Hey Panda Family,
Specially Called Meeting: MTSS Corrective Action PD on Wednesday, February 24 @ 3:30. We will use the staff meeting link. You will complete an attendance form during our meeting. Plan for 45 minutes. We were just informed of these requirements in the past week and were given a short turn-around time. There are test questions that go along with the training, so we thought it would be easiest to complete this together. See the link below for which staff members need to attend.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qyu75_g_nLms1h_ls4y2VUtFLkL1zGyZUMK-nrNuiq4/edit?usp=sharing
Observations: The last round of observations will begin this month. They will be unannounced, however we will give you a two-week heads-up so please look for an email. Our goal is to have all observations completed by April 30, 2021. Please have your green Growth Notebooks readily available for us to look through.
Retention Letters: We are in the process of getting potential retention letters in the hands of parents. These letters should be signed and returned by Friday, February 26. For your remote students that are receiving a letter, we will work with you to get it delivered. If you have retention candidates and have not received your letters yet, you will be getting them tomorrow. When you get the retention notice/letter signed by the parent, please return it to Mr. Elkins.
Box Lunch for Staff: To celebrate us meeting our Boosterthon goal, the PTA is serving a box lunch meal to the staff this Thursday, February 25. More info to come!
Progress Reports: Progress Reports for 3rd Quarter should go home the week of March 1 - 5. Please make sure you are updating your grades in PowerSchool for your parents to see. We will use the same procedures for progress reports as we did the first two quarters. If you have any questions, please see Ms. Grubbs.
iReady Lesson Tracking: As your students complete their iReady each week, it is not only important that they get their time in but it is also important to see their lesson completion. What we have seen is some students are getting their time in each week, but are not completing any lessons (basically they are just sitting there). I highly suggest motivating your students in your classroom by giving incentives for lessons completed. If you would like to monitor the lessons completed for your students, simply follow these instructions that were shared by Ms. Jones (thanks Deana!).
Monday, March 1 - Ready to Read (wear red)
Tuesday, March 2 - Hats Off to Reading (favorite hat)
Wednesday, March 3 - Wacky Socks (Wacky Wednesday)
Thursday, March 4 - Oh, the Places You’ll Go (college shirts)
Friday, March 5 - PJ Day (cozy up with a good book)
- Light Switch: Go to Lowe's or Home Depot, buy you an inexpensive light switch. Use the switch as a reminder that you need to switch off your professional brain in the evenings and on the weekends and leave it off so you can focus on you and your family. If you do not turn off your professional brain, you will become burned out.
- Reading Glasses: Purchase a few pairs of reading glasses from Dollar Tree where everything is $1.00. Each time you look at those glasses, remind yourself to examine situations though the lenses of others (parents, students, friends, other colleagues, etc.). It may be a good idea to label the glasses for lens you need to look through.
- Girl Scout Cookies, Peeps, Conversation Hearts, Pumpkins Spice Lattes: What do all these things have in common? You guessed it; they are all seasonal. If you want these things in August, you have stock up on them and save them for later. We are currently in a season. The COVID pandemic is not going to be around forever, so stay the course and embrace the season. In the end, we will all become better educators. The negative things of the season will go away, but the positive things will grow us as individuals and evolve educational practices that we once knew.
- GregTangMath: This is "a revolutionary, online math program comprised of games, animated books, and downloadable materials". The site has several games to select from, but one is NumTanga which students must recognize and match the numbers based on the numerical symbol, word, and/or number of objects. An added feature of this game is that the level of difficulty increases as students advance from level to level. Even for me, it was challenging at times since there is a time limit in which you must respond. Check out the site and let me know what you think!
- Jamming Jamboards:
- How many fish?: Celebrate Read Across America with an activity based on Dr. Seuss' "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish".
- Women's History Month: March is the month that is set aside to commemorate the significant impact and influence that some women have had on society.
