Weekly Update - September 14, 2018

Happy First Week, everyone! 
What a great first week of school!  It's great to see people (students and staff) happy and enjoying our time back at McKinley. A huge thank you to everyone for your flexibility and "going the extra mile" this week - there is always things that come up when we are teaching routines and schedules.   Thank you, thank you, thank you! 

Thank you to Paige Larson for sharing the above picture on social media.  What a great reminder to us all - and to help us keep that "perspective".  Remember your "why".

ALSO - If you haven't gotten me your impact statement, please send ASAP.  Also, just a reminder that Infinitec training is due October 28!

Welcoming Students with a Smile:
While this isn't a new concept to McKinley, it's a great reminder to us all - the importance of setting the tone from the minute students arrive.  This article is showing the research behind teachers/staff who greet students at the door with a smile and a relationship - discipline decreases.  It also sets the tone for the classroom, from the first minute students arrive.   Please remember - your language, facial expressions, body expressions, and overall demeanor impact more than just you.   Click here to access the article

Going Outside: 
If you are going outside with your class, you need a walkie talkie.  It is a requirement.  In the event of a safety issue or just for us to communicate with you, you need this outside (recess and outdoor learning).   Two things - please identify yourself ("Kiel to Office") and please make sure the light is on when you return it (they need to be charging).   I know this is a change, so please make a note to grab a walkie as you head outside. 

Fountas and Pinnell Benchmarking:
As you work on completing your assessments (by Friday, 9/21), please make sure you are finding the instructional level for each student.  You will bring your records (the actual copies of assessments) to our data subouts, as the information is essential for our collaboration around supporting all of our students. 

Every student should have a new F/P benchmark done this year. 

Libby recently wrote a blog entry on using the data to create actionable instructional goals.  The entry has some steps you can take, but also some things to consider as you create groups -   Click here to read the article. 

Core Instruction Reminders:
As we are providing high quality core instruction, please use the below chart as a great reminder to balance the teacher talk, student talk, and thinking in your classroom.   As you can see, students need time to think, discuss, and reflect on the learning. 

Birthday Books:
We are trying something new this year - as students have a birthday, they can come down to the office and pick out a book in honor of their birthday.  We have a wide range of levels and interests for our readers.   The goal is to continue to send the message that we value literacy and learning! 

Social Media- Twitter:
I love seeing all the learning on Twitter - wow!  Not only does Twitter communicate our "why" with the outside world (including families), but also can serve as a professional learning network for our staff.  How awesome is it to see the amazing learning we are doing with students, each and every day!  Please continue to use this - and use our hashtags #mckinleystrong (things related to school pride) and #mckinleyPD (for any learning that you are sharing with our staff). 

Educator Hub:
I have added a few links to the Educator Hub:

• Computer Sign-Up 
• Learning Studio, MakerSpace Cart, and Outdoor Learning Cart Sign-Up is coming soon!
• Link to Teaching and Learning Coach's Blog

Thank you to everyone who is accessing the Hub.  I hope you are finding the efficiency of this document to be helpful! 

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

McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week:
The McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week goes to Special Education Paraprofessional, Sonya David!  Sonya is a student-centered educator who is positive, committed, and always about "all kids".  Sonya goes above and beyond to make McKinley a place where all students are valued and successful.  Keep up the great work, Sonya! 


I hope you have a relaxing, rejuvenating weekend.  It's going to be a beautiful, hot weekend... enjoy one of these last few "moments" of summer!

Keep inspiring excellence!
-Justin

Weekly Update- Friday, September 22, 2017

Happy Friday!

Word of the Year:

Just checking in on your "one word of the year" - how's it going?  Have you shared your word with an inner circle for accountability?  

Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessments

We will be using the results from these assessments to help us design extremely targeted instruction for our students during our reading small groups and conferring.  At our Power Hour on Wednesday, we will be digging into these results and doing some planning using the Literacy Continuum alongside of the assessments.  Please bring your Literacy Continuum book and all of the scoring sheets that you have completed for your students.

At the welcome back, we talked about the following assessments being completed:

       K- any students who know all letters and sounds and are reading some words

1. All students


2. All students


3. 8 or more students (including students who have not met other reading benchmarks)


4. 8 or more students (including students who have not met other reading benchmarks)


5. 8 or more students (including students who have not met other reading benchmarks)

It has been awesome to hear teachers’ reactions to using the assessments and the excitement around how much they are learning about their readers and the expectations for comprehension at various levels; it will be exciting to see how it helps to shape our instruction.

