Monday Memo 10.28.19

Happy Monday!

The character parade was so much fun!  This is such a wonderful tradition at DCE that our students and families love. It could not be pulled off without the help of our office staff that fielded phone calls and questions, our custodial staff that set up sign in tables and also helped lead the parade, our paraprofessional staff that signed in and directed visitors, and our teachers that helped plan and facilitate the event.  The day continued with our 3rd graders enjoying their Field Day, fourth graders presenting their Tacky Tourist research projects, and some first graders learning about genres through a Bakery Book Tasting event.  DCE is truly a great place to be!

Weekly Schedule:

This week is a bit quieter.  Take a peek at the schedule below.  Don't forget your yummy pumpkin treat to share on Thursday!

PD: Element One- Learning Goals, Scales, and Rubrics

Thank you for participating in our first professional development session on Element One.  We hope that the information was helpful.  We have been excited to already see some of you jumping right in to using your new learning to improve student clarity on what they are learning and how they will know when they have learned it.  Many of you have even mentioned that you have started collaborating with other teachers on techniques that they are using and that you are sharing and tweaking ideas too.  This type of collaboration and eagerness to improve our instructional craft is what makes DCE great!  Below are some pictures of element one in action in some of our classrooms!  

Ms. Belous gave standards ladders a try!  Students reflected on their location on the ladder after completing an independent practice problem.  Ms. Belous was able to talk with them about how their success or need for assistance on the problem impacted where they fell on the ladder. 

Mrs. Kisiday also visited in some of our classrooms on Thursday.  She was able to pop into a classroom that also used the ladders.  She asked a student to share why they had three stickers and then another student to share why they only had two stickers on the ladder.  The students were able to explain that they were able to do that level of the skill on their own while the other student still needed more practice of that type of problem.  It was powerful to see these students in control of their learning in this way!

Child Study:

This Thursday will be our next Child Study meeting during your grade level planning period.  Please be sure that your team makes an agenda prior to the meeting of which students need to be discussed.  All students discussed at a Child Study meeting should have a Child Study form completed in EDIS by their teacher.  In addition to talking about specific kids, it is important to use this time to also talk about classroom topics that impact the success of students in the classroom.  Think about having discussion on the following questions if time allows...

• How is our iii time going now that we are a few weeks in?  How do we know that it is going well or not going well?  Are there any particular students that are failing to respond to their intervention?
• How are we supporting students at the high end of our class range?  Are these students demonstrating growth?  Are their opportunities and resources for challenging them to go deeper in the standard even though other students may not be ready to do so?

As you begin to have these types of conversations we look forward to receiving some feedback from you.  Please do not hesitate to let us know what is and is not working for you.  

We hope that you have an amazing week!  November... here we come!

-Keli and James

Monday Memo 10.21.19

This week is filled with some great activities for our students and staff.  Please be sure that you take a peek at the week at a glance below.  As we are able to get directions and schedules out to you for each event we will.  Please be sure to check your email for updates!

Mindset Matters - PBIS and GRIT

PBIS 

On Friday of last week, we started discussing student behavior.  The flow chart and the table of leveled behaviors shared with you hopefully brought some clarity.  As we look through LiveSchool we are happy to see that so many of you are using this program to praise students for their demonstration of appropriate behaviors.  As we have walked through classrooms we have students wearing hats, working with their shoes off, and even sitting in the teacher chair while completing an assignment.  The follow through with quick class rewards tied to LiveSchool points allows the students to see how great it feels to do the right thing.  Our goal as a staff is to improve behavior.  We hope to see students working hard because they truly want to.  We want to see students respecting staff members, because they see them as positive people in their lives that they want to please.  Many of our Cubs do this!  Our mindset toward student behavior plays an important role in how our students respond.  A challenge that we have for you this week is to focus on the positive choices that our struggling students are making each and every day both behaviorally and academically.  As you enter the school in the morning and see these students, as yourself, "What does this student do correctly that I can praise?" and "How can I build a stronger relationship with this student."

GRIT

GRIT is an important character trait.  It defines the willingness that we each have to tackle and persevere through challenging situations and even feelings.  How are we instilling this mindset in ourselves and in our students?  When we encounter something difficult, do we shy away from it?  Do we become overwhelmed?  Do we look at the negative side of it first? Or, do we jump into the challenge?  Do we look for possible solutions?  Do we keep working at it when we want to give up?  For our students, this may look like students filling a paper with their work to solve a rigorous math question or students marking up a text with codes and quick thoughts to find possible evidence to answer a question.  For a fourth grade student that is below level it may be trying hard every day to improve the number of math facts that they have mastered.  Below are some resources that may help you learn more about mindset to help your students or even yourself.  As we head into such a busy week... let's approach it with a growth mindset. 

Ted Talk: Angela Duckworth
https://www.ted.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_grit_the_power_of_passion_and_perseverance?language=en

Ways to Nurture a Growth Mindset in Students
https://www.mother.ly/child/how-to-build-a-growth-mindset-in-kids?rebelltitem=7#rebelltitem7

-Keli and James

Monday Memo 10.14.19

Happy Monday to all.

Last Friday morning for us started with an email from a staff member that had positive comments on how Keli and I handled a situation.  It felt good to receive that email as we take pride in working hard for DCES. Then on Friday afternoon, we had a staff member approach us about an item that we did not handle well.   It also felt good to receive that feedback as well. That may surprise you to hear that the negative feedback felt good as well? Our feeling as administration is that we need to hear from our staff what is going well and what is not going so well.  I want to strive to continue building a culture where our staff members can share when mistakes are made and offer solutions for improvement. If we can give each other honest feedback for improvement it is going to create an amazing culture at DCES.  

Some of our NET Teachers are starting their first observations this week and this is the way that we view these evaluations.  They will give an opportunity to grow and give honest feedback on what is going well and what is not going well. Just like Friday afternoon gave Keli and I an opportunity to reflect upon the feedback we were given and make a plan for improvement. A recent training for the two of us taught us to avoid the BCD. Avoid the route of Blame, Complain and Deflect, but instead use the information to Reflect and Improve.

Looking forward to a great week,

James & Keli

Phone Message 10/13/19

Good afternoon Cub Families.  This is Mr. Vernon with a few quick announcements.  The first quarter has gone by very quickly as this Tuesday, October 15th will conclude the first nine weeks of this school year.  Our students and teachers have worked extremely hard to get procedures and expectations mastered in their classrooms.  As we start the 2nd quarter make sure that your students continue to work hard as this quarter definitely sees an increase in the rigor of expectations for our Cubs.  We know they can do it, after all they know that we all expect Nothing Less Than Their Success!  There is no school for students this Friday, October 18th due to a teacher work day.  Teachers will be using this day to prepare report cards and to get ready for the next quarter.  Please continue to make sure our Cubs are at school all day, every day.  I look forward to seeing our Ready, Responsible and Respectful Cubs tomorrow morning.  Have a great evening.

Monday Memo 10.7.19

Good morning!

We hope that you had a restful weekend and spent some time sharpening the saw.  Last week we launched our first round of committee meetings.  It was great to spend some time looking through your goal setting sheets to see how much progress you have already made in establishing a mission for your committee and for dividing up the first steps of the work.  As committees continue throughout the year, please be sure to let us know what is and is not working.  We want this time to be collaborative and valuable for you.

This week we step into our first Child Study meetings which will be held during your planning time.  Your case manager will meet with you during this time.  Please be sure that you have created your agenda of the students that you plan to discuss and that all team members bring their laptops to the meeting. 

Below is our schedule for the week!