November 20, 2009

Changes in Staff – Monday, Lacey McCormick will start working in Amy Mathisen’s room as we will have a new student beginning next week. With the addition of this student and the impending return of another student, Amy will need “all hands on deck.” Please welcome Lacey to Washington – she will be a great addition to WIS and Amy’s program (on a related note - Lacey graduated from the same high school as I did so we know her educational background is top-notch!!  Go Hawkeyes!)  Secondly, through changes with the high school office staff, Brenda Black will begin a new sharing position between WIS and the HS. She will be with us from 11:30 am through 2:30 pm every day. Stephanie will change her time at WIS from 7:45 to 4:15 pm. What does this mean for all of us? For starters, we will need additional help in the office to start the day and we need to make sure we communicate through Stephanie for morning announcements. I’m sure we will learn as we go, but I know the collaborative nature of our staff will allow us to make this adjustment a successful one for WIS, the HS, Brenda and most importantly, the students and parents! 

PTO Assembly - Will be on Monday, November 23rd, in the gym. We will begin around 9:15 am but will make an announcement when our presenters are here. They will announce trashbag winners and talk to students about the upcoming Box Top contest.

Flip Camcorder - Bob's email this week is a good offer if you're interested in spending grade level PTO dollars.  I've seen the flip cams in action and they are very handy and extremely easy to use. Start by going to DigitalWish.org (which looks a lot like DonorsChoose.org) and go from there. Bob's email:  While at the Technology Conference in Denver, Janelle Erickson & I attended a grant writing workshop. The attached document is from http://www.digitalwish.org/ (requires no writing). They are offering a “buy one, get one free” promotion for Flip Camcorders for use in your classroom. The cost for 2 cameras is $150.00 plus $12.00 shipping. Each teacher is limited to 2 purchases (4 cameras).

Winter Assessment - The teams will need to discuss and let me know what you'll be doing for Winter assessment process. Please let me know what your PLC decides by next Wednesday!

When to test (joint discussion or agreement between 4th and 5th)
a. In the past, we have always tested the first week back in January. Please confirm or let me know if you would like to change to the last week of December. This change in date was brought to me as it was suggested it would allow the teachers to ‘get right back to work’ when we return from Christmas break instead of testing.


Who to test?
a. Test all students using Gates (or SRI…whatever tool you used in the fall to place students into levels).
b. Test all students who were identified as needing additional and needing substantial interventions (and ‘borderline’ kids).
 How will the team report out and share growth?
a. A grade level report was not completed in the fall. There needs to be a grade level report showing students as to where there are now as compared to the fall (% at NSI in fall vs. winter and so on).  I met with the 5th grade team Thursday and we came up with plan - 4th grade see me!


Math assessment – is it needed?
a. Will students be given a mid-year math assessment?
b. How do we know if students are progressing at the level they need to be?


IPI Walkthroughs - We will be doing one more round of Instructional Practices Inventory walkthroughs in December before I share the data with the staff. During these walkthroughs, we are looking for the level of student and teacher engagement with the learning. Some questions will arise from the data and we may discuss: Are students engaged in higher-order thinking skills on a regular basis? Is the teacher engaged in instruction and supporting learning?

Website of the Week - There are likely 1000's of teachers and administrators out there sharing ideas and resources via blogs.  In fact, a search for "education blog" on Delicious.com results in 74,475 links...not sure if this one made the cut or not.  One good one I have found for elemetary teachers is "Teaching Challenges" by an Australian 4th grade teacher.  She does a weekly "Tech Tip Tuesday" article and talks about the ups and downs of teaching little ones.

Click here for Upcoming PLC Dates
Dates to note....
• 11/23/09 PTO assembly in gym – 9:15 (to award trash bag sales winners)
• 11/23/09 Midterm grades due to the office by 4 pm
• 11/25/09 2 hr early dismissal; Midterm grades go home
---Teachers may leave 1 hr after bus departure
• 11/26 & 27  No School – Thanksgiving break
• 12/2 2 hr early dismissal
• 12/9 2 hr early dismissal
• 12/11 WIS Christmas party – 5:00 pm
• 12/14 School Board meeting – 6:00 pm
• 12/17 1st Semester Cutoff for grades
• 12/17 4th grade music program – 6:00 pm – HS Auditorium followed by 3rd grade music program
• 12/18 2 hr early dismissal; End 1st semester/2nd quarter
• 1/4/10 Begin 2nd semester/3rd quarter
• 1/5/10 Grades due to the office by 4 pm
• 1/7/10 1st Semeser Report cards go home