10/26/18

This Halloween week began with an interesting Monday!

Our Sunday night was spent carving this!  "Nevermore!"   Too much work...

Mandatory Department Meeting - November 6th. 

• Our department meeting on November 6th is mandatory.  We will have a presentation by the district HIB specialists Mr. Frederick and/or Mr. O'Brien will provide a presentation at department meetings to help staff better understand what constitutes HIB as opposed to disciplinary issues.
• Coaches are to make arrangements with assistants to cover your practices for approx 45 minutes on that day and tutoring and after-school activities should be canceled ahead of time or arrange for someone to cover you.  

Attendance Log-in Directions for substitutes and coverages:  

• I implore you to print the instructions I sent you in an email the other day and affix them to the desk in your classrooms.  I am working on some ideas to fix the problems we have been having, but in the meantime, I would like everyone to oblige me and do this. 

• If you receive notification that your attendance was not done, and you were not in class, I would suggest printing it out and marking on it that you were not in on the day in question.  Keep a file for your own reference.  You do not HAVE to do this, it is only a suggestion.  I am printing the bulk reports I get and I am sending them to the main office for correction but it would behoove you to keep your own records as well.   

Attendance

• We received a reminder from the HR department that a doctor's note is required for all absences of 3 days or more.  You can give them to me and I can forward them to HR if you wish. 

SES Program 

• We currently have spots open in the SES program for ELA 9, 10, and 11 and we even have some for SN.  If you have students who are struggling or that you think will benefit from our Supplemental Educational Services program, guide them towards signing up.  The permission slip is located on our website  - follow this link  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tvi4kjM_a1mMbOrfiWBHrLhiB12J-1raql9IUxTG70s/edit.  You can also email the parents and forward them the information directly.  

• I suggest that you print some permission slips out and hand them to the students directly.  The program runs every Monday and Thursday from 3-4:30 and will be available until April 11.   

SGO statements and PGSs

• All teachers are required to submit their draft SGOs by October 31. Please make sure they are submitted along with PGPs.  Hit "save/notify."   

• Testing Concerns for upcoming assessments:

• There is a school-wide practice ACT exam on Nov 21st, which is a dress rehearsal for the PARCC and SCIENCE test in the spring. If you are assigned as a proctor, This is what admin walk-throughs will be looking for…

Proctor expectations and guidelines

1. Proctors may only use the internet to communicate to test-coordinators about test progress.
2. Proctors must actively monitor students as they are taking exams. When paired up, at least one of the proctors must be standing and walking around to ensure students are actively engaged in the assessment. Both proctors sitting down is unacceptable.
3. Proctors may not use cell phones at test sites.  If there are emergencies where cell phones are required, proctors must excuse themselves from the room and use the phone in the teacher’s lounge.
4. Proctors may only monitor tests, no other work shall be done during testing.
5. No students shall be facing each other during exams, proctors may use the assistance of students to rearrange the rooms in rows.
6. When there is space in the room, students shall be seated with maximum space between them.

 

Wonderful Things!

The Carey Twins turned one 
(and transformed into tiny dragons)!

The Wall House has apparently adopted a penguin!

10/22/18

I hope this week brings you good karma.  

I will try to put some out there for you!

A few (relative term I know...) things for this week...

Dr. Parent is inviting all faculty and staff to a special School Security Information Session today at 

3:10 PM so that you will be better informed about our security practices and protocols, meet our School Resource Officers, and meet the security guards who will be armed while on campus.

Class Coverage Requests: the following processes will be implemented when requesting class coverages:

1. Faculty who will need a class/period coverage for reasons other than IEP meetings or PLC meetings will need to email the request for coverage to coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us. I will arrange coverages for your team meetings.

2. Child Study Team Secretaries arranging IEP meetings will send the needed faculty coverages to coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us. A listing of all coverages for a particular week should be included in the email.

3. Last-minute coverages (i.e. for illness, requested presence during a crisis or critical meeting) should be phoned into Ms. Scott. Do not use coverages@pcti.tec.nj.us for same-day or last-minute coverage needs.

Please do not utilize the Absence Management System for class coverage needs. My suggestion is to always check with Judith in the main office in the morning to confirm that coverages were arranged.

