Conrad/Thomas Jefferson Tribune
WEEK OF OCTOBER 14-18, 2019
SCHOOL LEADERSHIP/NORTHWEST GOALS & CORE VALUES
A MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Illustrious Leaders,
As we continue to highlight our 7 Habits, our last habit is Sharpen the Saw. Sharpen The Saw is a conversation about planning and continuous improvement. This week as leaders you engaged in Sharpening your Saw during the Elementary District Principal meeting, during CILT, and during campus Professional Development. Sharpen The Saw discusses self-renewal, self-care, self-respect, and self-improvement.
The pace of change keeps accelerating, which I feel makes it even more important that we focus on improving ourselves and/or our organizations.
To help us all figure out our relationship with time, personal change and... Sharpening The Saw... Stephen R. Covey balances the concept across 4 main categories (or dimensions).
These dimensions are:
- Physical
- Spiritual
- Mental
- Social / Emotional
Whether we are speaking of people, departments or organizations, Sharpening The Saw must be balanced across these four ‘dimensions’... otherwise, an imbalance will be created. We can offset an imbalance for a while, but not long-term. When organizations ignore four-dimensional balance, inefficiencies, defensiveness and lack of synergy (Habit 6) ensue creating a loss in productively, customer satisfaction and ultimately profitability.
Sharpening The Saw is an ongoing process of personal change — not something you can binge — like your favorite TV show. You need to define your own balanced, four-dimensional life to be successful! If you are a leader, part of your role is to help the people who report into you and/or look up to you (your family), explore these dimensions and establish goals for themselves.
We all have busy lifestyles; therefore it’s no surprise we have to insert Sharpen The Saw into our Time Management best practices and make it part of our Quadrant II priorities (Habit 3). Our future success and ongoing reputation depend on us taking action. I’ve seen students have great success with this concept.
Stephen says, “It means exercising all four dimensions of our nature, regularly and consistently in a wise and balanced way. To do this we have to be proactive.” I love the words exercise and balance. Proactive means we have to plan for it — to put it in our schedule and protect the time (Quadrant II), for all 4 of the above-mentioned dimensions.
Self-improvement takes time — just like working out and getting fit. Covey sees self-improvement as a never-ending upward spiral of ‘Learn, Commit, Do’. Personally I see it as a never-ending spiral of ‘Commit, Learn, Do.’ No matter what your preference of order of those three words, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is something you have to be mindful of and continually practice.
When you begin working out, a trainer will help you receive maximum benefit and minimize injury. In the same vein, a personal coach will help guide your personal change and keep you on track.
- What Is Your Purpose?
- What Are You Committed To?
If you work with a personal coach, get them to help you define what your motivator is. What do you want to do/be? What are your values? How do your core competencies need to migrate? What inspires you? How can you live with purpose and integrity... following our values. How can you stay focused on:
- Win/Win... Habit 4
- Listening... Habit 5
- Synergize... Habit 6
Sharpening The Saw is anything that will help you renew your energy and keep you balanced.
Again, how do you Sharpen Your Saw (keep the four dimensions in mind)?
How you sharpen the saw is personal. For example, what if you took one night/week without TV to get in touch with your values? Instead of TV you:
- Read for pleasure (not work)
- Get a degree — or another degree
- Read for school or a night class
- Made art
- Cooked all night with your family/friends because you love to cook not because you have to cook.
- When to the gym — and enjoyed the steam room
- Meditated
- Went to a play (not a movie)
- Walked in the park / went snowshoeing
- Listened to music
- Hand wrote a journal — or letters to friends/family
Stephen R. Covey suggests targeting 1 hour/day to focus on Sharpening Your Saw. If that works for you then terrific.
You will have an opportunity to Sharpen your Saw on the 18th with your teachers and staff. Take the time to plan a high-quality Professional Development for your teams.
Over time remembering to Sharpen Your Saw will get easier to plan and do. How are you Sharpening your Saw?
Here is to a productive week of teaching, learning, growing and leading!
Ms. Torres
Emmett Conrad/Thomas Jefferson Executive Director
HOW HAVE YOU ACTION PLANNED FOR YOUR COMMON ASSESSMENT WITH YOU LEADERSHIP TEAMS?
WEEKLY UPDATES
MONDAY, OCTOBER 14
PEI's held at Saldivar (look @ the table below for times)
- Parent Conference Night 4:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Stone (Pratt)
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Lowe
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Burnet
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Joe May
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Polk
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Stone (Deboskie)
- Campus visit w/ILC's @ K. B. Polk
- Campus visit w/ILC's @ Highland Meadows
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Highland Meadows (Pratt)
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Stephen Foster
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Saldivar
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Cigarroa
- PEI Checkpoint #2-McShan
- ED/Deputy Chief Data meeting @ 2:45 p.m.
