STEAMing with JSA

Michael's Memo 12/17/17 The holiday season often brings about multiple emotions. As we embark upon the end of he first half of the year. Let me say that again, it's almost the end of the first half of the year. I would like for us to reflect on all of the positive gains that you have made within your classrooms. Academic achievements, social/emotional achievements of staff & students, growth in increasing classroom engagement, and all of the great things that we have implemented to make our students lives better. Please provide me with an e-mail stating at least one positive using specific details on your positive gain(s). This weeks video speaks on the greatness of celebrating small victories. Focus on various items that provide the successes.  Our GUTSY GOAL is 62% on all tested areas. (Reading, Math, Science, Lowest 25%, Learning Gains) (Civics, Algebra, Geometry 100%).  Curriculum Update We have several data points to reference as we move forward with ou...

MICHAEL'S MEMO 12/4/17 Points of emphasis for the week, please strongly encourage students to attend portfolio night tomorrow evening. It is imperative that we allow the students to showcase their learning and set goals with their parents or guardians here at JSA. We must convey the importance of this evening, so that we can continue to foster independent learners and a strong student body that is able to convey their learning to an audience. Importance of goal setting is the video for the week. Curriculum Update Starting this week all handouts must be approved by administration. Every activity must have the standard attached to each assignment. Administration understands the need to utilize handouts as a set of the learning process, however non standards based activities often seep into the daily lessons at an alarming rate when the practice goes unmonitored. We will also reinstate NO Worksheet Wednesdays as a means to attempt new innovative ideas and activities that wi...

MM 11/27/17 Welcome back from the break staff. I hope that everyone was able to spend quality time with their loved ones. Secondly, it is imperative that we use the extended breaks to receive some much needed rest from the daily stress that working in education provides. Please make sure that you remember how important you are to the success of your students and that they need you here for them daily at school. Teacher attendance plays a huge role in the education of a student. Thank and let’s continue to forge ahead as we seek to regain our A status as a school. One Team, One Dream! Curriculum Updates We will begin conducting informals for the staff members upon returning from the break. Please make sure that your lessons are incorporating all of the domains out of the Journey system. Emphasis for the week will be on writing in response to learning. We should always provide the opportunity for students to write within the classrooms from vpk-8 grade levels. It is a very imp...

MM 11/13/17 Good morning, please remember our efforts are not in vain when we must repeat our instructions, or methods to follow when completing an assignment. We were all once novices in our professional endeavors and needed an accommodation to complete some of our required work as well. Be encouraged because the light does eventually come on and it makes it all worth it to see the “Ah Ha” moment. Curriculum update MTSS PLC is on Wednesday, due to Thanksgiving Meal on Thursday. · Everyone on staff needs to bring their data (if a hard copy) · List of materials being used for T2, list of needs/questions for T2 copyT3 · Everyone must be ready to share what was used to ID students in current tier (i.e. what data) where they got the students that are in their T2 group · What interventions/accelerations are we doing for our low FSA scorers and high FSA scorers (for 3rd retainees and 4th grade and up) · All T2 data needs to be uploaded before meeting on Wednesday. Sh...

MM 11/6/17 Good morning JSA Family, as we begin another week I would like to personally thank all of our staff members for all of the support, instruction, and love that you exhibit on a daily basis in the demanding field of education. What you do is never taken lightly or for granted by myself or other members of the JSA administration. One Team, One Dream will continue to be our model as we push forth in providing a high quality and well rounded education. Overcoming obstacles is the focus of the week. Instructional Focus Administration will focus on student engagement this week with walk through a and coaching forms. It is imperative that instructors sweat during planning and that the students pressure during the lesson. Focus on how many opportunities are the students provided to resolve questions, explain view points, and address the all important “why” during daily instruction. Try to refrain from posing a question and answering it 3 seconds later. Provide the student...

Michaels' Memo 10/29/17 Good evening, reviewing the data of our STAR Reports, we are moving in the right direction with our students. Administration is pleased with the consistency of instruction being shown throughout the campus. I want to really thank our support staff (coaches, testing coordinator, paras, and assistant principals) for providing data support, behavioral support, and coaching. We would like for all of the staff members to provide the names of students that they feel need the most support in the areas of behavior, emotional support, and conflict resolution skills. We are focusing on mentoring these students to assist in growing our student body. Curriculum Focus ELA: Sticky Standards K reviews literature standard RL.1.2 and introduces an informational standard RI.3.8 with weekly text . Building a foundation now with prompting and support for RI.3.8 is critical. Tasks and questions should help students identify the most important points the author is ...

Michael's Memo 10/23/17 Hello staff, as we storm into the week I would like for us as a staff to focus on complimenting one another as well as the students. Make the attempt to provide a positive compliment towards one of your colleagues and provide one to your students in their agendas. A positive compliment goes a long way, and you never really know what your colleagues are going through. Thank you to the Theater Department and other contributors for the well run Fall Ball. The students looked very nice and I was so proud of their behavior. Curriculum Focus STAR Training on Thursday afternoon in the JSA Cafe in place of PLC's for training. 3:30 - 4:30, PLC's are cancelled on Thursday due to after school training. Please plan on attending.  ELA: • Attached is the most recent district summary of STAR Reading projections for FSA. To view individual school reports comparable to the attachment log into STAR>Reports>More Reports>Consolidated Reports STICKY ...

