Badger Exam Kick Off, Day 6 Planning and Six Practices for Supporting Students with Challenging Behaviors.

Staff,

This Monday North Hudson Elementary kicks off the Badger Exam with third grade students taking the math session one in the morning and 5B and 5S taking their math session one in the pm. Test proctors remember to review your testing locations and the test directions you'll be giving your students (found in your accordion binder).

For Tuesday's Day 6, remember you can use this time as a team to complete mylearningplan requirements (teachers on cycle: documentation logs need to be submitted by the end of the day Thursday), planning for instruction using the google doc agenda or completing your pink/blue sheets for class placement day.

Finally I wanted to share with you an article from my educational leadership magazine: Principal regarding practices that support students who act out. Student behavior can be challenging this close to the end of the year, and the article reinforces six strategies (many of which we have built into our building/classroom cultures). Ranging from building strong relationships with students to teaching the behaviors we expect. Below is the link to the article.

When Students Act Out

Earth Week, Power Up Challenge and Staff Meeting Action Items

Staff,

Thank you for all your help setting up or manning different stations during the Kids Karnival. The NH PTO truly appreciates all your help!

The following are reminders regarding the Earth Week activities, week three of our Power Up Challenge and completing artifact uploads and the LOTI survey. Don't forget to turn in your week two packets with completed student forms into the office from the Power Up Challenge.

EARTH WEEK – April 19 -25

Monday, April 20 - White Out Day - Save Paper

Save to your computer rather than print; use Google; use less towels to dry your hands.

Sharing district building comparisons of duplicating trends; travel trophy goes to E.P. Rock for the most staff who DECREASED their duplicating amounts (2014 to 2015).

Tuesday, April 21 - Yellow Out  - Save Energy

turn off sections of lights for the whole day; lights out for parts of the day; no devices?

Wednesday, April 22 - Green Out - Outdoor Learning

Work in school gardens / forest; clean up litter; go for nature hike; plant a tree or flowers. (Feel free to spend time learning in the NH courtyard or hiking through Webster Park)

EARTH STEWARD Announced (nomination form due Friday, April 17) Community recognition and gift certificate for staff and/or community member recognized for their efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Thursday, April 23 - Blue Out- Save Water (www.water.org)

bring a re-usable water bottle; turn off faucets; river or lake clean-up; shorter showers

Friday, April 24 - Black Out - Save Fuel (carpool)

ride your bike; walk; ride with a friend or make a new friend

Teacher Tips

Q: What do I do with the coloring sheets?

A: These coloring sheets are for students to creatively color or draw how they have powered up with the School Challenge and how it has helped them to Try for 5! These works of art can fill the school hallways, plus be sent in at the end of the Challenge to PowerUp for a chance to win prizes and be on display!

Q: What happens now that the challenge is over?

A: The Challenge might be over, but the fruit and veggie fun doesn’t have to be!

·         Your school will receive PowerUp Bucks to be used to improve the health and wellness at your school (The amount of dollars we receive is directly connected to the percentage of students participating during the three weeks.)

·         You can use the PowerUp classroom prizes all year long to bring movement and activity to your classroom.

·         In class or in the lunchroom, continuing to celebrate fruits and veggies is a wonderful way to encourage your kids to PowerUp all year long!

Staff Meeting on Tuesday Bring Your Laptop

On Tuesday, there's time built into the staff meeting so you can work on completing your artifact uploading if you are off cycle or completing your documentation log if you are on cycle for evaluation this year. The following link is a video reminder for staff on cycle completing documentation logs created by Kevin Moore Uploading Artifacts to a Doc. Log Teachers on cycle, your documentation logs need to be submitted to me by Thursday, April 30th. If you are a year two probationary or non-probationary teacher, double check you've had your students/clients complete the second survey and you've submitted your survey analysis document through mylearningplan.

If you haven't already, you can choose to complete the LOTI survey during the staff meeting too. Here are the directions from Nancy Toll:

If you were in the Hudson School District last year and took this survey:

1.     Go to http://www.lotilounge.com

2.     Under "Member Login" type in your username and password.  (In the past we encouraged everyone to use their school computer login name.  If you do not remember the password you used, there is a link under the boxes, "Need help signing in?"  Click here and then you will be able to click on "password request form" and have your password emailed to you.)  If you don’t remember either, please email me and I can have an automatic email sent to you from the system with your user information in it.

3.     Once you are logged in, click on "Take the LoTi Digital-Age Survey"

4.     Select "2014-15 Digital-Age Survey for Teachers" if you are a teacher, specialist or counselor. Select "2014-15 Digital-Age Survey for Instructional Leaders" if you are a principal or associate principal.

