Last Post for 18-19

Staff,

As we wrap up our last week of school here is Monday's inflatable schedule and Thursday's Professional Development agenda. Those of you who will be working in a different building next year, please meet with your new teams, in your new buildings, starting at 10:00am. This is time for you to dig into the new materials, and end of year data, to plan for the start of the 2019-2020 school year. 

With my last blog post, I wanted to share one more Fred Rogers' quote. If you have taken a look at the 18-19 NHE yearbooks, your might have already seen it. This is for you, my North Hudson Heroes:  

"When I was very young, most of my childhood heroes wore capes, flew through the air, or picked up buildings with one arm. They were spectacular and got a lot of attention. But as I grew, my heroes changed, so that now I can honestly say that anyone who does anything to help a child is a hero to me."

With Love and Grateful Appreciation,

Dolf

SLOs and PPGs.

Staff,

Your End of Interval SLO and PPG Reviews are due for submission this Friday. Remember to hit submit and not save and notify. Here is the link to the document to help you with both forms within mylearning plan:  End of Interval SLO Review & PPG Review. These two are explained under the last two headings within the form.

Feel free to submit them before Friday, if your data and your reflections are completed. Teachers on cycle for evaluation, summative meetings will begin on Monday, June 3rd. You may start scheduling a time to meet with me through Sue. I will submit your summative to you the night before our scheduled meeting. Teachers not on cycle, I will review your end of interval SLO and PPGs electronically, unless you inform me that you want to review these two goals in person.

We have a fun week ahead of us! K-3 Track and Field Day and Fun Run is Wednesday, 4th Grade Track and Field Day Thursday and 5th Grade Track and Field is Friday. Here's to a great few weeks of school that we have left!

PBIS SAS Survey

Staff,

This week's staff meeting will be located in the learning lab and facilitated by Chris Strop. Please bring your laptop because time is set aside so you can complete the PBIS Self Assessment Survey (SAS).

The survey is taken to assess the effectiveness of our PBIS system and to set priorities for school improvement. Survey results from last year were used to develop an action plan for this year. Love and Logic Classroom Strategies, the Calming Corner process and sensory tools and the Buddy Classroom were implemented to allow teachers to teach and students to learn. These options will be surveyed in the school-wide and classroom systems as listed below:

• School-Wide Systems:  Options exist to allow classroom instruction to continue when problem behavior occurs.
• Classroom Systems:  Classroom-based options exist to allow classroom instruction to continue when problem behavior occurs. 

There are forty-six questions in the following categories:

1.  School-wide

2.  Non-classroom

3.  Classroom

4.  Individual

You will be asked two questions per each statement (status and improvement priority).

·Status: In place, partial, not in place

·Improvement priority: High, medium, low

·If something is "In place", it would be "low priority" for improvement.  If something is partially or not in place, it could be high, medium or low priority (you may or may not care if it is in place)

Chris will also review this prior to starting the survey on Tuesday, and you will receive an email with the survey link before the meeting. Surveys will need to be completed on Tuesday, May 21st.

Staff Meeting and Staff Placement

Staff,

This week we have Marcie Andrews, NH PTO President, coming to briefly speak to our staff on Tuesday. Some of the topics she'll cover are:  what the PTO does, update on fundraising, teacher requests and also any feedback you'd like to share with the PTO.

Most of the staff meeting will be set aside for me to review the staff survey results from School Perceptions. As I present the information, think about the what ifs that pop into your mind . . . things that we could act on to make improvements:  What if we did this . . . What if we did that?

Finally K-4 grade teachers on May 15th we will use this Day 5 in the learning lab to work on our class placements. 5th grade teachers can also use this time to fill out the transition forms for the middle school. 

Staff Appreciation Week

Staff,

On the eve of Staff Appreciation Week, I wanted to thank you for all you do for our students, their families and our colleagues. I appreciate all of you. There are three activities planned to honor you this week. On Tuesday the staff appreciation luncheon, on Wednesday the Walk on the Wild Side at River Crest starting at 4:30 (SIGN UP HERE) and on Friday massages (sign up is in the office).

This week we are working on class placements with the SPED department meeting Monday morning, and on Tuesday K-4th grade teachers will finalize their surveys during common planning time.  The May 15th Day 5 will be utilized for our class placement meetings grades K-4.

