Back to School
August 2, 2016
Doss Owls
Updates
UPDATES:
- STAAR DATA
- District Literacy Initiative
*What does independent reading time look like?
*What are the kids doing? What are the teachers doing?
*How do we know that students are benifitting from this time?
*What about struggling learners, ELL, and gifted students?
*What does it mean to conference with students and what does this look like?
- PPfT
Just a reminder, we will be implementing a new evaluation system this year.
While it is a whole new system, the pillars of great teaching have not changed. You
will have time to examine the new system in our Back to School PD. If you want to
get a jump on this, you can search "PPfT" on the district's website.
- School Time:
The building opens at 7:00 for students
Breakfast is served 7:00-7:30
Doss Office Hours are 7:00-4:00
Staff work day 7:30-3:30
1st Bell 7:30
Tardy Bell 7:45
- School Supplies
Student School supplies will be delivered to your classroom on August 11th. How are you going to organize your student school supplies? Do you need help with that?
I will have the Trojan Belles here from 9-11 on Monday the 15th to assist you (sign up required). I will send out a separate survey --please be sure to reply if you want help with supplies on Monday the 15th. You will receive a list of students who have purchased the school supplies. Only give the supplies to those particular students.
- Back to School breakfast:
- Class Lists:
We are delivering the class lists to you earlier than ever before! Yea! As a result, it's is critical that we do not share information with our community about the class lists. It will be a mess if some parents find out who their teacher is and other parents do not (imagine all the phone calls!). Please do not share your class lists with parents. Also, there are typically some last minute changes and additions to the class lists. Please be flexible. We are happy that we can give you the lists early this year and if it goes well, we will make this a yearly tradition. You can pick up your class lists at the optional staff breakfast on August 15th at 8:30. If you can't attend the breakfast but want to get your list later in the day, please see Ms. Griffin.
Murchison Middle School:
The new interim MMS principal is Rebekah Van Ryn! For more information on the new principal, go to the Murchison Middle School Website.
Back to School Schedule- August 2016:
Wednesday 10th:
11:15 - 12:15 TCEA Lunch and Learn Webinar. Salad lunch provided in the Jane Willis library.RSVP to Janna required.
Thursday 11th:
School supplies arrive on campus and will be delivered to the classrooms.
Monday 15th: (not an official work day).
Optional Breakfast made by your admin team in the cafeteria.
Class lists will be available.
Tuesday 16th: Teacher Prep Day; pick up Doss T-Shirts in the cafeteria between 9-11.
Wednesday 17th: Professional Development at Doss; Staff Picture (wear your Doss shirt); staff breakfast; Jane Willis Library.
Thursday 18th: Professional Development at Doss, Kim Sutton; LA team will have a literacy planning session.
Class lists posted at 5:00 pm.
Friday 19th: Meet the teacher 11:00-1:00.
After school club showcase on the blacktop 11:00-1:00.
PTA provides a grab and go lunch at 1:00.
Monday 22nd: First Day of School!
DOSS PTA
Sign up for the PTA BLAST! Go to the Doss PTA website to sign up for these regular updates.
Doss After School Club
http://www.dosspta.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/After-School-Schedule-2016-2017.pdf
TCEA Lunch and Learn Webinars
Lunch and Learn: Kick Off the 2016-2017 School Year!
August 10 @ 11:15 am - 12:15 pm in the Jane Willis Library
- Come join us as we highlight the upcoming year in technology trainings through TCEA. Learn how to make the most of TCEA’s free webinars and other resources so you can take your classroom to the next level this school year.
- Meet in the Jane Willis Library at 11:15 on August 10th. Salad lunch will be provided. The webinar will run from 11:45-12:15. RSVP to Janna if you want to attend. I currently have TWO RSVPs.
- Copy and paste the link below to see the 2016-2017 schedule of TCEA Lunch and Learn webinars: http://www.tcea.org/events/category/webinar/lunch-and-learn/
- We will make these available throughout the year.
District Literacy Initiative
- Austin ISD is launching a new literacy plan starting in the 2016-2017 school year. While Doss already has a strong reading program in K-5, we will benefit from the resources and trainings offered by the district. The focus for the first year of this initiative is Structured Independent Reading at all grade levels. Another KEY point is conferencing with students on a regular basis.
- Also, all schools will be receiving carefully curated classroom library books to support the Year 1 Focus of Structured Independent Reading. Non-Title 1 campuses will receive their books at the beginning of the school year.
- To progress monitor our students in addition to complying with the state guidelines for K-2 developmental reading assessments, AISD will implement the ISIP assessment (from iStation). iStation will replace TPRI and DRA as the assessment tool. All teachers will be trained on the iStation (some teachers are already using this).
- Jodi Hughes and Leah Thomas are leading this initiative on our campus. The Doss Language Arts Vertical team will work to analyze this district plan and discuss how this plan will be implemented at Doss. Members of the LA vertical team this year include Sprague, Stone, Eddleton, Stover, Crawford, and Hughes (if you are on this team, it is critical that you review this plan prior to returning to work).
- Please take a moment to review the district's Literacy Plan by copying and pasting the following links: https://sites.google.com/a/austinisd.org/literacy-innovative-design-team/ and/or https://sway.com/kGAr09Xmn9U3iORJ
Living Tree Update
Living Tree is the primary parent/community communication tool for the school. We will conduct ongoing trainings this year to make sure that you have the information that you need in order to use Living Tree successfully.
Here's what to expect with Living Tree for the summer / the new school year
Here is a quick overview of what stays the same, what changes, and the few things you need to do regarding Living Tree before the next school year.
1. Individual classes -- your class will change to the 2016-2017 enrollment on August 19th, 2016. The posts and calendar events specific to your individual 2015-2016 classwill be erased when that happens. Over the summer, please take a moment to save any posts you might use again. To do that, open the post or calendar event and re-share it with "just me".
2. Photos: You will need to download and save any photos you want to keep from your classes. There is a brand new feature that makes it easy. Here are the directions:
A Year on LivingTree! (photo download)
If you are the main admin of your school, class, or group, you can request an email of the year’s photos that have been shared in your class (teachers), group (group leaders), or school (school administrators). The photos will be delivered to through as a zipped file:
1. Click on ‘My Network’ in your account on the web.
2. Filter on the class/group that has the photos you'd like to download using your left navigation pane.
3. Click the arrow icon.
4. Select 'Download Photos'.
5. An email with the link to the class' photos will be delivered to you shortly!
3. New languages!
Introducing: Translation for 100+ Languages!
LivingTree has expanded its translation capabilities from 41 to 100. Follow these steps to change your language preference:
1. In your account on the web, click ‘edit profile & preferences’
2. Scroll to ‘Languages’. Click on the dropdown and select your preferred language.
3. Scroll down and click ‘save’ to keep your changes. In conversations, you’ll see the translate button on every post, comment, and inbox message that’s shared by someone who has a different language preference selected!
4. In conversations, you’ll see the translate button on every post, comment, and inbox message that’s shared by someone who has a different language preference selected!