November Twitter Challenge:
A huge thank you to everyone who participated in our gratitude challenge. It was so uplifting to read the tweets and see what you appreciate. It also helped remind me of the good in our lives - gratitude does that! A huge congratulations to Michelle Simon for winning the lunch. She and her team will enjoy an off-site lunch in December while I supervise all of 1st grade (YIKES!).
Exit Ticket:
I found this on Twitter this week and thought it was a creative, engaging way to check for student understanding. The student circles the emoji on how the student is thinking the learning went - then they justify it below. As we know, students are well-connected to technology... just another way to make our check for understanding applicable to their lives!
November Office Referral Data:
This week, I looked at our office referral data (ORD) from October and November. Below is a link to the spreadsheet. I wanted to provide you with some "big rocks" from this data:
- We have 47 less office referrals for October from last year to this year. Woo hoo! That's remarkable.
- We have 7 less office referrals for November from last year to this year. That is still a great decrease!
- Physical aggression is still very high. It seems as if many of these start off as play and turn into pushing/hitting/kicking.
- Our lunch hour (11-1) is still the highest. When I say this, I don't necessarily mean lunchroom either. That time frame seems to be high for the building.
- Friday's are very high for referrals.
As we move into December, please know that emotions will be high for some of our students. There is excitement, as well as uncertainty, for break and Christmas. Many of our students may show behaviors due to this excitement and uncertainty.
Click here to access the ORD Spreadsheet
Christmas:
With Christmas approaching, I want to caution us of bringing Christmas-related activities into the classroom. With our building & District's focus around equity and serving all, this can be an area that we can marginalize people (unintentionally) when we do activities related to Christmas. I am asking you to refrain from these activities - gift exchange, parties, but also things like worksheets, independent activities, and crafts. I'm starting to see Santa and Christmas tree activities show up. We serve a diverse population and are here to serve all. In doing these type of activities, even if they are subtle, we can send a message that marginalizes people's views/thoughts/beliefs. Again, I doubt this is intentional. However, it happens.
If you are questioning an activity, project, etc, please come see me. I would rather have a conversation about it and understand your thinking before you do it.
Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter
Have a great weekend, everyone! - Justin
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