K-2 Team Newsletter
February 3 , 2020
Principal's Message
February begins Black History Month and I'm so excited to continue this celebration with amazing educators dedicated to challenging the status quo with the belief that ALL scholars deserve an excellent education! As we highlight influential Black Americans through this month let us celebrate our scholars who not only live the virtues of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech but let's also celebrate the hard work that brought us all to EEP. One Team - One Vision - Together We - Are On a MISSION! Happy BHM!
School Wide Focus
Priority #2: No Opt Out Academics
Habits of Discussion - this week we are continuing our focus on HOD and pushing scholars to add on as well as explain their thinking. After each question asked to scholars, scholars should agree, disagree, or sign to add on. Then they should defend their answer to the other person and look at them.
Below is a read aloud video snippet from Lipscomb University - you will see Mrs. Neal moving from a TPS (think-pair-share) into HOD (habits of discussion) to a questioning stem and then closing out with a call and response to get her scholars back on track to the Read Aloud book. In the background you will also hear Mrs. Simpkins pushing scholars for evidence as they engage in a TPS off the carpet because they arrived late so were eating breakfast yet still she ensures they participated!
Deans of Academics
Check-Ins
1:1 check-ins will resume this week.
RTI
All Tier 2 and Tier 3 scholars should be progress monitored this week. As a reminder, we are progress monitoring all scholars so that we can monitor these scholars more closely to ensure our interventions are working.
Dean of Culture
This will be our last week focusing on transitions. Transitions set the tone for the class or the activity that follows it. Transitions can also eat into your class time. Stop signs have been posted in the hallway. Where you see a stop sign this is where you line should stop. Be sure to place your body where you can see the entire line, and do your “Be Seen Looking” moves to show scholars you expect 100%. In line all scholars should have shirts tucked in and they should be silent, safe, and speedy. In order to model silence, let’s narrate what we want to see in a whisper voice.
Shout Out: to Yolanda Moore and Jaleela Copeland and their Belmont Bison. During Ms. Moore’s transition from the lunchroom to indoor active play all scholars were absolutely silent, she modeled a bubble and silently corrected scholars with non-verbals. Her line was tight, expectations were clear, and scholars were 100% compliant. Way to go Belmont! If the line you are running does not meet your expectations have them do it again.
This week I will be conducting culture walkthroughs and assessing all of our school-wide systems and scoring each area as advanced, proficient, working toward, or needs improvement. Please see the list below of what areas I will be looking for when I pop in and out of rooms. After this week I will use the data from culture walkthroughs to inform our culture focus for the rest of February.
Culture Walkthroughs Areas:
Teacher Proficiencies
Positive Framing and Teacher Tone
Student Joy & Engagement
Strong Voice
What to Do
100%
Student Response to Correction
Do It Again
Tracking
Classroom Systems
Entry
Breakfast
Morning Meeting
Distributing/ Collecting Work & Lesson Materials
Transition between Activities
Exit from class
Transitions between class (to Related Arts)
Leadership Notebooks
Classroom Environment
Print Environment
School- Wide Systems
Lunch
Dismissal
Dress Code
Common Space
Print Environment (in the Hallways)
Morning Motivation
This week’s WIG WINNER IS…
Attendance
Dean of SEL
I have had a great time talking with scholars about being proactive. This week, we will move onto lessons about friendship and relational aggression in school. See the linked article to find out more! I will be reading and discussing the book My Secret Bully by Trudy Ludwig. The story highlights a tricky relationship in which two friends exclude each other on purpose in the school setting. This unit will lead to a new tool called Peace Path in each classroom. There will be an upcoming PD on this tool, but the idea is to empower scholars to solve problems on their own in order to have them do not just academic heavy lifting, but social and emotional work as well.
Habit of the Week: Think Win-Win or No Deal
Think win- win means to come to a solution that everyone can be happy with. This means that we have to communicate in a respectful way with our peers in order to make a change. We must ask for what we want, and listen to what others want as well. No deal means that an agreement cannot be made, but we agree to walk away from each other in a respectful manner. This habit will be highlighted when we use the Peace Path.
Safety Reminder
Safety & Doors
Please remember DO NOT PROP OPEN any doors as it is a safety concern (this includes active play and during drills). In addition, do not have any scholars opening doors for any adults during the school day again this is a major safety violation. Lastly, use only doors that have key fobs to re-enter the building after leaving. If you have any questions please reach out to Anjuan Welch.
Bi-Weekly Survey
It looks like we have a lot of missing surveys this go round; if you have not taken the weekly survey yet, please complete it by 4:00pm Sunday. It doesn't take long at all and we truly use this data to make strategic adjustments to ensure we are using our time on the right things.
1) 1-31-2020 Bi-Weekly Survey (required)
2) Shout outs/positive stories link (optional)
Upcoming Events
Feb. 7th
Community Celebration
Feb. 14th
Valentine’s Day
**Paycheck Cart
Feb. 17th
PD Day
Feb. 18th
STEP Wave Opens
Feb. 12th
Stephanie’s Birthday
Feb. 21st
Anya’s Birthday
Feb. 23rd
Corrine (Mary’s) Birthday
Feb. 25th
Stacey’s Birthday
Feb. 27th
Progress Reports
Feb. 28th
NO PD - Mental Health Day
**Paycheck Cart
PD Calendar
Shout Outs
Congrats to our G.R.E.A.T. Winners of the Week and check out the Class Photo of the Week!
Teacher of the Week
She exemplifies the core value of ACHIEVEMENT! Ms. Jackson truly makes & implements decisions that push our scholars to achieve and grow in their learning every single day. It is beyond evident that she works hard, she is encouraging and kind, and enables grit and consistency to every teacher around her. Because of your leadership, we are better teacher and our kids are pushed to be the best they can be.
Photo of the Week
Scholar of the Week
WIG Scholar Winner with the most glows in LiveSchool last week!
Staff Absences
Reminders (new bolded)
Do Not Prop Open doors or have scholars let adults in the building
All scholars should have a hall passes and/or office note for any front office needs
Save RTI academic work
All elements of AgMo should be in place (pathways, laps, codes, data trackers, and a response to the data)
All boards should be updated with the current date, objective (SWBAT..), and the common core standard codes
Principal and GLLs should be notified of late arrivals (after 7:28 am) or "early outs" (before 3:45 pm). Please see K-5 Playbook for details