February 19, 2018
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
Filling Emotional Bank Accounts in February:
Kindness Campaign:
- "Commit to your 7 of 77"- On Friday everyone was given a list of 77 self-nurturing activities that you can do to sharpen the saw. We asked you to circle 7 that you would commit to doing for the next 7 days. Take time each day to sharpen your saw so that you can be the best you can be for your family, your team, and your students!
- "Fill Emotional Bank Accounts or Buckets"- On Friday everyone was given a bucket to place outside their classroom door. Please take a marker or pen around with you this week, and stop to write a word of affirmation to each staff member in the building!
- "Pay it Forward" - Pay it forward this week by treating someone to a Sonic drink or other fun snack, offer to help make their copies or pull resources from the library or leveled library, offer to cover someone's duty, etc.
Fabulous February:
- Monday: Wear jeans with a 7 Hills shirt to PD today
- Tuesday: Wear jeans with a shirt of your choice
- Wednesday: Warm and cozy Wednesday: wear jeans with something cozy and enjoy warm hot coco in the lounge.
- Thursday: Professional dress today.
- Friday: Wear jeans with college colors for Leadership Assemblies. Frozen Friday: enjoy a frozen treat in the lounge.
Attendance Updates and Reminders:
We all know this winter has hit our community hard with illness. Parents are doing a fantastic job returning doctor and personal illness notes. We know the absences have impacted student work this grading period, and your concern is student academic success. If they are not at school, then they cannot learn.
School’s are able to pursue criminal charges against parents for student non-attendance. However, the student must have 10 or more day of UNexcused absences. If parents are providing illness documentation, then they are doing their part.
What can the teacher do to help improve attendance?
Contact the parents when the child is sick. Let them know you miss him/her. This builds a rapport with the parents.
If the student with frequent absences has not arrived to school by 8am, please notify the front office. Wilma, Lecia, or Dora will call the parent to inquire about the child. Many times this has prompted the parent to bring their child to school and the student is not absent that day.
What is the office doing to help?
Every 3 to 4 weeks, Wilma is running Attendance Violation letters and we are sending them out to parents with reminders about personal illness notes and requesting a conference. These violation letters are only sent out to parents of students who have 3 or more UNexcused absences.
When parents contact the school about the conference, depending on the situation, we have an attendance discussion OR parents come to the school, we have the conference, and parents sign an attendance contract - agreeing to their responsibility to get the child to school.
Let us know what help you need. We are here to support you.
Behavior Management:
A few weeks ago, Courtney Sparks and Christa Rusin attended a classroom management training hosted by the district BI’s. Here are some great strategies they learned from that training:
If the student's behaviors warrant extra accommodations beyond tier one support (general classroom management), they should go into the RTI process for behavior.
Are your students still asking what time is lunch or when do we go home? Post your schedule that is large enough and easy enough for the students to read.
Make sure your students still know all of the procedures even at this time of year. It may be beneficial to review them.
Have a list of predetermined consequences for undesirable behaviors. The consequence needs to be relevant to the behavior. Ex: If a student is being disrespectful, they would need to do something that is respectful.
A hallway procedure called the silent soldier could easily be implemented. Tell students you are looking for a silent soldier whenever it is time to transition from the classroom. Choose a student that is following hallway procedures and they earn a sticker or paper reward that says they were the silent soldier.
We loved the idea of the good behavior game. It is an evidence based classroom management tool that focuses on teamwork. If anyone wants more information we can give more information, or they can reach out to Marc Charbonnet.
The second training the BI’s are doing is on Wednesday, February 21, 2018. This is a full-day training on the use of reinforcement with the afternoon time being used as a make-and-take for teachers to develop tools to use in the classroom. The morning is a traditional training session. We will be sending some teachers from Seven Hills to this training. Please let us know if you are interested in attending as well. We know this is short notice. If you are interested, please contact Leslie Russell.
Seven Hills is Managing the Whirlwind and Focusing on the Wildly Important!
It's Time to Update Student WIGs for the 5th Grading Period:
- Students need to have new WIGs set by the end of the week.
