Dos Rios Elementary
Weekly Rocket * October 9, 2017
Hispanic Heritage Lessons & Activities - there's still time to get some activities in! Click the link below.
Principal's PLC-Connection
There will be a brief stand-up meeting afterschool on Monday in the library at 3:20.
P/T Conferences (Tuesday 1:00-7:00 / Wednesday 1:00-5:00)
- Contact the principal or assistant principal of scheduled times for any tricky student conferences. We are here for you.
- Sign up for the pot luck dinner Tuesday, October 10th. We will post that there will be a Staff Dinner Break from 5:00-5:45. HOWEVER, if you have conferences that you need to get done during this time or choose not to have the break, that is completely up to you.
- Middle School & Specials' Teachers - your conferences will be held in the gym. Middle School teachers' tables will be around the perimeter of one-half of the gym, and Specials' Teachers' tables will be around the perimeter of the other half of the gym. Chairs will be set up in the middle for parents to wait for your availability.
- Please encourage all your parents to take the online PBIS School Climate Survey at the front of the school as well as fill out a Rocket for our wall of what value our parents want our students to demonstrate.
As you know, there have been some difficulties in middle school. The writing teacher will no longer be with us and we are waiting for a replacement from the contract company.
Please closely read the specials schedule. Until a permanent replacement is secured for MS, some classes will be split among the other specials. Please prepare to split your classes into groups A & B (1/2 & 1/2) to send with other classes if the schedule says "1/2". 5th-8th grade classes are doubling up in PE.
As we continue to address issues, make adjustments, solve problems, etc., Fall Break will give Mrs. Castro and I dedicated time to RAMP our procedures, schedules, and expectations as well as plan for new projects ahead. We are dedicated to making this year not only transitional, but successful in every way. Remember to let us know when you have "tricky" conferences scheduled.
Enjoy your Fall Break - you deserve it!
Principally yours,
Mrs. Annamarie Dowling-Garrott
(aka Mrs. A or Mrs. D-G)
Please be encouraged... "It works if you work it."
Teachers who bring printout of Survey Completed page will be given a DRESS-DOWN pass for any day (expect P/T Conferences).
Weekly Launch Codes
Week-at-a-Glance
Weekly SEaL Sessions Calendar on OneDrive
Castro's Corner
Weekly Discipline Data (Week of 10/2)
- Out of School Suspensions (OSS): 0
- In School Suspensions (ISS): 2
Rocket Ticket Directions
Rockets tickets are a great opportunity to reinforce positive behaviors. Rockets tickets engage student in reflecting on their behavior choices. There is a small red tub in front of the mailboxes filled with tickets. Please take as many as you will give out. We have weekly drawings for a small gifts. We also have monthly drawings for out of this world rewards. When giving out tickets please follow the following structure:
- State Expectation
- State the Skill
- Give the Ticket
Examples:
Great job being responsible (1) by completing your classwork (2).
Thank you for being respectful by listening to the comments of your classmates.
Thank you for being safe by walking off the rocks.
Great job being a role model by helping your partner with their work.
Rule of Thumb for Rocket Tickets
- Reinforce every student in your class at least twice per day
- Each staff should reinforce at least 10 students per day
Giving a Rocket Ticket takes 3 seconds of your time. To reinforce positive behavior in your class for every student twice will take 3 minutes total out of your day. Compare those 3 minutes to the amount of time spent disciplining students for poor behavior.
At the end of the newsletter is the attached ppt that you may use to review with your class as often as you would like. If you have any ideas to make Rocket Tickets a success please let me know. Please continue to give out Rocket Tickets. The Rocket capsule was almost full to the top with so many tickets. Great Job Staff!
Reminders:
You may submit Office Referrals for the following:
- Major Offense: drugs, fighting, weapons, gross disrespect
- Minor Offense that have reached Step 6 on the same day.