5.     Click on the “Start a New LoTi Digital Age Survey”

6.     Continue on ... you may save and complete the survey at another time but it must be completed by May 29th.

7.     At the end they have added many new results reports and recommendations with web links to resources that will help you grow professionally in digital age skills.  Please take the time to explore and check these things out.

  

Substitute Support for Assessments and Power Up Challenge Teacher Tips Week Two

Staff,

Following the late start focused on the two spring state assessments:  PALS and the Badger Exam, I wanted to remind you of of the substitute teacher support grade levels have for spring assessments (F+P and PALS). The following are the number of substitute days you've been allocated for the year. Please see Sue if you are unsure how much you've currently used:  Kindergarten- second grade (one and a half to two full days), third-fifth grade (one day). The PALS window is May 11-22 and the F+P spring window closes on Friday, May 29th.  

Teacher Tips

Q: How can I help keep my classroom Powered Up each week?

A: Here are just a few ideas:

·         Use the PowerUp videos (found at PowerUp4Kids.org) each week to get kids excited about Trying for 5 and being active! Don’t forget about the brain break videos!

·         Check out the PowerUp website for great ideas on how to incorporate fruits and veggies into your Math, Science, English, and Art lessons.

·         Make sure to celebrate your success with the classroom prizes.

Q: How are families involved in the school challenge?

A: Every family received a Power Pack Family Fun Magazine full of tools and tips to help them PowerUp at home. Any way to help encourage parents to use the Power Pack or send your students home with dinnertime and weekend project ideas are welcomed (family cook- off anyone?).

Power Up Challenge, Standard 4 Assessment and Late Start

Staff,

As we begin our first week of the Power Up Challenge here are the week one tips I sent out to you all at the end of the day on Friday. Remember to have your students track their fruits and vegetables each day and then at the end of the week collect all of their tracking sheets. Please place them in your designated envelope for the week.

On Tuesday, with the help of our Teaching, Learning and Assessment Team (Maren and Jennifer), we are going to be digging into the Educator Effectiveness Standard 4:  Assessment. This was a big part of their mid-year TLA district meeting, and will probably be a focus standard in the future regarding the district's compensation plan. As a result, I want us to continue to prepare ourselves by reflecting on teaching practices we are currently using, or could use in the future, aligned to the distinguished portion of the Standard 4 rubric. Below is the rubric language for both effective and distinguished practice within this standard. 

Finally during the building based late start of Thursday, certified staff will be learning/planning regarding the following topics K-2 teachers/PALS, 3-5 teachers/Badger Exam and Educator Effectiveness Documentation for all other staff:  Documentation Logs, year two Survey Analysis, SLOs, etc. I appreciate the time the district set aside so you can prepare for these state initiatives. Teachers involved in the Badger Exam, here is the DPI website with testing resources:  Badger Exam Training Modules  

Staff,

Late last week you should have received an email from Alycia Flynn-Benzer regarding volunteering for Kids' Karnival on Friday, April 17 or Saturday, April 18. If you did not, here is the link to sign up to volunteer:  http://vols.pt/gY5Lbp   Again it is my hope that North Hudson staff can either support the PTO through working the Kids' Karnival or Pepper Fest. 

If you wanted to volunteer an activity to be included in the raffle remember to contact Amy Kell at AmyDavid@kelldental.com. If it is something done after school hours, make sure to have the location at North Hudson Elementary. It could also be something that happens during the school day like lunch with you. 

Just a few other reminders for this week. Your Day 6 common planning time on Thursday is set aside for you to continue your literacy action planning or complete your math protocol.  Our All School Meeting will be on Friday starting at 9:00am with our Power Up Challenge Kick Off and our Pennies for Patients Wrap Up. Students have also earned their pj day and popcorn party, and this will also occur on Friday. Below are some of the specifics regarding the Power Up Challenge. 

Educator Effectiveness Documentation Logs

Staff,

At our staff meeting on Tuesday, you'll have time to work on your documentation logs. Within the Educator Effectiveness tab on my blog, I have added another document, the table showing what components you're responsible for each year of your evaluation cycle.

During our work session on Tuesday morning, SMART Team members will be available to refresh your memory on how to upload documents into my learning plan. One document I am requiring for Standard 6 is a professional development log. This is something you can be adding to every year of your evaluation cycle to show you're effective or distinguished in the area of professionalism. This log is available in your my files tab in mylearningplan, and it looks like this.

You can download this document and be adding to it each year from now until your summative evaluation. Kelli is also working on figuring out how to make this a google doc that you link into your documentation log, so any time you update it, the form automatically updates in my learning plan too.