Entering DIBELS Data
If you have not already done so, please remember to enter your DIBELS scores (including DAZE scores for grades 3-5) into the DIBELS system as soon as possible.  You will want to double check that if you had any students added to your class after the first day of school, that they were in DIBELS.  You can email Kenneth Griswold (Data & Assessment Coordinator) if you are missing any students from your list.  The upload will happen to Viewpoint next week, and we want to be sure that all of our data is entered.

Staff Power Hour- Wednesday:
For those of you new to our McKinley Team, we call our staff meetings "Staff Power Hours".   Our meetings focus on learning and collaboration, not logistical updates.   I will always include those logistical updates at the top of the agenda - we will only discuss items that need clarification.

Click here to access the agenda

Please bring your Literacy Continuum book and any Benchmark Assessments that are completed!

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



Have a great weekend, everyone!
Justin

Weekly Update- May 5, 2017

Happy Cinco de Mayo! 

Construction Update:
Just a reminder:  On Monday, we will stop using the front door for entrance and exit of students.  The door will not close; however, we will try and keep the "general traffic pattern" away from using it! 

EL Family Potluck:
We had a great turnout for our EL Family Potluck!   It was a night of great food and even better conversations.  A huge thank you to Laurie Wolhart, Caryn Boetel, Liz Stitzmeyer, and Sylvia Zavala for all your work making this night a success!

 



Spring Concert:
We had our Choir, 1st, and 2nd grade spring concert last night.  The night was magical!  A huge thank you to Paige Moon, Kim Gedde, and all the teachers who helped supervise this evening.  It was a first-class event! 

Student-First Leveling:
Libby wrote a great article in the literacy blog on leveling students - it's a great reminder that we don't "level kids".  As much as we need to know instructional & independent levels, we need to be careful we don't create a literacy environment that forces the student to "become the level".  Take some time to read this great blog entry: http://owatonnalitcoaches.blogspot.com/

Teacher Appreciation - Next Week:
Sorry for all the confusion regarding "Teacher Appreciation Week".   We will continue our celebration next week.  Monday is PAJAMA DAY for all educators.  Please remember, you are all educators who help educate our students! 

I saw this on Twitter last night.  It reminded me of how important gratitude and appreciation is, even among colleagues.  It's "5 Ways Teachers can show appreciation for one another".   Don't forget to appreciate each other!

Building Weekly Update:
Click here to access the building weekly update

Have a great weekend- enjoy the beautiful weather!
-Justin

Weekly Update- April 7, 2017

Happy Friday! What a great week back! 

Re-Visiting Expectations/Noise Level:
Just a reminder to re-visit school expectations as we enter into spring.  We will probably need to spend more time re-teaching these, as students seem to have forgotten over spring break.  Also, please watch the noise level in the hallway.  I'm hearing more and more complaints of students being loud in the outdoor hallway (to music and art), outside the lunchroom, and outside MCA testing.

National School Library Week:
Next week is National School Library Week.  A huge thank you to Denise Carlson and Jane Carlson for all they do to provide our school with a top notch library!  Please take some time next week to appreciate them!

Update on Classroom Sections for 17-18:
With the move to Willow Creek (and the slight boundary changes), our classroom sections will be:
Kindergarten: 5 sections
1st Grade: 5 sections
2nd Grade: 4 sections
3rd Grade: 4 sections
4th Grade: 4 sections
5th Grade: 4 sections

I am currently working (with the admin team) on staffing and teams.  This information will come out in the next few weeks! 

Mini Coaching Cycles:
Libby and Joanne have created a video to introduce mini coaching cycles.  As we enter into April, please remember that Libby is available for a coaching cycle.  The video will introduce you to something called a mini-coaching cycle.
https://vimeo.com/212108651

SnapShot of Learning:

5th Grade had a "in school field trip" all day on Wednesday.  Arn Kind worked with students to learn more about the Revolutionary War.

 

On Wednesday, Romie Sanderson (Kindergarten) took over as Principal of the Day.  She did a great job (although, she thinks I eat pizza and play with Legos all day!). 

 

Last night, we had our Kindergarten Open House at the new school.  It was great to meet our new McKinley Monkeys, but to also see what it feels like in our new school!  Thank you to Lorri and our K team for preparing this event!

