Tiogue Faculty & Staff Bulletin
At-A-Glance December 22, 2018 #17
Dear Faculty & Staff: Thank you for my gift card to Dan's Carriage Inn! My wife and I had our rehearsal dinner at the original Carriage Inn back in 2001. Looking forward to a night out in the New Year.
Gingerbread House Making - What's more STEAM during the Holiday Season? Engineering, Arts - check!
A HUGE THANK YOU and our Future Focus
The first 40% of the school year has been filled with many successes taking into account the number of unique and volatile cases that many of us have been involved with so far. Your willingness to collaborate and to think out of the box have not gone unnoticed during these challenging times. Many of our students are in some sort of crisis situation out of school, so our time with them in school is the only stable (although it doesn't seem that way sometimes) part of their week. Our ability to have Kim at Tiogue full time has already helped us to manage things better over the past several weeks. We will continue to refine our processes of communication to be sure to keep everyone in the loop about our most needy students. You all know that there are only a finite number of hours in the day, so we promise to do our best to be thorough and thoughtful in our decision making. Not unusual, our behavior data indicates that about 16 children remain at the top tier level of support and incidents. To give some perspective - that is 16 students out of our total 359. That number is just under 5%...however, that 5% ends up taking up about 80% of everyone's time...again, not unusual. We will dedicate more time to helping to support and to grow 100% of our kids.
In 2019 we are going to focus on our PBIS Program refresh along with embedding/meshing our Restorative Practices and Conscious Discipline work over the next 3 months. Our behavior data indicates that student on student issues are down, but student disrespect and overall incidents involving adults is up. We can also note that student's are trying to obtain attention in negative ways and many of the recent incidents over a 6 week period revolve around work refusal. We will work on these problem areas in January. Behavior planning will focus on these areas as well.
I hope that you have found some value in the video clips that I have inserted in these newsletters on those topics over the past 3-4 months. We have been focusing on recognizing and working through trauma with our most needy students. Many of us have also been using Restorative Practices to help students work through problem situations. That work has been done mostly by Sue Lyons, Kim and myself. We are now going help all of you extend this work into the classroom. We know that you don't always have this extra time to handle these situation in your class, so we have been handling the heavier cases up at the front office. Lower level incidents are definitely handled at the classroom level, so we will begin to incorporate more Restorative language, after the break, in those areas.
Enjoy your time with your family and friends over the break.
Thanks so much for your well wishes, gifts, and collaboration!
See you all in 2019!
-Dom
Building is Open during vacation on:
12/26, 12/27, 12/28
*Polar Express in Grade 3*
Important Information and Key Dates
*FACULTY/STAFF*
December 2018
We will pick a new date for our postponed Dec. Faculty Meeting. Don C. will present and we will view a Conscious Discipline Video.
December 25 - Merry Christmas
January 2019
January 2 - Back to School
January 3 - Team Day - Please check your Google calendars for specific invites/times
January 8 - PBIS Station Rotation - student learning about our "updated" expectations throughout different locations in the building
January 10 - Team Day - Please check your Google calendars for specific invites/times
January 16 - MTSS/RtI mtgs. 7:30am & 8am; Faculty Mtg. 3:20pm
January 17 - Team Day - Please check your Google calendars for specific invites/times
January 21 - NO SCHOOL Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
January 23 - MTSS/RtI mtgs. 8am
January 24 - Team Day - Please check your Google calendars for specific invites/times
January 28 - PTA Mtg. 6:30pm
January 31 - NAEP TESTING GRADE 4 ONLY; NO Team Day Today
Our Mission and Motto:
At Tiogue School, we believe that students can achieve their personal best and become responsible and productive citizens by embracing all learning opportunities each day.
"Everybody is somebody at Tiogue"
*PTA INFORMATION*
We would like faculty/staff representation at each PTA meeting. Talk with your team and colleagues about scheduling a time to come to a meeting this year.
Upcoming PTA Meeting Schedule:
1/28/19 at 6:30pm
2/25/19 at 3:30pm
3/18/19 at 6:30pm
4/22/19 at 3:30pm
5/20/19 at 6:30pm
June TBD at 3:30pm
SCHOOL STORE Every Other WEDNESDAY beginning on 9/26/18. This week on Oct. 24th
Feeling Festive
PARENT NOTIFICATION RE: NAEP TESTING ON THURSDAY, JANUARY 31st
NAEP 2019 PARENT/GUARDIAN NOTIFICATION LETTER
Grade 4 – Mathematics and Reading assessments
Assessment will take place on: January 31, 2019
Dear 4th Grade Parent or Guardian:
Tiogue Elementary School will participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on Thursday, January 31, 2019. NAEP is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what students know and can do in various subjects. NAEP is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics, within the U.S. Department of Education. NAEP is different from our state assessments because it is a common measure of achievement across the country. The results are released as The Nation’s Report Card, which provides information about student achievement to educators, parents, policymakers, and the public.
