Congrats!
Congratulations to Luke Holt on being named 1AAA Cross Country Assistant Coach of the Year! CONGRATS, Mr. Holt!
What's a coaching cycle? First, it's focused on student learning. You and Katie will identify a focus for student learning that you would like to impact with the group of students you are working with. Together, we will co-plan and co-teach some lessons that support that learning focus. We will plan a way to monitor student growth and progress during that coaching cycle, and then check in to see how we are impacting student learning and adjust accordingly. Coaching cycles can vary in length, with full coaching cycles lasting 6-8 weeks. We may not co-teach every lesson together, but we will plan how the learning will connect throughout the cycle. This is a great opportunity for us to learn together, implement best practices in instruction, and impact student learning in a positive way!
McKinleyStrong Slips:
The McKinleyStrong team spent some time at our September & October meetings to discuss the use of the paper McKinleyStrong slips and the electronic slips we used last year and throughout the pandemic. We value the input we received from our teammates around the time commitment of writing out the slips, the ease of using the electronic form, as well as the pros and cons of each. We discussed the importance of a handwritten note on the back and the impact it can have. We also discussed the fact a leadership slip without a personalized message will still have a stronger positive impact on a student who receives it versus not getting it at all.
With that in mind, as a team, we do not want to limit the opportunities for teachers to reward students for the expected behavior so we are wanting to keep both options open to all staff. Please keep them coming and we will work to be sure students with physical copies and virtual, have the ability to be drawn on Mondays and during assemblies.
5th Grade Biomes Project:
We have had several teachers reach out to the 5th grade team seeking access to the documents we have attached to the QR codes in the nature center. We received the feedback they wanted to view more of the student work but due to time were unable to. Please see the linked projects and the respective work our 5th graders completed. Thank you for taking an interest in their work!
Class Gratitude Challenge - November:
Our McKinleyStrong team invites you to participate in a Gratitude Challenge this November with your class. Linked is the calendar - this calendar provides a prompt everyday for you and your class to participate in. Most of these things can be done during a morning meeting. The goal of this to to continue to bring gratitude and appreciation into our lives for the month of November.
Coaching Update - from Katie:
I've enjoyed collaborating with you during the start of the year. You have made me feel so welcome in my new role and I've loved getting to see the amazing strengths of this group of educators! Now that we've gotten the year started, the beginning of the year data has been collected, and interventions are in place, I'm starting some coaching cycles with staff. Coaching cycles are available for ALL staff.
What's a coaching cycle? First, it's focused on student learning. You and Katie will identify a focus for student learning that you would like to impact with the group of students you are working with. Together, we will co-plan and co-teach some lessons that support that learning focus. We will plan a way to monitor student growth and progress during that coaching cycle, and then check in to see how we are impacting student learning and adjust accordingly. Coaching cycles can vary in length, with full coaching cycles lasting 6-8 weeks. We may not co-teach every lesson together, but we will plan how the learning will connect throughout the cycle. This is a great opportunity for us to learn together, implement best practices in instruction, and impact student learning in a positive way!
I created a brief form to fill out to indicate your interest and focus for a coaching cycle.
I've also added this to the McKinley Virtual Office too if you want to come back to this later - we can do more than one coaching cycle in a year! Please know I'm here to support you with questions, concerns, or other things along the way. With or without the form, continue to stop by, email me, or text me as things come up. Looking forward to our continued collaboration!
Building Weekly Newsletter:
Have a GREAT weekend - find some time to "unplug" this weekend!
-Justin
