the RAH
March 18-22, 2019
from J-
Before Spring Break, your CDC folks were pulled in for their scheduled training. During that meeting they were informed that elementary principals would be joining them to help facilitate the training for the adopted ELA curriculum. Some of you reached out to me to share if this is accurate. It is. While more details are to come, at our Job Alike I shared that I would be asking for you to lean in and be engaged at great levels in curriculum than you have in the past. Being the lead learner and the site professional development leader, this just makes sense. And it will give you greater insight into the what and why of the adopted curriculum.
I wish to share two conversation with teachers prior to spring break. With both, I was asking her my standard questions: what learning are you and your students most excited about right now, what current challenges do you face, and how are you taking care of yourself so you can take care of others. Both teachers talked about a specific students who challenged them... and this where the conversations took very different paths. One teacher, extremely frustrated, shared she was committed to making the connection with a student who she still hadn't been able to crack. When I asked for more information, she held herself responsible for not yet finding a way to connect. In the other conversation, the teacher shared frustration with a student, but expressed in various ways without saying it explicitly, that she had given up on the student. When I inquired further, she shared that she hadn't been able to change them up to this point, and didn't believe she would be able with only a quarter left.
A quarter left. We have 45 days. 280 hours. I'd ask you, with your staff, to reflect on the impact that you can make with that amount of time. Knowing we have about 375 minutes with every student every day, how will you continue to grow relationships? How will you connect learners to their learning? How will you finish strong?
Thanks for all you do. Be amazing this this week!
from Mike-
MAP Ideas - Prep, Motivation, Protocols
The best ideas are stolen -- or given away to your friends. :-) As we head into MAP-testing season, we want to do everything we can to give our students and teachers the best opportunity to be successful. Please take a moment to CLICK HERE and share a strategy or two that your school is planning or has had success with in the past for each MAP-related topic. Use this padlet to share ideas, links to resources, and comment on other posts.
Attracting Teacher Talent
This is a critical time of year for school systems everywhere as we jockey for position to fill job vacancies with high-quality talent. When your school goes through the process of screening teacher candidates and scheduling interviews, it’s important to remember that first impressions are a two-way street. Candidates are making their own judgements about the quality of ourschools when they meet with us, and the best candidates will have multiple offers to consider. It’s the little things that make a difference in our quest to best position our schools to attract new talent. How are you setting your school apart from the sea of schools looking for the next superstar teacher?
Our AP Cadre will be visiting in-depth about this topic when we meet at the Transportation Department offices on the morning of March 29th.
Springfield Cardinals Trip
A reminder that the deadline is March 30th for submitting your school’s ticket and lunch counts for each of the three participating grades. Please submit your school’s info by going to bit.ly/sps-cards.
Also, when entering times into Trip Tracker, you can submit the following:
Origin Departure - 9:00
Arrival Time - 9:30
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Departure Time - 1:00
Origin Return - 2:00
Actual times may vary slightly based on your location, but this will get your request into the system and the transportation department can make minor adjustments as needed.