Friday, September 13, 2019

The Middle Update 9/13/19

As we finish up the 2nd week of school, I am impressed with the feel of the culture in our building.  Overall, students are smiling, and responding favorably to the classic question, "How's it going today?"  We know that each day may bring some challenges or adversity for everyone...teaching our students how to approach adversity rationally, and modeling that for them on a daily basis is a cool part of our role in school.  A great start!


Resource of the Week
The resource this week is a foretelling article from 2012 by a parent and psychologist Niobe Way.  The short article provides a unique perspective to the evolution of our approach to the best practices in Middle School Education.  We need students to have trusting, connected relationships with as many people in the school as possible.  


SLO's
Prior to the school year, we had many opportunities and discussions in regards to data that shows where we could/should focus our SLO goals for the coming year.  We all should be in the process of drafting our SLO for the school year (myself included).  To provide a targeted time to work on crafting your SLO if you could use it, we'll have SLO Open Lab times available after school on the following days: Monday (9/16), Thursday, (9/19), and Monday (9/23) in the 1-8 IMC.  I, along with a coach or two, will be there to help anyone interested, analyze baseline data and draft their SLO for the coming school year.  SLO's must be ready to go and approved by mid-October.

MS Schedule of Events
There have been many additions to the PMS Calendar of Events for teachers since the last blog post.  We have included all of our scheduled drills for the school year, dates for Middle School grade level activities, the dates of our Middle School Staff Meetings, and our Student of the Month Breakfast dates for the year also.  The Calendar is still in draft form as there are some things still that may be added after some planning/discussion.  A special "thank you" goes out to Mrs. Andringa and Mrs. Weckerly for their interest and help with this plan.

Classroom Visits
In the next round of Bi-Weekly meetings with teachers, we'll be taking some time to visit other classrooms.  I know everyone is used to seeing me in your classroom, but in the next two weeks, there may be other visitors as well.  The opportunity to observe and reflect on teaching practice has been shown to be a vital way for all of us to continue to take the great things we do daily to the next level.  There is a minefield of talent in our school, and we need to learn from each other as much as we can!!

Forward Exam Results are released to the Public
The DPI released the results of the Forward Exam earlier this week.  You can view our results and the results of every school in the state at the WISEDASH Public Portal website.  Feel free to go in and check out the results.  To get to the Forward Exam results, hover over the WSAS, and down to Forward Exam.  School report cards are expected to be released in late October/early November.

Elementary Construction Video
Check it out...the walls are going up!!  VIDEO

Images from the Week









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The Middle Update 9/13/19

As we finish up the 2nd week of school, I am impressed with the feel of the culture in our building.  Overall, students are smiling, and responding favorably to the classic question, "How's it going today?"  We know that each day may bring some challenges or adversity for everyone...teaching our students how to approach adversity rationally, and modeling that for them on a daily basis is a cool part of our role in school.  A great start!


Resource of the Week
The resource this week is a foretelling article from 2012 by a parent and psychologist Niobe Way.  The short article provides a unique perspective to the evolution of our approach to the best practices in Middle School Education.  We need students to have trusting, connected relationships with as many people in the school as possible.  


SLO's
Prior to the school year, we had many opportunities and discussions in regards to data that shows where we could/should focus our SLO goals for the coming year.  We all should be in the process of drafting our SLO for the school year (myself included).  To provide a targeted time to work on crafting your SLO if you could use it, we'll have SLO Open Lab times available after school on the following days: Monday (9/16), Thursday, (9/19), and Monday (9/23) in the 1-8 IMC.  I, along with a coach or two, will be there to help anyone interested, analyze baseline data and draft their SLO for the coming school year.  SLO's must be ready to go and approved by mid-October.

MS Schedule of Events
There have been many additions to the PMS Calendar of Events for teachers since the last blog post.  We have included all of our scheduled drills for the school year, dates for Middle School grade level activities, the dates of our Middle School Staff Meetings, and our Student of the Month Breakfast dates for the year also.  The Calendar is still in draft form as there are some things still that may be added after some planning/discussion.  A special "thank you" goes out to Mrs. Andringa and Mrs. Weckerly for their interest and help with this plan.

Classroom Visits
In the next round of Bi-Weekly meetings with teachers, we'll be taking some time to visit other classrooms.  I know everyone is used to seeing me in your classroom, but in the next two weeks, there may be other visitors as well.  The opportunity to observe and reflect on teaching practice has been shown to be a vital way for all of us to continue to take the great things we do daily to the next level.  There is a minefield of talent in our school, and we need to learn from each other as much as we can!!

Forward Exam Results are released to the Public
The DPI released the results of the Forward Exam earlier this week.  You can view our results and the results of every school in the state at the WISEDASH Public Portal website.  Feel free to go in and check out the results.  To get to the Forward Exam results, hover over the WSAS, and down to Forward Exam.  School report cards are expected to be released in late October/early November.

Elementary Construction Video
Check it out...the walls are going up!!  VIDEO

Images from the Week