Class Creator Ready After Monday

Staff,

K-4th grade teachers, you should have received an email from Class Creator today. If you didn't, please check your spam for it. You'll need to use this email to log into the class placement program. I have uploaded your class information, and students are coded by numbers. Tomorrow I'm going to double check the numbers connected to your students, and then get the hard copy masters into your mailboxes, so you know which students go with with the numbers assigned within Class Creator.

Please take a common planning time, after Monday, to work on these surveys. I've also set aside the Day 5 on Tuesday, May 7th to complete any of the surveys you don't get done this week. As a reminder, I will be out Tuesday and Wednesday for Heather's surgery, maybe Thursday depending on how it goes. Shannon Sexe will be on call over this time for our building.

End of the Year Assessment Changes

North Hudson Staff:

At last week's SMARTgoal Team meeting, I reviewed some assessment changes for the end of the year. I wanted to share it with you all through my blog so you have easy access to this information too.

Here's a couple end of year assessments coming off of your plates:  

• No Spelling Workshop Post Test

• No end of year math assessment (just make sure you are entering all unit test info in Illuminate-if you have had a difficult time importing this data, here is a link to "how to support" Illuminate tutorials.

These two changes are already reflected on the K-5 Assessment Schedule. 

Teaching and Learning and building principals also collaborated to lessen the end of year formal BAS assessment load. 

• BAS-only need to complete formal BAS with students in intervention or DGR or students you have not done a formal with yet this year.  This will prepare us for a shift to supporting teachers doing a formal BAS with students in the fall of the year.  We will still have teachers put F&P instructional levels based on current running records/guided reading data in Skyward. We will continue to pass on end of the year information to the next year teachers-most likely a recent running record along with the transition form we have used in the past. 

Finally at our Wednesday staff meeting, we won't be ready to complete the student survey information to get ready for class placements. However I will be providing you all with the data you need to fill out the online surveys at a later date. At this staff meeting, we will have a resource packet with all the Love and Logic Classroom strategies we've learned about during the 18-19 school year. 

Calendar Items for This Week

Staff,

On Tuesday at 8:05am, I will be meeting with the SMART Team to receive feedback on the Jan Richardson implementation, the best JR comprehension strategies to focus on for the end of the year and planning time to align the May ELA curriculum guide with the MAP learning continuum. Also on Tuesday we will have our April fire drill at 3:45pm.

On Wednesday Dr. Nick will be here from 10-noon in the life skills classroom for staff who'd like to meet with him, and we will have our tornado watch starting at 1:00pm and our drill at 1:45pm. Please review your tornado drill locations.

On Friday K-2 classrooms will have high school athletes visiting in the morning to read to them, and we will have our final April drill in the morning. Please see the staff bulletin for more details regarding this drill. For teachers on cycle for evaluation, documentation logs are due to be submitted on April 19th.  

This week fourth grade and fifth grade students will be completing their Forward Testing.

Forward Begins

Staff,

Starting tomorrow, the Forward Exam begins with 4th grade testing this week, 4th and 5th testing during the second week and 3rd grade testing the third week. Please be flexible with Chris and Kelli over this testing period because they, along with me, will be assisting with proctoring the tests for small groups of students.

Tomorrow morning I will be emailing parents regarding volunteering for Kids' Carnival. As of today, 37% of the spots are still available. As in the past, I'd like you to try to volunteer for at least one of the big PTO fundraisers:  Kids' Carnival or the food booth at Pepper Fest.

On Wednesday, your Day 5 Common Planning Time will be set aside for you to plan for and problem solve around your Jan Richardson guided reading lesson plans. Amanda McCarthy is also touching base with teachers to schedule the second round of observations with feedback. She's cognizant of grade levels who are currently proctoring or preparing to proctor the Forward Exam though.

Guided Reading Staff Meeting

Staff,

I have been so proud of what I have been seeing when dropping in for visits during your Jan Richardson guided reading lessons. I got to most of you before spring break, and I have a few visits to get in now.

I've been impressed with your lesson preparation and the vast majority of the components of the lesson plan being covered during your instruction. At our staff meeting on Tuesday, you will have time for guided reading lesson planning, after watching three short Jan Richardson videos on reviewing sight words, introducing sight words and introducing new vocabulary. Primary teachers you'll focus on the sight words and intermediate teachers you'll focus on the vocabulary. Be thinking about what you're doing well in these areas and what you might be able to start doing after these video refreshers.