When submitting office referrals for minor offenses please include interventions done. The interventions listed must align to our behavior steps and include the following Intervention:
Warning
DOJO/Point lost
In Class Reflection (ICR)- reflection sheet (if completed)-will be collected
Out of Class Reflection (OCR)-reflection sheet completed- will be collected
Parent Contact- logged into Synergy
*When writing student referrals please write facts only on the description box, do not include any student names. On the Private Description be specific and include names. When printing referrals to send home the information on the description box gets printed for parents to see and due to confidentiality no names or opinions should be include.
*Referrals that are not completed will not be processed. When we come get a student to address referral we will collect reflection sheet completed on the day of the referral as well as check Synergy for documented of parent contact.
*Due to confidentially, lack of supervision, respect to the office staff, and student interest please do not send student to the office. When you submit a referral, we will process it ASAP and retrieve students as needed. Student that come to the office will be send back to class. Students may wait in your OCR classroom for someone to get them.
Reading Rockets - Contributed by Ryann Miller
Text-Dependent Questions:
Effective questions about literature and nonfiction texts
require students to delve into a text to find answers. (Part 2)
-Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey
Types of Text-Dependent Questions
Purpose. The genre of the text and the use of narration help students make sense of what they are reading. In addition, understanding the overall purpose of the text guides students in following the flow of the reading. Readers should understand whether the text is meant to inform, entertain, persuade, or explain something to them. There are also situations in which the text has a specific bias or provides only part of the story. In those situations, students could be asked about the perspectives that are not explored in the text. The questions that the teacher might ask that relate to the author’s purpose for the water essay include:
· How does Gleick attempt to convince readers that water is a worthy topic of discussion?
· What is Gleick’s purpose in writing this? Is he trying to inform, entertain, or persuade? How do you know?
· Is Gleick biased? What is your evidence?
· Does Gleick acknowledge other perspectives?
Inferences. Some of the questions that students need to think about require them to understand how the parts of a text build to a whole. This means that they must probe each argument in persuasive text, each idea in informational text, or each key detail in literary text. Importantly, inference questions require students to read the entire selection so that they know where the text is going and how they can reconsider key points in the text as contributing elements of the whole.
In the Gleick essay, inference questions might include, How does the information at the start of the essay, about the United States using less water today compared with 30 years ago, help Gleick make his argument for the third age of water? and How does Gleick use the six differences between hard and soft paths to build the case for water services?
Opinions, arguments, and intertextual connections. The final category of text-dependent questions should be used sparingly and typically should be asked only after students have read and reread a text several times to fully develop their understanding. Readers should have opinions about what they read, and they should be able to argue their perspectives using evidence from the text and from other texts, experiences, and beliefs that they hold. For example, while reading about water, the teacher might ask, “Did Gleick make a convincing argument about the ages of water?” “Is there sufficient evidence presented that a soft path is the appropriate direction?” or even “How do Gleick’s recommendations compare with those presented in Gary White’s essay [which was also published in Last Call at the Oasis]?” Those questions often result in deep and engaging conversations, especially when students have read the text and understood it.
Text-Dependent Questions Prompt Critical Thinking
Teachers should ask text-dependent questions, but students can also ask text-dependent questions of themselves and one another as they learn to read and think this way. The overall intent of asking text-dependent questions is to build a habit of critical thinking, and critical thinking should lead to thoughtful critical analysis. Educators do not need to create another generation of teacher dependent learners. Nor do educators need to teach students that they must accept what an author says as the absolute and unquestioned truth. Reading is a transaction between the author and the reader, and everyone uses their background knowledge each time they read. But everyone must also thoroughly understand the author’s position to critically analyze it. That requires more than simply drawing on personal experiences.
As Rosenblatt (1995) noted, “The reader must remain faithful to the author’s text and must be alert to the potential clues concerning character and motive” (p. 11). Rosenblatt (1995) also cautioned that readers might ignore elements in a text and fail to realize that they are “imputing Source: Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (in press). Common core language arts in a PLC at work (Grades 9–12). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree. to the author views unjustified by the text” (p. 11). The goal in creating text-dependent questions is to balance the reader and the text so that each is involved in the transaction of reading.