- What is the most appropriate WIG for the student? Text level? Proficiency level based on CBA, DRA, Lexia, Imagine Math, Benchmark data? Rubric based? 3-5, the next 12 weeks would be highly appropriate to focus WIGs on TEKS/skills that are preventing students from being successful on CBAs and Benchmarks.
- For students with proficiency WIGS, these are best for focusing on specific skills, and can be highly effective for students meeting expectations, but lacking consistency.
- For students with WIGs focused on math problem solving or DRA Rubrics, the rubric should be used in the assessment, and I encourage you to give students a copy of the rubric so they know what they are working toward.
- Remember, students should have one lead measure they can personally influence. Is this the lead measure that will have the greatest potential to move them forward? Is it predictive? Is there a frequency of occurrence assigned?
- Tier II and III students should have teacher influencable lead measures as well. These should be predictive and have a frequency of occurrence. This is likely where you are adding lead measures for guided reading groups, LLI groups, etc. In your plans for working with these students, make sure you are adding the strategy you are working on. For example, scooping words.
- Lexia can, and probably should, be a lead measure for all students. Please make sure you are including the target minutes and a goal for units gained in the lead measure. Remember, units can be completed in about 10 minutes. So, it would be reasonable for a student with a target goal of 60 minutes to gain 6 units in a week.
- Imagine Math can be a lead measure, if monitored in the same way Lexia is.
- Students need to know their progress toward the goal each week. They need to step on the scale so to speak. When they know their weekly text level or proficiency level, they can complete their scoreboard.
- We will continue WIG Walks with our walk through form. Teachers receive an email after we complete each walk. It is important that you review the data shared so that you can make any adjustments necessary for specific students. As part of her LEAP project, Q is going to be helping us with our walks.
- The walks completed by our guests last week will be placed in teacher mailboxes on Monday.
- 2nd grade is experiencing great success with their accountability partner conversations. The questions each student asks are pictured below. Thank you for sharing this with the campus!
Applying Habit 4 to Our Whirlwind and Wildly Important
Remember, in order for us to help others see themselves as leaders, we must see ourselves as leaders first. We must understand and apply the habits and the 4 disciplines to our personal and professional lives. I have come to make some pretty great connections between Habit 4 and 4Dx t his year. We touched on this briefly on Friday, and I hope you will read my thoughts below so that you can make additional connections.
“People who live by the character ethic have strong roots, deep roots. They withstand the stress of life, and they keep growing and progressing.”
- Stephen Covey -
Common Paradigm:
- To compare, compete and feel threatened by other people’s successes.
Highly Effective Paradigm:
- When we have an abundance mentality, we are not threatened by other’s success because we are secure in our own self-worth.
- We are confident in our efforts to achieve the Wildly Important.
- We can recognize that other’s successes don’t mean we are destined for failure. We know there is more than enough “pie” for everyone.
Sometimes the data isn’t what we hoped for. This is true for students, teachers, grade levels, and the campus. For this reason, it is important for a 4Dx organization to always operate in an abundance mentality. It is important that we be so convicted by our actions and efforts toward achieving the Wildly Important, that our efficacy push us to look at what the data tells us (openly and honestly), and make the necessary adjustments and commitments to continue to press on (making the changes necessary, and not rest content with “what we have always done” – especially if it isn’t getting the results we desire). When we fully implement Discipline 4 and adopt an Abundance Mentality, it’s a Win-Win! We don’t get defeated (at least not for too long anyway), we press on, and students achieve! Win-Win!
Remember JFK’s speech? Remember the part about the more you learn, the more you realize what you don’t know (I know…not his exact words…but you know what I am talking about, right?)? We are learning so much as we work through the full implementation of 4Dx, yet at every turn we recognize a new point of learning or growth. We are gaining momentum with implementing Discipline 4 with students, and we are definitely seeing Discipline 4 come to life in PLCs, but there is more to this accountability game…especially at the campus level. How are we checking to see if we are winning or losing the game? The campus WIG game, including the proficiency standard components for all content areas? Discipline 4 has to be practiced at all levels. We have to drop the Scarcity Mentality and say, “GAME ON!”
