Week 18: January 4th-8th

Bullock Brief

Happy New Year (early)! I hope you all are enjoying the much deserved break.  

B week for duty.   The duty schedule is located at https://goo.gl/q9w1EJ.  Please take note of the changes.  Please help guide and "train" our new staff members in the morning.  Ms. Perrell and I are on duty every morning which makes it difficult for us to assist.  

	Teams on Duty
Duty Position	Team A	Team B
Bus greeter	Kelly	O'Shaughnessy
Dining Hall Line Server 1/Music	Chesney	Cole
Dining Hall Line Server 2	Woodell	Sowder
Dining Hall Monitor	Fling	Frausto (temporary)
Dining Hall Monitor (upon arrival)	Davis, Sellers, Hairston**	Linkous, Ross, Alston**
Car Line 1	Wiltshire	Gierbolini*
Car Line 2	Dowdy	Welch/Babb
Car Line 3	Gaines (not until Jan. 15)	Martin
1st/Dining Hall Entrance	Phillips (nurse)	Whilby
K/1 Hall Monitor	Mills	J. Chaney
2nd/3rd Hall Monitor (student monitor)	Dossenbach	Spivey
Back Lobby (admin)	Perrell	Perrell
Front Lobby (admin)	Clarke	Clarke

Habit 7 schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
C	D	E	A	B

Upcoming meetings and events for December January 4th-8th and January 11th-15th.  
^{The most up-to-date calendar is located online in Google calendar.}

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Let's celebrate... A two week Holiday break and time with our friends and family. A new year full of hope and possibilities.

Remember the 'why' behind The Leader in Me movement and Leadership Notebooks.  Stay true to our vision "To foster a community of leaders with purpose."  We want to our students to be self-motivated, accountable and contribute to society using their unique talents and skills. Please read the paradigms noted below and reflect on which paradigm you feel you are the most developed and the paradigm that you feel you have the most room to grow. Goal Setting We ended the year with a refresher on goal setting.  Please be sure to start the new year by determining your class's Wildly Important Goals.  Display your class WIGs in a prominent spot and revisit those goals daily.  Sarah Ann--our TLIM coach--suggested using the class WIG as a way to model data tracking and scoreboarding for your class as it relates to Leadership Notebooks.  That is a wonderful strategy. We have already paused on the Leadership Notebook process in October-November to reflect and practice goal setting and data collection/tracking.  As we start the new year assess where you and your class are now, and determine how you can reconnect the students with the 'why.'  Our data guy, Mr. Hurdt, has shared some great resources and strategies, but if you still have questions about how proceed or need additional resources, please contact a Lighthouse team member, Ms. Perrell/Ms. Clarke or Sarah Ann at sarahann.taylor@franklincovey.com.  We would all be happy to help.  The Leader in Me monthly focus: Put First Things First More resources located at https://theleaderinmeonline.org/resources/leadership_notebooks.   Follow Sarah Ann's blog at sarahanntaylor.org.

Before the break, I shared a resource on anchor charts and asked that you read the provided article.  As the new year is now upon us, I would like to see anchor charts in use to build the "culture of literacy in the classroom."  During your next PLC, please share how you are using anchor charts in your upcoming lessons.  This week's AVID strategy is called a "One Pager." A one-pager is a great way for students to express comprehension in writing. Look for ways to include this strategy in your lesson plans.  Please let Ms. Perrell and I know when you are using these great strategies so we can come see these researched-based practices in action. 4th and 5th grade teachers, don't forget to check-out resources at https://my.avid.org/ for your lesson planning.  You should also use AVID Weekly.  The code is included below.  Name of School: B.T. Bullock Elementary School - Add Code: 600347   If you would like further information, see Ms. Gillette, Ms. Schlott or a 4th/5th grade teacher.

      

- Every child will increase reading skills based on their individual academic ability by middle of year mClass and/or Q2 quarterly assessments. - We will reduce discipline to 21 or fewer referrals per month by June 2016.

