January 21, 2019
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
GREATNESS!
Take note that identifying areas that are “Ok” is done in an effort to help us all get better…this is absolutely not an opportunity for pettiness or to point fingers.
Looking for a Way to Empower Instruction in Your Classroom?
Empowered Learning Lesson Planning:
- Is your lesson planning feeling a little flat? Are your ideas to IGNITE CURIOSITY, INVESTIGATE, and INVITE CONNECTIONS lacking organization? You and your team might give the Empowered Learning Lesson Planning template a try. The questions and prompts could be value added to help move lessons from OK to GREATNESS!
Quality Tools:
- Students learn to use a variety of tools that help them set learning goals and grapple with problems, identifying the steps they need to take to achieve success. This puts ownership learning squarely with students.
- Check out the Leader in Me Weekly about implementing Quality Tools into instruction: https://limweekly.org/quality-tools-in-action/
- For Quality Tool templates at your fingertips, there is a folder in the Seven Hills Team Drive
How Are Your Students Using Leadership Notebooks...Update Notebooks This Week:
- Leader in Me Weekly: https://limweekly.org/getting-started-with-leadership-notebooks/
Closing Gaps and Flipping the RtI Distribution:
If you have not done so, please make sure you respond to Tanya's email about Friday Night Lights. She needs the information by Tuesday. The email she originally sent is copied below.
If you have not responded to Rachel's call for committee members, please consider partnering to plan a meaningful, relevant and engaging program for our students! Her email is copied below as well.
We will have an opportunity to offer grade level tutorials on Tuesdays. This information will come out in Early February.
Email from Tanya:
We have been given an incredible opportunity to help our students grow academically. Your probably thinking how? Well, we are going to host Friday Night Lights to our students at Seven Hills. Our plan is to establish a skill focus in math or reading to help remediate core skills, group students in each grade level according to skill deficiencies, conduct pre- and post-assessments to confirm growth and or additional supports, and institute a consistent weekly schedule along with monitoring attendance. We want to make this fun and engaging for our students. But we can't do this alone. We need HELP!!
That's where YOU come in. We need enthusiastic, willing teachers to help make this happen. Not only do you have the privilege to work with students but get PAID for doing it!! How awesome is that!!!
So who's ready to AIM HIGH and IGNITE our students???? If that's you, please fill out the google sheet and commit to what dates you can plan on tutoring.
Sign up sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Sb-MVBNykNqqMak1YIPt4YtVilsIE6XYmah87mRpHAo/edit#gid=0
Email From Rachel:
Hello Seven Hills Staff,
We are needing four teachers to form a committee for Friday tutoring. The committee will be in charge of dividing the students into groups, assigning teachers, and organizing each tutoring day. We will have a brief meeting in my classroom (room 222) after school on Wednesday, January 23 to go over all of the information. If you are willing to volunteer for this committee, please respond to this email. Tanya and I look forward to hearing from you.
Time to Prepare for Symposium:
January Positive Parent Phone Calls Due This Week:
We began the school year with the expectation that each teacher would make a positive parent phone call to parents by the end of September. We will begin the second semester with the same proactive approach to making connections to support student achievement. All classroom teachers will make a positive parent phone call for each student by Friday, January 25. Specials teachers will call 15 - 20 parents (please coordinate so that you are not calling the same parents). SPED/Dyslexia/Etc. will call all parents. This is a quick call to share something positive about their child. This is not intended to be a parent conference. If you plan this out, it could be as few as 3-6 calls per week depending on the size of your class. Staff will keep a log to track their calls. Thank you in advance for investing this time into supporting student achievement and building relationships between the home and school.
Turn a log of calls in the basket by Tanya's office.
#7HillsLEADS...A Challenge:
What story will you tell this week? Will you share how you are IGNITING student learning? Will you share how you are encouraging students to INVESTIGATE? Will you share how you are INVITING connections? So many GREAT things happening in our classrooms! We have to tell our story or someone else will!
Habit Focus of the Week: Habit 3: Put First Things First
Habit Huddle Connection:
Habit 3 Connection:
"Habit 1 says, "You're in charge. You're the creator." Being proactive is about choice. Habit 2 is the first, or mental, creation. Beginning with the End in Mind is about vision. Habit 3 is the second creation, the physical creation. This habit is where Habits 1 and 2 come together. It happens day in and day out, moment-by-moment. It deals with many of the questions addressed in the field of time management. But that's not all it's about. Habit 3 is about life management as well--your purpose, values, roles, and priorities. What are "first things?" First things are those things you, personally, find of most worth. If you put first things first, you are organizing and managing time and events according to the personal priorities you established in Habit 2." - Franklin Covey
To live a more balanced life (personally and professionally), you have to recognize that not doing everything that comes along is okay. There's no need to overextend yourself. All it takes is realizing that it's all right to say no when necessary and then focus on your highest priorities.
Check out this powerful video from Steven Covey about Habit 3: Put First Things First: https://www.franklincovey.com/the-7-habits/habit-3.html
Remember...it is important that we practice and refine the 7 Habits ourselves. Can we effectively teach students the 7 Habits if we are not confident in what this looks like, sounds like, feels like? Are you modeling the habits you teach? We must approach the 7 Habits from the inside out.
