Good Morning Team and Happy Monday!
I hope that all of you had an enjoyable weekend and were able to soak up the sunshine...even though it was chilly. I am excited for the projected mid-60 degree weather being forecast for the next few days. I hope you can get out and enjoy some of it.
Well...here we are...time is winding down to the onset of students returning and Testing beginning. This week is going to be a crunch week for me...finishing observations, completing evals, lots of admin meetings, the School Improvement Plan and getting the testing schedule in place. I know that it is a busy week for you too...gradebook closing, upcoming report cards and Sped Progress Reports, meetings, and teaching. As such, this week we will not have scheduled Grade Level Team meetings or 03's. If there is information that you need to know, I will send it out via email...also, next week during your 03's we will review your FLO feedback. Always, know I am available...so if you need anything, please reach out. I appreciate all of you, and the hard work you are doing each and every day.
Specials
Teachers, as you are finalizing grades for your students for report cards, please look at their attendance. I am getting complaints from grade level teachers of students receiving A's...and passing grades, when they are not even attending their grade level classes. This puts the classroom teacher in a difficult position. I realize that you do not take attendance for students in K-6 and this might be something we need to look at for next trimester...not that you would do it in the system, but a hard copy. Please let me know your ideas of how we can address this issue.
Parent Teacher Conferences
By now invites have been sent out by grade level teachers to parents to sign up for Parent Teacher Conferences. If you have students who are struggling or failing a class, please reach out to the classroom teacher so that you could attend the conference as needed.
Prepping to Return
Grade level teachers are preparing to send out student supply lists to those students who will be returning in person. If there is something that you need to have students bring, please let the grade level teachers know so that it can be added to their list.
Please remember, there will be no use of community tools...pencils, crayons, scissors, etc.
M-Step Prep Again!
Below is the same M-Step prep that I sent out previously. Now that we definitely know that we have to take the test, we want to calendarize the practice tests and strategies.
Now is the time to intentionally incorporate practice M-Step items into your lesson plans. Your students need to be exposed to the type of questioning that they are likely to encounter. Utilize ALL of the resources available. You must also be very intentional in teaching test taking strategies. For example...
- Highlight/ Underline the title.
- Read the question carefully, then read it again.
- How many answers did they ask for?
- Use POE (Process of elimination) Eliminate the bad answers.
- Examine every answer choice before choosing an answer.
- PROVE IT in the story. (Find the textual evidence)
- Work backwards (read the questions first before reading, if possible)
- MOTIVATE, MOTIVATE, MOTIVATE
Below you will find a variety of resources that you can print to help your students prepare.
- Sample Paper/Pencil Tests for all subjects: https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-22709_70117-350086--,00.html
- Sample writing prompts for test questions. https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-22709_70117-455340--,00.html
- Sample writing prompts and essay scores: https://www.michigan.gov/mde/0,4615,7-140-22709_70117-456071--,00.html
- Another practice test for 5th grade science: https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/2018_M-STEP_Annotated_Sample_Items_test_614886_7.pdf
- Your students should be familiar with this vocabulary to help prepare for the test. https://www.michigan.gov/documents/mde/M-STEP_ELA-Construct-Relevant-Vocabulary_526868_7.pdf
- Here is the link to help your students become familiar with the online tools for M-Step. https://wbte.drcedirect.com/MI/portals/mi
- Our students struggle with editing and revising. Please use the following resource to build their skills. Incorporate one a day. Start with the beginning, then move on to intermediate, and even advanced for our older students. https://englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Paragraph-Correction.html
If you need additional test preparation resources, please let me know.
News to Know
3/8-3/12 Full lesson observations continue, there will be no O3's/GLT's this week.
3/11 - Board meeting @6:00
3/12 Friday: Early Release @1:30 😊
3/15 Monday: All Staff will work from the building for a half day of live teaching and a half day of training. Remember to plan for asynchronous learning for the afternoon.
3/22-3/26: Parent-Teacher Conferences, K-2 Students return, 3-8 are Virtual
3/29-4/2: SPRING BREAK!!!!!💗💗💗
4/5: 3rd-5th grade students return to in-person learning
4/12: 6th-8th grade return to in-person learning, MSTEP testing begins
4/13: PSAT testing in-person for all 8th graders, both in-person and Virtual
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