Saturday Scoop
For Information and Inspiration
Our Collective Work
Consistent Curriculum Implementation In All Classrooms
Meaningful Feedback to Students and Teachers
Social Emotional Learning
Weekly Message
We made it! Thanks for all your hard work transitioning kids back from the break. I know that all you do to support students with reteaching expectations and just showing them love really goes a long way. I really believe that the work we do changes lives. I see it in the students I got to work with this week. They love their teachers and they will remember you forever.
We have our Young Audiences assembly on Friday and then on the 31st is the dance assembly. We will not use the assembly schedule for either of these events as the assemblies are longer. I know it will hit 4th grade plan time both times, so the specialists will help cover 4th if they'd like to step out and take their plan time during parts of either assembly.
Between now and spring break is the best time of the year in my opinion. The kids come back a little more mature and a little more relaxed so they're in the perfect mindset for learning. We also have all this uninterrupted time to teach! I was so impressed when I visited 5th grade this week to see how they had just dived right back into Fosnot. Kids were engaged in making marathon maps and they were seeing fractions in context. Kudos 5th grade for hitting the ground running.
Warm regards,
Jennifer
Math Lesson Studies
Grand Conversations
Amazing Opportunities in Elementary ELA
There are two exciting opportunities coming up for teachers in the spring. The first is the 4th grade Reading Cohort. They will be working on Connecting the Reading Pre-Assessment in the UofS and aligning instructional practices to support reading growth. If you join, you will receive a tub of graphic novels worth $1000 in anticipation of the release of the new unit on Graphic Novels. The second opportunity is for 1 intermediate and 1 primary teacher to join the PreK-5 Writing Cohort. These teachers will be involved in Connecting the Reading Pre-Assessment in the UofS and aligning instructional practices to support reading growth. They will be able to attend a conference in April with Cornelius Minor who is an amazing champion for equity and inclusion. His book is in my office if you'd like a preview, but you'll be getting your own copy as well. I need to let the district know by Thursday who our representatives will be. If you're interested, send me an email. These three positions sound so fun! Please read the information below and let me know right away!
Math Tips from the T & L Tuesday
You may have seen these resources in the T & L Tuesday. I just wanted to include them again here because I found they were so helpful. It's always great to have some ready-made resources and reminders for getting back into math workshop.
I also wanted to make sure everyone had seen the resources for report cards as we start to think that that direction. The most important thing in the report card guide is the parent letters. They are coming in Spanish as well. Since we are no longer sending paper report cards, we will want to think about how to get these in parents' hand. Possibly via a Synergy email, or you could print the parent guide and send it home later in January.
Relaunching Ideas to Start 2020! - these are some ideas to help your students get back into the swing of math workshop.
Parent Guide to Report Cards - this guide, which you can access from the “Report Card Resources” tab on the math website, is to help you communicate with parents about the report card changes.
Dream Box Updates
- we more than doubled the amount of lessons our students completed
- we have increased the number of standards progressed in by almost the same amount
- 6 of our elementary teachers had 100% of their classes completing at least 5 lessons and 2 more were at 99%
The only thing we want to be careful about is the amount of time in class students are spending. The district recommendation is about 20 minutes per day. It is completely appropriate for students to complete lessons for homework. If you have students who need help getting access at home, Jane can get them set up. I'm attaching Sarah's statistics for top students per class. It might be good to give them a high five.
Mid-year Check Ins
Planning Tool from Kristie
Advance to Teacher Program
Advance to elementary teacher in just two years
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In partnership with Oregon State University, we provide a Master of Arts in Teaching degree program (bachelor’s degree required). Opportunities provided for both dual language (Spanish) instruction and English only instruction placements.
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Learn how you can become a teacher. Apply by February 1, 2020.
Staff Shout Outs!
- Lisa and the second grade team for their flexibility as we untangle kids
- Alaina and Teddy for making a seamless transition to our team this week
- Antionette and Maria for always making breakfast and lunch go so smoothly
- Val and Chris for having our building beautiful and ready to go after break
- Max for not freaking out at his "intervention" meeting and always having leadership kiddos to help out wherever needed.
- Kelly for having a big heart and always looking for creative ways to help kids
- Colleen for her patience with the ODS process - HOLY COW!
- Denise for checking in and organizing even while she's not feeling well
Action Items All in One Place
- plan a sub release time with Amy Tipelin and fill in this google doc by January 24th
- prepare sub plans for our next math lesson study. Here's the schedule
- print most current Status of the Class report from IRLA after report cards