The Middle Update 5/26/16

I hope everyone had a relaxing 3 day holiday weekend.  Hopefully everyone had time to recharge their battery and think about the our Veteran's and their service to our country.  We have 2 solid weeks coming up.  Students will rise or fall to our expectations and energy level.  Let's get ready to bring it, right up till the final dismissal time!

End of Year Evaluations
6 teachers are complete!  To add your name to the list of teachers having their evaluations complete, please let me know times you have available, and we'll set up our meeting right away.

Right Up to the Bell Instruction
As I have visited classrooms lately, I am continually impressed by how diligently we continue to work towards our reporting standards and learning goals.  Please keep in mind that students will have a solid 3 months of vacation from school very soon, and each minute we have them for educational purposes is very important.  Also, the more engaged and on task the students are the fewer behavior issues will arise.  Unstructured time leads to behavioral issues.  If you have questions about schedule concerns, let me know.  We have done a great job up to this point, so let's finish strong. The students feed off of your energy and effort.  Thanks for all of your hard work!

Congratulations Mrs. White!

We are proud to announce that Sarah White has been recognized by the Wisconsin Council of Administrators of Special Education (WCASS) as Region 5 Outstanding Special Education Teacher in Wisconsin.  The luncheon/celebration was Friday in Stevens Point (Plover) where she received her well-deserved award.  Way to go Mrs. White! 

Senior Walk (from Mr. Hausser's blog)
The seniors are going to be led through our school by Percy at about 9:15ish this Thursday morning.  The seniors will walk some of the hallways and the leadership team has the route.  I'll check in with each core team to prepare the areas each grade should assemble.  It should not last real long, but should be a cool, new tradition for our students and staff.

2D - Managing Student Behavior Tip

Students Engaged:  88 Quick Energizers & Movement Activities

Danielson’s Domain 2d: Managing Student Behavior

As the year quickly comes to a close, and the weather is finally nice out, it helps to have some new ways to engage and get student’s energy back on track for learning.  New to our library of professional resources is a book from Responsive Classroom called Energizers! 88 Quick Movement Activities that Refresh and Refocus.  This is a great resource that one can quickly look through and pull ideas from to help start off the morning, or to give your class a brain break during the day.  Come check it out and give some a try!

End of Year Celebration at the Barn
Tuesday night will be the K-12 Staff celebration at the Barn.  It would be great to get as many staff members as possible together for a late afternoon celebration.  Check out the sign-up sheet for meal preparations.

Retiree Recognition

We will be recognizing our retirees on Wednesday after school in the HS IMC.  Come and out and congratulate them on a job well done.

Duty Next Week
Morning - Schoen
Bus - Kallungi

Data
The average of responses to the question...please rate Poynette Middle School (1-10)

14-15 - 7.8
15-16 - 7.8

The Middle Update 5/22/16

Staff Meeting on Wednesday
We will have our final staff meeting of this school year this Wednesday (5/25).  We will reviw some of our end of the year data and check in on our progress.

Staff Participation at Graduation Ceremony
All teachers, no matter how long you've been with us, are invited to participate in the graduation ceremony.  The ceremony is Sunday, June 5th.  You can still sign up...Dr. Hoernke has informed me that we will have enough cap and gowns for all teachers to attend.  You can sign up at this link...just add a row to the table and type your name.

Fire Drill Wednesday
We will have a fire drill this Wednesday at 9:30 am.

Spring Concert Review
Last Tuesday night, talent was on display at our Spring Concert.  Congrats to Mr. Hazard and Mrs. Graeve for leading such a tremendous display of musical talent.  The whole performance was outstanding.

Middle School Play
The cast and crew of this year's Middle School Play will be performing for the students in our school on Wednesday afternoon.  Students will be dismissed to the gym at 1:50 pm to view the play.  The public performance will be on Thursday evening starting at 7:00 pm.  We are looking forward to another fine display of talent from our students and staff.

Final Week Planning
I wanted to share information about some of the end of year scheduling.  The 8th graders' last school day will be on Wednesday, June 8th, which is also their end of year field trip.  The last day of school will be a half day on Thursday, June 9th.  Dismissal time will be 12:30.  On the last day of school, we will be running our early release schedule.  There will be time for 5th graders to meet briefly with 6th grade teachers (more details to come).

End of Year Evaluations/SLO's/PPG's
My goal will be to have all evaluations and SLO/PPG meetings complete by the end of next week.  I have had some meetings with teachers already.  If you are ready to meet, please send me an invite.  If I don't hear from you, I will send a calendar invite to you.

Importance of Routine
As we wind down the final 3 weeks of school, maintaining our routine and schedule, with a focus on student learning right up until the end will help all of us maintain our high expectations of positive behavior and effort for all students.  Each classroom minute is an opportunity to build the skills and knowledge of our students right up until the final dismissal.

Personal Items in Classroom
See a note from Mr. Egger.  As we near the end of the year, please look over your classroom and discard of anything in your classroom that does not need to be there. 

Just a reminder to you to remind Teachers that all personal items will need to be taken home so we can clean this summer.

All furniture - Lamps, chairs, anything brought in from home, etc. Also remind them to take all Plants home any other items that we will not take care of.

With abatement's going on in 4 classrooms at the Elem. section , this is the perfect time to clean house, empty shelves of all things and get rid of things no longer being used. 

End of Year Celebration at the Barn
Mark your calendars, we will be hosting a district wide end of year celebration at the Barn at Harvest Moon Pond on the late afternoon/evening of Tuesday, May 31st.  More specific details will follow.

