WATERFORD WEEKLY
October 9, 2017
Mission
Vision
Our Week in Review
Cultural Immersion Through the Arts (CIA)
Refueling Stations
Entrance Tickets
Staff Pumpkins from the Harvest Festival on Monday
Elementary Soccer Tournament
We had 3 Waterford teams at Saturday’s soccer tournament. Each team got to play 4 games and depending on their wins and goals they were chosen to play in the tournament games. The Waterford Team 3 went to the tournament against Chamberlain and ended up winning medals for second place. Way to represent Waterford school while playing hard and having fun!
Thanks Marisa and Mark for coaching our teams!!
ILT Update
This week we continued our work on the Backwards Design Process to answer the question: How will we know students learned it?
After Fall Break we will begin discussing rigor and looking at our lesson plans to determine the level of rigor.
Survey to help with Cluster Cycle III
As we prepare to begin Cluster Cycle III, it is important for us to gather data about your grade level collaboration time in order to support our work. Below is a link to a 5 question survey that needs to be completed by Tuesday, October 10th by 3:00 p.m.
Remember, the survey is anonymous and we want your honesty as we work to strengthen the collaboration within our building teams!
Thanks for your feedback,
Katrina and Julea
Who Am I?
The person of the week last week was Joni Yost:
- Likes to sew
- Has a new purple bike
- Makes her own cards/stationary
Our new person of the week is someone who:
I was captain of my high school soccer team.
I would pick the mountains over beaches any day.
My favorite type of food is Chinese.
Digital Citizenship Curriculum
Easy Tech implementation will start in Oct. ITM’s were trained on Oct. 2nd for a half day.
This year’s implementation includes:
a. Plug-n-Play lessons
b. On-line safety
c. Keyboarding
d. On-line test taking.
ITM’s will be trained and will need time to get your teacher’s prepared to begin.
Expectation will be students are engaged with Easy Tech 3x per week.
Students log-in through clever. This program is paid for through textbook rental, so students must be given the opportunity to engage with this learning.
FROM THE STATE
Accountability
Last week the Department shared information about future accountability considerations and timelines. Over the past week we’ve received some additional questions about calculating an ESSA score. Here are a few points of clarification:- When school accountability grades come out in the fall of 2018 (using 2017-18 data), the grades will be calculated the same as they are being calculated this year unless state policy changes. Rule-making regarding state accountability grades is currently in progress. These grades are based on state laws and rules.
- During the fall of 2018 accountability season, a second calculation based on a federal formula will be shared with schools. This score will take into account federal requirements and will be dependent on the approval of Indiana’s ESSA plan which was submitted to the federal government earlier in September.
- The 2017-18 accountability scores are part of a transition year approach to accountability. With the anticipated changes around assessments, graduation pathways, and federal accountability, a transition year will give schools time to ramp up to the accountability model that should be in place for the 2018-19 school year (released in Fall 2019), when we anticipate the state and federal calculations will yield the same grade.
- The Department has not calculated the (ESSA) federal scores for the 2016-17 or 2017-18 school years. Schools interested in understanding what the federal score might look like for 2017-18 accountability could use their data from this year’s accountability calculations, adjust their graduation rate to factor out general diplomas, and estimate the points earned for attendance (K-8) and ELL performance based on local data. Again, we would stress the federal calculation will depend on the approval of Indiana’s ESSA plan, so any calculation of a federal accountability score for 2017-18 school year would be highly speculative.
Great Lakes Apple Crunch
Details: Celebrate National Farm to School Month by crunching into locally and regionally grown apples at NOON on Thursday, October 12. Everyone is welcome to Crunch!
Randy will be working on a schedule to get everyone in the cafeteria at noon to crunch their apple for a school wide photo op! He will get the particulars out to everyone once he gets the schedule completed.
Climate and Culture Summary from Monday morning
- Focus on the positive and less complaining - This can be helped by figuring out how each person feels valued.
- Stress from "extra stuff" - This can be helped by more develop time in meetings so we don't leave with more work.
- Communication - This can be helped by acknowledging of what is already being done.
Question #3: What's one thing any of the school leaders could do to improve our school culture?
- Need support - This can be helped by positive notes, royal tickets, one-on-one interactions, and validating each others' work. "I really like the way you...." "I need you to listen a minute; I need a minute to talk."
- Extra Work Load - This can be helped by finding a way to put related items together and validating each others' work. "Thanks for trying this and putting energy into this."
- All leadership approachable/Make connections with staff/leadership - This can be helped by building connections outside of follow-up and evaluations. Be genuine. "I like the way you...."
Question #4: What can you do personally to help improve the school culture?
- Stay positive, connect, collaborate, build rapport, encourage, and support - This can be helped by making an effort to connect with others face to face and being intentional. Can we build a social meeting once a month, need to carve out time together; ILT - leave postie notes with positives during visits.
Let's continue to work on building relationships, helping others to feel valued, communicating about what's being done well, and finding ways to lessen the load whenever possible. Thanks to the 15 staff members who completed the survey. Remember, we are trying to get 20 people to complete the survey next month. Thanks for you input!
Next Week and Beyond
Monday 10/9: Delay Day - We will be meeting in the Library to continue our work on Good to Great
Behavior Team Meeting 10-10:30 a.m.
Tuesday,10/10:
IDEA Meeting in Conference Room 12:30-1:30 p.m.
K/1 Cluster 2:15-3:15
Parent/Teacher Conference 4-8 p.m.
Wed. 10/11:
Principal's Meeting: 8-10 a.m.
ALT 10:30-12 p.m.
2/3 Cluster 2:15-3:15
Thurs. 10/12:
Great Lakes Apple Crunch at Noon
4/5 Cluster 2:15-3:15
ILT 3:30-4:45
Parent/Teacher Conferences 4-8 p.m.
Fri. 10/6
Principal's Meeting 8:45 - 10:45 a.m.
Upcoming Dates:
Fall Break: October 16-22
Trivia Night: October 24th, 6:00 p.m. We need a team of 6 for the evening. Right now we have Julea, Allie, Jan, Tom, and myself on the team. We are still in need of one person. Who will be Number 6?
United Way Campaign from 9/25-10/27. We currently have collected 570.00 and our goal is $1,500.00. We are a third of the way there. Please remember that if we reach our goal you can wear jeans for a week and Bill will bring us Rise and Roll. Let's work hard to meet this goal for the community!
News from Central Office
About Us
Email: koverton@goshenschools.org
Website: http://waterford.goshenschools.org/
Location: 65560 S.R. 15 Goshen, IN 46526
Phone: 574-533-6811
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waterford.elementary
Twitter: @WaterfordElem