Weekly Update- October 27, 2017

Happy Friday!
Don't forget, Infinitec trainings need to be completed by Monday!

Checking in on our theme... "Make Every Second Count!"  How is this going?  Are you using it with students?  Yourself?  I can honestly say, I need to reground myself in this.  I'm letting valuable moments and relationships suffer to finish "less important things".  This includes my personal life.  Let's all hold each other accountable and keep this phrase going... we are in this work for people.  Make every second count!

Playground & Morning Arrival:
It's been great seeing the excitement around the playground.  I keep asking myself, "What did we do without a playground?"  It's been great seeing kids play again.

With the new playground, our morning arrival has created some challenges.  I am working with Superintendent Elstad and Bob Olson on some of this plan.  For now, we will continue to do what we have been doing.  But, please know, there is work going into improving morning arrival.  Please continue to be flexible as we get to know our new building!

Unconscious Bias
Below is a one-minute video clip on unconscious bias - and what this means to our work in educating students.  Take a minute to watch this - and start to think about what's familiar and what's unfamiliar in your life, day, etc.  Our unconscious biases matter!

Engaging (with Poverty in Mind) Strategy:
At Site Team, we discussed the need to bring back some of the strategies we learned (last year) from our work around Engaging with Poverty in Mind.  I shared a study guide I found online- click here to see that study guide.

One area we focused on was "building attention skills" in chapter 4.  There were three strategies from this section that could easily be used today in your classrooms:

• Increase buy-in (plan for engagement, don't just assume it will happen.  Plan your "hook"s)
• Allow students to create predictions- and revisit those predictions throughout the learning. 
• Pause & Chunk- throughout students' learning, create times for them to pause and chunk their learning.  This is a hard one- the silence can often be awkward.  Create these times for students to chunk their learning through collaboration, reflection, etc.  

I challenge you to try one of these strategies over the next week- see how it goes!

Building Goals:
Site Team has finalized our building goals and action steps for the 17-18 school year. We are continuing a lot of the great work we have started two years ago.  Please take some time to read through our action steps and reflect on how your role/work influence these goals.  Each of us are educators in some way, shape, or form.  Our focus on all kids, all day will continue into this school year (and forever!).

Click here to access the building goals

Guided Library Project
We are fortunate at McKinley to have a guided library filled with quality text to use in our small group instruction.  Last spring, we realized that some of the books are not leveled with an accurate Fountas and Pinnell level (A-Z).  When lexiles (which include only quantitative data*) were highly utilized, a correlation chart was used to level the books to the Fountas and Pinnell system.  Because Fountas and Pinnell leveling includes both quantitative and qualitative data*, we have discovered that some of the levels are not accurate.

It will be quite an undertaking to check each title in the guided library and relabel all the books, but thankfully we have an awesome volunteer (Nancy Kennon) and amazing staff (Denise Carlson and Jane Carlson) who will be working on this project.  There may be a time where we ask for additional support in portions of this project, but for now we just wanted to make all staff aware of the situation and how it impacts you with planning and instruction.

Until we get things re-leveled, you will want to check the levels of the books you pull (especially if it doesn’t seem accurate).  It is simple to do this by going to https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/bookwizard/ and typing in the title.  I prefer to use the “Level It” app on my phone which allows me to scan barcodes instead of typing in titles, but there is a small fee for this app.  Most of the books we have noticed that are not leveled correctly are in the upper levels.  I want to thank Paige Gilligan for being diligent with checking the levels of text and noticing that things were not lining up; her attention to detail is an incredible asset to our school.   

We hope that this project will be completed quickly, and we appreciate your patience in the meantime.  If you have questions or would like further support in using one of the leveling resources, please let Libby know.
*quantitative data: the number of words on a page, syllables in words, words in a book, etc.
*qualitative data: figurative language used, background knowledge required to comprehend, structure of text, etc.

Staff Development- November 6
Just a reminder- November 6 is a Staff Development Day.  The schedule for the day is:

7:40-8:00 Coffee & light breakfast
8:00-11:00 Professional Learning Session 1
11:00-12:00 Lunch (on your own)
12:00-3:00 Professional Learning Session 2

Please see the email sent out regarding details of the day.  It's going to be a great day of learning!

Family Reading Night- November 9
Our first Family Reading Night is Thursday, November 9 from 6-7pm.  The theme for the night is "Unplug the Electronics and Plug into a Good Book!"  Students will come to school that day dressed in pajamas - and hopefully come to the family night in pajamas, too!   Families are being invited to come in pajamas, bring blankets and stuffed animals, and enjoy an evening of pizza and reading.  If you are free, consider joining us!  We had over 400 students last time we did this!

