End of 1st Quarter

It is hard to believe we end the 1st grading period today.  As we look towards our second quarter we need to reflect on where we are and where we are going.

We started the year with an emphasis on procedures and student expectations.  It is important that we take the time to cycle back to these as we start the 2nd grading period.  Students should all know our expectations and classroom procedures.  Should you need to take time to practice these procedures please do so.  Remember that we can assume that students know these but we are teachers so we should always be teaching.

Relationships continue to be of immense importance.  If some of your relationships with difficult students are fractured take the time to repair them now.  This will be vital to success for the rest of the year.  Pull students aside to connect with them and reset your expectations.  The start of the new quarter is a great time to give students a fresh start.  If attendance is an issue for some of your students, have you attempted to call home and communicate the importance of them being in your class each day? Calls coming from teachers communicate to our students that you care and that you miss them when they are not in your class.

Now that we know our students well it is important that we are responsive in our teaching.  I am sure we all can identify who will need extra time and support with new learning.  How are you planning that support?  Meeting with these identified students during the do now to preview new content and during independent practice to review/reteach are two great strategies to help be responsive.  We can't ignore where our students are and their daily needs.  Remember your targeted goals that were set.

Take time to reflect on your implementation of the effective instructional essentials.  How has your objectives, do nows, anticipatory sets, direct teaching, guided and indepent practice, checks for understadning, and lesson closures improved?  What ways would you like to continue to improve? Are you challenging yourself to contiuously improve your lessons?  Are students reading, writing, and discussing in abundance in your classroom?  This is our highest priority.  How might you increase the amounts of each? Teachers have all set goals in this area as well.  How are students doing?

As I reflect on the first nine weeks I have seen lots of focus on many of these items throughout the school.  I have been impressed with the growth mindsets of our teachers as evidenced by the collaborative conversations that teams of teachers are having during Monday PD.  Your efforts to continually help our students learn at high levels has been impressive thus far as well as our mindsets to continually improve.  Our lesson objectives both the content and language objectives are getting better.  Teachers are now sharing these objectives with students at the beginning and throughout lessons.  This is a result of a focus on the essential best practices.  Our advisory classes seem to be going well thus far.  It is pretty impressive that all of our students will be receiving high school credit this year.  I appreciate everyones hard work so far.  Remember that we get better together.


Other items:

Our new school nurse started this week.  We welcome Sarah Drang to Lincoln.  Stop by and introduce yourself and welcome her to Lincoln.

The fundraiser ends on Monday.  Thanks goes to all teachers for your flexibility and help.  Special thanks to Brandi Brennan, Sandy Cartwright, Lori Day, Becky Walters,  and our parent helpers for their work each morning with money and chocolate.  Early results are pretty good.  Our tailgate party is next Friday we will have lists of students that qualify for 1:00 and 2:00 releases mid week next week.  We are in need of corn hole boards and bags.  Please let me know if you can help with this need.

Grades are due on Wednesday at 8:00 a.m.  Report cards will be distributed through our student led conferences.  Remember we are shooting for 100% parent contacts.  Please refer to your Student led conference handouts for all the information needed.  Snacks will be available in the teachers lounge after school on Thursday.

Have a Great Weekend!