 

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

Valet Parking for the Week:
The Valet Parking for the Week goes to 3rd Grade Teacher, Rachael Eickhoff!  Rachael is collaborative, compassionate, and flexible .  One of the things I appreciate the most about Rachael is the way she builds relationships with her students - she truly cares for them as a learner, but also a person.  Rachael is an amazing educator.  Thank you for all you do, Rachael!


Have a great weekend - enjoy the outdoors, it's going to be a beautiful weekend!
-Justin

Weekly Update- Friday, October 7, 2016

Happy October!  Can you believe we are already into October?

Classroom pumpkin judging will begin today and go into next week.  Please have your classroom pumpkin outside of your room starting today (please do not have it setting on the floor). 

Staff Attendance:
Just a friendly reminder to watch your attendance at work.  As you, students need relationships, consistency, and routine(s).  This cannot occur when a staff member is gone.  I have been monitoring attendance as requests come into AESOP - please watch how often you are being absent from work. 

Note from Literacy Coach:
It has been so exciting to collaborate with so many of you around your data.  Teams are digging in to find the best strategy to help move their students’ reading forward; with such targeted instruction, we are sure to see phenomenal results!  Our students are so fortunate to have teachers that are so dedicated to their growth.  In the last two weeks I have met with, or have scheduled in the near future, time to connect around data with 11 of you!  I love the collaborative spirit of the McKinley culture.  The work you all do is amazing!

7 Checks for Understanding
Looking for other ways to see if students have mastered the learning?

 

Guided Reading and Math Materials:
Just a reminder that all guided reading and math materials should be checked out through Denise.  Please do not take these materials and leave a post-it note behind.  You MUST check these out.  If you actually read this, email Justin to be entered into a drawing.

Twitter Update:
A few of you have been dabbling in Twitter - both in your classroom, as well as for professional growth.  Woo hoo!  A couple reminders:  

• We have our staff professional learning hashtag:  #mckinleyPD  (this is a spot for us to share articles and links related to our professional growth)
• We have our McKinley community hashtag: #mckinleystrong
• If you post something about your learning/class, include @mckinleystem in your tweet.
• Know which students in your classroom cannot be shown on social media!     

A SnapShot of Learning:

Students in PE playing math facts basketball today - working on math facts, underhand throwing, cooperation, and reinforcing math. 

 

4th Graders, working in teams,  learning how to measure temperature in Celsius. 

 

Kindness in Chalk Day was a success!  Thank you to all who helped make this day possible.  It was great to see the schoolyard filled with positive messages.  I loved reading what the kids wrote! 

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

Valet Parking of the Week:
The Valet Parking of the Week goes to Special Education Paraprofessional, Julie Cochran.  Julie builds strong, long-lasting relationships with students.  Julie has a special way of being firm, yet flexible with students.  One of the things I appreciate the most about Julie is the way she is always looking for "what is best" for our students.  We are very lucky to have you here, Julie! 

Have a great weekend, everyone.  Get outside and enjoy the fall weather!
-Justin

Weekly Update- Friday, September 16, 2016

Happy Friday! 
We've finished another great week of learning at McKinley.  It's been great to see how your hard work of teaching procedures and expectations is starting to fall into place.  It's magical! 

Entering Absences in AESOP
If you are planning on being absent, enter this into AESOP as soon as you know of your absence.  It gets very hard to fill positions, as you know.  It's even harder when you wait until a few days before you are gone to enter this into AESOP.  

Use of Door 8 in the Rain
There have been some questions about using door 8 in the rain.  If it is down pouring rain, you can make the call to use the 3rd grade doors.  This is your call.  The office will make the determination of which door to use when we get into the cold winter season.

GRIT:
Here's a great video reminder of "grit":  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q48fTWSGauA  Grit is our focus this month for PBIS - keep this word alive in your classrooms.  Teach and honor students who are showing grit throughout the month. 

A Note From Libby:
I am so excited to be working alongside of you again this year towards our goal of getting 100% of our students to mastery on the critical EU’s in reading.  Since I went through the information pretty quickly at our back to school meeting, I wanted to recap it for you.

