Jan 19, 2017
Grades Due January 21
What are our focus areas?
Achievement, Attendance and Behavior.
Fundraisers
At lunch, a few (10-20) students have received a little sample treat from our fundraiser guy, Rick.
These really are some of the best chocolates available.
The students are selling these to raise funds for various activities, like Knockerball last year…
Motivation?
A little reminder of how much fun we had at Knockerball. It seemed like a good motivator but had little effect on student achievement. Teachers diligent work on the Question du Jour seems substantially more effective than another assembly. Of course every case is different but this indicates a good case for Intrinsic Motivation over Extrinsic Motivation. Motivation flows from students when teachers use relevant materials to present rigorous content based on relationships gleaned from their wards.
We really do have to reach them to teach them!
Schedule for Jan 23rd - 27th
Monday
- Valentine's Day Chocolate Fundraiser all week
Tuesday
- Activities Committee meet in Higgins Room
- Board of Education Meeting at Central Office at 6:30pm
- Highlights include the Student Work Sample
- Student of the month candidates
Thursday
- Chess Club in Utlaut’s room
- Binder Teams to work in the afternoon - Data Cycles, Common Assessments, Collaboration or U of I’s.
Here’s a fun #TBT pic from an attendance contest last year
Friday
- Myra Collins in the building
- Valentine's Day Fundraiser Kick Off -
- Sales over today
Upcoming/Ongoing items to keep on your radar
- 6th ELA Collaboration Day - To be rescheduled
- Yearbook Sales Window - Jan 23rd - Feb 17th
- Math Vertical Collaboration day with the High School - tbd
- Activities Committee - Jan 24th -
- Initial Preliminary Discussions about the Six Flags Trip
- PBiS Tier 2 - Jan 31st
- We provide the locations and students.
- NAEP will come and bring everything necessary.
- Harlem WIzards at TBHS, Feb 19th @ 2:00 pm
- I have sent the SubFinder Number to your phones via REMIND. Please save it.
- (570) 266-7646.
- We may have to duplicate our efforts for a bit till we get EVERYONE accustom to the service on all sides.
Nice work KG!
NOTES
- If you need a sub, call sub finder at (570) 266-7646.
- To begin the process, the machine will ask for your phone number
- We may have duplicated efforts during our transition period.
- I have sent you the number on Remind 101 as well.
- Harlem Wizard event will be Feb 19th at 2 PM at Troy Buchanan High School.
- Sign up to have fun and go out there for the sake of a good cause.
- Please continue mailing out another round of postcards for your AC LAB student. You may also send them for students in your class but not in your AC LAB as well. Feel free to grab some from the stack in the copy room.
The Shoppers Test for Teachers:
Anyone else?
Our ELA Collaboration Days w/ Jana Schmidt have lead us to many great insights, discoveries and plans! See below...
*Identified most assessed standards on the MAP
*Of those, we selected the top seven that were the lowest scored
*Identified wording used on the MAP by analyzing the practice MAP
*Took the lowest six standards, compared those to eValuate questions, and used those as our new DATA cycle tests
*Of all questions asked on the MAP, our students had the most difficulty with the Tech Enhanced questions
How everybody can help:
*Continue using technology for reading and answering questions
*Whenever possible, have students select two answers out of five choices
*Whenever possible, give students two part questions, where Part B is based on the answer from Part A
*Whenever possible, show students a brief video and then have them answer questions based on the video; (it could even be having students answer one question, but holding them accountable for information from a video is key)
Word of the month:
“FAIRNESS”
Trying to stay as brief as possible, I wanted to reiterate on ALL the positive I see throughout the building. Authentic praise, sincere smiles, high fives, (or fist bumps during cold and flu season) teachers out of their comfort zone, teachers connecting and building relationships through the shared activities done in class, many interesting stories shared by teachers to build relevance and teachers holding student to their individual high standards esteeming rigor over difficulty, mindful that fair does NOT mean equal. Assignments may actually differ but each student gets what he or she needs to succeed! That is the true educator, one that takes each person to their next level!
Conclusion:
Continue the fun and expressive use of the student WOWs, please.
Gamification is one way to help students learn to overcome the fear of failure! Authentic praise and encouragement from a caring adult is another.
There is no way to match, copy, reproduce, duplicate or even truly describe the colored nuances between the two cloud sets, seen in the same sky. Even this photo fails to portray the depth and breadth of the beauty displayed over our Lincoln County Sky. In the same way, we can’t reach the true acme or pinnacle of perfection. Failure is necessary, mandatory and even vital for life changing growth. Students are often handcuffed, stifled and maybe even act out to avoid the trial or educational adventure if the fear of failure rests in their consciousness.
We, as their teachers, adjust our attitudes and actions, speaking words of hope, positivity and encouragement among ourselves and with our students with NO COST TO OURSELVES to overcome this negativity. I have heard it quoted, students need anywhere from four to twelve positive interactions to overcome a negative comment. (Even then, the negative comment still remains lodged in their cranium.) The positivity permeating this place extends far deeper than these walls! Keep it up, Middle School. You are truly changing the world, one positive comment at a time!
Humbly,
Tom McCracken
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