Happy Holidays -- 5 Instructional Days to Break!

Team King,

Thank you all for your work and perseverance in this first half of the school year.  We have come a long way and have met our challenges head on and through our dedication, we are making progress.  There are three things we must accomplish this week and we need everyone all in to make it happen.

1.  Complete MAP assessments -- Ms. Camp and Ms. Allen have been working to complete MAP testing with all students who need make ups.  Please remember... (1)  that you can have them take the assessment in your classroom ( you all know how to pull up the testing session) and/or (2) please be sure to communicate to Ms. Camp the students you need help testing.  We expect to have 100% of our students complete the assessment and we are looking to meet our goal of 10% increase in the percentage of students meeting the grade level benchmarks in reading and math.  After all your students have completed the assessment, please review results with your class using the PowerPoint that was attached to last week's Weekly Blog Email.

2. Students will complete Learning Checks this week (Friday deadline).  Start today by letting students know this and set the goal of having it done with high quality so that we can celebrate at the end of the week.  Please make copies for students who receive accommodations and provide that to ECE and ESL teachers TODAY.  Per feedback in team leader meeting last week, this is the best way to ensure all students have their needed accommodations and accommodators have adequate time to administer assessments.  Please communicate with ECE and ESL staff with whom you share students.  Friday is also the end of the grading period, be mindful of this.

3.  Time to reflect and celebrate -- Reflecting on the winter MAP assessment, we will begin discussing strategies for analyzing data at the class level for next steps and focusing on how we use MAP to guide future instruction.  Ms. Allen will visit teams today during the first 10 minutes of planning to provide some information/resources to guide your thinking with this process.  Celebrations -- we have the following things happening this week, stay tuned for logistics:

• Secret Santa starts today -- morning items Ho Ho Ho...only four more days to go! (after today)  Donut Holes & Coffee
• PBIS rewards -- Thursday -- Hot chocolate and cookie decorating -- 200 dojo dollars, staff hot chocolate bar
• Arts Integration presentation (Ms. Martin, Mr. Williams, Ms. Stivers, Ms. Johnson)
• Thursday -- Yearlings Club -- evening holiday party -- 50 students receiving bicycles (students are not aware of this)
• Friday -- class parties -- Texas Roadhouse (students are not aware of this) -- and staff party @ 4:30 or as soon as you get to Bambi 2701 Bardstown Road 40205 -- significant others welcome -- no kids

Next 10 Days

Team,

Thank you to all who represented their teams and role groups at our PBIS meeting Friday.  Together, we can revise our school-wide expectations for teaching, learning, and behavior to improve consistency and decrease problematic and unproductive behaviors.  We will have some new faces in the building over the next couple of weeks to support our efforts:  Kim Linkhart (supporting Ms. Coke's class), Josh Konczal and Adam (doing walk-throughs, helping to lead PBIS reboot), and Rebecca Despain (MTSS academic support - has been supporting fourth grade)-- visited PLCs last week.

Please know that we are all about supporting professional growth with all staff members and the people you see about the building and in your classrooms are in our building on purpose to help us accelerate our growth.  Our goal is to increase student achievement and accelerate all growth at King.  Be open to support, feedback, and growth.

Faculty Meeting -- Tuesday, we will discuss and review on-demand writing across grade levels (link to writing goal for CSIP).  The second grade team will present a strategy at the start of faculty meeting as well.

MAP Assessment -- As we work to complete MAP assessments, we have created a short PowerPoint for all homeroom teachers to share results at the class level.  After all students have been tested in your homeroom, use the PowerPoint to share results with students.  It is imperative to share results and have students reflect on their own growth with their individual goal sheets.  If you would like assistance when you review these results, please let us know, we are all happy to help.

Team Leader Meeting -- We will have team leader meeting this Wednesday at 4:00.  This is how we develop the PLC process -- all team leaders are expected to attend.  We will discuss PLC questions and backpack of success skills.

Staff Reminders:

• Be sure to update learning targets daily and provide success criteria
• Feedback is the name of the game -- how do students in your classroom know if they are meeting the learning targets and understanding the concept/process/ content being taught?
• PLC minutes due Wednesday morning by 9AM to Lisa Perkins
• Friday is Breakfast with Santa in the cafeteria (pictures)

The Next 15 Days

Team,

I hope all had an opportunity to relax and recharge with family and friends as well as take some time for yourself.  As we return from break, be diligent with setting expectations for learning and behavior with students for the classroom and all common areas.  Remember, setting expectations is a daily, hourly, and every transition activity.  This is true of all students; do not expect older students to "know better."  Students do well when they have specific expectations and understand the boundaries in which they must operate.  Students also excel when they know what they are expected to learn.  Stay diligent with posting daily learning targets and success criteria to scaffold student learning.

