Miner Minutes
January 13, 2019 #itsgreattobegold
The Week Ahead
Tuesday: School Leadership Team meeting 7:45am
Wednesday: Happy birthday to Ms. Rivera! PLCs; Digital Citizenship 7:45 - 8:30
Thursday: GOLD committee 7:30am; PLCs
Friday: SIT meeting 8am; end of 2nd quarter
Monday, January 21: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday
Tuesday, January 22: Uncapped teacher workday
SLT Agenda for Tuesday
1. Restart annual report analysis and review
2. August professional development - do we offer the "flexed" PD days like we did last summer?
3. Review Staff Culture Surveys - takeaways
Homework Assignment
Here is the slideshow from Tuesday's faculty meeting. Remember your assignment for the chart in your homerooms Jan 23, 24, 25!!!!!!
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1awqorAd1PaZNN_1a779W7JnZnQTGkSe8UCXvaiKejIA/edit#slide=id.p
Transfer/Intent Forms DUE - all staff must complete
Transfer/Intent window open December 17, 2018 through January 31, 2019.
All employees should complete and submit the intent form using the link below. If you wish to express interest in a transfer, you will complete both the intent form and the transfer request form using the link below and also notify your current principal of your transfer interest.
Please contact Paige Gentry in HR with any questions: paige.gentry@cabarrus.k12.nc.us
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd3Ru8hNvupEfV4cUEYbth9SEJ3qpR4YSIMfL5SoAFHe9c5Fg/viewform
Safe Schools - next deadline
SafeSchools: Our second SafeSchools required modules are Prescription Drug and Opioid Abuse: Impact on Students and Scent Awareness that began on Monday, December 3, 2018. Employees will have until March 1, 2019 to complete these modules. See Mr. Mabry with any questions.
Brain POP
Based on the Teacher Survey taken in October, we decided to purchase BrainPOP as an instructional resource for our school. As of right now, only 10 people at CMS have created a BrainPOP account! This is a superior tool to use to supplement your instruction! I encourage each of you to create your account & set up classes for your students! There is something on BrainPOP for ALL content areas!
If you need to know more about how to use this resource more effectively in your classroom, please mark your calendar to attend the BrainPOP Training on February 19th from 7:45-8:30.
IB Notes
Local Roundtable Conference
Are you interested in learning more about IB from practicing teachers in North Carolina? IB Schools of NC is holding a round table conference for NC IB educators. We have money to pay for your registration fee and travel AND it's an opportunity for CEU's. Please let me know if you are interested in going!
- February 23
- 9 to 3:30
- Winston Salem
- https://ibsnc.org/ibsnc-round-table-2019/
Become a Global Teacher and TRAVEL for FREE!
- Global Learning Fellowship offers a wonderful opportunity for a 12-month professional development program for classroom teachers which includes in-person workshops in Washington , DC, online coursework, webinars with leading experts and an international field study experience! This program aims to expand global competence. The application is open now and closes Feb 4.
- Irex Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program offers a prestigious year-long professional development opportunity for US classroom teachers with an international field study opportunity. The application is open now and closes Jan 25.
CCS Employee Handbook
Student Recognition: Caught Being IB!
- The allure of gold has attracted miners to some of the most remote corners of the world to search for the elusive metal. This week, travel to the remote corners of your classroom to seek out the Gold in one of your students that typically doesn't get noticed & give out a Caught Being IB card! Each of us needs to give out at least one card per month! When you give out the card, please take a picture of the child with his/her card and add to the following link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hrOw6eBf2XYCXXTvpUnL5FNXtDpjL6f3?usp=sharing (Please make sure you include the following information: student's first and last name and your name eg. MyStudent- Shoe). The end of the quarter is coming up this week... so submit your pictures by Thursday at noon!Student prizes will be announced FRIDAY!!
PBIS Related PD
If a student doesn't know how to read, we teach them.
If a student doesn't know how to write, we teach them.
If a student doesn't know how to behave, why do we punish them? Shouldn't we teach them?
As I am sure you have experienced in your classroom, our students are spending more and more time on devices. Often times things that happen on devices, social media, etc. carry over into school. We have seen several office referrals this year that have occurred based on something that happened on social media! Students are growing up in a digital age and need to be aware of how their online persona and actions can impact their lives. We must incorporate into our classes the tools our students need to be successful in a digital age and teach them what is appropriate online behavior & what is not.
If you are interested in learning more about how to help our students in this Digital Age or getting Digital Learning Credits, please plan on attending the Digital Citizenship Workshop on Wednesday, January 16th from 7:45-8:30 in Lab 330.
Education should be a guarantee at CMS! Every student, every day, should be learning!
As we approach the end of the 2nd Quarter, it is a good time to begin thinking about any individual students that you have academic or behavioral concerns about. If you have academic or behavioral concerns about a student ensure that you have documented any supports or interventions that you have provided for that student to address the concerns. If you are in need of some strategies, check out the items linked below in the referral forms. If you do not currently have any supports in place, then choose one or two interventions to use with the student for a minimum of 4 weeks.
***If you already have supports in place for the student & they are still struggling, then email the students assigned school counselor and Kelley Carpenter to be added to the MTSS Leadership team agenda! (include Tier 1 Referral for Behavior Reading Math or Academics in the email)
As a reminder, the MTSS Handbook for CMS can be found here.
PD Nugget: Formative Assessment
PD Nugget: 3 Tips to Make Formative Assessment More Effective
Do you enjoy using Kahoot, Socrative, & Quizlet in your classroom as a review & student engagement strategy but struggle to use them effectively for formative assessment? It is easy to get wrapped up in the "fun" of these tools, but there several ways to use them to better inform your classroom instruction & allowing students to reflect on their learning! The pretty graphs created by these tools are only a small piece of how you can use them to help propel your instruction to the next level!
https://www.commonsense.org/education/videos/3-tips-for-great-formative-assessment
TIPS:
Start with a quiz, then do a quick online poll about the quiz right after.
• Help students gauge how they think they did.
• Ask poll questions like: How challenging was it? How confident were you feeling? Did you feel prepared?
• You can use the responses to differentiate future lessons or match up students for a future support activity.
After a quiz, start a discussion focused not only on what happened in the quiz but on what to do next.
• As students talk about what was challenging, help them zero in on specific ways to improve.
• Encourage more confident students to push their understanding even further.
• For everyone, shift the focus from scores and grades to honest self-assessment.
After a quiz, engage students in a reflection activity.
• As students reflect on where they are, ask them to think about where they need to go next.
• Help students articulate their own learning goals and next steps, then use this to help motivate them to go out and find the answers.