January 22, 2018
A Communication Tool for the Seven Hills Staff
Family Leadership Night:
- Teams are responsible for planning and preparing materials for the event. Please make sure you are organized and ready to go at 6:00 pm.
- If you have not already done so, please tell Q ASAP the location of your event.
- Advertise to your families...prizes, free homework passes, FREE Chick-Fil-A nuggets, chips and a dessert, student lead activities and games, and lots of family fun!
- Staff eat FREE
- Attire: jeans and the new navy Seven Hills shirt.
- Professional staff unable to attend need to let Kim Blackburn know; paras that support the event, please check with Wilma about adding the time)
January Positive Parent Phone Calls Due This Week:
Due this Week...Celebration Boards, January Writing, MOY Writing Benchmarks:
1/22 Important Reminders & Updates:
- There are several purposes for the January writing task...but the MOST important purpose is to engage students in a meaningful writing activity, focused not only on development of the ideas, but also conventions.
- The writing task should be used as a practice leading into the MOY writing benchmark. These pieces need to be well planned, teachers need to be conferencing with students about their piece, revisions and editing need to be made, and the published piece needs to reflect complete thoughts, grade level appropriate conventions, and a student's best handwriting. 4th grade, these would be great pieces for students to share with their writing buddies! Thank you for your effort to make this a meaningful writing experience for students.
- Does the title of your celebration board need to change to connect to the work displayed? We want these boards to grab our guests' attention (for Symposium, parents, and our NISD leadership and principal groups visiting us in February). Please spend some time carefully considering this display.
- We will take some of these writing pieces from each grade level to display at the Administration building later this spring.
- When displaying student work on the everybody boards, please make sure you are paying attention to the spacing, alignment, etc. as you hang. Many of you have large spaces to use, make sure you are attentive to the use of available space, balance, etc. :). Thanks!
Information from December:
Celebration Boards:
I have enjoyed “window shopping” your celebration boards to see different student celebrations from the second grading period. As we continue to fully implement 4Dx, it is important that students see and be able to articulate the connections between their work, their WIGs, and their celebrations. The celebration boards process has the potential to make a big impact on student ownership of learning! As you wrap up the 3rd grading period, please have students select a piece of work they are proud of, reflect on that work, and add the piece to their “My Celebrations” section of their Leadership Notebook. For the 3rd grading period, we will not display these celebrations on the board. When you remove the 2nd grading period work, make sure it is added to the “My Celebrations” section as well.
So, you may be asking yourself… “Self, if we are not displaying student celebrations, what is being displayed?” In anticipation of being selected as a site visit for Symposium (I have heard this is a STRONG possibility), and our Leadership Day, we would like to display authentic student writing about the 7 Habits.
The deadline for boards to be changed and celebrations from the 2nd and 3rd 9 weeks to be added to Leadership Notebooks is Friday, January 26. (This is moved from January 17).
January Writing:
In preparation for Symposium, our Leadership Day event, and the MOY Writing Benchmark, all students will take a prompt through the writing process to a published piece – Early Childhood there is a prompt for you too. The prompts are specific to each grade level, and can be found in the slideshow linked below. Please read your grade level’s prompt, and share any comments on the slide (and in a different color) about any changes in wording, etc. that you would like to suggest. The topic should not be changed, as these have been selected based on grade level experiences, strengths, etc., and together they will provide a schoolwide reflection on how we use the 7 Habits at 7 Hills. What a powerful leadership walk our guests will have to see comprehensive implementation from student perspectives! Published pieces must be ready to display by Friday, January 26.
MOY Writing Benchmark:
The recommended window for the campus based MOY writing benchmark to be completed is February 5-9. This is after the MOY DRA window and Symposium. Based on feedback from staff, we will use the prompt from the BOY assessment in order to measure growth over time.
Seven Hills is Managing the Whirlwind and Focusing on the Wildly Important!
Lexia Coaching Day:
Spring Benchmark Testing Dates:
3rd, 4th, and 5th Pre-Test- This is an online reading and math test, provided by the state, that will give us predictions of how students should perform on STAAR. The only accommodation that will be embedded in the assessment is oral administration. Each grade will need to pick two days the week of February 5th to do the Pre-Tests. Let Leslie and Hayley know what you choose.
District Benchmarks - These will be given in a 2 hour block of your day. We will adjust specials schedules for 4th grade on their days so they can have a 2 hour block to test.
- 3rd grade: Reading - February 27th, Math - March 6th
- 4th grade(will swap specials time with 5th grade on each of these days): Writing - February 13, Reading - February 22, Math - March 7th
- 5th grade: Reading - January 30th, Math February 20, (Science has yet to be determined. We will send that out soon.)
