September 3, 2018
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
PLCs Begin This Week:
Agenda Items:
- Review Team WIGs, clarify Lead Measures, and determine Lag Measures for monitoring progress.
- Review scoreboard role in creating a cadence of accountability, and begin planning grade level public scoreboards (halls & classrooms) and private scoreboards (PLC Room).
- Student WIG Chart review and final revisions for first grading period.
To Bring:
- 4Dx book
- Any notes you took during PD when creating your Team WIGs
Curriculum Night is Tuesday, September 11:
Curriculum Night is our first opportunity to invite parents to school, engage them in relevant and meaningful learning, and open lines of communication between the school and home. It is an opportunity for us to share what school is like at Seven Hills and how parents can partner with us to make this year an adventure they will never forget. It is an opportunity to create moments that mater for parents!
Similar to the last couple of years, we will offer sessions for parents to choose from to learn more about our school, the grade level, and specific initiatives/activities. We will serve pizza dinner and offer a student activity room so that parents can focus on the learning. We will offer door prizes during the event, and students whose parents attend will receive a homework pass.
Parents will be able to choose 3-4 sessions to attend. This is where we need everyone's help! I have taken the ideas suggested from your grade level teams and synthesized them into common sessions. When possible, I combined grade levels for common themes, such as Lexia. Also, your grade level does not have to present a grade level information session. Several indicated they wanted to, so I provided for it. These sessions need presenters. A spreadsheet is linked below with the session titles and the number of presenters for each. If the session blocks are in yellow, that means those presenter blocks are full. The open sessions are in blue. Add your name to the session you are excited about presenting! Please do not feel like the student activity room is not exciting...this is important. To support parent learning, students must be engaged.
To Sign Up:
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/172Y4zbZulD2GHdZO1p0gRmqVj-05fjuf0x5PLxEFTgE/edit?usp=sharing
- Sign-up by the end of the day Tuesday, September 4
- Paras are not expected to support this event.
Once You Have Signed Up:
- Begin planning and collaborating with your presentation team. I encourage virtual collaboration first, as time is limited. The staff meeting on Thursday will be devoted to planning for Curriculum Night. Sessions will last approximately 20-25 minutes.
- Create a Title for your Presentation.
- Write a 2-5 sentence blurb explaining your presentation and why parents should join your particular session. You should include the intended audience for the session.
- Submit your title, blurb and presentation room to the following form by Friday, September 7: https://goo.gl/forms/8UobPF9xGdHCdTK52
- Prepare materials, etc. for your presentation. Make it memorable. Make it meaningful. Make it engaging. Presentation teams are responsible for session materials.
Grandparent's Day is This Friday:
Not all students will have guests. Before the event, you might want to explain to students that not everyone has grandparent's or special guests that can come to this event. They may have to work. They may live too far away. Please help students understand that it isn't that they do not want to be there to celebrate, and that their grandparents love them very much. Most of our guests are very aware of noticing if there are students who need to be "adopted" for the day.
Grade levels with new teammates, please take time to fully explain the morning with your team.
5th grade and Specials, we will have an adjusted specials schedule due to the festivities. You will switch planning periods on Friday.
Please help us communicate the event to parents.
The Power of Positive Parent Relationships
- Specials teachers will call 15 - 20 parents (You may be calling the same parents. At this point in the year, this is ok. Please do not call SPED/Dyslexia students. Share your names with classroom teachers.).
- SPED/Dyslexia/Etc. will call all parents.
For some of you, this is the first time you have made calls like this to parents. I suggest creating a script to follow, and plan out your talking points for each student before making your calls. You might consider something along the lines of:
- Hello, this is ___________, your child's ____________ teacher.
- I want to tell you how much I have enjoyed spending the last few weeks getting to know your child.
- Follow this statement with something positive about their child that you would like to share. For example, how they have been a leader, something that stands out about the student, work ethic, etc.
- We will be scheduling parent conferences in the month of October. I look forward to visiting with you more about _____________, their beginning of year assessments, and goals for the 2nd grading period, and more at this time.
- Thank you so much for your time. I am looking forward to a great year!
Please let Kim, Tanya, or Molly know if you need help developing a script for these calls.
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
- DRA Assessment Window Opens This Week: To help everyone prepare and ensure we are gaining the best data possible from this assessment, Molly will be offering DRA training this week and on an as needed basis. Remember, this data is the baseline for our campus WIG.
- Playground Supervision: Teachers must position themselves on the playground so that they can see all areas of the playground. Teachers should not be standing together or sitting together visiting. It is highly recommended that a staff member stay in close proximity to the GaGa pits for supervision. We taught the rules of the game, please help enforce them.
- Join Google Classroom: wyzetg (this should have been completed as part of the Back to School PLC agenda).
- Lag Measure Attendance Scoreboards: Please post these in your classrooms, not outside the classroom door. Color in a letter each day that your class reaches 100% attendance.
- Work Orders: If you see a facilities issue that needs to be addressed, email Wilma with the exact location, description of the problem, and attach any pictures if necessary. This will expedite the process in getting the issues taken care of. When you tell someone in passing, it might not get back to Wilma to be entered.
- Beginning of Year Checklists: have been shared. If you were not at the staff meeting last week, please pick one up in the baskets outside Tanya's office. This is meant to help staff make sure they take care of all of the beginning of year whirlwind tasks.