Michael's Memo 10/16/17 Good afternoon JSA Staff, thank you for your wonderful participation today with the PD at Joker Stadium. Thank you for us having 100% attendance excluding our (medical absences). We will continue to come through and conduct walk throughs on campus. Please make sure that we are keeping our 3 points of emphasis going on within the lessons, regardless of the time or block. 1) standards based instruction 2) collaborative structures 3) summarizing activities Literacy Focus Workshop k -5, 6-8 can utilize some of these structures as well. Independent reading time needs to be text that is independent for the students...if you see all students reading the same book in a classroom, ask why everyone is reading the same book and when students get opportunities to read their own book.  Reading at the independent level provides opportunity to practice advance comprehension skills rather than focusing on decoding and word-level clarification. Independen...

MM 10/9/17 Good evening staff, I am so proud of the consistency of standards based instruction occurring on campus. We will continue to support the staff here at JSA. We want to continue to push our students with love, support, and high expectations. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results. We will continue to push positive change and high expectations for our students at JSA. Our video focuses on embracing change. Academic Focus ELA: STICKY Standards: October 9-13 2-5 U2W1 2 nd is introducing RL.2.5 the structure of narrative text, not limited to identification of beginning-middle-end events. Instruction should include questioning and tasks about how authors introduce narratives, develop the plot, and conclude the action. 3 rd and 4 th are both introducing RL1.2. 3 rd has three targets : Recounting the text which requires retelling events in order and making inferences; determining a central message which is t...

MM 10/2/17 As we embark upon our week let’s remember to continue to place high goals for our students. Although the end goal may be unattainable at the present tine, it is imperative that we lay out a road map as to how we will achieve the end goal. For example, writing in response to text is one that a student may not be able to complete utilizing an extended story, but start off with a small 1-2 paragraph article and build up to end goal of lengthy text. Refrain from limiting students experience and exposure to standards based instruction due to their current level of understanding. Shout outs Mrs. Smith in second grade had her students focused on writing descriptive text to exhibit possessive nouns by conducting a gallery walk that requires written responses based upon characters composed by students within the classroom. Standards based instruction that hit on multiple standards while also including personal student input and buy in. Mrs. Barnes had her students revie...

Michael's  Memo 9/25/17 We are charged with the great task of educating the future workforce of tomorrow. Great week of instruction by our staff, coming off of a 9 day layoff. Thank for meeting all of our students needs here at JSA Magnet. Please remember that we have open house on Thursday. Shout outs Mrs. Doyne utilizing hands on activity to display the relationship of spheres within the earth to display the working relationship exhibited in photos. Items varied from the ocean floor with coral reefs fish and animals to cows in a field with grass and wind powered energy. Students were able to see science in action and provide information aruon to support the instruction within the classroom. Academic focus We as a staff to ensure that we are contacting parents in the event that a student is receiving a D or F within the classes. Please make sure that we are providing each of our students the opportunity to maximize their learning with your classrooms. We will co...

Michael's Memo 9/18/17 Good afternoon staff, I am so glad that everyone made it safely through the storm. We are very grateful that the campus didn't sustain any major damage during the storm. Now more than ever, it is important to focus on the relationships we have with our students. Everyone knows that we will have some returnees to campus that are currently displaced due to the storm and may or may not have had a hot meal since we last saw them. Please make sure that we are doing our very best to address the needs of our students. We will have a short survey that the students can take to assist us in addressing their needs after Hurricane Irma. I will send the link that the students can complete using their own device or computers within the classroom. Please see today's video that focuses on relationships. Instructional Focus Hello, this week administration and coaches will come through focusing on collaborative structures, standards based instruction, and su...

Michaels' Memo 9/5/17 Good morning staff, I hope everyone had a good Labor Day weekend. It is imperative that we continue to progress and pay close attention to our pacing guides for our lessons. I am impressed with the level of instruction transpiring throughout the campus. I would continue to reinforce summarizing activities, everyday, to ensure that we are aware of the students grasp of the daily content. Please also remember that we should have an AR tracking board in every classroom. Middle School is included as well. Please strongly encourage the students to always have a book available to read and encourage reading. Our weekly video focuses on the importance of Literacy.  Shout out for the Week Great work with coding, for our early learners' in Second Grade. The students were coding in the computer lab which is a 21st century skill that will be a requirement for the current generation to obtain any type of employment within the technology sector. Con...

MM 8/28/17 Good morning staff, I want to thank everyone who made our first staff picnic possible from the past weekend. It was great to see all of the  smiling faces and interaction with the JSA staff.  We had a wonderful time socializing  and flying down slides, playing corn hole game, and listening to some good times.  The event was the first of several planned culture building events for the year.    As we set out for the week, please make sure that we are following our learning maps  and close to our pacing guides. We will begin to leave coaching forms in the classrooms and provide feedback on lessons.  Our video from this week’s focuses on the use of teamwork to achieve a goal . Academic Update   We must make  sur e that all of the STAR and  Writing Essays have been score d by August 31 st .   General : Daily Schedules Posted in All Rooms (including small group times) AR Tracking Visible in A...