Pow Wow Principals Press
March 31, 2017
Data Wall and ACTION PLANS!!!
As a grade level team, you will be able to work together next week to develop a more detailed plan that grade chairs will share out on Friday. We are looking to support each team as much as possible. This should correlate directly with your units and not feel like "one more thing" but instead help us all keep our focus for the next two months.
Please swing by the front office as a team and see how the focus was established. It's so great to see such visible representations of data -based decisions!!!
Congrats to Ms. Martin and Dr. Mathews, the winners of our Target gift cards! We so appreciate all of the feedback we received on the protocols from our faculty meeting!
How to Support Students Who Experience Trauma
At this time of the year we tend to get new students, most of whom have experienced some level of trauma. Please be mindful of the training, time, and effort we have put into our kiddos this year to help build community and support. Here are some reminders of how we can best work with students that have experienced trauma. These are also great reminders for ALL our students.
8 Ways to Support Students Who Experience Trauma
Children, adolescents and teens in your classroom have experienced or are experiencing ongoing trauma.
According to studies from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 60% of adults report experiencing abuse or other difficult family circumstances during childhood and 26% of children in the United States will witness or experience a traumatic event before they turn four.
The impacts of trauma can be far-reaching, long-lasting, and impact students' ability to access their education. There are small ways, however, that we can make our classrooms more friendly and supportive to students mangaging the impacts of trauma.
As with many strategies to support a sub-group of students, these strategies can positively support most students with or without a history of trauma.
1. Communicate with counselors or social workers. Besides providing specific information about your students, these are great resources for more information about recognizing and understanding the impacts of trauma.
2. Provide structure and consistency. Write the agenda on the board. Use entry and exit routines. When a student knows what to expect, it can help her to feel safe.
3. Ease transitions. Give time warnings ahead of activity transitions (“3 minutes until we switch groups...”). Warn ahead of doing something unexpected, such as turning off the lights or making a loud sound. If possible, prepare students for fire drills.
4. Provide choice. People with trauma history experience a lack of control. Provide safe ways for students to exercise choice and control within an activity and within the environment (choice of seats, choice of book, etc).
5. Develop strengths and interests. Focus on an area of competence and encourage its development to contribute to positive self-concept.
6. Be there. A lot of working with students with trauma history is just showing up, every day, and accepting the student no matter what behaviors emerge. Be an adult in that student’s life who is going to accept him and believe in him, no matter what - children can never have too many supportive adults in their lives.
7. Make an “out” plan. Create a way for a student to take space if she feels triggered or overwhelmed during class. Designate a space in the school building or outside where you will know where to find her if she needs to take time for a sensory break or to regulate her emotions. You can also provide a box or kit of sensory calming tools a student can use (Silly Putty, coloring, puzzles).
8. Take care of yourself. One of the most important things to remember. If you work with even just one student who experienced trauma, you can experience vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue. Use your own support system and make time to do things that fill your tank.
How else might you support a student managing the impacts of trauma?
Additional resources for supporting students who have experienced trauma:
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network: http://www.nctsn.org/ , especially the Child Trauma Toolkit for Educators: http://www.nctsn.org/resources/audiences/school-personnel/trauma-toolkit
Congratulations to Ms. Karen, our VIP! Enjoy your special parking spot, and keep making those nominations on Twitter!!
Project-Based Learning Academy
Updates from Ms. Van Brimmer
Tropicana Speech Contest for 4th & 5th grades: Please decide how your team is going to participate and let me know ASAP. This could be something done in enrichment RTI groups or as an independent project in your classes {especially after those testing days}. I have materials for every teacher and I will be placing them in your mailboxes this week.
Hit the i-Ready Sweet Spot with your kiddos to ensure maximum growth!
The trainers from Curriculum Associates -- the makers of iReady -- shared this news with us on Monday.
The iReady Sweet Spot is 45 minutes of instruction per week AND an average score of 75% or higher on iReady assignments. You can check this using the iReady Response to Instruction reports. Ms. Van Brimmer used one of Leann's progress monitoring sheets to help her RTI kiddos chart their progress to 75%. Check out Twitter for an example or see one of our coaches to maximize your students' time on iReady!
Fundations Survey: The district is gathering information from stakeholders regarding Fundations. If you are in grade 2 -- please complete the survey sent out by Ms. Berg https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/9BKKQ7W. K-1 Teachers: Keep your eyes peeled -- I think you will be getting a survey soon as well.
Heinemann PD: There is a wonderful webinar about leading student conferences for reading/writing and making connections between the two. It begins on April 18th and I would love for anyone who is interested to join me. I'll pay the registration fee and we can all watch together!
Updates from Ms. Keeley and Ms. Ragley
Grades 3-5
With the upcoming Math CBT beginning on April 10, please make sure that you have modeled and closely monitored the practice FSA assessment on the FSA portal. It is a requirement that all students practice the platform with your close guidance. The day of the test the students will be provided with a workfolder. Please practice working on sectioning off the paper so that students will have enough room to work out the problems. The link is provided here: http://fsassessments.org/students-and-families/practice-tests/
We will be looking at the iReady usage at the end of this week and will let you know which class and teacher will be awarded a special treat. The challenge is for 90% of students to meet the goal of 45 minutes or more instructional time.