Friday Focus - November 1, 2019

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*Continued focus in classrooms, despite the weather, the Halloween candy, and a late night of conferences. When you maintain a focus on learning in your classrooms, the students take your lead and do too!
*I heard several positive comments from parents at conferences that included: knowing that there are caring teachers to support their child, teachers offering extra academic support to struggling students, and ongoing communication about their child (not just at conferences).  Our collaboration with parents is so important. Thank you for your time and efforts to communicate and collaborate with parents!
*I pulled a handful of students from a study hall to help with something and as they were leaving one said, "We'll still need to read for 10 minutes when we come back." Another responded "Of course we will, we always need to read 10 minutes."  This conversation was so matter of fact and without any attitude. I know that some students bucked this at the start of the year, but when you stuck with it, they got over it and now it's just the way it is (and it's good for them!). Thank you!
*Class review for the upcoming test, not only reviewing vocabulary, but discussing similarities and differences. As students then completed a kahoot, when answers were wrong, there was discussion to try to clear up the misconceptions of why students chose a wrong answer so they could learn from those wrong answers.
*Class discussion about the 4C's: Communication, Collaboration, Critical Thinking and Creativity.
*When a staff member looked like she was having a bad moment, a student noticed and asked if everything was ok. Then the student took it a step further and used the same language that has been used to help her during bad moments. It doesn't always seem like they're listening or getting it, but this proved they are and have empathy for others!!


Upcoming Events:
TODAY - 10:10ish - Cross Country State Send Off
Monday - 1st Quarter grades will be posted on Monday morning.
    It's 2nd quarter--do you know if you have a Q2 duty? Check the schedule if you don't remember!
Tuesday - I will be out of the building in the morning
Wednesday - HS Faculty meeting at 3:15
 -middle school SEL lessons start during Aspire
Thursday - jeans day (instead of on Friday)
Friday - Veterans Day assembly at 9:30 -Please dress in professional attire as we will have many community members/guests in our building for the assembly.


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*If you have any students that you are giving an Incomplete grade, they will need to complete work and have the grade changed by Friday, November 15th. You will do this by turning in the grade change form to the office.  Please let me know if you have any students that will be given an incomplete.  If you've already had a conversation with me about a student, they are already on my list. :)

*Thank you all for your conversations and plus/delta input shared on our school report cards. You can read all of your post-it responses HERE. 

Tech Tip of the Week:
What is Enterprise Connect? Enterprise Connect literally connects all of your usernames together and yes, the box will appear each time you restart your laptop. As long as you are signed-in (everything is gray and only option is to sign-out) you can close (red circle) that box.

Blogs, Quotes and Tweets
*4 Teaching Mistakes that Drained My Energy (and the solutions that changed everything)
*20 Ways to Give Feedback for Learning

Friday Focus - October 25, 2019

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*Students creating short iMovies to culminate their research and share their results in a published format. I overheard students discussing with their partners what was most important to include, how to keep their video engaging, how could they demonstrate it visually in their video. The expectations and explanation of the video purpose really set the tone to allow those student conversations as they created them.
*Students competing in online quiz to practice their terms. They never seem to tire of this type of practice!
*Our juniors and seniors were engaged in many conversations with employers at the job fair. (You can find many pictures on the DHS facebook page). A couple of students even had an interesting conversation with me about one of the employers' interesting benefits. Thank you to Scott for coordinating this event for our students!
*Faculty teamwork in small meetings to problem solve student behaviors to come up with a team based solution. We are better together!
*On a night when they didn't have to be at school, we had many high schoolers running the pasta showdown and others sitting at a booth asking for people to sign Christmas cards that will be sent to military in Afghanistan. #KidsTheseDays #DodgelandProud

Events Next Week:
Monday - EP Training at 3:15 in IMC -ok, not actual training, but a supported time/space to work on your SLO if it's not done yet. :)

Tuesday - P/T Conferences 4:00-7:30

Wednesday - optional MS faculty meeting (see Mrs. Modaff's email from last night)

Friday - Flu Shot clinic for students


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*There have been a few staff questions about whether Mrs. Modaff or I handle discipline. By definition of our roles, Mrs. Modaff addresses student discipline, however, we are a team. When there are too many issues for one person to manage I step in to help. All educlimber referrals go to both of us so I am also aware of them. If you send an email or call about an issue it should go to Mrs. Modaff, but feel free to cc me on the email for awareness.
*If you enter an absence ahead of time in Aesop for a dr appointment and need coverage for a short amount of time (not a full guest teacher) please make sure to email Laura and I as well. I only receive notification of absences to approve for personal/flex, NOT for sick time so the notes for sick time coverage don't come to my attention.


