Staff Meeting, Late Start and Upcoming Events

Staff,

At our staff meeting on Tuesday, we will watch a video of author Sherry Turkle Alone Together. I had an opporutnity to hear her this past summer. Her ideas were powerful regarding the impact of technology/social media, not only on our children, but also on ourselves. As we get close to summer vacation, her message may assist you, and those of you who have school age children, to find a healthy balance with technology use. Here's an interview with Sherry Turkle, in case some of you would like to know more about her ideas before Tuesday:  NPR Interview.  Here's also another NPR article regarding Lonely Americans. 

On Tuesday, we'll also review the school events occurring during our last three weeks of school. A reminder that our last late start is this Thursday. This time is set aside for you to work on your SLOs and PPGs. Teachers and specialists here is the link regarding your work locations on Thursday:  May 3rd Late Start.

For your end of year SLO, you'll reflect on and answer these three questions:

• Summarize the end-of-interval status of your goal and the process you used to support the growth of your target population.

• Were there environmental or contextual implications that impacted the results of your SLO? If so, please explain:

• Lessons learned:

For your PPG you'll reflect on this statement:

• Evidence of Progress Toward Professional Practice Goal:

Teaching and Learning Updates and Late Start

Staff,

     At our Tuesday staff meeting, Teaching and Learning staff will be presenting on ELA and math. Some of the topics will include ELA priority standards, the three year plan for ELA and new information on the math profiles of progress.

     During the Tuesday late start, regular education staff will be meeting with me to either fill out the online class placement surveys for their students (K-4) or filling out the AIM sheets for middle school placement (5th grade teachers). We will start promptly in the media center at 8:05 am. Here's a link to the guide that will help you with the online class placement forms. Before Thursday I will be emailing out the access to this form to classroom teachers. After I do, I will send a follow up email because the email has been coming through to teachers in their spam.

     Most special education staff will be meeting with Fafani at ASC during the late start for training on the Child Outcome Summary Form that is required by DPI. 

Spelling Fidelity

Staff,

At our Tuesday staff meeting, prior to the suicide prevention presentation, we'll spend some time on spelling fidelity, one of our reading foundational skills SMARTgoal targets:  100% of teachers will utilize the spelling curriculum with fidelity. Most SMART Team members have already been observed teaching spelling using the form below. During the months of March and April, the rest of classroom teachers will be observed to assess where we are at with our implementation of our spelling curriculum. On Tuesday, I'll also share some of the data we've already collected from the observations done with SMART Team members.

Documentation Questions

Staff,

Last week I shared with you some of our Educator Effectiveness resources. For those of you on cycle and working on your reflections, I recommend using the mylearningplan questions found at the top of your documentation log to guide your reflections. I find them user friendly and easy to follow. As a reminder, our staff meeting on Tuesday will focus on updating classroom supply lists and reviewing artifacts and documentation log writing. Please bring your supply lists to revise.

Artifact Reflection Prompts (MLP Documentation Log)

1.  Describe how this artifact provides evidence for this standard.

2.  Describe how this artifact impacted your professional practice and knowledge.

3.  Detail the impact on student learning this artifact demonstrates

Upcoming Educator Effectiveness Items

Staff,

With the early start and end to our year, some of the timelines are earlier for Educator Effectiveness components. For those of you being evaluated during the 17-18 school year, artifacts are due the first Friday in April (6th).  Below I have linked the timeline, the teacher/specialist components and artifact reflection guidance to assist you with your EE work for the rest of the year.  All of these items are also available in the tabs above this blog. 


Educator Effectiveness Timeline: Month by Month

 Educator Effectiveness Teacher Components 2017-18

Educator Effectiveness Specialist Components 2017-18

Artifact Reflection Prompts

Math Staff Meeting and Second Trimester Reading Data

Staff,

One last reminder to bring your EDM4 resources to our 8:05am staff meeting on Tuesday. Lisa Skoyen will be giving an update on third trimester standards, and then the remainder of the time is yours for preparing for the math lessons you'll teach upon returning from break. Again teachers not delivering the EDM4 curriculum need not attend.

Below is our building's instructional reading level data for the first three assessment periods:  first trimester, mid year and second trimester. As of second trimester 82% of our K-2 students, 78% of our 3-5 students and 80% of our total students (K-5) are meeting or exceeding the February benchmark. A reminder on Thursday, progress monitoring meetings will be occurring in Mrs. Lindstrom's classroom. 

Forward Exam Proctors

Staff,

This week's staff meeting is focused on Forward Exam administration for proctors. Teaching staff who don't proctor the Forward Exam need not attend. I have included the presentation below for teachers who are proctoring but have a meeting conflict not allowing them to make this staff meeting. Proctor teachers not able to attend should watch the DPI test administration training video included in slide four of the presentation.

RTI and All School Read In

Staff,

On Tuesday, our staff meeting will focus on revisiting why Response to Intervention is so important to our students and the criteria for students to access tier II and tier III interventions. At this staff meeting, I will be sharing the evolution of the state of Wisconsin's vision for RTI over the last decade. To give you time to reflect on these visuals, I'm sharing them below in the order when they were first presented (oldest to most recent).

Original Pyramid Type Visual to Explain RTI

Updated Visual by WI DPI 2010

Most Recently Revised Visual Rolled out by WI DPI during the 2017-18 School Year

On Friday of this week, we will be kicking off "I Love to Read" month with a read in at 2:50pm in the gym. The PTO is going to announce the classroom winner of the box top competition then. Also staff who are participating in creating a taped book talk, Kelli can help with this anytime you are ready. However, I am also setting time aside at 9:00am, after our late start staff meeting on responding to reading/Forward exam preparation, for staff to tape their book talks. We're going to share these talks on the news and also send them to parent to generate excitement for reading in February.   

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Staff,

Here's some school resources, for those of you looking to infuse some MLK Day learning on Monday. Both links have lesson plans for elementary age children.

NEA MLK Resources

Education World Resources

Guided Reading Tips from Fountas and Pinnell

Staff,

       Here are some ideas from Fountas and Pinnell to help you get the most out of your guided reading time. On Wednesday, January 10th we have out progress monitor meetings during common plan time in Mrs. Lindstrom's classroom.

Twelve Tips for Powerful Teaching in Guided Reading Lessons

The following are some guiding principles that may help you get more power in your teaching:

1. Notice the student’s precise reading behaviors.
2. Eliminate ineffective behaviors and help the reader do what proficient readers do. 
3. Select a text on which the reader can learn how to read better- not too difficult and not too easy. 
4. Teach the reader not the text.
5. to read written language not words.
6. Teach for the student to initiate effective problem-solving actions. Use clear precise language that passes the control to the reader. 
7. Only ask the student to do what you know he can do. 
8. Don’t clutter the teaching with too much talk. 
9. Focus on self-monitoring and self-regulating behaviors so the reader becomes independent. 
10. Build on examples of successful processing. 
11. Teach for fast responding so the reader can process smoothly and efficiently.

From Guided Reading: Responsive Teaching Across the Grades by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Copyright (C) 2017 by Irene C. Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell. Published by Heinemann.