Weekly Update - May 25, 2018

Happy Friday!
I hope everyone had a great week!  I was in Dallas at a Fountas and Pinnell Conference with some other principals, Teaching and Learning Staff, and our Teaching & Learning Coaches.  It was a great conference with lots of new learning!  Hearing all the work around literacy made me even prouder of the hard we have done with guided reading this year.  Nice work!

I made the transition to Google last week (it's fabulous!) and couldn't get logged into the blog.  But, it's solved now and I can write a response!

Next Week:
Just a reminder of our last week's events:

Wednesday:  Fancy Pants Day - dress up to celebrate our 5th Grade Graduates!  We will celebrate our 5th graders at 1:15pm at the graduation ceremony.

Thursday:  Awards Day

Friday:  Last Day Activities - sign up if you haven't!  Also, if you need items for your event, please let me know.  We don't have much money allocated toward this, but if it's cheap I can help support it.

Next Year's Updates:

1. Power 1/2 Hour - Next year, Power 1/2 Hours will be 20 minutes long.  The feedback I've received is that this time is too long.  We will schedule 25 minutes (5 mins for transitions); however, the block will be 20 minutes in length. 
2. Recess Coverage:  Classroom Teachers will be covering recess.  This has been an on-going conversation with the PBIS Team regarding the discipline incidents we are seeing at recess.  Teachers will still get a 30 minute lunch, per the master contract.
3. EL & SPED Clustering:  Our students who receive EL & Special Education services will be clustered next year to provide appropriate services to them, including co-teaching opportunities.  Our assignments for EL are:  Liz Stitzmeyer (Kindergarten & 1st Grade), Caryn Boetel (2nd & 3rd Grade), and Laurie Wolhart (4th & 5th Grade).  For Special Education, the following will join our grade level teams:  Brianna Luhman (Kindergarten), Katie Schuster (1st Grade), Danielle Nystrom (2nd Grade), Split (3rd Grade), Justin Lang (4th Grade), and Rachel Jewison (5th Grade).

Weekly Building Newsletter:

I am sending in a separate email - sorry! 

McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week: 

Our McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week goes to the entire McKinley Staff!  We have had quite the year - building not ready, long (and cold) winter, etc.   And, you have handled these obstacles with nothing but professionalism and 100% effort.  As always, your focus has stayed on all students, all the time.  There are two things I love the most about our staff - our mindset and focus on all kids (relationships & supports).   I'm so proud of the work we have done this year and look forward to serving you in 2018-2019!  

Have a great weekend, everyone!  Enjoy your last weekend before the school year ends! 

-Justin

Weekly Update - May 11, 2018

Good Morning!
I hope you had a great Teacher Appreciation Week, Nurse's Day, and Food & Nutrition Services Week.  We have a wonderful staff who are all EDUCATORS - each of us have a role in educating our 600 learners.  So, regardless of the "title" of the week, thank you for all you do.  You are amazing!

Class Placements:
Next Tuesday, teachers in grades 1-4 will be subbed out to create class lists for the 18-19 school year (see building newsletter for the schedule).  After this is complete, I will get input from specialists, intervention, and other programming. 

As you remember, we are clustering students to support our co-teaching model.  Next year, EL teachers will support:  Liz (Kindergarten & 1st Grade), Caryn (2nd & 3rd Grade), & Laurie (4th & 5th Grade).   In addition to this, our new special education model will provide support to each grade level through a special education teacher.  Those teachers are not placed at this time.

Classroom rosters are being built around student needs and what environment/model is most supportive to each need.  I look forward to continuing our inclusive model!

Taste of McKinley:
We had a great event last night - our first annual Taste of McKinley!  A huge thank you to our committee - Laurie Wolhart, Tamra Gonzalez, Jess Zupansic, Paige Gilligan, Sonya David, Sami Bishop, Jill Born-Akers, Libby Zeman, & Rachel Peterson.  Below are some pictures of our fun event:

Mentoring for Student Teachers:
From Katie Coudron & Jane Sorenson...
We would like to recognize the following McKinley teachers who completed a four day mentor professional development series, Mentoring for Student Teacher Success, with the Minnesota Educators Partnership.  Thank you Kayla Davis, Sami Nelson, Rachael Eickhoff and Karla Wilke!

