Our entire Lincoln Team made this a great week! Thank you for showing up for our students and families every day and for always being willing to think about the why behind our student's actions and their learning.

💙 💛 This is a much overdue thank you to Becca for joining the Lincoln Team on very short notice! We thank you for stepping in and stepping up--you are a gift to Lincoln and we appreciate you becoming one of the Lincoln crew so quickly!

This Week

P2: Perspective

SEL: Tier 1

1/16 MLK Day/No School--Certified staff reports to Lincoln School for the in-service day (8 - 1:15), Board Meeting 6 pm

1/16 NWEA testing Window opens (prioritize Reading & add to staff calendar), School Store Fundraiser Begins

1/17 PTO 12:30 (5th-grade team will join), Tutoring Planning (4:00 Media Center)

1/18 LATE START, Lory's Place 12:30 - 1:15, Lockdown Drill #2 at 2:30 (required drill during a transition)

1/19 T3 Meeting at Upton Rm 304 (4:15)

1/20 REED Meeting (8:15 - 9:15 in RR, Charlene will cover), Child Study--Abbott (3:00 - 3:45 in Lisa's office, Charlene will cover)

Next Week

P2: OPM - Identifying & Appreciating others

SEL: Tier 2

1/23 NWEA Continues, Lisa at Ad Staff (9:00 - 10:30)

1/24 Principal Meeting (7:00 - 8:30), Spelling 12:55 - 1:45, Staff Meeting 4:00 in Media Center

1/25 3rd Grade Snowshoeing (9:30 - 11:30), Changing Families (12:30 - 1:15), School Spelling Bee (1:45 - 3:15 in the gym for grades 2 - 5), DLT 4:15 at Central,

1/26

1/27 NWEA Window Closes

Future dates to know...

2/1 Black History Month Begins

2/1-3 Hearing & Vision Screening for K, 1st, 3rd & 5th grade

2/23 Half Day of School

2/24 Half Day of School

If you are a 3rd - 5th-grade teacher, please use this google sheet to sign each student participating in Trails up for a time slot that will work best for that student. Consider which part of the day is easiest for your particular student to leave based on academic needs. Thank you to Melaina for being flexible with this! While it is never optimal for students to be out of the classroom, this 10-session course has a profound effect on our students' ability to cope with everyday life. Please read the following information regarding the program:

TRAILS (Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students) is a skills-based group that was developed at the University of Michigan. This program is designed to teach students effective coping skills and strategies that can help reduce stress as well as anxiety and depressive symptoms, such as social isolation, worrying thoughts, poor sleep, decreased energy, and avoidance behaviors.

This group will be offered once per week for ten (10) weeks during the school day, and each group will last approximately 30 minutes starting in January

Please don't forget if you are taking a field trip that extends over the lunch period to let our amazing lunch staff know. Please notify Michelle as it will affect the number of lunch orders that day. Additionally, if you will need sack lunches, special items will need to be ordered ahead of time. As soon as your field trip is set, let Michelle know!

We look forward to hosting a professional learning day for all district elementary certified staff on January 16th, MLK Day, at Lincoln School. There will be a lot of staff parked at Lincoln that day. If you live close by and would welcome a colleague to park at your house, please let them know. That could help ease the parking situation for visiting staff.

When you arrive, if you are not a K-5 teacher, you will put your things down in the room you will be working in (see below). We will begin in the media center at 8:05 with a brief welcome activity. K-5 teachers will work with Joe Elsheikhi on developing your pacing guides. Please bring your math folder from your recent curriculum release day. Bring your IM teacher manuals, unless you prefer accessing them digitally.

We will snack during the 11:30 break time and hop on a virtual meet to get ready to launch IXL ELA at 11:45. We will come back together as a full staff in the media center at 12:45 for a reflection and closing.

Here is the LINK to our IXL learning meeting!

ROOM ASSIGNMENTS:

Y5: Schmidt

Specials: Art Room

Resource Room Staff: Sheldon

SLP Team: Bear Team Room

SSW Team: VonBehren

In a recent Edutopia article, the author discusses ideas inspired by Peter Liljedahl’s book, Building Thinking Classrooms on how to become more of a math coach and less of a sage on the stage.

Here is a summary of ideas:

• Answer questions with thinking-producing questions.

- What have you done so far?

- Where did you get that number?

- What information is given in the problem?

- Does that number seem reasonable in this situation?

• Don’t carry a pencil or marker. If you have something to write with you’ll be tempted to write for them. If another student or group has solved the problem, show their strategies.

• Be cautious with Collective work. When groups of students are assigned a set of problems, they frequently divvy up the work (You do #30, I’ll do #31). Warmly demand that students solve all the problems together, using their collective insights, so they all learn what needs to be done.

• Stall with answers. When students ask a basic computational question (What’s 3 divided by 5?), act like you are busy helping another student and promise to be right back.

• Set boundaries. Students often ask a question simply because the teacher is nearby. In such cases, Frommert asks, “Are you asking me a thinking question? I’m glad to give you a hint or nudge, but I cannot take away your opportunity to think.” This trains students to think before asking so they can frame better questions.

Want to read more? Click the link below

✔️ Schedule your NWEA assessments & communicate times to families

✔️ Prepare your students for our lockdown drill on Wednesday

✔️Note new times for your supervision schedule (a few changes were made!)

✔️Read our Lincoln Family Blog to stay current on what families see from our school (not updated until 3:00 pm on Sundays)

Email: lknuth@sjschools.org
Website: www.sjschools.org
Location: 1102 Orchard Avenue, St. Joseph, MI, USA
Phone: 269.926.3700