Staff Update Week of October 30th, 2023

Dr. Grabski handing out Cheetos at Trunk or Treat

 

Important Dates

10/30     Fire Drill 10:22am

 11/1      Parent Teacher Conferences  (3:30-7:30)

11/7      PD Day 

11/8      Chorus Concert (North High School 7pm)

11/15     EMS PTSO Meeting 6:30pm

11/23     Thanksgiving (no school)

11/24     No School

11/27     No School

Important Information

PBIS 

Our students had a lot of fun on Friday during their "Choice Time".  Thank you to the PBIS team for taking the time to organize all of the events.  

At-Risk/ Possible Failure Sheet

If students are not doing well in your class (D or F), you need to be contacting parents.  Although their are countless tools for parents to utilize to keep up with their student's grades, we all know that many parents do not do this.  Make sure you are contacting parents and documenting the communication on the  At Risk / Possible Failure List sheet.

Good Professional Reading (or Watching)

Making Connections With Greetings at the Door

Dogfooding: How Often Do You Do Your Own Assignments?

Crumble and Shoot Game

 Staff Update Week of October 23rd, 2023

  Osborne Park hosted their annual Pumpkin Chucking contest this past Saturday.  EMS had multiple teams at the event.

Important Dates

10/23     Grades Due (Quarter 1)

10/25    Staff Meeting 7:30am   Canceled

10/25     Report Cards Posted

10/27     PTSO Truck or Treat

10/30     Fire Drill 10:22am

 11/1      Parent Teacher Conferences  (3:30-7:30)

11/7      PD Day 

11/8      Chorus Concert (North High School 7pm)

Important Information

Trebuchet Teams

Congratulations to Kirk Dressel for leading our 7th and 8th grade Trebuchet Teams to victory this past Saturday.  The 7th grade team won the middle school division with a throw of 125 feet.  The 8th grade team came in second place.  The kids had a great time and it was wonderful to see many staff members at Osborne park supporting our students.  Great job Kirk!

Here are some pics and videos of the event.

Fox 8 was at the competition.  I will share the video once they post it online.

Alice Drill

The district is requiring that we do an ALICE drill sometime this week.  Although we recently completed our first "lockdown drill" this year, we need to do another following the district protocols.

The ALICE drill will be Tuesday, 8th Period

For this drill, teachers will need to review the district ALICE slideshow with students.

I will come on announcements and explain to students that teachers will be reviewing the slideshow with them.   Since we already reviewed scenarios during our last "lockdown drill", that is all that will need to be done during this drill.  Based on the number of slides, I believe this will take about 15 minutes.

Please make sure you preview the material prior to 8th period Tuesday.

Good Professional Reading (or Watching)

How Trebuchets Work

Increasing the Value of Graphic Organizers

 Staff Update Week of October 16th, 2023

Congratulations to Mr. Johnson for winning the "Last Teacher Stuck at Conferences Award".  He wasn't very cooperative having his photos taken for this prestigious award.

  

Important Dates

10/18     End of Quarter 1

10/18     Staff Flu Shot Day

10/23     Grades Due (Quarter 1)

10/25    Staff Meeting 7:30am 

10/25     Report Cards Posted

10/27     PTSO Truck or Treat

 11/1      Parent Teacher Conferences  (3:30-7:30)

Important Information

Conferences

Thank you all for your professionalism at conferences.  I heard good feedback from parents after speaking with many of you.  Based on feedback from many teachers, we will go back to scheduling conferences (starting in the spring).

Fall Athletics

Round of applause to all of our staff members that coached our students this fall.  Thank you to Jaimie Livorse, Brett Ramming, Chrissy Mitchell, Amy Dittebrand, and Jeff Steinmetz for giving our students a positive experience.

Trauma Informed Schools Staff Training

All teachers are required to receive Trauma Informed Schools training.  We will be doing this once a month during PLC meetings.  Teachers that do not meet weekly for PLCs will be added to a PLC for the training (we will get you coverage).  More info to come.

Here are the dates for the first training sessions:

6th Grade PLC:  Tuesday, November 7th, 5th Period, Mr. Grabski's room

7th Grade PLC:  Wednesday, November 8th, 7th Period, Mr. Johnson's room

8th Grade PLC:  Thursday, November 9th, 1st Period, Mr. Cramer's room

Observations

For those of you that are being Formally Observed this year, please make sure you get an observation scheduled with sometime during the first semester.  The majority of our staff is being Formally Observed this year, so please get your observation scheduled soon (please do not wait until the last week of December).

If you are being Informally Observed, just let me know when you would like me to stop in for an observation.  No need for any paperwork and I will need little notice (same day notice might be possible).

