Week 20: January 23-27

Bullock Brief

B week for duty.  

Habit 7 Schedule.  The full schedule is here.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
C	D	E	A	B

A summary of the events in the coming week are included  below.   For upcoming meetings and events, please see the Bullock Master calendar. 

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Monthly focus:  Begin with the end in mind

Student led conferences are just around the corner.  Our student leaders will be sharing their progress with their parents on February 16th.  Check-out the great materials provided by the Lighthouse Team to help guide the upcoming student led conferences. 

The master Bullock spreadsheets will be sent early this week with the most current  testing results.  Please review and analysis this data within your PLCs.  Look for strengths/weaknesses, trends/patterns, and students who need additional support or acceleration.  This is our halfway point as we look ahead to the end of the year.  #beginningwiththeendinmind

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Grade cards due: Wednesday, January 25th.

RtI:  K-2  RtI this week in Ms. Stone's room on January 24th starting at 2:45pm. 

CogAt meeting:  3rd and 5th grade (optional for 4th grade) will have a CogAt meeting on January 25th at 2:45pm in the Platform.  Please bring your cumulative folders to the  meeting.

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PLCs: This month teams should focus on the basics of effective professional learning communities.  Reflect on the article shared in December while we prepare for some wonderful learning experiences.  The book studies for K-2 (The Next Steps in Guided Reading) and 3-5 (The Artisan Teacher) are on SchoolLink. 

4-5 will have an AVID session on Thursday at 3:00pm in the Platform. 

The new PLC and lunch coverage schedule is still set to begin on Monday, January 24th.  The final plan is located here. The revised lunch coverage is located here. Please remember to work together this week before transitioning to the new schedule completely.  Thank you all for synergizing to address our needs.  This is an exciting transition.

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In-Class Awards:  Please find some time to celebrate student successes this week for in-class awards. 

Read-A-Thon:  Friday, January 27th

AR Celebration:  The AR student celebration will take place this Friday, January 27th from 9:15-10:00 in the Depot. 

Visit http://www.meetme.so/StefanieClarke to schedule time to meet with me. 

Should have recently completed (check that it's complete):

• Brag tag count - January 20th
• End of Q2 - January 20th

Due this week:

• mClass testing window - January 3rd-February 2nd
• STAR testing - January 2nd-24th
• AR celebration - January 27th (see week 18 blog)
• Grade cards due - January 25th
• SafeSchools - January 25th.  You can login at  http://lee.nc.safeschools.com/login. 
• AVID session in PLCs for 3rd-5th - January 26th

Upcoming dates:

• ACCESS testing -  in February
• First Responder modules -  February 2nd
• Peer observations - March 15th
• Student transfer - March 31st

Week 19: January 16-20

Bullock Brief

Martin Luther King day

A week for duty.  

Habit 7 Schedule.  The full schedule is here.

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
No school- MLK Day	A Q 2 ELA test A day for K-2 12:10-12:50 K 1:00-1:40 1st 1:50-2:30 2nd	A Q 2 Math test A  day for 3-5 12:10-12:50 3rd 1:00-1:40 4th 1:50-2:30 5th	B Q 2 Science test B  day for K-2 12:10-12:50 K 1:00-1:40 1st 1:50-2:30 2nd	C

A summary of the events in the coming week are included  below.   For upcoming meetings and events, please see the Bullock Master calendar. 

______________________________________________________

Monthly focus:  Begin with the end in mind

On February 16th, we will be holding student-led conferences.  This week is a great week to catch-up on data tracking and to set new goals for Q3.  After testing on Thursday or Friday would be ideal times to make sure Leadership Notebooks are updated.

Leadership Notebook essentials:

• All students should have a Leadership Notebook. 
• Goals:  All students should have a at least one academic WIG. 
• Data:  Students should be tracking progress. 

See last week's blog for more complete details. 

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Staff meeting: Tuesday, January 17th in the Platform.  The meeting will start promptly at 3:00.  Please bring your smart phone. Please make sure you have read the PLC article and determined your accountability partner.  The agenda can be found here.

RtI:  3-5 RtI this week in Ms. Stone's room on January 18th at 2:45pm. 

Quarterly testing in 3rd-5th grade:  January 17-19th.  Please see Wendy's testing schedule for details. 

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PLCs: The monthly PLC focus is included below. The template for PLC notes is linked here. The book studies for K-2 and 3-5 should be on SchoolLink.   

Admin visits in 3-5 PLCs this week for the Learning Focused Refresher starting at 2:45pm on January 19th  in the Platform for grades 3-5.  Any other folks may join in.

The new PLC schedule is still set to begin on January 24th (beginning of Q3).  The final plan is located here.