Student Centered Coaching

After doing a fair bit of research on different coaching models, I have found that the student centered coaching model is in alignment with our multi-tiered system of support structure and all of the work we are doing in our PLC’s.  If you are interested, you will be able to sign up for a coaching cycle where I would come to your classroom three times a week for a unit (or a part of a unit that you are focused on a specific EU), and we would co-plan and co-teach the unit.  As I mentioned, this was effective in a fourth grade classroom last year where we saw tremendous growth around a particular EU.  One example of a benefit to having two teachers in the room: we could give a formative assessment at any point, one of us could quickly score and group them while the other one of us continued instruction and then we could instantly respond to our students’ progress towards the EU and break into groups.  In K-2, I will have some guided leveling kits that I can come in and work with you on how to complete assessments and then what to do with the information in your guided group to support kids in advancing levels.  I’d also love to do some work with engagement at any level.  I’ll be talking more about this soon, but I wanted you to start thinking about if this is something you are interested in doing.

Other Coaching Options

Please remember that I am here to support you in supporting our students!  Some things that I supported last year and would love to support again: diagnosing student needs, curriculum support (co-teaching, co-planning, modeling anchor lessons, small groups or specific strategies), PRESS, training support staff, gathering data, analyzing data, connecting teachers and anything else literacy.

Literacy Focus

We will continue to focus on clarity with our purpose, K-2 WTW and purposeful independent reading in our support and professional development with literacy this year.

My “McKinley days” are still going to be Wednesday, Thursday and every other Friday morning.  However, the first few weeks will be unique with me supporting the DIBELS assessing team of retired teachers.  Please email me with any questions as that will be the best way to track me downJ.  I’m excited for the growth that we will see this year!

A Snapshot of Learning this Week:

Bus Safety this week

 

5th Graders doing an investigation with the bounce of different types of balls. 



Valet Parking for the Week:
The Valet Parking for the Week goes to Mary Louks!  Mary Louks is a stellar Special Education Paraprofessional.  Mary is always focused on what is right for kids.  She has high expectations, but supports students to meet those expectations.  We are very lucky to have Mary at McKinley.  Thank you for all you do, Mary!


Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Justin

Principal's Update- Friday, February 26, 2016

Happy Friday, McKinley! 
We are completing another great week of learning at McKinley!  What a great place to be. 

Thank you to everyone for helping in my absence lately.  In the last few weeks, I have been out of the building for various meetings.  As much as I hate being gone, I appreciate everyone who has helped "cover" in my absence.  A special thanks to Lorri, Justin, and Annette for your extra responsibilities!  I can honestly say we (McKinley) work with some of the best people in the state!  

Joining our 2nd Grade Team!
Welcome to Dan Tinaglia as a 2nd Grade Long-Term Sub for Katie Demmer.  Dan will be here doing some observing; however, he officially begins March 14.  Dan is no stranger to McKinley, having completed his student teaching with Mark Langlois.  Welcome, Dan!

Reading Corp, K-3:
I was notified this week that McKinley was accepted to be a K-3 Reading Corp site for next year.  Reading Corp is an organization that works with students, grades K-3, on specific reading interventions.  What does this mean?  More support for our early readers!  More information will come on this....

Door Duty:
Don't forget about door duty!  First, if you are assigned before or after school, please make sure you show up.  Second, don't forget to get into the halls when the bells ring.   I love this about McKinley- however, I'm seeing it go away more and more.

Announcements from Libby:
Below is some information that Libby compiled regarding finding books in the guided library. 

Finding Leveled Library Books

Did you know that there is a quick and easy way to search for books in the guided (leveled) library?  In order to do this, you need to log in to destiny by:
1.       Go to the Media Center webpage.
2.       Click on “Find a book in destiny.”
3.       It will bring you to a log in page (The username is your normal username (mine is ezeman) and the password is mckstaff for everyone.).
4.       Now you are logged in and can search for library books and leveled library books (there is a green arrow next to the leveled library books).

I will plan to quickly show how to search only in the leveled library (by changing the material type to “kit”) at our next staff meeting.  This is also the way you can search for books from other schools (to have them send over if you are trying to round up multiple copies of a specific text or a copy that our library does not have). 

A few teachers have had difficulty logging in to this system. Teachers, if you have not logged into this system this year, please do so by the end of the day March 7^th.  If you are unable to log in, please send Libby an email. 

