Halfway Mark - Time for Celebration and Planning

Welcome back!

I hope you all enjoyed your break and spent time relaxing and refreshing yourself.  As we move into the second half of the school year, I want to pause a moment to offer my gratitude.  I am very proud to be the principal of Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School and I greatly appreciate each and every person that works in this building and collaborates with us as a partner.  Working at King you have one of the most challenging jobs in this school district and I am thankful for your dedication to our students.

If you have friends or family that work in other schools with demographics different from ours, you already know you have completely different work environments and different challenges.  However, it is not by accident that you are here.

You have a greater purpose and a mission to to impact the lives of our district's most at-risk students.  You have power in your words, impact in your highly effective practices, and opportunity to change the trajectory of students -- empowering them to achieve at the highest levels.  It is no secret -- the best thing I can do as a principal is to put a highly effective teacher in front of every student in every classroom and put support personnel that are effective and efficient in place to support learning and building operations.  I believe in our power as a staff and I believe in our ability to achieve continuous improvement.  Thank you all for being here.


We are welcoming two new members that will join us after the break.  Please be sure to introduce yourself and give them a positive start to their year at King.

• George Houtchens -- Behavior Coach (Starting January 7th)
• Sydney Butler -- Third Grade (Starting January 7th)

Last, I wanted to provide some reminders for school norms and expectations as we start the second semester.  All meetings and events are listed on the Living Calendar.

Professional Learning Communities (PLC)

•  We have PLCs each Monday.  At the conclusion of each meeting, the team leader or designee is responsible to turn in PLC minutes to Dr. White by the end of the school day.  For learning check analysis meetings - -a high, med, and low student work sample from each teacher in each content area should be turned in attached to minutes (please make copies of work so I don't have to return them).

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) Meetings 

• These meetings are scheduled for the last Monday of the month (remember to consult the living calendar).  The purpose of this meeting is to discuss students who are in need of additional assistance to meet grade level expectations for learning and behavior.  Each teacher should bring data/progress data on their lowest three students with academics and behavior.  During this meeting you will collaborate with resource/support staff to assess progress and identify next steps.

Classroom Instructional Framework, Daily Learning Targets and Exit Slips (non-negotiable)

• Lesson planning should be in the form of the classroom instructional framework so that all components of the lesson are addressed.  This is the expectation for evaluation and walk-through feedback -- all will be based on the framework.  A copy of the template is attached to the blog update email for your use.

• Each day students will benefit from a posted learning target that you review and check back throughout the lesson to ensure students are moving towards the target.  Targets should be posted.  If you use PowerPoint or project your learning target -- be sure to have a daily posted list that can be referenced during walk-throughs.  Learning targets should say what students are learning to do and how they will demonstrate this new learning.  For example:  We are learning to identify the main idea of an article and provide text evidence to support our choice in a short answer response.

• Following each lesson, students will complete an exit slip to assess their learning and provide the teacher with real time information to adjust plans for the following day.  Each exit slip should have the learning target on it and a prompt for students.  An example is here.  There should not be a time that we are not assessing learning daily.

This Week...

1.  We have PLC Monday to discuss data from your analyzed learning cycle checks.  This Friday, teams will meet with Dr. White to discuss the data and next steps.

2.  Student grades for cycle 2 are due in Infinite Campus by Thursday, January 10th.  A printed copy of your completed report cards are due to White by Friday, January 11th.

3.  We will have faculty meeting this week:  Vision/Mission; PBIS booster session