South Middle School
Staff Weekly Newsletter: November 11th - November 15th
Week at a Glance
- Veteran's Day (Celebrate!)
Tuesday, November 12
- Welcome Ms. Pell back!!! (All day)
- Annual IEP for BP (Room 4, 7:45 a.m.)
- Principal Meeting (District Office, 9:00 - 10:30 a.m.)
- Board Meeting (District Office, 5:00 - 8:00 p.m.)
Wednesday, November 13
- GLT Meetings (Various Locations, 7:37 a.m.)
- Family Night for Spanish-Speaking Families (SMS, 6:00 - 7:30 p.m.)
Thursday, November 14
- Math 8th Grade Meeting (District Office, All Day)
- 3 Year Eligibility for MM (Room 4, 7:45 a.m.)
Friday, November 15
- 3 Year Eligibility for MM (Room 4, 7:45 a.m.)
- Classified Labor Mgmt Committee (DO, 8:00 - 11:30 a.m.)
- November Dance! (SMS, 5:00 - 6:45 p.m.)
Supervision Schedule
Supervision Schedule (8:10 - 8:25 a.m.) - 15 minutes a day as assigned.
Team 3:
6th Grade Hall: Sheppard
T @ 7th/8th Grade Hall: Davis
8th Grade Hall: Counselors (McGarry & Rastellini)
Large Gym: Bigelow/Baertschiger
Parking Lot AM: Thpmpson
Parking Lot PM & Buses PM: Wolford & Moore
Daily Supervision Schedule:
Parking Lot/Exit AM: Aguilera, Huerta & Admin
Parking Lot/Exit PM: Aguilera, Kindrick & Admin
Cafeteria AM: Miller/McCarty & Hopkins/Karbowski
Bus PM (3:09 - 3:25): Hopkins, Admin & Team Teacher
Staff Shout-Out
Hilary Pell
We've been SO excited for Hilary to come back to us since she left us for maternity leave at the beginning of the school year! What a wonderful gift it is to take maternity leave, and we're grateful that we are able to let our staff do this! We're also grateful for the expertise that Ms. Pell brings to serving our students from her position! Welcome back, Hilary!
Weekly Article
Paul Bambrick-Santoyo on Small Teaching Moves with Outsize Impact
(Originally titled “What You Practice Is What You Value”)
In this Educational Leadership article, Paul Bambrick-Santoyo (Uncommon Schools) says that for novice teachers, being coached on seemingly minor points – for example, standing still and facing the class when asking students to stop talking and come back together at the end of a turn-and-talk – can be transformational. But for this kind of coaching to work, a school needs a culture that includes a shared language of effective pedagogy and a norm of frequent, low-stakes feedback and practice. “In effective cultures,” says Bambrick-Santoyo, “people use words everyone can understand to describe actions that committed members consistently put into practice.”
Over a period of years, he and his colleagues have compiled a list of teaching behaviors that are granular, observable, and high-leverage. These are skills each of which can be learned within a week, produce immediate improvements in classroom dynamics and student learning, and accelerate what is often a painfully slow learning curve for novice educators. “Rather than wait for years of trial-and-error experience to perfect their craft,” says Bambrick-Santoyo, “new teachers can actually grow quickly, step by step.” Picking up the pace is a moral imperative, he believes; students can’t afford to wait for incremental improvement in teaching, especially in high-need schools with a large proportion of rookie teachers.
Below are some of the action steps in Bambrick-Santoyo’s “Get Better Faster” playbook. They parallel the kinds of small, easy-to-learn-and-practice skills that musicians and athletes learn with their coaches as they rapidly improve performance:
- Use “strong voice.” Square up, stand still, and use a formal tone of voice when getting students’ attention and delivering instructions.
- “Radar” the room. Scan “hot spots” where students are often off-task, and crane your neck so it looks like you are seeing all parts of the classroom.
- Have students write first, talk second. Begin each class with an independent writing task (a Do Now), and before starting a discussion, have students respond individually in writing to a prompt.
- Aggressively monitor independent student work. Walk around to every part of the classroom and look for patterns of student responses, not just compliance.
- Engage all students. Have students turn and talk when pair interaction will maximize involvement and learning.
- Check for whole-group understanding. Poll the room and tailor instruction to focus on patterns of error.
- Narrate the positive. Put into words what students are doing well to encourage those actions and redirect less-productive behaviors; reinforce students’ intellectual progress by praising effort, not just results.
“What You Practice Is What You Value” by Paul Bambrick-Santoyo in Educational Leadership, November 2019 (Vol. 77, #3, pp. 44-49), https://bit.ly/2NCYJ28; the author can be reached at pbambrick@uncommonschools.org.
November Birthdays!
- Cindi Long - November 9
- Tabitha Curry - November 17
- Robert Lingo - November 20
- Laura McGarry - November 23
- Marcus Karbowski - November 25