Teaching & Learning

January 16th: District Inservice

January 19th: Unit 7 LETRS Make Up

Professional Learning Timeline

USD 489 Master Teacher of the Year

This is a great workshop for teachers to attend. They will receive a stipend for attending and also for travel and lodging. Click here for more information.

Please read the following information regarding travel.

REGULATIONS FOR TRAVEL

Our business office ran an audit of the first nine weeks of school and found the following:

• 48 Professional Meeting Absences were not entered into Skyward
• 50 Sick Leave (illness, personal, funeral) absences were not entered into Skyward

All leave tracking and balances are maintained in Skyward and, therefore ALL leave must be requested in Skyward. This includes allocated leaves (sick leave, personal leave etc.) uncharged leaves (professional development, student activity, etc.), as well as special leaves (Family Serious Illness, Jury Duty, etc.). Linked here is a document outlining the process for requesting ANY type of leave.

Staff should be able to submit maintenance tickets through ClassLink.

Once logged into ClassLink, staff should see a maintenance helpdesk icon. If you don’t see the helpdesk, you may need to switch your profile.

IT shared these steps to follow:

Switching Profiles

1. Click on profile dropdown arrow on top right by your picture
2. Select profile menu
3. Select appropriate profile - either Teacher or Staff

WCKSEC Lending Library.xlsx: Contact - Shaley Sciacca

Curriculum Library: Contact - Gabriela Schmidt

Free Lessons

PLC chairs

Subject Area Committee members

Students will be assessed in the spring with a summative assessment for ELA, Math, and Science. History Government Social Studies will administer a Classroom-Based Assessment. See this 2022-23 Kansas Assessment Program Overview for specific grade levels and testing windows.

In addition to the summative assessments, the Kansas Assessment Program (KAP) has interim assessments available for ELA and math that are meant to be used as tools for teachers and students to help prepare to demonstrate mastery of grade-level standards on the summative assessments. The single most important way to prepare students for the summative assessments is what happens each and every day in your classrooms - effective instruction of the core curriculum with interventions provided as needed, instruction that is standard-based with specific student learning objectives that provide a balance of complexity (depth of knowledge) of the content. The interim options are tools to aid you in instruction and monitoring student progress and understanding of the standards. It’s been found that classrooms whose teachers used the interims with instruction performed better on the summative assessments compared to those who didn’t.

Several features of the Mini-Tests include providing educators with the ability to:

• Build tests using Mini-Tests that mirror summative assessment items.

• Assign Mini-Tests to students and schedule tests.

• Copy tests created by staff within their own building/district.

• Administer Mini-Tests aligned to state curriculum standards.

• See immediate results from students’ tests.

Additional information can be found in the Interim Guide.

The ‘testing engine’ used for all KAP assessments is the KITE client. There is a student portal for the KITE system and an educator portal for the KITE system. This link will take you to the KITE Educator Portal where you would log in to access the tests, student usernames and passwords, etc. Student devices have had the KITE client pushed out to their self-service app and have been rostered to teachers in the KITE system for the administration on the interim tests. If you or your PLC would like assistance in reviewing the interim tests and/or the KITE system, please email Shanna, sdinkel@usd489.com, to schedule a time to meet. If you or your students have any issues with the KITE client, please submit a tech ticket, so the issue can be resolved.

CLICK HERE

Click here for more information!

For More Information: HirePaths - Connect Your Kids to In-Demand Careers

For more information and FAQ's, click here

Link to Seesaw’s info about the new messaging feature (including short videos).

The "one app" piece still requires you to sign out as a "teacher" and sign in as a "student" to see things in the class Marie and Allison made (on cell phone or iPad). But the rest of that part about the updated app is still correct.

A Teaching and Learning SeeSaw (elementary) and Canvas (secondary) page has been created and shared with teachers throughout the district. The goal for creating these courses is to share resources, dates, and general information in a one-stop-shop method. In the course you will find a calendar with PD dates, assessment windows, days off, early releases, etc. You will also find resource folders/modules with several tutorials or info for FastBridge, eduCLIMBER, ELA, Math, Progress Monitoring, and more. If there is anything you would like to see added to this page let Allison or Marie know.

The all-new Gizmos experience is coming next school year—and we’ve got all-new help resources to get you ready!

• Intro video (3:26 minutes) about essential features of the new Gizmos experience
• Teacher Quick Start Guide with step-by-step instructions for creating classes, rostering students, and more (for accounts not using rostering services)
• Admin Quick Start Guide with step-by-step instructions for inviting educators, setting up student rosters, and more (for accounts not using rostering services)
• Gizmos Adventurer Basecamp free virtual learning community where Gizmos users share with and learn from each other (and our PD team)

We can’t wait to get you hands-on with the new Gizmos experience. Watch for even more help resources in August and learn more at our Help Center.

-The ExploreLearning Team

Events & Resources

• January & February: What’s the PLAN now? Empowerment
• March & April: Repair and Think about it!
• May: Success at School with new TOOLS
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IF YOU MISSED A TRAINING, CLICK HERE FOR HANDOUTS & VIDEOS

Our Purpose: Provide educators with assistance so students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) can be successful...read more here

• Logging into FastBridge for the First Time
• Forgotten Password
• FAST Assessment Estimated Administration Times
• Quick Sheets, Student Materials and Demo Videos can be Accessed on the Assessment Page HERE
• How To Access the List of Student Usernames & Passwords for Your Building
  

Creating an Incident in eduClimber

Teachers College Phonics Videos - https://vimeo.com/showcase/6802092

Teachers College Entire Vimeo Video Collection - https://vimeo.com/tcrwp/videos

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

The best phonics instruction is explicit, systematic, and engaging. The recent national conversation around Science of Reading clarifies the important role of phonics in early reading development. Download these three research eBooks by Wiley Blevins, author of From Phonics to Reading for Grades K–3, and discover the importance of strong phonics instruction.

The Effects of Using Decodable Texts with Systematic Instruction

Learn what Wiley Blevins found in his research study on the potential impact decodable texts have on early reading and spelling growth as well as motivation to read

Phonics Instructional Guide: Multiple Tiers for Success

The phonics instruction we deliver must be based on our awareness of grade-level reading demands while simultaneously meeting students where they are.

The Phonics Instructional Guide: Multisensory/Multimodal Instruction

Effective and efficient phonics lessons incorporate multimodal instruction. Activities should engage a student’s multiple senses, yet focus on a direct connection to authentic reading and writing experiences.

Our year five OVT (Outside Visitation Team) visit was held December 15, 2022. We are now awaiting accreditation approval by KSDE.

CLICK HERE!

KS Department of Education: https://appspublic.ksde.org/TLL/SearchLicense.aspx

Speech/Language Pathologist: https://www.ksha.org/licensing.php

KS Board of Nursing: https://www.kansas.gov/ksbn-verifications/search/records

KS Board of Healing Arts: Link does not work. Go to website.

KS Behavioral Sciences Regulatory Board: https://licensing.ks.gov/Verification_BSRB/Search.aspx