Principal's Update- May 8, 2015

Good morning!
Can you believe we are coming to a month left of school?  Where did the time go?  Make the most of your last few days with students. 

Leadership Day
McKinley's Leadership Day will be next Friday, May 15th from 1:15-2:15pm in classrooms.  This event will run for one hour and is an open house format for parents and families.  Students should have their "exhibit" of how they are a leader in their classroom and ready to go at 1:15.   If you want to allow students to visit other rooms, you may want to set-up shifts for the kids to visit other rooms (you don't want them all gone at once).  Also, Specialists will push into the room from 1:15-2:15 to help support the classrooms they are assigned to at that time. 

Core Instruction
In PLC notes, I had a group ask, "What do you mean when you are always saying we need to improve core instruction?"  Great question!  We will be doing more work with this next year, but here's my initial response-

As you stated, we will need to dig deeper into the data to see what it is telling us (both benchmarking data and end of unit summative).   Just from my observations and working with data, I think we have two things to look at with core- the instructional strategies we are using (whole group and small) and the way we are ensuring 80% of kids learn (progress monitoring, re-teaching, etc).  We need to look at our reading block a little different- we shouldn’t be teaching a whole group lesson at grade level and then lowering the standards during our small group time.  Small group/guided is still at grade level standards- however, we offer supports to the students (text at their level, graphic organizers, teacher support, etc).  Your small group/guided time may include a quick intervention- however, we need to make sure we are at grade level expectations.  Interventions will occur during that assigned grade level "Intervention/Enrichment Time". 
 
Last Day of Intervention Services
Our last day of intervention and ELL services will be Friday, May 29. 

Teacher of Year Banquet
Next Wednesday, three of our McKinley staff are up for the honor of Owatonna Teacher of the Year.  What a great honor for Tamra, Mark, and Kayla, as well as the rest of our staff.  I think this process speaks volumes of the important work we are doing here at McKinley.  I hope to see many of you at the ceremony, helping support Tamra, Mark, and Kayla. 

Hettinga Fundraiser
Don Hettinga's fundraiser is next Friday, May 15th at the Eagles.  Thank you to all who have donated money, items to the basket, etc.  I hope to see you there, also!

Spring Benchmarking 
Spring Benchmarking (DIBELS & math facts) starts next week.  See May 5th's blog post for information from Amy LaDue on benchmarking. 

Classroom Teacher End of Year Meeting
Just a reminder, please schedule a 15-20 minute meeting with me regarding your end of year reflection.  This is for classroom teachers only.  Before our meeting, I will send your data from the year.  This, along with your informal data, will guide our conversation. 

I've heard/seen some panic come from the thought of this meeting.  It is no way meant to penalize you- it's a honest conversation and reflection of your school year. 

Valet Parking of the Week
The Valet Parking of the Week goes to Paige Moon.  Paige is a dedicated professional who works hard to ensure our students love music and school.  She uses her positive attitude and nurturing personality to show students (and staff) she cares about them- academically, socially, and emotionally.  Paige stays abreast of current trends in music education and is always integrating this into her daily instruction.   Paige, thank you for all you do!


For all the mothers out there, enjoy your "day" on Sunday!  Have a great weekend!
-Justin