Participants effectively used mentoring language and tools to accelerate teacher candidate practice and improve student learning.  The initiative was funded through a grant from the Bush Foundation and included teachers within the 10 partner districts with Minnesota State University-Mankato.    

Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week:
Since it's Educator's Appreciation Week, the McKinleyStrong Educator goes to the entire staff!   I am continually amazed at the way we build relationships, support students and families, and provide an inclusive environment for all.    I'm honored to work with you!

Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Justin

Weekly Update - May 4, 2018

Happy Friday! 
It's going to be a great day at McKinley!  

As of today, we have 19 days left of school this year.  Can you believe it - 19 days?  That's 123.5 hours of instruction left in our year.  Our students have seen such growth - let's keep that going!   Please remember that we have 19 days left of solid instruction!  

Don't forget your why...

Taste of McKinley:
The Taste of McKinley is next Thursday from 4:30-5:30pm in the gym!  Come join us for some awesome food and fun! 

Before School Assessment Days:
As you know, next year's start will look differently.  We will not have a Home-Child-School Day.   One of things many people wonder is - what will the students' day look like?  Below is a link to a checklist that the family will receive when they come.   Check it out!

Click here to access the checklist!

Classroom Relaxation Stations - From Annette:
I am excited to share that we have been awarded a grant to create calming corners in each classroom next year!    These stations in your classroom need only take up a small corner (enough room for one student) and will include different types of calming tools such as

• Fidgets
• Manipulatives
• Sensory items
• Comfort items

There will also be a timer and a tracking system as well as an emotional component such as a Zones chart or other emotional/feelings chart.  Please see the examples below of calming corners and watch the video to see how these areas are used to help students calm and be ready for learning.  You will be provided with the basics needed for the area in your room and you can add items to fit your student needs. 

Our building has seen some great success with the relaxation room and the hope is these classroom stations can be available to all students when needed.  These areas can be simple small spaces, or they can be more elaborate.  I encourage you to use your creativity to create your spaces, I am hoping this will be a fun project as you can design your area to fit your needs. 

I will offer some training at the beginning of the year on how to use the areas if needed. As always, thanks for all you do to support our students!

https://youtu.be/Ar0GPsEYjqY


McKinleyStrong Word - Resilience:
Our May word is "resilience".  Here is a great article on "does your classroom cultivate student resiliency?"  
https://www.edutopia.org/blog/8-pathways-cultivate-student-resilience-marilyn-price-mitchell

As you know, this is something our students struggle with daily.  It's important that we continue to teach and support resiliency.  

Picture Writing:
We have a lot of buzz around the building on something called "Picture Writing".  This has been spearheaded by our EL team through a co-teaching approach.  Below is what picture writing is: 

Picturing Writing is an approach to teaching the writing process that integrates art and writing.  It can be used to support any content area EU.  The steps involved for the artists’/writers’ workshop include:
·       Literature Share mini-lesson and discussion
·       Modeling of art technique or writing
·       Work session for art or writing (this step could be integrated into the Daily 5 Cycle)
·       Group Sharing of their art or writing

Liz Stitzmeyer and Laurie Wolhart have been using this writing approach since January with two different grade levels.  Liz has teamed with Tamra Gonzalez in K1 and Laurie with Madie and Lauren in 4A and 4C.  All of us have seen strong results in the students’ writing skills in the areas of:  engagement, stamina, creativity, sentence length, word choice, spelling and figurative language. 

According to the publisher, this philosophy benefits all students, especially those who struggle with the traditional approach to writing.

We believe Picturing Writing supports the McKinley STEAM core beliefs of instruction.  We’re excited about the possibilities for next year.


Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click the link to access the weekly newsletter

McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week:
Our McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week goes to EL Teacher, Liz Stitzmeyer!  Liz is a compassionate, collaborative, student-first educator!  Liz is such a natural at collaborating, knowing her students, and providing the learning opportunities they need.   One of the things I appreciate most about Liz is her "student-first" attitude.  She is here to serve and support all kids, all the time.  Nice work, Liz!  



Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Justin