Staff meeting: The staff meeting for January 4th has been cancelled.  I am guessing you will all need that time to get back in the swing of things.  

Assembly:  We will have an assembly, The NED Show, on January 12th at 1:15pm.  

Testing:  Q2 testing begins on January 12th. The first week back will be a big review week.  

PLC agenda and minutes:  Please be sure you share your PLC agenda/minutes with Ms. Perrell and I each week.  

New interventionist:  I am pleased to announce that Heather Gaines will be joining the Bullock family as a K-5 interventionist.  Heather will be working with our data team to determine groups of students needing additional assistance.  She will also be visiting PLCs to provide additional support.

Reminder about staff absences:  Please make sure Ms. Kennedy, Ms. Perrell and I know you will be absent.  You can email, call or text. Clarke cell phone # 919-935-7408, Perrell cell phone #919-352-2575, and Kennedy cell phone#910-690-4273.  

Safe Schools:  Please work on completing the next round of Safe School videos by January 15th.  

Lesson plan...reminder for the new year:  Please make sure your lesson plans are visible (on your desk or hung on the white board).  Mrs. Perrell and I do not want to disrupt instruction to take a look at your lessons.  Please make sure they are easily accessible. If lesson plans cannot be accessed, we will have to go back to submitting lesson plans digitally.  

 Student perception surveys:  NCDPI is including a new component to our teacher evaluation tool.  It is a student perception survey.  They survey will be given to students in grades 3-5 online.  There will be more info to come.

NCEES:  Mrs. Perrell and I will continue conducting our 2nd round of unannounced observations.  We know that mClass testing will begin upon our return, but instruction has to continue as we work around our testing requirements.  Please remember to bring artifacts, lesson plans, evidence of completion of the standards to the post-conference.  Also please bring a 1-2 student data notebooks to the meeting to review.  This is not a "gotcha," but rather a way that we can see our progress and determine how we can help.  We will include questions in the observation tool to prompt discussion when we meet.  The post-conference must occur within 10 days of the observation.    You can find NCEES materials from DPI at http://ncees.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/NC+Teachers.

Instruction:  Don't forget about the excellent reading resources pulled together by Phyllis Farren at her Weebly.  The new math books need to be used starting on January 4th.  We had a couple weeks before the break to wrap our head around the new resources.  We will have 1/2 day planning sessions to deep dive into the resources available, but we need to get those materials in use right away.  

Brief sign-off:  Once you have read the Bullock Brief please sign-off here.  

Week 17: December 14th-18th

Bullock Brief

A week for duty.   The duty schedule is located at https://goo.gl/q9w1EJ.

Habit 7 schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
D	E	A	B	C

Upcoming meetings and events for December 14th-18th and January 4th-8th.  
^{The most up-to-date calendar is located online in Google calendar.}


Holiday break December 21 - January 1st.  The building will close at 5pm on the18th. Return to school January 4th.  

Let's celebrate... Ms. O'Shaughnessy for always advocating for students. Ms. Cole. Mr. Perrell, Mr. Clarke, Ms. Perrell, Mr. Hurdt, Ms. Dossenbach, Ms. Dowdy, Ms. McHugh, and Ms. Falk for participating in the Sanford Parade on Monday night.  It was such a special night for our students.  Thank you for making it possible.   Ms. Pomeranz for working with the grounds crew to clean the school campus.   The data team and helpers (Mr. Hurdt, Ms. Chaney, Ms. Schiffer, Ms. Asper, Ms. Johnson and Ms. Frausto) for putting-up our data wall.  It is AWESOME.  I have already heard some great discussions about the data and how to meet student needs.  Moving toward our literacy WIGs every day! PTO, First Baptist, the office staff and others who have been helping us live our mission this Holiday season.

