Anchor Weekly
A newsletter for Alta Vista Staff~Week of September 23, 2019
Don't Forget! Next Week's Calendar
- ELAR Make & Take on Saturday, September 21 @ Admin Conference Room (Come & Go) **Sign up in Eduphoria
- Family Goal Setting Conferences all week of September 23
- Book Fair all week of September 23 **Library closed for lessons/check-out**
- Complete fact fluency assessments (Gr 1-2) all week of September 23
- ELAR Textbook Webinar on Monday, September 23 at 4 pm in library
- Conference Late Night on Tuesday, September 24 until 7:30 pm. Pizza and salad will be provided for staff!
- NWEA MAP Curriculum Support on Thursday, September 26 at 4 pm **Sign up in Eduphoria
- End 1st Six Weeks/Grades due on Friday, September 27
- Six Weeks Awards Nominations due on Friday, September 27 https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1nPOOT3zFkRTVjjQAwytxbL3n29eGT8vQD278aadBLsg/edit?usp=sharing
- RtI A-Z Meetings all week of September 30-Sign up on schedule: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1o7xDrMWCfAlq5H1fjp1KBi48R0w2Lu55iRmaVSXf4fk/edit?usp=sharing
- Kindergarten Field Trip on Tuesday, October 1
- Transformation Waco Crew at the Zoo on Tuesday, October 1 (STAFF ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND!)
- Math BOY Assessments (Grades 1-2) on October 1-3
- Behavior PLC on Thursday, October 3
- School Pictures on Friday, October 4
Captain's Log
During the month of October, staff and students are encouraged to "Pink Out Wednesday" in support of breast cancer awareness by wearing a pink.
All PK, Kindergarten, and 1st grade teachers must meet new district requirements for professional development and coaching. See below for further details. We will be working with the Early Childhood Department to help you meet part of these requirements through PLCs. Email Mrs. Helton to find out how many hours you have acquired so far this year.
We are working on plans for our first family engagement event, Family Game Night, on Tuesday, November 5. Each grade level will sponsor 1-2 games and dinner will be served in the cafeteria from 5:30-7:00. Upper grades will perform a patriotic show at 7:00 pm in the cafeteria. Each grade will need to select 1-2 games that they can teach to families. We want to highly encourage games that families could purchase easily at HEB/Walmart/Target as show them the academic value of such games. Grades may also show parents how to use game materials like dice, cards, dominoes to support learning at home as well. As a grade level, please complete your section of the plans so we can get materials ordered ASAP (by Wednesday, October 2). We will be buying additional games to raffle to families that attend as an incentive. Link to plans: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1--NblLvp_Dd_DSzs_rzVY9vKe_6OVOMMpEUlXyAalz0/edit?usp=sharing
Our video-based coaching program, Swivl, is ready to go. You may email Mrs. Helton to schedule a time to use the Swivl robot to record a lesson. Your first lesson must be recorded by Friday, November 1 (deadline extended).
Goal Setting Conference
You can use this template (Make A Copy to Google Drive): https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1M2ZwXKdJ9PsXpqhapBPnI11s_1LHGo6p_uDy_oIr4Uo/edit?usp=sharing
Here is the goal setting conference form to use with families: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1aybVVcpRx7JQ1UAwh5Yfm5vnCrrNwsDY0qUWXdPkZO4
Here are some other sample data forms: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1ApNZ31h-sJ-nRVaUt4ywjqxDq9pAVMxZ7vetLZeB9x4
Conscious Discipline & CHAMPS
Our focus for the month of September in Morning Meetings will be RESPECT. Lesson plans are here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1CKGLd2hn8dPg2xRt1t3awHEEbzsZ7uApYstsxw2me1w/edit?usp=sharing
Make sure you have started your "Kindness Tree" and are keeping track of your kindness counts for Tribe points.
RtI A-Z Meetings
Fact Fluency Assessments
Remember that you should be doing a 5-10 minute daily fact fluency lesson each day in math. Here's the skill focus for September:
Kindergarten: Numbers to 5
1st Grade: +1 Facts and Turnarounds (Example: 2 + 1 and 1 + 2)
2nd Grade: +1 Facts and Turnarounds (Example: 2 + 1 and 1 + 2)
3rd-5th Grade: Review of Addition Facts
At the end of each month, you should be doing an assessment (except grades 3-5 until November). Here are the links to the assessments. These assessments are very short but should be done 1:1 in order to assess what strategy students are using to solve the problem.