Remember all teachers need to upload three documents total this year (except year three probationary teachers:  one document). Please refer to the form on the EE tab of this blog for which standards you can specifically pick from depending on the year you are on within the evaluation cycle. Teachers on cycle for evaluation need to have their documentation logs submitted to me before May 1st.

Action Planning on Monday and Tuesday

Staff:

Here's hoping you all had a chance to rejuvenate either locally or at some exotic destination. I was able to mark some things off my honey do list:  painting Heather's home office and Griffin's room while also ordering his bedroom furniture at the Treasure Island Casino furniture market. 

We hit the ground running this week on Monday (Day 6) and Tuesday (staff meeting) with your most pressing literacy planning/preparation. Again here some of the suggested planning ideas. 

• Writing planning (K-2) to support new binders

• Supporting K-5 above level readers – guided reading complexity of the F+P continuum (within, beyond and about the text)

• Writing about reading: digging into this tab in the F+P continuum

• Informational and/or opinion writing

• Whole group/small group planning using the F+P or MAP continuum

• Planning around increasing the frequency/quality of turn and talks during mini-lessons (see Amanda for support)

• Utilizing running records and comprehension interview to access students’ instructional levels (Amanda and Kara can support)

• Planning for guided reading

• Next steps with SLO actions

Friday is an early release designated for you to work on progress reports. Please remember to update your independent and instructional reading levels also on this day. The March assessment window is important for your instruction because we are removing the mid May update. Instead your last reporting will be done at the end of the year. This will be used for Title One determination, SLO and SMARTgoals and to share with next year's teachers. With all the May assessments, we felt this would give you more flexibility on when you complete your year-end F+P assessments. Here's the progress report schedule for next week. 

Finally remember to wear husky gear or blue and white on Friday for our morning All School Meeting. We will be taking an all school photo which will be included in our school yearbook. Again I hope you had a wonderful break, and I look forward to seeing you tomorrow!

Improving Behavior in the Classroom

Last week I had two separate interactions with Chris Strop after her counseling conference and Judy Green around an article regarding supporting our students who struggle behaviorally. The theme from the article Judy shared and a session Chris attended was the power of praising students for the desired behaviors we're looking for.

It was a good reminder to me on why we strive to give five praises for every redirection:  whether this is through verbal cues in the classroom, acknowledgement tickets around the building or celebration reports.  These are all things we do to give feedback, and can lead to positive changes in behavior.

 The week before spring break can be a hard one for students when getting ready for this transition, and it is a great time for us to also ramp up our praise around "the behaviors we want to see." Below is a link to the article Judy shared with me, and there will be acknowledgement tickets in your mailboxes tomorrow. Here's to a great week learning and and your final day of conferences!

Improving Behavior in the Classroom

Conference Preparation

With parent/teacher conferences starting on Thursday, this is one of your opportunities where you can make positive connections with parents regarding their children and their learning. I thought the following blog entry, even though meant for new teachers, has some wonderful reminders in thoughtfully framing your communication during conferences:  Conference Planning Tips

I mentioned at a staff meeting after fall conferences regarding some things I wished I would have reminded you all about prior to conferences. The main concept I'd like you to keep in mind is the sandwich approach for conference planning and communication:  start with something positive (strengths), continue with areas you'd like the child to grow in and end the conference coming back to something positive about the child. 

A good rule of thumb is to talk about students the way you would want someone to talk about your own child. I know this is a stressful time planning and preparing for conferences, but you'll all do wonderful. Thanks for all you do getting ready to share your students' growth     
with their families!   

PBIS Thank You and Badger Exam Practice

Staff,

I wanted to thank you all for you help with the PBIS bowling incentive this past week. Especially the office staff communicating with parent chaperones and Kristie's and Chris' help chaperoning two of the days. It turned out to be an event where students were engaged, physically active and had a lot of fun!

What a difference a week has already made regarding the information shared with you about the Badger Exam. Evidently because of some glitches with the exam, WI DPI has decided to not use all of the features. As a result, the test this spring WILL NOT be adaptive, but it will still be computerized and interactive for students. Also, with Governor Walkers' just released 15-17 budget proposal, the Badger Exam may be eliminated starting next school year. To find out more about these most recent changes, feel free to read the following article. Scaled Back Badger Exam

With so much up in the air, it is even more important we only focus on strong core instruction and students getting exposed to the format of the test this year, seeing that it may not be in be in existence in Wisconsin next year. A reminder that teachers proctoring the exam will meet in the media center computer lab on Tuesday at 8:05am to take the ELA practice exam. Kelli will be available this week during Day 6 for 3rd-5th grade teachers to support ways students can be exposed to the format of the test leading up to the testing window.

Unfortunately, I'm sure there will be more changes to come from now until the test is administered, and I am sorry you have to put up with this ambiguity.