The Leader in Me monthly focus: Goals Setting goals is a powerful practice.  Dr. Covey asserts that the most effective people set goals in writing and frequently revisit those goals to determine progress. We have set a school-wide WIG in literacy that, "Every child will increase reading skills based on their individual academic ability by middle of year mClass and/or Q2 quarterly assessments." In order to reach that goal, every student and every class will have to show growth. What are your class goals to accomplish our school-wide WIG? I have seen some great examples. Some classes have set goals to increaes reading stamina. Other classes have prioritized the completion of homework and/or reading logs. As we return from break (or before, if you are ready), I would like to see every class's WIGs on display. It does not need to be a fancy presentation (on the white board is perfect), but I would like to know the goals you have set as a class. Please display your class WIGs outside your classroom door or on the board for all to see. Please make sure your Leadership Notebooks are updated.  Please use these notebooks as a tool to coach students and keep them accountable.  See archived briefs for more detailed information on each section.    Section 1: Wildly Important Goal  Section 2: Additional data  Section 3: Leadership roles Section 4: Victories Section 5: Student-led conferences More resources located at https://theleaderinmeonline.org/resources/leadership_notebooks.   We will have our Leader in Me coach here on Tuesday, December 15th.  She will be meeting with grade level teams during planning time.  All other staff members can pick a time that works the best with their schedule to join in.  The meetings will take place in the front conference room.  She will be asking your feedback on what is going well, areas that are challenging as well as answer questions for us.

As educators we not only teach content, we teach our students how to think.  We model and explain how learners ask questions, delve deeper into text, challenge concepts and clarify meaning. An invaluable tool to teach those skills are anchor charts.  Anchor charts summarize the skills and strategies you have taught and capture that information for students to access in the future.   Read this article about anchor charts.  As you plan your lesson for the new year, consider how you can include anchor charts?   Are you familiar with Costa's Level of Questioning?  Grade level facilitators, please send me an email about how your conversation went at PLCs in regards to embedding higher-level questioning.   4th and 5th grade teachers, don't forget to check-out resources at https://my.avid.org/ for your lesson planning.  You should also use AVID Weekly.  The code is included below.    Name of School: B.T. Bullock Elementary School - Add Code: 600347   If you would like further information, see Ms. Gillette, Ms. Schlott or a 4th/5th grade teacher.

      

- Every child will increase reading skills based on their individual academic ability by middle of year mClass and/or Q2 quarterly assessments. - We will reduce discipline to 21 or fewer referrals per month by June 2016.

Friday Clubs:  It is club time again.  Ms. Townsend will be sending a more detailed email about clubs soon with an updated club map (only a couple minor tweaks). Some reminders are included below.  Please continue to remind students that they cannot have a write-up to attend clubs.  Success would be 100% attendance at clubs.  Please create a label for each student including: Student first and last name/teacher, club and location

8:45am - Behavior Junction students report to Dining Hall

8:50am - All staff stand in doorways.  The following folks will help usher K-2 students to the proper location:  Dossenbach, Cole, Jones, Hunter, Linkous, O'Shaughnessy, Frausto, Sellers, Kelly, Whilby, Mills. 

8:50am - K release to clubs

8:53am - 1st grade release

8:56am - 2nd grade release

8:59am - Aforementioned staff to their locations

9:00am - 3rd grade release

9:03am - 4th grade release

9:06am - 5th grade release

* Please note that we will wrap clubs 10 minutes early so we do not affect the early release lunch schedule.

At 9:45am, we will start the process over again in reverse.  All club leaders should again move to the doorway. 

9:45am - 5th grade

9:48am - 4th grade

9:51am - 3rd grade.  *The K-2 helpers should move to the K-2 area to assist students. 

9:54am - 2nd grade

9:57am - 1st grade

10:00am - K

      Staff dress-up days: 

Monday: Holiday bling - Holiday earrings, necklaces, etc.