MAP Assessment --- Our school-wide goal is to increase the number of students meeting the grade level benchmark on the MAP assessment by 10%, moving from 24% to 34% in both reading and math.  This happens through our purposeful planning and supporting students with engaging instruction that is challenging but attainable.   We will begin our MAP assessments Tuesday, December 4th -- please see the schedule on the Living Calendar and be sure that all Chromebooks are charged and ready to go for Tuesday.  Please take a few minutes to review class and individual MAP goals with students prior to the assessment.

Spelling Bee --  Ms. Allen (Jammeh on email) sent out information for classroom spelling bees.  Each homeroom teacher in grades four and five should host a classroom spelling bee and send the name of your class winners to Ms. Allen by Friday, December 6th.  The school-wide spelling bee will be held December 10th and from there our school representative will be chosen.  Last year, Jersey Hill was our representative.

Faculty Meeting -- This week, we will discuss classroom libraries and have some time to work on the set up in your classroom.  All libraries should be organized by genre and Ms. Flener will provide some strategies for having students assist with the sorting of materials and using the classroom library to support instruction.  We will also briefly discuss challenges to getting student artifacts in the digital backpack so we can improve our implementation. Backpack Artifacts -- We currently have 371 students and 196 students have at least one artifact in their digital backpack. 

Restorative Practices --   On December 11th, we will have Cheng Fisher from Behavior Support to visit our school and do 10 minute classroom observations to gauge our Restorative Practices implementation thus far.  They have provided a copy of the walkthrough and look fors so there are no surprises.  This is an implementation check and the email I received will be forwarded to you for your review.

Have a great week!

Thank you!

Team,

Thank you for being part of the continuous improvement process at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School.  I appreciate your work, dedication and daily impact you bring to our students.  While I fully understand the challenges and needs that our students face and have, it is always crucial to stop and think of the role each adult in our building plays in the lives of students.  We teach, we encourage, we love, we set boundaries, we hug, we question, and we provide for all our students.  As a staff, we collaborate, support, disagree, challenge, and grow on this journey of educating students and ourselves.

Over these next two days, be steadfast with enforcing our high expectations for learning, goal setting, and ensuring a safe environment for all.  Remember that going home for the holiday is not celebratory for everyone, so let us be patient with one another. 

While we will not have faculty meeting Tuesday afternoon (Happy Thanksgiving), there is still expectation of collaboration in your professional learning community to share and communicate results from Friday's learning checks.  PLC minutes are still due by 9AM Wednesday morning, so please be sure to get this done.  For each grade level, be sure to turn in the assessment analysis for both reading and math, along with learning results (got it, almost got it, not yet) and a high, medium, low sample from each class.  ECE and ESL teachers are collaborating and providing input for students on their caseloads as well.  We are ALL IN to drive instruction and student learning.

Last, we have PBIS rewards on Tuesday --more to come from the PBIS committee -- watch your email.  We are having a pot luck on Tuesday -- see the email from Mrs. Mozier to sign up to bring something.

Have an awesome two student days and a Happy Thanksgiving.  I appreciate you all.

FYI...we had 117 parents join us for Thanksgiving Lunch Friday!

Diagnostic Review Week

Team,

This week we have our diagnostic review.  The review is an opportunity to have our instructional program and school culture reviewed.  The team from Cognia (formerly AdvancED) will provide us with improvement priorities that will function as high leverage strategies to move our collective work forward to increase student achievement.  I'm proud of the work we have in place and look forward to feedback to impact our future actions.  Here is the week at a glance:

• Monday, November 18th -- Principal presentation @ Louisville Marriott East - 4:30 PM
• Tuesday, November 19th -- Cognia team arrives by 8AM (will be housed in Mrs. Gutterman's office).
• The team will begin walkthroughs using the ELEOT tool
• The team will begin interviewing staff members
• Wednesday, November 20th -- Cognia team arrives by 8AM 
• The team will interview parents beginning at 9:30, parents arriving @ 9:15 AM
• The team will interview students beginning at 2:00 PM (select group)
• The team will conduct walkthroughs and interview staff members
• Thursday, November 21st -- Cognia team arrives by 8AM 
• The team will finish conducting interviews and walkthroughs, departing by noon
• The team has 30 days to provide a written report to KDE and our district
• Results at the school level are anticipated by the end of December

Please be sure your classroom is ready for instruction, student work is posted, and your daily learning targets are posted, along with success criteria.  I was told they will interview 25% of the staff, so be prepared for interviews.  They did not specify who would be interviewed.  Don't be nervous, you all know what we do, be confident in speaking on what you know.  As always, I appreciate your work and efforts at King.  Have a great week.