Twitter Post of the Week

Jay Willis ‏@JayWillis1  May 17

Great conversation today with @burgessdave about how to make your teaching more engaging. "If your class were voluntary, would anyone come?"

0 retweets4 likes

 

 

 

Duty Next Week
Morning - Rogness
Bus - Johnson

The Middle Update 5/13/16

As the weeks continue to fly by nearing the end of the school year, our focus on solid bell to bell instruction maintains its strong importance.  Keeping a consistent routine will help maintain our atmosphere and culture of achievement and expectations.  Check out below for some information about the weeks to come.

SLO/PPG's
As you get your SLO end of year summaries complete, please send me a calendar invite to review.

Fire Drill Wednesday!
We will be having our monthly safety drill on Wednesday.  It will be a fire drill starting at 9:30am.

Forward Exam Update
We are almost complete...just a couple of students left to participate in a make-up session.  According to the DPI at this time, the results from the STAR test will be available to school districts in June, and to the public in August.

STAR Testing Dates
The Middle School students will be taking the STAR test next week.  ELA will be on Wednesday and Math on Thursday.

Senior Walk
On Thursday, June 2nd, from 9:10 - 9:30, we will be starting a new tradition.  Our students will line the halls and the graduating seniors will be walking through for all of our 1-8 students to cheer them on.  Please mark your calendars now, but more details will follow.

3D - Using Assessment in Instruction Tips

Shaking Up Formative Assessments

Danielson’s Domains 3d Using Assessment in Instruction

With the end of the school year quickly approaching, thinking about some new ways to check students understanding can get your students excited and engaged.  Thinking about using digital tools for assessment?  Check out this article that has 33 different ways to utilizing technology to assess student 33 Digital Tools For Advancing Formative Assessment in the Classroom .   Not sure about using technology to quickly assess?  Print out and keep handy these Formative Assessment Strategy Cards to help shake things up in your classroom.

Color Run
The Color Run is next Friday! Thanks to all who have signed up to participate in the event. We are looking forward to a great turnout for this Parent Club sponsored event!

Twitter Find of the Week

edutopia ‏@edutopia  May 12

Carol Dweck wants you to know that #growthmindset isn't just about praising effort: http://edut.to/27hbjGz .

183 retweets196 likes

Duty Next Week
Morning - O'Connor
Bus - Hendrickson

Data
Behavior Referrals (through corresponding date in school year)
15-16 - 220 Events, 80 Students
14-15 - 289 Events, 79 Students
13-14 - 428 Events, 113 Students
12-13 - 327 Events, 107 Students

The Middle Update 5/8/16

We are already about halfway through the 4th Quarter already!  Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms on our staff...I hope you enjoyed a great weather weekend.  Another great week is in store for us coming up!  Check below for some news and notes about the upcoming week.

Forward Testing
Our testing schedule is complete!  We have some make-ups to work through this week, but otherwise, we are finally done with our state testing.  I am working on a make-up testing schedule.  Students may be pulled to finish up their testing during class time.  They will have passes to leave and return.  Thanks for everyone for their flexibility and efforts to make the testing sessions go very smoothly!

Teacher Appreciation
Last week was teacher appreciation week, and I wanted to extend my sincere appreciation to all of our teachers.  Studies continually show that the number one factor for student achievement in the classroom in the teacher.  We have a great group, and you are the reason our school is special.  Our teachers bring it every day...having a culture of growth and continuous improvement will continue to result in record breaking student achievement results for our kids.  Thank you!

16-17 Budgets
After last week's blog post about the budget, I got together with our secretaries, and we are going to modify our plan for Skyward entries for Middle School teachers.  We will enter all of the requisitions through the 1-8 office.  I will be working with Robin to organize the orders.  What you submitted during budget time will be ordered.  If you realize that a modification could be made, please see me right away to ensure that we get the correct materials ordered.  Robin will be in touch about any questions that may arise.  Thank you to our awesome front office staff!


Personal Items in Classroom
See a note from Mr. Egger.  As we near the end of the year, please look over your classroom and discard of anything in your classroom that does not need to be there.

Just a reminder to you to remind Teachers that all personal items will need to be taken home so we can clean this summer.

All furniture - Lamps, chairs, anything brought in from home, etc. Also remind them to take all Plants home any other items that we will not take care of.

With abatement's going on in 4 classrooms at the Elem. section , this is the perfect time to clean house, empty shelves of all things and get rid of things no longer being used. 

SLO/PPG End of Year Evals.
It is that time of year...please review your end of year process.  I have been working with our Summary Year teachers already to prepare for the requirements for the evaluation cycle already.  For Non-Summary Year staff, I will need to meet with you to review SLO/PPG progress, and score the results.  If you can wrap up your SLO process soon, please schedule a meeting with me to review the data.

Students of the Month
Our last breakfast will be this Thursday (5/12) morning.  Congratulations to this month's recipients:

Gwen Golueke     Lianna Mullarkey     Mikayla Fox     Jake Buss     Kirstin Heuer     
Carter Hansen     Olivia Radewan     Matthew Bartz     Kaitlyn Schultz

End of Year Celebration at the Barn
Mark your calendars, we will be hosting a district wide end of year celebration at the Barn at Harvest Moon Pond on the late afternoon/evening of Tuesday, May 31st.  More specific details will follow.

Color Run
In your mail box, everyone received some information about our upcoming 1st Annual Color Run.  The Parent's Club is interested in getting as many of our staff members involved to help make this event a big success.  Our students love seeing our staff members outside of the classroom.  Staff members can participate free of charge.  All proceeds from this event will go toward our School Sign Fund (money for an electronic Poynette Schools sign along Hwy 51).

Duty Next Week
Morning - Lendobeja
Bus - Harms