Leveled Library Usage Reminders
We have noticed several books and book bags out of place in the guided library.  A big thank you to Denise and to Nancy Kennon (who volunteers) for all of your work with our books!  Please help us keep the library usable for everyone by following these guidelines:

1. While browsing, if you take a bag out, put it back in the box you took it from (bags are labeled with box numbers to help with this).
2. Check out all bags of books that you remove from the library from Denise.
3. Be sure to keep the whole bag together (we can’t take individual books out of these bags). 
4. When you are done with the bag, check it back in with Denise. 
Thank you for your help with keeping our guided library organized and useful. 

A Snapshot of Learning:

Rachael Eickhoff and her 3rd graders created a hologram of the moon to observe the changes in moon phases.  How cool!

 

Kindergarten extended their learning into the outdoors to look for real-world shapes in math.

 

We had some great thinking last night at our Science Fair.  A huge thanks to Rachael Eickhoff , Lori Huisenga, and Lorri Harrison for all their work with this! 



 

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

Valet Parking for the Week:
The Valet Parking for the week goes to Sonya David!  Sonya wears many different "hats" throughout her day- and does it extremely well!  Sonya is extremely positive, focused, and dedicated.  Sonya will do "whatever it takes" to make sure our McKinley team is serving our students.  Sonya, we love having you on our team- thanks for all you do! 


Have an amazing weekend and enjoy the 50 degree weather tomorrow!
-Justin

Principal's Update- Friday, November 20th

Happy Friday!

I hope you enjoyed American Education Week.  I want you to know that I truly believe in what I said earlier in the week- it takes a village to raise a child.  Each of you play such an important role in making this place amazing! 


Winner, Winner!
Last week, I hid a sentence in the blog that said, "If you read this, email Justin".  I had only a few people send me emails. The prize for this little contest is an hour prep (with a trip to Starbucks) for one staff member while I cover for your class.  The winner- Kathy Feltes!  Kathy, connect with Lorri on a time and date and get your gift card for a Starbucks drink.  It pays to read the blog carefully! 

Winter Benchmarking
Winter DIBELS Benchmarking will be done by our wonderful Educational Assistants.  I don't think this will come as a huge shock to many of you- we've been talking about this for a while now.  Also, through our learning work with the Mattos book, we saw the importance of having a trained team do this for many reasons:  it doesn't take away instructional time, it is done with fidelity, it can be done more efficiently, etc.  Libby will be working with the EA's to train them- more information is coming on this!  

Popcorn with the Principal
Don't forget to write Leader in Me Slips when you come across students living the 7 Habits!  We only have 3 this time, so our Popcorn with the Principal will be a small group! 

Coats to Portable
Our plan is to allow coats to the portable on cold (below or near zero) days.  We will be encouraging students to have a hooded sweatshirt each day.  With the limited space in the portable, the art materials, and the spread of lice, it's too hard to expect coats on a daily basis.  We will try this for a while and see how it goes.

Mindset Link
I saw a great article on Twitter the other night on misconceptions with the growth mindset.  I even had some of the misconceptions!  Here's the article: http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/11/16/growth-mindset-clearing-up-some-common-confusions/

Resources for Close Reading
As follow-up to our staff meeting, Libby has provided some resources to close reading.  If you need help with these resources, or close reading, contact Libby (she would love to help you!). 

• www.readworks.org (Passages have a lexile, focus on a certain skill and many have questions included.)
• www.newsela.com (geared for 4^th grade and up – includes quizzes and aligned to common core)
• https://learn.thinkcerca.com/teacher/lesson_library (similar to NEWSELA)
• http://www.elm4you.org/ (If you are looking for a specific topic, this site is helpful.  Many of the sites on ELM either provide a lexile or provide 3 different levels of the same text content.)

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

Snapshot of McKinley Learning:

4th graders working with Mrs. Gislason on an arts integration of solids, liquids, and gases. Students were learning about the glass artist Dale Chihuly. In the pictures, they are predicting which cups will melt the fastest and recording their observations/graphs.

 

5th Graders engineering games at the Works Museum.

 

1st Graders participating in Literature Circles during the Power Half Hour. 

1st Grade and Intervention Teachers are using their common assessment data to

create flexible groupings in their five classrooms.

 

Valet Parking of the Week:
Our Valet Parking of the Week goes to Grandma Dee Dee!  Grandma Dee Dee is a daily volunteer in Lori Huisenga's classroom.  She is such a support for our second grade learners.  She is such a kind, positive woman who truly cares about kids.  We are so lucky to have her at McKinley! 

Enjoy your weekend.. and the snow (YUCK!). 
-Justin