Principal's Newsletter
November 11th, 2016
WOWs
WOW to my 3rd grade team for always supporting and never judging. It's nice to laugh through every struggle. Kristen Cuneo
WOW to Megan Baker for making copies of the teachers guide for the LLI intervention groups. And for putting all the online resources on google. It has made starting interventions much easier. -Drew Moersch
WOW to Michele Kelly for answering all of my first year teacher questions and to my entire team for being patient with me as I'm learning everything. -Drew Moersch
WOW to Linda Carr for going out and buying our class birthday cupcakes for Jesse’s birthday! It was so thoughtful of you and his smile was priceless! –Christina Pliske
WOW to Melissa Barth for sharing the idea of "Fifties Day" with the kindergarten team. It has become one of our favorite traditions.--Maggie
WOW to Susan Gorris for doing such a great job running The Good Manners Club. If you ever retire we are going to need you to stop by on Friday afternoons!--Maggie
HUGE WOW to Kelly Edwards, Lindsey Stark, Kristen Schrameyer and Melissa Barth for making it possible for me to run out the door when Morgan got hurt at school. You ladies all helped me without hesitation. I ran out the door feeling very grateful for the friends I have at The Ridge.--Maggie
WOW to Karen Brockland for her selfless love and dedication to all of our students and for her willingness to always jump in and help where needed without hesitation. WAY TO GO!--Lauren Goodall
WOW to Krystal Hollingsworth who is always willing to lend a helping hand and for doing a great job building relationships with our students. You're a great addition to the team and we are so happy to work with you.--Lauren Goodall
WOW to Julie, who always makes sure I can go to lunch on time! Thank you!--Megan Brown
WOW to anyone and everyone who helped out on the days when all the administrators were out. We hate to be away, but we love to learn too. Thanks for covering for us.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to our SPED paras! Harvest Ridge really does have the best paras around. Thanks for all that you do for our kiddos.- Dr. DeWeese
WOW to the Character Committee for putting together a great presentation for the faculty meeting. --Dr.DeWeese
WOW to Linda Murphy for going to the ends of the earth for students and for teachers. --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Maggie McCarthy for always having a caring spirit.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Kody and Shelly for another great PD session.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Karen Brockand for her willingness to always jump in and help with a difficult situation.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Rita Lupo for helping to motivate a usually unmotivated student!--Megan Brown
WOW to Kody and Cheri for hosting the STUCO collection for Special Olympics. We were able to donate $1000 to the cause. --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Ruth for reading with one of my first graders every day!--Joann Jeffreys
WOW to my practicum student, Meredith Lecrone, for coming in on her "day off" to photograph our class in their Book Character costumes. ANOTHER Wow for copying, holepunching, and assembling the LLI binder for intervention. So glad to have your help!--Donna Baeten
WOW to Angie Regan for facilitating our interventions: what students went into what groups with which teachers and where, including any final testing. Thank you!-_Donna Baeten
WOW to Megan Baker for copying off the whole LLI manual plus supplementary files for Drew and I, plus making google drive files for us of additional resources. We appreciate it so much.--Donna Baeten
WOW to Ruth Zerface for taking the time to read with a first grade student. The student really enjoys the time spent reading with you. This time allows her the opportunity to practice her fluency and it also allows her to complete her classroom reading log. She is so proud that she is now earning the recognition that all her other classmates have been earning. Thanks so much for being a part of her village!! --Jodi Fitzgerald
Thank you to Latonya for jumping in on one of those days when my computer died and she gave me her computer to complete the class. Then she jumped in to help fix my computer and to help with a high needs student who was deregulated in class. –Sherry Reagan
WOW to Kristen Cuneo for organizing Kids Vote and WOW to Shanna Bradley for giving up the library all day.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to the person that left me the candy apples on my desk one day with the note of appreciation. It was a much needed treat!--Dr. DeWeese
Thanks so much to Karen Brockland for her advice and help concerning students with behavioral concerns. She is always willing to jump in and help out. It is much appreciated! -Sherry Reagan and LaTonya Foster
