Mustangs On Your M.A.R.K.!
Medlock Bridge Elementary Principal's Newsletter - 10/22
News and Notes
Next Week:
Monday, October 23
Tuesday, October 24
PTO Staff Snacks
Faculty Meeting @ 2:45 in Media Center
Wednesday, October 25
School Governance Council @7:30 in room 131
Second Grade Duty Day
Thursday, October 26
Chic-Fil-A Spirit Night
1st Grade Duty Day
Friday, October October 27
Remember you are invited to provide feedback on everything throughout the year at www.tinyurl.com/MBESfeedback17.
IRMA Make-Up Days - UPDATE
**making up time does not apply to employees who were on approved leave (FMLA) contracted personnel (SLP's, OT, etc), or SNP staff.
Classified staff (Paraprofessionals, School Liaisons, Clinic Aides, Administrative Staff) - further clarification is coming on how you make up your hours. Please hold off on making up these hours until you hear more.***
In making up the three days lost to Hurricane Irma, the district will take the following steps.
- will have a regular day of school for students and staff on February 16th.
- Our school has been given the latitude to devise local plans to cover the other two days with staff.
It is notable that the county is giving us this latitude in an effort to promote a more positive culture for students, families, and employees. All part of the new strategic plan.
The Medlock Bridge Plan to make up these days is as follows:
-Full Time Staff must make up 12 hours of work time. Part Time adjust proportionally for days missed.
-Staff in the following groups must make up the missed hours.
- Classified Staff (Paraprofessionals, School Liaisons, Clinic Aides, Administrative Staff)
- School-based certified Staff (Teachers, Counselors, Assistant Principals)
Some examples are:
· Attending a county training after school.
· Attending the Literacy Ladies Book Club
· Attending a Meeting before 7am or after 3:30pm.
· Attending the 2nd Grade Performance
· Attending a Spirit Night
· Assisting in a PTO campus clean up
Have another idea? Email admin for approval.
-The chart attached must be used to maintain record of attendance.
-Chart is due to Paula Bell by May 25, 2018.
-Admin will keep on file at the school until May 2020.
Celebrations
Rose Slayden - Our new interim cafeteria manager - helped us celebrate School Lunch Week. Admin had the opportunity to be celebrity servers! It was so much fun working with our cafeteria team!
Kudos to Jennifer Birkmeyer - Ms. Birkmeyer has been working with the parent and student through a challenging transition. She received the following praise from a parent: "she has been nothing short of amazing! I'm pretty sure I lost my patience over this issue more than she did. She has gone above and beyond to help and sent me updates on both good and bad days to ease my mind. We feel very lucky..."
I truly enjoyed the 2nd Grade Performance! It was my first taste of Medlock Bridge community performance events and I was very impressed. Thank you Ms. Rios, Ms. Hall, Ms. Barnes, Ms. Davis, Ms. Powell and Mr. Gendreau!
Make Students the Focus of the Work.
Join students in recognizing Red Ribbon Week! Support our Student Council and the rest of our students by participating in the spirit days below!
Monday - Turn your back on drugs by wearing clothing backwards
Tuesday - Dress up as the career you wish to have in the future
Wednesday - Hugs not drugs - bring a favorite stuffed animal to school
Thursday - Sock it to drugs - wear crazy or mismatched socks
Friday - Rise up against drugs - wear red and Falcons spirit wear
Monday - Pink
Tuesday - none (Red Ribbon Week Career Day)
Wednesday - Purple
Thursday - White
Friday - Red
Appreciate Learning and Growth.
Remember that your 3rd ETT Day is now your Grade Level Duty Day. Taking this time will allow you to get ahead on your planning so you can make students the focus of your daily work. Prior to your Duty Day, you will receive a new template for the meeting minutes. Please use this for the Duty Day and Team Time going forward. You must have a substitute teacher present in order to participate. I encourage you to make personal contact with your substitute to make sure you have their commitment.
TKES - Admin hoped to complete TKES Walkthroughs by Mid October. We are still working to meet that goal. If you have not had your appropriate number of walkthroughs to this point, please expect it soon. When your walkthrough occurs, please provide documentation related to that day's lesson (lesson plans, copies of student activities, etc.) to the observing administrator.
Reflect on Who You Are and Why You Do What You Do.
The Marshall Memo, an executive summary email of the latest educational research recently highlighted an article that gave a K-12 summary of what a student experiences throughout school. I'll share a couple highlights from the summary, but so many more interesting points:
Self-contained elementary teachers have more time with students. “For good or ill, elementary teachers can have a major effect on individual children,” says Marshall, “while middle- and high-school teachers see more students less often, affecting four or five times as many students in a less time-intensive, more subject-specific way.”
Some teachers have an outsize effect. Marshall’s son David was inspired by a high-school history teacher to shift from what seemed like an inevitable science-math trajectory (he’s now a high-school history teacher). Conversely, one of Marshall’s acquaintances was told by a second-grade teacher that his handwriting was atrocious and he would never amount to anything. Decades later, this man still broods on the comment and is painfully self-conscious about his handwriting. “It’s impossible to predict which teachers will have this kind of life-changing effect on which students,” says Marshall, “but we know it happens in every school.”
Good teaching really matters. This is especially true, studies show, when students have several effective teachers in a row – and the opposite is true when students have several less-effective teachers in succession. Rick DuFour and Mike Mattos said it well: “The key to improved student learning is to ensure more good teaching in more classrooms more of the time.” Students with any kind of disadvantage – a learning disability, learning a new language, conflicts at home, childhood trauma – particularly need effective instruction.
“The Big Picture: How Many People Influence a Student’s Life?” by Kim Marshall in Phi Delta Kappan, October 2017 (Vol. 98, #2, p. 42-45),
http://www.kappanonline.org/marshall-how-many-people-influence-student-life/