Weekly Staff Letter
October 16th - October 20th
Checking for Understanding Techniques (CP 10-11 Planning/Delivering Effective Lessons)
Use Cold Call. This means teachers:
- Name the question before identifying students to answer it
- Call on students regardless of whether they have hands raised, using a variety of techniques such as random calls, tracking charts to ensure all students contribute, name sticks or name cards
- Scaffold the questions from simple to increasingly complex, probing for deeper explanations
- Connect thinking threads by returning to previous comments and connecting them to current ones. In this way, listening to peers is valued, and even after a student’s been called on, s/he is part of the continued conversation and class thinking
Use No Opt Out. This means teachers:
- Require all students to correctly answer questions posed to them
- Always follow incorrect or partial answers from students by giving the correct answer themselves, cold calling other students, taking a correct answer from students with hands raised, cold calling other students until the right answer is given, and then returning to any student who gave an incorrect or partial answer for complete and correct responses.
End with an effective debrief. This means teachers:
- Return explicitly to the learning targets (both academic and character/habits of work)
- Elicit student reflection towards the learning target(s), probing for students to provide evidence for their own and/or class progress
- Celebrate or have students celebrate individual, small group or whole class successes
- Identify or have students identify goals for improvement around the target(s)
Week at a Glance
Monday, October 16th: WORKDAY
1:00 - ALP's (See Email)
2:00 - Grades Posted
2:45 - Leadership Meeting
3:45 - Closing Circle (Main Atrium)
Tuesday, October 17th:
8:00 a.m. - All students will meet in the Gym for the fundraising kickoff
5:30 p.m. - Football Banquet
6:00 p.m. - Cross Country Banquet
Wednesday, October 18th:
4:30 p.m. - 8th Volleyball vs Aspen / 7th Home
Grades posted by 4:45 today (2 minimum for Content and 2 for Habits, by the end of the week)
RTI Tier II meetings during morning plan.
Thursday, October 19th:
Friday, October 20th:
6:00-8:00 p.m. - School Dance
STAFF TO DO:
- Sign students up for "Homework Help" that are missing assignments and have them contact parents.
- Touch base with kids that were absent. It means more than you think. Just ask them!
- Make sure you update your grades by 4:45 on Wednesday. At a minimum, you should have at least 2 Content and 2 Habit grades entered in Infinite Campus by the end of this week.
Morning Meeting Schedule
Please LINK your morning meeting agenda to the "17-18 Crew/MM Schedule."
CREWs are only responsible for the Friday Morning Meeting and announcements for the week. We also encourage you to take your CREW and practice in the cafeteria during CREW time this week.
Dana's Schedule
Tuesday: 7:30-2:30 p.m. - District Admin Meeting
Wednesday: At GVMS
Thursday: At GVMS
Friday: At GVMS
Kelly's Schedule
Tuesday: 7:30-2:30 p.m. - District Admin Meeting
Wednesday: At GVMS (9:30-10:30 - Meeting at Admin)
Thursday: At GVMS
Friday: At GVMS (Out @ 11:00 - CC Regionals in Delta)