Maude Saunders Newsletter
Week of September 9, 2019
At Maude Saunders, we are...
One School
One Team
with One Mission:
EXCELLENCE A+
Goals:
- Have a positive mindset each day toward students, parents, & staff.
- Build team efficacy through collaboration.
- Create a school culture reflecting excellence in ourselves and our students.
- Build cognitive capacity in our students through high expectations.
Mission & Vision:
To be a place where all students succeed and achieve to their maximum potential with a curriculum that is a dynamic response to each student's needs.
Vision:
Maude Saunders Elementary School will create and sustain a school climate that encourages student success.
In the Spotlight
VIEW Feedback: Our entire school is in the Spotlight this week. We are well on our way to meeting Goal 3: Create a school culture reflecting excellence in ourselves and our students.
Listed below are 8 evidences of a school culture that reflects EXCELLENCE. Many of these evidences were both felt and seen in the VIEW last week. I am so proud of our progress! Thank you for ALL you are doing to meet our goals!
- Positive teacher-student interactions.
- Students who feel safe, connected, and engaged.
- Policies promoting social, emotional, ethical, civic and intellectual skills, knowledge, dispositions, and engagement, plus a comprehensive system to address barriers to learning and teaching in order to reengage students who may veer off-track.
- Clear, appropriate, and consistent expectations and consequences to address disruptive student behaviors.
- Parental involvement.
- Collaborative relationships between the school leader and faculty as well as between faculty members.
- Focus on learning and high expectations for student achievement.
- Decreased teacher turnover and increased teacher satisfaction (the students can see this!)
Thought for the Week
Differentiated Accountability: We are proudly educating 533 future leaders.
- There are two links above that will assist you in completing your Deliberate Practice (DP) this year. Click on the words "Deliberate Practice" in the first line and it will take you to instructions on the WCSD Instructional Evaluation and Documentation page. Once you have read the instructions on how to write your DP, then you can reference the video tutorial. Of course, I am always available to field any questions.
- Please complete your DP during the month of September. I will be scheduling individual meetings to review your completed DP on Baseline Edge when the Student Performance Measures have arrived. I like to finalize the previous year's evaluation and complete the current year's DP all in one sitting.
- Since math is our school-wide focus, I would like for everyone to write one math goal. It is your option as to how many goals you write. However, I want to remind you that your Progress Points (Professional Development) must support your goal(s).
We will continue to focus on alignment between the standard and the Daily Learning Target and the 3 criteria of a daily learning target this week. Next week we will expand our focus to include alignment between the daily learning target and the task (Task Alignment).
Professional Development Updates
- Sept. 9, 2019 - LETRS Training - 3:00-4:30 in PD Room
- Sept. 16, 2019 - Mental Health and First Aid Training @ CHAT center(R. Stafford) - 8:00-3:00
- Sept. 17-19 - CPI Training @ CHAT center
Math Tips from Mrs. Lathinghouse
Planning math lessons (especially with the Eureka Math curriculum) is an essential part of student success and outcomes during the year. Math is no longer about just getting the right answer, but rather the processes that lead to the right answer. Questioning and discussion are an integral part of a high quality, effective lesson. Here are some tips from the book "The 5 Practices of Orchestrating Productive Mathematics Discussions" by Smith & Stein:
- Anticipate student responses to challenging math tasks and questions to ask students who produce them.
- Monitor students’ actual responses to the tasks.
- Select specific students to present math work during whole group discussion.
- Sequence student responses that will be displayed in a specific order.
- Connect different students’ responses and connect the responses to key math ideas.
From the desk of our own Krisy Spence
Parent Involvement Goal:
Our School Improvement Plan includes a Parent Involvement Goal, which challenges us to reach the families of children who have been historically unrepresented at student-led conferences and school Academic trainings. Take a minute to review the strategies (i.e. translated materials, personal calls home, student-created invitations, etc.) to ensure that you are making every effort to encourage their participation.
Important Information
- STAR Testing: STAR Testing window is from 8/19-9/18. Let me know when ALL students have been tested.
- Data Chats: Data Chats will be scheduled when 100% of students have been tested in both Reading and Math. I will send each grade level an invitation as to when your grade level data chat will be scheduled.
- Schedule: Please make sure your classroom schedule is posted on the outside of your classroom door.
- Lesson Plans: Please make sure your lesson plans are on your desk and accessible each day. I may need to refer to them when doing a walk-through.
- Constitution Day: September 17th
- FOCUS: Please keep your grades updated and make sure your grades are standards-based and you have the correct number of grades per the SPP.
- Parent Communication: How are the positive phone calls home progressing?
- Technology: If you have not already done so, please submit your classroom technology inventory to Ms. McKinney.
- Safety:
- All classroom doors must be locked at all times. As part of Officer Cosby's daily duties, he will be checking to see if doors are locked throughout the day. If the door is not locked, they will ask for it to be locked. Thank you for your help in keeping our students safe!
- Attendance: Attendance should be completed by 8:30 a.m.
- Transportation Notes: Please make sure these are sent to the front office no later than 8:30 a.m. Also, make sure all transportation issues are addressed in the morning.
- Substitutes: Please use only the CURRENT and APPROVED Substitute List if you choose to obtain your own substitutes.
- Passwords: Please do NOT give out your passwords to anyone.
Christine Peterson will be on campus on 9/11 & 9/16. The document below lists areas Ms. Peterson can support you. Send her an email if you need anything.
Calendar Additions:
NOTE: Please let Mrs. Bonnie know if you have events that need to be added to the master calendar. Ms. Bonnie will begin this week entering what we have on the master calendar so far.