- Master Calendars: Master calendars will be provided soon. This calendar should be kept in a safe place and referenced frequently. Every effort has been made to schedule all campus activities in advance. Please understand that we will have to add events or make adjustments to the calendar periodically. All adjustments will be communicated in an email or in the S'more. It is your responsibility to keep your calendar up to date. The S'more will have a week at a glance calendar check.
- Student Pictures: As we work to complete the registration and residency verification process, we will provide each homeroom teacher with a list of students who cannot be photographed.
Habit Huddle Connection:
NOTE: Please read the additional notes (from last week) from me in bold.
- Leader in Me 1st 8 Days curriculum
- Campus Leader Expectation review and practice (updated posters have been placed in Google classroom for you to use with your students and hang in your rooms. Posters have been placed around the school as well.) Reviewing , modeling, and practicing these is not an option. Do not assume students remember these. We have new students. All of the expectations were slightly revised based on your feedback. Leaders in the hallway expectations carry THROUGH dismissal. Dismissal has been very loud this week. The positive, effective, and respectful culture and tone of the building hinges on these been the "rule" rather than the expectation. It is the teacher's responsibility to teach these expectations to students.
- Creating class respect agreements (should be posted in your room when finished)
- Creating class mission (should be posted in your room when finished)
- Answering the question..."What is a Leader?"
- Creating class jobs
- Discussing the importance of attendance and introducing attendance trackers and scoreboards
- BUILDING TRUST!
The Leader in Me online is a FABULOUS resource for mission statement building ideas, Habit Huddle lessons, class jobs, and much more! If you are not logging in to use this resource you should be!
Save the Date:
- School Holiday
Tuesday, September 4:
- Grade Level PLCs
- Sign up for Curriculum Night Sessions Due
Wednesday, September 5:
- Staff may wear "Jam" shirt and professional pants/skirt of your choice
- Fire Drill - make sure you have reviewed procedures and expectations with students
Thursday, September 6:
- Kim off campus at DLT
- Staff Meeting, 3:15 - 4:30 in the cafeteria - Curriculum Night planning
Friday, September 7:
- Grandparent's Day Breakfast
- Wear jeans and maroon "Adventure" shirt
- Curriculum Night session descriptions due
NOTE: The staff meeting scheduled for Thursday, September 13 has been moved to Wednesday, September 12 for a zoom conference about Imagine Math. More details coming soon.
Happy Birthday to You:
- Lacy Denman 9/3
Annual Required Trainings:
Certain trainings for staff members are an annual requirement. In an effort to have employees well informed and to have them have the ability to access staff development at their own pace, the district has provided Annual Required Training eCourses. These courses are located in Eduphoria under the tab “eCourses.”
Required annual trainings may be counted towards the "online options" in order for some employees to receive waiver hours for 11/19/18 and 11/20/18. (See staff calendars at http://northwest.ss10.sharpschool.com/staff/staff_calendars/) Attached you will find a copy of the updated Annual Required Trainings that all staff members will be a part of.
In addition, the on-line presentations have been reviewed and updated.
- Employees can now sign off directly on the form when they have viewed the required trainings.
- Employees DO NOT have to turn in multiple certificates to you.
- In addition, I have left a blank at the bottom of the form in case you would like for your staff to sign off on campus handbooks, or any other documents.
- Employees will turn in their sheet to whomever does their evaluations by September 28, 2018 (end of the first 6 weeks). Principals have the discretion to allow extensions, under extenuating circumstances. This will ensure that all employees have completed the necessary training.
Please note that employees new to our district must complete the Child Abuse and Sexual Abuse and the Suicide Prevention Plan Review trainings BEFORE the first day of school. All other employees will need to complete the trainings by September 28th.
If you have any questions or have difficulty accessing, please feel free to contact Paula Taylor at 817-215-0021 or Dr. Suzie McNeese at 817-215-0982
Directions for Annual Required Training Access
1.) Log in to Eduphoria - Workshop. (You can access this site from the Staff web page.)
2.) Select the Annual Required Training icon 2018-19.
3.) Select the appropriate course title (i.e., "Annual Required Training for Administrators, Teachers and Professional Certified Support Staff").
4.) Click Register.
5.) Now at the top of the course screen, you will see some tabs: Course Overview, Course Content, Instructor Notes, and Discussion...you will need to click on the Course Content tab.
6.) Once in Course Content, select View for each Chapter topic of required training
7.) A new window will appear...click View Topic Files in the left top corner
8.) Select the training module denoted by a blue paperclip and view the presentation. (If you get a popup blocker while accessing materials...right click the top bar to allow the download.)
9.) You may then close out the screen for that Chapter, and a checkmark will appear on the Chapter icon or you can advance to the next training topic using the blue directional arrows at the top right of your screen.
10.) Once completed with all chapters you should see a green check mark by each chapter reviewed. You may Request Credit at the top of the screen. If you do not have an option to Request Credit, verify that each chapter has been viewed and has a green check mark.
Staff Shirts!
Don't forget to pay Wilma!
Polos:
We have a campus polo that we wear for events, on specific days, etc. If you are new to the campus, need a new polo, etc. you will need to purchase a polo this year. We will order the first part of September. Polo Pricing (mens and ladies cut):
- S-XL - $31
- 2XL - $32
- 3XL-4XL - $35
T-Shirts:
We have 2 staff shirts this year! Shirt pricing is listed below. These will be the Wednesday shirts. The shirts have been ordered for all staff. Please pay Wilma.
- S - XL $8 each...$16 total
- 2XL-4XL $10.50 each...$21 total
Staff will be given a student shirt for field trips, Fridays, etc.
All shirts are pictured below.