ISY Elementary School Faculty Blog

Happy Thadingyut

Mike Simpson

October 15, 2021

We all know we are doing our best…. even when we are not at our best!
Check in. How am I? What do I need? How are they? What do they need from me?
Ask for help and be helpful.
Be present and patient. Take time to fully understand others and allow time for others to understand you. Pausing, Paraphrasing and Posing Questions promotes our common understanding.
Share your ideas and be open to the ideas of others. Once shared, they become our ideas and anything could happen!

ES COLLABORATIVE AGENDA

Please add any questions, items that come to mind to this ES Collaborative Agenda. The idea is that once we have a few things to discuss that can’t be addressed by email, we will meet.

 New Quarter 2 Schedule

Here is the link to the ES Quarter 2 Schedule which is also available on the Elementary School Faculty Pages.

The changes that have been made are highlighted in red.

 Friday Emails + Quarter 2 Offline Learning

No detailed subject emails the week after the break but we will send out a short email (I will give you a paragraph to use) to send out our Offline Learning Activities PDFs.

In these folders you will find the Offline Learning Activity templates that will be converted to a PDF to be emailed out every Friday. 

We will need to update these offline learning activities to reflect what we are doing in Quarter 2. Please update them by 12pm Thursday MMT.

ISY Annual Compassion Conference

Friday, March 4

This will be organized under the umbrella of ISY Definition of Compassion: The will and understanding to respect and value the identity, culture, perspective, and experience of others in acting to make a positive difference to their lives.

In addition to a key-note speaker addressing resilience in young people and an ISY student panel presenting on LGBTQ+ issues, teacher workshops will be an important part of this conference. 

Teacher workshops might relate to any of our ISY Inclusive Practices and will be organized under the following strands:

    • Inclusion
    • Service
    • Diversity

Workshops can focus on anything under these strands and we are particularly interested in workshops on the following:

    • Responsive Classroom Strategies
    • Science of Learning – memory, etc.
    • Teaching Creativity
    • Integrating Technology

Our TIF team of Ian and Lindsey will be helping us put this day together and will be popping into classes from time to time to get ideas and encourage teachers. Please reach out to them if you have an idea you would like some support with – whether you intend to present it or not on March 4.

      Recording Student Reading Levels

      Please make sure you have a level recorded for each student for the month of September.

      Please use this Elementary Reading Levels 2021-2022 to record the reading levels of your students. It is easiest to use the Reading A-Z assessment tool so use that and record that level – no need to convert it into any different scales. We will reorganize our ISY benchmark reading levels to fit this tool to help you with reporting.

      If you are using the DRAs that we have used in the past that is ok too – just put (DRA) next to the number so this is clear. We will record a level for every student in September, January and May. If you do assessments between these times, there are also columns for you to record the levels.

      From our TIFs

      Here are a curated list of helpful links for students and families as we begin the year. These videos can be helpful as you share information with them. 

      From the Library

      Lindsey and Christian in the library would be very happy to help get books to you that you might want to read to your class or have your students read. These books can be scanned so they can be used online so let them know if you are looking for something.

       Quarter 1 Progress Reports

      Please click on this Q1 Progress Report Organization & Timeline document for instructions on completing this quarter’s Progress Reports. It is important that we keep to this timeline to make sure we can all have a clear week off for the Thadingyut break.

       Quarter 1 Grade Level Standards Checklists

      If you haven’t already done so, please check off the standards that you have covered in your subject in Quarter 1. Please make sure there is an ‘x’ in the first column of any standard you have covered in these Grade Level Standards Checklists. Please do this before you go on break for Thadingyut.

      Quarter 2 Interdisciplinary Units

      Quarter 2 begins after the Thadingyut break on Monday, October 25.

      Here is a link to our ES Q2 2021-2022 Interdisciplinary Purpose Summary (just a long name for a document where you can see the quarter in one place!).

      Please review this document and think how your subject can connect to either the Science or Social Studies focus or the Enduring Understanding, Essential Questions, Interdisciplinary Concepts, and/or SDGs. We will meet early in Quarter 2 to explore these connections.

      Please also check off the standards that you intend to cover in your subject in Quarter 2. Please make sure there is an ‘x’ in the second column of any standard you will cover in these Grade Level Standards Checklists. Please do this by Friday, October 29.

       Parent Teacher Conferences

      Wednesday, November 3

      These will be held on Wednesday, November 3. There will be no classes on this day. Parents will schedule meetings with you as they did last year based on teachers being available between 8am and 12pm MMT plus another 3 hours either side of this time. The tool to create teacher schedules will be available after the Thadingyut break. More details to follow next week.

      Halloween Assembly & Parade

      We will have a special Halloween on Wednesday, October 27. Grade 2 will be sharing what they have been doing, Beth will be reading a story, and we will have a Halloween ‘parade.’ Please remind your students that they can dress up for the assembly. They can be dressed up all day or get dressed before the assembly – just whatever works best for your class.

      There are still a couple of game slots available for future assemblies on our Assembly Sign Up Schedule if you have any ideas.

       Grades 2-5 Google Classroom Set Up

      Please use the following heading for each week (Quarter followed by the week…)

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