October 26th

Our first week back from Fall Break and it was hectic! It felt a little like 'pay for play'!  I'm reminded of Josh's guiding words..."it is what it is". It never helps to push against the struggle of time demands, but rather try to find a way to prioritize and then march on.

Friday Flash represents the challenges I've experienced this last week and am likely to to experience again over the next several weeks when my time won't be my own. I really found myself upset about this and resentful at the way the calendar was going to impact my work. A lot of good that did me.

This coming week you have Student-led conferences, excited students about their costume parade, meetings,...an oh yeah, instruction to plan for and deliver. I suggest you join me in acknowledging that our 100% looks different on certain days and weeks, but we're still giving 100%.

This coming week, and the next few, the district is ramping up their training program for principals on the CITE evaluation tool, Backwards Planning and World Class Education. I will be out of the building a good bit which will change the way Friday Flash will look for the next several weeks. I'm having to give myself permission to be okay that it won't be as 'full bodied' as I would like. Last of all, you won't find yourself very inspired by it. For now, it will have to serve as a tool to give you the big picture of what is going on at the building level as far as dates and events.

Perhaps this break is a good chance for me to consider how I can freshen it and change it up a bit. See...I'm trying to spin what is out of my control into what I can control! 

Have a great week watching your students share all that they have learned and how joyful they will be!

Calendar

Saturday, Oct. 27th:
OLE Work Day canceled
Gear Swap in the gym

October 29 - November 2:

Week of Student Led Conferences
Fall Climbing

Monday
Interim Assessment Make-ups (done by teacher in classroom - hand student the assessment and ask them to work in a quiet area in the classroom)

Tuesday
No RTI meeting/opportunity for teachers to schedule time with specialists

Wednesday
Costume Parade/breakfast
No PD - Time for Student Led Conferences

Thursday
6th grade gone on Field Work to Keystone Science School
STAND UP STAFF MEETING AT 7:45 A.M. to discuss some safety procedures
Substitute for 2nd-6th grade rotation for scoring Interim Assessment (see Noreene's email for your time)

* Discovery Parent Orientation - for parents wanting more information about Discovery to decide whether they will apply. 6:30 p.m. in our library

Friday
6th grade gone on Field Work to Keystone Science School

November 5 - 9:

Fall Climbing

Tuesday
No RTI meeting
Professional Development Day (No students - please remind parents)
Our day will be devoted to Restorative Circles - still not showing up on Staff Development Course Catalog - I'm working on that :)

Wednesday
New Parent Orientation 8:00 a.m.
Leadership Team Meeting 11:00 a.m.

Thursday
Book Fair Drop Off

Friday
Book Fair Set Up

Halloween Parade:

The decision was made to have two parades - one in the primary hallway (including K) and one in the intermediate hallway (including 6 and 5/6).

 Kindergarten will start the primary hallway parade.
 6th grade can start the intermediate hallway parade.

The parades will not go to the Kindergarten classrooms or to the lodges. Those students will just join the parade in their assigned hallway.

After the parades, crews can have their healthy breakfasts/brunch in their own classrooms along with whatever activities they choose.

We will not have an All School Meeting that day.

** HINT!!!   
PLEASE, please communicate the plan with parents as this plan is different than what has been done in the past.
 If parents arrive and know the plan - less confusion and frustration for them and that equals happy community! 
These 'special events' have a very high value for parents. They spend time creating, shopping and preparing their child with a costume and have invested time in their relationship with them looking forward to this special fun. Parents have a personal investment = big deal for them too!

Can the kids use their personal digital devices at school?

Yes and No.

Personal digital devices CAN be used FOR learning. Students who do this need to sign a users agreement and you can get that from Julie.
No, when they want to take them to the cafeteria or out for recess.

So what is the Leadership Team up to these days?

The Leadership Team has spent time developing the focus sessions for our Professional Development days between Fall Break and the holiday. Together we identified that we need to carve out time to support teachers in developing their Balanced Assessment System. We recognized the need for the PD time for math but didn't see how we could accomplish both. We haven't abandoned the work with math, just hit the 'pause' button for a bit.

In order to accomplish developing a Balanced Assessment System the team recognized the need for a backwards plan to facilitate that goal. So the team has been working on a draft to use with primary and intermediate teams.

The team will also be doing some analysis of the state assessment (TCAP) to see whether there are some misalignments between the way the state measures student proficiency in writing and how we internally are measuring proficiency. This is linked to our Unified Improvement Plan (UIP) and our goal of increasing the number of students who are proficient and advanced in writing.

We keep meeting notes on a Google Doc and I will share that with anyone at anytime.

Please share any thoughts, feedback or suggestions with members of the Leadership Team as we progress through this work.

No, this is not a photo of the Leadership Team.


Have a great Sunday!
Deborah