Oh The Places You'll Go
411 Report
What's Happening This Week:
Tuesday - C Day. 7:45 a.m. LIM Staff Booster in the Library. No PLC's. LIM Coaching Sessions. 4/5th Grade ZE Dodgeball Tournament. Good News Club after school IS CANCELLED!.
Wednesday - D Day. District Leaders will visit Spot Light Classrooms from 10 a.m.-noon.
Thursday - A Day. PLC's. GO GO Ghost Night & PTO Trunk or Treat.
Friday - B Day. Fire & Earthquake Drill 1:00
PLC Focus
- Conversations about BOY Benchmark Assessment Data
- Conversations about Weekly Skills Test in Math and/or ELA
PLC facilitators should guide the conversations. What do we do with the data? How are teachers addressing Tier 2 & 3 students?
LIM: Growth and Change
CAN YOU REALLY CREATE CHANGE IN YOUR LIFE?
Each of us has multiple maps in our head, which can be divided into two main categories: maps of the way things are, or realities, and maps of the way things should be, or values. We interpret everything we experience through these mental maps. We seldom question their accuracy; we’re usually even unaware that we have them. We simply assume that the way we see things is the way they really are or the way they should be. And our attitudes and behaviors grow out of those assumptions. The way we see things is the source of the way we think and the way we act. To try to change outward attitudes and behaviors does very little good in the long run if we fail to examine the basic paradigms from which those attitudes and behaviors flow.
Paradigm shifts—which create powerful change—move us from one way of seeing the world to another. Our paradigms, correct or incorrect, are the sources of our attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately our relationships with others. If we want to make relatively minor changes in our lives, we can perhaps appropriately focus on our attitudes and behaviors. But if we want to make significant, quantum change, we need to work on our basic paradigms. What we see—our paradigm—is highly interrelated to what we are—our character. We can’t go very far to change our seeing without simultaneously changing our being, and vice versa. (32–40)
We are not our feelings, moods, or even our thoughts. Self-awareness enables us to stand apart and examine even the way we “see” ourselves—our self-paradigm, the most fundamental paradigm of effectiveness. It affects not only our attitudes and behaviors, but also how we see other people. (74)
My self-awareness, imagination, and conscience, can help me examine my deepest values. I can realize that the script I’m living may not be in harmony with those values and that I have not proactively chosen my path, but ratherI have deferred to circumstances and other people. But I can change. I can live out of my imagination instead of my memory. I can tie myself to my limitless potential instead of my limiting past. I can become my own first creator.
To begin with the end in mind means to approach my roles with my values and directions clearly in mind. I am responsible for my own first creation—ensuring the paradigms from which my behavior and attitude flow are congruent with my deepest values and in harmony with correct principles. It also means to begin each day with those values firmly in mind. Then as challenges come, I can make my decisions based on those values. I can act with integrity. I don’t have to react to the emotion, the circumstance. I can be truly proactive, value driven, because my values are clear. (112–113)
*Taken from the book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
Have You Thought About Early Retirement?
The District will provide the early separation benefit described below to certified staff who meet the following criteria and whose request to participate in the Plan is accepted by the Board of Education:
- The applicant must have accumulated at least five (5) years of service with the District; and
- The applicant must have at least twenty (20) years of credited service in the Missouri Public School Retirement System.
The District shall pay to the employee the sum of $7,000 in a lump sum, less any deductions or withholding required by law. The lump sum will be paid on or before July 1, 2018.
Application Process
Interested and eligible certified staff members must notify the Superintendent of Schools of their desire to participate in the Plan no later than December 22, 2017, for retirement to become effective at the end of that school year.
A certified staff member’s written request to participate in the Plan shall include a statement that the certified staff member will resign as a full time certified staff member of the District, effective at the end of the then current school year, if the request is approved and accepted by the Board of Education.
If you have any questions about this voluntary plan, please don’t hesitate to call or email Tracy Payne or Dr. Way.
Google Hangout with a Principal
Invite an administrator to join your class through a Google Hangout format. The students will get a kick out of the process and teachers can showcase their class lessons.
Remember my definitions: Is it Mean, Rude or Bullying?
I sent an email to fourth grade teachers earlier this week and thought this might benefit others.
These ideas are simple and you may be doing them already:
- · Line Issues? – has it become a puzzle of who can’t stand by who... Have you tried two short lines?
- · Also, a lot of our boys at ZE have a lot of adrenaline after recess or any sort of 'exciting' activity… is there a way you can send them a different route (or on a 'job'...on their own) to get a drink and meet you back downstairs (thinking this allows them space and time to decompress without seeking attention from others.)
- · Another thing I was thinking more so for the whole school is allowing specific choices at recess like one physical game that can be monitored and the other is track or playground (this limits the supervision to three things and allows for a teacher to be a ‘ref’ or monitor the impulsive/competitiveness attitudes and communication). What I am hearing and seeing with our students is that 'forgetful filter' - the idea that they may need coaching in some mediation or how to communicate what they are feeling and thinking before acting.
- · One last thing, have you considered an area in your room dedicated to a ‘peace table’ to be implemented into your classroom. As I stated above what I am finding, specific to fourth grade (but again as a whole school) is educating the whole child and allowing reflecting and guidance on how to communicate and be social in a proper manner with others. I can maybe present this with materials at an upcoming Staff Meeting so maybe you guys can have some walk aways and try to implement in your room.
Overall, I want you all to know the teamwork and passion and work ethic in this building stands out above the rest. You all impress me on the daily with your passion of never giving up and holding all students to a high expectation. Keep it up! Keep spinning the wheels!
Go, Go, Ghost Night and PTO Trunk or Treat
Pizza and drinks will be available for all staff assisting with the event. Student teachers will be working the Title 1 activities from 6-7 p.m. Grade levels and departments will have booths or trunks represented at the Trunk or Treat. Teachers that work the event will get to leave after buses on Friday. Thank you for supporting this event!