We are in the toughest 12 weeks of the year. We are working to bring data to the forefront so that we are fully engaged in Discipline 4 as a campus. We will be sending ILT, grade levels, and even individual teachers data…progress data, comparative data, cumulative data….multiple types of data. Some will be a quick look at current progress…for example, Lexia and Imagine Math usage. Others will be more detailed looks, for example CBA comparisons. It is extremely important that you know that it is my belief and whole heart that we are in this game together. We are a team. If we don’t hold each other accountable, the raging, dysfunctional whirlwind will take over, limiting our capacity to achieve the HIGHLY EFFECTIVE WHIRLWIND and the WILDLY IMPORTANT! I need your everyone's help championing this for your teams, your students, and yourselves. When the data is sent and it may not reflect what you hoped for, we must embrace the Abundance Mentality and fully engage in Discipline 4 to see what our next steps should be. So, I ask you…can you support your teams in this way? What do you need from me to be successful? Please let me know…I want to help!
Campus Lesson Plan Expectations
PLC Learning Cycle
Learning Cycle Template
Are We Living By Design or Default?
Hope is not a strategy….so...what is a strategy to achieve the wildly important and maintain a highly effective whirlwind? YEP...The PLC Learning Cycle and effective planning! You spent time on Friday carefully considering both. And, we all collectively agreed that it is best to step on the scale now than wait until May and August. So, lets step up and respond to what the numbers show! Remember, it is my expectation that we focus our emotional and physical energy on a high functioning whirlwind and the wildly important.
The ideas presented on Friday and reviewed below should guide your team's work in PLCs on Monday afternoon.
PLC Learning Cycle:
What do you notice about your team’s progress with/through the PLC Learning Cycle so far?
What are we doing well with our PLC Learning Cycle?
What has been the most component to implement? Is there a common pitfall that you notice? Does this surprise you? Why? What might you do to get out of “the pit?”
Do you believe your work to date reflects the the campus wildly important and a high functioning whirlwind? Can you tell if your work is helping us win the game? What data might you need to consider?
Are you keeping your commitments? If not, what is preventing you? What are the barriers that you have influence over?
What have we missed the mark on? What do we as a campus, you as a team, and you as an individual need to do better?
After answering these questions, what "Do" commitments need to be reviewed? Where does your team need to begin the work on Monday afternoon?
Effective Planning:
What does effective planning look like? Sound like? Feel like?
How far out should you plan? What should your plans be built on? (TEKS, Curriculum etc.)
What do you bring to planning?
Who should participate in planning?
After reviewing the PLC Learning Cycle and the campus lesson plan expectations, do your norms need adjusting? If you make adjustments, please take a picture and send to Hayley.
Campus Lesson Plan Expectations:
- See the picture above for a reminder about campus lesson plan expectations or follow this link to the campus handbook: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B_clO5ABRzk_dTh0ay02ZWZNNEE
- Planning with Instructional Coaches: We have been gifted a level of math coach support that is not afforded to other campuses. Please make sure you are using this time effectively, in order to make the greatest impact on student achievement. Reflective questions as you engage in this planning..."Are you using the opportunity to plan with coaches to yield the greatest results? Are you only looking at one lesson each week, or are you planning problem solving block, how to spiral review hot spot standards, backward designing based on pre-tests and CBAs, etc.? Are you bringing plans from Origo with marked up questions, etc. to discuss and get more clarity?"
Next Steps for Your Team/Content Area: (First work, then celebrations!)
What next steps do we need to take when working toward our campus WIG and ensuring a high functioning whirlwind?
What data do you need to consider today to either review the results of your commitments or move into the next cycle?
DRA (How are you using the focus for instruction to guide next steps?)
Lexia (How are you using this to set student WIGS?)
Imagine Math (Based on new learning, how can you use this as a progress monitoring and intervention tool?)
CBAs (Are you backward designing based on CBAs? Are you using CBA data to identify hot spot TEKS for spiral review through a short cycle assessment approach?)