Fact Fluency Google Folder: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9Sqac3OGWQ2djJudXBINTJBYkE
Multiplication Fluency Assessments: https://drive.google.com/open?id=10m7uP33y1gfkdYU8ZnxxLOwXMFFixdBrR1t48z_XpqA
PK, K, & 1 District Professional Development & Coaching Requirements
PK Teachers - 30 hours of Early Childhood Professional Development is required for all PK3 and PK4 teachers in the 2019-2020 school year (15 hours of CLI PD courses and 15 hours of coaching)
**See Mrs. Helton to find out exactly how many hours you have acquired so far for the year.
UPCOMING PD
PK Planning for PK Teachers
Date: Thursday, October 24th
Time: 4:00-5:00
Location: WISD Admin Conference Center
*Register in Eduphoria
*counts towards 15 hours of coaching requirement
ELAR Textbook Adoption Information & Training
- How to get started planning
- How to find module lessons
- Walk through teacher’s guides
- Module Tab review
- Week at a Glance
- Lessons that go with the week
- Teaching PAL
- Explore ED (online)
- Resources
- Professional Learning – video
- PLG download
There are several other parts to HMH, but we will be slowly working with teachers on other parts throughout the year. Teachers and campuses are welcome to start exploring all the parts and implementing what works for them. Sign in to HMH online is available through Clever. Please let Paul Mach know if you are not able to get on.
When you receive your new adoption, you are welcome to unbox it, but keep materials together. The district will be coming to barcode all the materials, so they need to be easily accessible.
PLCs
9/26: None due to conferences
10/3: Behavior
10/10: Math
10/17: Reading (Achieve/Smarty Ants training)
We will be keeping PLC notes using the following template. It will include your grade level to-do's so please follow up with these prior to the next academic PLC.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15mQMYbvKViCaECDi2jYO4e212lPqQ2pYe6s-BJXpSlk/edit?usp=sharing
PLC Protocol information and templates that were discussed today can be found at the link below. You can make a copy and add to you Google Drive if you want to type in an electronic version. DO NOT LOOSE the work that you started today because we will refer back to it throughout the year.
PLC Protocol documents: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aELmSN0YFOsf7LxfhIXFBg-e9pciibgqgOwN_Z8_NPo/edit?usp=sharing
Staff of the Week
Congratulations to Ms. Columbus for being our STAFF OF THE WEEK. She has done an amazing job of learning about and serving our special education population. She consistently ways to help and make our school a better place.
Habits of Discussion
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzPtZw5xT-LdZHhpWGR0cktNRHFkMWstN0N6ODhOX0FXNzI0/view?usp=sharing
GT Nominations
The process for GT nominations has changed slightly to please read carefully. All questionnaires, except the Nomination Form, must be completed digitally using Google forms this year.
Resources for nominations: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/108WZ9JV6AxoCl_DlFTIRRx4_ESvXGPAL?usp=sharing
Steps:
1. Have parent give permission to test for GT using the "Nomination Form." https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oAbtziak_xOpyRzsfgM2vRHKh3m8ECejg6JTU-2kxw4/edit?usp=sharing
2. Send home the link to the digital Parent Questionnaire or provide parent with a paper copy. You will have to input the parent questionnaire answers into the digital Parent Questionnaire. bit.ly/gtnomparent
3. Complete the digital Teacher Questionnaire. http://bit.ly/gtnomteacher
4. Have your student use a computer to complete the digital Student Questionnaire. bit.ly/gtnomstudent
Dreambox
Teacher login: www.dreambox.com
School website for students: https://play.dreambox.com/login/b4aj/7uzr
School Code for the Ipad app: b4aj/7uzr
Resources for Motivation: https://insight.dreambox.com/dbl-resources
Introducing to your Class: https://www.dreambox.com/assets/dashboard/introducing-dreambox-to-your-students.pdf
How Students Login: https://support.dreambox.com/s/article/How-Students-Log-In-to-DreamBox-on-a-Computer-School-Account
See chart below for campus expectations for usage. If you need any help getting going, please talk to Mrs. Helton.
Math & Science Vertical Planning Days
Math Planning Dates (Grades K-5): September 17, October 28, December 10, February 18
Science Planning Date (Grades 3-5 Only): October 15, November 12, January 10, February 19
Please work with Ms. Bonnie to secure subs for these days (grades 3-5 only). Grades K-2 will use the aides assigned to their grade level.
Box Cards & One Eyed Jacks Training for Math Coming November 14
Grades 3-5 Training: 8 am - 11 am
Grades K-2 Training: 12 pm - 3 pm
You will need to create a 1/2 Day School Business Absence in TEAMS (7:45-11:45 or 11:45-3:45). Please work with Ms. Bonnie to secure subs. The subs in the morning will be able to cover the afternoon classes for the lower grades (if you don't have an aid in your room).