Cordata Weekly Bulletin
1/2/2019
Happy New Year, Cordata family!
Welcome back, team! I hope that you all feel refreshed after these 2+ weeks away! I know that you'll have children who are very excited to see you and one another this morning!
The week ahead - 1/2 - 1/4
We are continuing a focus on hallway behaviors as suggested by our Behavior Data Team after reviewing school-wide office referral data. Remember, the team is asking that we take a couple of weeks to reteach and practice expected behaviors in the hallway. This includes walking, using a level 0 or 1 voice, and enjoying student work in the hallways with eyes but not hands. Please take some time to reteach and reinforce. Folders with behavior expectations lessons and posters can be found on the intranet, in the Positive Behavior Supports folder. Just click here.
In general, this first week back is a good time to review the essentials of expected behavior. Below is the outline from the SEL calendar:
· All general ed teachers – Review hallway and bathroom expectations
· All specialists – review the safe, responsible and respectful expected behaviors in your learning environment
· All general ed teacher – Review Zones of Regulation
o Use The Zones in Me lesson (pp56-58 in Zones) if you have not already done so. Consider reflecting on experiences over the break, and feelings about returning to school.
o This lesson is an opportunity to review language including expected and unexpected behavior, good thoughts and uncomfortable thoughts.
o primary teachers – reinforce Zones language through connections in children’s literature – consider the collection of books in the library for this purpose.
o intermediate teachers – use the lesson Caution! Triggers Ahead pp 92-94 in Zones
Upcoming Dates
- Dec. 10 - January 11 - Reteach and practice expected hallway behaviors
- Jan. 7 - 2:45-3:45 - Firm and Kind committee meeting
- Jan 7 - Feb 8 - Assessment window opens - see winter column of district assessment schedule below
- Jan. 8 - 2:45-3:45 - Staff meeting in the library
- Jan. 15 - 2:45 - 4:00 - SECOND Tech Integration session for all Cordata cert staff
- Jan. 17 - 1:00-3:00 - 2nd grade SGC
- Jan. 21 - Martin Luther King, Jr. Day - no school for staff or students
- Jan. 24 - 2:00-3:00 - Cert staff PD and collaboration time
- Jan. 28 - 2:45-3:45 - Firm and Kind committee (this is a change from previously published Jan. 21)
- Jan. 29 - Teacher work day between semesters - no school for students or classified staff
- Jan. 31 - 1:00-3:00 - 1st grade SGC
- Feb. 5 - 2:45-3:45 - Staff meeting in the library
- Feb. 7 - 1:00-3:00 - Kinder SGC
- Feb. 11 - 2:45-3:45 - Firm and Kind committee meeting (This is a change from previously published Feb. 4)
- Feb. 14 - 2:00-3:00 - Cert staff PD and collaboration time
- Feb. 21 - 1:00-3:00 - 4th grade SGC
- Feb. 28 - 1:00-3:00 - 3rd grade SGC
- March 7 - 1:00-3:00 - 5th grade SGC
- March 19 - 2:45-4:00 - THIRD Tech Integration session for all Cordata cert staff
- April 23 - 2:45-2:00 - FOURTH Tech Integration session for all Cordata cert staff
Other News and Information
I'd like to challenge every adult to notice and support our students' and teachers' efforts to reteach and practice expected hallway behavior! When you see individuals or a whole class meeting the expectations, give them some specific feedback. Instead of "great job," try . . .
- Wow, you're staying so quiet in the hallways, the other classes can really focus on learning when you are so quiet.
- Thanks for walking, it helps our hallways feel really safe!
- . . . or something like that.
Teachers, maybe you'll want to set a goal for your class after receiving a certain number of compliments?!
- Let's think about printing for a minute . . . Did you know that ___ % of our budget goes to printing costs annually? This includes toner for ink cartridges, paper, copier costs, etc. One way that we can reduce these costs is to reduce the number of laser printers, each requiring individual toner refills, in our building. Now that we no longer have a computer lab, we are trying something new. A shared printer for the upstairs classrooms will reside in the pull-out at the top of the middle stairs. Over time, I would like to move away from having laser printers in each classroom, and towards having shared printers in several hallway locations. Please give this some thought, and discuss with your colleagues. How might this help our overall budget? What questions and concerns do you have?
- Just before winter break, I gave our cert staff a reminder about completing the Individual Staff Development paperwork. Thank you for doing that as soon as possible! One additional request - if you are selecting to pay yourself for time outside of the contract day, or to pay for sub release time, please include a note indicating how you plan to use this time. Thanks!
- As you can see in the upcoming dates and info above, we have a district assessment window opening up next week. In addition to the district assessment listed in the table, the ELPA (our state assessment for English Language Learners ) will open up in early February. Like last year, we will be working on a schedule that allows Shannon and Kanwaljit to assess our ELL's over about a 2 week time frame. Watch for more information to come...
- With the assessment window just ahead, the MTSS team has set up the following schedule for SGC meetings. We are continuing to plan for these meetings on Thursday afternoons, with one hour of the meeting time being paid as additional (because it moves your planning time outside the contract day). If a team prefers, we can schedule during the school day with sub release. Grade level teams, please take a look at the proposed Thursday dates and if you see problems, please let me know ASAP so that we can adjust:
January 17: 2nd grade
January 31: 1st grade
February 7: Kindergarten
February 21: 4th grade
February 28: 3rd grade
March 7: 5th grade
In closing . . .
Shortly before our winter break, Shannon introduced us to this website from Brown University, which speaks to the what, why, and how of culturally responsive teaching. As our students return to our classrooms, having spent two solid weeks with their families and away from their school culture, it is a good opportunity to remind ourselves about the assets that students bring to school from their home cultures! How can we tap into these assets in order to make our classrooms safe places for risk taking for all students?