The admin team will be finishing Classroom Culture observations
this week. All teachers should have culture ratings in his or her framework by
October 2. Next, we will be focusing on the Teaching competency.
Please review the “look fors” in the document below to provide you with some
insight on what we are looking for when we observe you in action. Don’t
hesitate to reach out if you have any questions regarding the expectations.
Teaching Look Fors by embryjd on Scribd
Ashley H for volunteering for additional responsibilities in the morning to assist our youngest students.
Sloane for making
sure a student arrives and leaves school safely.
Andria and Cindy
for working
together to a create school-wide schedule identifying each grade level.
Megan for
spending a lot additional time in the office providing your students and
parents with technology support.
Robyn for
organizing picture day flawlessly and staying late both nights.
Jamie, Robyn, and Stacey for making
sure to provide your direct reports with continuous coaching and support.
Jen D for my wonderful
gift. It was exactly what I needed.
Tricia for being
thoughtful on so many levels.
Jamie for ensuring
we are in legal compliance with enrollment.
Laquanda for greeting
me every morning with a smile.
Michelle and Megan
for volunteering
wonderful ideas.
Michelle and Nikki for taking
on an additional task to support a positive school culture and environment.
Amelia for helping
the admin team clean up our 504 documents.
Liz for making personal deliveries
to students which ensured that they are step up for success.
Monday, September 28:
·
K-2 Fall Numeracy
Wednesday, September 29:
·
Staff meeting 2:30-3:30 PM
Friday, October 2:
·
DUE: Morning
Assembly Presentation to Robyn-LEPPEN (Hispanic Latino Heritage)
·
Payday Friday Breakfast-1st Grade
Nikki: October 7
Tabitha: October 8
Monique: October 10
Julie: October 14
Mechelle: October 15
Kim J: October 25
There is a special gift in the mailboxes of all the people who celebrate their birthdays in October.
Please view the right side of the blog for important dates in
*If you have an event to add or something has been forgotten, please
let me know!
In a continuous effort to support our school goal, “Establish a Professional Culture of Excellence,” we utilized your feedback to refine our expectations for Keystone cash. It is our expectation that all staff take ownership by following the guidelines below.
System
Currency
To be consistent with NHA's Schoolwide Positive Behavior
System-please do not give Keystone cash for academic reasons (academic success,
AR points, right answers, etc.)
Give Keystone cash for ONLY the
following reasons:
1.
Behavior and
participation: $1 a day (up to $5 per week)
o Virtual-attended
all synchronous sessions and completed all assignments
o Hybrid-on
green for their in-person days and on remote days attended all synchronous
sessions and completed all assignments
2. Moral
Focus: going above and beyond in exemplifying virtues (student
demonstrating the virtues without being prompted.)
Guidelines
Teachers only give out
increments of $1. You would only use the $ 5 for the grand total at the end of
the week.
Keystone cash is not to be
used as a whole class reward. You should not give your entire class $1 for
doing something. Keystone cash should only be for individual or small group of students.
· Ex. In a
small group, a student gets the right answer and another student demonstrate
"encouragement" by congratulating them (without being prompted).
· Ex.
Student demonstrates "compassion" by inviting a new student to play
with them (without being promoted).
Check out the document below that outlines some new features available to you in Google Meet.
You are able to:
New Features in Google Meet 9.17.20 by embryjd on Scribd
Students will not be following our normal dress code next week due to spirit and picture day. Staff may participate in spirit day on Monday and Friday by wearing jeans with a gold, yellow, or Harper Strong top and gym shoes. All money collected from spirit day will go towards American Cancer Society to recognize September as Childhood Cancer Awareness month. I encourage you to contribute by giving at least a $1. You can donate more by clicking on the link: Keystone Academy Page
On Tuesday and
Thursday, we are asking staff to wear your normal professional attire for
picture day.
There will be no afterschool PLC (team) meeting on Tuesday. It
has been rescheduled to Wednesday from 10:30-11:30. To provide work-life
balance, we have cancelled our DDI meeting for this month.