Tuesday:  Favorite Christmas Carol

• Put bells on your shoes, wrists, beltloops, etc and become "Jingle Bells"
• Wear reindeer antlers, paint nose red= "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer"
• Tape over your mouth while in your PJs = "Silent Night"
• Decorate yourself like a Christmas tree = "O Christmas Tree"
• Dress like a rockstar, carry drumsticks = "Little Drummer Boy"

Wednesday: Christmas Character Dress-Up

• Santa Claus = every Christmas movie ever
• Home Alone (ugly Christmas sweater = the aunt)
• The Grinch (Cindy Lou Who = Pink dress; Grinch = LOTS of green
• Peanuts characters (blue dress, yellow shirt/black pants, etc)

Thursday: Tacky Christmas Sweater day

Friday:  Red and Green festive holiday attire

      Kari Jones:  I am sad to report that we are losing another wonderful member of our ESL team.   Kari's last day will be this Friday the 18th.  She will most assuredly be missed.  Please gather in the Platform at 12:30pm on December 18th for a send-off for Kari.  

Staff absences:  Please remember that you must notify Ms. Kennedy, Ms. Perrell and myself when you will be absent.  We must know you are out to ensure there is coverage in your room.  If we are not alerted and the sub does not show, students are left unattended (it has happened).  Please make sure to keep us in the loop so we can ensure the school day is uninterrupted and safe for our students.  

      Safe Schools:  Please work on completing the next round of Safe School videos by January 15th.  

Lesson plan...reminder:  Please make sure your lesson plans are visible (on your desk or hung on the white board).  Mrs. Perrell and I do not want to disrupt instruction to take a look at your lessons.  Please make sure they are easily accessible.  

Tutors: I am searching for additional tutors to serve our students.  If you know someone who is interested in tutoring at Bullock, please let me know via email. 

      NCEES:  Mrs. Perrell and I will continue conducting our 2nd round of unannounced observations next week and after we return from the holiday break.   Please remember to bring artifacts, lesson plans, evidence of completion of the standards to the post-conference.  Also please bring a 1-2 student data notebooks to the meeting to review.  We will include questions in the observation tool to prompt discussion when we meet.  The post-conference must occur within 10 days of the observation.    You can find NCEES materials from DPI at http://ncees.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/NC+Teachers.

IMPORTANT....Tardies:  Please call parents/guardians of students who have accrued 3 unexcused tardies.  At 5 unexcused tardies, students will be required to stay after-school for a Learning Lab.  Students who are tardy will have a white slip from the office.  Also do not not forget to call parents if students are out 2 or more days.  

      Brief sign-off:  Once you have read the Bullock Brief please sign-off here.  

Week 16: December 7th-11th

Bullock Brief

B week for duty.   The duty schedule is located at https://goo.gl/q9w1EJ.

Habit 7 schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
D	E	A	B	C

Upcoming meetings and events for December 7th-11th December 14th-18th.  
^{The most up-to-date calendar is located online in Google calendar.}

Math online training  12/9 and 12/10 for the designated trainers (Gillette and Chaney) only. 

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Data wall meeting 12/18 for Data team members only. 

Holiday break December 21 - January 1st.  Return to school January 4th.  

Let's celebrate... Mrs. Ashworth for her work in coordinating and managing the book fair last week.  I know there were MANY volunteers who also helped.  I do not want to leave anyone out.  Thank you for synergizing for making this event happen.   Ms. Davis for coordinating the hat and glove project and Ms. Pendley, Mrs. Whilby, Mrs. Velasco and Mrs. Stone for their help and contributions.   Mr. Hurdt for sharing great resources with the whole staff earlier this week. Mr. McIver for ensuring that ALL the students on his bus have a book as he supports our school-wide WIG of literacy.

The Leader in Me monthly focus: Goals REMINDER...Leadership Notebook check:  Please take time this week for students to review their leadership notebooks. At this point, all students at Bullock should have a Leadership Notebook with the following components.... Section 1: Wildly Important Goal = Includes the a WIG related to literacy at a minimum.  It is time to start adding personal, behavioral or other subjects to our WIG section.  In that section, students should be tracking literacy assessment and coloring in their ATBs.  For those that are ready, go ahead and move forward with setting strategies and score boarding.   Section 2: Additional data = This section should include other data such a quarterly exam results, mClass summaries, or other subjects not tracked as WIGS. Section 3: Leadership roles = This section is a work-in-progress.  This is where students should record their Leadership role.  Every child should have a Leadership role.   Section 4: Victories = This should be a spot to display victories and reflections on growth and success:  an engineer ticket, a note from the teacher, an award earned over the past quarter (every one should have been acknowledged at least once), etc.  Section 5: Student-led conferences = This section is a work-in-progress.  There are numerous other great resources (in addition to the ones Mr. Hurdt provided to you) at https://theleaderinmeonline.org/resources/leadership_notebooks.

