Goals for the New Year!

Houlton's Goal for 2019!

Our goal for the 2018-19 school year stays the same:  

High levels of learning for all students.  

We continue to focus on the things we've identified 
as having the greatest impact: 

(1)  Guided Reading  

(2) PLC work on Priority Standards/Student Data  

In order to do this, support will be provided through district trainings, instructional coach support, additional resources, and planning time.

Lori's support:

• Tuesday, 1/8: 

PLC time to do assessment summary form (using the BAS for the focus group of students, and the word knowledge inventory)

• Friday 1/11, Tuesday, 1/15 and Friday, 1/18:

Guided reading modeling and/or observations

• Wednesday, 1/23: 

Supporting use of Illuminate Data during PLCs

Please let me know if there are other ways I can support your work.  I appreciate everything that you do for our Houlton students!  Your diligent attention, extra time and energy, continuous advocating and overall care and concern makes such a difference.

Happy New Year!
Sue

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, Houlton Staff!

Enjoy the week =)

A couple of reminders for the upcoming week...

Wednesday, 4:00 p.m.
VERY QUICK mandatory staff meeting

Thursday, 8:30 a.m.
Wear red for our staff photo (in the media center) to include in the Family Newsletter that afternoon- We are RED-y for Winter Break!

Friday, 8:00 a.m.
Flannel Friday!!
Staff Holiday Breakfast (media center)

Friday, 3:15 p.m.
All School Sing Along - 12 Days of Christmas staff song (potential re-mix, will keep you posted... either way, little to no prep needed from the staff)

Note: School Perceptions survey due by the end of the day on Friday, 12/21.

Janaury (TBD)
Staff Party

Keeping Focus

Without a doubt, these next few weeks are always challenging to keep students focused, and to keep instruction moving forward.  But one of the best things you can do is to maintain as much of a routine as possible, especially this week.  As much as possible...

A reminder of this year's focus:

• Guided Reading, following the Jan Richardson format
• Priority Standards, and using PLC time to analyze pre/post assessments and common formative check ins

To prepare for the check in at this Friday's SMART Team meeting, please use this week's PLC (Tuesday with Lori) to discuss your priority standard work, and any questions/comments about guided reading.

Thank you for your commitment and focus - even when it's difficult!  This will continue to lead our work as we progress to our goal - high levels of learning for all students!

Have a great week!
Sue

Community Grief Support

Children and Grief 

As we come together as a community to support our students, I found some things that may help you as you  talk with, observe, and answer questions 

with our students this week:

Things to consider:

• after a death, many children want to share their story
• telling their story is a healing experience
• one of the best ways adults can help young grievers is to listen to their stories
• children also need continuity (normal activities), care (plenty of hugs and cuddles) and connection (to still feel connected to the parent who has died, and to you)

After a death, many children want to share their story. They may want to tell you what happened, where they were when they were told about the death, and what it was like for them. Telling their story is a healing experience. One of the best ways adults can help young grievers is to listen to their stories.

Please let me know if you need any support this week, and keep me updated on any students that may be struggling.  I am proud of our caring and compassionate staff, and know that we will keep these boys in our close care.

Student Connectedness

Students are more likely to succeed when they feel connected to school.

School bonding, school climate, teacher support, student engagement: Researchers have used these terms over the years to address the concept of school connectedness. School connectedness refers to an academic environment in which students believe that adults in the school care about their learning and about them as individuals.

We are going to be doing an activity at Wednesday's staff meeting that will help us identify those students that may need strengthened connections to an adult at Houlton.  As we prepare for this discussion, please review the Wingspread Declaration of School Connections, which compiles input from leaders in the health and education fields, as well as years of research on strategies that have proven effective in creating engaging school climates in which students feel connected.

Wingspread Declaration on School Connections

Students are more likely to succeed when they feel connected to school. School connection is the belief by students that adults in the school care about their learning as well as about them as individuals. The critical requirements for feeling connected include students' experiencing

• High academic expectations and rigor coupled with support for learning.
• Positive adult/student relationships.
• Physical and emotional safety.

The most effective strategies for increasing the likelihood that students will be connected to school include

• Implementing high standards and expectations and providing academic support to all students.
• Applying fair and consistent disciplinary policies that are collectively agreed upon and fairly enforced.
• Creating trusting relationships among students, teachers, staff, administrators, and families.
• Hiring and supporting capable teachers skilled in content, teaching techniques, and classroom management to meet each learner's needs.
• Fostering high parent/family expectations for school performance and school completion.
• Ensuring that every student feels close to at least one supportive adult at school.

