Teaching & Learning

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UPCOMING EVENTS

November 7th: Feel free to join members of the math subject area committee (SAC) to review K-5 math resources on Monday, November 7th at 3:30pm in the Training Room at Rockwell.

November 9th: Early Release - Teacher Clarity Virtual Touchpoint

2:30-3:00 (all staff)
3:00-4:00 (BLT members/PLC Chairs)

November 23rd-25th: Fall Recess

NOTE: Amy Arnhold will plan to run TASC records the beginning of November. These are necessary for the use of the Interim Mini Tests for grades 3-8. They link students to teachers in the KITE system. If teachers find an error in their rosters once in the KITE system, please have them submit a tech ticket for corrections to be made.

ALL Staff Must Submit Any and All Absences in Skyward!

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.

Submitting Maintenance Tickets

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

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

State Assessments

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.

November Read&Write Student Winner 2022

Andrew Zordel is the Read&Write Technology Student of the month!

Read&Write is an app or extension that provides:

Text-to-speech
Speech-to-text
Vocabulary support builders
Highlighting of important information
Screen masking
And many more tools that provide students with option to enhance their learning opportunities.

Andrew uses the speech-to-text word prediction and text-to-speech features to aide himself with reading and writing tasks.

When asked what his favorite thing was about the Read&Write toolbar he said,

“I love writing and this makes it easier for me to write more.”

If you would like to look at an overview of how Read&Write works for IPAD, Click Here

~Andrea Wichers, SLP

SeeSaw - New Messenger Feature

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.

SeeSaw and Canvas Teaching and Learning Page

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.

Get Acquainted with the New Gizmos Experience!

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

Bruce Perry, Leading Childhood Trauma Expert

Bruce Perry, leading childhood trauma expert, says relationships are the agent of change.

What are you planning during the second 9 weeks to intentionally build and reinforce your relationships with your students?
Are there struggling students with whom you need to add an extra dose of time/non-contingent attention?
Think about how you can reinforce relationships with parents by modeling listening, showing understanding & offering grace during conferences.

TRAUMA TOOLKIT/TIDBIT: Right-Brain De-escalation

When you have students who become dysregulated, did you know their right brain is the access point to their reptilian brain? This means they are operating from their right hemisphere. We have to change how we interact....make it a right-brain to right-brain interaction. Reach the student through empathy and connection, rather than logic. Show concern. Give silence. Don't talk about consequences yet. Get on their level. Focus on their feelings. Use rhythm to help get regulated. Use "We" or "I" statements, rather than "You" statements. Regulate first, then relate, and reason last.

SOURCE: "Classroom 180" by Heather T. Forbes

The Role of Phonics in the Science of Reading

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.

Early Literacy/Dyslexia November Newsletter

Here is the link to the November 2022 Early Literacy/ Dyslexia Newsletter.

You will find it here: November 2022 Early Literacy/ Dyslexia Newsletter

To see other issues and to find additional information, please visit the KSDE Dyslexia Page or see Early Literacy/ Dyslexia Home

If you know of someone who would like to be added to this listserv, please have them contact me at: ELitDyslexia@ksde.org.

WHEN DOES YOUR LICENSE EXPIRE?

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

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Shanna Dinkel

Assistant Superintendent

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USD 489 Hays

#EveryStudentEveryDay489

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Gabriela Schmidt

Administrative Assistant to Assistant Superintendent

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