Happy New Year! 2015

Happy New Year!

Can you believe it is 2015?  
How did you celebrate the new year?  
Here are New Year Traditions around the World!

The New  Year brings time for reflection on the past year and resolutions for the future.
Here are the top 12 reflections for teachers.

Some people also make predictions for the new year.
The Washington Post has made Education Predictions for 2015.

You will reassess students and reflect on your SLO.  You will make predictions toward meeting the SLO and reflect on actions needed for the remainder of the school year to help every individual grow as a reader.
Time and support will be provided!









Jan. 5-13- Gather Midyear data for SLO 

Jan. 13- Staff Meeting & Day 6- SLO Preparation

Jan. 19- 8-4 Professional Development Day- Individual reflection time with choice support sessions

SLO Support Sessions

• Using MAP Continuum to personalize instruction
• Data Collection Strategies Using Google Sheets
• Planning for Guided Reading using F & P Continuum and Jan Richardson- Bring 3 texts you plan on using for GR
• Using PALS data to personalize literacy instruction
• Exploring electronic resources to support literacy- Media
• Reflection on Guided Reading Structure (Video Analysis Protocol) 
• 
  

Feb. 3-4- Midyear SLO Review
Sign up here for an individual conference if you are on cycle or if you are not on cycle you can meet as an individual or as a team.  This is the format for the midyear meeting.  Here is a sample video so you know what to expect.
In My Learning Plan,open up Goal Setting Review and answer the following questions:

I hope you have a a Happy 2015.  

Please comment on a tradition, resolution, or prediction for 2015!  

Gift giving season

Thank you for being an artist to our students at Hudson Prairie by sculpting minds, hearts, and futures.            That's the best gift we can give. 

This quote from Patricia Polacco illustrates the gifts teachers give daily. 

With the gift giving season here,  we have another gift for all elementary students.  All 6 elementary schools wrote a grant for $5000 to have Patricia Polacco visit all of our schools.  The Education Foundation supported it and we will let you know a date when it is confirmed.  We will purchase texts as well to build background knowledge for our students.

We need to teach students to give free gifts of love and kindness daily.  
Ideas include:

1. note
2. hug
3. joke
4. helping someone

We teachers receive gifts daily from our students.  We need to reflect and be grateful to our students for what they give us.   Today I saw a gift of a student hugging a teacher for 30 seconds and it warmed our hearts. He counted out loud. It was amazing.
Please share other gifts we RECEIVE from our students in the comments section.   

Have a nice break!   I hope you enjoy the gift of time with friends and family and share your gifts with others.  

Technology Exploration to Support Literacy- Tues. Staff Meeting

Learning Targets:
I can find non-fiction texts to teach informational reading strategies.
I understand how to teach informational reading strategies.

Why?

1. Students need to be able to access and read informational text to support Integrated Units of Inquiry and all future learning.
2. CCSS expect by grade 4 a balance of informational, literature, and opinion reading and writing.

3.  Our MAP strand of informational reading is the lowest strand. 

Immerse
What are the Integrated Units of Inquiry we are studying K-5?

Investigate
Check out our Hudson District Media Site  for non-fiction resources to support our units.  
Here are the passwords:

Check out other sites for great nonfiction reading on current events.

Children's BBC News Discovery News Dogo News National Geographic for Kids Newslea Our Little Earth ReadWorks.org Teaching Kids News Time For Kids Tween Tribune

Print, organize or tag these resources in folders or on Google Docs.

***************Here is another resource that Dolf and Kim shared with me from the 2014 SLATE Conference resource exploration

Coalesce
Choose 1 text and look at the CCSS to determine what you can focus on in this reading.
CCSS- Informational Text
CCSS Learning Progressions
Or use the MAP Descartes information to determine a focus.
NWEA Descartes Key Ideas and Details 
NWEA Descartes Informational Craft and Structure

Here is a graphic organizer that can be used with any non-fiction text.
Questions for Non-fiction

Go Public
Try using this in Guided Reading or units of inquiry.  
Comment on what worked well and questions you may still have.

Dec. 11 Late Start

Dec. 11 Late Start- at Hudson Prairie

Classroom Teachers, SLD, Reading Teachers, EBD, CID, SLPs, GT teachers, and ELL teachers,

In response to teacher requests following the recent professional development, the goal for next week’s Late Start professional development is to reflect upon formative assessments and to plan for small group instruction. You will have the entire 2½ hours to work with your grade level teams to complete the protocol. 

Kindergarten HP Protocol

1st Grade HP Protocol

2nd Grade HP Protocol

3rd Grade HP Protocol

4th Grade HP Protocol

5th Grade HP Protocol

The majority of the time should be used for your planning, individually and/or collaboratively. Your principal and coach will be available for your support.

In preparation, please bring copies for your team of a formative assessment tool your utilized with your students.(Running Records, Comprehension Interview, Fluency Rubrics, etc.

Special education teachers and SLPs, please plan on attending one or two grade level meetings at your assigned building(s), of which you have a current student participating in the core classroom curriculum for reading that you provide support to, specifically in the area of Reading.  ​Please take part in the discussions with the grade level team regarding the use of formative assessments to analyze progress and plan for future instruction. After meeting with your teams, please take some time to reflect and provide feedback to Terri Gulbransen and Amy Wise regarding the usefulness of the professional development opportunity, any thoughts for future opportunities to collaborate with grade level teams that could be beneficial to both special education and regular education initiatives. This information will be used to assist in developing plans about future PD opportunities.  Finally, plan on also providing feedback to each other at your next facilitator meeting. Please discuss the larger district initiatives, how assessments used in the regular education setting can be applicable to special education students, gifted and ELL students, and how we, as a district, can support and assist in creating a larger connection between the two environments. 

Specialist Groups

All specialist groups will work with their district teams.

Here is the Late Start Modified Schedule:

11-11:30- 5th Grade

11:30-12- 4th Grade

12-12:30-3rd Grade

1:30-2- 2nd Grade

2-2:30- 1st Grade

2:30-3- Kindergarten

Supporting Student Behaviors

Immerse- Frontload prior to the Meeting
Thank you for being an advocate for our students at HP.

Check out our stats from SWIS that show PBIS is making a difference.

Thank you to the PBIS Team for leading this charge.

Check out this blog about different perspectives about behaviors.
About that Kid

Check out resources about...
PBIS
Responsive Classroom




Investigate (Vertical PLC)
Share behaviors and sort as below of bottom line and rationale why.
Also, discuss logical consequences.
Please add your scenario to the Google Doc!

Coalesce
Share difficult situations with the entire staff and come to consensus.

Go Public
What booster cool tools are needed for Kids News?
What is the focus for the January booster behavior meetings?