- Teacher Made: Last week, I shared out this resource. During this past week of remote learning, I was able to play around with it some and concluded that this is something that you all will find very useful. As of now, this is a free alternative to Kami , especially since Kami is not a favorite of some of my fellow ITFs. Like Kami, Teacher Made allows you to turn worksheets/printables, etc. into digital activities. You can add the external Teacher Made app to Canvas in which you can assign activities and grade them using Speedgrader, which is my understanding is a benefit that Kami does not allow you to do. Take advantage of this resource while it is still free. To learn how to add this app to Cavas, click on the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tjthwicAnk. If you have any questions, please see me or any third-grade teacher for more details.
- Natalie Rempe for responding back to me regarding the phonics applications that I shared with the staff in last week's Weekly Wrap.
- Anna Crisp for inviting me to read to her class.
- Deana Jones, Stephanie Epperley, Denette Staley, and Eileen Corlett was among the first staff members to join my Technology Corner Canvas course.
Virtual Assembly March 12, 2021: See the details below for the virtual assembly we will have in March.
Program Date: March 12, 2021
Program Name: Space Station Conservation Livestream Special
Livestream Show Start Times:
1:00 PM (PreK-2)
2:00 PM (3-5)
- 35-minute show presents a virtual lesson in energy efficiency.
- Through an interactive web platform, a live host will introduce entertaining sketches featuring a variety of characters in professionally filmed scenes from our live theatrical productions – and guide classrooms to participate in a discussion on resources and energy conservation:
- Students and teachers will also have access to a Q&A with the host
PBIS: Below is the link to our engagement presentation from the staff meeting (2/9). If you have any questions, please reach out to your PBIS representative.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10l8v37MJ454sF74xj8cD-R8YmV8A3St_b6yZ9OcMA2c/edit?usp=sharing
Fire Marshall: Our Spring Fire Marshall Inspection is coming up. We passed in the Fall thanks to our Panda teamwork. See the reminders below:
- Keep doors unblocked (6 blocks/feet)
- Fire exit door should not be propped open
- Keep fire extinguishers unblocked
- No extension cords
- Storage - 2 full blocks clear from the ceiling
- You were within 6 feet of someone who has COVID-19 for a total of 15 minutes or more
- You provided care at home to someone who is sick with COVID-19
- You had direct physical contact with the person (hugged or kissed them)
- You shared eating or drinking utensils
- They sneezed, coughed, or somehow got respiratory droplets on you
Computers needed: We will need to gather up computers from about 9:45-11:45 on March 1, 2, 4, 5 for 2nd grade CogAt testing. We will make every effort to quickly get them back to you after testing so you will have access to them in the morning and in the afternoon. Thank you for understanding!
ACCESS testing: ACCESS testing starts MONDAY! Just FYI, all ELL students must take a battery of 4 tests for the ACCESS and each test lasts an hour. The first two tests, listening and reading, are given according to grade level. The next test is differentiated based on performance on the first two. What does this mean? There can be a LOT of different groups! As you can imagine, this is a huge undertaking. We are so fortunate that Mrs. Pereda is so dedicated to helping her students have the best testing situations possible. Because of this, Mrs. Pereda will be pulling groups for testing and not seeing her regular groups for the time being. I have tried to make testing the least obtrusive to your daily schedule, but that was not always possible. Here is the schedule. I will keep this updated as we progress through testing. The testing window goes through mid-April, but we are hoping to finish up in March.
NCELAREADS now open: DPI is holding a two-week study to help explore reading digital, complex texts. Given the current conditions and increased use of technology, teachers are using more digital text in the classroom. We will explore learning to read, close read, and reading volume. In our instruction, more attention may be needed with helping students to read these digital, complex texts. Click here to join this group. Several Panda teachers are participating, and I can’t wait to see what we learn together! Since all EOGs will be online this year, this PD is more important than EVER!
See the image below for information on how to login to the Boosterthon Character Video Library! You will have access to these videos for the remainder of the year. This is great content for Morning Meetings :)
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