"A" week schedule this week!

Welcome to the Team!

Please help me welcome some new staff members to our team!  

• Ms. Kawthar Daqrouq - Pre-K 3 Aide

• Ms. Payton Goodson - Kindergarten Teacher  (KB)

• Ms. Lexi Melia - Special Education Teacher

As we continue to grow in numbers with scholars & families, we also will continue to grow with our educational team!  I'm excited to have these ladies as a part of our STEM team!  They are a great addition to our staff and will bring lots of great educational knowledge to our scholars!  Welcome to team STEM!

Chromebook Do's and Don'ts - Common Sense Media for STEM Friday

Digital citizenship is extremely important with all our scholars, especially the scholars in grades 3 - 8 who can now take them everywhere!  Please go over the guidelines below regarding chromebook do's and don'ts for scholars.  Please also make sure to be diligent with their usage within your class time.  

Chromebook Do's for scholars

• Keep chromebooks in their cases (cases have straps that secure the chromebook in nicely)

• Use only when directed by your teacher

• Charge your chromebook at home each night so it can be ready for the next day (chargers can stay at home)

• Bring your chromebook each day to school

Chromebook Don'ts for scholars

• Don't take your chromebook to recess

• Don't take your chromebook to lunch

• Don't get on any social media sites (Tik-Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc)

• Don't get on Zoom links with friends

• Don't "chat" with friends during the school day or after school on your chromebook

• Don't get onto your chromebook during dismissal time

I like what the middle school team stated during their curriculum night to parents:  Scholars are to treat their chromebooks as their "work/school" chromebook.  It is not a "personal" device.  Just like a teacher should not get on social media accounts or create personal chat spaces on their work computer, neither should a scholar on their device.

To help you prepare students for their first devices, we will start digital citizenship lessons through Common Sense Education (bookmark this site and sign up to utilize it as a teacher).  They've created a collection of lessons with videos and fun activities to introduce (and remind them of) great responsibility. 

The Device Advice Collection contains these lessons for grades K–5:

• Caring for Our Devices

• Why We Pause for People

• Managing Device Distractions

• Our Device Charter 

And if you teach older students, check out our new Digital Well-Being collections for middle school and high school!

This week on STEM Friday, all homeroom classrooms K-8 please do the Our Device Charter lesson, as this lesson goes over norms and expectations and is a great lesson to start with.  These lessons are PERFECT for our STEM Friday time, as you can take a "technology" grade once a week for the STEM block utilizing these lessons.  The lesson plans are scripted, there are slides or videos and sometimes worksheets that coincide with the lesson, and it gives the pacing time for each lesson so you know how to plan!  Please make sure to include which digital citizenship lesson within your lesson plan you will be implementing each Friday.  You can implement more than one lesson a week, as there are many lessons to choose from! Also sign up on their website to send you emails to your school email, as they weekly send me tips and lessons that can help guide your lesson plan focus in which you won't have to "dig" for what to teach!

Attendance!!!!!

Classroom teachers, please make sure you are taking attendance by 10am each day.  If a scholar brings in a tardy slip, mark them with a "T" in the system when you take attendance during your assigned ADA period.  

Specials team, you are to take attendance FOR EACH CLASS BLOCK each day in PowerSchool.  

Set an alarm, ask for scholars to remind you, write yourself a note....whatever it takes to remind you to take attendance during your ADA time period.  We only receive funding from the state if scholars are present at school each day, and if we do not take attendance (and take it accurately), this affects our overall funding we receive from the state.  Scholars who have been absent more than 5 times since the start of school will be receiving truancy letters this week to send home to families.  

Exciting news:  Newsela Social Studies is now available!

We now have full access to Newsela Social Studies, a digital platform with over 15,000 articles, covering 20+ genres of content instructional content! Newsela Social Studies will be available to students through their Clever accounts.  You can assign articles/assignments based upon reading levels, grade levels, or TEKs.  

Here is a collection of resources to help you and your scholars make the most of this crucial back-to-school period:

• Getting Setup Communication Kit: A guide on how to create your classroom accounts and set up classes using our Getting Setup Communication Kit.

• September 2023 Content Calendar: This calendar can be used to foster weekly Newsela usage by providing classroom-ready content for each day of the month that is relevant and engaging.

• Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month Text Set: Celebrate diversity and culture this September with our Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month Text Set. It's designed to inspire meaningful discussions about the contributions and experiences of Latinx and Hispanic communities throughout history and today. This collection can be an excellent resource for ELA, Social Studies, and more.

• Tip of the Month: Teachers and students love our Newsela Scavenger Hunt. This unique Newsela lesson is tailor-made to spark excitement in learning among your students. 

This is a great tool we have purchased this year to help support our Social Studies TEKs.  Start looking through the platform and using it during your Social Studies blocks. If you need any help in navigating the site, just let me know!

Lesson Plans and Weekly Newsletters

Where to put them:  2023-2024 Teacher Resources drive within the STEM folder.  

Please make sure to upload your lesson plans & newsletters to the correct folder and on time.  If you need help, please let me know!

*Make sure to add Common Sense Media lessons to your lesson plans each week!

