Edgerton Weekly #16
January 8, 2016
Equity In All We Do-Positive Call Log Implementation Assessment
One of our Site Improvement Plan strategies is to make four positive phone calls home each month. In order to assess our implementation, we need to collect our call logs. We’ll then analyze the data on the number of logs we collect and how many were families called per month to assess our implementation. If you have some months where you called more and some you called less but it still averages out to four calls a month, that's still considered on track. The purpose is to make positive connections with families of color (or other students who have a need and would benefit). Please turn your call logs in to me by Friday, January 15. You can email a copy of your call log to me, take a picture of your log and send it to me or make a paper copy and put it in my mailbox. I’ll share the results regarding the progress we have made towards our goal.
Muslim Students
In Larry Ferlazzo's blog he posts about, "How Anti-Muslim Sentiment is Affecting Kids." This blog reminded me of the micro-agressions many of our Muslim students may experience daily. Imagine what it would be like to get up in the morning and have a newscast blaring comments by U.S. leaders and organizations that blame you, your family and your whole way of life for violent attacks. It would be a heavy burden to bear and I wonder how many of our students may have anxiety related to this current situation. Do we know if students experience slights and bullying due to their language, culture or religion? I'm sure educators are handling situations if they arise, but I am making a request that educators go out of their way to check in with Muslim students - say "hi," give a big smile and take a moment to let them know you support them and they can come to you if they are worried.
Celebration Eligible
This year we were one of the schools in the state of MN named "Celebration Eligible". We were not selected as a Celebration School. We still have much to be proud of regarding our students growth.
Free Aquarium
I got the following message from a community member regarding an aquarium. Please let me know if you are interested. "I participated in a Kickstarter campaign for small hydroponic aquariums, and bought one for myself, and one to give away. Would any teacher at Edgerton be interested? It is a 2 gallon tank, with a small pot for an above-water plant, a bag of fertile soil for aquarium plants, attached LED lights & filtration system. Details are at http://adiventures.net. The kit does not include the UV sterilizer nor the LED remote control. All that is needed is good water (I can provide reverse-osmosis filtered & treated water, since St. Paul water chemistry is not good for fish), aquarium plants (I can provide), and once the tank is up and running, a few fish."
Reminders...
- Confidential Printing-If you are printing student information please print to the office (or room 166 for Sped). If you change printers and forget to change it back to your default printer (happens to the best of us!) you can change your settings so it changes automatically. Click on Apple Menu-System Preferences-Printers & Scanners and using the pop-up menu at the bottom of the window.
- Staff Meeting Reminder-We have a staff meeting coming up on January 28. Carrie will be presenting mandatory district information regarding Homelessness for the first ten minutes or so. The rest of the meeting will focus on Coding and Computer Science.
- Positive Office Referral Reminder-If you notice a student displaying positive character traits that are exemplary/going above and beyond, please refer them to the office for a positive referral using the following form: link (side note: if you download the google doc into a word document it corrects the format). When a student comes to the office with a positive referral for either Mimi, Sara, Carrie or myself will make a positive phone call home. Please also keep in mind our students of color who would benefit from a positive office referral. We’d like each staff member to try to do two positive referrals before the end of January.
The "Happy Teacher" Challenge!
Here’s a challenge that I give all of you, the "Happy Teacher" Challenge! If you accept the challenge, you are not required to do the challenges in order. Document the date that you completed each challenge by writing it on the calendar below. Turn it into my mailbox by Thursday, February 18th. Any staff that accepts the challenge will be put in a drawing for an awesome gift! Need a bigger print of this challenge? Check out this link.