This is late. Sorry.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW: FAMILY NIGHT
Our objective on Tuesday, school wide, is to inject a dose of clarity in the complex work we do each day so parents can join in on the fun. We do it by explaining how we:
- Identify key standards per grade that students cannot skip;
- Deliver world-class instruction with genuine thinking curricula;
- Anticipate strugglers, and identify them early to deliver personalized learning as intervention
- Preemptively build systems in place for practice, remediation, and self-paced learning
- Align all our work with a laser focus: Promotion decisions, marking period grades, 102+ learning, after school program eligibility, EVERYTHING will be tied to the successful mastery of the grade level key standards.
(3) THINGS PARENTS NEED TO KNOW AFTER FAMILY NIGHT
- WHAT IS PERSONALIZED LEARNING AT 102
I’ve prepared a 5-minute introduction on our focus on Personalized Learning, and you can use:
- an iPad via the Engage by Scrollmotion app (I will share the file with you)
- or a web browser using this link: 2017 FAMILY NIGHT PRESENTATION
- For 3-8 classes whose families will meet with multiple teachers, only one teacher should deliver the presentation.
- A LIST OF THE KEY STANDARDS IN THEIR GRADE(and when applicable, which months these standards will be assessed)
III. SOME OF THE TOOLS THEY CAN USE NOW TO SUPPORT LEARNING TOWARDS THESE SKILLS
-Lexia/ Khan/ OpenEbooks/ etc.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW: SUPPLIES
Printers. We have funds and we don’t mind spending them. However, we have funds because we make smart decisions. Replacing 20 printers every year is not one of them.
Should teacher teams want to use their Inquiry Funds toward a printer, that’s fine. However, we need to come up with a better system before we purchase printers again as we need to move away from relying so heavily on classroom printers to make copies. Print one and let the heavy-duty machines do the copying.
Now that we will soon have a copier on every floor, you can expect a much quicker (same-day?!) turnaround.
Document Cameras. We will be purchasing them. Let me know if you want one and haven’t requested one already.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW: Personalized Learning in September
TESTING: K-5 should be going full steam ahead with F+P. To assist teachers in 3-5 in testing over 60 students, I will be assignment several staff to assist with testing. 3-5 teachers can expect at least 15 of their students to be “outsourced”, should they be willing. Give the assisting teacher their names and consider it done.
INTERVENING: Once we have the levels, we will identify the most at-risk students (LEVEL III intervention) and provide them with high-impact reading instruction. We will also assign some to AM/PM extended day learning (3-6 weeks).
Teachers who are interested should write one sentence to apply for a per-session posting coming out later this week.
6-8: Ms. Weinstein will provide you with options in a separate memo.
THINGS I NEED TO DO
Starting in October I will be organizing ongoing morning meetings for a writing instruction task force. This team will put in place a vertically coherent instructional plan to elevate student writing, ensuring all elements are in place (grammar, handwriting, using accurate vocabulary to trim length, etc.)
We teachers from all grades–if interested, look out for a posting this week and send back one sentence.
THINKING GENERATOR FEEDBACK COMING SOON. In anticipation of next month’s focus standard, teacher teams should start discussing the TGs they will use to teach them. The most important standards merit the best TGs.
CALENDARS and SCHEDULES
And finally, the item I’ve wanted to share since 2015:
Teacher and class schedules for the whole school, online. ps102q.edupage.org/timetable
(Any changes should be reported to Teresa so we can update.)
Calendars too.
PUBLIC EVENTS CALENDAR on PS102q.org
mrkobot.com 