Blogs, Quotes & Tweets:
*The Dumbest Intervention Ever

Friday Focus - October 18, 2019

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*I heard about a number of different conversations that teachers had with students after completing the PreACT at the high school--about how students felt they did, what they realized they need to learn more about, etc. It's these types of conversations that help students to have ownership of their learning and use assessments to move their learning forward. Thank you!
*Several different staff members helped cover for others during absences and even develop a plan for a long term coverage. You all are so amazing for your colleagues and our students!
*Classcraft magic. I mean kids were learning, they were so focused, so quiet, so on-task and having fun at the same time. I don't even understand Classcraft yet, but those kids were as hooked as I've seen them get hooked on Minecraft and Fortnite! 
*After the weekend homecoming dance I had a parent reach out and share that her child had something negative happen with their date, but several other students went out of their way to make the evening a positive experience, including students that had previously been unkind at school. It was such a great story to hear the good that our students can do for one another, just by showing empathy and being kind!

Events Next Week:
I will be out of the building Monday afternoon and all day Tuesday.

Wednesday - Picture Retake Day (this will be on the elementary side of the commons)

Thursday - if no rain: before school is the bus evacuation drill-this means all buses will drop off students behind the elementary after the drill so students will enter from the backside of the building and be later than normal.
*PM-Senior/Community Job Fair taking place in the commons/hallway. We have 17 businesses/companies that will be set up 2:00-5:00.
*Parent/Teacher Conferences 4:00-7:30 (see my details in "Nuts & Bolts" Notes) If you'd like to support FBLA and eat pasta to fuel up for conferences you only need to pay $4 and can eat as early as 3:15.

Friday - PD Day 7:30-3:00 Agenda coming out soon (it will include target based work, ACP/Xello and DPI school report card data).


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*P/T Conferences - all staff will be in the gym. This has been most favorable by parents to be able to connect with teachers. 

Do's: Start with a positive, welcome the parent, listen actively, share examples, be objective when describing behavior, give suggestion of how to support at home. 

Don’ts: show gradebook of all students, get emotional (stay calm), complain, etc. 

Please let me know of any parents that you might be concerned about and I would be happy to keep my eyes out for them to join you when they arrive. Or give me some sort of signal that you'd like me to join. ;)

*Please remind students to use their final 5 minutes of 8th period to check emails. Mrs. Modaff, Mr. Dunn, myself and others are using email to communicate with students to try to minimize the amount of times students are called out of class.

Tech Tip of the Week:
Resource Week: QR Codes! Even easier for students to use now that we don’t need a seperate app to scan QR codes. Life has gotten one tap easier. Using the camera app, a student can walk up to a QR code and wait for the prompt to open a document or a web site. Kathy Schrock’s Guide to Everything, literally has everything and this page has QR code videos, book suggestions and tons of fun with QR codes! Sometimes we just need an idea...


Do you like free online learning?  Maybe you'd be interested in the Teacher Success Summit: https://teachersuccesssummit.com/

Blogs, Quotes & Tweets:
*15 Tips for Leading Productive Parent-Teacher Conferences
*Have you listened to Ted Neitzke's podcast? He is always so inspiring and it's so easy to listen to it while I'm getting ready in the morning or while I walk my dog. I loved listening to this episode recently and can't stop thinking about mindset, what we get to do and how we can even let the weather decide our day! 102: Meteorologists, Astrologists, and Hope'rs

Friday Focus - October 11, 2019

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*Despite the chaos that can become of crazy day or other events this week, I saw several classrooms continuing on with regular learning/procedures which set the tone to keep the classroom normal.  Whenever we stray from the normal, then the students do too!
*Staff modeling school pride and enjoying connections made with students throughout the week. Thank you to everything that each of you have done this week--I know some of you have spent a lot of extra time on Homecoming related stuff. Just you wait for the assembly to see what kind of monkey business some of our staff have planned. ;)

