👋🏻 Hello Highlands Families!

☀️ We had our second Hawks Nests Friday morning and it is quickly becoming something that our teachers and students greatly look forward to. This month's theme is "self-management", and we read the book, Lou Finds a Way. Students discussed the power of "yet" and created artwork that shows them overcoming something that was hard. Next month's theme: "Relationships".

🎯 CFA (Common Formative Assessments): You may start hearing the terminology "CFAs" from your student and teacher. CFAs are short, frequent, team-developed assessments that check for the understanding of grade level priority standards. They help to identify learning patterns and provide information to teachers so they can quickly respond to student learning misconceptions and provide clarification and/or re-teaching.

📸 Yearbook Pictures: Did you take some cute back to school photos at Highlands on the first day of school, or capture the excitement at the Color Run? If so we'd love to add them to the yearbook! Please upload them to the Yearbook Snap app (code: Hawks). Contact Ashley Gall at Highlandsyearbook6200@gmail.com with questions.

It's great to be a Highlands Hawk!

Laura LaHue

Principal

https://highlands.smsd.org/

🚲 Highlands Walk N' Roll: October 4th. Ride your back to school!

🎡 Highlands Carnival: October 6th @ 5:00.

✅ Sign up for the PTA!

Joining PTA is a great way to support Highlands. The PTA helps with funding for the school and teachers. We provide funding for educational training, all field trips, an educational aid, and teacher stipends. The PTA sponsors events such as the Hawk Night Flight, Carnival, Auction, STEAM night, and Talent show. Last year the PTA purchased a 3-D printer, sensory pathways, educational coding robots, and training for families and staff on improving student overall wellness. There is no requirement to volunteer by joining. You can be involved as much as you want. The membership includes access to the new website and app. CLICK HERE to join!

HI WIG #1: Implement a system-wide monitoring process that utilizes collaborative instructional teams who meet regularly to review student data from screening, progress monitoring, and common formative assessments (CFAs) to identify next steps for instruction.

• ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
• Intentional Core Instruction: Students are doing the talking (thinking); teachers are asking questions to encourage students to think and generalize what they know to new situations.
• Intentional Core Instruction: Teacher teams will use information from CFAs and real-time observations during core instruction to strategically target skills that will accelerate achievement
• Educational Equity: How will we get EVERY student there? A collective responsibility to provide students with what they need, when they need it, and with an urgency to master essential outcomes.
• IXL: students will engage in personalized learning plans using the IXL app to master skills for each priority standard with an 80% proficiency in both ELA and Math.
  

HI WIG #2: Prioritize social/emotional personalized learning through explicit instruction, modeling, classroom norms, school rituals/routines, and caring attention.

• ✅ Lead Measures (to get us there):
• Student absenteeism: monitor student absenteeism and create a plan to help students be at school consistently. Students that miss 10% of school days are defined as chronically absent.
• Mindful Mornings: Each morning from 8:00-8:30 will be a time for face-to-face (device-free) connection and friendship. Students know they can softly enter their school day.
• Schoolwide system of mentorship: all-school mindful mornings each month, Hawks Nests each month, classroom buddies, and 6th grade jobs.
• Positive behavior system: of grace and accountability through our PBIS and BIST programs.

Chronic Absenteeism is 10% - or 18 days - of school missed. That comes out to being absent 2 days a month throughout the year.

Chronic Absenteeism in Kindergarten, or even Pre-K, can predict lower test scores, poor attendance and retention in later grades, especially if the problem persists for more than a year.

If your child is struggling to get to school, please reach out to your classroom teacher, Mrs. LaHue, or Mrs. Sutton (social worker) and we will provide wraparound support. ❤️