Tiger Beat
Acton Weekly Update 8/30/19
Things to Know
Friday morning, Dr. Stevenson will be here for her September building walk-through. She and I will be trying to get into every room during your Literacy Block to see how your D5, mini-lessons and for some of you, who've already started your groups, we will enjoy seeing your progress already.
Acuity: The question was brought up about starting Acuity the same week as GR groups. We are still starting both. I suggest each grade (3-5) choose 1-2 morning to do the Acuity assessment and not normal Lit Block activities and an afternoon for the math. Please reserve the extra chromebook carts for the days/ times your grade level will be needing them.
Several of you have asked about watching the Conscious Discipline videos again. Below is the link, username, password and directions on how to get to the videos. Also, if you miss a morning when we are viewing the videos, you will need to watch it on your own.
Video #1 Introduction to Conscious Discipline
Username: brook.wessel-burke@ftcsc.org
Password: ActonTigers1
Click on Digital Resources
Midterm grading window open- Grades must be posted by September 2nd. You DO NOT have to have ELA midterm grades for the first quarter. We will communicate with parents that there will be no Reading/ELA midterm grades due to assessments and beginning of the year procedures.
Guided Reading Data Meetings Next week:
Next week Jen and I will meet with all grade level teachers in the conference room to look at your GR data and support you with grouping students. We'd also like to take this time to determine low skills for IA's to focus on with identified students so they can pull their resources and be ready to start working more intentionally the following week. Our schedule for meetings is below.
Teacher coverage will be provided by our wonderful instructional assistants. We may need to make adjustments based on availability.
Tuesday
8:45-10:45 K
McMaster-Stevens
Froning-Amber
Emerine-Sutton
1:45-3:35 5th
Greene-Sutton
Story-Stevens
Scott-Mariah
Wednesday
8:45-10:45 2nd
Parsons-Amber
Brooks-Stevens
Krug-Mariah
1:45-3:15 4th
Reynolds-Sutton
Beechler-Mariah
Rigsby-Amber
Friday
8:45-10:45 1st
Elliott-Jennifer
Gilkerson-Mariah
Miller-Amber
1:45-3:35 3rd
Simmons-Mariah
Milholland-Sutton
Jewell-Amber
Coaches Corner
TGIF Acton Friends,
Below is a list of upcoming dates to keep in mind.
CFA Post-Assessment given by Aug. 30th
Daily 5 up and running by Aug. 30th
CFA Data Entered by Sept. 3rd
CFA Data Discussed on Sept. 4th
GR data entered into Scholastic by Sept. 6th
1st GR table up and running by Sept. 9th
All 3 GR tables up and running by Sept. 16th
Brook and I will meet with each grade level next week to help you group students and talk about IA expectations and schedules.
Tuesday morning you will have time to enter in your CFA data, and Wednesday morning we will use that time to discuss and collaborate using the data reports on our kiddos. Based on our data we will talk about what our students need during whole class lessons, mini lessons, IRAs, and the Guided Reading Victory table.
I anticipate that we will reach our first goal of 100,000 reading minutes next week! Brook and I will send out a schedule to let you know the Tiger Den schedule for each classroom.
Let me know if you need me cover your class so that you can work on running records. Just give me a skill, and I can create a mini lesson on that standard. I did this for a couple teachers this week, and we had a lot of fun!
After entering your data to Scholastic, you will have access to the Student Summary page. This is extremely helpful to get an overall picture of each individual student. The reports generated from Scholastic for each assessment are an invaluable resource to use when planning GR tables, mini lessons, IRAs and whole group lessons.
Go to SCHOLASTIC.COM/NSFRESOURCES Password: results for templates, videos, and resources)
As usual, come see me with any questions or concerns and have a great weekend!
Counselor Corner
Hello!
Conscious Discipline
Points from this weeks video that stood out to me:
- "Countries that support free play have better academic gains than countries that do not support free play"
- Q.T.I.P. (Quit Taking It Personally) and O.O.P.S. (practice self control)
- I love the questions on page 20. They really helped me understand what skills students might be missing when they are exhibiting common behaviors.
- Finding ways to connect the left and right hemisphere of the brain and not just focusing on the left!
- I heard some people ask on Tuesday where to get the songs Becky Bailey uses. I have most of the brain smart start songs in the "Acton Conscious Discipline Files" on google drive. If they are not on YouTube, they are on an album that me or another counselor has purchased.
Camp Care-A-Lot
- I have started to create lists of students who will be in Camp Care-A-Lot with me during lunch.
- If you have a student in your class that you think would benefit from this time (anxiety, difficulty with self-regulation, lack of friends, stuff going on at home) please email me ASAP.
- I want to get these groups started sooner rather than later!
Coming Up
Bullying/ Friendship Lessons In the Library with Mrs. Cordes
Monday:Labor Day- No School
Tuesday:
Collaboration: Entering CFA data
Brook @Ctec AM
K&5 GR Grouping Meetings
Miller SOS Meeting
Evacuation Drill
Wednesday:
Collaboration: CFA Data Discussions
2&4 GR Grouping Meetings
Midterms posted for parents
EDM Refresher Course- Voluntary 4:00-Ctec
Thursday:
Gilkerson SOS
Instructional Coach/ Principal's Meetings
PTO Meeting
Friday:
Elliott SOS
1&3 GR Grouping Meetings
DR. Stevenson Building Walkthroughs
September:
2 Labor Day
3 Evac Drill
4 Midterm grades SARAH posts for parents
5 PTO Meeting
5 Girls on the Run starts (Tues/Thurs)
6 Choir starts (Fridays)
9-20 BOY AIRWays
9-Oct 4 Skating PE
16 IA appreciation day
20 All Pro Dads
20 Team A Thon
23-24 Body Safety
30-10/23 Teacher Grading Window open
FTCSC Hedgehog Focus
The Hedgehog Concept is based on an ancient Greek parable that states, "The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing." ... Hedgehogs, however, simplify the world and focus on a single, overarching vision, which they then achieve.