School Security Information Sessions have been arranged for students and parents/guardians:

October 22 (Grade 11 and 12 Parents/Guardians)

7:00 pm in the Auditorium

October 23 (Student Meetings)

8:30 am               Grade 12             in the Auditorium

1:15 pm               Grade 11             in the Auditorium

October 24 (Student Meetings)

8:30 am               Grade 10             in the Auditorium

1:15 pm               Grade 9               in the Auditorium

October 25 (Grade 9 and 10 Parents/Guardians)

7:00 pm in the Auditorium

Important Dates:

• Our Next department meeting is (tomorrow) Tuesday, October 23

• Our department meeting on November 6th will feature a HIB presentation by Mark Frederick and/or Michael O'Brien

• Team meetings start on October 25th.  The schedule is on the Department site and coverages were requested for those who need them.  I will send a few agenda items to select groups.  Please select a scribe and upload the minutes using the template in Google Classroom. 

• PGPs - Teachers are required to submit a Professional Growth Plan (PGP) by October 31. Your PGP is listed in your My Learning Plan files.  All teachers should develop three (3) professional growth goals. Samples and information can be found here:  https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/professional-growth-plans

• SGO Pre-Assessments were to be Completed by September 28, 2018.

• First Draft of SGOs must be entered into MyLearningPlan by October 31, 2018.

• Progress report comments are due Friday 10/26th at 3pm - Comments are required for students who have a C- or below

Book-keeping  (literally...)

Please make sure we are keeping records of barcodes for books issued to students.  Use the option in PowerSchool to do this.  It is especially important for textbooks that you may have issued to students.  

Book-keeping (in regards to grade books)

If you have assignments that are over 3 weeks old and there are grades missing for students or for the entire assignment, it needs to be resolved.  Either a student is exempt, gets a zero, or the assignment should be deleted.  This does not pertain to special circumstances where students may have been given extra time due to a valid reason such as an illness, bedside, schedule/teacher change, etc...

1st Cycle Observations have begun...

Sorry, I love Rick and Morty...

If you receive an email regarding an upcoming observation, please fill out and submit the pre-observation form by noon the day before the observation (on Friday if your observation is on a Monday).  Also, email me any documents, rubrics, student handouts, etc. that may go with your lesson (I will upload them and attach to your observation).

Pre-Assessments:  Please make sure you enter your pre-assessment scores into your Grade Books.  Make sure they are "unpublished" and check the box "do not include in final grade."

Absence Reporting:

Suggestion...  The time to enter your absence into AESOP is technically 7am, however, I would try to enter it (if possible) by 6:30am to ensure that your classes are covered.  We will discuss this more at length at the department meeting tomorrow.  

Reminders:

1.      Phone numbers

▪        311 for any emergency or security need

▪        4260 for suspicion of a student under the influence

2.       Child Abuse Reporting  (Important)

▪        You must call, not an administrator, nurse, SAC counselor or others

▪        Jurisdiction police must be called and notified of the report

▪        Reporting form must be handed to the Principal (form is on the portal)

https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/emergency-information


"Wonderful things..."  I hope your weekend gave you some joy.   The Wachas had 2 football games and a baseball game - so we are spent, however Chuck had an incredible game on Saturday so the excitement was enough energy to carry us through! 

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...

10/8/18

Department Meeting: Today’s meeting is cancelled – Our next meeting is scheduled for October 23rd in FX 135

Back to School Night – Thursday, October 11th.  Please make sure your classrooms are neat and inviting.  Since only the grade 9 teachers will be returning, please assist them with room prep and decorating.

• ·       Those of us who have grade 9 classes and/or grade 9 students on our rosters must attend.  Dismissal for grade 9 instructors will be at 1:16. You will need to sign in that night by 6:00pm.
• ·         Instructors who DO NOT have grade 9 courses or students will remain on campus until 3:45 pm.

All English I teachers...  ESL referrals - Please refer any students that you think need to be evaluated for possible placement in ESL.  Your referrals can be based on in-class writing samples or observations about their command of the language.  You can contact me or York Lam directly.

Grade-level Teams - Schedules for All grade-level teams are done – Meetings will mostly take place on the last Thursday in the month. The shedule will be posted on the department site today. 

Attendance reminders:  Attendance must be input within the first 10 minutes of class every day, for all classes.  New Procedure – teachers must enter “A” for absent or “P” for present.   We will no longer leave it blank for “present.”

Power Teacher & Gradebook set-up:  If you have not done so already, please be sure weights are aligned with school policy. Kim Prinzo is on PowerTeacher duty during period 7 – contact her to check your gradebook for errors!

IDs and Lanyards – Please make sure your students are wearing their IDs and lanyards when they leave your room on a pass.

