Wonderful staff!

I hope that you have taken time for yourself this weekend. There was much to celebrate last week. From birthdays, to anniversaries, to your own personal children's accomplishments and more. 

Along with celebrations, there were also tragedies in our nation's schools. News like this can leave us all feeling uncertain and anxious. As your admin, Maketia and I are dedicated to keeping our school safe and helping each of you navigate through tragedies that could impact you and your students' sense of well being at school. There are two categories we plan to support you all.

Logistical Safety:

• Drills: We will conduct a lockdown drill this week to make sure our students know how to respond should we have an emergency on campus

• Exterior door lock checks: Did you know that Officer May checks our exterior door locks throughout the day? If you ever notice a door that isn't locking, please notify May and admin immediately.

• Interior door locks: Please remember that it is best practice that our interior classroom doors remain locked throughout the day. Not only is this helpful in the case of an intruder, but it is also helpful when students elope classrooms. Please ensure your door is locked throughout the day.

• Threat assessments: We conduct threat assessments for students who are showing disturbing behavior. We respond with consequences, action plans, and safety rules for the student after such an incident. 

Emotional Safety:

• Ensure space and time for students to share and connect.  Morning meetings would be the perfect time. Connect with your own team, mentor, campus friend etc. to keep yourself supported. 

• Don't dismiss feelings. Validate and empathize with your student's and with each other.

• Consistent routines and procedures let students know what to expect so that they can focus on learning. We will do the same for you as admin. 

• Check-In/Check-Out - This is not just for students.  Communicate with your team, counselor or admin if you need this.  We are in this together!

What Is Expected of Me This Week

Our Extended PLCs are this week for 5th, 3rd, and 1st. We will check in on WIN time and making sure each team has a SMART goal for math WIN time progress. Please make sure you have your agendas ready to go.

• Update your Reading & Math Tracker before your PLC day. i--Ready assessments should be entered as well as F & P and PNA data. 

• Don't forget our upcoming Data Celebration Day on September 12th. Each team will speak to progress on their goals as well as any successes they have had for WIN time, planning together, or PLC.  If you want to make a slide/slides to guide your short presentation, here is a link. Slides are not required, but sometimes help guide what you plan to say. We can't wait to celebrate each other and learn from each other! 

• Remember to link your plans or pacing guide to your teams agenda. Team agendas should be filled in for Math & Reading planning as well as PLC days. 

• On our September 20th half day we will once again begin our time in the library at 1:00. From 1:00-2:00 we will work together to set your goals for small groups, plan for small groups, and create a small group artifact board (We will provide you with the supplies and directions you need for this work.) Double bonus: because our campus learning this year is centered on small group instruction, your small group goal for the year will also be your TTESS goal. This will save you time as we will knock out our TTESS goal setting while setting our small group goals. From 2:00-3:00 you will plan with your team. At 3:00 we will have a 30 minute Go Guardian training. You will be free to leave at 3:30. Please make sure you are all in attendance. Make plans in advance for child pick up, appointments etc. These half days are an important time for learning and planning together. 

Upcoming Events:

September 9th -- Graphic Tee Monday. Wear your school appropriate graphic tee and jeans ;-)

September 10th -- 3rd Grade Math Content Refresher at Providence 3:45-4:30

September 12th --Staff Meeting: WIN TIME/CFA SMART GOAL PROGRESS SHOWCASE 

September 13th --i-Ready Training during Planning

September 17th -- K, 4-5th Math Daily Numeracy PD @ Paloma Creek 3:45-4:45

September 17th -- Chick-fil-A Spirit Night

September 18th -- K-2 Guided Reading PD at Bell 3:45-4:30 OR 3-5 Guided Reading PD at Bell 3:45- 4:30

September 19th -- Staff Meeting Committees

September 20th -- Student Half Day/Reading Academy

September 24th -- 3rd-5th Math Teachers Multiplication & Divison BFF @ Paloma Creek 3:45- 4:45

September 25th -- 1st- 5th Patterns of Power PD 3:45-4:30 Bell

September 26th -- Curriculum Night (in Grade Level Classrooms)

September 26th -- Possible Date for 5th grade CoServ science stations

September 27th -- Rock Your School Day

September 30th -- CoServ Demonstrations 8-11:30 4th grade

September 30th -- 4th Grade Math Content Refresher at Savannah 3:45-4:30

Still Important from Last Week...

• Guiding Coalition chose a new date, Sept. 26, for curriculum night. Please make sure your team is prepared to present on what you will be teaching this year. Parents should leave with a brief understanding of grade level learning objectives. 

• Wondering about Edugence (the replacement for Eduphoria)? This is the asynchronous training to guide you through the basics. Use this link to enroll - bit.ly/DISDedugence-learn

• We are continuing our Environmental Walk-Throughs this week. Here is the feedback form to guide you on our look-fors. Reach out to your team or mentors if there is anything on the form you don't understand. We can’t wait to see all the amazing things happening in classrooms!

Setting SMART Goals FOR 24-25:

• Reminder: We will set two SMART goals for Math and two for ELAR. One goal will reflect our WIN Time goal for each subject's intervention cycle (this will be a foundational goal meant to catch kids up who are behind.) The second goal will be centered on ON LEVEL/END OF YEAR expectations. We will be tracking these goals as a PLT in our progress monitoring documents. We will be showing off our progress as a staff midway through each nine weeks at our Data Showcase Celebration. Our first data showcase will be September 12th.