Just a Little News

Good evening,

There is not much to inform you of this week! Please read below:

• There will be NO PSP this week due to conferences. Be sure to remind your students.
• If I am needed for support in conferences for RTI purposes, please send me a calendar invite ASAP. 
• Although it is a short week, walk throughs and observations will still occur. 
• Continue to hold firm on the behavior expectations in classes and during transitions. 
• Have a great week and THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO!

Welcome Spring News

Welcome Back! I hope that you all enjoyed your break. For the first time in a few years, we actually experienced beautiful Spring weather. Again,thank you for all of the get well wishes. I am better although still moving a little slow. However I will be at work! Please read the information below.


Mid-year

If you did not meet for your mid-year conference before I left, you MUST meet with me Tuesday or Wednesday. There is no exception. All conferences will need to completed before the end of the day Tuesday. If I have performed your mid year, please visit the platform to put in your information regarding your goals and to make any other comments. This will also need to be completed by 4:00 Tuesday. In addition, you will need to follow up with an email informing me that this task is completed. This is for all teachers that received your 30 minute observation from me.

Rituals and Routines:

Maybe just maybe the students got out all of their spring fever the week leading up to the break. Just in case they did not, take the time to reestablish classroom procedures using our PBIS Paws lessons. 

Enforce 15/15

Restroom: Classroom restroom breaks should already be in place but they will need to be enforced. We have had several incidents occur in the restroom when students have not been properly supervised. Trash and other substances are being left on the floor. Let us all work together to keep our building clean and our students safe.

Transitions: All teachers will need to be on hall duty during transitions. You should be actively monitoring the students and working to clear the halls. Please do not close your doors until the tardy bell rings. At this point the students are considered late. If hall sweeps are being performed, students will be sent to ISS until the end of the period. All other times, teachers should open the door and have students sign in as late. Administrators should be emailed a list of your students who are consistently late. Teachers should NOT send students to ISS.

Cafeteria: Students should sit according to the plan that your team designed for lunch. All trash should be removed from the table, picked up from the floor, and chairs pushed under the tables before your students leave the cafeteria. It is important that you remind them to be respectful as they are going through the serving line.

DO NOT PUT STUDENTS IN THE HALL FOR ANY REASON. This is a safety concern and will be monitored. If a student needs to be removed, please call for an Administrator. If there is a fight or a student is being physically aggressive, call for Officer Johnson.

All teachers are expected to walk the bus loop during dismissal. You should be walking with the students and helping to ensure that they are loading the  uses. We should be able to get students loaded on the buses in less than 5 minutes. This is not a time for us to socialize. I received an email from Transportation stating that students are walking in front of and between the buses. This should not be the case. Students should remain on the side walk at all times.

Lastly, we are on about to enter testing season. Be prepared to provide me time during your team meetings for training. This will allow you all to not have to remain after school.

I will see you all in the morning! Make sure your clocks are set correctly. LOL I did not and missed church today. Enjoy what is left of your Spring Break!

Right Before the Super Bowl School News

Good afternoon teachers,

I know that many of you are preparing to watch the Super Bowl! Enjoy it and have fun. Just remember, we all must arrive at work, on time tomorrow with a clear mind (LOL)! This message this week is going to be lengthy as I would like to provide you with all of the information that you will need in advance.  Please read the information carefully and in its entirety. If you have any questions, please see me!

Benchmarks:

• Benchmark testing is upon us! This week we will administer the 2nd round of our district's benchmarks. They will be administered Tuesday-Friday. Next week will be reserved for make ups and grading in EdPerformance.
• I understand that we will have some teachers absent this week. Please do not fret, our Connection teachers will be prepared to administer the tests.
• Please be sure to read the Benchmark at a Glance for testing information.

Administration Dates:

Tuesday      February 9: Science
Wednesday February 10-Math
Thursday    February 11-Social Studies
Friday         February 12-ELA

Mid-year Conferences and Observations:

There are a few of you that are still in need of a 30 minute observation. They will be completed this week. Please be prepared as early as tomorrow for me to observe your classes. If you have not scheduled your mid-year conference and have received your observation, please do ASAP. I must finished by the end of this week. Thank you in advance. I will open more dates and times.

Here is the link to sign up for your midyear conference:
 https://calendar.google.com/calendar/selfsched?sstoken=UU16Q2hIdGF3VmxIfGRlZmF1bHR8ZTZhM2Q4ZTM4OGNlYzhlOTI4NzEyZWU2MzI0MTk4Mzc

Rituals and Routines:

I can not express enough the importance of everyone being visible, aware, and consistent as we are monitoring our students. Please follow the routines that we have in place and limit hall passes as much as possible. Remember to monitor the students' behavior in the hallways, cafeteria, and restrooms. We had our share of verbal and physical altercations last week. Let us make it a school goal to get through this week with no incidences! We need to be focused on delivering effective instruction and administering benchmarks. Together we can do it!

