1st Quarter Reflection

It is crazy that it is October all ready and we are closing out the first grading period this upcoming Friday.  We started in August with the task of helping students and Lincoln be Amazing.  This task is a quarter of the year along already and how are we doing with it thus far?  First, this journey starts with our mindsets that we believe in Amazing.  Belief in students' abilities to be amazing, belief in each of our abilities to be amazing with our relationship building and our instruction.  Early in August we saw some data that helps us believe in this Amazing task.  The first data point was the prior success of both the 7th and 8th grade cohorts compared to the state average on the old ISTEP test.  Our students have a history of success, many of them have performed well in the past and we can take them to the next step to amazing.  The other piece of evidence that builds our belief in our own ability to make a difference with our instruction is our iLearn scores compared to the last year we took ISTEP.  What we saw was impressive.  In 2018 with ISTEP we were below the state average in all metrics, 7th and 8th grade Math and Language Arts.  Our new iLearn data shows that we are above the state average in both 7th and 8th grade math and in 7th grade Language Arts.  This is momentum and an important indicator that we are improving and learning to help our students be amazing. 

7th Grade LA Top and Math Bottom/LJH the top score and the State Average on the bottom 

8th Grade LA Top Math Bottom/LJH the top score and the State Average on the bottom

This is momentum and we need to continue to build on this.  We have the ability to be Amazing.  We have emphasized increasing the level of thinking that students do throughout the school.  We do this by requiring students to write more and by preparing our lessons to include opportunities for students to think through the type of questions we ask and the type of tasks that we plan for our students each day in all classes.  Specifically in LA we have set our goals to write more in  both constructed responses and informative, argumentative, and narrative writing, to reading abundant amounts of complex text and for students to know what the text says, and to use Yes Maam is our writing responses.  In math our goals are to improve problem solving skills with students.  We believe that if we challenge students to be able to independently solve higher order questions through the use of an intentional problem solving strategy we will increase the students ability to solve complex problems independently.  And lastly the feedback that students receive in all of these areas is crucial.  A focused intentional relentlessness towards these goals with help us build on the momentum that we have created and continue to help us move from average to Amazing.  

I appreciate the hard work and efforts that all teachers have made this first quarter and we will continue on our journey to Amazing by learning and leading together.  

Accolades @ Lincoln

Betsy Bowen- I her 7th grade Language Arts classes students are using our new resource Study Sync to closely read passages while students were annotating passages in line with the purpose for reading that she set.  Well done and this intentional relentlessness will continue to pay off for our students.  

Robert Sommer- In his 8th grade LA class there is evidence of students writing and thinking.  Students were using the Yes maam strategy to complete their 5 paragraph informative writing and what was really neat to see was the various ways that students were receiving feedback on their writing.  Well done!  

Our music department-  Orchestra, band and choir classes all held their fall performance concerts over the past two weeks.  The shows were packed and the performances were impressive with the amount of growth that students have made in such a short period of time since the start of the school year.  Great job! 

All advisory teachers-  Thanks for your support of our school wide fundraiser.  We conclude on Monday and again it has been a successful fundraiser.  

Upcoming at Lincoln:  

Monday PD - October 7th tomorrow-  iPads PD -  Bring your iPads 

                      October 21st-  Traveling awards- Meeting the needs of all learners                         (ELL Students) 

                     October 28th- Behavior RTI Collaboration 

Lincoln Shirt Day- Next Friday-  Tailgate Party- Lincoln Group Pictures

At this time the plan for this upcoming Friday will be for students to report to their advisory classes in the morning.  At 9:00 will we have a whole school photo outside of door 1.  We will also take separate 7th and 8th grade photos.  Lifetouch will be taking the photos.  After the whole group photos we will take numerous photos commemorating various locations throughout the school.  Each House will be assigned locations for the photos.  Here are the locations and times.  They are subject to change and lets hope the weather forecast for the day changes.  

9:30 Blizzards- Flex Space 

9:40 Lightning- Cafeteria 

9:50 Tsunamis- Auditorium 

10:00 Thunder- Lincoln Statue Hallway

10:10 Firestorm- Southwest Stairway

10:20 Cyclones- Outside door 6 (Bell)

10:30 Hurricanes- Science hallway

10:40 Tornadoes- Red gym

10:50 Avalanche (down) and Typhoons (Upstairs)  classroom windows 

Please encourage all students to wear their Lincoln shirts.  If you have questions regarding the plan for these pictures let me know.  

Tailgate party:  Starting after morning pictures students will go to lunch as scheduled (5th Period).  After 5th period all students will report to their 6th period classes.  We will announce for students to come out for our tailgate party starting real close to 12:30 for those that have sold 2 or more boxes.  Those students that are not participating int he taligate party will attend regular afternoon classes.  We will then call students that have sold 1 box out at 1:30.  Should it rain we will use the gyms for the tailgate party.  

Picture Retakes:  Will be first period on Friday morning.   

Student Led Conferences:  Tuesday Oct. 22nd 3:30-5:00 and 5:45-8:00  Our PTO will provide dinner.  Please feel free to call students that you want to make sure they attend.  Students should be creating their slides for their presentations this week during their classes.  Make sure to provide some time to do this during the week.  

Thursday- Jake and I will both be out for math training on Thursday Oct. 10th 

First Quarter grades due Monday Oct. 21st.