AD Connect
April 29th 2019
Hiring Resources
PLT Teams
I sent an email yesterday about the first Principal Leadership Team meeting and to identify which committee representatives will represent you. I am including that list again here for your convenience. The first meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, with the purpose of soliciting input in order to define the characters of a GISD principal to help develop professional learning and hiring plans for our leaders.
Discipline Suggestions
A number of our campuses have experienced a tremendous decrease in discipline incidents and exclusionary discipline this year. Their intentional efforts have not only created a safe learning environment and developed the social skills of students, but they have increased instructional time by keeping students in the classroom. Below are some ideas to consider:
Southgate Elementary instituted “Parent ISS” where parents are offered the opportunity to join their students in the classroom for a day rather than assigning the student ISS or OSS. It’s a great way to build a partnership with parents and show students we are working together.
Couch and Toler Elementary are developing a “reset room” to help students de-escalate and learn self-regulation strategies. These strategies will be employed all throughout the school with all students, and the reset room will be used for more intense 1:1 support (here are pictures that might inspire some ideas).
Sewell: The leadership at Sewell has spent the las few years providing PD and shoring up their RtI systems for behavior management. The following links are products of that work. RtI for behavior management . Positive Office Referrals
Rather than removing students from the classroom, Southgate Elementary uses “Thursday School” as a consequence. Students stay after school from 3:30-5:30, and administration encourages parent support by assuring them a student’s record isn’t negatively impacted as it would be with ISS and OSS.
Onboarding New Staff
You have worked so hard this year to provide meaningful learning for your staff. Whether it’s quality lesson planning, weekly data meetings, aggressive monitoring, or restorative practices, you certainly are planning to take this learning to a new level next year. But what about your new hires? How will you provide them a baseline of knowledge and understanding so they can grow with the rest of your staff?
Intentionally planning for onboarding new hires will not only help them successfully transition to your team, but it will ensure the students on your campus have the best teacher possible for the 2019-20 school year. Below are suggested strategies to employ for new team members as soon as they are hired, giving them time to read, process, and understand prior to August professional development:
Record teachers who are currently implementing the new learning in their classroom to use as a model for new teachers
Create a Google classroom that includes resources, documents, videos, and links to key learning and staff expectations
Provide them contact information for key staff members, including a few go-to individuals who serve as leaders among your staff
Give copies of campus handbooks and other important documents
Create a welcome basket to celebrate them joining your team; possibly include spirit wear, campus bumper stickers or magnets, personalized stationery, and a book you would like them to read over the summer
Principal EOY Checklist
SSI Next Steps
As we receive 5th grade scores, it’s imperative we immediately take action and provide non-passers with everything possible to help them pass in round two. Consider the following:
Review the results and rearrange groups, effective asap, and provide non-passers with the best reading and math teachers you have available
Utilize as much of the instructional day for science as possible; utilize mock results to plan re-teach lessons, revisit science content from the fall, and review STAAR tested SE’s from prior grades
Here are resources we provided to campuses last year to differentiate support for the various groups of students
Toler Elementary administration is planning to conference 1:1 with students who didn’t pass, focusing on their individual growth goals and how close they came to reaching it. This provides opportunities to celebrate gains with each student and makes the task of retesting less daunting
Science Resources
Celebrations
Last week I included a reminder to celebrate staff success. Often, we wait until traditional milestones to do this, including an end of year meeting. However, right now is a great time to do this. As your teachers move into the last month of school and final STAAR testing, what better time to provide them a shot in the arm to boost spirits and motivation? Not only will it help your teams during the final stretch, it will also make you feel better.
Here is a sample campus celebration PPT you might want to use. The presentation is quite simple and didn’t include granular level data, just the highlights of the most significant gains. It also included a number of parent/student quotes and anecdotes to personalize the data gains.
April 29-Pick up service pins in HR
May 1-CoolClix Luncheon, Principal Leadership Team meeting
May 3-Consolidated Performance Assessment for T-PESS due, School Lunch Hero Day
May 6-GISD Retirement Celebration
May 8-Deadline for T-TESS summative evaluations, School Nurse Appreciation Day
May 10-Council of PTA Luncheon
May 13-3rd & 4th Math STAAR
May 14-3rd & 4th Reading STAAR
May 16-Last day of intervention
May 22-MAP window closes
May 30-CIT Election deadline (WAIP 4/26)
June 13-Title I Capital Outlay, Personnel Requests, and Technology Requests due (WAIP 4/18)
June 17-TEA Principal Survey due (WAIP 4/18)