KNIGHT NOTES
January 22, 2018
HAPPY MONDAY
Good morning--
I hope that you had a wonderful weekend to round out our fantastic three-day week.
I had an opportunity to get in to quite a few classrooms last week. It was great to see the awesome things that are happening. I loved how clear objectives were, how engaged students were through the use of instructional strategies like cooperative learning and problem-based learning. In addition, it was clear that there was also a really strong focus on formatively assessing students throughout the course of a class period.
There are clearly great things happening in our our classrooms. Thanks for all that you do to make sure that our students are getting such high-quality instruction. I know that does not happen by accident, but it instead, the result of very intentional planning.
In addtion, thank you for being so visible in the hallways. it is extremely noticeable. I have had students and staff member make comments about it. Please keep up the good work, as it indubitably has an impact on hallway behavior.
I appreciate all of your efforts. Have a great week!
-Andy
CELEBRATIONS
- Thank you to our guidance department for offering night to help our students and parents complete the enrollment process for 18'-19'.
- Thank you to Officer Scherder for participating in Meet the SRO Parent Coffee.
- Awesome job by our Aaron, Manfull, Taylor Sheridan, and Isaiah Bryant for presenting speaking on HB 1940 in Jefferson City on Wednesday. Great experience for our students.
- Congratulations to The team of Caitlind Walker and Grant Freitas placed 6th Nationally in the Best overall crystal category in the US crystal growing competition sponsored by University of Buffalo Department of Chemistry. The team of Riley Lawson, Sarah Zimmerman and Hannah Zimmerman got an honorable mention for their crystal. Teacher is Donna Malkmus.
ACHIEVEMENT
PD Committee
The PD Committee Meeting will ocurr January 22 at 2:30 in the Learning Commons. The PD Committee Meeting is informational and anyone can attend. We will be discussing 1st semester PD and discussing shareout plans for 2nd semester.
Registration Note;
Registration for 2018-2019 school year has opened for students and will close on January 25th. After the portal closes, guidance counselors will be meeting with each student individually to confirm course selections. Please encourage students to register for at least 1 challenge class. If you have questions about registration please feel free to contact Katie Greer.
CLIMATE
Climate Committee:
The next meeting of the Climate Committee will be held on Tuesday, January 23rd, at 2:30 in the Main Office. The committee will be reviewing the action plan to provide feedback on the steps taken so far as well as brainstorm future next steps to help us maintain our focus on renewed and clarified expectations for staff and students. We will also be developing a timeline to move forward on our long-term goal of developing a PBIS Expectation Matrix for our building.Climate Note:
Here are also some other climate items that are in the works:
Student Summit:
We will be working with a group of 25 students, who are representative of the composition of our schoo, to discuss student climate concerns. This will be happening very soon, and we look forward to hearing the fantastic thoughts and ideas.
Meet the SRO Parent Coffee:
The administrative team hosted a Meet the SRO Parent Coffee to introduce Office Scherder to our parents, to discuss his role in the building, to share safety protocols, and to give tips for how parents can help with school safety. We enjoyed the opportunity to talk to our parents and to get great feedback.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance Committee:
The Attendance Committee met this past week. We have sent notes from that meeting. In addtion, here is a quick recap of that meeting:
Discussion Items:
- 90/90 Update- 83.9%
- Avg Daily Attendance Update- 93.9%
Action Items:
- Develop a list of students who might benefit from a Home Visit to help encourage and support them in coming to school. Since the meeting, multiple homes have already been visited.
- Generate a new resource tool kit for Attendance Allies and develop ways to show our appreciation to our Allies.
- Please feel free to share the following 1st semester data with your students as we continue to stress the connection between attendance and achievement:
Attendance GPA
95% and Up—3.42
Between 90% and 95%—3.02
Between 85% and 90%—2.57
Between 80% and 85%—2.52
Below 80%—2.18
Finally, please take 30 seconds to respond to this one question survey about checking in with students when they return from an absence. Thank you.
BEHAVIOR
Behavior Committee:
The Behavior Team will be meeting on Monday, January 22nd at 2:30 in Room 5/8. This will be an information gathering meeting, and we will be reviewing our 1st semester behavior data and discussing ways to share best classroom management practices.
Restorative Practices
I know that Restpratvie Practices is a buzz phrase that many of you have heard of, but it is also a phrase that is often misconstrued: Below is information that will hopefully provide some clarification and help you to understand how we are using restorative Practices at FHN.
- Restorative Discipline is NOT a replacement for suspensions, ISAP, and detentions. These practices are still in place
- Restorative discipline, like punishment, concerns itself with appropriate consequences that encourage accountability—but accountability that emphasizes empathy and repair of harm
- Restorative Discipline uses relationships as a means of resolving conflicts while placing a premium on safety and accountability. The student will learn a better way to behave if we teach it directly, and will not learn from punishment alone
- Restorative Discipline acknowledges that relationships are key and builds systems that address misbehavior and harm in a way that strengthens relationships
The FHN admin and counseling team have conducted restorative conversations with students when we are made aware of conflict and there has not been any Code of Conduct violation (e.g. through social media or having it reported to us). As a result, we have prevented several further conflict from escalating.
Furthermore,, the admin team uses restorative questions when students return from out of school suspensions of three days or more. These questions include:
o What happened?
o What were you thinking at the time?
o What have you thought about since?
o Who has been affected by your actions? In what ways?
o What do you think you need to do to make it right?
o How can you move forward in a friendly way?
Lastly, the guidance and admin team have also conducted some Restorative conversations with students who have already received consequences for fighting and/or verbal conflict with each other. In all these cases, there has not been a repetition of the behavior.
Overall, our goal is to increase a sense of belonging and a greater sense of safety among our students. If you are interested in learning more, the link below will take you to a brief article and resources related to Restorative Practices. You can also talk to any of the staff who attended the Restorative Practices Academy last spring (Ryan Johnson, Eric Eubank, Mark Olwig, Rachel Faulkner, Marissa Cohen, Sarah Arcizewski, and Chris Birch).
https://www.jefferson.kyschools.us/sites/default/files/Restorative%20Practice%20Handouts.pdf
TECHNOLOGY
Technology Committee:
The Technology Committee met this past week. Notes have been emailed to you. However, here is a quick summary:
Discussion items:
- Week of Code
- METC Conference
Action Steps:
- More information will be coming soon regarding the Week of Code Activities. These activities will be taking place on 2/8.
HOMEROOM
Homeroom Committee:
The Homeroom Committee will meet on 1/25 at 2:30 in the main office conference room. We will be finalizing a staff and student survey to be administered later this quarter to determine the current reality of homeroom (e.g. how time is being utilized) as well as any suggestions for improvement.
STAFF COMMITMENTS
2017-2018 Staff Commitments to the Learning Environment
In order to improve the climate/environment at FHN, the staff commits to:
1. building positive relationships with students and staff members.
2. helping students to see the relationship between effort and success.
3. addressing any inappropriate behavior immediately to help set an expectation of appropriate hallway and classroom behavior.
4. giving clear and consistent expectations for device use and by enforcing them.
5. counting tardies consistently.