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Next Week's Schedule
Monday
- 8:00am - ARD (Jacobs, Dietz, Gilliland)
- 3:00pm - Good News Club
- Kristen Weichel on Campus
- 9:30am - Bright to Asst Principal Meeting
- 6:30pm - All City Choir Concert @ Royse City High School
Wednesday
- PLC Meetings Today
- Kristen Weichel on Campus
- 3:30pm - Elementary Curriculum Advisory Meeting @ Admin Building
Thursday
- 8:55am - ARD (Jacobs, Worley, 3rd Grade Teacher)
Friday
- 2:30pm - 4th Grade STAAR Writing Pep Rally in Pod
Important Reminders
Reading Instruction
Guided Reading books have been organized in the 4th Grade pod by reading level. Teachers will develop groups based on student's instructional reading level. Reading groups will meet daily. Lower level readers will meet every day while higher level readers will meet at least 2x per week.
Figure 19 Training
Region 10 has placed in the "Online Learning Center" to help teachers with supporting the skills found in Figure 19. They have created a 75 to 90 minute online course about the skills in Figure 19.
Click this link & you'll find illustrated directions on how to sign up for the online course through Region 10. When you finished, you would take the brief quiz and receive your certificate. This workshop does count for PD credit. Just list the course in your portfolio, along with the certificate.
Accelerated Reader (AR) Update - Students should be at 50% of their goal by next Friday. If you notice someone who really needs help, please let me know. We will continue to monitor and encourage students to make weekly targets and a comprehension score of at least 80%. Nita Green is meeting with our targeted 3rd and 4th grade student to ensure they have a book on their reading level each day. Students should be asked to take home a book every night and read for 20 minutes. Be sure to communicate with parents `about their child's AR point goal and their progress toward reaching that goal.
Mathematics
1st & 2nd Grade - Lone Star Daily Rigor is being used with students each week.
3rd & 4th Grade - Math GPS is being used to help students weekly. Teachers should be on pages 81-85 next week. We must maintain this pace in order to finished by testing time.
Think Through Math (TTM) for Grade 3-4 - Teachers please ensure that all students have been assessed for TTM. Letters have been sent home during the first report card to parents. Remember that there's an app for TTM and it can be used on the iPad.
ESL Certification
Royse City ISD is pushing to have 100% of the teaching staff to be ESL Certification. The district will pay for teachers to take the test AND have the ESL Certification place on your teaching certificate. Below are a list of links that are helpful to those interesting in this process:
They can afford to reimburse you now - who know when they will no longer continue to this offer. Be sure to take up the district with this offer to reimburse you for this certification.
Royse City ISD is pushing to have 100% of the teaching staff to be ESL Certification. The district will pay for teachers to take the test AND have the ESL Certification place on your teaching certificate. Below are a list of links that are helpful to those interesting in this process:
They can afford to reimburse you now - who know when they will no longer continue to this offer. Be sure to take up the district with this offer to reimburse you for this certification.
Bad Weather Dates
Two of the bad weather make up days are scheduled for Friday, May 1st & Friday, June 5th.
NEW Information
I'm super excited to moderate #RLchat tomorrow night @ 8:00pm! We'll be discussing importance of Classroom Culture. Join us! #rcisdchat
— christiana finch (@christianafinch) March 18, 2015
T-TESS - NEW Teacher Evaluation System - Texas is currently piloting a new teacher evaluation system called the T-TESS (Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System). The pilot program began this year with nearly 60 school district. Next school year, nearly 200 school districts with join the pilot program. The new teacher evaluation system will be launched state-wide during the 2016-2017 school year.
Our district is considering joining the refinement phase of this program for this upcoming school year. Currently all Royse City ISD campus principals are learning more about T-TESS and how it differs from PDAS. You can learn more about the new teacher evaluation system yourself here with this link below.
The T-TESS System ... I will continue to share as we learn more about this process.
STAAR Training Modules - Here's the link to the training modules Mr. Powley emailed earlier.
Capitol Update - Accountability System
Earlier this week, Mr. Worthy emailed the principals some information about Senate and House Bills that could change our state accountability system and make it less test driven. Click here to read more about the details of the report from the TASA website.
ESL Certification - As you all know, the district is focusing on hiring teachers with an ESL certification and encouraging the rest of our teachers to become certified. Start thinking about getting your ESL certification during the summer. Click on the links above for addition information about ESL Certification. The district will be providing training for ESL certifications at the Administration Building. Summer dates will be coming.
30 Hour GT Training - Region 10 is offering this training completely online. Click this link to see the courses offered. Also Julia Robinson will be offering this training at the Administration Building this summer too. Summer dates will be coming.
Lesson Plans - Reminder to submit your lesson plans to Mrs. Salinas by Monday morning. If you're using Forethought on Eduphoria, I can access your lesson plans for that system so there's no need to "turn in" lesson plans. Eventually I would like to see all teachers using the Forethought system.
Failing Grades - Be sure to contact and meet with parents of any student with failing grades. If you have any student you're considering holding the student back in the current grade level, you must schedule a conference with me to discuss that student's progress.
Early Release Day - May 1st @ 12:00pm - Be sure to communicate with parents this early release day is 30 minutes earlier that usual. All staff members will be meeting at the High School for Staff Appreciation on May 1st @ 1:30pm.
Summer School Dates
Summer School will continue to be at Davis Elementary with Angelee Morales as the Principal. The dates/times for grades 3, 4, 6, 7 will be June 9-11; 15-18; 22-25 from 7:30am until 3:00pm. If you're interested in teaching these grade levels, please contact Angelee Morales directly.
The dates/times for SSI grades 5 and 8 will be June 9-11 Reading, June 15-18 Reading & Math, and a possible review session on June 22 to prepare them for the STAAR on June 24 & 25 from 7:30am until 12:30pm. If you're interested in teaching these grade levels, contact Anglia Carpenter directly.
Living in Beta (#stuvoice) -
A Google Certified Instructor, Molly Schroeder has spent the last year keynoting and presenting at Google in Education summits all over the world. Most recently, she delivered the keynote address at the Hong Kong Google in Education Conference and was a guest speaker at the Google Developers forum at the ISTE conference. Her presentations often focus on how to integrate Google Apps and other emerging technologies into the classroom.
I love what she says about focusing on thinking skills and improving ideas for students... sounds a lot like Process Standards for us. As she talks, you can easily see how getting students to improve on their own ideas about learning relates to student voice.
Watch this TEDx Talk and see if you could use these ideas to enhance the student voice in your classrooms.
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