Friday Focus
For Information and Inspiration
Our Collective Work
Consistent Curriculum Implementation In All Classrooms
Meaningful Feedback- to Students, Teachers, and Principals
Attendance Practices that Improve Regular Attendance
Social Emotional Learning
Weekly Message
I had a wonderful week in New York! I may have told some of you that my family tried to see a Yankees game last year since it is on Mason's bucket list. But that game got rained out! We traveled all the way back to NYC this summer to try again and we met with success. In fact, we got to see 3 games for the price of 2 and they were amazing. If you follow baseball and you saw Aaron Boone's "savages in the box" comment lighting up ESPN, I was at that game! At our first game, Didi Gregorius hit a grand slam and my husband got so excited he picked me up. I wasn't expecting it and dropped my phone which of course broke. Worth it though!
Then we got to visit family upstate. I ran into my mentor teacher from Henninger High School in Syracuse. Henninger is a HUGE, diverse school in downtown and she has been there her whole career. It was so fun to see her and talk about all of the changes that have happened there in the last __ years (I don't want to say how many it's been since I did my student teaching). She inspired me again when she talked about how loving the kids is the most important job we have. What a treat it was to see her.
I'm glad to be back at work for RHK8. Lots of exciting things happened while I was gone and continue now that I'm back! One sad thing did occur though. Julie has taken a job at Raleigh Park and won't be with us next year. This is a good move for her and I know you'll join me in wishing her well. She said she will send out an invitation to say goodbye to her and would prefer that people do not stop by on the next couple of Wednesdays as she will be very busy getting things wrapped up before she leaves. I will be interviewing for her position on August 2nd. If you'd like to volunteer to be part of that interview team, please email me.
Check out the Weekly Bulletin attachment above to see what will be happening at RHK8 in the weeks to come. Continue to enjoy your summer!
Warm regards,
Jennifer
Staffing News
Survey for PBIS
Leadership Meeting
If you've been on leadership in the past or think you'd like to be this year, consider attending. Ideally, I'd have a representative for each grade level and each area of the school (ESL, Resource, Counselor, SSC, EGC, & classified). I will need you to RSVP so that I can plan for the event. I will pay extended contract for your work this day.
- Look at data and discuss School Improvement Plan
- View 2 options for schedule and give input to aide my final determination
- Give input into the yearlong calendar
Tuesday, Jul 30, 2019, 08:00 AM
Raleigh Hills School Library
RSVPs are enabled for this event.
Trends from Staff Meetings
- we have a great community, parent group and staff! (agreed)
- we need more connections between the middle school and elementary
- we'd like consistency of teaching and enforcement of school-wide expectations
- we need strong advocacy for our school, presence and visibility from administration
- we'd like to have more assemblies
I have gotten so many great ideas from staff in all these areas. I know that working together, we are going to be able to celebrate our successes and tackle our challenges. I can't wait to start this journey with you!
Primary Wing Closed Next Week
Things I Learned This Week
The second book was called Building Bigger Ideas by Maria Nichols. This one was about the ways we can increase purposeful talk among our students. She also had great ideas for helping students become aware of the talk moves they are using so that they come to use student talk as a way to construct ideas and meaning together. She said teachers must focus students on talk moves, then facilitate their talk and give feedback on the successes and next steps for students specifically on the ways they talked during a session.
If you'd like to borrow either of these books, I'd be happy to loan them out!
From Mike's book - Avoiding the Q&A Lesson example
From Maria's Book - The Structure for Teaching Students to Build Big Ideas
A Note from Peter
Hello RHK8 Staff,
I hope you’re enjoying your summer. I just wanted to share some news. This week I've started my service as a middle school principal at a school in the Portland area. As you know, I was hoping for a return to the secondary level, and so I’m excited about this opportunity. Because many of you were wondering what I would be doing this coming year, I wanted to make sure to share this news with all of you. I hope the rest of your summer goes well and I wish each of you and the whole Raleigh Hills community the very best!
Peter