Week 20

Good Morning Team,

I hope that you had a pleasant weekend.  

Testing will continue this week.  Grades 4-8 will be taking the MSTEP Writing Field Test and AIMSWeb Bench marking concludes this week.

REMEMBER..."It's a Beautiful Day to Teach Kids to Love Learning!"

REMINDERS...

• Remember Classroom Teachers can order your mid year supplies at this time. Use it or loose it. You have $150.00 to spend.

Specials:

• NWEA testing continues this week and will be occurring in the lab, so Tech will need to take place in classrooms.  This will continue through Friday January 31. 

Special Education...

• Be prepared to go over the Quality IEP  File Review with Julie during our Team Meeting on 1/27/20.
• Child Study 1/30.
• All MSTEP, NWEA and AIMSWeb testing needs to be completed by Friday, January 31.

Intervention...

• MOY (Middle of the Year) Benchmarking...Concludes.  All students in grades K-3 need to have this benchmarking completed.  Students in the Novice Classrooms, grades 4-8, will also need to have this administered.  The window for this benchmarking runs from 1/13/-1/31.    Once you have completed this testing, it will be necessary to see if student goals need to be reset.  
• Progress Monitoring...this needs to continue once MOY testing is completed.  All Novice Classrooms should be PM'd every week.  

Important Dates...

              

   
              1/27 - MSTEP Writing Field Testing begins Gr. 3-8
              1/30 - Child Study
              1/31 - Testing Ends; Progress Reports; Free Dress Behavior

Week 19

Hello Team....Well, winter showed itself this weekend!  Hopefully you had an enjoyable long weekend and were able to do things that bring you joy.   As we honor the memory and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. please remember...

Testing continues this week with Kindergarten taking the NWEA  Reading test and AIMSWeb Bench marking occurring.

REMEMBER..."It's a Beautiful Day to Teach Kids to Love Learning!"

REMINDERS...

• Remember Classroom Teachers can order your mid year supplies at this time. Use it or loose it. You have $150.00 to spend.

Specials:

• Continue to re-establish and review your classroom expectations, routines and procedures.
• NWEA testing continues this week and will be occurring in the lab, so Tech will need to take place in classrooms.  This will continue through Friday January 31. 

Special Education...

• Be prepared to go over the Quality IEP  File Review and Chapter 1 of Co-Teaching during our Team Meeting on 1/22/20.

Intervention...

• MOY (Middle of the Year) Benchmarking...Continues.  All students in grades K-3 need to have this benchmarking completed.  Students in the Novice Classrooms, grades 4-8, will also need to have this administered.  The window for this benchmarking runs from 1/13/-1/31.    Once you have completed this testing, it will be necessary to see if student goals need to be reset.  
• Progress Monitoring...this needs to continue once MOY testing is completed.  All Novice Classrooms should be PM'd every week.  

Important Dates...

              

              1/20 - MLK Jr. Day - No School
              1/22 - BR and NJHS Induction Ceremonies....BR - 5:00 pm;  NJHS - 6:00 pm
              1/24 - Dress Down $2.00
              1/27 - MSTEP Writing Field Testing begins Gr. 3-8
              1/30 - Child Study
              1/31 - Testing Ends; Progress Reports; Free Dress Behavior

Week 18

Hello Team....This week marks the middle of the month of January...unbelievable!

This is going to be a busy week with more of our Middle of the Year testing occurring as NWEA Reading testing begins for grades K-3. AIMSWeb MOY Benchmarking continues through January 31st for all K-3 students, and 4-8 Novice classrooms.  

REMEMBER..."It's a Beautiful Day to Teach Kids to Love Learning!"

REMINDERS...

• Remember Classroom Teachers can order your mid year supplies at this time. Use it or loose it. You have $150.00 to spend.
• Ms. Hopewell and I will be out on Wednesday for the next session of our ongoing IEP Coach training.
• Our Wing Meeting will be on Thursday, January 16.  It will begin promptly at 7:30 am. I will share some of the glows and grows from the Principal's visit.
• On Friday Progress Reports go home

Specials:

• Continue to re-establish and review your classroom expectations, routines and procedures.
• NWEA testing begins this week and will be occurring in the lab, so Tech will need to take place in classrooms beginning Tuesday, January 14.  This will continue through Friday January 31. 

Special Education...

• Be prepared to go over the Quality IEP  File Review and Chapter 1 of Co-Teaching during our Team Meeting on 1/15/20.
• Resource Room Teachers...each of you received a folder with information about your grade level Interim 2 tests.  Let's plan to discuss your ideas for backward planning for this test during your 03's this week.
• Classroom teachers will be making decisions about possible retention notificaiton for some of their students based upon academic progress thus far.  Please reach out to your teachers to determine if this is going to impact any of your students.

Intervention...

• MOY (Middle of the Year) Benchmarking...Continues.  All students in grades K-3 need to have this benchmarking completed.  Students in the Novice Classrooms, grades 4-8, will also need to have this administered.  The window for this benchmarking runs from 1/13/-1/31.    Once you have completed this testing, it will be necessary to see if student goals need to be reset.  
• Progress Monitoring...this needs to continue once MOY testing is completed.  All Novice Classrooms should be PM'd every week.  