Impact Check:

I know that Dr. B sent an email last week informing you how well your peers represented the AWESOME work that is happening at Hilsman. I just wanted to echo her words and send a shout out to SILT. You all were so great that Dr. Lanoue had to drop the mic! We are doing great work at Hilsman and it is because of all of you that our Impact Check was "super impressive." Thank you for your hard work and dedication. Again, it is a calling to teach at Hilsman and I am glad to be called to lead you.

Extra! Extra! Read All About It

Good evening teachers,

I hope that you all had a restful weekend. After last week, we were all in need of good weather and the weekend. Although it was a tough week, we made it through and will continue to push forth with being consistent in our practices. Thank you for your hard work! Please know that you all are appreciated!

As we are approaching a busy week, here are a few updates:

Benchmarks: Benchmarks will be administered February 9-12, 2016. Although we have a two week window, I would like to provide the second week as a time for you to grade and enter scores into EdPerformance. Also, more time is needed to ensure that we administer make ups properly.

Tuesday      February 9: Science
Wednesday February 10-Math
Thursday    February 11-Social Studies
Friday         February 12-ELA

Mid-Year Conferences:
Here is the link to sign up for your midyear conference:
 https://calendar.google.com/calendar/selfsched?sstoken=UU16Q2hIdGF3VmxIfGRlZmF1bHR8ZTZhM2Q4ZTM4OGNlYzhlOTI4NzEyZWU2MzI0MTk4Mzc

If I am your evalator for your mid year, please click the link above to sign up for your conference. In the last AP Blog, I provided you with what you will need to complete in order to be properly prepared for your conference.

 30 min Observations
If you have not had your 30 minute observation, please plan for me to visit before Wednesday.

ISS: If you have students assigned to ISS, please send their assignments to Mrs. McDavid via email or paper. It is imperative that you are providing the students with the same work that is being presented in class. Do not send novels  unless there are written assignments to accompany the reading. However, you can assign reading for the student to do upon completion of their work.

Happy New Year!

Good evening teachers,

I hope that you all are enjoying your three day weekend! Although it is cold, the weather is beautiful. Thank you for a great return. We have implemented the changes well and the only request that I have is for us to remain CONSISTENT with our practices. Below you will find some much needed information. Please read carefully and see me if you have questions.

RTI: Our school's impact check is February 3rd. As we are preparing to show off our best practices you will need to update your students' information in your grade level's spreadsheet.

• Ensure that you have indicated what students have failed the classes during this last grading period. You will need to add the columns and either place a x or color code the box for students that are failing your class.
• Make sure that you have entered the second administration GRASP and SRI scores for your students. After analyzing your team's data, determine the percentage of students that made progress. It is also requested that your team determine the percentage of your bottom 25% that made progress on SRI and GRASP.
• Due to observations, I will not be able to stay for the entire planning to discuss RTI with your team. Please continue to meet in my absence to ensure that the work is complete.

Observations and Midyear Conferences: Due to unforeseen circumstances, I have missed my appointments with some of you for your formative evaluation. Please expect to see me soon. Calendar invites will be sent to inform you of the day that I am planning to come to your class. It is my goal to have all observations and mid-year conferences complete before January 31st. 

• If you have received your formative, please go into the CCSD platform and sign off. A schedule will be sent before the end of the week that will allow you to select a time to schedule your mid-year conference to discuss your concerns. 
• As you prepare to meet with me for your midyear, please do the following:

1. Review your Formative # 1 Summary with feedback. 
2. Review all comments that were made on your performance standards. 
3. Standards rated with a 1 or 2 will require a progress goal with specific ways you intend to improve upon these instructional strategies.  
4. Please review the professional goals that you set at the beginning of the year. During the conference you will be required to comment on work that you have done thus far on those specific goals.  
5. If you have any attachments that you'd like to support your professional growth knowledge, student performance, etc...feel free to upload and add them to your platform.  If you have watched any of the professional learning lessons, feel free to add those to your mid-year conference also. 
6. Once your comments are entered into the platform, I will comment and finalize your mid-year conferences.  

