El Dorado Monday Memo
Week 4 September 9th, 2019
#ToroFamily
Here we are at Week 4! I hope you all had a great weekend. With a great start to our school year and a campus-wide push to try new things, push ourselves and our students to be better every day, it is shaping up to be a great year. I am SO appreciative of all of you and your willingness to push, innovate, reflect, and try new things.
As a kid growing up, I was always very cautious about doing something I wasn't sure I would be successful at. I would observe, study, and learn from those that were "experts" or "professionals", I would practice by myself, out of the eye of anyone. It wasn't until I felt confident in my abilities would I sign up to try something or put myself out there for others to see my abilities. I have had to learn from those around me, including many of you, not to be afraid to try something, even if it's not perfect, even if there is a risk of failure, even if I or it might "suck". Our students are very fortunate to have teachers that allow them to "fail forward" to learn from their mistakes. As we get into helping our students reflect on their learning and track their progress this will become a more and more important message we need to communicate to our students. With progress report time upon us, again our message to students needs to be maybe you weren't successful to start the year, but we believe in you and your abilities and are going to do everything in our power to help you be successful. We will learn together!
Updates for the Week...
First21Days
This is the last week of our #First21Days and as we wind down we will be asking all of you which slides you may want to go back and review with students, which topics need more covering, and/or which slides should we keep or eliminate. Thank you all for your diligence in going through these each day. We really do believe this has helped contribute to our smooth start. Thank you again.
Makeup Pictures
This Wed 9/11 we will be having makeup pictures on the stage in the MU starting 1st period. We are trying to get a list from Lifetouch of students who have not taken their picture and will be sending passes for those students. NO STUDENTS SHOULD BE SENT WITHOUT A PASS COMING FOR THEM. If there is a question about a student taking a makeup picture please let us know. Also, if you did not get your picture taken yet, come down on your prep or let us know and someone can cover your class so you can get your picture taken.
Wednesday 9/11 Evaluation Meeting: For those of you being evaluated this year, we will be having a quick meeting after our RAP meeting in the library.
Counselor's Corner...
Here is a short video and some tips for on-line safety:
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/videos/5-internet-safety-tips-for-kids
- Keep your passwords private, you shouldn't share them with anyone except
your parent/guardian
- Don't accept "friend" requests from people you don't know
- Never give out personal information, i.e. phone number, address, etc. to
anyone online
- Don't post or send pictures you wouldn't want your parent/guardian to see
AVID Weekly...
This Week in AVID September 9, 2019
Our students love having some choice in collaborative partners. A fun strategy to support this is to use an assignment log such as the Partner Appointment Clock or the WICOR Study Buddies Log. Students develop long-term relationships with their partners, which in turn, builds classroom community by creating a safe learning environment for students to take risks. The bonus is that teachers have the ultimate control of who they work with, depending on the task. HERE is a brief explanation of how to get it started in your classroom.
Jeanne M. Johnson
Instructional Coach - AVID, Social Studies & Secondary Literacy
Events, Goals, Links, Etc...
Mon 9/9: Soccer vs Oak Grove @ EDMS B Team 3:30, A Team 4:30
Wed 9/11: Make Up Picture Day
Wed 9/11: PLC Time 1:00-2:00/RAP Meeting 2:00-3:00
Wed 9/11: Evaluation Meeting 3:15 Library
Tues 9/17: ELAC Mtg 5:30
Wed 9/18: PLC Time 1:00-2:00/PLC/Grade Level/Dept. 2:00-3:00
Wed 9/18: PFC Mtg 6:30
Links
El Dorado Middle School
Chris Clausen
@chrisclausen
@edmsinfo
Email: clausenc@mdusd.org
Website: edms.mdusd.org
Location: 1750 West Street, Concord, CA, United States
Phone: 925.682.5700
Twitter: @edmstoros