Staff Newsletter for 01/30/2017
Published on January 30, 2017
Hi Team,
The RTI conference was really great. We are doing a lot of really great things at Kodiak Middle School, but we still have room to improve.
One of the big topics at the conference was the power of PLCs and looking at data. It is powerful and helps our kids be successful.
Another big point of emphasis was the power of peer observation and reflection. For those who are coteaching, you see the power of having someone else to learn from and share ideas with. A major shoutout to our Math department for their peer observations, as that is one of the things that is shown to have a great impact on student learning. We can arrange for more peer observation, if you are interested.
Progress Monitoring and Intervention:
Please fill out this form as you start an intervention with a student who is struggling. This will trigger an alert to Mike and Meagan to progress monitor the student so that we can track the effectiveness of an intervention.
Here is the data for the progress monitoring that Mike and Meagan will start this week. This is the beginning and the students on this list are the ones that will be getting progress monitoring first. IF you are progress monitoring a student on here, you may add your name to “Team Member” column and then Mike and Meagan won’t progress monitor them. :) If you need someone to be progress monitored then fill out this form.
We started an intervention for Tardies. Here is the Data.
Upcoming Calendar items:
The assembly is today, not tomorrow. Sorry about my miscommunication last week! We will be on a special schedule, with the assembly at 10:30. Please go to the assembly with your 3rd period classes. Schedule here
The School Climate and Connectedness Survey window is February 20-March 3. This survey is given every year and helps us know our student and staff perceptions of the school. For the last three years, we have been trending up in most areas. Here is the data from last year specifically. Piktograph and more detailed data and the item-by-item analysis. Note: “Significant improvement in staff perceptions in respectful climate, school safety, parent and community involvement, and school leadership.” These views really validate the great work that we are doing at KMS. This last year also had higher than usual participation from staff at the middle school, so it really is reflective of more staff.
Friday for our early release time, we will be doing an edcamp, which is where you come ready to talk about what you want to talk about. We will make the sessions there, and break off into 4 or 5 groups.
Resources:
An interesting article about appropriately touching students by Jessica Lahey, author of “The Gift of Failure“. As we continue to learn about trauma sensitive strategies for our students, this is an idea to put in the back of your mind.
This article by Ian Byrd speaks about fear and nervousness and how getting excited is the best response! Very interesting!
Thanks,
Jethro