STEAM Integration Subouts:
We have our first STEAM Integration subouts:
November 7:  Kindergarten (AM) & 1st Grade (PM)
November 8: 3rd Grade (AM) & 2nd Grade (PM)
November 14: 5th Grade (AM) & 4th Grade (PM)

Group Pictures for Entryway:
Here are our group pictures for the entryway.  I will be hanging these up today:

What a photogenic staff that is focused on ALL kids.  Love it! 

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


Keep up the great work, everyone!  We are doing GREAT work!

Take some time to enjoy the weekend - and those around you!

-Justin

Weekly Update- Friday, October 13

Happy Friday the 13th! 
This made me laugh this morning...

Bounce Cards:
I have shared this in the past, but it's a great strategy to share again.  The Bounce Card was invented to teach collaboration, particularly how to have a discussion.  During the discussion, students have to respond to each other's statements using one of the "bounces" - bounce, sum it up, or inquire.  It's a great way to support kids in having a purposeful, focused discussion that builds on each other's ideas.

Click here to see the bounce card

Reflection on McKinley:
I had my first Student Advisory Meeting last week where I met with a group of students, had lunch, and asked questions about our school.  It was interesting to hear all their feedback- student voice matters!  Below are some themes I heard:

• Kids love school.  They love their teachers and know their teachers love them! 
• Kids love the new school. Every single one commented on how our school is enormous!
• Most kids feel safe all day at school.  There were a few kids (older ones) who expressed some concern about not having doors in our rooms.  They said "What do we do in a lockdown?"  We will be doing some work around this soon, however, continue to stress that our school is safe. 
• I asked when kids get bored during the day.  I had some interesting responses on when and why they get bored.  One of the students commented that she gets bored during independent reading.  I thought she was referring to just the reading - however, in asking more, she gets bored when she can't talk about what's going on in her book.  She said she needs to share what she is reading and thinking to keep interested in the book.  Very profound thought!   

Overall, kids love school and love you.  Thank you for making McKinley a great place for ALL of our kids.

Small Groups:
It's been great to see everyone start to plan instructional goals around small group needs- in both reading and math.  As we know, small group is the sacred time that produces high levels of student learning. 

I was in a few rooms this week and saw some pretty cool small groups going on - and co-teaching with EL.

Rachel Peterson's Kindergartens during their literacy block.   It was great to see very clear expectations and routines set up in this room- you could feel the environment of learning! 



Dani Rypka & Laurie Wolhart's fourth graders doing guided math stations.  This was cool to see the co-teaching between Laurie and Dani and how engaged students were.  Nice work! 

 Relaxation Room at McKinley:

A lot of you have seen the room next to Annette (and across from Kathy and Michelle) set up for a relaxation room.  This room was an idea of Annette's last year- create a safe, relaxing place for some of our students who need a safe spot to be regulated.   This is especially important with our students who have experienced trauma.  We have a group of students who were "invited" to use the room.  They go there with an adult and follow a process - identify their current feeling, take deep breaths, choose a tool (something to regulate), and then identify their feelings again.  This is a 5-7 process.  It has been working for many of our students!   If you need a break, go check it out!  Thanks for designing and creating this space, Annette! 

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


Thanks for a great week!  I can feel the passion and love in our building around our students... they are truly cared for by each of you.  Thank you for that.  Your hard work is not going unnoticed. 

Rest up this weekend... conferences are right around the corner! 

Justin

Weekly Update- October 6, 2017

Happy Friday to the greatest educators in the state of MN!

I hope you've had a great week!  With being out at two different conferences, I feel like I've hardly been here.  A huge thank you to Lorri and Justin Lang for taking the lead on things in the office.  Also, thank you to everyone for being flexible this week with different things. 

I attended two conferences - one on co-teaching and one on coherence/focus.  Both were great and helped give me some strategies to continuing our work on educating all kids. 


A couple of random requests/updates:

• Team Pictures- please get me your team pictures ASAP.  I'd like to get them framed and hung in the main entryway. 
• The community Open House for McKinley and Owatonna Middle School is Monday, October 30th.  The celebration will start at McKinley at 5:00pm and then move to OMS at 6:30pm.  More information will come on this - however, if you are free, consider joining us!
• This Monday, October 9th, the School Board will meet here at McKinley (Learning Studio) at 5:30pm.  They are here for a work session, but also to see our building.  Stop by if you are free!