Hoping you are feel rested and rejuvenated when returning tomorrow.

Business Items for the Week Before Spring Break

Staff,

Thank you for all your work around guided reading using the Jan Richardson format and finalizing second trimester report cards. I've started to observe guided reading lessons, and there are great things happening throughout the building with this implementation!

Reminders for this week.

• If you haven't already, update instructional reading levels in Skyward (fourth window).
• Reports cards data inputted into Skyward by 11:59pm Monday.
• Staff Appreciation Breakfast is Tuesday at 8:00am
• Report cards printed Tuesday.
• Pennies for Patients:  One dollar donation to chew gum Wednesday.
• Final Grades Due in Skyward:  Wednesday.
• Last day of Pennies for Patients and Report Cards Sent Home Thursday.
• Forts and Flashlights Friday. 

Forward Exam, Guided Reading Planning and Staffing

Staff,

Our Tuesday staff meeting will be for all staff who are involved in proctoring the Forward Exam. We will need to meet promptly at 8:00am in the media center, because the test administrator training video is about 40 minutes long.

K-2 teams on Tuesday morning will be working in their PLC spaces to plan guided reading lessons together. Amanda McCarthy will be checking in with the K-2 teams, starting at about 8:15am. All other departments can use this typical staff meeting time to lesson plan.

NH PTO has their March meeting at 6:30pm on Tuesday, and I believe this meeting is still open in regards to staff signing up to attend. Finally, on Friday I will be meeting with grade level teams projected to be going down a section for the 19-20 school year to discuss staffing. After work on Friday, I will also be communicating out our grade level teams for the 19-20 school year.

Power Up, Staff Meeting and All School Meeting

Staff,

Here's a few reminders for the week. Even though we had the winter warm up, our Power Up Challenge officially kickoff is this Tuesday. Please refer to the NH Staff Bulletin for your scheduled time. At our staff meeting on Tuesday, we will reviewing the Love and Logic five step problem solving protocol and introducing some quick classroom interventions for problem behavior (many of these you already use.) The second half of the staff meeting will be team time focused on guided reading planning and problem solving. Specialists please bring planning materials also.

On Thursday, our common planning time will be in Kara's classroom to focus on ELA and math progress monitoring. Dr. Oullette will also be here for his second listening session from 1:00pm-3:00pm. Finally on Friday don't forget our All School Meeting starting at 3:00pm.

Jan Richardson Staff Meeting Thursday

Staff,

     Keep your fingers cross that our weather will be better than predicted on Tuesday allowing conferences to go on as planned. After tomorrow all six of our grade levels will have had their second round of Jan Richardson guided reading training with Carolyn. On Thursday, our staff meeting will have an ITS update and time built in for you to dig into any of the Jan Richardson video tutorials that your grade level team feels would be the most useful right now. Below is a video tutorial on accessing the videos and one of my takeaways, from the PD I attended, regarding aligning the Jan Richardson comprehension strategies/modules to our ELA curriculum priority standards.

Events for the Week

North Hudson Staff:

Last week Buildings and Grounds worked with me to fill the head custodian position at North Hudson Elementary. Mark Rivard will be transferring to North Hudson Elementary from EP Rock Elementary. Mark has been a head custodian in the district for the past 19 years and is looking forward to moving to North Hudson. Doug is going to assist Mark with his transition to North Hudson. Here's our grade level schedule for our second round of Jan Richardson guided reading with Carolyn.

Monday, February 11th.

AM Session: 8:00-11:30: First Grade

PM Session: 12:30-4:00: Fourth Grade

Tuesday, February 5th. Whale Day at NHE

AM Session: 8:00-11:30: Kindergarten

PM Session: 12:30-4:00: Third Grade (Dolf attending this session)

Wednesday, February 6th

AM Session: 8:00-11:30: Second Grade
PM Session: 12:30-4:00: Fifth Grade

On Monday, NH PTO is having a Culver's Night from 5-8pm, feel free to attend to support our students, and our February PTO meeting is this Tuesday at 6:30pm. I hope you also have a good week in preparation for conferences. Please use you Day 5 time this week to get organized for your parent meetings. Finally below is the Alan St. Jean schedule on Friday for each grade level.

