Vista Weekly
October 12th, 2015
ANNOUNCEMENTS
New Staff Members!
Welcome to Vista - Mr. Perez and Mr. Tucker! We are SO excited to have you!
Oversight Visits are coming up!
Tuesday, October 20th - Middle School
Wednesday, October 28th - K-5
What is an oversight visit and why does it matter?
The annual oversight visit relates back to our status as a charter school. In order to open a charter school, a group of teachers, parents, and community members must create a charter petition that outlines the innovative practices that this group intends to follow. The the group of concerned individuals must then appeal to either the local school district, county, or state to request authorization for opening the school. Once "authorized" by either of those educational entities the charter school group is accountable for academic results and for upholding the promises made in their charter.
One part of the accountability system is annual "oversight" visits by the authorizing group. ICEF Vista is authorized by LAUSD. The visiting oversight group are therefore members of the LAUSD Charter Schools Division (CSD). During their annual visit, the CSD will review not only our academic practices and data, but will also review the fiscal and operational aspects of our school program. At the close of this review, they will prepare a summary report that will then be used with the annual reports from previous years to recommend (or not) our petition renewal in upcoming years. We have some time before our next charter renewal (it's in 2018) - but we still want to make sure our authorizers are witness to all of the amazing things we do here at Vista :)
What happens during the visit?
The oversight visit activities tentatively include:
- 8:00 - 9:30 DISCUSSION WITH LEADERSHIP
- 9:30 - 11:30 CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS
- TBD - SPECIAL EDUCATION PROGRAM REVIEW
- TBD - FISCAL REVIEW
- TBD - FOCUS GROUPS - Teachers and Parents
- Afternoon - DOCUMENT REVIEW
- Afternoon - DEBRIEFING
How can I prepare?
I'll be sending a follow up email with specifics - but in short, we need to make sure that our campus and classrooms are in excellent shape and are in compliance with all applicable environmental/health and safety codes!
Fall Festival
What is Fall Festival?
It's our biggest fundraiser of the year! Each homeroom hosts a booth with some sort of activity or game (think carnival booths). The Fall Festival kicks off with a Costume Parade - winners are announced and then the games begin!
What should I do to prepare?
If you are a homeroom teacher, be sure to sign up for a booth on the spreadsheet linked here and begin to reach out to families for donations to help prepare!
Tutoring Logistics
Please spend a few minutes recording the details of your tutoring in the log below. This document will assist our office team in communicating with parents. Shout out to K-2 for filling up the grid :)
Supervision Schedule
Thank you so much for your active presence on the yard. We have really noticed a difference with regards to both timeliness and vigilance!
We are still REALLY HOPING for a few more middle school teacher volunteers to help us fill in the gaps and to support our wonderful aides Ms. Charrette, Mr. Price, and Ms. Casillas who have been doing double duty the last few weeks. The google doc below includes the existing supervision schedule for the 3-8 campus, if you have a few extra moments on a given day to donate supervision time - we would greatly appreciate it if you signed up for an extra slot!
Links to Important Forms
This one is super important for helping us keeping track of which students have detention on which days. Please submit every time you assign detention.
May be completed online or by paper (see the pink referral forms in your hardcopy VIP binders) but please be sure to submit either one when a student is referred to the office.
To request help from our Tech Guru Mr. Jesus Villareal!
To request help from our Maintenance Guru Mr. Bernard!
To request the convening of a Student Success Team to support a student with sustained difficulties in the area of behavior, academics, attendance, and/or physical/mental health despite documented targeted interventions such as tutoring, parent contact, etc.
504 Referral - coming soon! (Speak directly to Mrs. Pope or Mrs. Fennema in the meantime)
Maternity Leave Vista Support
Word of the Week
persevere
(verb) continue in a course of action even in the face of difficulty
Trait of the Month - Open Mindedness
Instructional Focus
The Lesson Cycle and the 3.3A Communication of Learning Objectives
(TEF Domain 3)
This week we will continue to focus on the effective execution of the lesson cycle, as we know from our dissection of classroom culture that a key component of a positive classroom culture is student engagement due to the planning and execution of effective lessons!
Last year, we participated in several professional developments presented by EDI (Explicit Direct Instruction) focused on the successful execution of the lesson cycle. The prezi below is a review of these components.
- Just because the objective is posted, doesn't mean the students know it.
- Just because the teacher states the objective, doesn't mean the students know it.
- Just because the students choral read it aloud, doesn't mean the students know it.
Last year we started to build a Vista PD website with resources for the instructional cycle. Check out the link below with your ICEFPS email for access to these resources.
Coming Up This Week...
Monday, 10/12
- 11:30 - 1:00 - ILT Meeting (Stoner)
- 2:00 - 3:00 - IEP (Fennema, Garcia, Rosenberg)
- 3:00 - 4:00 - Tutoring
- 5:00 - ELAC Meeting
Tuesday, 10/13
- 8:45 - 9:45 - IEP (Pope, Clark, Garcia)
- 3:15 - SST Follow-up (Pope, Fennema, Amador, Rizo, Washington, Dodd)
- 3:00 - 4:00 - Detention (Charrette, Casillas, Tucker)
- 4:00 - 6:00 - Spanish Parenting Classes
Wednesday, 10/14
Early Dismissal
Middle School Sound of Music Field Trip
9:00 - 10:00 - SPED Check In
1:15 - 4:00 - PD
Del Rey Educators Partnership Fair
Thursday, 10/15
Pope Out (Director Meeting)
4th Grade Water Field Trip
10:15 - The Great Shake Out Earthquake Drill (K-2 Campus it's @ 9:00)
3:15 - 4:15 - IEP (Garcia, Fennema, Bennett)
5:00 - 7:00 Family Education Night - Power My Learning!
Friday, 10/16
Classroom Compliance Walkthrough (Just a Practice!)
3:00 - 4:00 - Detention (Tucker, Casillas, Charrette)
Upcoming Dates:
10/12 - ELAC Meeting
10/14 - Del Rey Educators Partnership Fair
10/15 - Sound of Music Field Trip
10/16 - 4th Grade Field Trip
10/19 - Pupil Free Day
10/20 - MS LAUSD Oversight Visit
10/28 - ES LAUSD Oversight Visit
10/30 - Fall Festival