10/15/18

Good Morning everyone,

I hope you are in good spirits despite the gloomy start to the work week...  Just a few things for this week's blog...

I&RS Referrals
Students who are experiencing learning, behavior, or health difficulties shall be referred to the school’s Intervention and Referral Services (I&RS) Team. The I&RS Team identifies students in need and then plans and provides appropriate interventions.

Prior to making an I&RS referral, teachers are required to have made at lease 2 attempts to intervene. This includes phone calls or meetings with the parent(s) or guardian(s), instructional interventions, or behavioral interventions. If the teacher has not made any attempts to remedy the student's performance or behavior, the I&RS process will not begin.

The referral form can be found on the Professional Portal - here is a link:
https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/documents/i-rs-referral-form

Gradebooks - It's all about balance...

Gradebooks should be kept up to date. If a month goes by and there are blank colums under your assignments, the assignment either should have been deleted, or grades should have been entered. When grades are missing for individual students, after a reasonable amount of time, a decision needs to be made about whether a student who has not submitted an assignment should receive a zero or be exempt from the assignment - something should be entered in the field.

Also, remember that we are focusing on authentic grading this year, so if 50% or more of your students have an A, or a F, something might be wrong there...

ESL & Reading Lab Referrals
Please continue to refer students who you think may be struggling in reading or in need of ESL assistance. You can refer them to York, Penny and Elizabeth and they will arrange testing.

First Cycle Observations

First cycle observations have begun. If you receive a pre-observation form request from me, please make sure it is submitted at least one day prior to the scheduled observations. Also, email me a copy of the lesson plan for that day and any worksheets or documents you will use in class. I am not scheduled to observe everyone in the department for this cycle, so some of you may be oberserved by another supervisor, assistant principal or Dr. Parent. In any case, be yourselves and "do what you do." Don't worry about things you cannot control, instead, focus on your strengths.

IDs and Lanyards,
Please make sure you are checking to make sure the students are wearing their yellow lanyards and IDs throughout the day. It is really easy to spot the ones that are not in compliance these days. Please do not let students out of your class on a pass without the lanyard and ID - if someone stops them in transit, it comes back to you, so let's avoid dealing with that.

Teacher logs
Please log all coorespondance with students, parents, guidance counselors, CST members, etc. in the "teacher log" section of Power Teacher. This can be helpful when having to deal with difficult situations down the road.

Ok, so if no one is going to send me "wonderful things" pics, I am forced to start bombarding you with pictures of Ned Flanders. This will continue until moral improves...