Stingray Staff Sentinel 8/26

Engaged Students are beyond ritually compliant. As we begin to walk classrooms, we are beyond thankful that our students tend to be respectful and kind. They listen to the adult and follow the classroom expectations with just a little redirection. This is great but also leads to planning for the next level.

In order to get growth from all students and in order for ritually compliant children to not get a little restless and wild in the spring, we have to shift from compliant to engaged. We will be talking more in PLCs about what does it mean to have engaged learners. There are plenty of tools that are available to teachers that assist with even the non-intrinsically motivated students.

Excerpt from: "5 Easy Ways to Engage Students"

Any of these activities present new opportunities for the students to collaborate, to work on their peer relationships, and to have a more authentic learning experience.

For educators, it increases the time available for acting as a facilitator in a student-centered classroom, which will open up the opportunity for more assessment of student learning and time to interact more with each of the students.

It can be risky trying some different methods in the classroom, but in order to keep students engaged and to move beyond the traditional classroom roles of teacher-driven learning to engage students in learning, we have to step out of doing what we have always done. It takes time to plan and we need to remember to reflect and also to ask students for feedback.

We need to offer diverse ways for students to become more curious in learning and also ways to engage more with the content and extend their learning. Be open with students by letting them know that these methods are a work in progress and be sure to express the ‘why’ behind trying these different methods.

Involve the students in the design of these activities and be open to their suggestions for improvements.

Click below to read the 5 Easy Ways to Engage Students

https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/5-easy-ways-engage-students-learning/

Jenna Herrera August 24th

Meghan Forte August 25th

Megan Cox August 31st

Expectations: Please make sure that you are working on bell to bell instructional time. Over plan so that you are pressed to end vs. left with 10 extra minutes. If there is not enough time to start the next activity, you should have a review activity that could take place in 10 min or less ready and waiting for the week. Down time leads to behavior issues and struggles to re-engage students in class when they are used to "free time."

Don't forget to keep reinforcing/reteaching those expectations around classroom, hallway, cafeteria and dismissal/arrival behaviors. They need to hear it like a broken record and then receive positive feedback when they are meeting your expectations! Please continue to work on building relationships, learning names and helping your classroom become a family where they can trust you and each other.

Meetings - PLCs will take place on Tuesday this week for Elementary and for those in MS with Tuesday planning . Ms. Papke will be working with each group on What is an Effective PLC? Making sure that we have built a common understanding amongst our staff and know what the intent of the PLC is in our week. Due to Early Release, anyone who did not have PLC on Tuesday will meet with Ms. Papke on Thursday or Friday during planning. PLCs will be held in Room 203.

Elementary teams will have common planning on Thursday.

Safety: Our first "Code Red: Lockdown Drill" will take place this week. It will not be on Monday, therefore, please take time to "teach" what to do if the building becomes unsafe. AFter the drill, please "debrief" how they did and also what to do if they had been in the hall, restroom, etc.

Monday 8/26:

NWEA testing starts

Teacher Treats - We appreciate YOU and your hard work - be on the look out for the treat cart!

See Mr. Ball if you need TapApp assistance

Tuesday 8/27:

Dinner provided for those working Open House by Your Pie (salad & pizza)

Open House Grades K-3 5:30-6:30pm

PLCs with Ms. Papke during resource/planning

Wednesday 8/28:

Early Release 12:45 Elem, 1:00 MS

Early Release PD until 3:30pm

Thursday 8/29:

Common Planning Elementary Mtgs.

Dinner provided for Open House Staff by Your Pie (salad & pizza)

Safety Patrol Mtg 5:00

Open House Grades 4-5 5:30-6:30

Open House Middles School 5:30-7:00

Band Parent Mtg 7:00-7:30pm

Friday 8/30:

Upcoming Events:

9/2 No School - Labor Day

9/3 Some clubs begin

9/03 Teacher Certificates from online modules due to Mike
9/13 Spirit Night- Jacksonville Ice & Sportsplex
9/20 Fall Pictures

Walkthroughs - We will begin to provide feedback with classroom walkthroughs. Out focus to start will be on classroom environment (routines/procedures/transitions/relationships/PBIS)

You must text or call principal and AP - Ms. Papke will arrange sub coverage, but she doesn't know to do this, if you haven't notified her of emergency need for PTO. Sauer is 904-210-2017

Also, we already have several Fridays in Sept & October that are maxing out on number of personnel that are out.

• Kudos to our NEW to Southside and NEW to Teaching teachers - we have seen you start to settle in and improve each day. Please don't forget to ask for help! Southside is an amazing family!
• Arrival is MUCH better and students who are tardy are hustling to class!
• Thank you to Coach Craig for working to support up to 69 students in PE - It has been a challenge which he has handled with grace! Mr. Conti has been hired and will start Sept. 9th as a 2nd Middle School PE teacher!
• Our hallways and hallway boards look amazing!! Thank you for creating an energizing atmosphere for our students. Don't forget to grab a stapler and tack up anything that is starting to wear before Open House!
• Thank you to safety patrol and band leaders for putting in extra parent time this coming Thursday evening!
• Mr. Davis did a wonderful job helping to level our classrooms and help partner with students and families to find a match for their learning needs.
• Thank you to the front desk team who have jumped in to help put an after school late pick up process in place.

We will be starting with just the basics and will help build a common understanding of what these numbers mean. Data discussions will go deeper in PLCs and Data Chats. Here is an overview of last year's performance. Remember the areas that we left too many points on the table were GROWTH (ELA and Math) Civics and Science (5th & 8th) - So what are you doing to help grow all students and help build our science and civics scores over time?

We "captured" 60% of the available school grade points.

School Grades Calculation:

The points earned for each component are added together and divided by the total number of available points to determine the percentage of points earned.

School Grading Percentages

• A = 62% of points or greater

• B = 54% to 61% of points

• C = 41% to 53% of points

• D = 32% to 40% of points

• F = 31% of points or less

Example: Achievement: The denominator is total number of eligible students for that testing period grades 4-8 and numerator is number of proficient grades 4-8.

59% of eligible, tested students in grades 4-8 at Southside were proficient in ELA

61% of eligible, tested students in grades 4-8 at Southside were proficient in Math.

48% of eligible, tested students in grades 5 & 8 at Southside were on grade level/proficient in Science - That is less than half!!

73% of eligible, tested students in grade 7 were proficient in civics.

Thoughts:

Proficiency is a hard target if students come in below grade level when they arrive at Southside... but with a 95% recommit rate, and a small increase in students - all but about 10% of our tested students have been with us multiple years.

We will talk more about GROWTH soon! This week kicks off baseline NWEA scores which helps give us insights into what gaps or strengths our students have!