Monday Notes 10.1.18
*******************NEWS**********************
GA Pre-K Week!
This week kicks off our GA Pre-K Week!!!! We are so thankful to have two Pre-K classrooms at High Point and have wonderful teachers and assistants who love, support, teach, guide, and transform our young four year olds into the kind, smart, problem-solving scholars we are excited to have in K-5!
We appreciate all that you do!
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Teacher Workday
This is just a friendly reminder that we have a teacher workday this Friday. This day is for teachers only. Paraprofessionals do not have to report.
All teachers are required to report to work no later than 7:10 and please be mindful of your attire as there will be parents in the building for parent/teacher conferences.
Thanks!!!!
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Absences for September
The graph below shows the number of absences for each grade level for the month of September. Please make sure you are correctly documenting absences and also encouraging your students to come to school each day!!! Thanks everyone!!!
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End of Grading Period
It is hard to believe that the first quarter of school is nearly complete! As you are winding down please remember the following Report Card reminders:
• Get as much of your graded work into TAC as soon as you can. There may be some assignments still in progress but you may start the "load from gradebook process" and start adding your levels and comments now. Putting in comments/levels is time consuming and a great way to speed the process along is to start entering them now into TAC. You may load from gradebook as often as you like to update grades without losing any of your levels/comments
• Click the link https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Hq5F4UfPdIdNVTYa4hHoTTqDN-VkZnZu to view the levels and comments we use at HPES. This is your reference guide so mark/highlight items that suit your needs. A quick way to load comments/levels is to identify the comments you want to use and tab through the fields and enter each comment by number. The comment file is NOT in order. If you are hunting for a comment you will be going through 4 pages of numbers!!
• All grades that are 75% or below should receive a comment. Balance every negative comment with a positive one.
• Grades should never represent effort or behavior
• Make sure you are logging parent communication regarding grade performance. These logs are important just in case you have a parent concern.
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PBIS
Do you have a student who needs consequences for his or her actions? Do you feel like you are constantly giving consequences to this child?
Try to use some logical consequences for the unwanted behavior. It helps humans in general to make connections. For example, a student who continuously leaves his or her trash at the lunch table may have a logical consequence of helping the custodian clean up that area. Just losing Dojo points, per se, won’t teach the child how leaving an area messy affects him/her or others. If we want students to stop an unwanted behavior, we have to teach them why it’s wrong and show them how to fix it.
Look at the chart below to see how you can make consequences for unwanted behaviors more logical.
Love,
The PBIS Team
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IB Standouts!
Ms. Silverman's class is having a meaningful discussion via Padlet to show their learning and understandings of their central idea "Risks may lead to discoveries or migrations" under the theme Where We are in Place and Time!
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Custodial Appreciation Day
Custodial Appreciation Day is tomorrow! Please take a moment to thank Derick and Harry for all their hard work making sure our building stays clean and safe for our students!!!!
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iRead Celebration
We would like to celebrate the following teachers for getting their students on iRead 3+ days a week for 20+ minutes each session, in the month of September:
Foster
Gopal/Williams
Marinos
Pereira
Cornibe
Mahle
Sapp
Mitchell
Way to go!!!!!
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Fall Festival Sign-Up
Click on the link below if you would like to sign up to volunteer at the Fall Festival!!!
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TKES Observations
This month, DiBartolo and Pitchford will be assessing standards #2 - Instructional Planning and #4 - Differentiation for all FULL TKES employees.
All FLEX employees will receive their walkthrough in October or November for standards #2 - Instructional Planning, #3 - Instructional Strategies, and #7 - Positive Learning Environment.
Any questions, please ask!!!
All FLEX employees will receive their walkthrough in October or November for standards #2 - Instructional Planning, #3 - Instructional Strategies, and #7 - Positive Learning Environment.
Any questions, please ask!!!
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ELA Benchmark Assessment 3-5
The Interim ELA Benchmarks will be from October 9th-19th for students in grades 3, 4, and 5. We will be utilizing the computer lab as well as laptops from other grades in order to complete this assessment like we are doing for Math. Schedules for this assessment will be coming out shortly. Thank you!!!
