Vista Weekly
November 30, 2015
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Office Staff Location Schedule
Counseling Needs Assessment
Special Education Collaboration
One of the steps we can take to improve our program involves structured collaborative time with our resource teachers. MS teachers, below you will find a link to a schedule where we'd like you to sign up for weekly collaborative time with Mr. Alvarez. ES, your time will look a little different since you don't have the same availability as middle school. Once we have figured this out, I will let you know.
In these quick 20 minute check-ins, you will cover various things including, but not limited to:
- lesson plans and needs of support from SpEd dept. (i.e. - help with certain lessons, small groupings, etc.)
- student accommodations
- strategies
- upcoming IEPs/goals, etc.
MS teachers, please sign-up HERE for your weekly check-In by the end of this week.
Also, I came across this video and it gave me a great reminder of what some of our students may be going through. Check it out:
Parent-Teacher Conferences - 11/15-11/20
Girls 2nd Annual Volleyball Tournament
General Admission: $3
Children 5 and under free
Doors open at 8:30am
Games begin at 9:00am
Food and raffle prizes!
Saturday, Nov 14, 2015, 09:00 AM
Saint Mary's Academy, 701 Grace Ave, Inglewood, CA 90301, United States
Coming Up This Week...
Monday, 11/9
- 7:30 - IEP - (Fisette, Haddad, Buczek)
- 9:30 - SpEd Check-In
- 11:30 - Director's Meeting - Buczek, Pope Out
- 3:30 - SST - K. Martinez
- 3:30 - SST - N. Mendez
Tuesday, 11/10
- Ms. Casillas Out
- Ms. Fisette Out
- Music Classes Begin (YAHOO!!)
- Field Trip - 1st-3rd Grade - Aquarium
- 7:30 - IEP (McCarthy, Haddad, Pope or Buczek)
- 11:30 - Instructional Visit (Gomez, Ried, Knight)
- 3:15 - 6th Grade Check-In
- 4:00-6:00 - Spanish Parenting Classes
Wednesday, 11/11
No School - Veteran's Day
Thursday, 11/12
- 5:00 - School Site Council Meeting #4
Friday, 11/13
- Ms. Casillas Out
- Ms. McCarthy Out
- End Trimester 1
- 11:30 - IEP - (Haddad, McCarthy, Pope)
- 3:15 - Monthly MCD Meeting - Room 30
- 3:30 - 6th Grade Fundraiser
Saturday, 11/14
- 9:00 - 5:00 - Girls Volleyball Tournament
Buczek's Tentative Schedule
Trait of the Month - Integrity
Here is a link to the google doc:
Student of the Month Assembly TK-2 Campus
Faculty Modeling
Supervision Schedule
Thank you so much for your active presence on the yard. We have really noticed a difference with regards to both timeliness and vigilance!
Just a reminder that it is really important to be "seen looking" during yard duty. Students should see that you are monitoring them as a preventative presence - so please....
- Be super VISIBLE (walk around, stay standing, avoid being hidden by students coming to speak to you)
- Be super VIGILANT (really look around, walk over to groups of students that are huddled in the far corners of the yard, walk past the bathrooms several times, and please no cell phone use during supervision).
Instructional Focus
3.2A Lesson Cycle and 3.2B Cognitive Engagement
(TEF Domain 3)
During last week's PD we spent some time defining engagement and what this really means in the context of a Vista lesson. As a group we dissected four chapters of Marzano and Pickering's "The Highly Engaged Classroom" - sharing strategies and "aha" moments with the team. This week we are going to continue our focus on student engagement and the effective execution of the lesson cycle.
Some Things to Consider....
First and foremost - The struggle to hold students' attention is super real (and based in science)! Our goal is to maximize student attention by planning lessons that keep the science of engagement in mind and support students in sustaining their attention through a mix of purposefully planned engagement strategies!
Johnstone and Percival (1976) found that an adult's attention span is between 15 and 20 minutes. In addition, they note that the first instance of “downtime” occurs 3 to 5 minutes into the lecture, followed by another at the 10- to 18-minute mark. The length of quality attention time becomes shorter as lectures progress. (Please note that these findings refer strictly to lectures without visuals or stop/start times, and that the attention spans of elementary and middle-school students are even shorter than those of adults.)
Margaret Searle, author of Causes and Cures in the Classroom, Getting to the Root of Academic and Behavior Problems, offers teachers this advice:
When it comes to passive learning, you can use your students' age as a guide: don't lecture for more minutes than years your student has been alive without stopping to involve them in active reflection or processing activities. Lessons that follow a mixed pattern - listen, talk to your partner, listen, draw an example, listen, read, rotate to a different place in the room--followed by summary are more likely to hold anyone's attention longer than the "listen for what seems like forever and then do independent work" model.
Check out the attached resources for additional help with your planning! (I personally love the planning question handout as it helps a teacher think through the different aspects of engagement with thought provoking questions!).
The Highly Engaged Classroom: A copy of the actual text.
Upcoming Dates:
11/16-11/20 - Parent-Teacher Conferences
11/18 - ICEF Cadre Meeting
11/19-11/20 - Early Dismissal (Parent Conferences)
11/23-11/27 - Thanksgiving Break
11/30 - Pupil Free DayLinks to Important Forms
This one is super important for helping us keeping track of which students have detention on which days. Please submit every time you assign detention.
May be completed online or by paper (see the pink referral forms in your hardcopy VIP binders) but please be sure to submit either one when a student is referred to the office.
To request help from our Tech Guru Mr. Jesus Villareal!
To request help from our Maintenance Guru Mr. Bernard!
To request the convening of a Student Success Team to support a student with sustained difficulties in the area of behavior, academics, attendance, and/or physical/mental health despite documented targeted interventions such as tutoring, parent contact, etc.
504 Referral - coming soon! (Speak directly to Mrs. Pope or Mrs. Fennema in the meantime)