ROO WAAG - Edition #16 !

ROOS, January marks a fresh start to the year and a time for reflection, refocus, and renewal. It gives us the opportunity to reset our intentions, support our students with renewed energy, and continue building a positive, engaging learning environment. As we enter a new semester, it’s a great time to revisit goals, strengthen relationships, and encourage students to see each day as a new opportunity for growth and success.🦘 “Roo Pride Runs Deep — KHS Strong, Always Justified!"🤟

Today, we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a visionary leader whose courage, wisdom, and dedication to justice continue to inspire us all. May we continue his work by choosing unity, kindness, and action in our communities.

Celebrate student success by having the whole class join in with a quick high-five, elbow bump, or air high-five to build morale and recognize every learner.

Be mindful that some students may prefer not to participate, and offer a quieter way to celebrate their success.

January's CKH Trait is RESPECT. For ROO Faculty and Staff, RESPECT means valuing every student by treating them with kindness, listening to their voices, and honoring their feelings, space, and perspectives.

We all love a fresh start, and lucky for educators, school is about new beginnings!

Each new school year, every return from spring break and every January 1 marks an excellent opportunity for a reset.

That’s why it’s smart to take this opportunity halfway through the school year to pause and catch your breath, consider how things are going for you, and make a plan to charge ahead with an optimized approach and renewed energy!

Whether you’re a general education teacher, special education teacher, travel teacher or sub, these pointers from our team can help you refresh, reflect and revamp for the new year.

1. Refresh Your Passion for Teaching

Teaching can be draining. Many teachers, especially new ones, hit the ground running and burn out quickly. It’s important to pace yourself in order to be successful and maintain the energy it takes to stay in the career and succeed at it! It’s also critical to rest when you can.

Use your time off to relax and do what restores you. Make a list of activities that calm you down, feed your soul and restore your energy.

• Do you like to spend time with family, friends or pets?
• Do you prefer to travel or stay home?
• Are you a hiker, reader, runner, painter, birder, dancer or musician?
• Do you like the ocean, mountains, rivers or lakes?
• Are you into yoga, massage, mani-pedis or spa days?

2. Reflect on How Your Teaching Has Been Going

An important part of growing as a professional is honestly evaluating your performance. As an educator, you may be able to get more clues about how well you’re doing as reflected from your kids and the classroom.

Journal about what’s been going well and what hasn’t. In a private journal, write down answers to the following questions:

• Are you happy in your career?
• Is your classroom organized?
• Do your students listen to you?
• Do you feel your strategies are helping your students perform to the best of their ability?
• How are your connections with parents, colleagues and administrators?
• Are you able to keep up with grading, data, IEPs, etc.?

3. Revamp Your Teaching for the New Year

Don’t stay in self-critique for too long though. After making an honest appraisal, move on by taking your list and generating solutions for any challenges you’ve encountered. This will help you quickly determine how to proceed. Plus, you’ll be surprised at the positive energy and motivation that naturally follows!

Turn each of your challenges into actionable solutions. Next to each item, write what you’ll do differently for the rest of the year. Don’t be afraid to get creative! Here are questions to help you strategize:

• Can any tasks be delegated to staff such as para pros, assistants, etc.?
• Can you involve your students in generating solutions?
• Do you need to ask administration for help?
• If you’re taking on too much, would it help to say “no” more often?
• Would setting boundaries help?
• Is this issue related to classroom organization?
• Could you find resources to help online or from more experienced teachers?

Here’s a chart with some examples of how to reflect on past challenges and revamp to develop future solutions:

Reflect on the Past Revamp for the Future My students don’t listen when I ask them to settle down. I have to raise my voice, which only makes them get louder and stresses me out.

I am going to try directly teaching listening skills, using hand signals and paraphrasing (Edutopia). I’m also going to try to bring mindfulness activities into the classroom.

I am totally overwhelmed with keeping up with paperwork like assignments, grades, IEPs, data collection, etc.

I am going to reach out to my mentor and also to a few experienced teachers I trust. I am also going to find some resources on getting paperwork organized (WGU).

We hope this resource on how to refresh, reflect and revamp your teaching for the new year is a helpful addition to your teaching toolkit! Sometimes, a fresh start is all we need!

By: Cross Country

Posted: January 16, 2023

Read Time: 4 minutes

Hey ROOS,

The Tour of Knowledge instructional strategy, from the Rehearsal and Practice Lead4ward Playlist, is designed to check students’ comprehension through collaborative work and self-correction. In this strategy, students rotate through groups to analyze key concepts, assessment questions, visuals, or text passages that are aligned to important learning objectives.🤟

Tour of Knowledge

• Materials

  • Tour of Knowledge stations (7-8 different posters)
  • Markers (same color for each group member)

  
  

  Instructions

  1. Organize students into groups of 3-4.
  2. Assign each group a specific color and give each group member a marker in their assigned color (to help groups keep track of which station they’ve already visited).
  3. Put 7-8 posters around the room representing various concepts, assessment questions, stimuli/visuals, or text passages.
  4. Give groups 3-4 minutes at each station to discuss the prompt and record what they know. Each student should add at least one idea, word, fact/detail, visual, connection, etc.
  5. At the signal, groups rotate to the next Tour of Knowledge poster, analyzing the information presented and adding new ideas.
     • Have students add a check mark beside the information they agree with.
     • Have students write a question mark beside any ideas they think may be incorrect.
     • Have students add new ideas, sketches, facts, words, or connections.
  6. Observe students’ thinking and clarify/verify as appropriate.

  
  

  Classroom Management

  • Role-play or model how to advance to the next poster in an organized way using a musical signal.
  • Ensure that every student writes at least one idea or comment on each poster by asking them to write their initials by their idea.

  
  

  Differentiation

  • Promote access by providing a word/idea bank, allowing the use of notes, or providing a summary of each concept.
  • Promote access by allowing a supportive peer to read any associated text.
  • Provide response support by allowing students to dictate responses to a scribe.

  
  

  Think It Up!

  • Have students think more deeply about the concept by responding to a Think It Up prompt as an exit ticket or journal entry:
    • Predict how one test question might have many different stimuli.
    • Evaluate which stimuli or prompt was the most difficult and work with a peer to learn it better.
  • Encourage students to use lead4ward’s Thinking Stems (English/Spanish) to frame their responses, if needed.

Question: What do you call a teacher who forgot to take attendance?

🦘Absent-minded!

Question: What is the longest word in the dictionary?

🦘Smiles. Because there's a mile between the first letter and the last.

Question: Why was the math book sad?

🦘Because, it had to many problems.

• Active monitor your students throughout the lesson.
• Post the focused skill for the week in a visible location.
• Provide support and guidance when students are struggling with skills.

Continue encouraging students as we work toward mastering two skills each week. Let’s keep pushing forward — we believe in you, and we are KHS STRONG!

👕👖 Dress Code Reminder – Let’s Start Strong! 👟🎒
Hey ROOS! We will be consistently enforcing the district dress code to help maintain a safe and focused learning environment. #KHSStrong #RooPride #DressForSuccess

Roo Strong, Student Strong! Our strength is in how we support one another — teaching with purpose, learning with pride, and growing together all month long. Together we rise, learn, and lead with heart this January. Let’s make every day count!

***January's CKH Monthly Trait: Respect***

" Knowledge will give you power, but character respect."

-----Bruce Lee

" Politeness and Consideration of Others is like investing pennies and getting dollars back. "

-----Thomas Sowell