson, an economics professor at Northwestern University.
Looking at data on over 570,000 students in North Carolina, Jackson found that ninth-grade teachers who improved their students’ noncognitive skills—which include motivation and the ability to adapt to new situations, as well as self-regulation—had important impacts on those students: They were more likely to have higher attendance and grades and to graduate than their peers. They were also less likely to be suspended and to be held back a grade. These benefits persisted throughout high school.
The problem, Jackson points out, is that the skills that are valuable for future success aren’t usually measured on tests. And while teachers are often praised for their ability to raise test scores, Jackson’s analysis shows that teachers who improve student behaviors such as attendance yield better long-term outcomes for those students. Jackson found that an increase in measures of students’ noncognitive skills increased their likelihood of graduating from high school by 1.47 percentage points, compared to 0.12 percentage points for a similar increase in test scores.
Coupled with the other long-term outcomes found in the study, this adds to the growing body of research showing the impact of developing students’ non-cognitive skills.
MEASURING HOW TEACHERS MATTER
Compared to any other aspect of schooling, teachers have the greatest impacton student achievement. A well-trained teacher is likely to send more students to college, and can boost a class’s lifetime income by $250,000.
Test scores “capture only a fraction” of what teachers are capable of, according to Jackson, who points out that teachers play an important role in the overall well-being of students—though that may not be immediately observable. A 2015 study found that promoting students’ social and emotional well-being resulted in significant long-term economic gains—a return of $11 for every $1 invested—largely from better outcomes in students’ long-term health, education, and employment, and a decreased likelihood of juvenile and adult crime.
“Not every skill needed in adulthood is well captured by performance on achievement tests,” Jackson writes. If we measure the value of a teacher simply by how much they raise test scores, we may lose sight of the bigger picture.
THE SCIENCE OF LEARNING
New research in the fields of neuroscience and psychology helps explain why improving non-cognitive skills has long-term benefits.
“The science says to us that, in fact, the way the brain functions and grows, it needs safety, it needs warmth, it actually even needs hugs,” Stanford professor Linda Darling-Hammond said in a recent interview. “We actually learn in a state of positive emotion much more effectively than we can learn in a state of negative emotion. That has huge implications for what we do in schools.”
In 2017, when we asked our readers to describe the traits of a life-changing teacher, very few of the responses were about test scores or academics. People overwhelmingly said that great teachers make their students feel safe and loved, believe in their students, model patience, and help their students reach their full potential—all qualities that remain largely unmeasured.
And students’ long-term success is often less about academics than behavior. Research shows that when students drop out of high school, it’s usually for disciplinary reasons or factors such as financial issues or family needs. Even when students drop out for academic reasons, it’s often due to a lack of engagement. So the best way to keep students in school isn’t necessarily to help them improve their test scores—helping them feel like they belong may have a bigger impact.
The takeaway: Measuring the full value of a teacher goes well beyond their impact on test scores. Teachers who improve students’ non-cognitive skills also improve long-term outcomes that include their odds of graduating from high school.