Inspiration
My source of inspiration this week comes from our Mindful Educators course; stop and pay attention. The leaves are turning colors. The temperature is changing. The days are shortening. The sunrises and sunsets with some clouds are spectacular. The environment around you has so much beauty, so take the time to soak it in.
There are two ways to live your life: One is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle.
~Albert Einstein
20% EBISS Day Recap
Thank you everyone for making our new EBISS day schedule work. I am sure we can make some tweaks here and there to make it run more smoothly, but for our first run I think we all deserve some kudos. If you see a part of the schedule we can do differently to gain some efficiency or improve in any way, please let me know. Some general feedback for all groups; I tried to pay close attention to the amount of time we spent talking about students in the red zone versus students other zones.
SLGGs, Minis, Evaluations
As I mentioned in an earlier update, the requirements in this area are remaining similar to last year. 3 min-observations for teachers in off year and 6 mini-observations for teachers in evaluation year. Everyone does SLGGs.
Linked below is our typical SLGG form used over the past couple years;
If you plan to write your own goals, the following form can be use;
Linked below is a quality checklist that can be used to help create the goals.
Deadline: Your completed SLGG forms are due to me by Friday 10/19. The consequence for missing this deadline will be a public Fortnite Dance at the Fall Festival….OK not really, but that would be pretty funny!
SRO Training
Just a heads up. I submitted the following three dates for our bi-annual mandatory Standard Protocol Response training with our School Resource Officer, Jim Krueger. I will let you know when the final date is confirmed but this is a meeting I would like all staff to attend so please put this on your radar.
- 10/30 – 8:00-8:50
- 11/30 – 8:00-8:50
- 12/4 – 8:00-8:50
Safe TOUCH
I need to get moving with our Safe TOUCH lessons soon. I will hold a parent information night on; Tuesday 10/16 5:00-6:00pm. After that I can get started on the lessons for each classes.
4 lessons, 30 minutes each. Ideally these are 4 consecutive days, but we can be flexible if necessary.
Design Team Updates
Academic Excellence
Thank you for a thoughtful and productive afternoon spent on math on Wednesday. I really appreciate your openness to sharing and pushing your own limits. Your “look fors” will be great conversation pieces for our mini follow up conversations. I’ll do my best to capture these form the observer-perspective and share them back with you,
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gIX5xASbuI-HJ7TnS0v2X0OjF7gKWlC7yWQESVK61EI/edit?usp=sharing
Thriving Citizen
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1GIYh-TzCfV-7swUfiq6bPWazeFz-AgBUDD360QnbgEY
Future Ready
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1idNZUUufycECXwzs90vXetuSqClEGJtmmAR1kn-zvZU
TAG Update
Although I have not yet received the official list from the district, I wanted to provide this list sooner rather than later to allow you time to be prepared for conferences. Linked below you will find an updated list for students already identified for TAG, in the process of being identified, as well as students are likely to be identified since they scored in the 97th percentile or higher for SBAC in Spring.
2018-2019 TAG List (and potential TAG)
For students who scored in the 97th %ile or better in both ELA and Math, I have already started the identification process and we should receive their purple folders soon. For students, who have one score in the 97th or higher, we should now seek out the second piece of evidence for their identification. Ideally this will be in the form of a teacher referral (linked below). Please see me if you have questions about this process.
If you ever have a parent request testing for TAG, please be sure to let me know immediately. Just as a reminder, our district primarily uses the following assessments for TAG identification;
- SBAC ELA & Math (All 3rd through 5th graders) – these test for academic talent
- Naglieri (All 2nd graders & new students to BLP schools) – these test for intellectual ability – This test will be administered early spring.
- SAT-10 (This is an additional test available upon request. Format is similar to the SBAC test and requires a fair amount of time to administer.)
Basic TAG Message to parents (What we do for TAG identified students.)
“We differentiate to meet the rate and level of all students in the classroom using available curriculum resources, in addition to the open-ended environment of Storyline.”
I’ve also linked one of the district PEP forms below. If you would prefer a different PEP form, please let me know, as there are several from which to choose.
Click below to see the Highland Staff Calendar.