Pow Wow Principals Press
October 20
Guest Visit on October 24th
Our District has brought in an outside consultant and has asked each school to be a part of this. Here is the information below.
Overview of Diagnostic Phase: ULLC School Culture, Curriculum and Instruction Analysis
ULLC believes that each school culture is unique and consists of a mixture of values, assets, and challenges which must be understood before a meaningful intervention strategy can be developed. Therefore, the first phase of our intervention consists of data gathering using a variety of qualitative and quantitative tools including the following:
a. Structured interviews -- Coaches gather information on current school practices and triangulate those data through a cross-section of staff responses. Interviews are usually conducted with the principal, the assistant principal, the leadership team, and a random selection of classroom teachers.
b. SAME survey -- All staff members complete an on-line, anonymous survey which yields data on staff perceptions regarding the social, academic, moral, and distributed leadership dimensions of the school culture.
c. Walk-throughs -- ULLC coaches conduct preliminary "walk-throughs" to gather observational information regarding current norms and behaviors of teachers, staff, and students. The goal of this walk-through is to collect baseline data regarding the social and moral elements of the school culture as well as initial reads on the academic (curriculum and instruction) culture. It is NOT evaluative of teacher performance and teachers need to be informed that there will be no information collected which is identifiable by specific teacher.
d. Data analysis – ULLC coaches collect and analyze existing data which the school uses to measure success in the social, academic, and moral dimensions of school culture. Examples of these types of data sets are PBIS data, SWIS data, benchmark and summative test data from local and state testing programs, survey data, attendance and discipline data, grade distribution data, etc.
To accomplish the above diagnostics, we ask the principal to set up a schedule that allows for the following activities to occur.
Here is the schedule below:
Schedule October 24th
ULLC Schedule
7:30-8:15- Chat and Chew in the Media Center.
Please stop by before collaborative meetings to meet our ULLC Coach that will be on campus.
8:20-9:00- Meeting with select Parents
9:00-11:00- School Walkthroughs
11:00-11:30- Lunch
11:30-12:00 Meeting with select Students
12:00-1:00 Meeting with the Principal
1:00-1:30- Meeting with the Tribal Council/ Coaches
1:30-3:00 School Walkthroughs
Congrats to Jason Robinson #vbevip Enjoy your parking spot, and keep making those nominations on Twitter!
BIG NEWS!!!! We are one of 20 schools Nationwide that WON the CRAYOLA GRANT!!!
Article in Vero News
VERO BEACH — A local elementary school recently received a grant in an effort to fund innovative programs focused on fostering children’s creative thinking, creativity, collaboration and communication skills, school officials said.
Vero Beach Elementary School is one of 20 elementary and middle schools from across the nation selected by Crayola and the National Association of Elementary School Principals to receive a Champion Creatively Alive Children school grant.
The grants are intended to help schools build creative capacity, nurture children’s creativity and inspire other schools to do the same, officials said. Vero Beach Elementary, located at 1770 12th Street, received the $2,500 monetary grant and $1,000 worth of Crayola products.
“Crayola believes that for students to reach their full potential and grow into self-motivated learners, their creativity and critical thinking skills must be nurtured,” said Smith Holland, Crayola president and chief executive officer. “We believe children develop these 21st century skills when educators ignite their imaginations through art infused education.”
The grant asks principals to explore a “what if” learning opportunity. For example, what if arts-infused learning thrived everyday in schools, officials said.
Cindy Emerson, principal at the elementary school, will share outcomes from the program through the NAESP site and through a special principal magazine supplement to help other principals develop promising practices related to arts education, officials said.
The school has established project-based learning academies where students use SLIDE (Science, Literacy, Inquiry, Design and Engineering) to solve problems and understand others. For this year, students will analyze school data to help redesign the school’s learning space and will help launch a public relations campaign for the Vero Beach Museum of Art.
Dr. John Hodge Sign-In Sheets
PBiS Survey Results - Staying Accountable and Transparent
Pow Wow Picnics - As a result, we will be moving Pow Wow Picnics, starting next week, to Thursdays.
Out of 27 responses, 26 feel as though the PBiS program at VBE is working well! We welcome all staff to our monthly PBiS meetings on Fridays at 7:45. The next one will be 11/10 in Ms. Blidgen's room.
If you feel you are not being supported, please reach out to Ms. Navarro. Our goal is to have this at 100%.
Media Center Updates from Ms. White
Each grade level has an assigned day to visit the library from 8:15-8:40. Please make sure students know when their day is, and that if they need to check out a book, that is when they should come:
Monday: 1st grade
Tuesday: 2nd grade
Wednesday: 3rd grade
Thursday: 4th grade
Friday: 5th grade
Kindergarten teachers: If you are interested in bringing your class to the library one morning a week during Free Play, please email me to set this up.
** Computers will not be used in the library during this time. These visits are to check out books from Ms. White. See Ms. White with any questions.
Kagan Structure of the Week: Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up (page S. 20)
This example starts with Stand Up, Hand Up, Pair Up (page S. 20) and the goes into Rally Robin, our structure from last week (page S. 38)
#KDIslowchat of the week
Congrats to our Kids Deserve It slow chat winner of the week...
Please swing by the office to collect your New Bin of Awesome Supplies!
This weeks best "tweet of the week" response to the slow chat will get a Super Sized pack Of COLORED SHARPIES!!! Wooo!
