Specials are Coming, Specials are Coming

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

Specials are Coming, Specials are Coming —

We are close to starting specials in the afternoon. This will be a learning experience for all of us. Please be patient as we get this started. We have 3 classes your grade levels will be going to. We understand there are 4 and 5 classes in each grade level. Please put your classes into 3 groups. Please review how to act in the specials classes. We would like you to walk your class to the first special and help them get situated in the class before going to your team meeting. Please pick them up at the end of Specials so you can take them back for the ending bell. Kim and Glen will meet with you at the first Team meeting each month. We will be starting Specials after Labor Day.

We will also start interventions right after Labor Day. During the team data meetings, we will get the students grouped according to their needs and start working on lessons for the students. If you have questions or concerns, please let me or Kim know. We want this to be as successful for the students and teachers as possible. 

Quote I’m pondering —

"HOW we praise students can have a big impact on their mindset and achievement. Praise the effort." - Jo Boaler

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Tues. Aug. 27 - Acadience testing (All day) Wed. Aug. 28 - Team Data 9-5th, 10-3rd, 11-1st Wed. Aug. 28 - SEP Conf. 4-7pm Thu. Aug. 29 - Team Data 9-2nd, 10-K, 11-4th Thu. Aug. 29 - SEP Conf. 4-7pm Fri. Aug. 30 - PTA Room Mom Meeting 1:00	Mon. Sep 2 - Labor Day (No School) Tue. Sep. 3 - Afternoon Specials Start T-4th, W-2nd, Th-5th
Mon. Sep. 9 - First teachers training ½ day. School out at 1:15. We will have a guest presenter and then work on Professional Growth Plans.

Favorite Article This Week —

An Updated Guide To Questioning In The Classroom

Here is an article to help with questioning in the classroom. I really like the cube. You will need to adjust for your grade level.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you, kindergarten teachers. What a week as you started your classes after getting them into the right places. We get the bus riders back to their parents and you have been amazing with the students. We appreciate your patience as we get help for you with your big classes. This will be an amazingly successful year. Thank you for the time you take with your students. Thank you for the love you give them as they start their first full ½ day in school. Thank you, kindergarten teachers, for all you do for your students. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

Building Stars

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

Building Stars —

I was at Death Valley NP during Spring Break. It is my family's yearly trek for a family reunion. The Rangers do talks about the park each night and on Saturday they did a Star Walk. They had a telescope showing amazing constellations and bright stars. One of the rangers started talking about the Orion Nebula. To find the Orion Nebula you find Orion’s belt, three stars in a row in the Western Sky, and right below the belt is a haze. That is the Orion Nebula. He told us that a nebula is where stars are made. Nebulae are made out of interstellar gas and dust and as it comes together it compacts and bang, a star is made. So when I heard this I started thinking about what teachers do. You take all this knowledge, information, behavior modification, life skills, and fun and start to build people our of our little ones. As they gather all this learning from you, Bang, they turn into little stars. We are the Arrowhead Nebula taking the knowledge and creating little stars. As we get close to RISE testing, we will see how well our stars are doing. How much knowledge they are retaining. We do need to remember that tests do not make stars, learning does. As long as we are keeping our students engaged and they are learning, they will become the stars we know they can become. 

