Staff Newsletter
because it helps to know what's going on
Friday, September 14
A great article on how our own words might convey a fixed or growth mindset.
A Tweak to our Reading Regimen
In lieu of giving the weekly assessment, teachers will give the selection test (comprehension and vocab) and record that in Infinite Campus under the Literature or Non-Fiction and Vocabulary areas.
Teachers will also give the Unit Assessment beginning with Unit 2 to ensure students are still exposed to the rigor of the ILEARN assessment and record that grade in Infinite Campus under appropriate categories. Teachers will regularly use the weekly assessment as a teaching/learning opportunity to get them ready for the rigor of the Unit assessments and ILEARN.
We assured Morgan Walker that teachers will be vigilant in their pursuit of addressing the standards and maintaining rigor.
Because the selection testing time will be significantly less, we are asking that the PLCs brainstorm ideas of how to best utilize that time with an emphasis on creating a joy for reading and writing.
Recommended testing time: 40 minutes gen. Ed. and 60 minutes for those with extended time.
We also recommend that on the comprehension questions, students note the page number and paragraph of where they found the answer to encourage the practice of finding text evidence.
DLTA Building Rep Needed
News From PTO
It's that time of year again! We will be kicking of our PTO Fall Box Tops Contest this coming Monday, September 10th, and ending October 12th. This year, we will have an overall contest winner (classroom celebration and teacher prize) for the classroom with the most box tops by October 12th, and we will also have a teacher prize for the classroom with the most box tops turned in by September 28th. Susan Vrabel will be putting information in your mailboxes to send home with your students. Thank you as always for getting your students excited about the contest!
Dates to Remember:
Kickoff: September 10th
First contest end date for teacher prize: September 28th
Final contest end date for classroom and teacher prize: October 12th
Kickball Tournament and Bake Off: November 3
Please put collected box tops in the PTO mailbox. Each teacher will have a ziploc bag with your name on it that can be used to collect and turn in Box Tops.
Reminders
- Teachers-If you haven't done so, please send me calendar invites for all future Principal read alouds so that it's a convenient time for you. I would like to read to your class each month.
- DCEF TEACHER GRANT: Don't forget the grants are due by Friday, October 12th. The link for the application can be found here.
- Don't forget to "Sign In" each week on the 2018-19 PD Sign in for PGP Verification" Doc
Flyin' High with RTI
Jaymee here! I've added a Progress Monitoring column to the Reading Lab tab on the Class of... spreadsheets. You can look here to see how your students are doing on their running records. They are color coded: Hard/red, Instructional/green, Independent/blue. The LLI program instructs us to take a running record after the students have read the book once and participated in a brief discussion. The running record usually takes place 1-2 days after reading the book. We use these assessments to guide our teaching. For example, the student I tested today needs to self-monitor visual information (making sure the word looks right). A comprehension weakness she has is determining how an author organizes the text. We will be talking about these areas in future lessons.
Renee here! We are looking at Unit 1 test data for 4th grade today (Friday) and hoping to make our groups ready for interventions, beginning on Monday, the 17th. I'll send an email Friday afternoon with an update. I plan on meeting with the aides today (Friday) at 1:00 to discuss groups and interventions for Tier 2 and Tier 3 students.
Data Team Meetings for the year
October 2, 2018
November 28, 2018
January 23, 2019
March 6, 2019
May 1, 2019
CIC Meetings For The Year
November 2, 2018
January 25, 2019
April 12, 2019
May 10, 2019
Upcoming Dates
Sept. 26: Grade Level/Dept. Mtg
Oct. 1: Kkids 1st meeting
Oct. 2: Data Team Meeting
Oct. 5: Book Fair begins
Oct. 8: Parent/Teacher Conferences begin
Oct. 12: End of quarter 1
Oct. 15: Fall Break begins
Oct. 22: "healthy choices week" begins
Oct. 24: Grade level/Dept. Mtg.
Nov. 2: CIC Meeting
Nov. 9: Veteran's Day Program
Nov. 14: Faculty Meeting
Nov. 21: Thanksgiving break begins
Nov. 28: Data Team Meeting
Nov. 28: Grade Level/Dept. Meeting