Thought of the Week: There has been much dialogue about the need to engage in co-planning between teachers at different school but who have like grades. Please ensure that you contact me if you have these requests as I would like to honour them. I do have a few dollars left and while we are supposed to no longer be taking release time, we can likely manage a small amount. Please let me know as this is very valuable!
Health and Safety Reminders: Emergency Drills
Please remember that we require 6 fire drills (3 in the fall and 3 in the spring) and 2 lockdown drills (1 in the fall and 1 in the spring) per year. Your drills should be recorded in the red Fire Drill Recording book that your custodian maintains, and you can also record your lock down drills in there as well. Next year, these will be recorded on the IPads that we are using for Workplace Inspections. Please remember to vary your drills; block a main exit to assess whether or not the students and staff know the alternate exits, conduct surprise drills, conduct lock downs when students are not in their “normal” environment (eg when they are outside, in the library, gym). It is good practice to debrief these emergency procedures and to update your Emergency Plans based upon what you learn.
Please ensure that you have a copy of the Municipality’s Emergency Plans at the school and at your home. It is very important to be familiar with what these plans say in the case of an emergency. Of particular importance is communication in the event of an emergency.
Updates
Early Years Curriculum and Communication of Learning – June 15 1:00-3:30 session via Adobe and Teleconference – As mentioned at the TMT, this session is for K-2 educators and will involve us in briefly unpacking the revised curriculum, linking the Communication of Learning to Pedagogical Documentation, and our next steps. The grade 1 and 2 educators are asked to attend as it is vital that they see, hear and understand the messages that are being conveyed. More information to come! Code is 174 Pedagogical Leadership.
Staff Handbooks – Suzanne is requiring a copy of your staff handbooks for the PD Day Occasional Teacher training on the PD Day. Please be sure to post your most recent edition into our google folder. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B9gScHSOyXmEflAyVDc4Z3FpYndVS21sUWQ1ZzJzdGh2UGRJaFpuSWIzcUN1NVVtazhZNzA&usp=sharing
Carried Over from Last Week
PD Day – June 6 – Our Elementary Principal Meeting will take place at GOPS. We will begin at 9:00 and end at 3:30. Please be prepared to provide feedback on the Effective Staff Meeting Criteria (noting for us your enhancements), link this to your PD Day artifacts and our criteria for effective evidence, and share your slides from your Inquiries with us. We will do this in small groups. We will then engage in some planning for next year.
Pearson Efficacy – We will engage in the final one hour session of the Efficacy Review Brainstorming on Monday, May 30, at 3:30. Please make every effort to attend as your voice needs to be heard as we plan for the future.
NTIP – A reminder to ensure that you have met with your NTIP teachers to update their Individual Strategy Form and the PD Form. The completion of these templates is a requirement for the successful completion of NTIP (to receive the NTIP designation). Please ensure that you are paying special attention to these processes as they are critical for these teachers. These must be sent to Shelley by June 10. A reminder that all TPAs, including NTIP also need to be completed and signed off by June 10. As you know, each NTIP teacher requires two Performance Appraisals. The feedback in these appraisals is critical to their growth; as teachers move from school to school, it is imperative that we engage fully in the NTIP processes to support growth and development of new teachers.
Criteria for Effective Staff Meetings – We are practicing the Assessment for Learning Framework with our staff meeting success criteria. I am asking that you apply this criteria to one of your staff meeting agendas with a critical friend.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1eptu9LxT9K2myANzq32cIqSnZk8FKhCuHcI_P4wKaZw/edit
- Working in teams, apply the criteria to you staff meeting agenda.
- What feedback would you give yourself? Your partner?
- Based upon the feedback, what is your next goal?
- Add to/enhance the success criteria based upon your thinking.
We will bring our final success criteria to our PD session on June 6. Thanks everyone!
Sharing of Space – Just a reminder to engage in these meeting with your partners as you begin planning for next year. Please evaluate the extent to which you achieved your goals for this year and begin to think about what you want to work on next to move further towards integration. A great question that always comes up is the use of the gym and how this is balanced between the two organizations in the best interest of students!
Nicki’s Schedule
Mon – GOPS with Secondary Principals Leadership Meeting, 3:30 Elementary Meeting Regarding Efficacy Review, Brass Bell meeting at 6:30
Tues – GOPS -Early Years Learning Session
Wed – am – Meeting regarding Jean Clinton, Senior Admin Meeting
Thurs – Valhalla Inn – MISA Meeting 162
Fri – LSHS District Support Visit
Upcoming Dates
May 31 – Early Primary Math PLCs Face to Face at GOPs
Jun 1-8 EQAO Window – no PD During this time (except PD Day! lol)
June 6 – PD DAy – Reporting Day for elementary teachers and ECEs, PD Session for elementary Principals at GOPs
June 7 – Board Policy Review Meeting
June 8 – SIM for those involved
June 10 – all Teacher Performance Appraisals/NTIP/LTO are complete and signed off on (and sent to the Board Office to Val Nakani’s attention in hard copy).
June 13 – Leads’ Meeting face to face at GOPS
June 15 – Fair Start Completed
June 15 – 1:00 Kindergarten to Grade 2 Educators -Kindergarten Program Document and Report Card roll out
June 21 – National Aboriginal Day
June 24 – school schedules due to Nicki
June 28 – School Learning Plan Evaluations Due to NMC (with school team input!!)
Modelling the Conditions for Learning 