Tis the Season

Welcome back.  I hope you all had a restful week and are ready for a very busy few weeks.  Do not slack in your expectations.  There is a tendency to get off track during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but you will regret it when the end of the trimester comes and you only have 1 or 2 summatives.  Keep the students focused on their learning and there will be less stress.  And...... If you missed Black Friday there's always a chance to grab some deals with Cyber Monday!  

Here are some happenings this week:

• PTCO will begin decorating for Christmas
• Please send your Honor Roll list to Karen and Charles before you leave on Monday.  This is for Grades 5-8 only.  Please see the Parent/Student Handbook if you are unsure of what the requirements are for the two honor rolls.  Also, be sure you are looking at the revised report cards from Friday, Nov. 17.  
• Arthur Carapella from Pre-K 4 will be Principal for the Morning on Wednesday, Nov. 29.  He will attend Mass with me and then we will give out honor roll certificates.  We will spend some time in classrooms and then he will have lunch with me in the office with 2 of his friends.
• Charles and I will be out on Friday at an Administrator's retreat.
• Friday is Marvelous Mustang day.  Please be sure you contact the parents of the student you give a certificate to.  Every teacher must contact parents themselves, not just the homeroom teachers.  
• Friday is set-up day for the St. Nicholas shop which will take place next week Mon-Thurs. 
• I have two observations to complete and will send out a sign up to go over your observations.  

Have a wonderful week!

What are you thankful for?

It's the time of year when we recall all the things we are thankful for.  I am thankful that I've done most of my elementary observations so I don't have to sit through another Pilgrim lesson.  I'm thankful for everyone who played a part in making our Angel's event a memorable evening.  I'm thankful for each and every one of you who go beyond minimum and make things happen for our students and our school.  I am thankful to work with some of the most amazing people in Catholic education.  Be sure to take some time this week and let your students know the things they do that make you thankful they are a part of your life.  

Once we return from Thanksgiving break things will move quickly and many things are happening.  1st grade share boxes, Santa shop, Advent retreat, Christmas program, and more.  This year we are breaking from tradition.  We will not be having a staff Christmas party on the half day of the Christmas program which was the original plan.  Fr. Dermot has the vision that a Christmas party should be during the Christmas season, not Advent.  I think it's a great idea because sometimes things are so hectic just before Christmas break.  The plan is to do something on Friday, January 5 in the evening.  It will be in the FLC and families will be invited to join us so please keep that date open.  More details to follow.  Enjoy the week and the much needed break that will be here soon.

If you want a laugh, watch WKRP in Cincinnati's "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf3mgmEdfwg

Reflection time

This will be a short but busy week.  It's also a good time to reflect back on the first Trimester (grades in particular) and decide what went well and what could have been done better.  Some will feel that it was hard to get in the minimum number of grades since it's the start of school and it takes a while to get in the swing of things.  We also had an Irma disruption.  Trimester 2 will also come with its challenges with Thanksgiving and Christmas break.  The final Trimester will have the after Easter break slump.  Conclusion... there is no perfect trimester. 

At my principal's meeting on Friday there was a heated discussion among principals (while the superintendent and assistant superintendent left the room) about the grading policy.  The topic was - Grading Policy 5 years later, what have we accomplished.  As a group we concluded that we have a better understanding of what grades should truly represent and that we are better at assessing students.  Everyone believes that Understanding By Design makes us better educators and that our overall philosophy has changed for the better.  Everyone also very much likes separate ATL grades where you can separate knowledge from behavior.  In general, it was not a waste of time.  It was a work in process and as it went along, things were learned and discovered and adjustments were made.  There was a long explanation as to why we did not go to standards-based report cards in the end.  Basically, it was because the time it would take for teachers to do it properly was not going to be worth the outcome.  If a student received a B in math and a 2 in the geometry strand, what does that really tell anyone?  Not much.  What is more useful is diagnostic tools like iReady and formative assessments that can pinpoint weaknesses and then conferencing with parents to say Johnny needs to practice area and perimeter in IXL.  It's about having faith in teachers without bombarding with more work.  Here were some of the "cons":

• Not all schools cooperated and we are each at different levels of standardized practices
• This was never meant for high schools and no one is sure why they joined in
• Many agree that 50% is ok if best effort is given, but 50% for no work is a difficult pill to swallow
• Many disagree with the retake policy for summatives, the feeling is formatives are your retakes - keep trying until you have mastered and are ready for the summative.  If formatives are done right, no one should ever fail a summative.