Making Math Matter - Contributed by Melanie Blaum
Building Math Fluency
Tip 5: Problem Solving Strategies
Problems are not solved in only one way, so different strategies need to be taught. For example, addition and subtraction problems can be solved in different ways. Children need to be taught to count using their fingers, to draw number representations, to use manipulatives (i.e. counters, counting objects, number line) correctly to find answers, and eventually, mental math.
Teach problem solving strategies in a variety of ways:
- Use posters and diagrams to illustrate something new. (Build Anchor charts together as a class)
- Draw and write examples on anchor charts and post them in visible locations and refer to them when needed.(Have students use interactive notebooks to copy anchor charts made in class; for younger students have a reproducible with the framework of the anchor chart with some missing words for students to add as they are “added” (revealed) as a class)
- Use different math tools and manipulatives.(number lines, arrays, graphs, tables, input/output tables, Ten-frames, number bonds, rekenreks).
Health & Wellness
Dr. Fred Jones's
Tools for Teaching
Meaning Business: Part 1
Calm is Strength, Upset is Weakness
The most stressful misbehavior in a classroom is not the big disruption -- the altercation that earns a trip to the office -- but the little disruption. Big disruptions happen only occasionally. Little disruptions happen constantly.
Our research shows that 80 percent of disruptions in the classroom involve "talking to neighbors," and 15 percent involve being "out of seat." Little disruptions are the eternal enemies of time-on-task. They cause us to sound like this:
"Class, it is altogether too noisy in here! You all have work to do, and I cannot be everywhere at once! If you have any questions"
"Robert, would you take your seat! I am sick and tired of looking up and seeing you wandering around the room."
"Jennifer, I want you to turn around in your seat and do your own work! Every time I look up I see the two of you talking."
Little disruptions will keep you "on your toes." Being on your toes all day long will leave you exhausted.
UNDERSTANDING STRESS
When you see a disruption, you experience a reflex that you studied in your first high school biology class. It is called the fight-flight reflex.
To understand fight-flight is to understand stress. The first part of the reflex is muscular tension all over your body. That can produce tension headaches, sore neck and shoulders, acid stomach and difficulty sleeping. The second part of the reflex is the secretion of adrenaline in your bloodstream. Adrenaline increases your metabolism producing "nervous energy;" it takes 27 minutes for adrenaline to leave the bloodstream. Translated into everyday terms, two "squirrelly" student behaviors per class period will keep you "wired" all day.
Most teachers think being on your toes just goes with the territory. Running on adrenaline all day, however, builds up an energy debt, just as athletes build up an energy debt when they compete. You will feel that energy debt about 27 minutes after the students go home; it's the letdown that has you muttering, "Boy, what a day!" You'll take that exhaustion home to your family. You'll feel like sitting rather than being active. You'll have little tolerance for more stress, and normal family demands will make you want to scream, "Give me a break!" Regardless of your pay scale, you are paying too high a price for earning a living.
That kind of stress cannot be managed after you get home. It's too late. You have already paid. Exercise and yoga only help with damage control. If you want to manage stress successfully, you must prevent it. You must learn to respond minute-by-minute to the little disruptions that occur on the job, without wearing yourself out.
Meaning business is the art of dealing efficiently with the normal misbehavior of students. Meaning business means working smart instead of working hard. Meaning business is self-preservation.
CALM IS STRENGTH, UPSET IS WEAKNESS
Can your students tell whether you are calm, upset, tired, or impatient? They read you like a book! They know even without you speaking, because they read your body language.
Do your students know how to push your buttons? Do they like to be in control? Do they want their own way?
How can kids tell when they are in control? Consider the following questions:
When you are calm, who is controlling your mind and body?
When you are upset, who is controlling your mind and body?
When you are calm, you can think. You can use all your intelligence and experience and all your social skills to deal with a situation. When you are upset, you react. Instead of thinking, you have a fight-flight reflex.
