Pause and Reflect

Team,

Thank you for your work and dedication to our students and one another.  I realize this has been a tough month for many and as we prepare for the upcoming week, I encourage you to take a few moments for gratitude and deep breaths to find your peace.  I am practicing this as well.

• We know that each day requires our best selves.  The goal is for each day to be better than the day before.   This is how we manage change and growth, which leads to progress.

• We know that each day we may face a challenge that we cannot provide an answer to in the moment.  We don't have to be perfect, just as consistent as possible.

• We have each other and together we can achieve.

• I know I don't thank you enough for your efforts to support our school, but please know you are greatly appreciated and I look forward to figuring out the work together, having some fun and growing our school.

No faculty meeting this week

Colleagues,

This week, grades three through five will begin a new model for push in partners with literacy.  Using tiered response lessons and leveraging the MAP Learning Continuum, teachers are creating lessons for reading instruction and intervention.  The push-in model will begin this Monday, October 21st.

Small Group and Individualized Instruction - Reading Support at King

• Push-in teachers will work with small groups or individual students
• Students are identified based on MAP data for math and Running Records and MAP data for reading.
• Homeroom teachers create a folder for each intervention student and/or small group (small groups are NOT flexible -- students are to stay with specific push in teacher until DATA shows to exit.
• Identify materials needed to support push-in and identify the work area in the classroom
• Plans and materials given to push-in teacher and Dr. White by Monday morning
• Push in support people will track student progress with the weekly progress monitoring sheet and provide a copy to the homeroom and teacher and Ms. Flener weekly.
• If plans and materials are not ready or available, the push-in teacher will not stay.

This method of student learning and support will provide evidence of student acceleration.  The tiered response lessons act as an acceleration plan for literacy based on the current standards being taught at each grade level.  Literacy instruction is anchored with Journeys and the Jan Richardson framework for guided reading instruction.  If you have questions or concerns, see Flener, Camp, Jones, or White

Backpack Artifact Data

Students have at least one artifact in there digital backpack this year  -- 125

Number of students per grade level with at least one uploaded artifact

• Kindergarten     27 out of 53 students have at least 1 uploaded artifact
• 1st grade            45 of of 53 students have at least 1 uploaded artifact
• 2nd grade          26 out of 50 students have at least 1 uploaded artifact
• 3rd grade           2 out of 70 students have at least 1 uploaded artifact
• 4th grade           15 out of 77 students have at least 1 uploaded artifact
• 5th grade           17 out of 81 students have at least 1 uploaded artifact

Backpack Video -- Examples for Backpack Worthy Materials

Student Success Resilient Learner Dashboard Introduction

Reminders

• Tuesday, Faculty Meeting Agenda 10-22-2019
• Grades due in IC by October 22nd @ 4:00 PM
• Printed report cards due to White October 23rd @ 9AM
• Team Leader Meeting Agenda - 11-13-2019

Pushing forward, checking our systems and updating our data

Happy Sunday,

Thank you to all who came out to represent King at the Showcase of Schools Saturday.  We had an opportunity to meet many new families and also visit with other schools and gather information.  This also reminded me that with new staff this year, I want to take ensure all know the many things that go on at King Elementary each week.  I will push out information via our Google Classroom  https://classroom.google.com/c/MzgyOTgxNTI4Nzha that I ask all staff members to join.  The class code is "gohvmei."  Having a school google classroom allows us to share announcements and information and provide practice to all staff as we work on improving our digital literacy.

Data Updates

Click on this link to see the current vital signs for our school.  These are indicators we monitor to assess student progress and our collective school-wide growth needs.  Based on this information, we see that 24% of our students met the grade level benchmark as measured by the fall MAP assessment for reading and math.  Thirty-four percent of students met their growth targets as measured by the fall MAP assessment.  

As a school, our growth goal is to increase the percentage of students who are meeting grade level bench marks by 10% for the winter assessment -- meaning that we move from 24% to 34% of students meeting the grade level benchmark.  We will also increase the percentage of students meeting growth goals to 44% by the winter MAP assessment.  

Vital Signs as of 10-11-2019

Additionally, we have to prioritize both student and staff attendance to ensure students are at school to receive instruction and staff are at school to provide meaningful instruction and feedback.  Based on this data, what is your reflection and how will you adjust your practice to increase achievement?

Teaching and Learning

With intentional planning aligned to the Classroom Instructional Framework and implementing all parts of the framework with each lesson - Anticipatory set, hook, modeling (I do), guided practice (we do), and independent practice (you do) I am confident we will see immediate results.  The goal and the practice is to improve each day.  Tomorrow will be better than Friday, Tuesday better than Monday, etc.

Student Agendas -- Agendas are communication tools between home and school and have the additional feature of providing a space for students to write down the daily learning targets for each content area.  Be sure students are in the habit of doing this daily.  To make this easier for everyone, begin the routine of having students open their agendas to the current day of the week and leave them on the edge of their desk -- this prompts you to have them use it.

Learning Targets and Success Criteria --   In EVERY classroom, the daily learning target shall be posted for all subjects and directly related to lessons and activities happening in class each day.  Success criteria is used to scaffold learning and show students the learning progression.  Don't hide the information, it is not a secret -- tell students what you expect them to learn and how they will demonstrate this learning to you.

Summative Assessments - Reading and Math

This Thursday and Friday, we will take assessments for reading and math.  We aim to have a school-wide testing environment so that all students receive the appropriate accommodations for testing.  More information to come from Ms. Camp by Tuesday.

Reminders

• Faculty meeting agenda 
• The first grading cycle ends 10/16 -- the window will open that day to begin posting grades, please be sure your grades are in Infinite Campus and updated by 10/22 -- if you have questions or concerns don't wait --ask early.
• Check the living calendar 

Have a productive week, let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Review and Revise

Team,

Thank you for participating with Parent Teacher Conference Day, this is always an opportunity to engage with parents and set goals for student success.  Be sure to turn in your conference summary sheet and log your conferences in Infinite Campus as well.

Today, remember students have been off for five days and they will need us all to revisit expectations for learning and behavior both within the classroom and common areas.  Take the time this morning to do this and reconnect with students during your circle time.  This is also a great time to revise expectations, in collaboration with students, to better suit the needs of the classroom community.  We are in this together and we have to be a united front in setting and maintaining high expectations for all.

This week we welcome Kristen Allen (Jammeh on email) to King Elementary.  She is our new gifted and talented resource teacher/magnet coordinator, replacing Jenny Stith (room 312).  Also Allana Thompkins will join us as part-time library clerk.  Please seek them out and introduce yourself and give them a positive welcome to King.

Remember to utilize the Classroom Instructional Framework in your lessons with students and have your lesson plans available on your desk for review during walkthroughs.  Update your learning targets and success criteria for students and refer to them often during instruction.  Last, please send home family MAP reports for students who did not have a family member attend conferences in person.

Coming Up:

• Team leader meeting today after school from 4-5PM in the library
• Fourth grade ECHO camping trip Thursday and Friday
• Mrs. French-Coles will meet with teams during planning Friday to discuss Gifted & Talented identification
• Showcase of Schools - Saturday, October 12th--thanks to all volunteers that have signed up
• Be sure your grades are updated in Infinite Campus, we are nearing the end of the cycle (10/16)