Routines:

• Continue to hold students accountable for being late. We asked for a tardy bell and Dr. B answered! Let us all show her just how thankful we are for that bell! A new schedule was shared last week. Make sure you are not holding students in the hall as a grade level. This causes an issue when we are trying to conduct hall sweeps. 
• Send work to ISS. Mrs. McDavid is doing a great job of updating the list. If we are going to place them in ISS we must make sure that we do our part and send the assignments.
• Remember to be on duty at 8:00 sharp.
• Also, remember to monitor your students in the cafeteria. Please make sure students are cleaning their areas and wiping the tables. We want to leave the cafeteria presentable for the next grade level.
• Observe the first and last 15 minute rule
• Check for uniform violations and alert Mrs. Griffith

As a result of revisiting our rituals and routines school wide, discipline referrals decreased last week. Please continue to work as a team so that we can have a great end of the year.

Testing: ACCESS and Benchmark tests are upon us. Please expect a schedule by the end of the week that will provide you with dates and details for both assessments.

PSP: Encourage your students to remain after school for PSP. Beginning this week, we will begin reviewing standards that will be covered on the Math and ELA Benchmarks. 

Important Last Minute Holiday Blues.......

Good evening,

We are on a 5 day count down to a much needed holiday break! There is still much to be done and we are all going to have to give it our all the last 5 days. Please read the information below carefully. If there are any questions or concerns, please see me!

RTI: I will not be meeting with teams this week. If you have questions about RTI or the data, please see me.

Observations: I will be performing formatives (30 minute observations) this week. I will send a calendar invite informing you of the day but not the specific time.

Specific documentation needed for the platform or that have been observed

Standard 1: Professional Knowledge
Documentation of attendance in collaborative planning meetings, professional development, articles or books that have been read, evidence that a professional goal has been set for the year

Standard 2: Instructional Planning
Lesson plans, evidence that the instructional framework was used, attendance in collaborative planning, evidence that data was used to drive planning, higher order thinking strategies embedded in lessons


 Standard 3: Instructional Strategies
If you have documented specific instructional strategies (compare & contrast, Q &A, advance organizers, summarizing and note taking, cause and effect, use of digital tools, cross curricular connections)  in your lesson plans that you would like to use as additional support on this standard please bring hard copies or upload it into the platform.

Standard 4: Differentiated Instruction
Use of varied instructional strategies to meet all of the students learning needs, scaffold instruction, re-teaching or extending opportunities, small group,

Standard 5: Assessment Strategies ( How are you monitoring student's progress)
Commentary on assignments, think, pair,share in class, availability of rubrics, quick check ins (unit mini check ins, quizzes,), grade book, rti documetation,

Standard 6: Assessment Uses: How are you adjusting instruction based on assessment data?

RTI documentation, lesson plans, evidence of student work

Standard 7: Positive Learning Environment
Use of merits, demerits, number of discipline write ups, classroom management plan, parent contact,

Standard 8: Academically Challenging Environment
Use of technology (digital tools), evidence of written or verbal feedback, evidence that students could use of the language of the standard or explain what they were doing, enriching activities in lesson plans, rigor during instructional time

Standard 9: Professionalism
Absences, tardies, interactions with peers, parents, and teachers, lesson plans turned in on time, participation in professional learning

Standard 10: Communication
Blogs, News letters, interaction with parents, students, administrators, grade book updates

News, News, News

Good afternoon,

Below you will find a few updates for the week. Please read carefully and if you have any questions, see me.

RTI

• RTI: It is important for all teams to ensure that you are on my calendar monthly for RTI meetings. We must meet at least once a month to review data and discuss our students. 
• New GRASP  scores are ready to be entered into your grade level's RTI spreadsheet. Every math teacher should have the scores entered by the end of the day Wednesday. 
• Remind students that as we are taking the second round of universal screeners that they need to focus and do their best. If not, we will not have an accurate picture of the students and what is needed to impact their performance.
• Make sure that you can show your classroom progress monitoring for all of your students as you will need this in your RTI meetings.

Walk-throughs and Formals

I will be completing walk throughs and observations for the remainder of the time in December. Please make sure that you have planned innovative, engaging, and standards based lessons. If you have not seen me this is a hint that I am coming at some point this week! 

Behavior Referrals

Remember that we are nearing a time in the year that student behaviors will begin to escalate. As we are handling the situations, let us keep this is mind. Follow the procedures for referring a student and I will get it processed. Do not put students in the hallway or call to have students removed unless it is a tier 4 behavior (extreme disrespect, fight). We will make every effort to be present in the halls during transitions and to make a stronger presence in the building. Let's all be consistent in our rituals and routines so that we can maintain an environment that is safe and conducive to learning! We can do it! 

Final Words

 Thank you for the many birthday wishes, gifts, and cards. You all made me feel like a super star! I love my job and all that comes with it. I work with most awesome and finest teachers/staff in CCSD!!!! Have a great week!