The CIA Report
January 2017 Edition
Welcome to the January 2017 Edition of The CIA Report!
Happy New Year!
Please be sure to take time to read this newsletter prior to the January 10 administrator meeting. If you have any questions about the content, please list them on this Google Doc, and we will address them during our meeting.
Thanks!
Learning Today...Feeding Your Professional Soul...
This time of year is often one of reflection during which we take some time to ask ourselves if we are living the lives (both personal and professional) that we want to be living. We ask ourselves if we are truly being the best versions of ourselves.
A great question to ask ourselves during this time is "Am I a giver or am I a taker?"
Being one or the other (or even a third - a "matcher") can have a significant impact on our district, on your school, and in your teachers' classrooms.
Adam Grant, an Organizational Psychologist, has investigated how being a giver or a taker impacts the workplace. You'll enjoy his entertaining and informative 13 minute TED Talk (and he gives some great strategies, too!). Click HERE to watch! You'll be glad you did!
Cheers!
Keri
Teaching & Learning
New Courses
We are pleased to share that the WSD Board of Education approved the following new courses for the 2017-18 school year:
AP Research
Advanced Marketing II
Broadcast Media
Magazine
Online News
Guitar I
Guitar II
Piano I
Piano II
Technical Theatre III
Ignite! Health Care Academy
Ignite! Startup/Business Solutions
- Study Hall
Course Guide - Online!
The high school course guide is all online for the 2017-2018 school year! The site was designed and continues to be maintained by students in Carrie Seiler's class at Timberland High School. Click HERE to take a look - it's very sleek!
Curriculum Reminders
Several areas of curriculum are being revised this year: ELA, Math, 6-12 Social Studies, K-12 Art, K-12 Music, Student Publications, and Theatre.
Please Note: These revisions include updated report card indicators and scales (K-5) as well as revised/updated SGA's (student growth assessments).
Elementary Instructional Time for Science and Social Studies is Increasing!
With the new elementary schedule for next year, classroom teachers will have 40 minutes to dedicate to Science daily and 30 minutes to dedicate to Social Studies 4 days a week.
Meghan Aydelott and Nichole Nolan want to help teachers feel comfortable with this increase in time! And most importantly - we want STUDENTS to be engaged in content learning during this time! Please encourage your teachers to reach out to them. They are more than happy to come to their classrooms to model, co-teach, collaborate, whatever is needed!
Solar Eclipse
There will be a TOTAL solar eclipse on August 21st, 2017. This is scheduled to be our 4th day of school!
The district is purchasing 20,000 pairs of solar eclipse glasses so EVERYONE involved in WSD will be able to take a moment out of their day and witness this amazing spectacle.
Each building will be expected to have a plan for the day, I have a data table with each school's coordinates and expected start and stop times for the eclipse - that specific time will change up until the day of but at least we have a window of time we can use for planning.
This month Meghan Aydelott will ask for volunteers to form a district wide committee to help create some grade appropriate activities for all levels. If you have someone from your building who would be good for me to reach out to please let me know!
At the K-2 grade levels, it has been suggested to us that we try to have one adult for every 2-3 students, mostly to help them put and keep their glasses on. Please begin to consider how we will accommodate this. Can we utilize our nutrition workers, office staff, and janitorial staff in helping? Please also consider how you want to handle parents who wish to experience this with their child. (We will not have extra glasses for parents, FYI.)
Elementary Science Supplies
Every teacher/classroom has several blue bins filled with random supplies that were purchased when science curriculum was last adopted. We want teachers and students to use the supplies! To make it easier, teachers overwhelming feel that it would be best to sort the materials in a different way. Ultimately each building needs to do what is best for them but the main thought is that each building could gather all of the blue bins and whatever supplies are left and then reorganize them (i.e. all magnets in one bin, all aluminium foil in another) and then label the bins and store them in a central location. These supplies can be used for ANYTHING; it does not even have to be “science”!
Reorganizing the supplies will also allow Meghan Aydelott to take inventory of what we have and don’t have at the elementary level moving forward.
