Saturday, November 12, 2016

The Middle Update 11/12/16

Happy Veteran's Day!  A day to reflect, remember, and honor those who have sacrificed so much of their own life for us.  What a great example to share with our students, that lends itself to a natural conversation about empathy and care for others.

Book Talks Next Week
It's almost here...we'll be running our first round of books talks during each of the IE periods on Thursday.  Students have signed up, and we have assigned room locations for each of the book talks.  See the updated flyer for the room assignments.  6th grade IE will have different room assignments than the 7th/8th grade session.  See room assignments at the following links:      6th     7th/8th

During the 35 minute IE time, we'll be running two sessions.  Students will attend one for the 1st 15 minutes, then switch to attend another session.  Students have already signed up for a book that they would like to hear about.  I will share with the grade level teams how we will dismiss students and decide the communication that will take place to get students to the right rooms.

Report Cards
Report cards have been printed off, and we will be sending them out either late on Friday or early Monday.

Veteran's Day Assembly

Thanks all of you for your help getting our students prepared for the Veteran's Day Assembly on Friday morning.  Some of the veterans were really surprised afterwards that we had Middle School students in attendance, saying, "there were middle school students here?  Aren't they usually loud?"  Kudos to all of you and our students for a solid display of what being a Puma is all about.

Puma Pride Interventions
As we collect all of the data from the end of the first quarter, we are about the embark on the implementation of systematic interventions to help students whose Puma Pride scores indicate that they need some assistance in different areas.  The grade level teams continue to work on the "Completes and Returns Work in a Timely Manner" standard.  Mrs. Morton has already begun to provide an intervention for any student that needs help with "Treats other with Kindness" standard, and next week, I will work with our students struggling with "Following classroom expectations".

Targeted Assessment/SLO Work
We are one week from the last PD Day, where we all mapped out our targeted assessment plan in relation to achieving our SLO.  As we move towards our next PD Day on Monday, 11/28/16, teachers should be in the targeted assessment cycle, and either ready to implement or analyze the data.  We will use part of the next PD day spent on collaboration around the data.

Staff Meeting in December

We will have a staff meeting on Tuesday, December 6th from 2:50 to 3:30 in Mrs. Anderson's room.  Our focus will be on creating a culture of rich student discussion in our classrooms.  We have too many teachers utilizing great practices to not spread the wealth.  If you utilize or have utilized effective strategies to build rich, level 4 discussion in your class, please let me know, and I'll set you up to share during our time together on 12/6.

Early Release Schedule
On Wednesday, 11/23, all students will be dismissed at 1:15.  Please review the Early Release Schedule before, and let me know if you see any conflicts in the assignments for that day so we can resolve them ahead of time.

Wednesday Visitors
This past Wednesday, we welcomed about 30 teachers/administrators from 4 districts across the state (Elkhorn, Antigo, McFarland, Fall River) to share a little bit of how we do things in terms of assessment and instruction.  Other educators across the state are interested in hearing how you all do what you do in the classroom.

Twitter Find of the Week
This chemistry teacher knows a little something about intrinsic motivation: .

Duty Next Week
Morning- Hazard, Johnson
Bus- Filerman

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The Middle Update 11/12/16

Happy Veteran's Day!  A day to reflect, remember, and honor those who have sacrificed so much of their own life for us.  What a great example to share with our students, that lends itself to a natural conversation about empathy and care for others.

Book Talks Next Week
It's almost here...we'll be running our first round of books talks during each of the IE periods on Thursday.  Students have signed up, and we have assigned room locations for each of the book talks.  See the updated flyer for the room assignments.  6th grade IE will have different room assignments than the 7th/8th grade session.  See room assignments at the following links:      6th     7th/8th

During the 35 minute IE time, we'll be running two sessions.  Students will attend one for the 1st 15 minutes, then switch to attend another session.  Students have already signed up for a book that they would like to hear about.  I will share with the grade level teams how we will dismiss students and decide the communication that will take place to get students to the right rooms.

Report Cards
Report cards have been printed off, and we will be sending them out either late on Friday or early Monday.

Veteran's Day Assembly

Thanks all of you for your help getting our students prepared for the Veteran's Day Assembly on Friday morning.  Some of the veterans were really surprised afterwards that we had Middle School students in attendance, saying, "there were middle school students here?  Aren't they usually loud?"  Kudos to all of you and our students for a solid display of what being a Puma is all about.

Puma Pride Interventions
As we collect all of the data from the end of the first quarter, we are about the embark on the implementation of systematic interventions to help students whose Puma Pride scores indicate that they need some assistance in different areas.  The grade level teams continue to work on the "Completes and Returns Work in a Timely Manner" standard.  Mrs. Morton has already begun to provide an intervention for any student that needs help with "Treats other with Kindness" standard, and next week, I will work with our students struggling with "Following classroom expectations".

Targeted Assessment/SLO Work
We are one week from the last PD Day, where we all mapped out our targeted assessment plan in relation to achieving our SLO.  As we move towards our next PD Day on Monday, 11/28/16, teachers should be in the targeted assessment cycle, and either ready to implement or analyze the data.  We will use part of the next PD day spent on collaboration around the data.

Staff Meeting in December

We will have a staff meeting on Tuesday, December 6th from 2:50 to 3:30 in Mrs. Anderson's room.  Our focus will be on creating a culture of rich student discussion in our classrooms.  We have too many teachers utilizing great practices to not spread the wealth.  If you utilize or have utilized effective strategies to build rich, level 4 discussion in your class, please let me know, and I'll set you up to share during our time together on 12/6.

Early Release Schedule
On Wednesday, 11/23, all students will be dismissed at 1:15.  Please review the Early Release Schedule before, and let me know if you see any conflicts in the assignments for that day so we can resolve them ahead of time.

Wednesday Visitors
This past Wednesday, we welcomed about 30 teachers/administrators from 4 districts across the state (Elkhorn, Antigo, McFarland, Fall River) to share a little bit of how we do things in terms of assessment and instruction.  Other educators across the state are interested in hearing how you all do what you do in the classroom.

Twitter Find of the Week
This chemistry teacher knows a little something about intrinsic motivation: .

Duty Next Week
Morning- Hazard, Johnson
Bus- Filerman