Teacher Logs in PowerTeacher – It is a good idea to log any correspondence with students, parents, guidance and CST in the teacher log in PowerTeacher.   This ensures that there is an active record of what has transpired when dealing with issues that may need intervention in the future. 

Wonderful things...  This weekend, Chuck and his friends participated in the 

Bergen Buddy Walk for our friend Colin who has Down Syndrome.  

It is one of our favorite events of the year!  Be well all...

10/1/18

A. Fire Drills

Since we now have four fire alarm areas, we can conduct fire drills in different areas.  There is no need to evacuate every building at once during a drill.  Please review the Policy and schedule for our 2018-19 drills. The routes are outlined in the portal - follow the link below for details (it is a good idea to print your route diagram and post it in your classroom).  

https://sites.google.com/site/pctiprofessionalportal/emergency-exit-routes

BOE Policy #8420

School staff members, upon receiving notice the school needs to be evacuated, will:

• Direct pupils to gather personal belongings in the classroom or within their immediate area;
• Instruct pupils not to use any electronic communication device until instructed otherwise;
• Close the windows and doors of their vacated rooms and turn off any light or electrical switch;
• Take the pupil roster and the day’s attendance;
• Lead their class or the pupils under their supervision upon receiving the evacuation notice to the evacuation area;
• Take attendance when arriving at the evacuation area and report any additional pupils or missing pupils to the Principal or designee;
• Not allow any pupil to re-enter the building, leave the evacuation area, or be dismissed from school unless authorized by the Principal or designee or law enforcement officials

Fire Drills for 2018-2019

All other buildings will go into "Shelter In Place" as the drills are conducted.

Month	Location
September	STEM Building
October	Main Building
November	Rocco and T Building
December	Athletic Center
January	STEM Building
February	Rocco and T Building
March	Main Building
April	Athletic Center
May	STEM Building
June	Rocco and T  Building

B. Timed writing assessments

When issuing writing assessments (RSTs for example) that will be used as pre-assessments or benchmarks, please make sure they are "in-class, timed" writing assessments. These assessments should not be assignments that are completed at home. Ideally, they should be hand-written so that we can ensure their authenticity and be able to gauge their "raw" writing talent.  If you choose to issue these assessments digitally, you must monitor the students as they are taking the exam to ensure they are not surfing the internet for assistance as they write.  Digital assessments also can employ the help of spellcheck and Grammarly, so that would have to be taken into consideration as well.  If the assessments are digital, they should be run through Turnitin or utilize the tools offered in Canvas.  


C. Notes regarding documentation logs and evaluations  (more details will be discussed at our next department meeting, but here are a few things to consider and suggestions...)

• Non-tenured teachers should enter artifacts as they move through the school year.  Tenured teachers can wait until the Spring, however, we all know this practice only causes us to have to rush to load everything at the end.  It is your choice how you handle this, but in the years where I forced myself to do "a little at a time," I was much happier in April.   We reap what we sow, so reap away!

• Only enter 3-4 Artifacts per strand.  These should be things that ARE NOT observable in your observations (this way you cover a range of bases). They should also be "high quality" artifacts.  The STRONGE evaluation rubric does not rate teachers as "highly effective" by the number of artifacts entered.  In the same way, entering artifacts that cover every performance indicator in a strand also does not denote "highly effective" on the rubric. Choose fewer artifacts but ones that pack a "big punch."  Over the summer, Dr. Parent expressed to the newly appointed staff members that we are all striving for an effective rating.  Highly effective is "unusual" and "not the norm."  We will discuss the language in the standards in detail as to what brings the "effective" rating up to a "highly effective" rating at our next department meeting.  

• Strands, performance indicators, artifact suggestions/examples - I will be giving you all of this in the coming weeks.  Most of you probably will not need the resources, however since I have been looking at this from "the other side," there are things that I would like to pass on to you that may be helpful.  

• Student Surveys - not sure how many of you use these, but they are solid artifacts that can be used in your documentation logs. It is suggested that they are issued to students in late Fall and then possibly again in the Spring (however one is sufficient - based on student responses, you can show how you have reacted to the data in future lessons, plans, etc....  It is an easy way to show how you use student data).  I have "ready-made" examples I will pass on, but if you already have your own, you do not have to change what you are doing.  REQUEST - If anyone uses a method for issuing student surveys such as Google Forms, Survey Mondy, etc., please volunteer to give a quick demonstration at our meeting. This is not a presentation, just an informal mini-PD for your colleagues.  As simple as things seem to us sometimes, they may not be as simple to others.  

