It's been a great week of learning at McKinley! Thank you to everyone for your focus and commitment to our students through our data subouts. I know a half day subout can be hard - we got a lot done in a short amount of time. Our collective commitment to all kids and "all hands on deck" was evident through this process. I'm excited to work with Kindergarten and 3rd Grade today! A HUGE THANK YOU to Libby Zeman for all her work around this - she has spent hours (late nights!) preparing for this.
Inclusion ABC's:
With our model change to providing a more inclusive learning environment, I thought this was a great, visual reminder of the work we are doing to make McKinley a place for every learner, every day.
MCA Data:
Our Building Leadership Team spent some time digging into our MCA data from last school year. As you know, our data doesn't look good. Our data really points to a core instruction issue - 80% of our learners should be meeting or exceeding without intervention. As much as the data can leave you feeling negative, we have a lot of great things in place this year that will improve core instruction, including:
- Fountas and Pinnell targeted small/guided group instruction. This alone will show great results and create better readers. Our instruction is very targeted, focused, and aligned. And, as we know from the research I've shared around reading effectiveness, small/guided group instruction is the most effective way to improve readers.
- Targeted Power 20 groupings - we are addressing foundational skills in this first round of Power 20. This will greatly help address student's missing skills so they can access grade level standards.
- Classwide Interventions - Our classwide interventions will greatly help us with a classwide "dose" of practice around fluency.
- PLC process - I promise you, if we do this well, we will see results. As we talked about at Monday, we are doing some great work - and have some room to continue to grow.
If we continue to do great work and support core instruction, we will grow even stronger readers.
Growth Mindset - as Adult Learners:
One thing I love the most about McKinley is the way we are really embracing the growth mindset - we are always learning, evolving, making mistakes, and learning from these mistakes. Every person is a work in progress. I love when I hear students - and staff- saying things like "we haven't gotten there YET". Wow. Such power around that statement alone.
I'm challenging us as adult learners to continue this practice. We are all learners - and will continue to be learners as our careers continue in education. This includes all staff, not just teachers. I'm challenging you to this - reflect on something you don't know about YET, something you haven't mastered YET, or something that you just need support in. Be honest with yourself.
The great thing about this- we have support. We have a great Teaching and Learning Coach to support and walk right along side you! I can't think of a better support for any staff member! Additionally, you have each other... we have some collective strengths in this building. Utilize each other's strengths. Use Twitter - there is some great professional learning and networking there. Remember, as we said in our PLC meeting Monday, there is no isolation with education. Education must be collaborative - for our students, but also for our adult educators.
Challenge - go learn, practice, or reflect on something you want to learn more about!
Mindful Moment from Annette:
WHAT IS A MINDFUL MOMENT?
It has been so exciting to see our educators embrace our students and families with genuine love and caring and it shows in all the smiling faces I see entering our building in the morning and again when leaving in the afternoon. I’m also so impressed with our educators for being open minded to embrace new and different ways to support our students.
As we move forward into October we will be focusing on mindfulness, which has had a lot of focus Nationwide, for its effectiveness in helping kids in school regulate and engage. I came across an article that does a nice job of talking about what mindfulness in the classroom is, why it is important to practice and 6 ideas for creating mindfulness in your classroom.
Mindfulness can play a part in creating and sustaining the kind of atmosphere and community that frees us to teach and offers kids the freedom to learn. By switching to our “feeling brain,” we tap into a channel that we often push so far into the background of our consciousness that we learn not to acknowledge it at all. The practice of noticing what is happening in the moment and responding with non-judgmental friendliness is a resource to keep in your “toolbox” of pedagogy and classroom management techniques.
Checking in throughout the day
When we practice checking in with our sensations throughout the day, we allow ourselves time to choose a response to whatever is arising in our feeling brains by bringing our attention to what is happening in the moment.
That brief interlude to take inventory of our sensations and emotions is a mindful moment. A little chance to reboot if we find things are heading off in an unskilled or unhelpful direction. When we employ those brief moments of awareness, repeated throughout the day, we bring ourselves back to what is happening in the present.
If we necessarily spend time in our thinking brains and then practice checking in with our feeling brains, how do we keep our school day running? Can we just stop and be still with closed eyes in the middle of presenting a lesson on exponential growth? Of course not, unless we want to run the risk of encountering a live example of disruptive behavior during our own math period! It may seem counter intuitive, but we have to plan. Like a football team, we have to practice making the plays every day so that it can become intuitive. To create a mindful classroom, we must have a mindful grounding of our own.
Stay tuned for idea #1 of creating mindful classrooms in next weeks blog.
This weeks challenge: the first person who accurately comments on this blog what the above article defines as a “Mindful Moment” will get a prize from me! - Annette M Warner, LICSW
Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter
McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week:
Our McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week goes to Kindergarten Teacher, Jen Koziolek! Jen is a caring, supportive, and positive educator who truly builds impactful relationships. Jen is always striving to make her classroom a place for every learner, every single day. One of the things I appreciate the most about Jen is her positive learner mindset - she is always looking for ways to grow as an educator to make her classroom, instruction, and relationships even stronger. Jen is an amazing educator! We are so lucky to have Jen at McKinley - keep being awesome, Jen!
Other:
- Picture Re-Takes are Monday, October 8. If you didn't get your picture taken on picture day, you need to on October 8. This is for ALL staff. The District is issuing new badges and will be using these pictures.
- Guided groups start Monday!
- Infinitec Training - don't forget to complete your training (4 sessions) by October 26!
- Red Ribbon Week is October 29
It's going to be a cold one this weekend - stay warm! Take some time to enjoy those around you!
-Justin
