Friday, October 13, 2017

The Middle Update 10/13/17

This little "Puma in Training" has gotten off to a great start in her first 6 weeks of life.

We've had another action packed week with 7th graders honing their golf skills at the range, students working to become more and more like scientists at the Mackenzie Center, 8th graders presenting about their planned trips around the world, teachers working hand in hand with parents to support their kids, and 6th graders involved in a discussion that would rival those in many high school classes...a great week at Poynette Middle School.



Hattie's Mindframe Focus

Mindframe #6: I enjoy the challenge and never retreat to "doing my best".

     “Do your best” is something we often say to children (and ourselves) to motivate and encourage. However, this attitude is dangerously limiting—we should be striving to get children to do better than their best, to exceed their potential. Teachers need to adopt this attitude in their daily practice and strive to continually set and exceed their own performance goals. 
     Doing better than your best involves embracing challenge as a crucial part of every day life. The art of teaching lies in posing appropriate levels of challenge to different learners, and teaching students how to cope with challenge both in the classroom and beyond. To effectively cope with challenge, students need to see a clear purpose in it and have meaningful feedback about their performance in relation to success criteria and their next steps. When students don’t learn effectively, teachers must embrace the challenge themselves and ask themselves what they need to do differently to have a greater impact on that student’s learning. 

Congratulations to Mr. Hazard
Mr. Hazard has been selected, along with Mr. Ferkovich, to present at the 2017 Wisconsin State Music Conference on Friday, October 27th.  Scott and Joel will be presenting on the following topic: Practical and Meaningful Grading Practices for the Busy Music Teacher.  We are proud that Mr. Hazard will be representing PMS.

Article of the Week
"Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?"
The ARTICLE this week discusses how recent changes in technology have impacted a whole generation of kids.  In my opinion, the results from their generational study are quite astonishing and eye opening.

Sub-Calling
Lois Abel (608-770-0285) will be calling subs starting the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 11, through Oct. 27th.  As a reminder, please make evening calls prior to 10:00 PM and morning calls between 5:30-6:00 AM.  Gary Laib will be back on call beginning Oct. 29th.

Upcoming Community Advisory Committee Mtg.
The next meeting is this Wednesday (10/18) starting at 7:00 pm.  The committee will be taking a bus trip down to DeForest to tour the brand new construction of one of their elementary schools.  The purpose of this trip is to see first hand what newly constructed modern learning spaces look like.  All are welcome to attend.

DPI is looking for some help!
Teacher Can Help​ ​DPI ​Build​ ​Strategic​ ​Assessment​ ​Systems!
Wisconsin educators are invited to join our work in building assessment and data literacy. We are currently looking for educators who are data savvy to join the Classroom Data Tool User Advisory Group. The classroom data tool will store and track classroom level, student-centered data and will help teachers plan for instruction. The user group will meet remotely on a monthly basis and will advise and advocate user-friendly, time saving, and value-added features for the classroom data tool application.
Please read the Classroom Data Management Tool Advisory Group Description for more information
about the role of the user group within this project. The next user group meeting is on Monday, October 16th from 3:15pm-4:15pm. Contact lauren.zellmer@dpi.wi.gov if you are interested in participating.

PSD on Social Media
 


Duty Next Week
Bus - Laufenberg

Data
Attendance Rates through 6 weeks of school:
17-18 - 96.83%
16-17 - 96.52%
15-16 - 96.36%

Halloween Dance 10/27
The PAD Parent's Club will be sponsoring their annual Halloween Dance for our students. The Elementary Dance will be from 6:00 to 7:30, and the Middle School Dance will run from 7:30 to 9:00. The group asked if any teachers would be willing to attend and help chaperone while joining in on the fun. If you are interested, there will be free pizza, hot dog, and drink waiting for you. 

Images from the Week

    




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The Middle Update 10/13/17

This little "Puma in Training" has gotten off to a great start in her first 6 weeks of life.

We've had another action packed week with 7th graders honing their golf skills at the range, students working to become more and more like scientists at the Mackenzie Center, 8th graders presenting about their planned trips around the world, teachers working hand in hand with parents to support their kids, and 6th graders involved in a discussion that would rival those in many high school classes...a great week at Poynette Middle School.



Hattie's Mindframe Focus

Mindframe #6: I enjoy the challenge and never retreat to "doing my best".

     “Do your best” is something we often say to children (and ourselves) to motivate and encourage. However, this attitude is dangerously limiting—we should be striving to get children to do better than their best, to exceed their potential. Teachers need to adopt this attitude in their daily practice and strive to continually set and exceed their own performance goals. 
     Doing better than your best involves embracing challenge as a crucial part of every day life. The art of teaching lies in posing appropriate levels of challenge to different learners, and teaching students how to cope with challenge both in the classroom and beyond. To effectively cope with challenge, students need to see a clear purpose in it and have meaningful feedback about their performance in relation to success criteria and their next steps. When students don’t learn effectively, teachers must embrace the challenge themselves and ask themselves what they need to do differently to have a greater impact on that student’s learning. 

Congratulations to Mr. Hazard
Mr. Hazard has been selected, along with Mr. Ferkovich, to present at the 2017 Wisconsin State Music Conference on Friday, October 27th.  Scott and Joel will be presenting on the following topic: Practical and Meaningful Grading Practices for the Busy Music Teacher.  We are proud that Mr. Hazard will be representing PMS.

Article of the Week
"Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?"
The ARTICLE this week discusses how recent changes in technology have impacted a whole generation of kids.  In my opinion, the results from their generational study are quite astonishing and eye opening.

Sub-Calling
Lois Abel (608-770-0285) will be calling subs starting the evening of Wednesday, Oct. 11, through Oct. 27th.  As a reminder, please make evening calls prior to 10:00 PM and morning calls between 5:30-6:00 AM.  Gary Laib will be back on call beginning Oct. 29th.

Upcoming Community Advisory Committee Mtg.
The next meeting is this Wednesday (10/18) starting at 7:00 pm.  The committee will be taking a bus trip down to DeForest to tour the brand new construction of one of their elementary schools.  The purpose of this trip is to see first hand what newly constructed modern learning spaces look like.  All are welcome to attend.

DPI is looking for some help!
Teacher Can Help​ ​DPI ​Build​ ​Strategic​ ​Assessment​ ​Systems!
Wisconsin educators are invited to join our work in building assessment and data literacy. We are currently looking for educators who are data savvy to join the Classroom Data Tool User Advisory Group. The classroom data tool will store and track classroom level, student-centered data and will help teachers plan for instruction. The user group will meet remotely on a monthly basis and will advise and advocate user-friendly, time saving, and value-added features for the classroom data tool application.
Please read the Classroom Data Management Tool Advisory Group Description for more information
about the role of the user group within this project. The next user group meeting is on Monday, October 16th from 3:15pm-4:15pm. Contact lauren.zellmer@dpi.wi.gov if you are interested in participating.

PSD on Social Media
 


Duty Next Week
Bus - Laufenberg

Data
Attendance Rates through 6 weeks of school:
17-18 - 96.83%
16-17 - 96.52%
15-16 - 96.36%

Halloween Dance 10/27
The PAD Parent's Club will be sponsoring their annual Halloween Dance for our students. The Elementary Dance will be from 6:00 to 7:30, and the Middle School Dance will run from 7:30 to 9:00. The group asked if any teachers would be willing to attend and help chaperone while joining in on the fun. If you are interested, there will be free pizza, hot dog, and drink waiting for you. 

Images from the Week