Please have your students take the Strategic Planning Student Survey in advisory on 10/2. 

As we discussed on Friday, our gradebooks are the primary method by which we communicate students' progress in courses. By now, your gradebook in Infinite Campus should reflect and communicate the level of knowledge and skill students have demonstrated in your classes at this time.  This will allow families to get a a more accurate understanding of their student's strengths and challenges. 

We have submitted an application for a GAP Attack grant for the 23-24 school year. If granted, we will be focusing on students who are earning less than a "2" in any of their core classes. We will be asking for referrals for the program in October. In addition, we will be accepting applications for tutors in October. The commitment is one day a week after school. 

1. Please pay dues if you have not yet.  Thanks for all that have made a dues donation. we are up to 50% of staff!

2. The Baked Potato Bar has been moved to December. 

3. "Boo" will be starting on October 2nd. 

4. Please submit pictures of yourself in 2003 for the bulletin board in MSR.

~ KJHS Social Committee

From time to time, a parent will indicated concern regarding a title in the IMC or a classroom. If this happens, please direct them to the "Request for Reconsideration of IMC Materials Form". They can complete it and submit it to Elisa.  

Here are the Instructional Technology Tips for September.

Chess Coach: KJHS is in need of a chess coach. Please notify Elisa if you are interested. 

1. As we announced before, Joan Fee and Tim Penhollow are providing guidance support for students L-Z this school year. In addition to "in the moment" guidance support, they are also accepting requests for student check ins and have divided up the core teams to provide more direct support. Joan is supporting Teams 6-1, 7-1, & 8-2 and Tim is supporting Teams 6-2, 7-2, & 8-1. This will help streamline communications. 

2. Debbie Brown (recently retired school counselor from Parkside Junior High) will be helping our school counseling office this year by facilitating 504 meetings for students last names L-Z . She will be reaching out to families and teams to set up these meetings as they come due and will be working with everyone to get the information needed to update our 504 plans.  

1. The PTO is selling Papa Murphy coupon cards for $5. If you are interested in purchasing one, please let Elisa know. 

2.  The Gobena Coffee Fundraiser is an ongoing one and an excellent opportunity to try some new, local coffee. 

3. Want to request PTO funding for a classroom project? Use this form please. 

We have several staff teams to serve on. Please check out the 23-24 KJHS Committee descriptions. Please note that you can be on the Wellness Team or 20th Birthday Team without joining the Building Leadership Team. 

Proactive Circles in LA & Why They Work:

Since school has begun, building relationships with students has been the number one goal for us. How can we get to know the students quickly to establish expectations, routines, and trust? One easy way that doubles for our Language Arts class is to use proactive circles. The very nature of sharing in Language Arts can feel uncomfortable for some students. They may not want to share their writing, but if we start with "This or That" type questions, or "Would you Rather" type questions, we might find the transition to be easier. Recently, my class circled up for "Waffles or Pancakes?" and students came up with the funniest reasons why their answer was best and it was FUN.

Having students circle up for 5 minutes or less at the beginning of a class period helps to create a classroom environment where every student has an equal voice. They get used to sharing a little something each day before we ask them to be vulnerable with content. Establishing a culture of trust helps foster those relationships not only teacher to student but also peer to peer, which is important for peer conferencing. 

Once they are used to it, you can transition to using circles for content - to share PoP Pattern sentences they've created, a line from their writing they are especially proud of that day, a question they have for the group about how they can improve their writing, etc. 

If you'd like to learn more about proactive circles, please don't hesitate to reach out. There are so many benefits! 

Sincerely,

Janel Sebeny

Kingsley Junior High School

Team 7-2 Language Arts

Middle School LA District Chair

IRC Past President

The winning title, with 42.8% of the vote, is Kingsley Kudos! This platform will be launched in October. 

We have not received our field trip budget numbers for the year but we want to make sure that we share bus costs with you if you are considering taking a field trip. Each bus used costs $58.93/hour and we are required to pay for a minimum of 3 hours, even if we do not use the bus for that length of time. 

Many of you have students who have received a pass to go to the Green Room and have asked where it is at. The Green Room is located in Harmony Highway across from Mr. Rich's room and is the primary location of Ms. Rush from CHS. 

Jenny Snyder has put together a menu of different things she can collaborate with you on to improve your teaching practices through instructional coaching. Please take advantage of what she has to offer! 

Please try to use Production Services for your copy needs. It costs us a lot less than running copies in the building and, with the rising cost of paper, using that district service will help our supply budget go further. Thanks!

If a class with a student who has any health condition listed above is planning a Field Trip, they MUST have a trained person attend the field trip. It is the administrator’s responsibility to ensure this is in place before approving the field trip. Nurses will not be able to attend field trips.  If a trained person is not able to go and serve as a delegated care aide, the field trip will not be able to continue. Parents can not legally waive this school responsibility. Any willing staff member (teacher, TA, EOP) is also encouraged to be trained as a delegated care aide and can do so at any point during the year by completing the online course and session with your nurse.

KJ administration is recommending that one member of every core team get trained as there is no guarantee that administrator will be available to go on trips. 

Elisa will start having meetings with teams later this month and will be asking about teams' focused tutorial plans. Your team's focused tutorial plan should address the following things: 

1.  how the team will provide direct instruction and/or intervention to students as needed. 

2. overall structure for teachers to follow. 

If you contract COVID, the district recommends you follow the Health Department CDC recommendation of 5 days of isolation; however there is no such requirement by the district and there are no longer designated COVID sick days as that law has expired.