April 29, 2019
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
Habit Focus of the Week: Habit 2: Begin With the End in Mind
YEP....back to my notes from year one again this week! So important as we take time to reflect on Habit 2 in connection to thinking about our furture selves with our students! I hope you truly take time to reflect! And, don't forget the work about Habit 1 and proactive vs reactive this week!
- clearly define outcomes before you act.
- create and live by a personal, professional, and/or class mission statement.
It is possible, dare I say highly likely, to be busy without being effective. Take time to define outcomes before you act. What is it that you want to accomplish? What is the desired outcome? What will it take to achieve that? Then, act on it! By doing this, you just might find that you are busy...AND EFFECTIVE!
Habit 2 is also about discovering who you are as a leader, and developing a personal mission statement. Covey tells us,
"Lead your life or someone else will!"
Powerful. Highly effective people shape their own future instead of letting other people, their culture, or their circumstances determine it. When you know who you are as a leader of your own life, and have a personal mission statement you know:
- your principles and values
- what motivates and drives you
- what direction you aspire to go
- what represents the best in you
To help you define yourself as a leader, think about the people who influenced you the most in your life. What qualities and characterisitics did they posses? What do you value the most about them?
Defining yourself as a leader also requires you to discover yourself. Think about these questions:
- I am at my best when...
- I am at my worst when..
- My natural gifts and talents are...
- If I had unlimited time and resources I would...
- What I want to do most is...
- Something I wish I could do, but my fear is holding me back is....
- What would you want others to say about you at your 80th birthday party?
"It doesn't really matter how fast you're going if you're heading in the wrong direction."
Stephen Covey
Note: You can use some of these thoughts and ideas to guide your discussions with students about career pathways this week as we begin with the end in mind to think about our future selves.
Habit 2 and 3 Final Focus...A Career Day Plan
The Habit Huddle and Events Action Teams came together to begin planning this year's career pathways focus for our leaders. As a Lighthouse Team, it was determined that we wanted to alternate years where we had BIG career day/community leadership day events with career pathways and career awareness events. This year we will spend 2 weeks focusing on career pathways and career awareness. This is an awesome opportunity for your Habit Huddle, as the habit learning might be getting a little flat!
The team has already started planning:
Week of April 29th:
- K-1 will take two days to “begin with the end in mind” and have the students participate in activities and worksheets that will help them identify what they like to do and what kinds of jobs they might like
- 2-5 will use the interest surveys from either Morales or Wallis. They will “begin with the end in mind” by taking the surveys to see what kinds of job possibilities would be right for them
- We will use the rest of the week to do buddy classes and STS clubs
Week of May 6th:
- K-1 will learn about various careers
- 2-5 will research a job they are interested in and learn how they can put first things first. Each grade level will decide on what end product they want the kids to have.
- Friday students will be able to come to school dressed as a career of their choice. We will have a parade.
Jen Morales has some NISD career pathways information we can provide grade levels.
Questions...Talk to your Lighthouse Team Representative
From Your Assistant Principal:
Let’s celebrate our students with positive office referrals. There are some in my mailbox outside my door. I will also place some in the teacher’s lounge for your convenience.
End of Year RtI Updates, Documentation, and Meetings:
RtI is part of our high functioning whirlwind.
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
Make sure you have updated the student accountability Google document for the end of the 5th grading period and month of April. Please have this compelted by the end of the week...Friday, May 3.
Don't let spring fever set in...Duty assignments are made to ensure student safety at arrival and dismissal.
- Please make sure you are on time to your scheduled duty in the mornings. If you are going to be out, it is your responsibility to get coverage.
- Please remind students about Leader Expectations during dismissal. Staff must both model and hold students accountable to these expectations. These expectations are in place to ensure safe and efficient dismissal of all students.
- Save the Date for NISD 2019 - 2020 Professional Learning: The NISD PD calendar has been approved. I attached a document outlining the dates and other important PD information/requirements in the weekly update email. Please read carefully. We will discuss your PD plan for next year in summative conferences.
- Attendance Snapshot Time: Staff, it is imperative that attendance be completed DAILY at the 9:30 reporting time. Funding is connected to this reporting, and should the district/campus be audited, failure to report attendance at the snapshot time could result in loss of funding for all of the students in your classroom on each day that attendance was not completed at the reporting time. Please be advised that reporting attendance is connected to T-TESS discipline 4.
Save the Date:
Notes:
- Literacy Night at CTMS - May 2
- Kindergarten Round-Up Evening Event May 1 5:00 - 6:30 pm
- Senior Walk Friday, May 3 at 8:30
- Dance Teams Recital - Friday, May 3 at 6:00 pm
- PTA Mom-Son Even Saturday, May 4 at 1:00
- 3-5 STAAR Training during planning on Monday, May 6 Anyone administering the STAAR test in May must attend one of these sessions. If you are unable to attend, see Tanya Ledger.