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Safe Schools...reminder:  Due on January 25th.  It includes 6 modules.  You can login at  http://lee.nc.safeschools.com/login. 

First Responders (you would have been contacted via email):  Please complete the modules sent by Mrs. Phillips by February 2nd. 

CogAt meeting:  3rd and 5th grade (optional for 4th grade) will have a CogAt meeting on January 25th at 2:45pm in the Platform.  Please bring your cumulative folders to the  meeting.

Student transfers:  All in/out of county transfers are due March 31st.  If you live outside the Bullock district, and your child attends school at Bullock, please complete a transfer form. 

Peer observations:  Peer observers, please start working on completing your peer observations.  I will send a reminder directly to the peer observers reminding your of your assignment. Observations are due by March 15th.  Please contact me if you have trouble accessing the observation tool.

The Bengal Way:  Please reread the Bengal Way that was signed at the beginning of the year as refresher to policies and procedures at Bullock. 

Discipline:  Please review the discipline policies of B.T. Bullock located here.  A link the levels of discipline is also linked from that document. We use a de-escalation process at Bullock.  If a student is a chronic offender, the student should have an RtI plan for behavior intervention.  Students should not be brought to the office without a referral.  Prevention, positive intervention, assertion and problem solving should be used first

Sharpen the Saw...reminder: The next Sharpen the Saw will be fun for everyone. A group will  meet for lunch a​​t noon on Saturday, January 21 at Highway 55 in Sanford in the Walmart.  The group will then head to Aloha Zoo to arrive at 1pm. 

The address is 159 Mini Lane, Cameron, NC 28326. 
The price is $12 per person and children under 2 are free! 
Sign up in the google drive below with the number of guests you will be bringing!

Visit http://www.meetme.so/StefanieClarke to schedule time to meet with me. 

Should have recently completed (check that it's complete):

• Connect with Remind app

Due this week:

• mClass testing window - January 3rd-February 2nd
• STAR testing - January 2nd-24th
• 3rd-5th quarterly testing- January 17th-19th
• Staff meeting - January 17th
• Learning Focused refresher (3rd-5th) - January 19th
• K mCLass testing - January 19th
• PTO meeting - January 19th
• 3rd mCLass testing - January 20th
• Brag tag count - January 20th
• End of Q2 - January 20th
• Leader on TRACK celebration - January 20th (see week 18 blog)
• Sharpen the Saw event at Aloha Zoo - January 21st

Upcoming dates:

• Grade cards due - January 25th
• AR celebration - January 27th (see week 18 blog)
• AVID session in PLCs for 3rd-5th - January 26th

Week 18: January 9-13

Bullock Brief

Happy Snow Day! 

B week for duty.  

Habit 7 Schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
No school due to weather	C	D	E	A

A summary of the events in the coming week are included  below.   For upcoming meetings and events, please see the Bullock Master calendar. 

______________________________________________________

Monthly focus:  Begin with the end in mind

On February 16th, we will be holding student-led conferences.  Student-led conference are a powerful way for students to communicate with parents/guardians about their progress.  Student goals should have been set at the start of Q2. Each grade level chose a template that worked for their students.  Student accountability is crucial for students success and growth.  The Lighthouse Team will be sharing some great resources and strategies to prepare for the conference during the January 17th staff meeting. If you would like information prior to that please see: Taylor Waters, Sarah McHugh, Elizabeth Johnson, Megan O'Shaughnessy, Wendy Perrell or me.  We would all be happy to help.

Leadership Notebook essentials

• All students should have a Leadership Notebook.  Students should know what a Leadership Notebook is and WHY they have one.
• Goals:  All students should have a at least one academic WIG.  Additional personal WIGS or multiple goals are great. 
• Data:  Students should be tracking progress.  This could include one or more of the following: charting weekly assessments on a graph, score boarding, graded assessments/work, monthly reflections on progress, student victories, etc.

Optional

• Mission statement:  Personal and class mission statements. This section provides a good place to "begin with the end in mind." 
• Student victories:  A section for awards and victories including:  engineer tickets, earning AR or Leader on TRACK quarterly rewards, brag tags, Leader of the Week or in-class awards.   

Be proactive....
Have you selected your accountability partner?  We will be doing a partner activity on January 17th.  Please have a partner selected by our staff meeting. 

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SIT meeting (revised): Tuesday, January 10th at 3:00pm  in the Platform.

RtI:  2-5 RtI this week in Ms. Stone's room on January 10th at 2:45pm. 

Quarterly testing in 3rd-5th grade:  January 17-19th.  Please see Wendy's testing schedule for details. 

Staff meeting:  Tuesday, January 17th.  Please make sure you have read the PLC article that was provided in the December staff meeting (extra copies in the workroom).  Also please make sure you have determined who will be your accountability partner. 

