Nurse Thanks- Despite the mountains of extra things we are all doing to navigate new safety expectations due to covid, all in all it is going better than I expected. This efficient process all collapses without the behind the scenes, minute by minute, monitoring and follow up of our nurse, Sarah. I know you all get the emails about one of your students being out for a while or being able to return on a certain date. What you don’t get is the emails for all the other students in the other 20 classes. I do get those and they are numerous. The amount of work, information gathering, communication and thinking that goes into every one of those emails is monumental… and Sarah does it all at two schools- Buckingham and Ponderosa. Thank you to Sarah for carrying so much of the weight of this on her shoulders allowing the rest of us to continue on as close to normal as possible.
Fire Drill- Fire drill went great. Quick, organized, efficient. Well done. Thank you.
Read Across America- Consulted with ICCL’s about Read Across America and we’re going simple this year. Two days keeps it from being all consuming while ensuring that all the fourth and fifth graders get a chance to participate. Let me know if you have any questions. I put something in this week’s newsletter. Spread the word to your kids as well.
Flag Salute- I mentioned in a previous blog that we are required to give each student a weekly opportunity to say the pledge. It seems to still be a bit of a challenge, so someone suggested that I kick off one day a week with a morning announcement and initiate the pledge. ICCL’s agreed that it would be a good idea (I think they might have even demanded that I do it…🤷🏻♂️). So, I’ll start off Monday morning. I usually get in from morning duty around 7:50ish, so it will take place during breakfast before anyone goes to a special.
PBIS Info- Your friendly, neighborhood PBIS team, with the help of Laci and Heather F., have put together a 1 (+) page outline/ guide to Buckinham’s PBIS plan. It includes what we all do for CORE and what steps need to happen to go from Tier 1 to 2 to 3. While PBIS language uses terms like decision ‘rules’, I prefer to call these guidelines. There are always exceptions to the rules and this outline will hopefully help everyone have a similar understanding of our processes. I am a bit uncomfortable sending this out right now because I think it needs A LOT of explanation and potentially clarification, but I didn’t want to wait another week until our staff meeting.
Some Highlights until we have a chance to review in a meeting:
- Oops slip google doc will continue- You can do paper copy instead and send to Laci or me to follow up.
- Oops slips are primarily for data collection and will help us when planning interventions
- We are working on getting some PD on Pawsitive Choices for K-2 who have not had that
- Stop, walk and talk is a strategy we would like you to review with your class as we really want students to apply this before running to an adult to handle minor situations that students should be able to solve themselves- posters for this are copied (Thanks Deborah!) and in the work room.
- The CORE (matrix, problem solving instruction, bronco bucks @3-5:1 to oops slips, oops slips) is essential and foundational to successful plan at our school. Tiered interventions will become too numerous to manage and will fail if we do not do a great job of implementing/ teaching our CORE to our students. This starts with classroom teachers and is followed up and reinforced by all staff. Classroom teachers please do make concerted effort to teach, reteach and reinforce our expectations. What I’ve seen so far is great. We’re also starting to see the novelty of back to school wear off and students beginning to make less than stellar choices. We just need to keep on this. PBIS is no different than reading. If we don’t do a great job with the CORE, then we will have too many students needing intervention for our interventions to be successful and the system will fail. With effective CORE in PBIS, the vast majority of our students will be successful the vast majority of the time and we will be able to provide the attention needed for our struggling students to build the lagging skills they need.
Thank you for your attention to this. More info from PBIS team to come.
SIW- Your ICCL team has set SIW dates for the rest of the year.
March 10- PBIS information
April 21- STEM
May 19- Assessment (writing focus)
As you can see, the focus of the three remaining SIW PD’s will be on our priority areas. Wednesdays not listed above from 2:00-3:30 (the SIW time) are teacher choice. Plan on 3/10, 4/21 and 5/19 to be PD on the above topics.
Subs??- We’ve obtained video footage of the subfinder office getting sub requests:
Thanks to everyone for picking up a little extra when all the sub jobs don’t get filled.
From ODE/ BLPS Ed. Center- We would like to share a new opportunity that ODE is offering called the Promising Practices Idea Exchange. We want to personally reach out to make sure you and your staff are aware of this opportunity for teachers to share stories and strategies for Comprehensive Distance Learning, hybrid and face-to-face teaching and learning success.
What is the Idea Exchange?
Educators from around the state have been asking us to figure out a way to share promising practices and strategies that are engaging our students in learning. Whether schools are teaching face-to-face, via hybrid or fully online in Comprehensive Distance Learning, the exchange of ideas is a way for teachers to collaborate with their peers, learn about and share new strategies, and inspire as well as be inspired.
Would you please share this flyer with your staff or contact lists that you think might benefit? The Promising Practices Idea Exchange begins on Wednesday, February 17 with a focus on Active Engagement During Synchronous or Asynchronous Learning, with additional bi-weekly sessions through March. You will find a description of the other topics that will be covered, dates and a registration link on the flyer. And, this is free and open to all Oregon educators. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to send questions to Ken Greenbaum at [email protected] or Carla Wade at [email protected]
Upcoming Events
March 3- SIW- Teacher Choice
March 3- EBISS- 4th Grade- 1:00
March 8- Picture day for kinder, first, 4th and 5th
March 9- Picture day for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th
March 10- SIW- Teacher Choice
March 10- EBISS 3rd Grade
March 17- SIW- Teacher Choice
March 22-26- Spring Break
June 17- Last day of school 😃