• Student PIPs - We used to call PGPs by another acronym, but it's all the same really.  Consider instituting this with your students.  It is a good way to show that students are participating in their academic progress and that you are promoting self-assessment as yet another form of 'assessment" in your arsenal of artifacts.  Eg. After another month or so, ask students to identify 3 aspects in their writing that are in need of improvement - things that they repeatedly do and that reflect patterns.  Have them create their own "official" PIP and submit it to you.  Along the way, you can have them reflect on these things and note progress.  In the Spring you can ask them to rate their progress - you can design these documents yourself.  Again, this is a solid artifact and possible a set of artifacts that show that you are involving students in self-evaluation (without making things too complicated).  

D.  I will be out of the office on Monday, October 1st, so if you need immediate assistance, please contact Dr. Sabbath.  I will not have access to email as I will be working at the Golf Outing.

Our "something wonderful" this week is Christian and his bride celebrating their honeymoon in Scotland.

Congratulations and best wishes on your new journey together!

  

9/17/18

Good Morning Everyone!  

• Department Meeting: scheduled for tomorrow - Sept 18th in FX 135

• Professional Development day:  Scheduled for Sept 21st (details TBA, however we will mostly be given department time.  Teachers interested in WebEx will have an opportunity to go to a session at 1:15)
• IEP and 504 - Please make sure you are reviewing these plans and collaborating with co-teachers (if applicable).  

• All English I teachers...  ESL referrals - Please begin keeping a list of any students that you think need to be evaluated for possible placement in ESL.  Over the next few weeks, please give some kind of in-class writing sample so that you can evaluate their raw writing ability.  Also, it would be helpful to give them some kind of assignment that requires them to speak aloud in class so you can evaluate them in this regard as well.  I will ask for your recommendations by mid-October.

• Emergency Contact Forms
Please email them back to me if you have not yet done so...
• Grade-level Teams
• Schedules for All grade-level teams are being created – I should have them done by our meeting tomorrow.
• SGO Pre-Assessments should be completed by 9-28.  Please assist colleagues with the sharing of grade-level folders, assessments, etc…  
• Sunshine Committee Contributions
• See Bob /Melissa D. / Melissa S.
• Attendance reminders:  Attendance must be input within the first 10 minutes of class every day, for all classes.  New Procedure – teachers must enter “A” for absent or “P” for present.   We will no longer leave it blank for “present.”
• Power Teacher & Gradebook set-up:  Get this done ASAP.  Be sure weights are aligned with school policy. Kim Prinzo is on PowerTeacher duty during period 7 – contact her for help!
• Resources:  Check these out!

1. Bloom’s Literature  (via Facts on File)—it’s a nice resource for ELA teachers!  Both Bosa and Claire are available for answering questions or helping!
2. Commonlit  https://www.commonlit.org/   This is a free site that is incredibly user-friendly.  I know Kim and I have used it in the past so feel free to ask us for help!  It is especially helpful for homework, sub-work if you are out, etc...  It grades the work for you and it great for ELA text analysis practice.  If you are looking for something that you can assign but don't have to invest a lot of time in, this is it.  There are fantastic text sets,  assignments, book pairings, etc. and you can filter by genre, student level, literary devices, and theme.   I would advise however that we communicate with our grade-level teams to make sure we don't repeat assignments.  
3. Newsela  https://newsela.com/   This one is new to me, so if anyone wants to check it out and let us know if it is useful, have at it!  It is an interesting bank of articles and non-fiction that may be useful for RST prompts.
4. Socrative  Frank can fill us in on this site however if we get enough teachers that would like to use it, we can request that we are given a district subscription for the "Pro" version. Socrative is a cloud-based student response system developed in 2010. It allows teachers to create simple quizzes that students can take quickly on laptops – or, more often, via classroom tablet computers or their own smartphones. Quizzes can be true/false, multiple choice, graded short answer or allow open-ended short responses. Activities can either be teacher-paced (for use during a classroom discussion) or student-paced (for use as a more traditional class-end “exit ticket” or quiz). There’s also a gaming element: the “Space Race” feature can set up a quiz so that teams of students can compete against one another to launch rockets into space. Results can be displayed live in the classroom to facilitate discussion (with student identity kept anonymous). Socrative quizzes can also be shared with other teachers; as of mid 2013, Socrative had built up a library of 315,000+ quizzes that any teacher could use.