Upcoming Events:
Just a reminder of today's Friday Homecoming Schedule:

1st Hour	7:50-8:20
2nd Hour	8:23-8:53
3rd hour	8:56-9:26
4th Hour	9:29-9:59
5th Hour	10:02-10:32
6th Hour	10:35-11:05
HS Lunch	11:05-11:29
MS Aspire	11:08-11:30
MS Lunch	11:30-11:54
HS Aspire	11:32 -11:54
7th Hour	11:57-12:27
8th Hour	12:30-1:00
1:00-2:20	Spirit Assembly in HS Gym
2:30	K-12 Early Dismissal

Monday/Tuesday - 9-11th graders completing PreACT packets in Aspire
Wednesday - Workout Wednesday Attire!- MS Faculty meeting at 3:15 in Ms. Anderson's room (Topic: Social Emotional Learning for Aspire)
Thursday - modified schedule for HS with 9-11th graders taking PreACT in the morning (MS/HS lunch and aspire time is flip flopped)

Tech Tip of the Week:
I<3PDF! PDF documents are great when working in Schoology, Notability and to save formatting when sharing documents, but sometimes we need to make changes to PDFs we already have access to. www.ilovepdf.com can help you do MANY things to PDF documents. The ones we use the most: Merge PDF and Split PDF. Hint: When creating a Word, PowerPoint, or Excel document you can Save As a PDF when you are the creator the finished document.

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Thank you for your patience with me being behind on this, that or anything. I'm sure you can relate! If there's something you need a response on sooner than later or need something addressed ASAP you are better off letting Linda/Laura know to catch me/leave a note on my door, because my email inbox has been swamped!

Blogs, Quotes & Tweets:
*Don't Shoulda' On Me

Friday Focus - October 4, 2019

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*HS FBLA students leading a meeting that they had planned, along with a fun team building activity to build teamwork and welcome new members to the group.
*Students practicing matching their science terms in quizlet. They were in randomized groups and had to discuss as they tried to decide who had the correct term.
*I made it to a study hall that was close to the end and noticed that almost every single student was quiet and focused on learning -half were still reading a book and others were focused on assignments while the teacher was practicing vocab with two students. Thank you for using this time so well to keep our students focused on learning and staying on track!
*Students reflecting on their reading/writing habits and them making individual goals. Students referred back to a chart with tips for writing about reading, going from good to great.

*Students working together in teams of 4, each with a different job for solving their math problems. 

Events Next Week: There's No Place Like Homecoming!!!
Monday - Color day (staff wear pink)
Mentor/Mentee book study meeting at 3:15 in IMC

Tuesday - Twister Tuesday - Crazy dress up day
Wednesday - Munchkinland dress like a kid
HS faculty meeting 3:15 (agenda is PreACT)

Thursday - Which Witch? Twin dress up
  6pm Wizard of Oz Movie, then community wide tug of war (this eliminates the 2nd assembly that was held last year!), followed by coronation

Friday - Dodgeland Pride attire
The shortened bell schedule for Friday can be found HERE Teachers-please take your 8th period class to the gym and sit with students to help model/monitor behavior. MS/HS students will sitting with their grade levels. Advisors-please join your grade levels.  Different this year--Elementary students will be sitting on the floor in front of us so we will all be looking the same direction.


Tech Tip of the Week:
Printing from Your iPad. First, a quick reminder that pictures do not print from the Camera Roll. To print photos they need to be inserted into a document and then printed. This rule applies to students also. Second, printing from your iPad requires your username and password that is the same as your laptop login. For students, this would be their first.last Username and DSDstudentID# for Password. Finally, staff have choices in where to print. Student work will print to the Print Center that is closest.

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Reminder: Taking attendance is essential! We've had a number of students not marked absent at the start of the day, but then later showed up absent, but it was that attendance was missed to begin with.
*I will have an email to come as follow-up to Wednesday's staff meeting. Thank you to everyone fo being patient with me as I continue to learn all of the different things that I need to do at this level. :)

*Remember...even if a student is disregulated or making poor choices, keep your cool and...

Blogs, Quotes & Tweets:
*Opening Lessons With a Bang
*7 Steps to Help Students Succeed on Assessments