Sumner Visits:
A team from Sumner Elementary (in Austin) are visiting McKinley on Friday, October 13th.  The team is here to see our PLC process and the use of formative assessments.  This team heard great things from another school who visited last year - and wants to hear more about our work.  We will more than likely make a lap through the building and ask people (who are free) about their use of the PLC process. 

A huge kudos to our team - we have good work going on in this building! 

EL Graduation:
We held our 2nd annual EL Graduation this Tuesday, October 3.  We had a large group of students who exited our program.  This is a huge reflection of the hard work you are doing to support all learners.  It was great to have families, staff, and students come together to celebrate this milestone!

Words You Speak Become the House You Live In...
This came up in my Twitter feed this week - it made me stop and think.  This quote made me appreciate all the work you have done to use student-first language.  As much as it seems like just words, it truly represents your thinking and actions.  There is research to support that an educator's thoughts actually translate to their expectations and interactions with students.  A huge kudos to you for all your work on keeping students first - your language and beliefs.   All means ALL at McKinley. 

Growth Mindset Post-It Notes:
I saw these growth mindset post-it notes on Twitter this week.  I can see our building using these - what a great way to give feedback but keep it focused on growth! 

Site Team Communication:
Click here to access the site team communication tree.  This is your "representative" who will communicate with you to get feedback and ideas to bring back to our leadership team. 

Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the weekly newsletter


In closing, I had an email from Amanda Heilman (Director of Business & Operations) regarding the Bus Company this week.  She had a conversation this week with the Bus Company who gave the McKinley staff glowing reviews on how friendly, flexible, and happy you are.  It's so true... and we know it.  It's great to hear it from others.


Have a great weekend, everyone!
-Justin

Weekly Update- September 29, 2017

Happy Homecoming!
What a beautiful day for a parade!  I hope you enjoy your afternoon downtown- celebrating Owatonna!  Go Huskies!

Staff Power Hour Follow-Up:
Thank you for the great conversations and learning on Wednesday at our Staff Power Hour.  It is great to go even deeper with our work around PBIS and literacy.  Just to recap our learning:

PBIS:

• Lots of behaviors at recess, lunch, and in line.   We brainstormed some ways to be proactive in keeping our lines quiet and focused.  Remember- the volume is a 0-1 in the common areas (including hallways).
• Be aware of your proximity - we should be spread out in lines and outside. 

Literacy:

• Benchmarks are fully underway! 
• Continue to finish those up.   This resource- and the data collected- will help us shape the focus of our small group instruction and conferring.
• As you dig into this work, please invite Libby to either meet with you individually or at a common planning time so you can figure out how to support you with these resources. 

 
McKinley Building Goals:
Our Site Team has developed our two building goals for the year:

• Goal 1: My May 2018, all grade level PLCs will meet their goal of 100% student mastery of critical, teacher-identified reading Enduring Understandings. 
• Goal 2: By May 2018, McKinley Educators will closet the achievement/opportunity gap(s) by increasing each student group's proficiency by 10% as measured by the Reading and Math Comprehensive Assessments (MCA III). 

The team will be developing some action steps to achieve these goals.  Please make sure your PLC goal or individual goals are helping to support one (or both) of these goals.  More to come! 

 

What Does My Headscarf Mean To You?

I recently watched a 14 minute video on TED talks:  Click here to access the video

The video made me think about my biases and behaviors related to it.  I know that 14 minutes is a lot to devote.... so here are some key learnings. 

• You have biases.  Everyone does.  Biases related to class, race, disability, etc. 
• The goal is knowing your biases - and how to acknowledge them and navigate them.  

I really walked away questioning myself and how we work with families in a diverse building.  We all have kids and families best interest at heart- everyone does.  It's important we are aware that care isn't enough - we need to be aware of our own structures, words, and actions that support all. 

This year we will be doing some more work around this. 

EL Graduation- Tuesday:
We have our EL Graduation on Tuesday from 4-4:30pm.  This is a time for us to celebrate our students who have exited the program.  Join us for a fun reception and awards ceremony! 

Is Homework Valuable?
Another great article from Twitter (you know how much I love Twitter!) on the effectiveness of homework at the elementary level.  I think you will be surprised - click here to read the article

I want to add my two cents to this topic- in no way am I saying that you should never give homework.  If homework has a purpose and students have the support, homework can enhance the learning process.  However, the purpose and support aren't always there.

