Thursday, October 13, 2011

Monday is Family Math Night.  Catherine Beals is setting up books and activities and having her NNU students plan additional activities.  They will run the entire event but students love to see us there.  You will also have the opportunity to "steal" some great new ideas if you come.  I hope to offer a question and answer session for parents who have concerns about our math program and need help with understanding homework requirements.  PLEASE help advertise by encouraging student to come. 



Next week is our last week of the first quarter.  This year the expectation is that you keep up with grading so that parents can stay informed through Family Access.  This concept should make report cards simple to complete.  All you need to do is add comments.  All grades should be complete by Friday, October 21st  early afternoon so that report cards can be run prior to the new quarter starting.  If you, for any reason, will not be able to make the Friday afternoon deadline I need to be notified so that I can adjust my weekend to stop in and print report cards. (I have an IAESP board meeting and dinner Sunday)
   

Time to keep your eyes open for students who may need a coat for the winter.  As the weather cools and you notice students missing coats (and they have checked the lost and found) check with them and send me their name if you feel they may need help. 


Staff committees and teams have been working hard to represent you and to drive our school improvement efforts.  Two weeks ago a team attend a PBIS training that was extremely helpful in solidifying the vision and work of our school PBIS team.  We also began a school self evaluation and determined that we need more time as a full staff to develop consensus on some procedures.  We also want to share the potential of the data we are attempting to collect.  Then last Thursday and Friday teachers from each grade level attended the first of three MTI Regional Unit Study sessions.  This group learned a lot about the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and mapping math unit studies.  They also saw a need to work as a staff to set a foundation before bringing in a math coach in November to work with grade level teams.  Therefore, the regular collaboration agendas will be interrupted for the following schedule.  I will add these to the calendar for future reference. If you are willing to host one of these meetings in your room please let me know.  (Adult chairs are appreciated)

October 19 - Regular collaboration groups 

October 26 - PBIS all staff collaboration

November 2 - MTI/CCS all staff collaboration

November 9 - MTI/CCS all staff collaboration

The RTI committee has worked to develop some procedures for creating and tracking I-Plans as well as students who need to monitored.  Your grade level representative should be able to answer your questions and assist with determining if an I-Plan is necessary.  Somewhere along the way I missed the memo that changed the District RTI referral documents.  It appears that we are a couple of years behind the other schools.  (I can't believe I'm putting that in print!)  I have attached the "new" RTI referral and tracking form to the RTI/PBS blog page and saved a copy in the RTI folder of the shared drive.  After you complete this form (with your rep for support) it will be turned into my box and then transferred to Nina.  Nina will make copies and begin progress monitoring. 

The Halloween costume vote was really close.  Many staff members would like to dress up and others would if their colleagues do, for a total of 14 voters.  Sixteen voted no to dressing up personally, simply because it is not their thing.  No one voted that they disagreed with the practice altogether.  Sooooooo, go ahead and start planning those costumes.  The students will LOVE it.