District Principals Meeting-Edision@8:00-5:00 p.m.
Campus visit w/ILC's @ Jill Stone
Campus visit w/ILC's @ Walnut Hill
Campus visit w/ILC's @ Saldivar
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16
- District-Wide Principal Meeting @ 8:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.@ Edison
- Campus visit w/ILC's @ Joe May
- Campus visit w/ILC's @ McShan
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17
- PEI Checkpoint #2-Walnut Hill
- TEI Congruence Action Plan @ Walnut Hill-select principals
Campus visit w/ILC's @ Joe May
PK-2 Early Literacy PD for ALL teachers PK-2-8:30-11:30
18-MAP Testing Training for Campuses
19-Jack Lowe Fall Carnival
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18
- Professional Development Day for all campuses
- 3rd Six Weeks Curriculum Posted on PowerSchool Learning
- 4th Six Weeks Common Assessment Blueprints Posted
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19
- Jack Lowe Fall Carnival
PEI CHECKPOINT #2 PRINCIPAL SCHEDULE!
Elementary Parent Conference Night October 14th
4:00-8:00 p.m.
PRINCIPAL CELEBRATION WITH THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
PEIMS SNAPSHOP DATE
Reminder that October 25 is PEIMS snapshot date.
The PEIMS snapshot date is October 25th. You will receive a weekly report every Friday during the month of October. Please ensure that you meet 100% on PEIMS. If you foresee any problems with completing ARDs by October 26th, please let me know. Thank you
SOCIO -ECONOMIC FORMS COLLECTED AND ENTERED
Please REMEMBER to collect and enter all socio-economic forms before Thursday, October 25th to ensure optimal funding and appropriate measures for 2019 Accountability.
SWAG NIGHT @ JOE MAY ES OCTOBER 29th
THE LEADER IN ME
SPOTLIGHT CAMPUSES OF THE WEEK!
CAMPUS AWARDS OF THE WEEK GO TO..............
BEST CLIMATE & CULTURE
Stephen C. Foster ES
"CURB TO CLASSROOM"
Best Data Binders and Leadership Showcase
Julain T. Saldivar ES
Best A-Team and Content Leadership Team Meeting
Lee McShan ES
Best Posted Student Work Showcased
Leonides Cigarroa ES
5th Grade Science Team
REVISED INCIDENT REPORTING FOR ADMINISTRATORS
INSTRUCTIONAL VIDEO RESOURCES
Thinking Maps ~ October ~ The Double Bubble
Thinking Maps Lead to Authentic Student Writing
CONRAD/THOMAS JEFFERSON WEEKLY HIGHLIGHTS
Northwest Network Instructional Leadership Team Supports Breast Cancer Awareness Month
And the Winner is ... TJ & Conrad Beginning of the Year Performance Celebration Lunch
4th Grade Station Rotations at Jill Stone
Burnet All Stars Working Hard
Early Learning Institute at Joe May
Look Forward PLC at Saldivar ES
Look Forward PLCs at Joe May ES
Early Learning Team Provides Support to the K-2 Teachers
Principal of the Day
Mr. Breon Dennis at Stephen C. Foster ES
Ms. Sonia McGill & Miss Caylee in 1st Grade at Julian T. Saldivar ES
Principal for a Day Reception
UPDATE-TEI NEWS FOR TEACHERS!
THE CORE 4
Dallas ISD is 20,000 staff members strong, and each one is vital to the work being accomplished in the district. Through the district’s commitment to exemplary customer service, each member is focused on serving 157,000 students and their families by delivering professional, high-quality service in everything we do.
At the heart of great customer service for each district employee are the four tenets of customer service--the Core 4: focused, fast, flexible, and friendly. These principles, also, are key to forging a positive culture within the organization as they are applied, internally, colleague to colleague, as well as to students, families, taxpayers, and the entire community.
It is a strong commitment that goes beyond the conversation about what exemplary customer service looks like becoming the norm for the way we operate in the district every day.
COMPLIANCE VIDEOS
The window for both the annual policy acknowledgement and the compliance training videos, will open on September 3, 2019. October 31, 2019 is the deadline to complete both the annual policy acknowledgement and the compliance training. See the WAIP 08/01/19.
