LJH STAFF NEWS AND NOTES: What do you know about your students?

After our first 7 days of school, do you know our kids? We spent our first Monday PD day sharing as teams what we have learned thus far about our students. Teams shared a lot of information about students. Some students we know by name and face and there are others students that we know a bit more about. Our next steps for this week were to connect with some of the students that we identified as not yet having connected with, how did it go? Did we connect with those students? Are we connecting and learning about those students that maybe are showing signs of struggling? What do we know about those students that are not engaging in class? Not showing agency? Not participating like we hope?

Think about those marbles in that jar from the video that we watched on our first day together as a staff. What if we had a jar full of 180 marbles that signaled 180 days of school? We now have 172 marbles/days left to impact our students. 172 days to be the difference. How many students have gone through the first 7 days without feeling connected to Lincoln. Are we having the impact in order to get the outcomes we want from our students. Often in the past we have put rigor before relationships however we know that mindset has left us short in achieving the outcomes we want from our students. So know is the time. If we have missed students or if we do not know all students especially those that are or will be the most challenging we must connect with them now and fast because every day counts and 5% of the year is over. Remember to build relationships with students today, everyday, and every period.

Reflections of this past week:

Community Circles- Wow! I loved seeing these in action. Keep up the good work and I heard great things from our students this week about the time in circles.

NWEA- Not too bad for the first time. Each time should get better and better. Kids will now know where they are testing and what to expect. We will be at it again next Tuesday and Thursday.

Collaboration Wednesday- All of the collaboration teams are off to a good start. We set our norms for our weekly time together that will allow us to be efficient and have impact in our classrooms. We get better and grow when we collaborate.

Walk-Throughs- I have been able to visit a lot of classrooms. I still have some that I need to visit. When I am in there I will try to give teachers some feedback. I made all teachers collaborators on the google form that I shared with all teachers. Be sure to check the feedback and if you have any questions let me know.

PTO Meeting- I attended my first ever PTO meeting on Tuesday. We had pretty good attendance by parents, a pleasant sight to see. Teachers are always welcome to come as well. On Thursday August 30th our PTO will be grilling hamburgers and brats and providing sides and desserts for lunch for all staff. Yeah!

School Dance- Our back to school dance was pretty well attended by students. We will be sharing a survey for students to fill out to see how we could make them better. Craig will be sending the survey soon for students to fill out during advisory next Wednesday.

Looking to Next Week:

Announcements- The mass media classes are getting up to speed so they should be coming soon. Remember all classes should be watching these in 8th hour on Monday and Friday. Wednesday announcements will be during advisory.

NWEA- Tuesday- Math Thursday- Language- These assessments will allow for us to learn even more about our students. LA and Math teachers, I am planning PD days to allow teachers to look through the data. Dates are scheduled for early September.

Fall Sports- Start this weekend with our cross country and football teams in action on Saturday. Volleyball starts next week. It is always great for our students to see their teachers supporting them at events. Come out and cheer on our student athletes!

Check In Week- I will be meeting with math, LA, and SS teachers next week for our first round of monthly check ins. For other teachers we will be meeting between now and the 30th to discuss yearly goals.

Monday PD- I appreciate everyone being on time last week, we will meet again this upcoming Monday same time same place.

Advisory classes- Next Tuesday and Thursday our students will begin their classes for high school credit. Remember to encourage students work hard towards earning these credits throughout the year.

We made it! Our first full week! Enjoy your weekend. Go Rockies in week 1!