Weekly Notes
January 3-9
Focus of the Week: Goodwill
Tuesday, January 5
- Elementary Monitor Training- Maurus @ central office AM
- Staff Meeting 4-5:30
- JCC Meeting @ 6PM
Wednesday, January 6
- PBIS Booster Day (Please take this time to go over classroom expectations, as our kiddies will need reminders after the long break)
- PBIS Meeting @ 8AM
- Monitor Meeting @ 11:45
- Shelter in Place- business as usual inside of the school. No one goes in or out @ 1:30 (this is the redo of the drill from December, all grades will have outdoor recess except for 4th and 2nd grade, due to the timing of shelter in place)
Thursday, January 7
Friday, January 8
- Popcorn Day
- SIT Meeting- PM
- REED @ 3PM- Kopy's room (Anthony, Kopy, Shufeldt)
Last Week's Behavior Data
ISS: 1
OSS: 0
Send Home: 0
Trends/Hot Spots: With all of the pending holiday madness, I noticed that there were just a lot of very overexcited, overtired students (and staff). Hope the holiday break has allowed everyone to rest up!
Begin With June in Mind!
When planning units of study, I would start with the end goals (usually driven by the interim assessments where I taught as well as the GLCEs) and work backwards to create a map and a rough timeline so that I could accomplish what needed to be done before the end of the year.
Don't get me wrong, there were definitely times when June rolled around and I didn't cover everything the way I wanted to, but it drove my planning for the next year. The one thing that I did know is that when I started planning like this, instead of just for the day or week, it allowed me to keep my vision of all of the "Have To's" dictated to me by the state and district, and it also allowed me to plug in the personal things that I knew my kids needed (such as the class I will never forget- the Heebie Jeebies- who desparately needed a LOT of social skills before they ventured into middle school. The good news is that I ran into a Heebie Jeebie, one who I was particularly worried about, at the local coney island a couple of months ago, and I am happy to say that he had more social skills as an 11th grader than he did when he entered fifth grade).
So, here are some things to consider as we start to roll into the second half of the year (I can hardly believe it).
-What CCSS have already been taught and what remains to be taught?
-What skills are my students lacking that are not in the CCSS for the grade level that they need to have before they go to the next grade?
-What are the remaining interims that are left? (time to get them out and look at them again)
-What do the remaining interims include that must be taught?
-What other things do the students still need to be taught (social skills, habits of mind, Leader In Me Habits, etc...)
-How much time should I roughly allocate to units that need to be taught?
-For my most struggling students, how do I accommodate their needs as we work through the units of study? (do I need to consult Lisa, Emilie, and Cacey for help in modifying, reducing, etc...)
Here are the numbers that we have left (this will really light the fire to get cookin' on what remains):
-107 School days remaining (minus any pending snow days or cold days)
-164 Total days remaining
-22 Weekends remaining
-21 More school days until winter conferences
-28 More school days until mid-winter break
-56 More school days until Spring Break
For 3rd, 4th and 5th grades:
-61 More school days until 5th grade MStep
-71 More school days until 3rd grade MStep
-86 More school days until 4th grade MStep
So, as we roll into Monday, January 4th, Thursday, June 16th seems forever away. Just remember though, the second half always flies by and it is time to start reflecting and planning so that everything is taught (not just covered, but truly taught)!