August 27 - School Picture Day
August 27 - Leadership Team meets with Herman
September 3 - Collaboration Day
September 4 - 4th Math PD
September 5 - SPED Training
September 9 - PBIS Meeting after school
September 12 - 5th Math PD
September 12 - Leadership Team Meeting after school
September 17 - 6th Faculty Meeting
September 18 - TIPSS visit
September 18 - 5th Faculty Meeting
September 19 - 4th Faculty Meeting
You may have noticed that I regularly put the "National Day" on my blog. It's fun and interesting to know all of the different things that have a national day. This Friday, is National College Colors Day and I encourage you to participate. On National College Colors Day, you wear your college colors to celebrate your alma mater. Not only is it fun to see where everyone attended college, but it also shows our students how important college is and, hopefully, might spark an interest in going to college.
Everyone who works in this building has been through CKH training. One of the biggest things they talk about is the handshake at the door. Research (and common sense) states that greeting students at the door can increase student engagement in the classroom. This article from Edutopia describes some of the benefits of the morning greeting.
CKH stresses the use of the "professional" handshake as a way to model the appropriate way that students will greet each other as adults in the professional world. I totally get that and think that should be what we strive for, but I also know that they are kids and high fives and fist bumps are their world.
According to the article, many teachers use the greeting at the door to set the tone with pre-corrective statements. Tell them what you need them to be doing when they get in the room or redirect any behaviors before they carry over into the classroom. Todd Whitaker (and his daughters) describe 3 modes that people get in: Professional, Parent, and Child. Kids only know two of these, but when a kid is in professional mode, they are on task and focused. When they slip into child mode, things can get dicey. Use the greeting at the door to get your students into professional mode.
The expectation here at PBMS is that every teacher greets students at the door. It's good for you and it's good for them.
This is probably the wrong time of year for this discussion, but several of you have moved classrooms in the last year or two and more of you will move at the end of this year. If you move classrooms, remember that, aside from your personal items, everything is tied to your room through our inventory program. If you had tables in your room, they need to stay in that room. If you had a document camera in your room, it needs to stay in that room. Bookshelves, teacher desks, etc. have to stay with the room unless you have made some special arrangements with me.
Another item, although small, is the crisis manual or flipchart that has all of the details for emergencies. This is a small spiral bound book that you can flip through when there is a crisis. It also has a room number written on it. That is the room number where it belongs. So, before I have more of these made, check your room and see if you have more than one.
It's time to start working on growth plans. Growth plans have become one of those things that people think of as another hoop to jump through, or another box to check off when you've completed it. Many times when I meet with people at the end of the year, they cannot tell me what their growth goals are. I would like to change that.
First of all, anyone who isn't willing to work and improve their abilities is working in the wrong place. None of us is perfect. Secondly, we work on two growth indicators. Sometimes we choose one as a building and then you choose one on your own. The last couple of years, I have recommended a couple of "high leverage" standards and you can choose the other one.
Because we are an MMD school, we will be choosing a building goal that aligns with the three "Effective Teaching and Learning Practices". Those are developing assessment capable learners, feedback, and metacognition. The best growth indicator that aligns with those is standard 2.2 or student goals. The standard doesn't use the same language, but ACL and metacognition are implied throughout the standard. Feedback just goes along with it. So, everybody will be doing standard 2.2. How you choose to do it is up to you.
The second standard is your choice. Choose something that you would like to be better at. It needs to be something important and meaningful to you. We will figure out what standard to tie it to. Maybe you want to get better at using Kahoots in class. Those are great formative assessments and could fit a couple of standards. Maybe you want to get better at transitioning between activities. That fits under a standard. If it's something you want to get better at, we can find a standard that fits.
Growth plans are due by Friday, September 13. Remember that last year you did them on paper first and once we met and I approved everything, then you put it in TalentEd. Let me know when you are ready to meet.
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