Friday Flyer - January 28, 2022

 

Happy Lunar New Year!

Plans to take my mom out for a new year celebration dinner may be dashed for this weekend because of the impending snowstorm, but not all is lost because celebrations go on for two weeks until the next full moon. You are a tiger if you turn 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72, 84, or 96 this year. My husband and two of my cousins are tigers. 

Region Meeting on Tuesday

It has been quite some time since we've met as a region. I will adjust the length of our meeting to 75 minutes so we maximize time for collaboration. Our objective is to:

Conduct collaborative observations and use low inference data gathered to calibrate and write feedback aligned to the five look-fors and tag to DESE Teacher Focus Indicators.

Article on Being a "Warm Demander" (from Jodi)

I always thought Zaretta Hammond coined the term "warm demander." However, this article from ASCD Educational Leadership debunks that notion and describes a warm demander as someone with an instructional style called "active demandingness." I love the sections underneath How to Be a Warm Demander, especially for teachers to go "beyond believing to insisting." If your school is working on a reset, this may be a good article for staff to unpack using the Four A's Text Protocol. 

Mid-Year Assessments

I look forward to us digging into mid-year MAP growth data at our March region meeting. MAP assessments are being administered in every building I visited this week. Kudos to all of you!

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Friday Flyer - January 21, 2022

 

Whatever you do.... KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!!!

From Grace & Jodi

Although it's freezing out, the daylight hours are slowly increasing! Earlier this week I walked through the Murphy and was happy to see full classrooms - so students were back, but staffing challenges persisted. Like you, the Murphy pieced together coverage -- #AllHandsOnDeck. District office is monitoring vaccination compliance, so make sure you provide the data so we have a district perspective of the impact and need for support. The good news is the non-compliance rate is decreasing daily, and no school has a rate greater than 20%. 

Mid-Year Assessments

I am pleased to see so many region 6 schools steadily moving ahead on schedule with NWEA MAP and ACCESS and am eager to view our region data in the month of February. You all ROCK!

Region Meeting

Please mark your calendar for February 1! 

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Friday Flyer - January 14, 2022

"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today."  

- Thich Nhat Hanh

From Grace and Jodi

Leaving you with the quote above and Friday Flyer below. You've been flooded with information and email, so I am keeping today's message brief. Please note - MAP window is extended, but please proceed using the previous calendar in order to maximize the data to make plans for instruction during February Acceleration Academy and maximize the time between February and April break.

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Friday Flyer - January 7, 2022

 

From Grace and Jodi

Thank you all for keeping your focus on teaching and learning in spite of staffing, transportation, and health-related challenges. There have been some changes in our buckets for January/February. Major changes highlighted:

• February 15: Formative Assessments for provisional teachers - keep January 15 date for those with whom you have concerns
• Budget/Staffing for 2022-23
• ACCESS - See change in timeline below (extended to March 4)
• February 18: Latest Completion of MAP Administration 
• Keep the original date, if at all possible. This data is important.
• February 1:   Date by which teachers self-excess
• Original plan (Make every attempt to keep if possible)
• February 1-18 (3 weeks) - Analyze MAP, celebrate growth, plan for seven weeks of strong standards/grade aligned targeted instruction from
• February 28-April 15 (7 weeks)- Provide strong, targeted standards-aligned and grade-level instruction that is targeted to student needs based on data analysis
• March 1: Early Hiring Season begins

Region 6 Meeting Arc of Learning, adjusted

February 1: After observing & analyzing, write feedback tagged to DESE Focus Indicators, Plan/Role-play coaching conversations (note - we may extend this meeting to 90 minutes.

March 1: MAP Data Dive, turn-key for ILT

March 22: Bring ILT Agenda/Notes from Data Dive

May 3: Set up priorities for 22-23

June 7: Simulate root cause analysis with EOY data

Just in...

Extended ACCESS for ELLs Schedule

In recognition of the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on schools and families, the Commissioner has extended the ACCESS for ELLs testing window through March 4, 2022, with return of test materials by March 8. This will delay the reporting of electronic ACCESS results by a total of six days until May 19. Print results will be available as previously announced on May 24. This extension will ensure that as many English learners as possible take these important English proficiency tests. Information about ACCESS testing activities and the dates on which they will occur will be available shortly on the Massachusetts WIDA State Page and in the January 10 edition of the EL Assessment Update newsletter.

Updates from Corey from 1/07/21 Email

Daily Staff Absence Tracker: If you anticipate significant staffing shortages next week, please complete the Google form HERE daily by 12p. A team will be meeting on Jan.7 and Jan. 9 to determine where to equitably deploy district staff to provide coverage support.

Vaccination Mandate, January 15th deadline: If an employee has been advised by a medical professional to delay receipt of the vaccine due to a recent COVID infection, they should seek a reasonable accommodation from the BPS Office of Equity by submitting their supporting medical documentation and/or completed form to the accommodations@bostonpublicschools.org inbox.

Resources - Positive School Climate and Culture

This week DESE had a webinar on creating a positive school climate and culture. (Timing is everything!) There was not a lot of "new" information presented however it served as an affirmation of what many of us are doing. 

If you have a few minutes click through the slide deck and the readiness survey/ resource bank. Two personal favorites are the Relationship Mapping Tool and  Panorama's 2 X10 Relationship Building Strategy.

• Create a Positive School Climate and Culture Slide Deck
• Readiness Survey/Resource Bank
• Sample Student Check-in Google Form (Older students)

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