APRIL TSP NEWSLETTER
COURTESY OF THE TSP TEAM
Covered in this Issue: Prioritizing
- Hot Topic: Testing
- Wellness Tip: Putting Ourselves Back Into Our Lives
- Special Education: Autism Awareness Month
- SEL Corner: The Power of Yet
- Tech Tip: ViewSonic ViewBoard Interactive TV
- Instructional Strategies: Hybrid Instructional Strategy: Zoomers vs Roomers
- Meet the New Teachers
- TSP Resource: Prioritizing Resources from the TSP TEAM
- Summer School Information
HOT TOPIC!
Testing!
Reminders for Testing:
STAR for K-11th grade Testing Window: April 19th - April 30th.
CAST Science for 5th, 8th,and 11th: May 3rd-May 30th.
Spring common assessments for Elementary: not required
*The STAR tests are mandatory to administer for grades K-11.
*Kindergarten students do not participate in STAR Math, but they do need to take STAR Early Literacy.WELLNESS TIP
Putting Ourselves Back Into Our Lives
Yearning for Balance
When someone asks, “How are you?”, is your response, “busy”, “tired”, “overwhelmed”. Do you find that your schedule quickly fills up with planning, teaching, grading, meeting, communicating? Where is self care on your priority list? When we don’t prioritize self care, we find ourselves depleted and tapped out when the end of the day arrives. Sleeplessness, anxiety, headache, and body aches are signals from our bodies that we are putting ourselves last. How can we find a way to prioritize our wellbeing - the thing that allows us to keep it all together?
Simple Wellness Strategies
Drink! - make sure you are staying hydrated throughout the day. Drinking half of your body weight in ounces every day prevents some of the impact of a stressful work day. HERE is a list of hydration apps if you need reminding.
Move! - Exercise is a stress reducer! Aim for 20-30 minutes a day. Even a 5 minute movement break can make a difference in resetting your mind and increasing circulation.
Celebrate the wins! - Focusing on the nuggets of wisdom that the day brings and the small successes improves mindset and preserves energy. Dopamine is released into our brain when we achieve something - it feels good. Spend less time focused on the disappointments and more on the small successes to achieve the big goals!!
Put yourself on your schedule FIRST
Me Time! - Plan at least an hour each week on your schedule to do something just for you.
Put some YOU on your schedule! - Add brain breaks and movement breaks for yourself just as you do for your students.
Reflect! - Make time for reflecting on what went well and where you can improve at the end of each day and reconnect with it the following morning. Pay attention to how you feel physically and make that a part of the equation.
Don’t wait for your body to signal to you that you are not prioritizing self care. Plan ahead and serve yourself first so that you can best serve those you care about.
SPECIAL EDUCATION
SEL CORNER
The Power of Yet
The Power of Yet:
This month, our Social and Emotional foundational focus is Growth Mindset! “In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment.” ( Dweck, 2015) Growth Mindset is a foundational piece to our recently developed PLC Four-Year Framework. Giving our students a head start on this idea of Growth Mindset while shifting our language and modeling this behavior will be instrumental in our students’ social emotional well-being.
Hear from the legend herself:
Carol Dweck on the Power of Yet
Resource: Growth Mindset: Renaissance
Instructional Tool:
Khan Academy and LearnStorm are resources with K-12 lessons and activities for our students. Click here for access! Also, check out this video for more information, LearnStorm: Growth Mindset Video
Student activities include goal-setting, tools for working through frustration, exploring opportunities and learning from mistakes.
K-6 Second Step Program:
Need help getting started with the Second Step, SEL program?
Check out this presentation for more information.
*NEW* Second Step Slides Tool- Make a Copy and Edit!TECH TIPS
ViewSonic Viewboard Interactive TV
What is ViewSonic ViewBoard Interactive TV?
ViewBoard Interactive TV delivers amazing interactive capabilities for your learner-centered classroom. It provides incredible collaborative capabilities even for large classrooms and provides out-of-the-box annotation and content sharing capabilities.
Why ViewBoard?
ViewBoard Interactive TV allows multiple students to write, edit, and draw on a huge touchscreen display for creative brainstorming, powerful presentations and discussions.
ViewBoard Resources
Starting Your Viewboard/TV Panel & Other ViewBoard Resources (Videos)
Instructional Strategy
Hybrid Instructional Strategy: Zoomers vs. Roomers
In the never ending search to find an instructional strategy that will engage our hybrid classes, a healthy competition is always something that will get kids up and out of their virtual seats. Here is a new one to try: Zoomers vs. Roomers.
The Idea: In-Person students are competing against Distance Learning students for the weekend homework pass.
The Set Up: At the beginning of the week, the teacher sets three objectives for the teams to meet (participation, attendance, etc.), tracks the team’s progress towards the objectives, and awards the winning team the prize at the end of the week (the weekend homework pass is the example here).
