November 8, 2019

Mr. Browne's Precept

"To succeed in life,  you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone, and a funny bone." ~ Reba McEntire

Honey- Do List 

10/31/19     Action Plan Template for Unit Completion

11/1/19       Register for whole-school PD in TeachPoint

11/12/19     Pages Due for Superintendent's Book

11/13/19     Superintendent's Visit to Lee Academy

11/13/19     Let Jodi know if you want to participate in the OLOS study. 

11/22/19     Picture Day Make-Up

Shout Outs 

This week I am back to shouting out this entire flexible, wonderful, and inspiring team. There is something special here. The "all hands on deck" way we function, daily,  is amazing. If one of us is down another lifts us up. If our load is heavy others pitch in to make it lighter. We are an outstanding family. We are helping our extended family members to raise great humans who care about each other, after all we model that beautiful humanity EVERY day. 

Dysregulated Students

I love how members of our LAPS family are ready to jump in when teachers are working with a dysregulated student in the classroom or a hallway. We truly are in this together. When you come upon the situation always ask if the adult needs anything. Sometimes it is best to only have 1-2 people involved. 

Superintendent's Visit Book

Here is the text of the email that Keri sent all of us about the book project for the superintendent's visit.

Superintendent Brenda Casselius is set to visit the Lee Academy on the afternoon of Wednesday, November 13th. Since we expect the visit to be short and certainly not all-encompassing, we would like to present her with a book showcasing our fabulousness (I think that's a word...). 

Each class is going to have a page in the book. We're hoping you and your students can find some time to develop your idea together and to type the page by Tuesday afternoon. The theme of the book is: What makes the Lee Academy such a special place? If there's time for a few students in your class to illustrate your page, we could aim for that as well. 

I am so excited to see the finished product of our book. It will be nice to capture the things that make us so special. Thank you, Meghan, for creating the first page. Could you please aim to finish this project by the end of the day on Tuesday so that we can assemble the book and have it ready for our end of the day visit on Wednesday?

Pollinating Positive Behavior

Each week in the Hive we will have some ideas, from Jessica Minahan, to try to grow into being part of our school culture.  I look forward to observing these in action.  This week we will focus on Transitions which can be hard for students with anxiety.

Components of a Transition	Appropriate Transition Warning
The cessation of the first activity	Find a stopping point (a natural close) and use a concrete warning for that point (five more pages, read until the sticky note, one more YouTube Video, etc.)
Making the cognitive shift to the next activity	Use visual schedules, photographs of what "being ready" for the next activity looks like
Starting the next activity	Use traditional countdown types of warnings (5 more minutes, use of a timer, this should be concrete for our younger learners
Lack of structure and specific expectations during the transition time	Suggest tasks or activities that "absorb" the downtime (push in chairs, pass out papers, sharpen pencils) for more sponge activity ideas see below

Sponge Activities

Put notices in student mailboxes Fold notices or papers Clean whiteboards Push in chairs Organize Books Count students for "attendance" Sort colored pencils and crayons Other classroom jobs Simon says or other nonverbal games (for the whole class)

Morning Announcements

This week's word of the week will be Courageous.  

The Quirky Holidays for next week are:

• 11/12   National Pizza with the Works Except for Anchovies Day
• 11/13   World Kindness Day
• 11/14   National Pickle Day
• 11/15   National Clean out Your Fridge Day

Home Visit Payments

I have submitted the spreadsheet with the payment amounts to James. He let me know when I was checking the 11/22 dates for checks that people would have to fill out a W9 tax form. Look for that to be coming soon. 

OLOS Study

We have been asked to participate in the OLOS Study.  OLOS stands for: Optimizing Learning Opportunities for Students. The project aims to understand the classroom environment and how it may relate to a child's academic, social, and emotional experiences. The information gathered will help develop an observational tool for preschool through third grade to be used by educators to assess the classroom learning environment. For more information please click here.

Individual classroom teachers can elect to participate. Please let me know if you are interested (or not) by 11/13. 

Whole School PD Outcomes

I really appreciate how all of you hang in there for whole-school PD. I know how long the day is but the richness of our discussions, problem-solving and learning together is an honor to be part of. We are starting to build our toolboxes for our friends who are working so hard to learn to regulate themselves and control the very big feelings in their small bodies.

Our Tool Box for Anxiety

Things We Have Tried

Positive Results

Transition Warnings

Changing the Channel

Mixed Results
Safe Space/Cool Down Corner 
Breaks

Things We Want to Try

Picture cues as reminders

Rewards for trying strategies that lower anxiety

Transition activities

Non-contingent breaks

Power cards 

Things We Want to Learn More About

Explicitly teaching strategies to reduce anxiety

Age-appropriate strategies for K0/K1

Our Tool Box for Opposition

Things We Have Tried

Positive Results

Use specific language about task completion to transition from preferred to a non-preferred activity

End of day or next day reflection and processing

Switching adults

Embedding choice in demand (Where do you want to read? Egg Chair or Library?)

Providing a rationale for direction first

Visual and Written Cues

Things We Want to Try

Giving a task or job for  transition or a non-structured time

Individual calming kits

Picture to puzzle making kit

Use a picture of the chair to remind the student to sit

Things We Want to Know About

How to implement very frequent reinforcement sustainably. 

Whole School PD Update

We are adjusting our plan for whole school PD to allow us to go a little deeper into the Behavior Code work and to accomplish some district-level work as well. This will require us to do some differentiation for adult learning which is something that people have also been asking for. Will you please note the changes below in your team's Blueprint for Learning (WSPD are the blue boxes)?

11/20

K0/K1- FAIR behavior plans for K0/K1 with Jodi

K2 & 1- BIMAS Data and Planning with Jen

2&3- ILPs with Paula

12/4

K0/K1- Uncertain- Perhaps BIMAS if available

K2&1- FAIR Behavior Plans with Jodi

2&3- BIMAS Data and Planning with Jen

1/15/20

Whole Staff including Co-educators Can-Do Descriptors with Paula

1/24/20

Strategies for Emotionally Dysregulated students with Jen and Alyce