Clay Weekly Staff Newsletter

Alyssa Serianni - Working so well to develop relationships with her students and parents.

Dorene Byler - Jumping into our breakfast line and helping to speed up the service line.

Vonessa Dobson - Always ready to help a student transition into the building.

Almost every year right before the start of school I say that I am ready for October. My reasoning for this is that October means we’ve been “at it” for a little over a month, we know our students, and we are beginning to iron out plans to help kids be successful. Traditionally, the “honeymoon” period has ended by October and it becomes abundantly clear if students have a deep sense of belonging within their classrooms.

Our focus on belonging this year falls seamlessly into our morning meeting work. Almost every teacher shared with me the power of morning meetings and how communities of learners were built during that 15-20 minute start to each and every day. For some of our students, they need a bit more to know they are part of your classroom and belong there with everyone else.

As educators we care deeply about our students, often working ourselves into the ground to provide the best for them. Those students don’t see that effort though. They go home and assume you sleep somewhere here at school while they are home. At times, it’s okay to be completely open with a child about how much you care about them. For all we know, that student may never hear those words, “I care about you.”

So my challenge for all of you is to find those students that need to hear those words, and share it with them. For those of you out there who are tired, exhausted, and ready for the weekend, know that I care about you. Each of you help make this place the school that it is, one that is a family, that strives for greatness, and that supports one another. It’s okay to need a break, there is no shame in that. I’ve certainly needed one from time to time. We have the Wellness Room for a reason. Please use it, even for a few minutes to breathe. If you need help getting the sign out calendar on your outlook account, please pop into the office for help.

Tomorrow – September 29 – D Day

- K Grade Data Meeting

- Family Groups - 9:20-9:50

Monday, October 2 – E Day

- 4th Grade Data Meeting

- TNT Bible Study, Cafeteria, 8:20-8:45am
- BOY Goal Due
- Safety Assembly - 10AM - Gym
- StudentExperience21 Window Open (grade 3 and 4)

Tuesday, October 3 – F Day

- BOY Data Meetings
- 1st Grade Data Meeting

Wednesday, October 4 – A Day

- RPT MEETINGS

- Safety Patrol Training - 3:45 - 5:00 - Cafe

Thursday, October 5 – B Day

- IEP Meeting Day
- Peer Observation Day
- Good News Club, 3:35 - 4:45
- Science Explorers - Slime Time - 3:45 - 4:45

Friday, October 6 – C Day

- Mounts Pride Day - Wear Mounts T-Shirt - Staff Photo!
- First Friday Coffee
- Interim Progress Reports

Our PTO and Nurses are looking for shopping bags. The PTO needs it for the book fair next month and the nurses need it for clothing that may need to be bagged.

Tenured Teachers ONLY - Please complete this form by next week indicating your LEA Selected Measure goal.

Progress reports will be printed out of PowerSchool. Please reference Gregg Shulenberger's email regarding Progress Reports for more details.

Thursday will be our first Peer Observation Day of the year! Please find a slot that works best to to observe a peer. This year we are implementing learning walks with grade level leaders. For October I'll be visiting classrooms with Becky Bach and Mallory Tarves. We will try to see many different learning spaces during our walk. The goal is for our leadership team to see learning in other contexts and for me to learn what they see and take away from our observations.

In an effort to expedite the breakfast for our 2nd graders so they can be ready for Grow, we will be instituting a new fast pass lane for them, similar to what we did for 4th grade in the past.

We are voting on a new theme for the 2023-2024 school year. To do this, each homeroom should discuss what the theme is and what it means. Then students should be challenged to develop a theme. Each class should vote for one theme they like the most. Homeroom teachers should submit this to the form below. We will then vote as a building on our final theme.

Previous themes:

Teamwork makes the Dream Work

You Belong Here

Dream Big

Now that we are a few weeks into the year and have a better understanding of who our students are, we will now develop our split lists in the event that we do not have substitute coverage and need to divide up the class.

In an effort to be efficient, I've linked the master list below. Open that document and select your split list link. You can update the same document that you used last year. You can delete last years students and add this years, change the year date at the top to reflect "2023-2024" this will help us know you've completed your updated split list.

Master List

Coaches are finalizing a form for RPT notes, this will be shared soon.

One person from each team must send me an Outlook Invite for your meetings!

This year's FUN RUN award will be to have a student throw a pie at my face. If we hit a goal of 17k we are hoping to have a teacher or two volunteer to get pied also. This is just whipped cream and would take place at the end of the day. If you are willing to be pied and get the kids super excited, please let me know!

Complete the Beginning of Year Form (located in OASYS as “Teacher Self-Assessment”) This was started during the meeting with the coaches during Launch Week. *Non-Teaching Professionals may not have this form in OASYS.

Go into the BOY Meeting Google Doc BOY Meetings Beside your name indicate which Differentiated Supervision plan you are interested in for this year (Portfolio, Peer Coaching, Action Research). I will set up your plan in OASYS so you can complete it before our meeting. For those who are participating in the Shifting the Balance book study, you will be on “Portfolio”.

If you are nontenured or on observation, you do not need to do this.

During the Professional Learning on Fair Day, the coaches will explain how the ongoing Professional Learning and RPT’s could align to your Differentiated Supervision Plan.

Beginning of Year Data Meetings

To Complete Beforehand:

1. OASYS Goal Setting - Done at Launch Week

2. Differentiated Supervision ONLY - Complete the supervision survey identifying the type of plan you wish to complete.

1. Step 1 of the formative supervision is due at the end of October.

2. 3-4 Book Study Participants will receive more info about this

Questions we will discuss:

1. Professional goals for the year

1. Review goal set in OASYS

1. How it will be measured / what will you do to achieve this

2. RPT - team, structure of meetings, goals for growth

3. How you plan to step out of your instructional comfort zone

4. Plans you have for developing “Moments” for your students?

5. How you have cultivated relationships with students at the start of the year

If you see on the morning email that one of your students is leaving early, feel free to send them to the office at that time. No need to wait for me to call! It'll save me a step. Thanks

If you have any photos that would lend themselves to the top of our Clay Elementary web page (https://ephrataareasdpa.sites.thrillshare.com/o/ces) (make sure no "no photos" kids are shown), please send them my way. I'm always looking for new pics to use to update the site.

Thanks!

Lisa's email was sent out about your $100 reimbursement!

Website: easdpa.org
Location: 250 Clay School Road, Ephrata, PA, USA
Phone: 717-721-1100