Quote I’m pondering —

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.
―Epicurus

What’s Happening This Week —

Mon., Mar. 25 - TAT with 5th grade 8:00

Mon., Mar. 25 - PLC Day Early Out 1:15

Mon., Mar. 25 - RISE Testing begins

Wed., Mar. 27 - PLC 8:15 Library

Fri., Mar. 29 - School Store

Fri., Mar. 29 - Team Leader Meeting 2:15

Mon., Apr. 1 - TAT with Kinder grade 8:00

Tue., Apr. 2 - PTA Meeting 12:15

Tue., Apr. 2 - Student Council Meeting 12:15

Wed., Apr. 3 - PLC 8:15 Library

Wed., Apr. 3 - 1st Grade Program 9:30 and 2:30

Favorite Article This Week —

Hattie’s 2017 Updated List of Factors Influencing Student Achievement

A reminder about what research says about what works and what does not work in the classroom. If it is not effective and high impact, we need to rethink what we are doing in the classroom.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you for another great week. I want to thank 3rd grade for the great discussion about technology during their PLC meeting. I have found that everyone has such a great attitude about Arrowhead and what we can do to help the students be more successful. I appreciate the work you do as teams. Thank you for all you do for students and the care for their success. Thank you for being amazing teachers. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

The Path is Clearer

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

The Path is Clearer—

The DIBELS data from the Middle Of the Year is looking very good. I compared last year's BOY through EOY and this year's BOY to MOY and the students have improved a little more in half a year then they did the full year last year. Even with the new sections in First and Third. The work you have done for the last couple of years is showing and it is amazing. The path we have been on is showing dividends. We appreciate all you have done. As we keep on the path Jennifer has helped us with the students will see success in many ways. Thank you all for all you do. 

Quote I’m pondering —

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment. -- Marcus Aurelius

What’s Happening This Week —

Mon., Jan 21 - Martin Luther King Jr. Day (No School)

Mon., Jan 22 - 25 - No Power 50 this week

Mon., Jan 22 - 25 - Aides will be coming to all PLC’s this week to discuss Power 50 lessons

Tues., Jan 22 - iReady Training grades 5th:8:10-9:30, 4th:9:40-11:00, 3rd:12:00-1:20

Tues., Jan 22 - Hundredth Day of School

Tues., Jan 29-30 - Jennifer Throndsen training and observation

Favorite Article This Week —

There will be a total eclipse of the moon over Utah Sunday night

If you are in Utah on Sunday night, take a peek at the moon about 9:00PM to watch the eclipse.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you to our new custodian Jeff for all you have done to keep our school going. It has been great to have a head custodian again and has kept the tradition of cleanliness at Dixie Sun. We appreciate your attention to detail and for helping with our new evening custodians. It has been hit and miss with our custodians for a while and we appreciate all you have done so far. You are a great addition to our school. Thank you for all you have done so far. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful 3 day weekend.

The Instructional Focus

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

The Instructional Focus  —

The instructional Focus in our school has been improving our Phonics and Phonemic Awareness in all grades, improving fluency and writing in the upper grades, and improving science instruction in the classroom and in the lab. At the beginning of the year, we found that we had a real need for Phonics and Phonemic Awareness as we tested students with Dibels and the Core Phonics Assessment. This led to more instruction in the younger grades with those specific areas and fluency in the upper grades. We are just touching the surface with the writing instruction in 2-5 grades. When we found the deficit in Phonics and PA, the writing piece was pushed to the back because the building blocks of reading and writing needed to be focused upon. Working with Jennifer and Sara this year has been an eye-opener for me to see why students are not reading and writing well in the upper grades. When the basics are not met, they cannot move on to the next step. That makes it harder for all of us, so we needed to concentrate more on the Phonics and PA. Once students have these two firmly in their grasp the next parts of reading and writing come so much easier. I am excited to see the improvement in our students through the lessons and teaching you are doing in the classrooms that is making a huge difference in students reading and writing abilities. The information text geared toward science in the classroom is making a difference also. We are hoping the new reading program will help every more. It has great stories and lessons built on science. The lessons Shelly is teaching and the hands-on activities are going to help students as they see and feel the way science works in their lives. We will see amazing progress in our students this year and over the next few years. Thank you for all your hard work.

Quote I’m pondering —

"If you hit a wrong note, it's the next note that you play that determines if it's good or bad." —Miles Davis

What I am Watching —

Let's Teach Kids to Code

Coding is more than a way to write computer programs. This Ted talk teaches what it can do for kids in their lives.