Thanks to LaTonya Foster for being a dream to work with and for everything she does every day! –Sherry Reagan
Thanks to Linda Murphy for always being willing to help with students who sometimes need her special brand of tough love! –Sherry Reagan and LaTonya Foster
WOW to Maggie McCarthy, Kristen Schrameyer, Susan Bayne, Kristy Giacomarra, Stacey Cervera, Lisa Chamberlain, Kristen Cuneo, Donna Baeten, Michele Kelly, Gabby Lecea, Nathan Mackiewicz, Drew Moersch, Heather Persons, Carrie Alvernia, Janice Beerman, and Courtney Kuhl for tackling our new district intervention programs and holding groups for the first time last week while utilizing our new materialsJ--Angie Regan
WOW to all six interventionists for their hard work planning for interventions. You are always flexible and willing to jump in and support one another. Angie Regan
A huge WOW and Thank You to Megan Baker and Julie Molloy for always being supportive, flexible and willing to help cover classrooms when positions do not fill. You are always happy to help and do so with a smile!--Jane Hepler
WOW to Shelly Gotsch, Debbie Pryor, Donna Baeten, Janice Beerman, Molly Jasper, and Tessa Golden for all your help with planning our Veteran's Day Celebration.--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to the data team for a great discussion on our book study. I appreciate you taking time from your busy schedules to read and I loved our discussion. --Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Christina, Jodi, and Dione for being the most wonderful teammates. I am amazed and appreciative of your willingness to stop whatever you are doing and answer my questions.--Makenzie Oldham
WOW to the data team for their eagerness to jump into a book study that will help us make more informed decisions about interventions (and WOW to Dr. DeWeese for finding such a fitting book for us to read).--Makenzie Oldham
Thank you to Jaime Little and Ruth Zerface for stepping in to help out with yo-yo sales without even being asked. We really appreciate your help! –LaTonya Foster and Sherry Reagan
Thank you to Betsy Arnold for helping out with a 4th grade student by inviting him to join her classroom when he needed an alternate setting for the day. –LaTonya Foster
WOW to all PLC teams for engaging in growth mindset conversations this week.- Dr. O
Upcoming Book Study
Many of you have asked about restorative practices and what that might look like in the classroom. One of the most valuable things we can do as educators is to read and collaborate as a team of learners. I would like to offer a book study for third quarter or maybe fourth. Better Than Carrots or Sticks is a great read for learning about ways to implement a positive classroom management system. If you are interested in participating in this book study and need a copy of the book please let me know by November 22nd. I am only anticipating 3 or 4 meetings. I have attached the link below so that you can read the reviews. There are a few copies of the book in the building too if you would like to take a look at it. This is a voluntary learning opportunity. I am looking forward to the discussion around the practices in the book!
Girls on the Run
Committee Meeting Minutes
Student Engagement
A B Each Teach
Process:
- Pairs designate one partner A and one as partner B.
- Person A reads one section of text.
- Person B reads another section of text.
- When both are ready, they teach their section to their partner.
Alternatives:
- Pairs conclude by developing a summary fo the text.
- Pairs join another pair and develop a summary.
So what makes this QFIC?
- 2 people - Small Group Size
- Each person has to read something--Individual Accountability
- Each person teaches the other - Positive Interdependence
Release Days
You are all doing a great job following the process of getting your subs requested in a timely manner for a release day. As you are aware last week there were a number of positions unfilled. It was not because of a lack of putting in a sub on time for a release day, but I wanted to send this out as a reminder. This is the policy that was set last year in our building regarding release days. With the upcoming IBD days and collaboration days please make sure you have put your day into AESOP. Other buildings that have this policy had teachers unable to attend the training because their jobs did not fill.
- Check with Jane before taking a release day as she has to account for everyone that is out on release days.
- Only a certain number of people (60) throughout the entire FHSD can be out on any given day.
- This includes field trips, sports events, professional development, conferences….
- After confirmation of the Release Day, have it added it to our Building Calendar.
- There may come a time where you will have to change your plans.
