via GIPHY
What a beautiful Easter Sunday we have had. I hope that all of you have enjoyed your day with family and friends and hopefully you have been able to enjoy the perfect day. Holidays are always a great time to reflect and be thankful for all that we have.
As we look towards May I would like to review what I have discussed with the teachers that I have checked in with this prior week. Our discussion was focused around the following items:
1. Student progress with evidence of student learning. How do you know where students are and how do you help students know where they stand regarding the success criteria/objectives of your daily lessons.
There is an immense amount of power in reflecting on these best practices. First, gathering evidence of student learning and moving from We Taught it so students should know and be able to do, to student learning and did students learn what we want them to know and be able to do, and what evidence do we have that all students are learning or not. We cannot just assume that because we taught it that students have learned it and then move on. Checking for understanding of our success criteria or objectives is a must so that we can make the most informed instructional decisions for all of our students. In order to do this we must first be absolutely clear on what success looks like and what our objectives are for our lessons. Are your objectives and success criteria clear to you? What evidence do you collect and what do you do with that evidence? How often are you checking for understanding?
The second part of this discussion is about how we can help students know whether or not they themselves know what the objectives or success criteria are each day and where they stand in relation to both. Again, teacher clarity is a must in order for students to know where they are in their learning. When students know where they are, where they are going, and what steps they can take to get there then our impact on student learning increases immensely. How are you helping students know where they are in relationship to the objectives and success criteria? Do students know what success looks like? Are you intentional about helping students know these things?
2. Teachers growth and learning this year and progress on goals.
This discussion targeted how we have grown this year and how have we continued to learn throughout the year. Just as it is important for students to know where they are in their own learning it is vital to our success that we know where we are as teachers in our own learning and growth. Our continued learning requires that reflect where we are in relationship to our own learning and goals.
It was apparent through the conversations that I had throughout the week that we continue to learn and grow in order to better serve our students. Keep up the growth mindset and finish the year achieving your goals and continuing to learn. When we learn our students learn!
Updates @ Lincoln:
Leadership Team: Our Lincoln leadership team met this past week. Our work together consisted of looking at our root causes in our school improvement plan. Remember from our last SIP council meeting on a Monday PD we said that root causes are those things that are getting in the way of student achievement. The team brainstormed ideas for interventions to target what gets in the way of student learning. Here is a brief recap of our root causes:
Root causes: We are concerned that student behavior combined
with current classroom management systems are disrupting the learning environment.
2. We are concerned that all students are learning content at a pace
that prevents them from developing deep understanding and lasting skills.
that prevents them from developing deep understanding and lasting skills.
3. We are concerned that instruction is not being differentiated
according to student interests, learning styles, or career goals.
according to student interests, learning styles, or career goals.
Omitted Root Causes:
We are concerned that we are not building positive/personal relationships with
our Free/Reduced and ELL populations in order to engage them in the classroom.
our Free/Reduced and ELL populations in order to engage them in the classroom.
We are concerned that our classroom curriculum is not culturally responsive
to the socio-economic status and ethnicities of our students
to the socio-economic status and ethnicities of our students
We are concerned that ELL and Free/Reduced students do not engage in
classroom discussion or ask questions because they fear judgement from their classmates.
classroom discussion or ask questions because they fear judgement from their classmates.
South Bend Cubs trip- We have more students signed up to attend then ever before. Thanks to all teachers for supporting this reading program and making it a success. Consider coming out to the game next Sunday at 2:00.
Spirit Assemblies conclude- Thanks to the 8th grade teachers that planned our last assembly for the year. Our assemblies continue to be a fun way to celebrate student successes and to recognize students for their successes. We will continue to have our assemblies next year and if you have ideas to make them even better for our students please be sure to share.
Collaboration successes- We have been more intentional about our collaboration throughout the year and I thank all teams for practicing our norms that we set at the beginning of the year. We have a strong system in place of collaboration now our next steps are to continue to improve upon the time spent collaborating. We know through collaboration is how we continue to improve as teachers. One adjustment we have made on the fly is to have our interventionists at the collaboration table. We will continue to improve our collaborations.
ELL Update- We thank Ryan for his continued assessment data as to where our ELL students are in their language acquisition. Be sure to check out his frequent emails regarding where students are as our knowledge of where students are help us purposefully plan our instruction. Also be sure to celebrate with these students their successes. What a great way to connect with students, celebrating and recognizing their success. We will look forward to our WIDA results being released this week. Stay tuned.
Upcoming @ Lincoln
Monday PD: Change for Monday: We will all meet in the red room to continue to prepare for ILEARN. We will do the same on the 29th.
ILEARN Practice tests: Tuesday and Thursday 1 hour delay schedules both days.
Progress Reports- These will go home with students on Wednesday
Jeans Weeks- In support of our Junior Achievement program here at Lincoln we will offer jeans weeks during our 2 week ILEARN window starting the week of the 29th. $10.00 gets you jeans for two straight weeks. Please donate and give your contribution to Sandy Cartwright.
April Survey: Please fill out the survey below
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