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PLCs: The monthly PLC focus is included below.

Click here for the more user-friendly version of the template for PLC notes. 

K-2 teachers - Please make sure to develop a plan for spiral review of sight words and writing semantics.  The notes from the vertical session are here. 

Admin visits in K-2 PLCs this week.   

• 1st grade:  12:10-12:55 Stef/Wendy
• 2nd grade:  2:45-3:25 Stef
• K:   2:45-3:25 Wendy
• 
  

We will have a Learning Focused refresher session on January 19th and 2:45pm for grades 3-5 (required) and any other staff member who would like to attend.  .

The new PLC schedule is still set to begin on January 24th (beginning of Q3).  The tentative plan is located here. Please forward questions or concerns to your SIT team rep. 

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Safe Schools:  Due on January 25th.  It includes 6 modules.  You can login at  http://lee.nc.safeschools.com/login. 

AR celebration:  The student AR celebration will be held from 1:15-1:45 on January 27th. Students who have met their goal can wear PJs all day.  Students will have Dance Party in the gym.  We are hopeful our Habit 7 will perform for the students.  The students have requested for Mrs. Ashworth to dress up like Taylor Swift again :-) More matter how you spin it will be worth the hard work through the quarter. 

Leader on TRACK celebration:  The Leader on TRACK celebration will take place on January 20th.  Grade levels should determine how and when to celebrate with the students who have earned the Leader on TRACK celebration.  Please put your count of brag tags here on the last week of the quarter January 16th-20th.

Last reminder for Remind:  Please take a moment to connect with our new messaging system. Text @btbin to 81010. 

STAR testing:  STAR MOY testing will be completed during the same time period as the mCLass MOY, January 3rd-24th.  Ms. Ashworth will be conducting the testing during media time. 

Sharpen the Saw: The next Sharpen the Saw will be fun for everyone. A group will  meet for lunch a​​t noon on Saturday, January 21 at Highway 55 in Sanford in the Walmart.  The group will then head to Aloha Zoo to arrive at 1pm. 

The address is 159 Mini Lane, Cameron, NC 28326. 
The price is $12 per person and children under 2 are free! 
Sign up in the google drive below with the number of guests you will be bringing!

Reminder...lesson plans reminder:  Please share your lesson plans with Wendy and I by placing your lesson plans in this folder on Friday for the week following. 

Instruction: Students should be using calculators daily.  Please make note of when and how you will be using calculators in your lesson plans (place a star or highlight in your plans).  Mrs. Perrell and I will be looking for calculator use in the classrooms and in lesson plans.  After quarterly tests are complete, every teacher should check-out the assessments to complete an item analysis (within PLCs) and error correction.  Error correction is essential in helping students understand the correct process for future attempts. 

Visit http://www.meetme.so/StefanieClarke to schedule time to meet with me. 

Should have recently completed (check that it's complete):

• Rest and relaxation

Due this week:

• mClass testing window - January 3rd-24th
• Revised SIT meeting - January 10th
• Newsela and Flocabulary refresher - January 13th (during Habit 7 time)

Upcoming dates:

• No school for MLK day - January 16th
• Staff meeting - January 17th
• 3rd-5th quarterly testing- January 17th-19th
• K mCLass testing - January 19th
• 3rd mCLass testing - January 20th
• Learning Focused refresher (3rd-5th) - January 19th
• PTO meeting - January 19th
• End of Q2 - January 20th
• Leader on TRACK celebration (grade level specific) - January 20th
• Grade cards due - January 25th

Week 17: January 2nd-6th

Bullock Brief

A week for duty.  

Habit 7 Schedule

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
No school	D	E	A	B

A summary of the events in the coming week are summarized below.  For upcoming meetings and events, please see the Bullock Master calendar. 

______________________________________________________

Monthly focus:  Begin with the end in mind

I love Christmas break.  It is a time to savor the gift of family and friends.  It provides time to reflect and catch-up on those Q2 activities that so often get pushed to the back burner.  While reading an excellent book by Ron Clark this break, I made a promise to myself.  The promise is simple: Be exceptional.  The staff at Bullock is exceptional.  I see it all the time. Being "exceptional" is part of my personal mission, but when life gets crazy I tend to move into survival mode.  Sound familiar?  I believe it is my job--our job--to show our students the vision we have for them "to be a community of leaders with purpose."  We must expect EVERY CHILD TO SUCCEED every day.  There are no exceptions.   We must infuse it into the language of every day.  There are "no low" kids or "low classes." There are no "bad" kids (As a matter of fact, I would like to ban those phrases).  We must work together to find solutions.  Our kids deserve a exceptional education and there is no better group of people or place to get that education.  I urge you to start the new year focusing on relationships and remembering that you have a chance to make a difference every day. You are exceptional!