Nothing really changes for us.  Know that we are not the only school that sits back and says, why isn't everyone else doing this?  I also think it's what makes us better and the reason why our students do so well in high school.  I did feel for new principals who want to cooperate and are in schools that never did any of the suggested practices and now are finding it a struggle to catch up.  But is also means that there is a movement for more and more schools to do what is suggested. 

Since Thursday is a half day, the new electives for middle school will not begin until next week.  I will work on your rosters this week and get that information out to you.  Have a wonderful week. 

Trimester 1 Comes to An End

It's the final countdown.  Our first trimester comes to an end on Friday.  I know we had some disruptions this first trimester, but we actually only lost two days of instruction.  Some things to remember:   

• Every class gets an ATL
• Conduct goes in Homeroom
• Any ATL or Conduct score lower than a 3 should not be a surprise to parents.  Written communication or a conference should have happened before you can give a 1 or a 2
• A score lower than a C should also not be a surprise
• All 1's, 2's, D's and F's MUST have a comment
• Grades must be complete by 8:00 a.m. Monday morning, Nov. 6

Charles will provide a complete checklist for you to be sure grades are correct before we print report cards.  

Nov. 9 is a Parent Conference Day.  Every core teacher should be having conferences that day.  You should be meet with every parent at least once during the year.  For this first conference day, you should be focusing on students who may be struggling or are new to the school.  First set up conferences with students you know you need to meet on, and then offer a conference to other parents.  Every parent should be offered a conference.  Anyone you do not meet with this time, insist they come in on the next conference day.  It's impossible to meet with everyone on this one day so I understand that you will most likely be meeting before and after Nov. 9 with parents.  If you plan a conference before school, set the start time by at least 7:15 a.m. and end promptly at 7:40.  Students should not be waiting outside your room while you conference.  Please send your conference schedule to me by Friday, Nov. 3.

As I've been reviewing Unit Plans and doing observations, I am finding that everyone is doing a great job in you lessons, classroom management, activities, student engagement, questioning, etc.  However, in general we still struggle with the overarching parts of the unit plans.  Enduring Understandings read like skills, Essential Questions are too content specific, Values Infusion is a quote from the Bible that has little connection, assessments are not in Atlas, Knowledge consists of only vocabulary words or has no vocabulary words, and Atlas attachments will not open.  These issues are not evident in every unit plan, but in general everyone has at least one struggle.  I will be reviewing these items in depth at an upcoming faculty meetings.  The other thing I've noticed is that it's hard to know what unit plans are for this year and what was copied over from last year.  I believe unit plans can stay in the prior year and you can access them there but it is difficult to know what you are doing particularly if you are a new teacher and there are plans from a prior teacher.  I will be reviewing all these things individually with you when we go over your observations.  

Lastly, Nicki gets a lot of feedback from new parents in particular and many have only good things to say about our school and particularly about our teachers.  What impresses them most is the caring attitude we have here at St. Stephen.  You should all be proud of yourselves.  Thank you all for making me look good!! 😊

Fall in NY

Sorry the blog is a little late.  I've spent the past two days catching up with family and enjoying spending time with my mom.  She is trying to adjust to life in a nursing home but doesn't want to ask for help and spends a good deal of time on the floor.  I can see where I get my stubborn streak from.  Weather was perfect as was the food and it will be hard to leave here this afternoon.

Some reminders for this week...  There is a faculty meeting today - Love and Logic.  Friday is Harvest Festival followed by PLCs.  Some teachers are out that day at Clinical Ed training.  We are in school next Monday and Tuesday of next week is Marvelous Mustang.

