What Matters?

You Matter.  The teacher in the classroom matters to the success of the students.  You make instructional decisions each day that matter,  whether or not students know and can do the objectives.  You determine what next steps you take based on your frequent checks for understanding.  You determine how to address students that are apathetic or disruptive.  You determine whether student have good or bad days.  Your decisions determine whether students are respectful, responsible, positive, and safe in your classrooms.  You decide how to prepare for your ELL students or students that struggle with tier 1 instruction and those that need challenged even more.  As teachers you are constantly making decisions.  These decisions matter.  Sometimes we make the wrong decisions and that is ok if we know if they are the wrong decisions and learn from them.  That is a growth mindset and that mindset matters.  If we are making the decision to assess our impact of lessons and instructional decision then learning from what our assessments tell us then we are ensuring that we matter.  Teachers matter and you matter.  February is upon us and we are more than half way through the school year and it is always a good reminder of the Why.  I thank all of you for making a difference for our students.

Team Lincoln - A quick glance a some highlights recently.

Traveling Awards recipients for the month of January, Congrats to:

Darlene Derifield for Leadership
Paula Neidlinger for Curriculum/Instruction and Creativity
Brody Shively fo Student Advocacy

Some special recognition to the following: 
Our Arts Department- (Jodi, Lisa, Megan, and Brandy) for their work on the 2nd annual Lincoln Art Extravaganza.  What a great event to highlight the work of our students.  Special recognition to Jodi, Lisa, and Brandi for their recent ISMAA contests as well.  Lots of Gold awards with little practice due to the winter weather.  Great Job!

Speaking of winter weather, we have had numerous elearning days and special recognition to Matt Harter for his use of video to teach students and provide students assistance with math concepts using technology.  It is a great tool for students to still hear from their teacher on such days.

Check this out from Riley Heeren who used this quick student survey to discover the why behind students struggling to complete their assignments.  I know it has been frustrating getting assignments turned in but I must give kudos to Riley to dig deeper and find out the why behind the students' struggles by having students reflect and meeting with students 1 on 1.  Such a practice helps us know our students and speaks to each of them that we care about them. 

I am sure there are many other successes from the elearning days but these were a few that I came across in the last week or so.  Be sure to share others with each other.  Also please fill out this survey regarding elearning.

Family Science Night and Geography Bee-  Many thanks to our science department for a successful Family Science Night and 7th grade Science fair.  Thanks to Angie Bronicki for organizing and hosting our first conference Geography Bee.  Thanks to coach Trost for preparing our team for competition and Kevin and Riley for working the event.

WIDA Testing:  Thanks to Ryan Alhrich for organizing and conducting the WIDA testing for our ELL students.  We will look forward to the results to see how our work with our ELL students has impacted students language acquisition.

Life Skills- Kudos Jen Caudill for organizing a fun and exciting field trip for our Life Skills students this past Friday to the Humane Society.  I know the students enjoyed the trip and were really excited to collect items to help the animals.

Upcoming @ Lincoln

Monday PD- Collaborative Behavior RTI
PTO Meeting- 6:00

Tuesday- Leadership Meeting 7:00 a.m.  Red Room

Wednesday- School Improvement Council 5:30 - Please consider participating in this.

Upcoming Monday PD:
Feb. 18th Academic RTI
Feb. 25th Behavior RTI
March 4th PD