One of our Core Values is to “behave with care.” We want to encourage our staff to use our High Five system. To create a
school culture built on respect and positivity, any staff member that sends 5
High Fives each month will receive a jeans pass. Please make sure to notify
your dean to receive your jeans pass.
Tracy, Laquanda, and Jena for getting 100% FRL forms turned
in.
Tracy and
Sarah D for presenting at our Digital Platform Learning Night.
Megan, Sarah M, Julie, Christina,
Monique, Mechelle, Julianne, Kari, Jena, Steve, Tracy, Tully, Sarah D, Stacey, Stefanie,
Sarah Z, Jen D, and Robyn for spending
an evening with our families when it wasn’t a required event. Your commitment
to our families amazes me.
Ashely H for
meeting a tight timeline.
Stephanie for
ordering three
meals this week. Thank you for taking care of everything.
Deb, Gary, and Tabitha thank you
for getting all the chairs and tables out of the garage for me. I love how you
are always willing to go above and beyond to help me.
Amelia for jumping
in and taking on McKinney-Vento.
Megan and Sarah for
inviting me into your virtual classroom this week. I loved seeing your
students’ families.
Michelle for
demonstrating care and urgency pertaining to a student’s home situation.
Sarah D for all
things NWEA. You have been a lifeline for our entire staff these past two
weeks. The admin team has been so grateful for your unwavering support.
Robyn for organizing
picture day.
Jamie for making
a lot of parent phone calls to help your teachers with attendance issues.
Tully and Tracy for
providing attendance clarification to your families and responding to a million
questions with a positive attitude.
Jen D for taking
care of me during lunch. You made my day!
Stacey for being
well prepared to provide the K-2 wing with digital platform support.
Nikki and Diane for giving
a parent the empathy that she needed.
Julie for always
being willing to help a colleague.
Jamie providing
update safety communication to the staff.
Tabitha for continuously
meeting with your student synchronously to provide support on his remote days.
Monday, September 21:
·
Spirit Day-yellow, gold, or Harper
Strong shirt with jeans for $1
Tuesday, September 22:
·
Picture Day
Wednesday, September 23:
·
PLC (team) Meeting 10:30-11:30
Thursday, September 24:
·
Picture Day
·
Nancy, DSQ, Visit 8:00-10:30
Friday, September 25:
·
Spirit Day-yellow, gold, or Harper
Strong shirt with jeans for $1
· Sub Binder Due
·
DUE: Morning
Assembly Presentation to Robyn-CHENG (Hispanic Latino Heritage)
According to the CDC, “Children’s books, like other paper-based materials such as mail or envelopes, are not considered a high risk for transmission and do not need additional cleaning or disinfection procedures.” We will leave it up to teacher’s discretion if you want to make your classroom libraries available to students. In addition, you can utilize the library and our bookroom (located in the 3-5 wing) for additional book selections for your students. Click on the CDC Website for more information.
Assembly this school year will be
on Mondays and Thursdays. Robyn will be prerecording all assemblies and sending
classroom teachers. We ask that all teachers show assembly during their morning
meetings on Mondays and Thursdays. On Mondays, we will focus on social/emotional
and cultural awareness by assigning each teacher a specific week and culture.
The students in that classroom will create a short 5-minute presentation. On
Thursdays, we recognize Students of the Month (SOM). SOM is given to students
who exemplify our monthly Moral Focus virtue. Don’t forget that each teacher
will recognize one student per month. Every Thursday at morning assembly, we
recognize students in the following grades:
· Week 1: Y5s-2nd
Grade
· Week 2: 3rd-5th
Grade
· Week 3: 6th-8th
Grade
· Week 4: Specials
There will be months when we will need to alter the schedule
above.
As discussed in our staff meeting, we will continue to support students who are not attending in-person and/or virtual sessions through parent communication.
Parent Communication
· Reach out to families with students who have 2 & 4 absences and “cc”
your dean and Jen H. on the communication.
· I am providing you with wording that you can use in your email
communication to parents on the U-drive à Attendance folder à Teacher Email to Parents. Please feel free to “tweak” the email
templates to add your personal touch or if you have a unique situation.
One of our Core Values is to “act with discipline to sustain our academic success and financial viability.” So, please make sure to pick up all the copies that you are making. There has been a lot of unclaimed papers in the copier room.
In addition, please only print color documents to the color printer. I’m seeing a lot of black and white documents coming from that printer. The ink for the color printer is more expensive than the other copiers.
Tricia for the thoughtful gift. It was a
nice surprise!
Ashley H for organizing
a binder to help with a student’s medical needs.
Steve and Christina
for
allowing me to join one of your virtual sessions. It was great to see the great
things that you are doing and to interact with our virtual students.
Stacey for being
thoughtful and brightening my morning.
Jamie for
ensuring that all staff have leadership opportunities this school year.
Robyn for trying
new things with morning assembly that provides opportunities for our students
to participate.
Amelia and Morgan
for
embracing your new roles. You have both started a new position at a new school
and taken on “compliance” with a smile.
Robyn, Jamie, and Stacey for
leading successful wing meetings to support our teachers with lesson
preparation.
Sarah D for providing
training to our virtual teachers regarding NWEA.
Jen D for
spreading positivity to our staff! Thanks for making positivity a priority.
Monique and Kari
for sharing
best practices with your colleagues during our staff meeting.
Thursday, September 17:
·
Social Contract Posted
Friday, September 18:
·
Payday Friday Breakfast-2nd
Grade
We would like to welcome Angela Edwards as
our new EL teacher. We look forward to
her first day on October 16. We are excited that all our teaching positions are
filled.
We are still in need of a
part-time lunch/recess aide who can work Thursdays and Fridays from 10:00-1:00. If
you know someone who would be interested, please have them apply online at
NHACareers.com.
To maintain our
strong partnerships with our families,
don’t forget to make your Family Connections by this Friday, September 11. You should be reaching out via
phone and/or a Google Meet (no emails).
With parents not
being allowed in the building this school year, we still want to provide our
families opportunities to connect with you.
Please see the schedule below for
Wednesday’s agenda. In addition to the items below, there are some Grade Level
Intervention PLCs scheduled. During the GL Intervention PLCs, you will be
discussing benchmarking data and intervention grouping.
8:00-8:30 Whole Class
Synchronous Lessons
10:30-11:30 Wing Meetings: Topic
2
3:15-4:15 Staff Meeting
September 9 Staff Meeting Agenda
1.
Icebreaker
2. Good News
4. Best Practice Share Out
5. Retention Process
6. “At Risk” Social Work Referral
Process
7. Due Dates
8. Q & A
9. Launch
*You will be attending the meeting from your classroom using the
Google Meet link in the calendar invite. Starting at 2:45, please go to the
staff lounge to sign in, gather the documents that we will be discussing, and grab some snacks.
*Meeting begins promptly at 3:15
As a
friendly reminder, gym shoes are not approved shoes for staff, except on
Wednesdays. We understand that some staff members have medical conditions that
require them to wear gym shoes. Please make sure that you provide me with an
updated note from your physician.
Also, when wearing
sandals, please remember that they should either have a heel or strap on the
back to avoid them from being flipflops. Sleeveless
shirts and/or dresses are acceptable, but majority of your shoulders and back must be covered, no
thin straps. Thank you for maintaining professionalism.
Starting next week, the admin team will be doing collaborative observations; all of us observing teachers together. The purpose of the observations is to provide consistency with our expectations and further our development as leaders.
Please know that we will try to notify you in advance if the entire admin team is coming into your classroom, but it may not always be possible.
For the next two weeks, we will
be observing the Classroom Culture competency from the Framework. See below for the expectations for each indicator. Do not hesitate to reach out to the deans or me if you have any questions about
the expectations.
Classroom Culture by embryjd on Scribd