Halloween

I will be sending home information to parents and students with rules for dressing up for Halloween this year.  Tuesday, October 31st.

Good Professional Reading (or Watching)

A Starter Kit for Differentiated Instruction

How to Differentiate your Classroom like a Pro

  Staff Update Week of October 9th, 2023

Important Dates

10/6-     Picture Retakes

10/11     Parent Teacher Conferences (3:30-7:30)

10/18     Staff Flu Shot Day

 11/1      Parent Teacher Conferences  (3:30-7:30)

Important Information

Not much to update everyone on this week.

Instructional Strategy of the Week

Project/Problem-Based Learning (PBL)

Using project- or problem-based learning, students gain knowledge and skills through working to investigate and respond to an authentic and complex question, problem, or challenge. The project takes place over an extended period of time, with content and instruction integrated into the project. Projects involve a real-world context and are driven by student inquiry. 

For more information on PBL, watch this introduction to PBL from Common Sense Media.

Resources for Project Based Learning

• Gold Standard PBL: Essential Project Design Elements - Log into a free account to access this resource and learn about the components of this PBL model.
• PBLWorks Resources - This website provides a collection of resources to help educators design and implement PBL projects.
• Edutopia Resources for Project-Based Learning - Edutopia provides educators resources and materials to explore PBL, including classroom examples.

• Problem-Based Learning from Cornell University - Cornell University's Center for Teaching Innovation walks educators through the process of implementing PBL projects that center around an open-ended problem. 

Good Professional Reading (or Watching)

Four Formative Instructional Practices That Drive Student Growth

Using Student-Generated Questions to Promote Deeper Thinking

   Staff Update Week of October 2nd, 2023

Important Dates

10/6-     Picture Retakes

10/11     Parent Teacher Conferences (3:30-7:30)

10/18     Staff Flu Shot Day

 11/1      Parent Teacher Conferences  (3:30-7:30)

Important Information

Signs of Suicide (SOS) Program

All staff members are required to view/review the Willougbhy Eastlake Middle School Staff Signs of Suicide presentation.  This needs to be done by 10/6.

PBIS

Congrats to EMS for earning the Bronze PBIS award for the 2022-23 school year.  I appreciate everyone's hard work, especially our PBIS 2022-23 team (Amy Clendening, Justine Ianiro, Amy Brady, Karla Schwenk, Casey Cook, Amy Dittebrand, Jessica Vahcic, and Angela Minichello).

Please make sure you complete the Building Climate Survey I emailed you this week.  It needs to be completed by Monday.  

School Climate Survey: School Personnel

The School Climate Survey: School Personnel provides

schools with an overall understanding of how staff

perceive school climate within six subscales: staff

connectedness, structure for learning, school safety,

physical environment, peer/adult relationships, and

parental involvement. This 29-item survey uses a

4-point rating scale (from Strongly Disagree to Strongly

Agree) with one item (14) reverse coded. School

teachers, administrators, and other personnel complete

the survey without training either on or off campus.

The time to complete the survey is approximately 15-

20 minutes.

Lockdown Drill

Thanks to everyone for their support with our first lockdown drill.  

If there is ever a need to evacuate the building, our evacuation points will be Jacobs Funeral Home and Surfside Park

Please let me know if you are unable to hear announcements, your door doesn't lock, or if there are any other safety concerns.

Security Update

I spoke with Steve Johnson this week and we are working on getting pricing for phones for each classroom, "push-button" door locks for rooms that do not have them, and a few other security upgrades to the building.  I will keep you posted.

PowerSchool- Log Entries

Please make sure you are filling out all the "pieces and parts" of the log entries for Discipline Log Entries.  This includes:  location of event, time of event, attempted interventions, etc.

All Log Entries should be marked as "Minor".  I will change it to "Major" if the student received a Saturday School, in school suspension, or out of school suspension.  This will assist us with our PBIS data

Detentions

Please use the link at the top of this bulletin to issue lunch detentions and/or after-school detentions. 

Parent/ Teacher Conferences

We will not be having parents sign up for conferences this year.  I will be sending out an email to parents early next week letting them know that teachers will be available for conferences from 3:30-7:30 and that they can come to school anytime in that time period.  Teachers will be in their rooms and we will place chairs outside of each room so parents can sit and wait if you are meeting with another parent.  Conferences should be held to 10 minutes.

*  Please place a sign on your door stating what time you will be taking a break during conferences (15-20 minutes)

*  Text me if you feel you need me in a conference with you (for support).

Good Professional Reading (or Watching)

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