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iReady Reading Data Celebration
We would like to celebrate the following teachers for getting their students on iReady 45 minutes or more (on average) a week, in the month of September:
Eigel
Gochnauer
Nobles
Ittig/Kim
Gilmore/Laudel
Hawkins
Watts
Way to go!!!
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Math Benchmark Assessment 3-5
The Interim Math Benchmarks are going to be given this week to students in grades 3, 4, and 5. We will be utilizing the computer lab as well as laptops from other grades in order to complete this assessment. We appreciate everyone's flexibility and support during this time!
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Footprints for the Future
Join team "High Point Hounds" as we run in the Footprints for the Future - 5K sponsored by Sandy Springs Education Force!!!! It will happen on the 13th of October (which is also the Fall Festival in case you want a FULL High Point day) and you can register at the link below. We hope you can make it!!!!
https://endurancecui.active.com/event-reg/select-race?e=55772551&rf=17a38df4c26a4bc29b583a2ebb4216de
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From Your KSU Coach
Schedule: I will be at High Point on Tuesday 10/2 and Thursday 10/4.
Notes:
If you were unable to join on Tuesday's Pop Up PD, we worked with technology tools in a hands-on exploration. Teachers were able to play with Osmo manipulatives, StickBot animations, Dash robots and the Bloxel video game creator. Check out the image below of a handout that was placed in your box. It breaks down the use and purpose of each tool!
Highlights:
We you are ready to implement one of the tools above in your classroom, I encourage you to spend time reviewing the resources on this Padlet wall, https://padlet.com/romeh/techtools. They will help you to associate your content and standards to the digital learning experience. Remember, think about how the technology can enhance the learning rather then just using the tool because it's cool.
Notes:
If you were unable to join on Tuesday's Pop Up PD, we worked with technology tools in a hands-on exploration. Teachers were able to play with Osmo manipulatives, StickBot animations, Dash robots and the Bloxel video game creator. Check out the image below of a handout that was placed in your box. It breaks down the use and purpose of each tool!
Highlights:
We you are ready to implement one of the tools above in your classroom, I encourage you to spend time reviewing the resources on this Padlet wall, https://padlet.com/romeh/techtools. They will help you to associate your content and standards to the digital learning experience. Remember, think about how the technology can enhance the learning rather then just using the tool because it's cool.
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Google Expeditions
Fifth grade teachers used Google Expeditions to pre-teach and provoke learning about WW1. They paused the program to allow students to connect to their central idea, ask questions and make predictions. Teachers used the expedition as an instructional tool to facilitate their teaching, over and beyond giving the students a cool experience. Kudos to the teachers for owning the process and leading the learning!
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Continuous Learning and Reflection
As you have the 5th to complete the plethora of things on your to-do list such as grading, report cards, lesson plans, etc...., you might also reflect on your classroom and taking a moment to "de-clutter" if necessary.
The following article by the Association for Psychological Science talked about how heavily decorated classrooms can potentially disrupt the learning of our students. The article does not say to take down all visual displays. What it says is that we need to be INTENTIONAL about what we have on our walls and around our room. Is it because we don't want the wall empty or is it to help students when they are learning independently?
Evidence in this article shows that students accuracy on a test was higher (55%) in a sparse classroom than in a heavily decorated classroom (42%). It also showed that a child's time spent off task was greater (38%) in a highly decorated classroom than in a sparse classroom (28%).
Just food for thought......
*************CALENDAR OF EVENTS**********
Monday, October 1st
9:30 am - Prospective Parent Tour
Tuesday, October 2nd
In-House Field Trip for 1st Grade
1:45 - Leadership Team Meeting Room 123
Wednesday, October 3rd
Guided Reading PD during specials
Fall Pictures
Thursday, October 4th
7:15 - SGC Meeting Room 123
2:55 - PLCs
Friday, October 5th
Teacher Work Day!
*****************BIRTHDAYS! ******************
Happy birthday to Rebecca Negrin on the 7th!! We hope you have a wonderful birthday!
