Marsit's Minute
January 4th, 2015
Welcome Back
Happy 2016, I hope all of you had a wonderful holiday and found some time to refresh for the second half of the school year. As you begin the 2016 semester we are always faced with resolutions and a feeling of new beginnings. Many of us will be participating in the Biggest Loser Copper Competition, or other personal goals. What new resolutions would you like to make for your classroom. It could be as simple as increasing accountability for expectations in your room, or as difficult as increasing the level of rigor your students are engaged in each day. Whatever it is find something to improve upon, and embrace the philosophy of "Not yet"!
First semester had many things to celebrate, we will be looking over the data together at our first faculty meeting. Data should be used as a way to measure how we are progressing towards our goals. Looking over failure rate date, attendance, and discipline will allow us to gage how we are currently preforming as well as make necessary changes to produce even better results. I encourage you to look at your individual classroom data as well as your PLC team data.
Using data to make decisions and guide us is one of the three essential elements of working in a PLC. If you have not done so I would encourage you to share data with your students. This tool can help not only us as teachers be more successful, but works the same with students. Anyone of the data dialogues, or reviews that we do, can also be used with students on an individual or class basis.
Have a wonderful first week back, and whatever your resolution is I wish you success in 2016!
Mindy
Technology Prep Connect
Synergy has been updated to version 10, which means your gradebook and attendance programs have been upgraded. If you would like to attend a quick session on the changes, please plan on attending one of the meetings during your prep period.
There will also be a make up session for Blackboard for those who have not yet attended. This is mandatory for teachers who have not attended previously.
Tuesday, Jan 5, 2016, 08:30 AM
Library Media Center
Rigor-Relevance-Relationships
We have worked hard first semester building relationships with our students. Showing students that you are supportive and care about their success is an important building block to creating a learning environment. According to our students surveyed for the SPSS research, 92.7% believe that teachers want students to succeed. Our students know we care about them, as well as their ability to be successful in school.
As second semester begins consider how you will now move into a focus on RIGOR. Take a look at the standard below, it is a proficient PLD of standard RL.1, which grade level do you think it lies in?
Cites the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
This is an 8th grade proficiency indicator, that also applies to the 9th-10th grade standards. By the 11th grade for this standard we are moving into higher rigor levels. The PLD document provides you an excellent tool in determining if your daily class expectations are at the appropriate rigor level. As you begin to plan for second semester take the time to determine which standards you will be addressing in your first unit, and how high along the proficiency scale you will move your students.
Campus Life
Biggest Loser Competition
First weigh in will be January 4th and the competition will continue until the end of February. Come on Copper lets get fit in 2016! Who will be the ultimate LOSER?
Winter Sports
Come out and watch one of our successful winter sports teams. Each teams record is impressive Boys Basketball is 4-1, Girls Basketball is 5-2, Girls Soccer is 1-2-1, and Boys Soccer is currently leading the division and is 4-0. Wrestling is boasting more athletes then before and continues to grow and develop. Aztec spirit is alive and getting stronger every week! I am so proud of each of our athletes and coaches, keep up the battle!
Passes
I would encourage you to consider how you will address passes out of class this semester. The best place for students to be is in your class! How might you reward students who are courteous and respect your class time. Restate your policy and expectations the first few days of the semester and remain consistent with it!