Important Dates...

              1/13 - AIMSWeb Benchmarking and NWEA Reading K-3 

              1/17 - Progress Reports - Home

              1/20 - MLK Jr. Day - No School
              1/22 - BR and NJHS Induction Ceremonies....BR - 5:00 pm;  NJHS - 6:00 pm
              1/24 - Dress Down $2.00
              1/27 - MSTEP Writing Field Testing begins Gr. 3-8
              1/30 - Child Study
              1/31 - Testing Ends; Progress Reports; Free Dress Behavior

Week 17

Hello Team....Welcome Back and Happy New Year!!!

I hope that you all had a wonderful holiday and break!  I know that I did...spending time with family and friends, reading, indulging in some Netflix binge watching 😉, napping and GETTING BACK TO THE GYM....all in all, a great time!

I want to take this opportunity to give a BIG Welcome to our new K-2 Resource Room teacher, Allison Knikelbine.  We are so excited to have Allison join our family.

Currently, I am working on my goals for the year and updating my vision board. I thought that I would share some tips that I would love for our team to adopt. 

9 Tips for a Positive New Year

Borrowed from Jon Gordon

1. Stay Positive. You can listen to the cynics and doubters and believe that success is impossible or you can trust that with faith and an optimistic attitude all things are possible.

2. Be a Positive Team Member. Being positive doesn’t just make you better, it makes everyone around you better.

3. Don't chase success. Decide to make a difference and success will find you. 

4. Don't waste your precious energy on gossip, energy vampires, issues of the past, negative thoughts or things you cannot control.

5. Live your purpose. Remember why you do what you do. We don't get burned out because of what we do. We get burned out because we forget why we do it.

6. Trust that everything happens for a reason and expect good things to come out of challenging experiences.

7. Implement the No Complaining Rule. If you are complaining, you're not leading.

8. Smile and laugh more. They are natural anti-depressants.

9. Enjoy the ride. You only have one ride through life so make the most of it and enjoy it.

Specials:

•  As we return from break, now is a good time to re-establish and review your classroom expectations, routines and procedures.
• January is going to be a big month with mid-year testing and progress monitoring.  As such, I am attaching the Testing Calendar to this BLOG.  NWEA testing and MSTEP Writing Field Testing will be occurring in the lab, so there will be days when Tech will need to take place in . 

Special Education...

• Be prepared to go over the Quality IEP  File Review and Chapter 1 of Co-Teaching during our Team Meeting on 1/8/20.
• Resource Room Teachers...each of you received a folder with information about your grade level Interim 2 tests.  Let's plan to discuss your ideas for backward planning for this test during your 03's this week.
• Classroom teachers will be making decisions about possible retention notificaiton for some of their students based upon academic progress thus far.  Please reach out to your teachers to determine if this is going to impact any of your students.

Intervention...

• MOY (Middle of the Year) Benchmarking...this begins January 13th.  All students in grades K-3 need to have this benchmarking completed.  Students in the Novice Classrooms, grades 4-8, will also need to have this administered.  The window for this benchmarking runs from 1/13/-1/31.   

Reminders...

              1/6 - School Resumes; Black Out Day

              1/6 - ORF Fluencey Testing Begins

              1/8 - Staff Meeting - 7:30 am Liggins and Willer's Room

              1/10 - Dress Down $2.00

              1/13 - AIMSWeb Benchmarking and NWEA Reading K-3 Begin

              1/17 - Progress Reports - Home

              1/20 - MLK Jr. Day - No School

              

              

     Change it up!

As we are moving into the new year, let's refresh the memories of our scholars! Anchor charts are a great way to remind students of expectations, routines, and procedures, formulas, strategies, etc. I have plenty of chart people so let me know if you need some.

Anchor Charts

www.teachingwithamountainview.com

7 Classroom Management Techniques That Really Work

www.weareteachers.com

Is your classroom feeling out of control? Try these classroom management techniques to help get more authority and respect.

Week 16

Happy Week 16 Team!

 Hey Team!   Well, here we are...5 days from our Christmas Break!  Wow...I know you are all ready for this time of family, fun, rest and relaxation!   And...you so deserve it.  My wish for each of you is for you to experience and receive all that your heart desires.    

We all know that this can be a time with our kiddos struggle to stay focused and on task.  So continue to be prepared each day, and make sure you are following through on expectations, routines/procedures and necessary parent contact.

Ms. Boyer and the Deans participated in a Data Review with Nancy Kouba, our DSQ, last week.  We received positive news that based upon Fall NWEA data and Interim 1 data, we are tracking to meet our Spring goals and MSTEP Proficiency goals.  We will talk in our Wing Meeting about ways to continue this growth trajectory.

Full Lesson Observations are completed and I have released your observations to you.  Please review this prior to your 03 this week so that we can discuss these outcomes and plan for next steps.

Reminders:

Don't Forget...