Leadership Notebooks:
Leadership Notebooks are an opportunity for students to actively engage in Habit 1. The desired outcomes are achievement of WIGs, overall growth and achievement as a leader and learner, collection of exemplar work to showcase the hard work throughout the year, student ownership of learning, and sense of pride and accomplishment.
Please plan for a time to discuss how Leadership Notebooks are a tool to showcase their work, while applying the paradigm of Habit 1. These should represent proactive, not reactive, work. They should reflect pride. Students should be writing in their very best handwriting, coloring in scoreboards neatly, etc. Papers should not be crumpled up, etc. in these books. If divider pages are looking torn or students have doodled on them, they should be replaced. Please take time over the next week to communicate expectations and purpose, as well as clean up student Leadership Notebooks. Leadership Notebooks should be "freshened up" by Friday, January 26.
WIG Chart Note:
- Our hope is that the accountability box on the new WIG chart will help students make connections between their work and their progress. We also hope that students are having frequent conversations about their WIGS. Each time you meet with a student, please initial and date inside the box. The students will be excited to share their thinking and their work!
- 2nd Grade created a half-sheet form for students and teachers to use during accountability talks/WIG sessions. It is pictured below. Thank you 2nd grade for sharing! The question stems are pictured below.
Habit Focus for the Week: Habit 3
Eliminate the Unimportant
Focus on Your Highest Priorities
Urgent vs Important
Habit Huddle:
How are you using The Leader in Me curriculum during Habit Huddle?
The decision to have all staff join Habit Huddle was made to help foster relationships and also send the message that the teaching of the 7 Habits was important to all members of the 7 Hills community. Habit Huddle is not a time for students to write in planners, complete morning work, work on Lexia or Imagine Math. It is not a time for teachers to prepare for the day. It is the time designated to explicitly teach the 7 Habits of Happy Kids. It is important for staff without a homeroom class to attend the Habit Huddle in your assigned class every day. If you are unable to make it, you need to communicate that to the homeroom teacher. Homeroom teachers, when planning Habit Huddle lessons, please consider including the partner teacher. They have GREAT ideas to contribute. Also, please know that when independent projects are planned for Habit Huddle, this limits the opportunity for active engagement on the part of the specials teacher joining your classroom and the opportunity for your whole class to build relationships, etc. Independent projects should be carefully considered as a part of Habit Huddle. Ask yourself, "Self, does this project promote the purpose of the Habit Huddle?" The Habit Huddle is such a powerful part of each day, and I appreciate your efforts to make it meaningful and relevant for all students!
Wonder
Precept for the Week: WILL BE SHARED ON MONDAY
WOW! We have had some VERY insightful student reflections about the precept of the week! Don't forget...If your students write reflections about the weekly precept, please place on the counter by the phone for announcements. Students LOVE hearing their work read over the announcements!
Campus and District Announcements and Updates:
Writing Buddies: Have you met with your Writing Buddies? How often are you meeting? Are you providing meaningful feedback to your buddy about their writing? If you have questions about feedback, please talk to Laura and/or Kevyn! Thank you for your support of our 4th grade writers!
Morning Announcements: Based on a suggestion from 2nd grade (Thank you for sharing your ideas 2nd grade!), we will begin morning announcements at 7:55 to allow your classrooms time to begin your morning.
Save the Date:
Habit Focus: Habit 3: Put First Things First
Accountability walks begin this week. Leslie, Hayley, and Kim will visit classrooms to check in with students on their WIGs. We are VERY excited about the conversations we will have with students!
- SST B
- ILT Meeting, 3:30
- 7 Hills Reads Launches: Pass out books, have students write their names in the books, send home letters, advertise!
- Grade Level PLCs
- Attire for staff supporting the Family Leadership Night is jeans with the new navy shirt
- Kim Blackburn off campus at district meeting
- Family Leadership Night and PTA Meeting, 6:00 - 7:30 pm
January 24:
- Wednesday Attire: Staff may wear jeans and the black polo as part of the fundraising incentive
- Math planning with curriculum coaches...reflective questions as you engage in this planning..."Are you using the opportunity to plan with coaches to yield the greatest results? Are you only looking at one lesson each week, or are you planning problem solving block, how to spiral review hot spot standards, backward designing based on pre-tests and CBAs, etc.?" We have been gifted a level of math coach support that is not afforded to other campuses. Please make sure you are using this time effectively, in order to make the greatest impact on student achievement.
January 25:
- Staff Meeting, 3:30 - 4:30 pm
January 26:
- SST C
- Sharpen the Saw Clubs
- Positive parent phone calls due. Turn call logs in to Kim Blackburn.
- Leadership Notebook "freshen up" due
- January Writing task completed and ready to display
Happy Birthday to You: