Staff Specifics
1/31/21
Dear Center Colleagues,
So nice to spend some social time with many of you on Thursday! We miss our in-person gatherings. Keep an eye on your email for any updates from the district regarding the weather.
We understand students and families need some reminders about hybrid and remote learning expectations. The blurb in the update was also sent in a separate email earlier today.
Sending Students to Nurse Rossman
If you have a student that needs to see Kathy, please call her directly at X6035. She will determine whether or not the student needs to go directly to the CARE room or the health office extension.
If you haven't already done so, consider signing up for the Teacher's Top Three from DESE. It is a great way to stay abreast of what is happening at the state level and contains opportunities to get involved and earn PDPs. Here is the link: https://us14.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d8f37d1a90dacd97f207f0b4a&id=baccc4dab6
PD Opportunity this week:
Offered by DESE: Cultivating a Culture of Caring will guide educators through strategies for building a strong culture of caring in remote, hybrid, or in-person models. Participants will explore strategies and resources that cut across the 10 Building Blocks, with an emphasis on cultivating 1:1 relationships, communication, and building community. These will be held at 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 2 and Thursday, February 4. Register here and explore the Engage Learners Building Block tool.
Center Chirps:
- Please be sure to choose Cheryl O'Hearn when you have a question about Center instead of Cheryl Kirkpatrick, our HR director. Dr.Kirkpatrick has been getting a lot of emails meant for our Cheryl.
- Have some cooking, ironing, clothes to fold and want to multi-task? Please check out the link in the parent chart to the webinar about talking to kids about race. It was excellent!!
Have a great week, stay well.
Warm Regards,
Dianna & Donna
Good Things
Many Thanks
Upcoming Events
This week...
SQUARE 1 ART: Fundraiser
Monday, February 1: Let your kindness shine Spirit wear day!
Tuesday, February 2: Groundhog Day
Wednesday, February 3: No Staff Meeting in lieu of Fundations training
Wednesday, February 3: CDT Meeting 10 - 10:45 am
Wednesday, February 3: PTO co-Pres Meeting 9:15 am
Wednesday, February 3: PTO Virtual Meeting 7-8 pm
Thursday, February 4: Special Education Dept. Meeting 2:30pm
Thursday, February 4: Union and Admin Mtg 3:00 pm
Friday, February 5: Kindergarten Teacher Deadline for posting grades
Friday, February 5: Gr 1 Team Meeting w/ Admin 1:00 pm
Friday, February 5: BINGO NIGHT 6:30 - 8:00pm
And Next...
Tuesday, February 9: PBIS Meeting 1:00 pm
Tuesday, February 9: Kindergarten Term 1 Grades online for Parents
Wednesday, February 10: Specialists Meeting 9:00 am
Wednesday, February 10: Supporting Families with Remote Learning -Webinar, 9:30-10:15
Wednesday, February 10: CDT Meeting 10:00 - 10:45 am
Wednesday, February 10: Half Day (Professional day)
Wednesday, February 10: PTO Virtual Meeting 7-8 pm
Thursday, February 11: Fundations - Gr2 8:00am
Thursday, February 11: Gr K Team Meeting w/ Admin 1:00 pm
Thursday, February 11: National Make a Friend Day
Friday, February 12: Gr 3 Team Meeting w/ Admin 2:00 pm
February 15 - 19 February recess
Monday, February 22 school reopens
Week of 2/22-2/26- Alice Drills
FUNDATIONS TIPS AND STATEGIES:
TEACHERS | Supporting Teachers – Building your Fundations Proficiency A new year brings a fresh start and a look at our achievements—launching Fundations, making “friends” with your materials, understanding the program, engaging students, and building their reading and spelling skills. Implementing Fundations is a multi-faceted task! This month, we would like to assist you in looking at your ongoing development with the activities and procedures. Let’s start with taking the Fundations Confidence Level Survey. Using this self-assessment, you can see how far you have come in conducting the various activities. For each activity at your instructional Level, are you: very confident; somewhat confident; or, still working on this one? We’re sure you’ll see growth in several areas, and where you can fine-tune your skills. Choose one activity at a time and resolve to become an “expert” at its execution. Once you’ve met that goal, move to another challenge/activity and repeat the process to becoming “very confident!” As our mission is to support you in your implementation, there are a myriad of resources to bring you to proficiency with each activity. Check out the PLC for: • Self-Study Activity Checklists: Level K Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 • Fundations Full Lesson Videos and Activity Demonstration Videos • Pair Up With a Colleague! Watch each other conduct an activity and support with feedback. You can use the checklists (above) for guidelines. Perhaps challenges lie in the timing, material organization (teacher and/or student), transitions, or lesson planning. Again, the PLC has a great deal of information and resources to assist: • Fundations Expert Tips: January’s Expert Tip is on getting organized for the second half of the year. Read it HERE. Mid-Year Checkup: Check out this tip to see how the pacing of your Fundations class falls within the Fundations pacing guidelines. There are also embedded tips for keeping your classroom on track to meeting the pacing guidelines. This tip also includes hints for determining whether your class is meeting the appropriate benchmarks and additional instruction guidelines (including targeted instruction suggestions) for individual student needs. • If you are in a VIS cohort, refer to your Just in Time Resources for links to helpful videos or PDFs • Use the Discussion Board on the PLC for guidance or pose your question, our Literacy Specialists and Implementation Teams at Wilson answer questions daily. As always, you can reach out to your Literacy Specialist or Trainer for additional support; remember that we are only a phone call or email away—we are in this together! Our ultimate goal is to help your students become independent readers, and the more proficient we are in supporting your Fundations implementation, the closer we are to helping your students achieve success! ADMINISTRATORS | Supporting Instruction via Walkthroughs and High-Quality Feedback For educators, January brings new hope, excitement, and optimism, as well as time for reflection. For mid-year self-reflection, think about providing your teachers opportunities to monitor their own instructional practices, as you encourage them to reboot their inspiration and grow their instructional practices. Principal walkthroughs are one way to promote your teachers to engage in this mid-year reflection practice. Visiting classrooms will help you to check in and take the pulse of the Fundations instruction in your building. After classroom visits, work collaboratively with your teachers to identify one aspect of practice that they can focus on improving or strengthening. Examples might include working on mastering one of the activities, student observations and assessments, or collecting student data and planning based on data or time management. Then, target your support through peer modeling or by providing time for online learning. Throughout the month, establish walkthroughs as a routine for recognition and reflection in your building. Utilizing the following checklists can help both you and your teachers maintain quality instruction that yields student success: • Four steps to get started: follow these steps to ensure that Fundations implementation gets off to a smooth start: Fundations Implementation Checklist for Principals with Teachers Enrolled in VIS • This checklist provides a general overview of what to look for in a Fundations classroom: Fundations Principal Walkthrough • Mid-Year Checkup: Check out this Expert Tip to see how the pacing of teachers’ Fundations classes fall within the pacing guidelines. • Teachers can use the following Level-specific checklists as self-study guides while they learn to implement the various Fundations activities: Level K Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 • Frequent five-minute visits focused on specific “look-fors” can give principals valuable information about what’s working—or not working—in their schools: Using Classroom Walkthroughs to Improve Instruction Protheroe, N. (2009). Principal, 88(4), 30-34. UNFINISHED LEARNING
Resources
Center Elementary School
Email: fulreaderd@chelmsford.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.chelmsford.k12.ma.us/Domain/9
Location: 84 Billerica Road, Chelmsford, MA, United States
Phone: 978-251-5155
Twitter: @Center_CCS