Ron Clark writes in The End of Molasses Classes , "If you walk in your classroom and 'see' a class on children with discipline problems and learning disabilities, you are going to have your hands full.  If you 'see' a class full of lawyers, business leaders, artists, presidents and (if I might add) teachers you are well on your way to building a classroom of children who regard themselves highly and have their own expectation of success."

Be proactive....
Have you selected your accountability partner?  We will be doing a partner activity on January 17th.  Please have a partner selected by our staff meeting. 

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Lighthouse House meeting:  Friday, January 6th at 2:45pm in the front conference room.

SIT meeting: Monday, January 9th at 2:45pm in the Platform.

RtI:  3-5  RtI this week in Ms. Stone's room on January 3rd at 2:45pm. 

Quarterly testing in 3rd-5th grade:  Please see Wendy's testing schedule for details.  She will be sending soon.

PLCs: The monthly PLC focus for the remainder of the year is included here.  January will be dedicated to a refresher on the power of  professional learning communities.I also updated the template for PLC notes.  It has the same objectives in a easier to use format.  K-2 will have a vertical PLC this week to kick-off the year.  Please bring writing samples for an average, low and high student for mid-year.  If you have samples for BOY and EOY, that would also be helpful.  We will be discussing and sharing the common language and core competencies for our students as they move from grade to grade.

Admin visits in 3-5 PLCs this week.   

• 3rd grade:  8:20-9:00 Stef/Wendy
• 4th grade:  1:00-1:40 Stef
• 5th grade  2:45-3:25 Stef

We will have a Learning Focused refresher session in January.  The date and time are TBD.

Relief is on the way:  The TWC indicated a need to find more time for planning and professional learning activities during the school day.  A plan to provide duty-free lunch Monday-Thursday and protected PLC time for certified staff members is forthcoming. That is addition 2h 40m of time for planning and other duties during the work day.  We have been working through the kinks and the SIT team will be finalizing the plan for implementation which is set for January 24th (beginning of Q3).  The tentative plan is located here. We will discuss the roll-out during the staff meeting on January 17th.

Master data spreadsheet:  The master Bullock ELA data spreadsheet has been emailed to all classroom teachers. Please let me know if you did not receive a copy.  I included some questions to guide conversations within your PLC. 

• How do classroom grades correlate to mClass/STAR or EOG data?  Does the rigor need to be increased to help prepare our student's grade level proficiency standards?
• Who are the students "in the red?"  Are they receiving intervention (EC, ESL, R2A, RtI, LLI, MNN, etc)?  Is the intervention working?  If not, what need to be adjusted?  Place those students on a "radar screen" to revisit .
• Look at the growth in quarterlies.  For the students who did not show growth, why do you think that is?  What adjustment need to be made to ensure they are growing?  Repeat this process for STAR, mClass and classroom grades.
• Examine the growth across your grade level.  Who had the highest growth?  Share ideas and strategies within your PLCs.

Remind:  Please take a moment to connect with our new messaging system. Text @btbin to 81010.  It's quick an easy.  We will no longer use Cel.ly.  It is not meeting our communication needs.

STAR testing:  STAR MOY testing will be completed during the same time period as the mCLass MOY, January 3rd-24th. 

Reminder...streamlining email:  Please be thoughtful  when using bullock-staff email for communication.  When communicating, please use an "action tag" to note the importance of the communication. Some tabs to use:  READ BY (DATE), ACTION NEEDED, IMPORTANT, FYI, INSTRUCTION, DUE BY (DATE), etc.  That small step will help folks prioritize important information.  Thanks for your help.

Reminder...lesson plans reminder:  Please share your lesson plans with Wendy and I by placing your lesson plans in this folder on Friday for the week following. 

Instruction: Writing is an essential component of a balanced literacy program.  Rubrics are an effective way to assess student writing and provide effective feedback for growth. 

Rubistar is a easy to use online resource to create rubrics specific to your projects in minutes. 

Visit http://www.meetme.so/StefanieClarke to schedule time to meet with me. 

Should have recently completed (check that it's complete):

• Rest and relaxation

Due this week:

• mClass testing window - January 3rd-24th
• 1st grade mClass testing - January 5th
• 2nd grade mClass testing - January 6th

Upcoming dates:

• Newsela and Flocabulary refresher - January 13th (during Habit 7 time)
• Staff meeting - January 17th
• 3rd-5th quarterly testing- January 17th-19th
• K mCLass testing - January 19th
• PTO meeting - January 19th
• End of Q2 - January 20th
• Grade cards due - January 25th