Blackhawk Bulletin
September 15, 2016
Preparing for Week 4
Today Robin Ingle shared that her father's cancer has stabilized. She is appreciative of everyone's continued thoughts and prayers!
Don't forget that tomorrow is a $1 paid Blue Jean Day to support our PBIS efforts! You can give your money and get a sticker in the office. We will do this next Friday as well. September 30th is a FREE DRESS DOWN DAY!
We have received information about the updated Investigations manipulative kits. While these are very expensive, Carla and I feel like it is important for you to have the updated card sets so we are ordering these. This will cost a little over $4,000 and will come out of our instructional supply funds. We have also placed an order for additional Common Core books in ELA and Math for each grade level. This will give you two copies of each.
Make sure you sign up for a club to facilitate on Early Release Club days. This is a very important part of our Year 2 Leader in Me Implementation. I am very excited in looking at the list of clubs that will offered! Thank you to the Student Club Action Team for your hard work with this organization!
We have a HUGE plan for our Early Release Days that includes Student Clubs, Leaders Achieve data discussions with instructional assistants/Title 1 staff/Support Staff, and grade level data discussions after school. We are moving most of the data discussions out of the data room and trying a new format based on feedback from last year. Look for more information to come out soon. Hard copies will be provided. Data discussions will only be held on October 18th, December 9th, February 22nd and March 30th (a proposal to SIT to swap the March 9 PLC Early Release and the March 30 Early Release will be made).
Thank you to our Student Empowerment Team for getting our school-wide Student Leadership Roles started! If you have been given the assignment of informing students of the expectations of their roles, please make sure you do so in a timely manner.
Soon we will create a Leadership Day Pop Up Action Team. Please be thinking about if you would like to participate in planning for this event that will be held on April 28th.
Year 2 Implementation Goals
Looking back at our Leader in Me Year 2 Implementation Goals Google Doc for Leadership Notebooks. Click here to access it yourself.
- At this point students should have a Leadership Notebook with the tabs 'My Self' and 'My Celebrations' in the notebook (due date was 9-9-16). Grade levels are responsible for coming up with the design of the cover for the folders. The next focus will be to introduce WIGS and to start having students create goals. At least one WIG per student should be created by October 6th. At the October 6th staff meeting, teachers will bring samples to share with others. In addition, each student will have a leadership notebook with the schoolwide cover and 5 tabs by November 1st.
- The Family Involvement Action Team should be working to meet this action step: Create Calendar of Home/School Habit Activities and Extracurricular Opportunities by September 23, 2016. Lighthouse has also given this team the bulletin board by the cafeteria/data room to display these events. We also need this team to work with Delia Pinto-Houbrick to schedule and plan Latino Night.
- The Student Club Action team should be working on this as well as club implementation: A plan will be created to showcase clubs during bi-monthly school-wide assemblies by October 15th, with assemblies starting on Nov 22nd.
- The Lighthouse Team is working on plans for the November 16 Mini-Symposium.
SIT Meeting Coming Up on September 21st - Make your voice heard!
Math instruction must be aligned to standards - not just teaching of the Investigations Units!
Don't forget that you need to double check the Investigations lessons and how they are aligned to the standards. Make sure you don't just take Pearson's word for it! Remember that while the program is research based they are still out to make money. We have to make sure we teach the standards and refer to the unpacking documents!
Here are some steps that I have seen other teachers going through when planning math that have proven to be beneficial:
1. Refer to the pacing guide from the county to make sure you are on track
2. Look at the lessons for the week coming up out of the Investigations materials
3. Identify the standards that the lessons address
4. Look up the standards in the unpacking documents
5. Discuss the standards and what it is really asking you to teach
6. Discuss what it will look like when a student demonstrates mastery
7. Go back to the Investigations lessons and make notes about what to focus on to really hit that standard
8. Decide if you need any supplemental support and pull from quality resources
9. Read the teachers notes and differentiation suggestions listed in Investigations
10. Make a plan as a team how to differentiate the lesson for highest students and struggling students
While it seems like an overwhelming process but once you get in the groove, it can really take about 25-30 minutes. Of course, you can throw in pre-assessments and post-assessments as well.
Upcoming Events
- September 19 - No Fluency Boot Camp and No Leaders Achieve
- September 20 - 1st Day for Leaders Achieve - 2nd Grade: 8:30 - 9:00; 3rd Grade: 9:00 - 9:30; 4th Grade: 9:30 - 10:00
- September 20 - BoosterThon Pep Rally at 10:05 in the gym and Joint Staff Meeting at 3:00 at WPS Cafeteria (more information to come)
- September 21 - Elementary's Principals Meeting
- September 21 - Required Accommodations Training for Allison, PS Wilson, Rosenthal, Pinto-Houbrick and Benfield at 2:30 at NBHS.
- September 22 - SIT Meeting at 2:45
- September 23 - Sweet Treat in the Cafeteria at 1:30
- September 24 - Girl Scout Beautification Project on our campus
- September 26 - 30 - Bus Ridership Week
- September 26 - TIPS Meeting
- September 27 - Advisory Council Meeting at 8:30 in Conference Room
- September 27 - TIPS Meeting
- September 28 - Coaching Day with Sarah Ann (more information to come)
- September 28 - Early Release Day - Meeting with Sarah Ann at 12:45
- September 30 - BoosterThon Blackhawk Fun Run! A detailed schedule will be sent out soon. 9-10am: 4th; 10-11am: 2nd & 3rd grade Make sure you have a walking permission slip for ALL of your students so they can walk to Weaverville Primary School for the event.
- October 6 - Staff Meeting at 2:45;
- 7 Minutes for 7 Habits
- Leadership Notebook (Bring examples of student WIGS to share)
- Action Team Meetings
- October 7 - Instructional Assistant Meeting at 8:30 in the Media Center. No 2nd Grade Leaders Achieve.
- October 10 - DTWD - BCS Literacy Training for the NB District at WvES
- October 13 - Individual Data Discussions with Teachers (schedule to follow)
- October 14 - Individual Data Discussions with Teacher (schedule to follow)
- October 14 - School Improvement Plan Due
- October 17 - Open House - 6:00 - 6:30 Title 1 and Leader in Me Parent Meeting; 6:30 - 7:00 Classroom Visits (more info coming from Family Involvement Action Team)
- October 25 - School Pictures
- October 24 - 28 - Math Week (World Series Theme)
- October 26 - Math Workshop for 4th Grade Parents
- October 27 - Math Workshop for 3rd Grade Parents
- October 27 - SIT Meeting at 2:45
- October 28 - Math Workshop for 2nd Grade Parents