Principal's+Desk

= Mrs. Long's Principal's Corner Blog =



Email me at karen.long@wilmington.k12.oh.us

= Week of September 4th = Greetings! Hopefully your Labor Day celebrations included some relaxing and fun. It's a short week packed with important things to do!

Tuesday - 4/5 TBT Meetings; 2/3 TBT Meetings (Multi-Purpose Room used for Mental Health; Conference Room GATE 5th Grade)

Wednesday - K/1 TBT Meeting (Multi-Purpose Room used for Mental Health)

Thursday - Karen Long will be out of the building in the a.m. for an administrators' meeting (Multi-Purpose Room used for Mental Health)

Friday - Committee Meetings 8:30; K-5 Science PD at Central Office (Karen Long will be out of the building for a few hours in the a.m. to attend the science PD)

Today is the kickoff of IEP meetings. I know that our intervention specialists have shared upcoming meeting dates and times with many of you. I will be sending out a detailed calendar of meeting dates, times, and teachers who should plan to attend. Please welcome Alice Stewart and Laura Hobart this morning as they assist us with coverage during an IEP meeting today.

Attached you will find a TBT Intervention Schedule that outlines the starting and ending dates of 13 TBT rotations that will take us to the end of the school year. (Thanks go out to Shari Murphy who shared the schedule that she had created for 4th grade reading TBT.) I have put this schedule on the TBT page of the wiki as well as a table to remind you of forms and pre- and post-assessments to give within each three week rotation. On Friday this week, you should be pre-assessing the students who will be in your next rotation, so that you have next week to plan interventions for them and begin making plans for your work with a new group of students. This is slightly different than last year, since we are working with 3 week rotations instead of 2 week rotations. I'll be around to as many TBT meetings as I can to address any questions you might have about this.

I need for you to send me the learning targets that your TBT has targeted for intervention during the first semester. As the attachment indicates, that's 6 different rotations during the first semestar. Likely you would repeat the learning targets for 2 groups of students, so that's 3 different learning targets for each TBT. You are likely considering learning targets that your current students have demonstrated weakness; or trends in our student data indicate that the identified learning targets are common trouble and weak areas for our students. Be confident in your selection of learning targets and be prepared to articulate the rationale and smart teacher experience/knowledge behind your decision. I will take the learning targets that you share with me to my administrative meeting on Thursday morning to share with other district administrators. Please designate on person from your TBT to email me your identified learning targets by the end of the day on Wednesday.

I will be in classrooms again this week and will look for lesson plans that are accessible. I'll be in your rooms to see/hear your teaching and see/hear student learning, as well as look for lesson plans that support student learning. I will try to leave notes prior to leaving. And I hope to stay more than just a few minutes. This is the most important work that I have to do as principal - support teaching and learning. Whether you are trying something new or doing something really interesting, if there's ever a specific lesson that you want me to see/hear, let me know and I'll work hard to be there.

Our school-wide mural for HIGH 5 FOR THE BEST SCHOOL YEAT YET! and HIGH 5 FOR A GREAT START! and HIGH 5 FOR GOOD BEHAVIOR CHOICES is hanging in the hallway out front. If you haven't finished you class mural yet, go ahead and take a little time today to do that and get it to me by the end of the day and I'll get it hung up there with the rest of the murals.

This is the 4th week of the 1st quarter. Interim reports go home next Friday, September 14th. If you haven't thought about grades already, the thought of sending home interims in less than 2 weeks will get you thinking. Here's a link to a smart teacher blog from Edutopia that might guide your next steps. http://www.edutopia.org/blog/courageous-conversation-andrew-miller

Enjoy the day and the week!

= Our 1st Incentive is on Friday, August 31st! Students will be invited to be part of an extra recess and a popsicle and add their hand print & signature to a class mural in your classroom. We'll make a staff mural as an example at Thursday's staff meeting. =

Monday, August 27, 2012 Dear Denver Staff, We survived our first 5 day week quite well! After the 5 day week coming up, we'll be rewarded with a 3 day weekend! Here's what's ahead for us this week!


 * 4-Sight Assessment** 3rd/4th/5th Grade Teachers – Please give me your 4-Sight answer documents to me by the following days – Reading on Monday and Math on Tuesday. When you give me your math answer documents, I only need the first page. You can keep the other pages for your student files.


 * Dismissal** is still a work in progress. The following changes will be implemented on Monday - Teri Camp will escort 1st grade bus-riders and Lisa Haines will escort kindergarten bus-riders leaving kindergarten and 1st grade homeroom teachers responsible for walker/car-rider dismissals out back. I am very interested in exploring the idea of curbside pick up with student number identification. Teachers have mentioned this idea as an option, along with several parents. I have begun conversations with Jo Vance and Curt Bone and the other elementary principals about safe dismissal changes. I’ll keep you posted.

