SEL Concerns Ticket Please use this if you have concerns with a student’s lagging SEL skills and you would like to do some collaboration with us (Heidi T. and/or Brian) to problem solve. Thanks!
FYI Ticket Please use this if you have an incident or recurring incidents with a student. This helps us with follow through, communication and data. Thank you!!!!! New and improved: You can now check more than one teacher for each FYI! Please use this function when more than one student is involved (including the victim if there is one).
YouthTruth Survey – The YouthTruth survey will be opening on January 3rd to families and staff.
Highland Culture of Care: Our character trait for the month of January is kindness. Thank you to the kindergarten team for signing up to make a video for the January assembly on the 21st. Here is the link to our year long assembly plan with a few kindness resources. I also have some great books on kindness in my office.
As a team, we are continuing to read Classroom 180. Our next SIW will be on February 2nd and we plan on discussing domains 2 and 3. We also want to hear from YOU! The plan is to hold another “Fishbowl” to discuss regulation and using the language of trauma. You can also bring your wonderings and problems that need solving!
SLGGs – Listed below are the forms I have submitted so far, if you are not yet on the list please get these to me before you leave for break. See previous post if you need some guidance on these or feel free to talk to me.
- Kinder – All
- 1st Grade – All
- 2/3 – All
- 4/5 – All
- Heidi Evans
Storyline Release Days – I met with Skip about the need for Storyline planning and development. We are still not able to use subs for PD as this is a district-wide issue, however he agreed to a “next-best-step”. If you would like to be compensated at the curriculum rate for time outside contract hours, then we can start to access those funds for storyline planning time. This is a bit of a gray area of concern but we can revisit the reasons for this at a later date.
Moving forward;
- Talk with your team and come up with your plan for using this time, for example, 2-hour blocks on weekday evenings (after contract hours) OR maybe 4 to 8 hour blocks on the weekend.
- The PTO budget line item supports approximately 24 total hours per teacher.
- Typically we expected at least 16 of those hours to be used as a team, with 8 hours allowed for individuals when necessary. My advice is to team as much as possible to share the workload and provide creative support (work smarter, not harder).
- In addition to the typical planning and preparation, it’s important to bring an equity lens to this work as well. Every effort should be made to increase representation of diverse groups, voices and perspectives.
- When you have some solid dates planned, please share these with Ashley. Be sure to complete your time-sheet within the appropriate pay-period.
- We will work on PTO reimbursing the district for these hours.
- Email or talk to me with any questions.
Building Access and Snow – Just some friendly reminders;
- Our clearest, most reliable access to the main building is via the room 14 door. The ramp, landing area and stairs are heated and cleared. Zach will do his best to get the sidewalk cleared from the parking lot to the ramp.
- Please avoid the other staircases if you can so we can get those cleared before the snow gets packed down.
- The west side staircase on the gym is unfortunately very difficult to keep clear, so use this at your own risk. No matter how much we try, we simply cannot get to it before people walk on it AND the roof drops incredibly stubborn icy cement right back on it.
- When walking along the gym, always keep an eye on the roof; it’s designed to slough off the snow so be aware so you don’t become an avalanche victim.
Windows and Indoor Temps – we’ll need to categorize this under the “darned-if-you-do, darned-if-you-don’t” category [and read this with a smile on your face and a chuckle in your heart]…I’ve had a few inquiries from parents about the cold temperatures of the classrooms due to the open windows, wondering if there is a policy about this. My response is the following; “There is no specific school policy around open windows and room temperatures, however there was quite a bit of “guidance” about keeping windows open to allow for increased ventilation to mitigate the spread of COVID. Teachers are doing their best to keep everyone safe from the virus.” Every response was supportive and understanding. My advice moving forward is to just be aware of when the room temperature is getting cold enough to make it difficult to learn or participate in the learning activities. It’s reasonable to expect kids to dress in layers, but if they are feeling the need to put their snow gear on while inside, then it’s probably a good time to open the windows a little less. [Also, the district message is this; we have robust filtration systems that circulate and filter the air at more efficient rate when windows are closed. This is also more energy and cost efficient.]
From Julie- DIBELS Training – We have a training for educational assistant or interventionist that may need to refresh their DIBELS administration skills, a training course will be offered on January 5th from 8:30-12:30 at Trinity Church. Please see me if you are interested.
From Quinn Daily – I am planning to offer a course for teachers on differentiated instruction starting in January and I am wondering if you would add a post on your blog to help me advertise the class? Teachers can register on performance matters. Here is the direct link. This course will support you in providing differentiated instruction both in a virtual and face-to-face classroom settings. Participants will come away with a better understanding of what differentiated instruction is and will have created a differentiated instruction lesson to be implemented in the classroom this year. This course is run completely through Canvas, with a group share on the last day of the course. The dates of the class are from January 18th – February 22nd.
From Jackie Wilson re: Sustainability Update – Thanks to everyone who reminded their staff about the Holiday SOP over Thanksgiving. Facilities checked in on 5 schools and they all looked great in terms of energy conservation, overall the buildings were shut down. Please remind staff of the importance of conservation strategies over the two-week break and specifically to make sure all mini-fridges are emptied and unplugged.
Week Preview:
PLC Week: PLC Form
- Monday 1/3
- Tuesday 1/4
- Wednesday 1/5
- SIW – 1:45-3:15 Storyline Team-Run Meeting
- Thursday 1/6
- 2:30-3:15 Leadership
- Friday 1/7