Charles is checking gradebooks and will be contacting you if you do not have enough assessments.  Remember it's 4 Formatives for every Summative and 4 Summatives for each trimester.  It may be different for Encore classes.  Conduct should be in your homeroom class.  Make sure you are putting it in the right place.

See you all tomorrow!

Is it Fall yet?

It's this time of year when I start to get tired of the heat.  October and Halloween means cooler weather... at least in some places in the country.  

As I am sure you all read (hint, hint) in Tidbits last week, this coming Friday (Oct. 20) is the day you will send home ONE envelope with each child for their first stewardship donation.  Please talk to them about it and the idea of giving.  Show the students how to fill out the envelope with their time, talent, and treasures.  Just explain it, they should be filling it out with their parents. 

As a reminder, I am leaving early on Friday and will be out Monday, Oct. 23.  Here is a recap of meeting agendas from last week's blog:

Monday, Oct. 16 - Grade level meetings (PreK-1, 2-5, 6-8) - Topics for discussions include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are being determined
• Lunch discipline.  It doesn't look like assistants are recording behavior anywhere.  How is it being communicated to teachers
• Topics as determined by grade level
• Take notes and share minutes with Charles and Linda

Thursday, Oct. 19  - Encore Meeting 12:25 - 1:12 p.m.  (This allows Julianne to join this meeting and the middle school meeting.)  Topics for discussion include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are determined and communicated to homeroom teachers who record the only conduct grade.
• Topics as needed

Monday, Oct. 23 - Love and Logic

I attended a workshop on the CE Tracker program which is what we will be using for master inservice points in the future.  I may have said this already, but I want to be sure everyone got the message.  DO NOT re-apply for a certificate until you have the go ahead from us.  State is revamping their system and your payment will most likely get lost.  The new MIP program is super easy and will reduce paper by about 95%.  Only on the rare occasion when you attend a workshop alone will you need to fill out a form.  Even then, if you get a certificate, no form needed.  I will demonstrate the system at our November faculty meeting.  In the meantime, I will be working with Charles to get all your accounts set up and input all the workshops, etc. we've had since July 1.  We should be all caught up by December. 

The other thing I will be talking about at our November faculty meeting is an update on field trips and what we are required to do.  I will tell you that by the end most schools decided that in-school field trips sounded like a good idea.  In the meantime, if anyone has a field trip coming up before Nov. 13, please be sure that a permission form is completed for all STUDENTS, CHAPERONES, AND TEACHERS.  In other words, anyone going on the trip.  The purpose has to do with medical release portion and if anyone gets hurt.  Be sure you leave a copy of ALL permission slips with Charles before you go on the trip. 

Thank you all for everything you do and have a great week!

Making RenWeb Happen!

This blog is early and I explain why below.  This mostly for teachers this week.  Everyone else, scan through and enjoy your weekend.  

A couple of weeks ago I sent instructions to parents on how they can access information on ParentsWeb.  In tracking handbook acknowledgements, we have discovered that only a few parents have NOT registered on RenWeb.  That's great!!  Except when I look at ParentsWeb there isn't much for them to see except grades.  I was waiting for a faculty meeting to go over how to put stuff up there but September was a mess and October has people coming and going to meetings.  I'm having a hard time finding an opportunity when we are all in the building.  Therefore, I am going to give instructions here.  My blog is going out early this week because my expectation is that by Monday, everyone will have something on ParentsWeb.  I want to see announcements of upcoming events like field trips, project due dates and summative dates.  Soon I want to see an announcement of how you are doing conferences.  I also want to see homework up for next week, even if it's only Monday's homework.  Homework section MUST be up to date everyday.  It is what we promise parents and we must follow through.  Here is the other reason why you MUST put your homework here.  I need one place to see what is being assigned in all classes for homework.  I can't look at planners, white boards, atlas, google classroom, handouts, etc.  Everyone uses a different method to communicate homework.  We need ONE method that everyone is using and parents can count on and I can check to be sure you are following the guidelines in our handbook.  This is not optional.  Here are the instructions (I am able to log in as one of you so you should be able to duplicate these steps.):

HOW TO ADD HOMEWORK

• Start in Classroom and choose a class
• From the drop down menu choose "Lesson Plans"
• Click on a date
• Under "web homework" it says "type something" - that's where you add the homework.  You can also add a link.
• Under "documents" you can upload a worksheet, rubric, etc.