The science curriculum teams members should know about this reorganization process and have hopefully spoken to you about a plan. Meghan Aydelott is more than happy to help, please contact her!
Assessment
SGA’s
- Semester Courses: Pre-test dates are Jan. 9-20, due in SIS Feb. 3
- Elementary & Year Long Courses: End of year test dates are Feb. 20-March 3, due in SIS March 10
Professional and Program Development
Important Items Requiring Your Action or Attention:
- 2017/18 PD - Our goal is to have general district plans for the PD days by our Feb 9 DPDC meeting to help your committee better plan for the building time next year. The DPDC will be inviting you to the April 6th meeting for planning time. More details to come. Also, can you please fill out this 2 question survey on your DPDC committee?
- Your happiness will increase when you nominate a deserving person for an Energy Bus award.
In an email from Laurie Higgins - I have learned so much from the STEM TQ workshops. It has changed my thinking about how I teach. Hopefully developing little minds to have that growth mindset and increase problem solving skills and communication. It has also changed my personal attitude about teaching.
6th Grade PLTW (Medical Detectives) - Karen will be scheduling a meeting with you to discuss location for the PLTW course and potential teacher training. Students will need access to tables to conduct investigations and Chromebooks or laptops. Teachers will need to attend a 1 week summer training. This training is likely to be in St. Louis in June.
We are needing the original LMS Evaluation Committee, more teachers, the building’s teacher Tech Contact, and an administrator from each building to participate in the pilot.
Can you please identify on this sheet by 1/9 if possible?
- Holt - 1 admin, 1 teacher
- Timberland - 1 admin, 3 teachers
- Liberty - 1 admin, 2 teachers
- Pearce Hall - 1 or 2 teachers
Updates
Elementary & MS - STEM Olympic classroom and grade level competitions should be happening in your building! The District STEM Olympics are on 3/1 (K-3) and 3/8 (4-8) at Liberty HS from 5-8:30p. Mark your calendar!
HS - There will be an Ignite! Informational meeting for parents and students on Jan 25 from 6-7p at CO.
Principal PD: Leadership & Climate - Our next meeting is on 1/11 from 9-10a at Bread Co in Wentzville. All are welcome. Please bring concerns, suggestions and solutions regarding a positive school climate, staff appreciation, increasing morale, and a smooth K-6 transition.
Everyone - 1 min video on Relationships/culture in a Math classroom.
Technology
- With the start of a new year, it is a great time to remind staff and students to keep their passwords secure and private. Please do not share passwords with anyone!
- As student teachers come into our district we want to them to experience all aspects of teaching, including technology access. Student Teachers are welcome to have Google accounts, network accounts, etc. created for them. To create an account, simply turn in a technology work order through SchoolDude with the student teacher’s name and dates they will be in the district. We will notify the principal and supervising teacher once it is created! View Process and Procedure
- Please notify Technology of any printer moves in your building, before it is moved. This helps us maintain accurate records of inventory within the district and with Copying Concepts.
- Guest WiFi has been enabled across the district. The wireless name is “WSD-Guest”. No password is needed to connect. This access is for any staff, students, parents, and patrons in the district. For the integrity and safety of the guest devices and district technology staff, help connecting to the guest wireless network will unable to be provided.
- To ensure the safety of our network we have changed the password to our district wireless network and have changed our wireless name (SSID) from “WSD-P” to “WSD”. If you are having issues connecting to the wireless network on a Chromebook and/or iPad, please put in a work order with your Tech Contact to have your building technician type in the new password. Windows devices are unaffected with this change.
School Improvement
Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith
Email: greggklinginsmith@wsdr4.org
Twitter: @GTKling
Dr. Karen Hill
Email: karenhill@wsdr4.org
Twitter: @karenhill03
Mr. Greg Lawrence
Email: greglawrence@wsdr4.org
Twitter: @greglawrence
Dr. Keri Skeeters
Email: keriskeeters@wsdr4.org
Twitter: @keriskeeters