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


Have a great weekend, everyone!  Don't forget to make every second count! 
-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- September 14, 2017

Happy Friday, everyone!
We finished another great week of learning at McKinley! 

I shared this last year - it was something I found on Twitter.   Just something to keep fresh in your mind - what you do and say shows your priorities. 

It's been great seeing all the Tweets about what you are doing.  Keep that coming- you are telling people our "story" and our "why".  If we don't tell it, someone else will!

AM Arrival/PM Dismissal:
First, thank you for all your patience and flexibility with the AM arrival and PM dismissal.  It's been a learning experience, but I know we are headed in a great direction.  Just a couple reminders:

• Please continue to help outside in the AM and PM.  This is everyone.  And, please, be active during this (example: if you see a parent leaving their car, have a positive conversation with them). 
• Drop off and pick up is on the west side of the loop.  Please walk students over to that area and help get families to that spot.
• Keep being positive - even during a frustrating time.  Kids and families can feel it- stay positive and focused on kids. 
• We are doing a traffic study through the City.   The results will help us with our traffic flow.   This is coming soon....

Core Instruction v& Power 1/2 Hours:
Now that we are entering our third week of school, please make sure you are fully into your curriculum maps.   I appreciate all the work you have done to begin building solid relationships.  Please don't forget though- we should be fully underway with core instruction.

Our Power 1/2 Hours start on Monday.  I realize you may not have a common assessment to use for flexible groupings... that's ok.  Please brainstorm on what skills or strategies your students need at this point (this may be based off teacher observation only).  I know some grade levels are looking at ways to engage kids - and providing interventions and strategies based on this.   Great idea.    Please let me know if your team is struggling with this. 

McKinley Class of 2030!
Below are class pictures of our newest friends - the Class of 2030! 

EA Schedules:
I'm hoping to finalize our grades 1-5 EA schedules for next week.  I'm still looking at your requests and student need.  We will need to be flexible, as this may change.  But, until we get to a finalized schedule, please continue to support our new EAs in working in your classrooms. 

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

Valet Parking for the Week:
We have no valet parking for the week - as we have no principal parking spot!  When that is added, valet parking will return!



Have a great weekend, everyone!  Don't forget to make every second count!
-Justin

Weekly Update - September 8, 2017

Good morning!
We did it - week one is complete!  We've had a great start in a great new building.  It's going to be a terrific year.

DIBELS Testing-  Tuesday:
We start DIBELS testing on Tuesday.  We will be using the Learning Studio for all testing.   Libby created a schedule (click here to see the schedule).   Please be on time for your testing!  Also, please keep your students quiet in this area (we are missing a display case which is causing an opening into the Learning Studio).

AM Arrival & PM Dismissal:
A huge thank you to everyone who is helping make this work.  It was a crazy day one - however, things are starting to improve as we get into our routines.  Just a couple of notes:

• K and 1st Grade - you may want to dismiss a few minutes early to get through the front door and outside without the bigger kids. 
• Drop Off Lane - should be continually moving.  Parents need to wait in their car if parked in the drop off lane.  If they want to come to the door, they need to park.
• Parking Lot - please park back a bit so we leave room for families who visit during the day.  
• Exit - The exit onto Hemlock (from 22nd) is now a right turn only.  This helped tremendously yesterday with cars exiting our lot.  It's right turn only from 7:30-8 and 2-3:00pm)

PBIS Stations & Matrixes:

Please continue to teach (and over teach) the building expectations to your learners.  This includes all staff, not just classroom teachers.  The more we do in the beginning, the better the result will be!

I placed an order for signage in the building - particularly matrixes.  I will get those up as soon as they arrive.

Construction Update:

I found out yesterday they are finishing the flooring in the main lobby on Saturday.  It will be nice to get that area completed with flooring.   There will be some other projects this weekend, too.  Thank you for your flexibility with all the work that needs to be complete.  

I am meeting next week with Bob and Sal (Wold Architects) to walk the building.  After this, I will be able to place some additional furniture orders.  Again, thanks for being flexible!

Building Weekly Newsletter:

Click here to access the building weekly newsletter

Morning Meetings:

I got to visit some morning meetings yesterday as I went around the building.  Wow. Even as an outsider coming in, I could tell the tone of the morning was way different - calm, fun, and focused on relationships & community.  It's great to see that already becoming a routine in all of our K-5 classrooms.  

Have a great weekend - take some down time to relax and rejuvenate!

-Justin