So, the Wachas had a busy but exciting weekend again!  Chuck played varsity yesterday (which was exciting enough since he is only a 5th grader and is a bit of a "peanut").  He got his first interception ever and again, I cried like a baby... Oh, Chuck is #28 on the right! His nickname on the team is "Chuck the Bullet."

Over the course of the week (if you are so inclined) send me a pic of something wonderful in your life.  We can all revel in positivity and create a healthy environment the feeds all of us!

9-10-18

Good Afternoon Everyone!  Just a few things on this rainy Monday... 😞

• Department Meeting: scheduled for Sept 18th in FX 135

• Professional Development day:  Scheduled for Sept 21st (details TBA)

• All English I teachers...  ESL referrals - Please begin keeping a list of any students that you think need to be evaluated for possible placement in ESL.  Over the next few weeks, please give some kind of in-class writing sample so that you can evaluate their raw writing ability.  Also, it would be helpful to give them some kind of assignment that requires them to speak aloud in class so you can evaluate them in this regard as well.  I will ask for your recommendations by mid-October.

• Morning duties (8:00 – 8:10).

o   As always, anyone who has a homeroom should be at their doors during this period of time.  If you do not have a homeroom you were most likely assigned a hall duty.  Check the schedule to see if you were given a range of room locations for the duty.  The rationale for this is to cover the department.  You become familiar with the English teachers in your area.  The occasion may arise where someone calls in late or has an emergency that prevents them from calling the front office in time to arrange coverage.  There are also times when there are errors in coverages and a substitute does not arrive in the room to cover the class.  Our goal is to “cover that base” and call the office ASAP to see what the problem is – we can then cover the class for our colleagues until the coverage arrives.  

• Emergency Contact Forms
• We need to update the Emergency Contact Information for the department.  I will email the form out to you as soon as Liz revises it.  It should be submitted to Liz Garcia by 9/30.
• Grade-level Teams
• Schedules for All grade-level teams are being created – I will load them onto the department site when completed
• In the interim, I would ask that veteran teachers reach out to our new staff members for some guidance on curriculum or procedure concerns.  We also have those who are teaching new levels this year and they need our support as well.  Please be collegial and share what you can to help others.  
• SGO Pre-Assessments should be completed by 9-28.  Please assist colleagues with the sharing of grade-level folders, assessments, etc…  
• Book Requests – The google form on the department is live, please use it to make your requests.
• Sunshine Committee Contributions
• See Bob /Melissa D. / Melissa S.
• PD options are available to you through MyLearningPlan. Please feel free to continue to use this resource throughout the school year. Most of them are about an hour or less – When you have free time, it is easy to log in a few PD hours this way. 
• Lesson Plan Submission due for the week of 9-17-18.   Plans should be submitted by           Sunday 9-16-17.   GoogleClassroom access code — 6nlg3t
• Liaison committee – We can continue this practice this year since I need all the help I can get.  I would ask that everyone keeps a list of common issues that you feel we need to address in the department.  When we get the committee together, you can contact them regarding these issues and I can meet with them to discuss.   I would ask that this list be one that includes possible solutions or ideas to resolve issues rather than just a list of complaints.   
• I think 3-4 people should suffice - email me if you are interested.  I can offer PD hours for this so you will be responsible for the record keeping of the meeting times and dates for submission to MyLearningPlan at the end of the year.
• Sub-Folders  - As of today, we have not been instructed to complete “physical” subfolders.  I would ask that if you are absent, please note class instructions in AESOP for the substitute. Your sub-plan should be posted on Google Classroom or Canvas (whichever you prefer) and be simple and clear for the students to follow.  I would also suggest that you email one of your colleagues and ask them to put a note on the desk with instructions as well.  This is necessary in the event that a teacher is assigned to the coverage and not an official substitute (the covering teacher would not have seen the AESOP note and therefore could not instruct the students).
• Attendance reminders:  Attendance must be input within the first 10 minutes of class every day, for all classes.  New Procedure – teachers must enter “A” for absent or “P” for present.   We will no longer leave it blank for “present.”
• Power Teacher & Gradebook set-up:  Get this done ASAP.  Be sure weights are aligned with school policy. Kim Prinzo is on PowerTeacher duty during period 7 – contact her for help!

I hope your weekend was as good as mine!  Chuck scored his first touchdown and I cried like a baby...