Habit 1 and 2 Family Connections:
We had a good response rate to the family packets that were sent home the last cycle, and we will continue these again this cycle. This cycle, we will connect a picture book to the home activities each week, and there will be a video read aloud shared with parents. Copies of the packets for the first week will be in mailboxes by Tuesday.
Please make sure you are turning in the packets as they are finished, and that they have a first and last name on them.
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
Habit Huddle: teachers and staff without homeroom classes, please make sure you are going to your assigned classrooms for Habit Huddle every day.
Recess Monitoring: Staff on duty at recess MUST actively monitor all areas of the playground. One staff member needs to be monitoring the field and another needs to be monitoring the playground and blacktop. The best places to stand are down by the backstop, between the chickens and the backstop, and at the top of the hill on the backside of the playground. If you have three staff members, the third staff member can stand on the blacktop side of the playground. Thank you for your active monitoring to ensure student safety.
Reminder to let Lighthouse Team know what service project your grade level has chosen. https://goo.gl/forms/Q9hfGZfBhwg4VKfM2
- Please remember to check ride changes every day in the google folder. We add changes until 2:45 when the bell rings.
From the Assistant Principal:
Interim Assessments- window will be open from January 22nd-Feb 6th. Tanya will touch base with classroom teachers, Interventionists, and Special Ed. to determine who needs content support and text-to-speech. We will use this information to plan interventions and tutoring support for our students.
Attendance- please make sure you are communicating with Tanya about students who have excessive absences. There are important steps we must take to improve attendance for these students. Thank you to those who are diligent about letting Tanya know.
RTI- Please remember to continue to progress monitor your students in tier 2 and tier 3.You should be assessing them once every two weeks and enter the information into Estar.If you need a refresher, see Google classroom for info. We will be having follow-up RTI meetings for tier 2 in February.
From the CIT:
DRA is due in Edugence this week. Please look at the assessment dates below to know when you deadline is for your grade level.
Upcoming Assessments:
Kinder
- Jan. 8-25 MOY DRA2
1st Grade
- Jan. 8-25 1Math.MOY 18-19
- Jan. 8-25 MOY DRA2
2nd Grade
- Jan. 8-25 2Math.MOY 18-19
- Jan. 8-25 MOY DRA2
3rd Grade
- Jan. 23-25 3Math.4.Module4-6
- Jan. 8-25 MOY DRA2
4th Grade
- Jan. 8-24 MOY DRA 2
5th Grade
- Jan. 8-25 MOY DRA2
Upcoming Assessments:
Kinder
- None
1st Grade
- Jan. 28-30 1Math.4.Modules 4-6
2nd Grade
- Jan. 28-30 2Math.4.Modules4-6
3rd-4th Grade
- None
5th Grade
- January 29 5th Grade Reading Benchmark
From the Librarian:
Please look over the library schedule by opening the google doc below. There is a Week A and Week B. Choose the day and week that your classes would like to come and put it on the doc. Please keep your grade level on the same day, fill in your names and note if you adjusted times, please!!
.https://docs.google.com/document/d/1XSy8wQIs1pt2_kMdybxw_httCdZd8YS935b_c7hZN_Y/edit?usp=sharing
I am looking for 6 volunteers to be table judges at the campus UBC competition. THis will be held on Monday, January 28 at 8:00. Those of you who have volunteered to read a book, please plan on being on the teacher team that morning!! ;-)
Beginning this Monday all student participants in the Ultimate book challenge will meet with me, during Habit Huddle time, in the library..
K-1 if you have some readers that are at a higher level and you would like for them to have library books that are more challenging, I can help with that. I would love to meet with 1-2 at a time, bring them to the library and “try-out” different books. I did this with 3 of Mrs. Davis’ students and they were so excited!! I truly enjoyed it myself!
I’m open to having a small group Book Club with readers you think it would benefit. (all grade levels) Send me an email or drop by the library so we can set it up.
New books will be ready for check out soon! I would love to for anyone who is interested to drop by and browse through the carts and see what we have.
Please open this link.
Save the Date:
Note:
- Grade Level and Classroom Scoreboards need to be updated, students need WIGs for the 4th grading period with meaningful and high leverage lead measures this week.
- What new student writing can be added to writing boards? Most boards have not been updated since BOY. New writing needs to be posted by January 31.
Save the Date:
- Ultimate Book Challenge Campus Competition: Monday, January 28 at 8:00 am (5th and specials team will switch conference periods)
- Big Kahuna Party Bus Field Trip: February 1 (new this year...one teacher per grade level will go with the grade level group on the party bus - more details coming soon.)
Monday, January 21:
- School Holiday
Tuesday, January 22:
- Kim off campus at SEL Committee Planning and Professional Learning
- Tanya off campus part of the day to present at testing conference
- Grade Level PLCs
- Lighthouse Action Teams, 3:30
Wednesday, January 23:
- Staff may wear jeans with school spirit shirt as part of fundraising incentive
- Meredith is not on campus this week. If you need her support with lesson design, planning, or understanding the content, please reach out to her. She will respond.
Thursday, January 24:
- Staff Meeting, 3:30 - 4:30
- Reflections Participants Party, 7:45 am (we will call for students who participated in PTA Reflections to come celebrate)
Friday, January 25:
- Sharpen the Saw Clubs round 3
- Positive Parent Phone Calls due
- Leadership Notebook "freshen up" and clean out due
Happy Birthday to You: