School Goal

School Goal: To decrease our chronic absenteeism rate from 16.2% (17.18 EOY) to 13% (18.19 EOY) by upholding our attendance policy and using positive, proactive initiatives and incentives. 

Thank you to all the teachers who have reached out and contact parents with students who have 2 & 4 absences.

Is anyone close to spelling out perfect attendance? If your class is half-way there, let me know so we can give them an encouraging shout out during Open Ceremony. 

Thank You

   

    Cari for decorating the staff room. I truly love everything, but my favorite is the Brewing Station.

   Lisa I. for organizing the school store items in the office. I love your organizational skills.  

   

   Christina R. for designing and creating our meeting norms poster. It looks amazing!

    All Keystone Staff for all the positive interactions, “whatever it takes” mindsets, and hard work that every staff member demonstrates daily. Thank you for embracing change and making my transition into the principal role so smooth. You are a major reason that I am excited to come to work every day. 

Promoting Keystone

We would love to post the great things that you do in your classrooms on our school's Facebook page. If you have an exciting lesson, activity, field trip, etc. please let your dean know so that we can come and film it or you can record it and send it your dean’s phone.

Thanks in advance for everything that you do to positively promote Keystone.

This Week

Monday, January 21:

   ·      No School-MLK

Tuesday, January 22:

   ·      Nancy Kouba, DSQ, will be here from 12:00-3:00. We may be doing admin observations during this time.

Wednesday, January 23:

   ·      6-8 teachers submit certificates to Jorvonna. Please check Media Release Information list prior to submitting the certificates.

   ·      Kinder Information Night 5:30-6:30

Friday, January 25:

   ·      Sloane Leppen’s B-day

   ·      Student of the Month Assembly (Grades 6-8)

   ·      Spirit Day-$1 Jean & 50 cents Popcorn

Saturday, January 26:

   ·      Staff Holiday Party at Fowling Warehouse 6-9:30 PM

Happy Birthday

Sloane-January 25

School Goals

Thank you for your discussion, feedback, and support during our staff meeting around our school goal to decrease our chronic absenteeism rate from 16.2% (17.18 EOY) to 13% (18.19 EOY) by upholding our attendance policy and using positive, proactive initiatives and incentives.

As discussed, teachers will…

• ·        reach out to families with students who have 2 & 4 absences and “cc” deans on the communication.

o   Please feel free to “tweak” the email templates that I sent out to add your personal touch or if you have a unique situation.

• ·        promote Perfect Daily Attendance. Every classroom will try to spell out the word ATTENDANCE on the board (a letter each day that all students are present, on time, and with no early dismissals. 10 days of perfect daily attendance receives a classroom reward that is determine by the teacher (not to exceed 30 mins).

o   Don’t forget to include this in your weekly newsletter to parents.

Please make sure to notify me when your class spells out the word ATTENDANCE, so that I can announce it during Opening Ceremony and in my Monday Night Phone Call. 

Classroom Framework

This week we focused on Classroom Culture through admin observations and staff meeting discussion. The admin team saw great things during our collaborative observations. In addition, during our staff meeting we talked about the differences between level 2 and 3 behaviors. During that conversation, we stated:

·    Teachers were responsible for level 2 and 3 behaviors (investigating, entering, and determining and upholding appropriate consequences).

·    All level 2 behaviors need to be entered into MyNHA and an email sent to parents.

·       Level 3 behaviors require a parent phone call

Although, teachers are responsible for level 2 and 3 behaviors, please do not hesitate to reach out to a member of the admin team (deans, Jen H. or myself) for assistance. We can brainstorm strategies; cover you class so you can speak to the student and/or parent; co-teach with you; do behavior observations, etc. You are responsible, but you are NOT alone!

If you do have a student who consistently demonstrates level 2 behaviors, it’s important to analyze the behavior to determine the motivation using the Behavior Motivation Analysis. The BMA should be utilized with any student who has behavioral needs that have not effectively been addressed using typical classroom management strategies. Is the motivation behind the behavior: attention seeking, revenge, power, or fear of failure? This is a tool that helps teachers to proactively address student’s disengagement by reflecting on the behaviors to determine what the student is attempting to communicate to the teacher, such as:

·        The possible motivation(s) for the behaviors

·        Patterns of behaviors

·        Antecedents to the behaviors

·        Consequences used and the effectiveness of these consequences

Through this process you may learn new information about the student including:

·        Home life and family structure/situation

·        Fears, concerns, worries, insecurities

·        Triggers

·        Preferred calming and settling strategies

·        Effectiveness of previously enforced consequences

·        Possible reasons for the (in)effectiveness of these strategies  

Attached I’ve included the BMA form, prevention and intervention strategies for each motivator below to assist you with the process. I have a more in-depth prevention and intervention sheets for those who want to do this. The prevention and intervention documents below provide just an overview. Again, don’t hesitate to reach out to a member of the admin team for support. 

BMA-5 pages by on Scribd