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!!!!!
Info from Heidi and the Highland Culture of Care Team: Our character trait for the month of May is having a Growth Mindset. This falls under the SEL competency of Self-Awareness. Here is a link to some resources.
Morning Circles: I saw some interest in acquiring more morning meeting questions. Here is a link to an article for the why behind circles and here is a link to some beginning and end of the day questions! Let me (Heidi T. know if you’d be interested in help getting started!). Morning meeting can be a great way to build relationships, problem solve as a class and build confident communication skills! Thanks for showing interest.
Staffing 2022-23 Update:
- Sadie Koch will be joining the 1st grade team.
- Music and PE will be moving to full time.
- Keeping our reading specialist at 0.8
- Working on moving our hiring process along for our open positions.
Summer School: Thanks for your help in getting some kids into this program. It sounds like we were successful at a solid enrollment for each site.
Class Placements: You will receive a survey soon from class solver (via email) to complete for your students. We are using the same characteristics as our previous two years. There is language on each scale to help with calibration, but it would be extremely helpful for your team to have a calibrating conversation on what each number looks like in terms of student proficiency in academics and behaviors. If you would like a quick tutorial on completing the survey please do not hesitate to ask. The parent input survey will be provided via the piper post this week and due back to the office by the 20th. The process goes as follows;
- Teachers complete the survey on student characteristics, friendships, and separations. Please be sure to check the roster to ensure everyone is included.
- You do not need to use the pairing function with certain teachers. The pairing (and separation) function of students with teachers should only be used in rare and specific circumstances, for example, if an IEP team provides input on placement then it would be appropriate.
- Once the survey is closed, we will run the program to place students.
- During our first meeting on the 25th we will examine the program-generated rosters and make changes as deemed necessary.
- Ideally the parent input forms will be examined by teachers after the initial placements. Reading these might cause some changes to occur in our next round.
To be a truly unbiased system of placement, every child should have an equal opportunity to be placed with any teacher. And the flipside of this is also true, as a professional teacher you must be willing to teach any and all kids. When we attempt to place students based on personality or parent-preference we allow bias to impact the outcome. Bias creates favored tracks, “unbalanced” classes and the cycle is difficult to break. It’s impossible to completely eliminate it, however we need to take every step possible to control and minimize it.
Staff Appreciation: That was one heck of a sugar rush for a week!! One way we can repay our appreciation to our PTO is to give some time in the upcoming Carnival. If you have not already done so, please consider signing up as a volunteer for a shift – this will go a long way to helping them pull off a fun event for the community and it will be a lot of fun for your students to see you running a game booth.
Master Schedule 2022-2023: Start and stop times are still a question for next year. I am fairly confident we can count on being back in the cafeteria next year. I am exploring schedules with 40-minute PE/Music time frames to help with our 150-minute requirement. I also want to hear from you what is working with our current schedule so please take some time to provide information in this survey.
Culmination & Event Planning:
- 5/13 Friday – PTO-sponsored Carnival – See Flier for info
- 5/25 Wednesday – Kindergarten Culmination – Classrooms, Hallways, Cafeteria and Gym – 5:30-7:00
- 6/2 Thursday – Reisinger Culmination – Classroom, Library, Ct Yard – 5:30-7:00
- 6/7 Tuesday – Glogau Culmination – Gym – 5:30-7:00
- 6/8 Wednesday – Fetrow Culmination – Gym – 5:30-7:00
- 6/8 Wednesday – Eriksson/Greene & Hildebrand Culmination – Classroom & Hallway – 4:00-6:00
- 6/9 Thursday – Howard Culmination – Gym/Stage – 5:30-7:00
- 6/9 Thursday – 4/5 Culmination – Playground/Field – 5:30-7:00
- 6/13 Monday – Variety Show – Gym – 5:30-7:00
- 6/14 Tuesday – Field Day
- 6/15 5th Grade Promotion – Gym
Parent Newsletter Link – linked here is the parent newsletter. If you ever need to find it, it’s always on the school website each Friday.
High Leverage Teaching Strategies
Week Preview:
- Monday 5/9
- Tuesday 5/10
- Safety Team – 2:30-3:30
- Wednesday 5/11
- SIW – Storyline Team Training 1:45-3:15
- Thursday 5/12
- Friday 5/13
- PTO-sponsored Carnival – see flier
Next week:
- Monday 5/16 – State Testing begins for grades 3-5. Please help keep hallways extra quiet during the morning academic blocks.
- Tuesday 5/17
- Storyline Team Meeting – 2:30-3:15
- Wednesday 5/18
- SIW – Teacher Prep
- Thursday 5/19
- Leadership 2:30-3:30 (added as of 4/28)
- Friday 5/20
And another week:
- Monday 5/23
- Tuesday 5/24
- Wednesday 5/25
- Staff Meeting 1:15-1:45
- 22-23 Class Placements 1:45-3:15
- Thursday 5/26
- Friday 5/27
- Dibels Day
- These are some happy workers!
