Dear Staff and Families:
Our high school football team will be playing in the State semifinal football game on Friday, November 10, 2023. With a win on Friday evening, they would advance to the WIAA Division 2 State Football Championship. This game will be held at 1:00 p.m. at Camp Randall on Friday, November 17, 2023.
In the event of a win on Friday, November 10, we are intending to hold school on Friday, November 17, 2023, while supporting the student groups that are also part of this event such as the band, dance team, cheer squad, and high school student body. We do realize that many families would intend to attend the football game and we will excuse students for the State Tournament. Should the team advance, we will be in touch next week with more information on the game, excusing your child for the game, and transportation considerations.
Thank you for your support. Go Warriors!
Cracking the code: When students say, “I don’t get it.”
We’ve all heard it, “I don’t get it,” in response to when we ask what a student needs help with. Our teacher brain can sometimes go into overdrive with this over-ambiguous student response. Still, there are some responses we can use that are strategic in helping pinpoint where the confusion lies.
When students say, “I don’t get it,” it rarely means they don’t understand anything. Here are some prompts that can help students find out where their brains got lost:
I don’t have enough information about what you don’t understand. Can you show me or tell me about where you got stuck? (Model using the words “I don’t understand “rather than “I don’t get it” and encourages the student to dig deeper and think about their learning and where they are stuck.)
“Show me where you are confused.”
“What have you tried so far?” Then move to…” I’ll check in with some other classmates and swing back in 5 minutes to see how it’s going.”
“What resources have you tried?”
“Can you look back at something we did earlier and try to make a connection, or wake up your brain to that exercise and make a connection? What might you look at to make that happen?”
“Show me what you have come up with so far. What do you think this is asking? - or- What do you think you could do next?”
“I don’t get it is really a statement. Can you turn that into a question so I can better understand what it is you don’t understand?
The goal is for students to do the heavy lifting and not get caught in wanting the answer to be provided. Sometimes a simple nudge is all they need.
We wanted to provide all of you some information about a newer partnership between the Department of Public Instruction and Graduation Alliance called ENGAGE Wisconsin. Waunakee Community School District has opted in to participate in this free family and student support for students who meet eligibility requirements. There are three eligibility requirements that a student could meet to be considered as a potential referral, which I have included below. After a student has been referred to the program, Graduation Alliance reaches out to the family to explore their readiness to enter into their program and answer any questions that they may have. If Graduation Alliance is able to engage the family, around 80% of families accept the support that they are offered. Once the family has accepted the support of Graduation Alliance, they perform an assessment to determine what kind of needs and challenges exist for the student and family so they can target their work together. These needs could be based on access, technology, social, emotional, academic or a mixture of various needs. The student is then assigned a coach from Graduation Alliance that can work with the student and family (virtually) for the entire academic year and sometimes multiple years if the needs continue to exist for support as well as funding for the program continues to be available.
We as a Tier 2 team are looking to bolster the way that we support students beyond what we have traditionally done and would like to start referring a small number of students and families to this program. This is where you as teachers come in. We would like you to talk as PLT and Core Teams to identify a few students that you feel would meet eligibility requirements and would be a good candidate for this support. Once you have identified these students please reach out to Jonathon Wild so that he can attend your PLT or Core Team meeting so we can talk through the students that you would like to nominate. Once we have composed a comprehensive list of students the Tier 2 team will review the list and identify students and families that we would like to nominate as a pilot as we start to utilize this support within the district at the secondary level.
Eligibility
1. Students who are chronically absent or at risk of chronic absenteeism.
2. Students failing at least one class, at risk of failing a class (C or lower) or identified by Tier 2 team.
3. Disengaged students (20 or more consecutive days of school missed)
For the month of November, you will see the Ho-Chunk flag flying at each school. The Board of Education (BOE) approved recognition per a resolution adopted a few years ago to commemorate Native American Heritage Month. The resolution by the Board of Education can be found on our district website.
Did you take a Great Picture? We'd Love to Use it in our Yearbook!
Attention Teachers,
If you are taking pictures of students in your classroom or attending school events and have a great picture, please use this QR Code to submit them to us for review and possibly use in our yearbook! We'd greatly appreciate it! The QR code should allow up to 10 photo uploads, and you can submit multiple times.
