The Power of Advisory

 As we enter our last two weeks of the first semester we get an opportunity to reflect a bit about how things are going and how our students are doing.  It has been a semester like no other and we have emphasized surviving more so than improving.  One of the changes we made this year was a little change to our advisory period.  We asked that teachers conduct frequent check ins with students, at least once a week in the 8th grade and 2 times a week in the 7th grade.  This strategy was a way to help students know where they are academically, socially and emotionally throughout the first semester.  Students spend time looking at their progress and with each of these.  Teachers connect with students as advisors.  We know some students need more help than others during these check ins.  We know with the fact that our students have been in and out of in person learning throughout the semester our efforts to check in with students is of immense importance.  Successful students do a better job of managing their own learning, they have agency.  We continue to attempt to build this kind of agency in all students so that all students can find success.  The advisory check in is a way to build this agency in students, a way to teach students to be self directed learners.  We cannot just hope that students develop the skills necessary to be agents of their own learning, we must help them, teach them, advise them, and check in with them.  So, how are your check ins going?  Are those students that need extra time and support in developing these skills getting it?  Are we checking in with those advisory students that are virtual?  Are students tracking their assignments, grades, attendance, success, and agency?  Remember that when students know how much we care then they begin to care about their success.  

These frequent check ins are apart of our RTI plan.  They serve as a tier one intervention that all students get through advisory class.  They go along with our community circles that target the social and emotional learning of our students.  The check ins target the academic success of our students.  They target the executive functioning skills that lead to academic success.  As we reflect on our first semester, we are surviving, are all of our students thriving?  

Accolades @ Lincoln:  

Kevin Garrity and Jennifer Caudill- Kudos to Kevin for holding down the fort in 7th grade Humanities as we transition through some staff changes.  We welcome Jennifer Caudill in helping fill our need during this transition.  Jennifer comes to us with lots of experience in the classroom in such situations.  Thanks to Kevin and Jennifer for helping with this transition.  

Lauren Brown- Congrats to Lauren on the arrival of Evelyn Jane.  She is beautiful.  Enjoy your time with your family.  

Sean Hatfield-  We welcome Sean to Lincoln as he will be in for Lauren during her maternity leave.  

Great Job to all teachers for their recent efforts with the door decorating.  The doors look great.  

Sam VanLue- Kudos to Sam for continuing to adapt and welcome new additions to her Applied Skills classroom.  Great work giving your students awesome learning opportunities and experiences.  

Kudos to our interventionists - Suze Garrity, Quinn Selner, and Ellen Gaines for their work with our LA lab classes over the course of this semester.  They have used their growth mindsets to help students with LA.  This was a new intervention this semester and we appreciate your efforts to help our students.  

Our music department- Jodi Kallenberg, Brandi Brennen, and Lisa Wallyn for their preparation for the upcoming holiday concerts.  These concerts will look different because of our new building and COVID and we appreciate your organization and preparation for each of these.  

Fabian Arias-  Great job, Fabian, updating our digital sign on the west end of the building.  

Upcoming @ Lincoln:  

Tuesday PD: December 8th- Virtual/Technology time.  3:20-3:50 

                      December 15th- Department Collaboration 7:15-7:45 

December Spirit Assembly- December 18th - Cyclones and Tsunami plan the assembly.  I would like that the November houses to send their plans to our December houses to help with their planning of this assembly.  Please invite Jake and I to your planning meeting for the assembly.  

RTI @ Lincoln- This past week our STAT team met to problem solve identified students.  This STAT meeting happens monthly and is really a tier 2/3 intervention for students.  

It came to our attention that some teachers might have some questions about referring students to the STAT team and about our RTI process.  The visual above indicates the 3 tiers to RTI.  Here is a brief summary of our tiers and process that we continue to try to improve and follow.  

Tier 1- As you can see in the visual that tier one includes our core instruction and various school-wide interventions.  Our core instruction is the key to this tier.  The better our core instruction the more students that tier one benefits.  This continues to be our emphasis and where we need to focus our efforts.  We improve our core instruction through our collaboration with others and sharing what works in classrooms, through feedback from observation, and through our growth mindsets (taking risks with new strategies, learning from failures, reflecting on our instruction, seeking feedback). This tier is also where our weekly check ins lie.  These check ins are for all students and a school-wide intervention.  We also have school-wide interventions for behavior (trust cards/PBIS), social and emotional learning (community circles), and college and careers, (PCC class in 8th grade college GO week).  We continue to look for more school wide interventions in these three areas of academics, social and emotional learning, and college and career preparedness.  The goal for this tier is for it to successfully reach 80-90% of our students.  

Tier 2-  As you can see in the visual this tier targets 10-15% of identified students that need extra time and support.  Students identified for tier two support do not respond to tier one as we would like.  Our tier two interventions include our revamped LA lab class, our double block of math, small group instruction, SEL small groups, Connect group (during a normal year). Behavior interventions such as detentions and other consequences.  

Tier 3- This tier targets students that do not respond to tier 1 or tier 2.  It consists of targeted interventions such as resource class, one on one help sessions conducted by our interventionists, ISS, suspensions, and etc.  This tier should be for 1-5% of students.  

So the question becomes when do we refer students to the STAT team?  The answer would be, when students do not respond to tiers 1 and 2.  The STAT referral form can be found on this blog.  Another question that often comes up during our RTI process is whether the student is an intentional non learner or not?  We often discuss our identified students and determine if the student can't or the student won't.  The RTI process is really designed for those students that can't.  It doesn't mean that we cast aside the students that won't, however strategies for those that won't need to look different.  When referring students for STAT staff should ask themselves this question; Is this a student that can't or won't? 

Our RTI process continues to to be a work in progress and is messy at times.  As I reflect on my own leadership over the years, I continue to look for ways to improve the RTI process.  We have tried many strategies over the years and one thing is clear our core instruction and school-wide interventions have to be effective.  If these are not meeting the needs of 80-90% of our students with tier 1 then the RTI process suffers.  

Orchestra Concert- Wednesday December 9th 

Band Concert- Thursday December 10th 

Choir Concert- December 17th 

Jeans Weeks-We will have two weeks, December 14th through December 18th and January 6th through 8th.  Teachers can where jeans each day with a donation to the upcoming Riley Dance marathon.  A $10.00 donation allows jeans for December 14th through the 18th and $20.00 allows jeans for both weeks.  Although the second week is a short week it is still 8 school days that you can wear jeans.  Please consider donating.  Donations can be given to Sandy in the office.