Your child will take an assessment in mathematics or reading. In addition to subject-area questions, NAEP survey questionnaires are voluntarily completed by students. The questionnaires provide valuable information about participating students’ educational experiences and opportunities to learn both in and out of the classroom. As part of the 2019 National Indian Education Study, American Indian and Alaska Native students may receive additional questions tailored to their educational experiences and their opportunities to learn about their culture and traditions. More information about NAEP survey questionnaires is available at https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/parents under the section “What Questions Are on the Test?”
The assessment takes about 120 minutes for most students, including transition time and directions.
The information collected is used for statistical purposes only.
· Your child’s grades will not be affected.
· Students may be excused for any reason, are not required to complete the assessment, and may skip any question.
· While the assessment is voluntary, NAEP depends on student participation to help policymakers improve education. However, if you do not want your child to participate, please notify me in writing by Friday, January 18, 2019.
There is no need to study in preparation for NAEP, but please encourage your child to do his or her best. A brochure that explains what participation in NAEP means for you and your child is available at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/pdf/parents/2012469.pdf.
Contact Domenic M. Giusti at (401) 822-9460 or at giustidomenic@coventryschools.net if you have any questions.
We are excited that our school is participating in NAEP. We know that Tiogue Elementary School’s students will show what our nation’s students know and can do.
Articles and other news
Behavioral Specialist and Math Intervention Schedule:
*Kim Sturdahl will be at Tiogue Monday through Friday*
Referrals: Please turn in all referrals to Kim within 24 hours of the infraction or incident.
Infractions involving the location of bathroom trended downward this past week; however, incidents outside on the playground and during other unstructured times increased slightly.
MATHEMATICS: Mary V. will be at Blackrock the week of 1/2/19!
-Article of the week-
December 22, 2018: Why "B" Students Make the Best Leaders - interesting article. Hit home for me for various reasons.
December 15, 2018: From Practical Ed Tip of the Week: How to Add Videos to Google Slides Without Using YouTube
December 8 2018: 52 Education Blogs you could be following - TeachThought
December 1, 2018: QR CODES- How to Create a QR Code for Just About Anything &
How to Create a QR Code for a Google Form
November 22, 2018: How Meta-cognition Boosts Learning - By, EduTopia
November 17, 2018: Metacognition & Achievement - From Mindset
November 10, 2018: 14 Phrases that kids say that may show they are anxious.
November 3, 2018: The Ultimate Guide To Twitter- Should you use it?? Pros & Cons
October 27, 2018: 13 Common Phrases to Avoid in your classroom - by, Edutopia. There are other very good SEL articles under this one on the web page.
October 20, 2018: The IEP Process - FAQ Created by R.I.D.E. - I will share with parents too. This is guidance that was first created in 2010, but revised in the summer of 2018. A copy is also placed in our Tiogue Shared Folder for 2018-19.
Previous articles can still be found in the other bulletins.
RICAS State Testing Results Update
We will take an in depth look at the data, trends and growth index for each student over the next several months. Grades 3-5 have take an initial look at the data. We will continue this work as a faculty and within our grade level groups.
At the district level, we have already begun to examine some correlations to STAR results.
We have a lot of work ahead, but I am sure that we are going to move up in a positive manner.
To see the public RICAS site, click here. RIDE has already put out "released items" for our use as well.
Professional Development Corner
SEL/Restorative Practice's Corner
SEL/Conscious Discipline/PBIS and other important info.
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Week 16-17:#1 It has been nice to see some faculty using the "circle up" method to help to resolve problems between students, in their class.
Mrs. Sturdahl, Mrs. Lyons, and I have been using this technique when we have been resolving conflicts that come to the main office. More often than not, students leave the meeting feeling relieved and ready to move on in a positive way, with a peer that they have had issue.
#2 The Conscious Discipline video found below centers around mental health needs and how to give "limited" choices to students that need the "power of choice" - but we can guide this choice. Visual schedules and coaching around how to help children to learn social skills is also found in the video. Our struggling, SEL students, can benefit from all of these types of minimal interventions. Time spent on these interventions will pay dividends in the future for all of us.
Reminder: Don Cowart will be speaking with us about RI/MTSS at our Rescheduled Faculty Meeting in January TBD.
Coventry Resource & Senior Center DECEMBER NEWSLETTER - This month's edition has a section on Addiction and Elder Rights, Care and Abuse - good resource for some of our families
Nurse's Corner of important information
INFORMATION:
Thank you for all of your contributions to our Tiogue Feinstein Giving Tree this year!
Thank you,
Gina D'Aguanno RN
and
Dom
It's Grinch Day in Grade One!
Tiogue Elementary School
Email: giustidomenic@coventryschools.net
Website: http://tiogueschool.squarespace.com/
Location: 170 East Shore Drive, Coventry, RI, United States
Phone: (401) 822-9460
Twitter: @domgiusti