With 16 instructional days plus orientation under our belt, we are just about 10 percent of the way through the year (or will be by Monday or Tuesday). It always amazes me just how quickly things feel routine (and how far away summer already feels).
However, it traditionally takes about 30 days or 6 weeks to establish clear rituals, routines, and procedures. In a post-pandemic setting, that length may be even longer. Please continue the great work you have started to teach procedures and routines. As you go throughout your day, please continue to work on expectations for respect, responsibility, and safety. Thank you!
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| Mandy making students' thinking come to life, as part of school goal number 2. Check out those different colors for different students- what a cool small tweak to help students see their thinking! |
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| Some good friends showing school goal number 1: SEL all day. I'm grateful for our SSN program, and how it helps all of our students (and staff!) be more compassionate and understanding of others. |
New Information:
We are going to try to start the pledge next week. We'll try to do this as close to the bell as possible so your crew time is not interrupted. We will reach out to you about having students do this again!
Family newsletter link: I (Aimee) am including a home connection for our school-wide expectations: respectful, responsible, safe in the family newsletter each week. This week's tip is about elementary-aged children being able to wait for a turn to talk to an adult without interrupting. If you have more tips you'd like to see in the newsletter, please let Aimee know.
Fall academy info is up!
There are two CMS 8th grade crews who are hoping to serve by volunteering at CRES on the afternoon of 9/15. Could your classroom or your team use these students (approx 18 in a crew) to help your students? Play a game? Partner read during intervention? If you're interested, please let Aimee know ASAP. (Kendall thinks they should sub, since we are so short, but I'm not sure HR will approve).
PEAK groups- there will be some changes starting this Tuesday. Paula is communicating with students and parents, so please reach out to her with questions.
Do you want math manipulatives and/or scales? We have a bunch of extras in the conference room, come grab whatever! It needs to get moved out of the conference room soon.
Hearing and Vision: This will be in the music room. There is a high likelihood that we will switch Friday, the 15th, for the following Tuesday-- I will let you all know ASAP if that's the case. Please note that there are two tabs in the schedule, one for each day. It helps if students bring a book, as they will need to sit quietly on the ramp up to the music room until it is their turn.
From the fire marshall: YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING. No, seriously-- he was super impressed by all of the changes we had made (it also was a new fire marshall, not Dexter, so...). There are a couple of spots we can continue to be safer, particularly around extension cords, so look for a fun ERW tidbit from me soon! I will also reach out individually to people about issues in their classroom, but he was generally very impressed.
Lit Bit: This is our first schoolwide progress monitor week. This week intervention teachers will be progress monitoring thier round 1 students and homeroom teachers will progress monitor their strategic and fragile core students. Please be sure to look at the progress monitor schedule for details. A copy will be in your mailbox.
Things to note:
DIBELS will give you a recommended probe to do (it will be grade level). Let’s go with this for strategic and fragile core students. Intervention teachers will do off-level probes.
It may recommend more than one probe. Do as many as time allows for you OR do the earliest skill level (For example, do a PSF before a NWF and/or WRF probe, do a NWF and/or WRF before an ORF). When in doubt, give a probe that matches where the students are instructionally so you get feedback on what they are learning.
Goal setting with the progress monitor is highly effective. Here is a folder that contains a variety of graphs to goal set with. In time, we will be adding some WRF graphs.
When you give the assessments be sure you have clicked on the “progress” tab to ensure you get progress monitor probes (not “benchmark”). While there are a few changes with DIBELS, giving the assessments are very similar to the old format. You can always do a demo probe (like in the training) to practice before you start on your students.
Let’s be patient with ourselves. There are a lot of new things with DIBELS this year. Please reach out to Sarah or Tamsyn with any questions or needs. We are here to support you.
Menu update: Due to some supply chain issues (as always), the menu has changed for the upcoming Mon-Wed.
Monday- Cheesy Breadsticks w/ Marinara
Tuesday- Chicken Nuggets
Fun things!
Shout out to the many people who are coming to support the SSN program. We are so grateful for your time, competence, and kindness!
Shout out to Mary Lewis for allowing a whole team to observe her model number talks!
Appreciation for Isidra and Tamara cleaning up a big mess in the entryway this week.
Thank you to Tamsyn for taking over cafeteria duty on Wednesday - you're so good at it, Dean has requested that you do it every day!
Thank you 4th grade team for teaching lunch numbers!
WE-cycle at CRES
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