Family Fun Event - October 26

Our next Family Fun Event will be on October 26.  If you signed up to be on the Family Fun Planning Committee, we will have a meeting next Friday, October 6 to discuss what our plan/theme/events will be.  I will send you a calendar invite this week as a reminder.  If you did not sign up for the committee and would still like to sign up, the more the merrier!  Come see me and sign up!

Morning Procedures - long read ahead...please read to the end!😁

With it being a new 6 week period, it is time to revisit all procedures, especially morning procedures.  One of the expectations that is discussed within our campus staff handbook that I am seeing being not met recently is the following:

Scholars arrive starting at 7:35am and should ALWAYS be supervised starting at that time (no copies should be made, walking up to the front office or to another classroom, etc).

All homeroom teachers should be right outside their classroom doors so you can monitor the inside of the classroom, as well as greet each scholar as they arrive.  Shout out to Ms. April for doing this EVERY SINGLE DAY!!  If you are needing to prepare for the morning, arriving before 7:30am would be the best option so you don't have to worry about preparing at the last minute.  

Being outside your classroom door where you can see scholars inside your room also provides another bonus....a lot of the upper school scholars like to say "Hi" to you!  This eliminates them coming into your classroom (which they should NOT be doing) and also helps you to help them on their way to their classroom. 

Another procedure that I have not seen frequently in classrooms is that of morning work as scholars arrive.  Yes, scholars can eat breakfast AND have something to do!  Breakfast should not last longer than 10 minutes to eat, and there are several scholars in each class who do not get breakfast, so having a short morning work assignment for them to do (not an assignment where they need their chromebook since food will be present) will prevent classroom behaviors from occurring first thing in the morning.  

What I am seeing:  Scholars arriving at school between 7:35am & 8:00am are sitting or roaming around their room, talking loudly, and having 20+ minutes of "down time" as soon as they arrive in their classroom.  Idle time is where kids get in trouble...don't provide that for them.  If you utilize that 20+ minutes each day, that is 100+ extra learning opportunity minutes EACH WEEK for each scholar!  WOW!  We could really make some academic strides, using this time to our advantage!

Every grade I taught (from Pre-K up to 8th grade) I have utilized designated silent reading time for morning work time and expected each one of my scholars to always have a book with them.  I had procedures displayed on my projector each morning for how they were to come in the classroom, what to get out to prepare for my class for the day, where to put their items they did not need for my class, and the expected morning work for that day.  There was never a question of "I don't know what to do" for them, as it was always presented each morning and I followed through with the expectations.  I kept a running powerpoint set of slides and created a new slide for each morning to project. 

We have lots of Rigby readers to pull from for scholars in grades Pre-K through 5th grade, and if you are needing novels or more grade level books for your classroom, let me know!  I have Scholastic dollars we can use to supplement your classroom libraries.  

Another thing I did for my older grades who utilized planners (3rd-8th) for the first 10 minutes of the day was also time for scholars to write in their planners what I had on the board for them to include in their planner for that day (homework for that evening, lesson objective, etc).  

Start building morning routine habits.  This will set a better tone for your day and their day, and they won't need to be quieted for morning announcements because the expectation for each morning should be independent silent work.  Let me know if you need help with more morning work ideas.  I will be coming around randomly to classes to see your morning work routines.  I am looking forward to seeing this in action this week!  Thank you for reading this to the end...if you did, you can wear jeans on Monday!

IPDP Time!

Please read the email Ms. Sudan sent out on Friday, Sept 8 regarding your IPDP submissions.  IPDP's are not manditory, but a great opportunity to earn some extra money in the fall and in the spring.  

As stated in the email she sent, this is a "VIEW ONLY" copy of the IPDP document. Please "Make a Copy" replace "Employee Name" with YOUR NAME. Complete this plan and share it with your direct supervisor (Vinten) for approval by 9/30/2023.  

Please submit your IPDP to your individual folder in our 2023-2024 Staff Items, IPDP folder - I will check this folder weekly to see if staff has submitted documents (do not send it to me in an email). Let me know if you have any questions!  

To-Do Items

Things to do this week:

• Place your lesson plans & newsletters in the correct google drive folder 

• Submit your IPDP plan

• Focus on beginning of day routines with your scholars (greeting scholars in the hall outside your room and morning work procedures)

• Plan your digital citizenship lesson for Friday through the Common Sense Education website

• Find a staff member to write a "shout-out" to

• Pass out Maverick Bucks to scholars who are modeling "BLUE" behaviors

• Find at least two scholars this week in your class who deserve Positive Office Referrals!  

Sept 24 Lesson Plans due for week of Sept 25 (shared folder) 

Sept 27 Vinten off campus - Strategic Planning at the District Office

Sept 28 September Birthday Thursday (celebrating September birthdays)

Sept 29 Dress Down Day for $1.00

Sept 29 Wellness Friday

Sept 30 IPDP submission for approval due today

Oct 4 Taco Tuesday (on a Thursday!) District Celebration Day

Oct 5 Vinten off campus - Region 10

Oct 6 Plaiderday District Celebration Day

Oct 12 Vinten off campus - Region 10

Oct 13 No school for scholars - staff professional development day - location TBD

Oct 25 Vinten off campus - Strategic Planning at the District Office

Oct 27 End of 2nd 6 week period

Nov 6-10 Student-Led Conference Week