April 22, 2011

No School Monday - Happy Easter Weekend!

DIBELs and Benchmarking schedules are set and have been sent to BLT members. Assessment day will begin on May 2nd. Teachers should use the recording forms and final data sheets should be turned in to me (preferably via email) sometime in May.

Final Data - Many teachers tied their ITPDP to year-end data. If the data was not present at our annual conference, you would just need to write up a brief summary after your spring assessments are complete. Email/drop off the summary to your evaluator so it can be added to your reflection you have turned in already. As for data folders, I will be talking to BLT members to make sure we have the necessary information and sheets available to teams to get those completed correctly.

Year End Check-Out - Hard to believe we are talking about year end check-out procedures already, but we have less than 30 days of school! Check out sheets will be delivered to boxes sometime near the end of May. The last day of school is Friday, June 3 and the last day for certified staff is Monday, June 6. The teacher workday will be 8am until 2pm.

Dates to Note - In addition to field trips and other events being posted on my Google calendar (it's fixed,  by the way!!), a large calendar will be posted in the office (lounge or copy room) by Monday. Please write up any event your classroom or team/students are hosting, attending, etc.  We will even have a different color for each grade level because I'm coordinated like that (actually it was a strongly suggested comment from a high-C colleague :-). This will allow us to be on the same page as we hit the final home-stretch for 2010-11. Look for it by Monday and begin filling it out!

Final Thoughts for the Week

...where I keep talking/typing and you 

don't necessarily have to continue listening/reading. 

Positive Phone Calls - I do confess...I tend to make a much larger percentage of 'negative' phone calls or emails to parents than I make positive ones (the ratio is embarrassing really). In fact, this past week was the first positive phone call home I've made with two students in a long time. You know what though? It felt really good and it was fun! The parents were very proud of their child and thankful for the call. It took me less time than when I make the 'negative' calls because I didn't have to document it nor explain an entire series of events that lead up to the phone call to the parents. Instead, we just celebrated...and one mom cried. Not the tears I sometimes see or hear from parents...but those good tears you see when you catch someone, maybe even me, watching the really touching scene from a movie like Dumbo (hey - I have a weak spot for baby elephants - don't we all??). So - I'm challenging myself (and you, of course), to make one positive phone call a day between now and the end of the year. Twenty-eight phone calls. Twenty-eight happy parents. Twenty-eight times to get to feel really good about being an educator and an opportunity to truly enjoy the ability we have to touch lives in a positive way.