Benchmarks (What is your plan to deconstruct the assessment? Have you identified bright spots? What instructional approach worked to make these bright spots? How can you apply that approach to turn hot spots into bright spots? What is your plan for spiral review of hot spot standards through short cycle assessments?)
How are you measuring growth toward the WIG or of the commitment made in PLCs for individual students, the grade level, the campus? How often do we need to be measuring?
What are your next steps in planning based on the discussion around the PLC Learning Cycle?
Are you designing meaningful and relevant tasks that engage students during the work period? Do you have appropriate scaffolds build in?
Make commitments. Plan. Implement. Review. Revise. Make commitments. Plan. Implement. Review. Revise. :).
Habit Focus for the Week: Habit 6 Sharpen the Saw
How do you renew yourself?
Are you too busy to take care of yourself?
Do you take time to celebrate your own victories?
Community Leadership Day and Career Day Event:
- a presentation about what they have learned about the role their leader plays in the community.
- Possibly some specific information about contributions their leader has made to our community.
- Questions to ask your leader.
- Presentation about how we are learning to be leaders at 7 Hills.
- Decorate your classroom door to honor your community leader.
You will have approximately one hour to share your learning and learn from your leader.
We will have an adjusted schedule on this day, and more information will be shared soon. Your patience, flexibility, and excitement is appreciated.
Wonder
Precept for the Week: will be shared on Monday
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
4th Grading Period Data Update: Continuing to see where we are in the game is important. It’s time to gather that score for the 4th grading period. Make sure you update the Student Accountability Document with BOTH current TL for students AND WIG achievement. If you need help finding those locations, email Leslie or Hayley.
- Building Safety Reminders: Leaders, building safety is highly important. This week, I noticed an exterior door propped open before 7:40am. We understand that not all entrances have a badge entry, however, those doors should not be propped open at any time during any day. This leaves the building vulnerable to anybody or anything that may be walking around outside. It is best practice to only enter the building through badge entries. If you are wanting to open a non-badge entry for a teammate before 7:40am, please walk to the door to open it up. This is also a good time to remind your students and spouses that exterior doors, expect recess doors, should not be opened for anyone. All campus visitors, including district staff, should be entering the building through the front office. There are signs on each door with this reminder. Thank you for helping to keep everyone safe.
- Technology Usage: The district devices were purchased to support high quality instruction and student learning. Through walk-throughs and in looking at Go-Guardian, we are becoming increasingly aware of usage that does not support instructional purposes. Students have been using devices to watch wide range of YouTube videos, play a variety of non-instructional games, and listen to music (some of which has been reported as highly inappropriate). Additionally, students are frequently accessing personal devices during the school day for non-instructional purposes. Because we have district devices available, there should not be a need for students to access their personal devices during the school day. It is my expectation that you take time to reflect on student technology usage in your classroom. How much screen time is afforded students? Is this screen time limited to instructional use such as Imagine Math, Lexia, research? Do you allow for device usage during PAT time? If so, do you pre-determine what students are allowed to access? What are your practices to ensure student appropriate usage of devices? How do you monitor usage? Do you need to have a conversation with students about appropriate usage? Do you need an administrator to support this conversation? Technology is not a babysitter. Students should be engaged in an instructional task when on any device during the school day. Thank you for your careful attention to this expectation.
- TELPAS: The window to collect TELPAS Writing samples opens on Monday, February 12.
Save the Date:
February 19:
- District PD and Campus PLCs
February 21:
- Math planning with curriculum coaches K-2.
- Spring Picture Day (schedule coming soon)
February 22:
- Learning Teams Meeting, 3:15 - 4:00. We will end at 4 so that we can make it to EXPO in time.
- EXPO
February 23:
- PTA Luncheon hosted by 1st and 4th grade families
- Leadership Assemblies (K-2 8:00, 3-5 8:30)
- College Colors Day for students and staff
- Scoreboard updated
- Student WIG progress updated in Student Achievement Google Document
- SST A
Happy Birthday to You:
Kim Blackburn 2/21
Felicia Hall 2/23
Kim Guenther 2/24