FUTURE IMPORTANT DATES TO REMEMBER
2020 LEADER IN ME SYMPOSIUM
BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT SYSTEM (K-2)
SWAG NIGHTS (K-5) & Specials Teachers
SWAG SPECIALIST TEAM LEADS
PRINCIPALS OF LEARNING FOCUS
Remember to Post Standard and Rubric with Student Work in the Hallways
Reading ILC Corner
Why is Guided Reading Important?
Both good and struggling readers benefit from guided reading. Whole group instruction has its place in literacy programs, but there are great benefits to students who are given the opportunity to have differentiated, teacher-led instruction in a small group setting. There, the teacher's goal is to assist students in developing an understanding of what they are reading, and also to encourage students to apply strategies they will need to become independent readers.
Use the Button below to read the full article.
Math ILC Corner
Grade 3-5 Math Focus
Properties of Multiplication to Generate Strategies
Expiration Rules in Division
Science ILC Corner
FALL 2019 TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
Oracle Finance Systems and Payroll classes are also available. ATS is now offering a new Open Lab for iExpense. The attached schedule of classes is on our website at: https://www.dallasisd.org/ATS.
See the WAIP 7/18/2019 for more information
IMPORTANT LINKS & INFORMATION TO READ
Let't Nominate Our Scholars!
100% Scholar Participation in Clubs or Extracurricular Activities in Pre-K-5th Grades
OCTOBER
22-PK-2 Early Literacy PD for ALL teachers PK-2-8:30-11:30
24-25-Changing the Odds Conference-ILCs and Principals
24-25-Ms. Torres out for Immersion
29-NEW Principal Meeting
31-United 2 Learn Community day applications due!
31-Last day to take and pass Compliance Videos
NOVEMBER
4-Practice Lab @ Teaching Trust to work with a TT Coach-for 45 minutes(if you want a 90 min lab, you could schedule a block for your team to attend- 5:30-8:15 p.m.
7-Network Day
JANUARY, 2020
9-Network Day
FEBRUARY
21-State of the District Address @ Omni Hotel-@10:00
27-Network Day
MARCH
28-United 2 Learn-Community day
APRIL
16-Network Day
JUNE
4-Network Day
10-Principal Luncheon
MARSHALL MEMO #806
What Makes a Book Talk Effective?
In this article in The Reading Teacher, Katherine Batchelor and Rebecca Cassidy (Miami University/Ohio) report on fifth and sixth graders’ opinions on good book talks by teachers or librarians as they “sold” books to students. Here’s what students recommended:
• Show sincerity, enthusiasm, and spirit. “Say it like you enjoyed the book,” said a fifth grader. “Don’t be a robot,” said another. A big smile and animated expressions were also important.
• Avoid giving away too much. Giving a summary of the book’s basics was important (the cover, author, awards the book has won, what’s inside, any special features), but students wanted to be left on the edge of their seats, as with a good movie trailer.
• Tantalize students with a well-chosen excerpt. “Reading a passage was overwhelmingly the most noted positive feature of the book talks,” say Batchelor and Cassidy. “Read from the book. Let students hear the beauty of the prose, the intrigue of the plot, the conflict of the characters, the voice of the protagonist.” And when reading, get into accents, intonation, and characters. Ham it up!
• Make it matter. “Students want to hear how this particular book connects to their lives or what lessons they can glean from the text,” say Batchelor and Cassidy. This might happen when the book-talker makes a personal connection to the book.
• Prepare. Students were critical when the book talker injected a lot of ums, likes, and pauses. Flow and a conversational tone were important, as was keeping students engaged and not making them feel “talked at.”
• Keep it short and sweet. This was partly a matter of editing the presentation, but also of not “babbling,” as students put it. Presentations of the same length seemed shorter or longer based on the way they were presented and the book talker’s affect.
EMMETT J. CONRAD/THOMAS JEFFERSON SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
- Jack Lowe Elementary: Principal, Sandra Barrios
- Jill Stone : Principals, Rosalinda Pratt & Selena Deboskie
- Highland Meadows: Principal, JoAnna Bahena
- David G. Burnet Elementary: Principal, Sonia Loskot
- Leonides Cigarroa Elementary : Principal, Douglas Burak
- Stephen C. Foster Elementary: Principal, Irma De La Guardia
- Joe May Elementary: Principal, Rosseven Nava
- K.B. Polk Elementary: Principal, Kourtnei Billups
- Julian T. Saldivar: Principal, Edgar Jaramillo
- Walnut Hill Elementary: Principal, Phillip Potter
- McShan Elementary: Principal, Joseph Medaris