Since we met last Thursday, ODE has provided more specific directions regarding reading assessments that can be used and must be completed by September 30th. So we have made the following revisions to our assessment plan –
 * 3rd Grade Guarantee**

Kindergarten Assessment: In the process of being developed 1st Grade Assessment: Kindergarten (Full) Screener 2nd Grade Assessment: 1st Grade (Full) Screener 3rd Grade Assessment: 4-Sight

We will begin the 1st and 2nd grade assessment this week.


 * Intervention Groups/TBT** start this week. I will be posting a TBT calendar on the WIKI for everyone to note meetings, pre/post-assessments, and when charts are to be completed and turn in. Let me know if you have any questions.


 * Any ideas for our school sign out front?** Share them with me! Get ideas from your students! Students could even help change the school sign.

Monday: TBT Grades 4/5 Tuesday: TBT Grades 2/3 (note the change in day to accommodate specialist schedules) Wednesday: TBT Grades K/1 (note the change in day to accommodate specialist schedules) Thursday: Staff Meeting 8-9 (please bring your staff notebook/journal that you started at the staff meeting on our first day) Friday: Denim Day Donation to Alzheimer Awareness Efforts in Partnership with Cape May (Donations can be placed in the envelope in the office with Mary.) Home football game against Miami Trace.
 * __This Week__**


 * Shorts.** Surprisingly, people have asked me to define shorts after my email last week. If it feels like shorts, and isn't pants or capris, and other people would call them shorts, and they look like shorts, and you wonder if they're shorts, then they are probably shorts and are not part of business casual attire. There are so many more important and interesting topics for us to discuss, like the smart teaching that you doing, so that is what I prefer to focus on. Keep reading!

I was in classrooms last week and noticed the smart teaching that is happening at Denver school. Students are saying that this is the best school year ever! Students are proud of the signs that they have added to the walls of our school. Here are some of the things that your colleagues are doing that you might like to know about and try –
 * Classroom Visits**


 * A teacher gave a pre-assessment and told students that if they don’t know how to answer the question, underline or circle the words that they know in the question.
 * Model questions and curiosity from your own life about your content, “I wonder…” “What do you think would happen if…”
 * “The fun part is that we get to…”
 * Get students to lean forward in their seats and wonder, “Is that true?”
 * A teacher built interest and purpose for the day’s lesson prior to asking students to write notes and diagram in their notebook/journal. Then the teacher moved around the class and assisted the few students who were still having trouble copying from the board.
 * A teacher explicitly told students that we need to be efficient this year and not waste time. “I don’t wanna rush you, but I kinda have to.”
 * A few teachers had quiet music playing while students worked quietly in the classroom.
 * One teacher used a VERY quiet and soothing voice in their classroom to get students’ attention. The classroom was very quiet and calm as a result of the tone that she had set.
 * A math teacher has a classroom library that students can check books out of.
 * One teacher has a sign for the incentive hanging in her classroom. I want to make one for each of you to hang in your classrooms each month, along with the things you need to do to make it to be part of the incentive.
 * I saw a teacher invite students to the “Appreciation Circle” on the floor. Students gathered quietly and sat in a circle without fuss and did a team building activity.
 * A teacher reviewed school-wide expectations in a creative and fun way with an activity that invited students to imagine what school would be like if they could be “principal for a day”.
 * Another teacher modeled center work with the whole class and stressed neatness and doing your best work always.
 * I’d heard of a reading log…3rd grade teachers ask students to do a math log. Making school connections at home in math.
 * I heard a teacher say, “I have to brag.” And then she bragged about a group of students tot the whole class.
 * I heard teachers believe in their students saying, “The last one is the hardest. But you can do it!” and “That’s really smart of you.” and “Cason was really bright when…” If we believe in our students, then they will believe in themselves and one another!

I plan to be in classrooms more this week.

Mary has begun to enter data into grade level excel spreadsheets. The spreadsheets will include AYP data, making it easier to sort data and track student and AYP subgroup progress. We hope to be ready to share them with you by the end of the week.
 * Data Spreadsheets**

Make it a great week with a positive attitude toward your students and colleagues!

Monday, August 20, 2012 Dear Denver Staff, I don't know about you, but I needed the weekend to rest and recover from not only the first 3 days of school, but also from all of the work of preparing for the start of school. I hope that you were able to relax and enjoy the weekend. Here's what's on my radar for the week ahead.

