Principal's Newsletter
April 8th, 2016
WOWs
WOW to Kristy Giacomarra and Jodi Fitzgerald for helping me plan an amazing Tech Fest.--Susan Adams
WOW! To 2nd grade who always puts kids first in their data discussions!!--Susan Adams
WOW to the principals for making para appreciation day so special. Thank you for acknowledging the paras and how much we do everyday. The lunch was wonderful.--Linda Carr
WOW to our paras for attending our faculty meeting about behavior. Your ideas and thoughts are going to be so helpful!--Dr. DeWeese
WOW to Janice Beerman, Kody Stricklin, Donna Baeten, Michelly Kelly, Mary Scheffer, and Betsy Arnold for taking two days away from their kids and their classrooms to conduct interviews.
---Dr. DeWeese
Staffing Update
Dione has been a Reading Specialist for the past ten years at Daniel Boone Elementary. Prior to that she was a kindergarten teacher at Independence and a teacher here. She is excited to come back to where she started her career.
Makenzie has spent the last three years teaching third grade at Daniel Boone Elementary. She has spent the last three year immersed in learning about teaching literacy and providing interventions to struggling readers. Her career goal is to become a reading teacher just like her mom.
We are still working on filling our five classroom positions. I will send out an announcement as soon as those offers have been made and accepted. PE interviews will be conducted on April 15th and I will update you once that position is filled as well.
Faculty Meeting Follow Up
The purpose of strengthen our Tier 1 system and providing positive feedback and recognition to students isn't because we are doing something wrong rather it is to help us get better at building a positive climate for students, be more intentional about recognizing students, preventing behavior problems, and most importantly protecting instructional time. When there are strong universal supports in place for all students we can prevent students from needing behavior interventions just like in academics. Tier 1 supports are not just about the classroom. It is about every area of the building and it takes every person in the building to implement the system.
Our Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions are taking place for students who have met behavior triggers. Those interventions are research based from PBIS and have been taking place and set up through the Behavior Steering Team. Some tweaks will most likely be made to those systems as we will have a better data tool next year to provide more specific behavior data on students.
We have amazing students who work hard every day, even our most challenging students. They deserve to be recognized for it in order to reinforce it. I am looking forward to creating this environment for our students and to watch us learn and grow together over the next year. Keep your ideas and questions coming. We need input from all areas to help the committee make the best decisions for our building.
We all have the ability to set up our classrooms for academic success. Effective classroom management is not about what we do when misbehavior occurs, but by what we do to set up our classrooms for academic success and to prevent problem behaviors from occurring.
Putting systems in place requires change, reflection, and learning. One of the best things we can do moving forward is to maintain a positive attitude, keep the lines of communication open with administration and the behavior team, and remember that we are all in this together to learn more and do more to help our students succeed.
CITW Walks
While this has not been a typical practice at Harvest Ridge, it has been a practice in all the other buildings for two years. As we move forward next year our CITW trainers will visit classroom to help support teachers in their learning.
Since this has not been a practice for us this year I am giving you the option to not have the trainers visit your room that day. This is a choice for this year only. Please let me know before April 29th if you would prefer for Dr. Buckman, myself, and our trainers to not visit your classroom during her visit.
Math Observations
Beautification Committee
Nee Data Forms
Evaluations
Where is Your Principal?
Tuesday, April 12th- PLC Meetings , PTO Meetings
Wednesday, April 13th- Writing Revising Meeting, Site Visit
Thursday, April 14th- Kindergarten Transition Meeting, IEP
Friday, April 15th- PE Interviews
Monday, April 18th- Weekly Administration Meeting
Tuesday, April 19th- Facilities Meeting, PLC Meetings, Observe Reader's Workshop at McKelvey
Wednesday, April 20th- IEP Meetings, SPED PLC
Thursday, April 21st- BST Meeting, CIA Meeting
Friday, April 22nd-- Principal's Meeting