Bulldog Weekly Update
October 25th - October 29th
Culture of Achievement
Notes from the Principal's Desk
Classroom Highlights
Great teaching and learning is happening every day at the Butler Middle School. This week is no exception. Across ELA classes, students were engaged in educational exercises that brought out students’ individual talents, connected their in-school learning with real-world applicability, and in some instances, tapped into the splendor of resources available in the natural world.
Mrs. Fraser’s 8th graders created synthesis note pages resulting from their book clubs. Students are showcasing their exploratory reading through multiple means, helping curious peers make connections to stories they may choose to read someday soon.
In 5/6 Adjustment, students found time to write a nice word about one another. As the class continues to cultivate a community of learners, the opportunities for pro-social skill development must be woven into the lessons. Here, students choose a peer for whom they will create an acrostic poem. Students worked earlier in the week on generating word lists with both accessible and challenging words. They then chose words from the class’ combined list to use in their odes to one another.
In Mrs. Coffey’s class, students spent time building wigwams after learning about the many types of housing built by Native Americans. As Mrs. Coffey states, “ESL 1 social studies students are building wigwams as part of our First Americans unit. They are using natural resources that First Americans would have used.” Mrs. Coffey encourages teachers to stop by and check out these wigwams.
If you have classroom highlights that you would like us to share or a best practice, please let us know so we can come by and see the great work you are doing within your classroom community
Awesome work to all!
Great Job to everyone as we continue to empower, encourage and educate!
Please see a few notes from my desk below
Congratulations to our cross country team and job well done to our coaches!
Thank you for getting the DESSA ratings completed
Hallway Presence - Please remember to be at your post in the hallway. We share a mutual responsibility to ensure student safety. If you hear something concerning, come out of your classroom, look, listen--and get involved.
Bathroom protocol: 10-minute expectation- Bathrooms will remain locked during the first and last 10 minutes of each period. Mr. Chhim and Mrs. Horm will be supporting classrooms and will not be providing additional supervision in hallways. Please make sure you have bathroom logs posted in your classroom for students to sign in and out of class when they leave your classroom. This expectation has been helpful when in place and when we need to follow up on hallway misconduct.
Progress Reports - Progress reports are to be signed and returned. Please create a system of checks and balances to ensure you receive all student's progress reports signed and returned. This is your documentation that parents received notification before report cards go home.
Week at a Glance
Monday 10/25
School Operation 3:15- 3:45 (in the small conference room)
Tuesday 10/26
- 8:30 Student Support
- 3:30 RJLT
Wednesday 10/27
3:30 ILT
Thursday 10/21
Friday 10/22
Fun FriYAY! Wear your favorite New England sportswear(Red Sox, Pats, Bruins) or wear your Butler Pride gear
ILT Updates
Team Meeting This week at 3:30.
Data driven instruction continues to be a priority for Butler teachers and leaders. This week, different teams met for vertical team meetings to discuss MCAS data from the 20-21SY. Rather than focusing on individual student scores, teachers took an aggregate view of outcomes per grade. From there, teachers cross-referenced skill deficits and identified trends among each of the grades. Highlighting the common area-weaknesses across grades made it clear where we needed greater instructional focus and which skill sets and standards our teams would plan around.
RJLT
Team Meeting This week at 3:30. Updates to follow
See Lori Casey for SEL assistance.
PBIS
Routines and Rituals are essential to building classroom community. See your PBIS grade level representative for assistance
"Go to https://tinyurl.com/butlerpawsshop to take a sneak peek at the Butler PAWS shop, coming in Q2!"
Next Meeting November 4th
Monthly Motivation
It's always great to start on an inspiring note.
Staff Birthday Shoutouts ~ October
Adrianna Anstiss - 10/3
Colleen Farrell - 10/3
Mae Watkins - 10/4
Chelsea Ewing - 10/8
Kevin Gibson - 10/14
Fernanda Lopes - 10/15
Gerry Manolopoulos - 10/19
Karen Tanguay - 10/20
Butler Community
Email: jmoody@lowell.k12.ma.us
Website: https://www.lowell.k12.ma.us/Domain/10
Location: 1140 Gorham Street, Lowell, MA, USA
Phone: 978-937-8973
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lpsdbutler/