HOW TO ADD AN ANNOUNCEMENT

I was going to add a field trip to 5th grade technology to show how it would look to parents, but Gina has already utilized this feature.  Here is what it looks like...

And here is how to do it:

Start in Classroom and choose a class

From the drop down menu choose "Web Items"

From the list choose "Announcements" (please noet that the calendar feature here does not link to our google calendar. Web tests and portfolio are not turned on right now, but they can be.)

Filling in the announcement is self explanatory.

You can add your syllabus and resources here too.  The homework drop button is not for you to add homework.  This is for students to access from their page (see above) to upload their homework.  This is a great feature for students who are away or sick for a number of days.  When you go into homework drop, you can download their work to your computer.  

Here is something else I had RenWeb set up for us, but I did not pursue as there was a lot to learn this year.  It's not working quite like I wanted it to but I can follow up with them if necessary.  There is a behavior function which I have now opened up for teachers.  To get there get there:

• Go to "Students"
• Choose a student
• On the right choose "behavior"
• Choose "add an event"
• You need to manually add 25 merits and save.

My intention was that when you added a demerit it would automatically reduce the merit but that's not happening.  It would have to be done manually.  

Below is what it looks like on the parent/student end.  For now they cannot see this.

This is a great way to document behavior even if we do not open it to parents to view.  Since they can't see conduct until the report card and we have to inform parents when behavior issues arise, this is a good way to communicate.  The merit/demerit portion does not have to be utilized by everyone and can be used by just grades 5-8.  I would like everyone to look at this and we will discuss at a faculty meeting.  

FACULTY MEETING PLANS FOR OCTOBER

We need to do a few things that can't wait any longer.  Because people are attending workshops and taking time off, the only day that everyone is actually is Oct. 23.  Therefore, I'm trying to accommodate everyone and still get everything done.  

Monday, Oct. 9 

• RenWeb discussion for teachers grades 1-8 (Maria, Kdg. teachers, pre-k teachers are at an EC workshop)   This meeting will be to answer any questions you have regarding the info above, talk about using behavior in RenWeb, and hopefully we will know by then how to put in ATL and Conduct grades.  This should not be more than 20 minutes.  Those unable to attend because you are not here, Charles and I will meet with you during a planning period.
• Part 2 will only be for the following teachers: Gina, Kim, Kelly, Katie, Heather.  I have the books that I ordered for writing.  Just a brief discussion to bring Heather and Kim up-to-date on what we discussed and the plan.

Monday, Oct. 16 - Grade level meetings (PreK-1, 2-5, 6-8) - Topics for discussions include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are being determined
• Lunch discipline.  It doesn't look like assistants are recording behavior anywhere.  How is it being communicated to teachers
• Topics as determined by grade level
• Take notes and share minutes with Charles and Linda

Thursday, Oct. 19  - Encore Meeting 12:25 - 1:12 p.m.  (This allows Julianne to join this meeting and the middle school meeting.)  Topics for discussion include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are determined and communicated to homeroom teachers who record the only conduct grade.
• Topics as needed

Monday, Oct. 23 - Love and Logic (I will be out this day.  Taking a trip to NY this weekend for my mom's 92nd birthday!) 

Friday, Oct. 27 - PLCs for curriculum alignment

• ELA - Gina, Heather, Kim, Sue, Katie, Jenn
• Math in Focus - Susana, Nathan, Krista, Kasey, Kelly G (if you can make it)

Maria, Kelly M, Julianne, Charles will be at a Clinical Ed. training

I will be out on Tuesday 10/10 at a Title I meeting.  I will also be out on Friday at a Admin Meeting.  Have a great weekend!!