This week, please be sure to -
 * Turn in **weekly lesson** plans that include standards, essential vocabulary, and the high-yield strategy(ies) that you will be using in your teaching. Ideally, intervention specialists and general education teachers are working collaboratively to create lesson plans together for the time that you are sharing students. You can print your plans and hand them to me or email your plans to me. If anyone needs guidance on lesson plan formats and/or how to use the WIKI to collaborate in creating plans with colleagues, let me know. I'm happy to hold a mini-workshop for folks on either topic.
 * Continue to review school-wide and classroom **expectations**. Be sure to turn in your student-created posters by the end of the week. Post what you are working on in the table on the PBS page of the WIKI
 * Add **playground expectations** to the WIKI so that we can have school-wide or grade level appropriate and agreed upon rules for recess that will help keep our students safe.
 * When you meet in **TBT'**s this week, please have a computer logged onto the WIKI. I would like to share an excel spreadsheet that is posted on the WIKI with each TBT. Also, I need to know where you are meeting as a TBT. I will assume in the room of the person listed first on the binder. If otherwise, please let me know. In TBT's this week, we need to be preparing for next week's intervention and determine our first steps for using formative instructional practices, so begin asking yourselves these important questions - what do our students know? what do they need to know? what pre-assessment will we use to measure that? how will we communicate their learning to them and to their families? what post-assessment will we use to measure their learning and our teaching?

__Extended Learning Time Proposals__
Once again, we have Title 1 funds available to support activities that you plan outside the school day. Last year Denver hosted after school tutoring sessions and a Literacy Luau with these funds. Other activities around the district included Pie Night and book give-aways. If you are interested in tutoring or providing parental involvement activities for math or reading (or an interdisciplinary approach to math and/or reading involving art/music/science/social studies/or technology) outside the school day, please complete the attached extended learning time proposal and turn it into to me by September 4th. Please take advantage of this opportunity to engage with students and their families outside the school day. Each proposal will be considered and if selected, your activity will be added to the school calendar and arrangements will be made to plan and implement the proposed activity.

= Elementary Tutoring Proposal =

__4-Sight Assessment__

 * **Reading - Monday Grades 3-5**
 * **Math - Tuesday Grades 3-5**

This assessment will allow teachers to plan instruction based on student data. Of course, students who receive accommodations on assessments, need to receive accommodations on the math and reading 4-Sight assessments. Since our students are taking the assessments so early in the school year, we do not expect mastery at this point. Instead, the data will give teachers an indication of what students know and what areas students need instruction. Teachers should grade the score sheets and then return them to the office by the following week (Monday, turn in reading, and Tuesday, turn in math). The score sheets will be scanned so that the data can be accessed by student assessment reports. I will provide this information to you once the data is uploaded. If you have questions, please ask a colleague, Justin Goodman, or myself.

**Friday**: Black and Orange Day - 1st home football game of the season; BLT 8-9 Conference Room
Monday, August 13, 2012 Dear Denver Staff, Welcome back to school! I hope everyone had a memorable summer. It's certainly been that kind of summer for me! A summer full of firsts and I join the staff at Denver! I am very excited about this new adventure that Mary Zaycosky and I started together in July. And we are so excited to have you join us as the new school year begins. I am excited to welcome Zach Yike and Allison Black to our Denver Place staff.

At the start of each week, I will post a weekly update on this WIKI page. The post will include -
 * calendar of activities
 * curriculum information and resources,
 * school happenings, and
 * building improvement plan supports

When I first entered the building the end of June, I couldn't imagine that it would sparkle and shine and be so colorful and welcoming as it looks now! I am blown away by the hard work and preparation and dedicated hours that so many of you have put into making our school the BEST PLACE FOR LEARNING in the county! Thank you!

We will get together tomorrow for our first day together as a staff for the 2012-2013 school year. As a reminder, I am posting the agenda here.

__**Monday, August 13th**__ 7:45-8:15 Breakfast and Catching-up with one another 8:00 Required reporting time 8:15 Meeting - Principal's Message (Building Data; District Data; Vision; Community Building; Handbook Items) 9:00 OIP/BLT Update 9:45 TBT revisions; TBT teams; BLT Initiatives 10:30 Break 10:45 PBS/Kagan Strategies 11:30 Lunch (Pack or Generations Pizza) 12:00 District PD (FIP - Formative Instructional Processes) 3:30 Finished for the Day

8:15 Staff Meeting 9:15 - 3:30 Teacher Work Day 5:00 Open House - FREE school supplies will be available for students who need them! 7:00 Go home and get some sleep! It will be an exciting day tomorrow!
 * __Tuesday, August 14th__**

A-L Kindergarten Report 8:50 Breakfast School-wide Expectations Lesson Plans All Willing and Able Hands on Deck for Lunch New Dismissal Procedure
 * __Wednesday, August 15th__**

__**Thursday, August 16th**__ M-Z Kindergarten Report 8:50 Breakfast School-wide Expectations Lesson Plans All Willing and Able Hands on Deck for Lunch New Dismissal Procedure (Likely revised and tweeked from previous day. Look for an email!)

__**Friday, August 17th**__ ALL Kindergarteners Report 8:50 Breakfast School-wide Expectations Lesson Plans All Willing and Able Hands on Deck for Lunch Fire Drill at 3:00 New Dismissal Procedure (Likely revised and tweeked from previous day. Look for an email!)

7:00 pm Home Football Scrimmage