Another Favorite Article This Week —

Using the Socratic Seminar to Improve Classroom Discussions

A little reminder about the Socratic Seminar information Kristen and Alma presented a week ago. The challenge is there

A Big Thank You —

Thank you all teachers that wrote grants for your students for all you do.  Hailey, Irene(2x), Elena, Adriana, Merced, Jaime, Mar, Scott, Julie, and Kathy. 11 teachers received grants. That is amazing. Every teacher that wrote a grant, got one. Next year everyone should write one. That would be amazing. Thank you, teachers, for taking the time and taking a chance to write the grant. We have an amazing school that is always looking for something that will help our students get better. Thank you for all you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.

The Improvement Plan

Teachers,

Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday. 

The Improvement Plan  —

Our grade has dropped from a C to a D as a school. What does that mean? It means we need to help our students go deeper and build their successes. As Kim and I reflected on last year we found a few  hints we needed to adjust to make students more successful. The first hung we needed to do was find time for interventions. With our schedule it is not easy to find that time in our limited day, so the thought came to build in a club time for all students to participate in. This gives students intervention time as well as an extension for every student sometime throughout the year. The next thought we had was we needed to change up our English strand classes. This would take extra help moving students into a couple different classes as well as changing schedules around. This is still a work in progress, but the idea is that it will give everyone an opportunity to learn and it would mix the classes up in a way that every student succeeds. Scheduling has been an interesting challenge, but in he end it should provide great results. The third idea that came up was that Shelly needed help with the science. 30 minutes a week with every student does not build science mastery, or even come close. So we thought that science needed to be more prevalent in the classroom in the form of informational ready, which everyone is doing anyway. Adding more science practice, background knowledge, and science vocabulary in the classroom will help students be more successful in understanding the world around them. And the last idea was one that came as we read through what you wanted as teachers in the survey last year. More PD for Phonics, Language, reading comprehension, and writing. So we called in the big guns, Jennifer and Sara. Actually everything we reflected on came from thoughts teachers had as we talked about how to make our school a better, more successful learning environment. One last piece that we think will help us providing snacks and Tan’s Treats for our students. These programs will give food where it is needed for our students. I don’t like to say that we are teaching to any teat. What we are trying to do is make our school a more successful place for students to be successful in, especially as they leave us. We want them to be ready for everything life will throw at them. Education is a game changer for many students. Anything we can do to up their game is a bonus. If you have any ideas or thoughts about this plan, please let us know. We are always up for ways to make our school better.  

Quote I’m pondering —

“Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, ‘What else could this mean?’”

― Shannon L. Alder

What I’m watching —

Imogen Heap's Mi.Mu gloves will "change the way we make music"

I love Imogene Heap’s music. When I saw a video about Imogene using gloves to make music I had to learn more. This, to me, is what our students are going to be doing in the future. Creating something to make life better, or more fun. I also wonder how this might change how we teacher or how students might learn…with a pair of gloves.

Favorite Article This Week —

Why Multilingual People Have Healthier, More Engaged Brains

This is our students. They have strong brains. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you. It has been a busy year so far and as we get deeper into the year I see how amazing the teachers and staff are at Dixie Sun. Working with many different staffs over the years it has been hard to get some engaged in trainings. There has been many times when the teachers would not get up and engage in the activity we were involved in. Not so here. We realize that if we expect our students to be engaged, we should also. When we are learning, we need to be learning. I appreciate the support you give whomever is teaching the PD. We get comments from everyone that comes to teach us that our teachers are engaged and wanting to learn. I just want you to know that you are amazing teachers. Thank you for all you do. Thank you. 

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.

Addendum: I was reminded that another part of the plan was to add Mindset to our learning in the classroom. Teaching students and teachers about a growth mindset helps each understand more about how the brain works. It also builds persistence and that it is ok to make mistakes. Growth Mindset can increase learning in everyone because of their outlook on learning.