- If your Release Day is not entered into Sub Finder a week prior to your Release Day, you will NOT be permitted to take the Release Day.
- Why are we doing this? To prevent substitute “no fills”.
Schedule Changes
The only changes that need to be communicated is if you know ahead of time you are needing to flip your day around for some reason. An example might be a Hawk Party and maybe you are changing your whole schedule so that your whole class may attend the party. Another example, might be a special event. Many of you have planned your parent events so this might cause you to flip around your schedule.
You do not need to communicate the day to day changes like a class meeting running over causing you to push things back or an assessment taking longer than expected causing things to be a little off. If we have a question regarding your schedule we will ask.
All major events should be placed on the building calendar like class parties, grade level events, and field trips. Remember that all movies should have prior approval by filling out the form located in the workroom. This is a district expectation and a board policy. Please let me know if you have any questions. We understand that things happen in classrooms all the time that cause schedules to change. It just helps us plan observations and walkthroughs when we are aware of special situations.
Restorative Practices
The link below is to an article in my most current issue of Educational Leadership. It's a great read and provides summary of steps in the restorative process.
Progress Monitoring
CITW Celebrations
I hope it wasn't just me, but I loved our PD on Tuesday! What a great day! The rotations were a great way to apply the learning we have had so far. I also really enjoyed the PLC conversations about the CITW data. There is so much to share and celebrate. Even if the numbers and the data are not where you want them to be, we have made a lot of gains and I am proud. Not only were there great things to celebrate, but there were a lot of great ideas to help us all move forward. Thanks for all the ideas and analysis. This is awesome work for our kids.
Oops Box
I understand that you can do observations anytime, but that doesn't mean you should. Students are naturally dysregulated on Halloween. If you want to make sure we are teaching, great! But a formal observation! Wow! It feels like a gotcha!
Response:
I am sorry if you feel like getting observed on Halloween is a gotcha. It saddens me to think that our integrity and character as administrators is being questioned. We typically put our observations on our calendars about two weeks ahead of time and then move things around based on communication we receive from a teacher regarding schedule changes or events. We didn't receive any communication regarding major changes for October 31st and there wasn't anything on the building calendar indicating that instruction wouldn't be taking place. We also didn't receive any forms asking for approval to show movies. Therefore, we presumed the positive, that teachers were teaching.
During my observations everyone was teaching and in one case a test was being administered. I saw great things in all of my observations, which is what I was hoping to see. While everyone's scores may not have come out they way they wanted, in my mind it was just one small snapshot. Like it is on any other day. All the students in my observations were doing what their teachers asked them to do and students didn't appear to be dysregulated. Even in kindergarten!
As stated in the oops, administrators can conduct observations any day and during any time of the day. One of the challenges we face is to make sure we get observations completed by the deadline and ensure they are spaced out in an effort to give the teacher plenty of time for growth in between observations. I have been out a lot this quarter and I am already behind from last quarter. Monday, October 31st was my only opportunity to see instruction that week.
I try to be as transparent as I can be on when I will be in classrooms. Every Sunday I send the Monday Memo. At the bottom everyone can see what I am doing for the week. When you see large blocks of blank time that is a strong indication that I will be getting to classrooms. At least that is my hope. If you are evaluated by me I also rotate subjects based on what I have already seen.
Being in classrooms is one of the best parts of my job. I love watching kids learn and seeing teachers teach. I also love the conversations I get to have with teachers afterwards. I learn so much about each one of you and why you chose to teach the way you did. I also learn a lot about our students.
This situation has taught me a lot as an administrator. Unfortunately, it has shown me that we have not earned your trust. It has taught me that distrust can turn into very vicious rumors that divide and hurt people. Moving forward it is my hope that we can be better at presuming the positive in each other. That we can have more collaborative conversations about teaching and learning without so much defensive emotion. I would be lying if I said it doesn't bother me that the perception is out there that I am trying to "catch" people or even worse that I am out to "get rid of people" that I didn't hire. That's not me and that is not what I seek to do.