News from the Nest
Week of December 4, 2017
Vision
"Wendell Phillips 63 will establish a positive, engaging, and rigorous learning environment that allows each child to “SOAR to Excellence” as a member of the Cardinal Family."
Places to be!!!
Dec. 4- Lesson Plans Due in Google Drive (9:00 am)
Dec. 4- 7th Grade Boys Basketball @ Edison 47 (6:00 pm)
Dec. 4- Heart to Heart Meeting for Community Partners and Families (6:00 pm)
Dec. 5- K-7 ELA PLC's
Dec. 5- Grade 4-6 Boys Basketball @ CFI 2 (6:00 pm)
Dec. 6- Leadership Team Mtg- 7:45 am in Media Center
Dec. 6- K-7 Math PLC's
Dec. 6- Heart to Heart Meeting for Community Partners and Families (6:00 pm)
Dec. 7- Principal Meeting- Wirth Off Campus
Dec. 8- JEAN's Day!!
General Need to Knows
Continue the push!!!! We have nine (9) more instructional days until Winter Break, so every minute counts!!! How are we intentionally planning our instruction to keep students actively engaged over this time? Holiday themed activities are good, but make sure they align to our paced instruction.
Artifacts for Domains 1 and 4 are due by Friday, December 8th. You must have six indicators scored in SFS, meaning you can use one piece of evidence for multiple indicators. Please keep in mind that these evidences must clearly reflect the indicator. I will be holding a help session on Tuesday @ 4 pm in the Media Center for anyone needing assistance.
There will be "Heart to Heart" meetings occurring this week in the Media Center, beginning at 6 pm. These will give our community members and parents opportunity to learn more about the Innovation Restart process. If you would like to attend, please feel free to do so. Please see the "Be There" section for specific dates.
I am pleased with walkthroughs recently. While we still have room to grow in some areas, but I am seeing more focus and intentionality in our instructional practice. It is music to my ears to hear students engaged in academic conversation!!! Keep up this work, for I know it will lead to positive outcomes for students.
Finally, I am adding a link to an article I read recently about our African-American Male students. It is a good read and it is one part of a three part series. Take a look and reflect about how this could look with our students at Wendell Phillips.
Vision Aligned Thought Provokers
Positive classrooms: Over the next nine days, it is going to be critical to maintain the structure in your classroom. Our students will be feeling anxiety over the coming holiday season and this will be manifesting itself in many ways, usually negative. Routine and consistency help minimize this....as well as continuing to reinforce students more for the positive. More Dojo Dollars are on the way!
Engaging instruction: How we gradually release instruction plays a part in the level of student engagement. If the release jumps around, students begin to become lost and unfocused, and therefore disengaged. During walkthroughs the next few weeks, we will be focusing on TD times and Gradual Release.
RIGOROUS Instruction: We are closing in on MOY assessments, so this will be an opportunity to see how our students have grown. Coming back to goals....how are we preparing our students to meet goals we have set for them? How are we establishing that growth mindset in the classroom?