Monday, April 29:
- PS It's My Body Program in Guidance
- Girls on the Run Student and Staff participants wear purple shirts or coaches shirts with jeans
- Lighthouse Team Meeting, 3:30 pm
- 8:00 Kindergarten Animal Research Parade
- Grade Level PLCs
- Visiting Author - Schedule coming
Wednesday, May 1:
- Kindergarten Round-up Evening Event, 5:00 - 6:30 pm
- Staff may wear jeans and a school shirt as part of a fundraising event incentive from the fall semester
Thursday, May 2:
- Visiting Author - Schedule coming
- CTMS-PVE-Seven Hills joint Literacy Night at CTMS - all staff are strongly encouraged to attend the event. Staff who attend and staff who participate in the event may wear jeans and the "Jam" shirt to school on Thursday. Please promote the event to parents and students.
- Leadership Teams Meeting, 3:30 - 4:30 pm
Friday, May 3:
- Sharpen the Saw Clubs
- Senior Walk at 8:30ish (we will be waiting on the arrival of the bus from Northwest HS)
- Dance Team performance, 6:00 pm
- Student data updates due in student accountability Google document for month of April and 5th grading period
- Staff and students wear navy 7 Hills Adventure shirt and jeans for Senior Walk
Happy Birthday to You:
A Note From the Interventionists:
A friendly reminder to have your Summative Teacher Report of ELL Student Performance turned into Mrs. Bryan no later than May 1oth. Thank you to all the teachers who were proactive and already turned yours in!
From the CIT:
- I will be working on summer school registration, so please let me know if you have any questions. I will be sending out letters to parents this week for those students who are eligible.
DRA:
- 3rd-5th grade DRA windows open this week! Assessment copies are ready for you in the PLC room. Here is the schedule:
- Kinder: May 6-17
- 1st Grade: May 6-17
- 2nd Grade: May 6-17
- 3rd Grade: April 29-May 29
- 4th Grade: April 29-May 29
- 5th Grade: April 29-May 29
Mentoring:
- Mentoring forms will be delivered to mentors this week so that you can have your EOY conference with your partner. As soon as you finish your conference, you can drop off the form in my office in the yellow folder. Thank you!
Assessments this week:
Kinder
None
1st Grade:
April 29-May 3 EOY - Writing
2nd Grade:
None
3rd Grade:
May 1-5 3Math.6.Module11 & 12
April 29-May 29 EOY DRA2
4th Grade:
April 29-May29 EOY DRA2
5th Grade:
April 29-May 29 EOY DRA2
Upcoming Assessments:
Kinder
May 6-22 KMath.EOY 18-19
May 6-10 EOY Writing
May 6-17 EOY DRA2
1st Grade:
May 6- 22 1Math.EOY 18-19
May 6- 17 EOY DRA2
2nd Grade:
May 6-22 2Math.EOY 18-19
May 6-17 2Science.6.Butterfly Writing CBA
May 6-17 EOY DRA2
3rd Grade:
April 29- May 29 EOY DRA2
4th Grade:
Aptil 29-May 29 EOY DRA2
5th Grade:
April 29-May 29 EOY DRA2
From the Librarian:
Tuesday and Thursday we have our author, Taryn Souders visiting.. Tuesday afternoon we have her for 2,5 hours and Thursday we have her all day. I will work on a schedule for each grade level. If your grade level has a preference for a day and time, please let me know asap, Upper grade sessions will be about 40 minutes long and K-2 will be around 20-25. If you have not introduced your classes to her by reading a book and showing the video she made for us, plus put First things First and do that prior to her visit. Author visits are only successful if the students know about her and her work.
Also, if you would have a few students make some neat, fun posters welcoming Taryn, that would be amazing. On Thursday, I would love to have some students come have lunch with Taryn and I in the library. If you have some students that could benefit from visiting and receive some encouragement in writing, let me know.
May 2 is our collaborative Literacy Night (similar to Night of Wonder from last year) with CTMS and PVE. We need some volunteers to give TED talks, book talks, suggestions on how to support/encourage students to continue reading this summer, literacy type games, etc. 5:30-7:00. Wooley’s will be there and we will have a book vender selling summer reading books, UBC books and books by Taryn Souders. Please share this information with your families.
Last day for students to check out books from the library will be this Friday, May 3 and all books will be due May 10. Please start talking about these dates with your Leaders. Also, please start gathering and returning books you have checked out. (keep the ones you need, just return any that you are no longer using.) If you would like to have a collection of library books to keep in your class for a few weeks, let me know and I’ll make that happen. We won’t have our normal library schedule for the rest of the year but I want to have classes visit, and share books with them, until the very end of this year. If your class has not been able to visit the library in a few weeks, let me know. We will schedule a time this week for them to come check out.
This is a video introducing Taryn, please show this ASAP.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJv8p0wPymo
Sorry for information overload.