My confidence in all of you to carry this school closer and closer to our lofty goals grows with each passing day. You make this school a special place.
This is our last day with the amazing Abreu Corniel kids (Adamaris in 5th, Samuel in 2nd). I know they are both feeling sad about having to leave. If you know them, please make a special effort to see them today.
Next week in my classroom walk-throughs I am going to be looking specifically for evidence of "Creating an Environment of Respect and Rapport". This will include teacher interaction with students as well as student to student interaction.
Remember, kids won't learn from you if they don't trust you and feel that they are cared for.
Reminders
- Fun Run/Walk begins today at 1:30. Related arts classes that are in conflict with this are cancelled for today.
- Tonight from 6-8 is the PTO meeting. I will be presenting our school report card and school improvement plan to parents.
- Monday Sept. 23 is our staff PD day. We'll meet in Sarah Niesen's room from 2:00-3:30.
- Thursday, Sept. 26th is Open House/Book Fair/ and International Night. The Book Fair will be open 5:30-8:00, Open House from 5:45-6:30, International Night 6:30-8:00 (potluck and presentations).
- After this event, I expect things to settle down quite a bit, I think until Day of the Dead in Nov.
PLC Grant
You may have noticed several subs in the building on Monday of this week. The reason for this was to allow for a team of teachers to participate in a State Personnel Development Grant through DPI.
This is a 5 year grant centered around improving literacy outcomes for intermediate level students with disabilities with a focus on the development of professional learning communities (PLC). The 3 big ideas of a PLC are:
- focus on student learning
- focus on teacher collaboration
- focus on results
Only 26 out of 99 schools who applied for this grant were selected. Nuestro Mundo was the only school in Madison to qualify.
The grant gives us access to our own PLC coach, Edie Holcomb, with whom we will meet one day a month (hence the subs). The group will meet without Edie, at least one other time per month to keep the PLC work and learning fresh.
This is a great opportunity for our school. The long-term vision is that the core group of teachers participating in this grant will disseminate this learning to all staff. After the 5 year grant cycle, I envision the PLC model used consistently by all teachers in the building. For more information about the PLC model follow this link.
Presentation Carts
Alberto is in the process of updating all presentation carts with laptops. Please do not remove anything from the carts. All cables, wires, and devices that are on the presentation carts should remain on the presentation carts. This way we can ensure continued use of the carts. If you are missing something and are tempted to take it off the cart, please let me know and we'll find what you need. Also, please do not take cables and wires from other devices and add them to your cart.
Color Printing
Unfortunately, my plan to put the color on the network isn't going to work out due to a hardware problem with the printer. If you need color printing, send me an email with an attachment and allow at least 24 hours. I'll put the printing in your mailbox. Remember to use this sparingly it is expensive, but don't shy away from color printing when you need visuals to make input comprehensible to students learning in a second language.
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