PLC's Tuesday -- be sure to turn in minutes by Wednesday @ 9AM

Friday -- learning checks and Thanksgiving Lunch (families invited)

Faculty Meeting Tuesday:

• Student goal setting for MAP -- check in -- AGENDA

Here we go!

Learning Targets and Success Criteria to Scaffold Learning

King Staff,

Our mission and purpose is to ... provide rigorous and engaging instruction and remove barriers to learning so that students believe in their own ability to achieve success...  with this as our focus, consider the following as you move through this instructional week.  Homeroom, special area, ECE, and EL teachers and instructional support staff will discuss and begin goal setting with their classes.  All other staff members will discuss this and assist with students you encounter and support within your role group.  This means we are discussing goals in the cafeteria, as we pass students in the hallway, as we push in to support students in class, as we redirect following SRT, as we sign students into school, and greet or dismiss students throughout the school day.  Our students WANT our attention, as we provide it, be direct in discussing learning goals.

Our school-wide goal is to increase the number of students meeting MAP grade level benchmarks by 10%  in reading and math as evidenced by the winter MAP assessment.

From the ELEOT (walkthrough) tool, high expectations are set and evidenced by the following:

High Expectations Environment:

• Learners strive to meet or are able to articulate the high expectations established by themselves and/or the teacher (starts with updated, clear learning targets)
• Learners engage in activities and learning that are challenging but attainable (use of visible success criteria scaffolds learning by showing students the whole picture and how day-to-day learning fits the bigger picture of the learning standard expectation)
• Learners demonstrate and/or are able to describe high quality work (do students clearly understand the expectation for their learning and why they are learning it)
• Learners engage in rigorous coursework, discussions, and/or tasks that require the use higher order thinking (analyzing, applying, evaluating, synthesizing) -- Leverage writing to demonstrate learning -- have students explain their thinking and understanding by writing 
• Learners take responsibility for and are self-directed in their learning -- Goal setting is for students to be able to understand where they are individually and where they need to grow.  The better they understand this, the faster they grow.

Advisory Council (former SBDM) meeting Monday (11/11/19) @ 4:10 PM in room 104.

Faculty Meeting Tuesday -- We will have a 90 minute meeting (previously shared), please plan accordingly -- this will be  a great time for differentiated learning as we have district resource staff for you to engage with on various topics including opportunities to respond, cultural inclusivity, classroom management strategies, and more.

Team Leader Meeting - Wednesday @ 4:00 in the library

Student Recognition Ceremony -- Friday @ 2:30 in the cafeteria -- we will recognize students for honor roll, perfect attendance, and students of the month from the first grading cycle.  If you have students who have made tremendous improvements, this is a great time to recognize as well.  We will send a letter home with students today -- parents are invited to attend.  Logistics for that day will be forthcoming.

Please remember to check the living calendar and daily updates.  Have a wonderful week!

Setting the Stage to See Growth

Thank you for your work on Gold Day, it is always crucial to spend time learning together and preparing for student engagement and success.  This week we welcome back Haley Miller and two students from Simmons College as part of a JCPS/Simmons College partnership to increase the amount of minority teachers in our district.

As we welcome students today, please take time to set expectations for learning and behavior as well as revisit the established routines and procedures for your classrooms and all common areas.  Remember to utilize affective statements per our training on restorative practices and support one another with the use of buddy rooms.

Planning for rigorous, engaging instruction continues to be a method of bringing our mission to the desks of students.  Remember to use the Classroom Instructional Framework as a lesson frame to provide relevant context, model for students, provide time for guided practice, independent practice, and close the lesson with a formative check for understanding so you know which students met the learning target and how to proceed for the next day's lesson.  The formative check is the magic that allows you to see growth in every student each day.

Let's start and finish strong, we have 14 days until the winter MAP assessment window opens and our goal is to increase the number of students meeting grade level benchmarks by 10%.  Talk to your students about this goal and how their individual goals play a part.

Remember, there is no substitute for you, please be present each day so all students have high quality instruction each day.

Please let me know if I can be of assistance to you, have a great week!