Over the past few weeks we have taken a deep dive into WICOR.  What is WICOR?  It is writing, inquiry, colloboration, organization and reading.  Did you take a look at your levels of questionning last week as we explored inquiry?  I hope that some of you utlized the provided lessons from AVID weekly.  Within your PLCs this week, please bring your lesson plans or student samples to discuss how you included level 2/3 questionning in your instruction.   We are going to hover here for a another couple weeks as we continue to infuse more writing and higher-level questionning into instructional practice.  Both Learning Focus lesson and AVID indicate that writing is a pivotal component of instruction.  Writing improves reading.  As the holiday's apporach, many teachers use this time of year to teach students about different cultures or create special keepsakes.  Reflect on lessons you have used in the past.  How can take those great lessons and include more writing or higher-level inquiry? 4th and 5th grade teachers, don't forget to check-out resources at https://my.avid.org/ for your lesson planning.  You should also use AVID Weekly.  The code is included below.    Name of School: B.T. Bullock Elementary School - Add Code: 600347   If you would like further information, see Ms. Gillette, Ms. Schlott or a 4th/5th grade teacher.

      

- Every child will increase reading skills based on their individual academic ability by middle of year mClass and/or Q2 quarterly assessments. - We will reduce discipline to 21 or fewer referrals per month by June 2016.

      

Reminder.....Nightly reading: Please remember that nightly reading is a REQUIREMENT. All students must have a level appropriate book to read at home every night. We cannot assume that they have reading material at home. This is a school-wide WIG and of the utmost importance.

      Send-off for Anna:  Please gather in the Platform at 3:00pm on December 11th for a send-off for Anna.  

      Safe Schools:  Please work on completing the next round of Safe School videos.  They are do after we return from break. 

      Lesson plans:  Please make sure your lesson plans are visible (on your desk or hung on the white board).  Mrs. Perrell and I do not want to distrupt instruction to take a look at your lessons.  Please make sure they are easily accessible.  

      Tutors: I am searching for additional tutors to serve our students.  If you know someone who is interested in tutoring at Bullock, please let me know via email. 

      Leaders on TRACK:  Please remind students that clubs will take place on December 18th.  Students who have have a write-up cannot participate. Please continue to remind students of the wonderful ways we will celebrate making wise choices at school.    

NCEES:  Mrs. Perrell and I will continue conducting our 2nd round of unannouced observations the next couple weeks (and the first couple weeks of January as well).  Please remember to bring artifacts and evidence of completion of the standards to the post-conference.  Also please bring a 1-2 student data notebooks to the meeting to review.  We will include questions in the observation tool to prompt discussion when we meet.  The post-conference must occur within 10 days of the observation.    You can find NCEES materials from DPI at http://ncees.ncdpi.wikispaces.net/NC+Teachers.

     Tardies:  Please call parents/guradians of students who have accrued 3 tardies.  At 5 unexcused tardies, students will be required to stay after-school for a Learning Lab.  We have had our first group of students use the lab and it will continue.  We will need to synergize to get all our students here and on time.

     Absences:  Please also call home if students have missed 2 consecutive days of school.  We want our parents to know that their kiddos are missed!

      Christmas Parade tomorrow:  Please let me know if you would like to join us for the Sanford Parade tomorrow evening at 7pm (we will meet at St. Luke's at 5:30pm).  The more the merrier.  We will have three vehicles in the parade.

Instruction: See AVID notes above.

      Brief sign-off:  Once you have read the Bullock Brief please sign-off here.