PBIS Integration: The team objectives can be tied into your school-wide PBIS acronym.
Did you try this strategy in your classroom? Let us know how it went at tspteam@lusd.org!
Meet the New Teachers
Scott Ricardo
Hi, my name is Scott Ricardo and I am honored & happily working to be a part of the LUSD TEAM. My two Principals, Ms. Pico and Mr. Trigueiro, and the paraprofessionals have made me feel like family as an APE teacher at LHS and Gen Ed PE at Forinash. I absolutely love working for the At-Hope student customers at these two schools. For the first 22 years of my career, my sweet spot age group was male football student-athletes, ages 18-22 at Cal, WSU, CWU & HSU. The past 20 years, at K-12, it will be easier to state which grades I have NOT taught: K, 1st & 5th. I have been mentored that the "Big Time" is where you are at. The universe is taking me next year to serve for Principal Moore, her staff & students at LVMS. I appreciate Principal Moore's competitive spirit. To me, everyone is some type of athlete. My plan is to inspire the JH students to try and compete for Ms. Terrone's first class athletic program at LHS. I will deeply miss the students I have now, but can't wait to meet the new ones and help them succeed! One of my proudest accomplishments is to teach educator professional development through my company, Summer Institutes and the University of Pacific (34 years & counting). The picture included is my wife and I celebrating our 43rd anniversary in Shell Beach, where we also lived before we were married in the mid-70's (please don't tell my mom). We have 3 healthy caring children and 4 grand children, with a new one on the way!
Brisa Bretz
ON GOING EVENTS
Virtual Teacher's Lounge
Every Thursday, 2:30-3:30pm
Where:
Meeting ID: 896 0099 7077
Passcode: 378214
Second Step office Hours
Thursday, 3:00-3:30 PM
Where:
Meeting ID: 831 8990 7222
Passcode: 234144
Prioritizing RESOURCES FROM THE TSP TEAM
Coherence Map
Achieve the Core
THIS map shows the connections between common core state standards and mathematics. The three key reasons for the coherence map are;
To demonstrate the importance of building student understanding by linking concepts within and across grade levels.
Determine where the instructional gaps are by tracing a standard back through its logical prerequisites (for example NBT.1) and provide the necessary instruction for students to move forward.
To provide a visual representation of how the supporting standards relate to the major work in the grade.
Coherence Map: Standard-Aligned Tasks, Lessons & Assessments
THIS tool can be used to assist with the prioritization of content and revisiting impact standards, Each grade level standard is illustrated with tasks, lessons, & assessments. Standards are organized by domain and the major clusters are identified and explained.
IMPACT STANDARDS
What are the Impact Standards?
Impact standards are standards that have been determined to be the most important and highest priority for each grade level. These standards are the most critical and essential for students to learn. This does not mean that the other standards should be abandoned but instead the impact standards should be taught and revisited for a longer period of time.
What is the criteria for selecting the impact/power standards?
The criteria for determining which standards have the biggest impact on student learning falls into three categories; endurance, readiness & leverage.
Endurance: When the standard represents learning that goes beyond the grade level and it is identified as an important life skill.
Will this standard be used beyond the test? Will the knowledge and skills be important after this grade level?
Readiness: When the standard represents learning that is a prerequisite, meaning students must master the standard to be successful in the next grade level.
Does this standard have multidisciplinary connections?
Is this standard relevant in other subjects?
Leverage: When the standard represents learning that is applied both within the content area and in other content areas, it has leverage.
Does this standard contain prerequisite skills necessary for the next grade level?
LUSD ELA Impact Standards
(Literature, Informational Text, Language, Writing, Speaking & Listening).
LUSD Math Impact Standards:
INSTRUCTIONAL PRIORITIES
Instructional Priorities
Considerations for Instructional Content & Practices for ELA & Math
The instructional priorities document for each grade level includes:
Highlights the content that is the highest priority
Provides a framework for integrating prior grade-level standards/content that have been identified as essential for student learning
Suggests ways to reduce or eliminate topics/content without having a negative effect on students overall coherence.
ELA Priority Content
Math Priority Content:
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CCSS: Where to Focus for Math
This document is a summarized version of the impact standards and suggested priority instructional content. It provides information about which standards teachers should prioritize teaching or revisiting in order to meet the expectations of the standards. It includes: the major, supporting & additional standards for each grade level and a visual representation of how the major work in Grades K-8 is the progression that leads toward Middle School Algebra.
LUSD summer school information
LUSD TSP TEAM
Lynette Martin, Lisa Cordes, Amanda Wildhagen, Jessica Jette, Vicky Acton, Rebecca Ingrahm, Luisa Parkinson
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Email: tspteam@lusd.org