Updates from Mrs. Ragley
“Mathematics is not about numbers, equations, computation, or algorithms: it is about Understanding.” William Paul Thurston
Mathematical Practice #8 Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning
Mathematically proficient students notice if calculations are repeated, look both for general methods and for shortcuts. As soon as students “get it”, start making them generalize to a variety of problems. Don’t work 50 of the same problem. Have students take their mathematical reasoning and apply it to other situations.
https://www.mheonline.com/mhpd/index.php?option=com_videolibrary&ajaxData=player&video_id=530
What it means to Teachers?
· Encouraging students to connect task to prior concepts and tasks
· Promote students to generate exploratory questions based on current task
· Encourage students to monitor each other’s intermediate results
What are Teachers doing?
· Providing problem situations that allow students to explore regularity and repeated reasoning
· Provide rich tasks that encourage students to use repeated reasoning to form generalizations and provide opportunities for students to communicate
their generalizations
What are students doing?
· Noticing if calculations are repeated and look for both general methods and shortcuts
· Use regularity and use this to lead to a general formula and generalizations
Just a Reminder – Mathematical Understanding is an end goal.
It is to be developed over time by incorporating the process standards, mathematical practices and with striving towards mathematical proficiency.
Upcoming Units of Study and Assessments Windows
2nd grade – NBT.2.5 and NBT.2.6 – fluently adding and subtracting within 100 using strategies
3rd grade – Unit 4 – 10/16-11/3 – Interpret multiplication and division, Fact family fluency
4th grade – Unit 4 – 10/16 – 10/27 – Interpret multiplication equations, mult/divide problem solving
5th grade – Unit 3 – 10/23 – 11/3 - Decimals – add, subt, multiply and divide, and measurement conversions
Updates from Ms. Keeley
Science Fair
I am loving hearing from teachers that are getting ready to start their science experiment soon. I know first, fourth, and fifth grade are all diving in next week
LOG BOOK, LOG BOOK, LOG BOOK
As you start your experiments, please remember that students should be keeping accurate data records.
There should be at least three trials to ensure that you have accurate, valid, data. This means that if you are doing an experiment to do with how speed of stirring affects rate of dissolving, then you would have:
Trial One - no stirring, slow stirring, medium stirring, fast stirring
then repeat for two more trials
Trial Two - no stirring, slow stirring, medium stirring, fast stirring
Trial Three - no stirring, slow stirring, medium stirring, fast stirring
Each trial will have its own data collection so you will have three charts and graphs for each trial. This is evidence that shows if your data is accurate or not.
Remember to take photos for your science board display, but you CANNOT include student's faces - you can put stickers over them or take them from behind so you just see the back of their head. But remember the focus is on the experiment. Photos really help students when it comes to presenting because they can refer to the board and show the judges what was happening.
Next week: Analyzing results and conclusion
Fall Festival - Keeley, Ragley, and PTA
Please remember to sign up to volunteer for the fall festival. Right now we are only showing 3/30 slots filled for the trunk or treat part from 5:30 - 7:00, but i know more are interested. This is where you decorate the trunk of your car and will hand out candy to students. Come have fun!
We are also looking for people to help with the booths for part of the time. Sign up your older children to help too!
Here is the link - https://m.signupgenius.com/#!/showSignUp/508084cabaf2ca4fd0-fall
Updates from Ms. Fred
Helping children develop decoding strategies
Engaged readers automatically use decoding, or cueing, strategies to figure out new words in text. Marie Clay, developer of the Reading Recovery program, encourages teachers to help children learn at least four approaches to decoding. These approaches include:
· focusing on the meaning – semantics
· relating sounds to letters – phonics
· looking at how words and phrases are formed – syntax
· recognizing sight words – visual
These are the same qualitative skills that we analyze while administering Running Records. Some children develop decoding strategies over time with little direct instruction. Other children need one-on-one instruction to help them learn decoding strategies. Here are some strategies for decoding.
Focus on the meaning
Young readers often figure out a new word by thinking about what would make sense in a sentence or story. You can help by suggesting that the child look at the pictures, then read a sentence again. If a child's guess at a word is incorrect, ask questions such as, "Does that make sense? What did the girl do at the last house she visited?"
Relate sounds to letters
Children apply what they already know about the relationships between letters and sounds to read a new word. For example, a child can read the word train, because she knows the tr in this word makes the same sound as the tr at the beginning of truck, a word she already knows. You can help by reminding a child what she already knows about letter-sound relationships and helping her use this knowledge to attack new words.
Look at how words and phrases are formed
Compound words are formed by combining two words (e.g., playground). You can help a child read an unfamiliar compound word by demonstrating how to break it down into its parts. "That was a good guess – raincoat. You recognized the first part of the word, rain. But look at the second part of the word again. I'll cover the first part. Now, what does the second part say? That's right, it's bow. So what is the word? Yay! You got it, it's rainbow. Now the story makes more sense. After the rain, she saw a rainbow, not a raincoat."
Recognize sight words
High-frequency sight words make up about 50 percent of the words we read and often cause children problems. When a child masters high frequency sight words he experiences success which can boost his self-confidence and interest in reading. You can help children make flash cards for sight words to use with you during guided reading sessions and with his family at home. You and the child can celebrate and track progress in mastering sight words by recording them in a journal, making a paper chain, or adding "sight word leaves" to a tree.
Use multiple cues
When reading with a child you can model how to use several decoding systems at one time as problem solving strategies for determining how to read an unfamiliar word. This process encourages a child to think about what might make sense in the sentence. What would fit here? The sentence begins, I put cr, then I see the word soup. But what might she put in the soup that begins with cr. Oh, I know. It must be crackers. The girl put crackers in her soup."