A Case for School Connectedness, Robert W. Blum (ASCD)

Thankful

As we approach the Thanksgiving holiday, I want to say thank you for all each of  you do for the Houlton students and staff.  Your dedication and commitment to our school family is amazing, 

and greatly appreciated!

Enjoy the short week, and the long weekend!

Sue

Houlton Art Bench

The Houlton Art Bench

I want to provide an update on the work that has started on the Houlton Art Bench, which will be located across from the school in the St. Croix River Crossing Loop Trail Trailhead.  While most of the benches have been just that - a bench - ours is going to be a little different!  We are going to create a gathering place, that would hold up to 25 people, with the hopes of providing a space for our Houlton school and community to come together.

Our 4th and 5th grade students, staff, and some parent volunteers met with John Kalmon, the architect that has been hired to lead this project, as well as Anastasia Shartin who represents the Phipps last Thursday to start the project.  Through this process, students will analyze the site, brainstorm ideas for the design, refine the design, identify materials, and eventually build the gathering space they decide on.  The timeline begins with several workshops (2.5 hour work sessions) this fall, with the final product completed by the end of this school year.  

The guiding questions we set for the students this past week were:

1. How can we create a space that teaches people about Houlton and the St. Croix River? (history, geography, culture, natural resources, St. Croix River Crossing)
2. What would a gathering area look like that would invite community activities?

See this link for additional information about the gathering space concept:  Gathering Space

This is an exciting project (and a lot of work!) - and a great opportunity for our students to participate in something that gives back to our community.  We are grateful for the leadership and support of everyone involved - it is going to be amazing when it's done!

Please let me know if you have any questions -

Sue

Data Roll Throughs

Data Roll Throughs/Work Time

This week, classroom teachers will have time to review data, discuss students, and then have followup work time to plan for student needs.

Here are some things to think about before we meet, so that we can utilize our time most efficiently:

• Who are the students you are most academically concerned about in the area of reading?
• Who are the ones getting 1s or 2s?
• Who isn't working to their potential? Who needs constant motivation?
• What are the academic barriers your students are facing?
• What are the social/emotional barriers your students are facing?
• Which students are you considering giving a minus to in the areas of Learning/Behaior/Social Skills on the report card?

               Learning Skills:

• Demonstrates consistent efort
• Follows directions
• Uses time wisely
• Uses organizational Skills

               Behavioral/Social Skills

• Collaborates with others
• Displays appropriate behavior
• Shows respect for others and property

• What actions or differentiation steps have you already taken with these students?

Looking forward to seeing you on

Tuesday or Wednesday this week!

(schedule)

Collective Commitments

Jan Richardson Guided Reading Lesson Plan

Below is a list of our district collective commitments, based on the recent Jan Richardson training.
As part of this implementation, your work will be supported by the instructional coach, and I will
plan to visit classrooms beginning this week to see how it's going. Please review and let me know if you have any questions.

Collective Commitments

• Provide letter tracing and small group instruction for Pre-A learners and guided reading for readers at the Emergent, Early, Transitional and Fluent levels.

• Use our PLCs to plan guided reading and commit to using student data to drive the process. Below are the Jan Richardson resources to use to analyze student data.

Pre-A lesson:  Letter/Sound Checklist (306)
Emergent Lesson:  Assessment Summary (61)
Early Lesson:  Assessment Summary (114)
Transitional lesson:  Assessment Summary (168)
Fluent lesson:  Assessment Summary Assessment Summary (229)

• Engage students in meaningful literacy activities when not involved in guided reading. Think authentic reading and writing yes, worksheets no.  
• Instructional coaching provided to each classroom teacher, based on your need and your coaching goal. This includes lesson planning meeting prior to teaching, observing the coach teach a lesson (or you teach and Lori observes), coach observers you teach and a debriefing meeting with you and the coach.
• In each regular education classroom (K-5) at least one guided reading group should be done with fidelity, beginning no later than October 29th, following all of the Jan Richardson components. This builds the foundation for a guaranteed and viable guided reading curriculum.
• Implementation will be supported through PD, the PLC process, coaching support and classroom walk-throughs.