• 12 Days of Christmas Spirit.... 
• Monday - Santa's Milk and Cookies.  Bring in your favorite holiday dessert to share with participating staff. 
• Tuesday- Santa's Hoedown. Wear your favorite western-wear. 
• Wednesday - Dashing through the Snow. Dress as a Santa helper (reindeer, elf, Mrs. Claus, etc.)
• Thursday -Feliz Navidad.  Nachos in the lounge provided by Admin.
• Friday - Dream a Little Dream.  Pajama and slipper day!

• Wing Meeting - Wednesday, December 18.  We will be reviewing current student data and discussing ways that we can support classroom instruction and student learning.

News To Know...

Dec. 19          Family Movie Night    4:30-6:30 pm
Dec. 20          BLACK OUT DAY;  Class Holiday Celebrations

Jan. 6             BLACK OUT DAY;  School Resumes

Week 15

Happy Week 15 Team!

 Hey Team!

I hope that you all had a good weekend. We've got two weeks to go until Christmas break, YAY!  I want to give a shout out to our entire team for all of the extra support you've been providing during parent teacher conference week, staff absences, and with Admin out for various trainings.  You've handled your discipline, supported your colleagues, and "saw a need and filled a need".  You are all amazing and our school and students are better because of you!  Thanks so much for your flexibility, kindness and spirit of cooperation which you've shown all year long.   

This will be a busy week with the last of Parent Teacher Conferences, finalization of Full Length Observations, and Honor's Assemblies.  So let's continue to be prepared each day, and make sure we are following through on expectations, routines/procedures and necessary parent contact.

Reminders:

Specials:

• Trimester 2 has begun.  Make sure you identify your 504 and Special Education students.  Reach out to the homeroom teacher for this information.

Special Education...

• K-2 RR Teacher...We are again without a teacher.  I will be working with the front office to bring in a Substitute Teacher to provide support and services to those students affected.
• Team Meeting...please plan to meet on Wednesday for  our meeting.

Intervention...

• Progress Monitoring...this needs to be occurring on a weekly basis for all students in "A" classrooms.  Please do not get behind.  The data generated is a necessary part of planning for intervention instruction.

Don't Forget...

• 12 Days of Christmas Spirit.... 
• Monday - Wear your faux fur
• Tuesday- Mad About Plaid
• Wednesday - Shine Bright Like a Light
• Thursday -Christmas Vacation
• Friday - Dress Like a Holiday Character
• When you are absent, please remember to complete an Absence Form and put it in my mailbox.  If it is a planned absence, this must be done two weeks prior to the absence.  If it is due to an illness, this form needs to be turned into me upon your return.
• BLACK OUT DAYS...please refer to the Staff Calendar for days identified as Black Out.  On those days, staff must be in attendance.

News To Know...

Dec. 12          Honor's Assemblies in Classrooms
Dec. 13          Early Release at 1:30 pm
Dec. 13          Staff Holiday Party 
Dec. 19          Family Movie Night    4:30-6:30 pm
Dec. 20          BLACK OUT DAY;  Class Holiday Celebrations

Jan. 6             BLACK OUT DAY;  School Resumes

Week 14

Happy Week 14 Team!

I hope that each of you had a wonderfully enjoyable Thanksgiving Break and that you ate lots of good food, spent time with those you love, and were able to enjoy some well deserved rest and relaxation! I can't believe that we only have three weeks until our holiday break!  

I am looking forward to seeing each of you as we enter a busy week and month. This week begins Parent Teacher Conferences and is also my final week for observations.  Please remember to prepare for these visits with available lesson plans for me when I come in to observe you.  

Also, remember that this is a time when the students begin to get ansy in anticipation for our next break, so it is important that you review your routines, procedures and expectations with them on a consistent basis.  

Reminders:

Specials:

• Trimester 2 has begun.  Make sure you identify your 504 and Special Education students.  Reach out to the homeroom teacher for this information.

Special Education...

• K-2 RR Teacher...We are again without a teacher.  I will be working with the front office to bring in a Substitute Teacher to provide support and services to those students affected.
• Team Meeting...please plan to meet on Wednesday for  our meeting.

Intervention...

• Progress Monitoring...this needs to be occurring on a weekly basis for all students in "A" classrooms.  Please do not get behind.  The data generated is a necessary part of planning for intervention instruction.

Don't Forget...

• When you are absent, please remember to complete an Absence Form and put it in my mailbox.  If it is a planned absence, this must be done two weeks prior to the absence.  If it is due to an illness, this form needs to be turned into me upon your return.
• BLACK OUT DAYS...please refer to the Staff Calendar for days identified as Black Out.  On those days, staff must be in attendance.

News To Know...

Dec. 2 - 12     Parent Teacher Conference Weeks
Dec. 2            Door Decorating Contest begins
Dec. 5            The 12 Days Before Winter Break events begin!
Dec. 6             Holiday Party RSVPs due to Ms. Nazoyan
Dec. 12          Honor's Assemblies in Classrooms
Dec. 13          Early Release at 1:30 pm
Dec. 13          Staff Holiday Party 
Dec. 19          Family Movie Night    4:30-6:30 pm
Dec. 20          BLACK OUT DAY;  Class Holiday Celebrations

Jan. 6             BLACK OUT DAY;  School Resumes