Have you ever "flown off the handle," "lost it," "gone ballistic?" How long did it take? A half-second? Reflexes are quick! Have you ever said something in the heat of the moment that you wish you could take back? Thinking comes later. When you are calm -- when you have time to think -- you can manage a situation.
Classroom management requires calm. You never will be able to manage another person's behavior until you can manage your own.
LEARNING TO RELAX
Calm is the opposite of fight-flight; it is the antidote. To reduce stress, we must train ourselves to relax in response to the cues that normally trigger fight-flight. Calm in response to provocation can be learned. Your grandmother, who always said, "Count to ten before you open your mouth," had developed a method of sorts. She might not have been completely calm, but at least she did not "fly off the handle."
To save wear and tear on your body, it would be nice to actually relax, rather than just to stifle upset. Because upset happens quickly, however, we will have to learn to relax immediately and automatically when confronted. That takes practice.
The first practice exercise for learning to relax involves breathing -- learning to breathe in a relaxed fashion. A relaxing breath is slow and shallow; it is that rhythmic breathing you experience as you begin to doze off. You might have practiced it in a prepared childbirth or yoga class. Relaxed breathing calms the body and lowers blood pressure.
Next, relax the body as a conscious act. After you get the feel of it, practice relaxing in response to a provocation. If you are alone, you can imagine the provocation, but if you have a friend or a colleague to practice with, they can provide more realism. When you see a person relax in this fashion, it appears as though the provocation just caused everything to come to a halt. Rather than speeding up, you slow down. Rather than opening your mouth, you become quiet. Rather than reacting, you clear your mind.
Upset is fast, and calm is slow.
Then, turn slowly. Point your toes in the direction of the provocation to fully commit your body. That tells the other person that they have your full attention. Take another relaxing breath. Simply observe and give yourself a moment to think. When you see a person turn slowly and commit their attention in this fashion, it looks as though their entire body says, "I beg your pardon." The ball is now in the other person's court.
Take another relaxing breath.
The above is just a brief overview of relaxation techniques. If you truly want to master relaxation and other related skills, use the practice exercises described in the free Tools for Teaching Study Group Activity Guide available at fredjones.com.
PLAY YOUR HAND ONE CARD AT A TIME
If your fight-flight reflex had a voice, it would be screaming in your ear, "You have to do something! Now!" That voice, however, calls you to your doom.
Time, in fact, now is on your side. You have stopped what you were doing, you have relaxed, and you have committed yourself to dealing with the situation. The real question now is, what will the other person do? You don't know what the other person will do until they do it. By staying calm, however, you give yourself time to think and to act intelligently. In class, a student either will get back to work -- or not. At home, your child either will do what you just asked -- or not. By controlling yourself, however, you are controlling the situation.
Often a child simply will give up when he or she sees that you've become an "immoveable object." Sometimes, the child will exclaim, in exasperation, "Oh, all right!" Try not to smile.
If a child feels like gambling, however, he or she might raise the stakes by engaging in backtalk. Whining, wheedling, denying and blaming -- you know them all by heart. Beware! Backtalk triggers backtalk -- by you! After all, the most predictable way to get another person to talk to you is by talking to them. Does the child actually want you to talk? Could there be a method to the madness?
In our next segment, we will focus on backtalk. In so doing, we will move beyond relaxation techniques to "games children play." We will move beyond simple relaxation skills to more complex skills of meaning business.
*Note: In previous segments we have focused on the prevention of typical classroom disruptions. Room arrangement, working the crowd, Praise, Prompt, and Leave, Visual Instruction Plans and Say, See, Do Teaching all work together to replace talking to neighbors with time-on-task. When all the elements are in place, typical classroom disruptions can be reduced by 80 to 95 percent. Managing the disruptions that remain, however, constitutes an inescapable part of your job description -- one that is critical to both student learning and your physical well-being. Teachers typically refer to it as "meaning business."
This article is condensed from Dr. Jones' award winning book Tools for Teaching. Illustrations by Brian Jones for Tools for Teaching.