Anchor Weekly
A newsletter for Alta Vista Staff~Week of December 17, 2018
Don't Forget! Next Week's Calendar
- Staff Professional Development on Monday, January 7 **See below for more detailed information**
- Faculty Meeting on Wednesday, January 9 **Leadership Team Meetings**
- Six Weeks Awards due Wednesday, January 9 **See below for more details
- Awards Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p-0v7R13SvH_q5q2iFZPU3fLKefHdqWftVky1D-jAiQ/edit?usp=sharing
- Behavior PLC on Thursday, January 10
- House Parties on Friday, January 11 During Specials
Coming Up: KID Inventory Day/House Buddy Day on Friday, January 18
Behavior PLCs
From Your Captain
I appreciate all your hard work and dedication to make sure students are successful. We are on a good path, but the journey's not over yet! Use your break to connect with families and friends and relax. We will hit the ground running when we return in January.
Here is the plan for Monday, January 7:
- 8:00 am-All staff meet at Mayborn Museum (except 4th grade ELAR, PE, Counselor)
- 11:00 am-Lunch on your own
- Afternoon-Planning with your team
Fourth Grade ELAR teachers will meet at the Waco Convention Center in the McLennan Hall on Jan. 7th from 8:30-3:30 for the Writing Testing Genre Training. Please bring your Boxes and Bullets book from the 4th grade Units of Study Kit.
ALL Behavior Staff Professional & Aides will have Restorative Practices Training 12:30-3:30 at GWAMA Cafeteria.
PE & Counselor will attend training for Puberty: The Wonder Years from 8:00-3:00 at the Admin Board Room.
Intervention Updates
Make sure you have completed your to-do list in Branching Minds before you leave for holiday break.
When you come back, you will need to print the intervention report for each student receiving Tier 2 or Tier 3 interventions. Send it home with report cards.
Make sure you are reviewing student progress towards goals in Branching Minds for your homeroom. If you see that a student is not making progress, then you need to email Mrs. Helton to schedule an SAT.
We will NOT do interventions the first week back from break; use the extra time to reteach procedures and reconnect with your students. Starting the week of January 14 (or 21 if you are every other week), we will regroup students for math (grades 3-5). Students will not regroup for reading until we have finished MOY BAS.
We will have RtI A-Z Meetings with every teacher during the week of February 4. I want to wait until after we have MOY BAS done to have these meetings. We will also discuss STAAR accommodations for RtI students at these meetings.
Conscious Discipline
After a two week break, your students are going to need a strong reminder of school and classroom expectations and behaviors. Use your intervention time to reconnect students and review these expectations.
Make sure reinforce our school agreements:
- Be Safe
- Be Responsible
- Be Respectful
- Be Ready to Learn
Don't forget your Morning Meetings! We will have some fresh ideas coming your way during Behavior PLCs.
Makerspace & KID Inventor Day
Here are the challenges you will be able to check out. We will have sign-ups during faculty meeting:
- Marble Run
- Legos
- Keva Planks
- Play Dough
- Trash/found objects
- Cups, popsicle sticks, straws, tape
- Duct Tape
- Create your own! Let Mrs. Helton know what you will need
Staff Members of the Week!
Mrs. Greer is recognized as Teacher of the Week for offering to help another teacher with Guided Reading.
RESOURCE OF THE WEEK
Go Formative
Go Formative is a great assessment tool for teachers! Students can use it on a computer or Ipad. Teacher pose questions and students answer the questions via multiple choice, true, false, short answer, or even drawing!
A great way to use Go Formative is as an exit ticket. For example, you could pose a math problem that they have to work out on Go Formative. It will allow you to see all of their answers as they submit on one dashboard.
Check it out at https://goformative.com/
House Parties
Please complete your six weeks awards here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1p-0v7R13SvH_q5q2iFZPU3fLKefHdqWftVky1D-jAiQ/edit?usp=sharing
These are due by Wednesday, January 9!
You will notice we have added 2 more columns. We will be recognizing students that meet their reading goals (you determine these). We will also be awarding house points for academic achievement.
Below are the grade level plans for awarding points for academic achievement. Some may have to be modified and that is fine-just keep it consistent across the grade level.
Academic Achievement Points Plans
PreK
students who know 5 shapes (square, triangle, rectangle, circle, oval) 5 points
student who recognize 3/10 numbers (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) 5 points
students who recognize 5/52 letters upper/lowercase 5 points
students who recognize 5/26 sounds 5 points
Kinder: 1 point for each student that meets grade-level sight word goal each six weeks
1st Grade: students that achieve A Honor Roll will earn 5 house points. Students that achieve A/B Honor Roll will earn 3 House Points.
2nd Grade
Reading- Istation "Overall Reading" score increases for the six-weeks
Math- Student meets or exceeds their goal on 2nd grade number sense assessment for the six-weeks
3rd Grade: Istation reading and math for academic achievement. Every month after ISIP we will award individual students up to 5 points for going above their monthly goals outlined for them in
4th Grade: No plan submitted
5th Grade: We will use averages to determine amount of growth from test to test.
Science- we will use growth from unit assessments.
Math- we will use growth from unit assessments.
Reading- we will use growth from campus reading assessments.
Winter Break Preparations
We are notifying you during the 2018 Christmas break, your Campus/Building HVAC will be on an "unoccupied state" December 22nd, till January 6, 2019.
The Custodial & Maintenance Staff will be working December 27 & 28, 2018, and January 3 & 4, 2019 from 7:00am to 3:30pm only.
VERY IMPORTANT: Please collect all personal items such as food & water, and anything left in i-fridges. Unplug all personal appliances, radios and personal lights.