9:15-10:00- Kindergarten

10:00-11:00 3rd Grade

11:05-12:05 5th Grade

12:35-1:20 2nd Grade

1:25-2:25 4th Grade

2:45-3:30 1st Grade

MAP and January 25th

Staff,

As you are wrapping up your MAP testing, I wanted to give you some reminders. Our building SMARTgoal and your SLOs have an increased emphasis on using MAP data as some of our targets. The rationale for this shift is it's more predictive of students being college and career ready. Below is our overall SMARTgoal and the two targets using the MAP.

District SMARTgoal:  By the end of 2020-2021, 70% of elementary students will score proficient/advanced on the Forward Exam in ELA (92%ile of WI schools based on 2016-17 Forward Exam Data).  

MAP Growth Target for spring 2019:  65% of 1st-5th grade students will meet their spring to spring growth target.

MAP Achievement Target spring 2019:  65% of K-2nd grade students will meet the college and career benchmark (scored at the 61st percentile or above on the Reading MAP).

After the mental health training on January 25th, you'll have time to continue your work connecting the priority standards within the ELA curriculum maps with the concepts and skills in NWEA MAP continuum to plan whole group mini lessons or guided reading. Your focus will be on the months of February and March. Feel free to also bring a device to access reports you may want to take a look at from NWEA. We will be providing K-5 teachers a hard copy of their winter class breakdown by goal and 2nd-5th grade teachers the winter class breakdown by projected proficiency. Each teacher will also get a hard copy of the learning continuum document we've worked from this year, as well as a copy of their ELA curriculum map. This time is meant to support teachers' mid year SLO, aligned with our SMARTgoal and also anchored to the standards, within our core ELA curriculum, that we've prioritized. The link below is the full day schedule for January 25th.

Jan 25th Schedule for Staff

Finally here are the two video tutorials Amanda and I have created to support other teachers in the alignment process. These will be shown on the 25th. Please give feedback to our building SMART Team, before Tuesday, if you have suggestions on how Amanda and I can make them better for your district grade level colleagues. Thanks!

• Primary Example

• Intermediate Example

Love and Logic and ELA Staff Meeting

Staff,

At our Tuesday staff meeting we will begin with our next Love and Logic classroom strategy around helping students solve their own problems. Jim Fay, one of the Love and Logic founders, had this to say about the problem solving strategy, "Doing things for children is just fine, up to a point. But teaching them how to do things for themselves-that's where it's at."

Chris developed a good summary around the purpose of the strategies we've been learning, and I thought it was a good reminder for us all.

• Love and logic teaches a variety of skills so teachers can teach and students can learn.

           * Encourages positive relationships with students
           * Focuses on empathy (use of an empathic statement), so students spend
               more time in the in the thinking mode. It prevents the fight-or-flight
               response.

• Helps students own and solve their problems. 

The second half of the staff meeting will be your time to continue to align the learning targets tied to the ELA curriculum guide priority standards to skills and concepts from the NWEA MAP continuum referencing the same priority standards. Your teams may also choose to use this time for guided reading planning. Please bring the materials you need to the staff meeting. 

Also when Shannon is here on Wednesday morning, there will be breakfast treats available while meeting and greeting her. 

Illuminate Staff Meeting

Staff,

A reminder that the January 8th staff meeting is focusd on getting you introduced to Illuminate by entering math data for either Unit 3 or 4. Please bring your laptops because Lisa Skoyen will be walking you through logging into Illuminate for the first time using ClassLink. Your Day 5 collaboration time on Wednesday will be eartagged to finish your data entry started on Tuesday, and examine some of the math reports available through Illuminate.  Below are the directions Lisa sent out prior to winter break for the staff meeting on Tuesday.

Grades 1-5 will have the opportunity to enter EM4 Progress Check data in Illuminate. Use the attached spreadsheets to record Unit 3 or Unit 4 Progress Check scores and bring the data to the January staff meeting.  

Please complete the following prior to the meeting:

1. Print (or make a copy of) the spreadsheet.
2. Enter a score of 3, 2, or 1 for each question in Unit 3 or Unit 4  
   3 = answer is completely correct
   2 = answer is partially correct
   1 = answer is incorrect
3. Contact your building principal if you are unable to collect data prior to the scheduled staff meeting.