Dragonfly Digest

No message this week... I hope you had a great weekend and I am wishing you an amazing week ahead. Thank you to everyone who made Friday night a success. For those that had at least one trunk for their team, enjoy your week of jeans beginning November 1st. For those that had at least 1/2 of their team representing with a trunk, enjoy jeans for the month of November. I do have two tasks that you will need to take care of this week.  1. The first item is the RAVE Button. All staff please download this app on your phone as soon as possible. Here is a video you can watch about this app. Here is a how to download the app presentation. PLEASE DO NOT TEST this until we have a schoolwide test next week. I'll email out details next week. 2. The district is beginning to hold strategic planning focus groups and will be collecting feedback from students (grades 6-12), parents, community members, and staff members. You should receive more information regarding the staff member input survey but...

  This week, I wanted to share a quick video that illustrates the GIST Strategy that can be found on the walkthrough tool under Reading Strategies. To hep students get the gist (get it...gist) of the strategy you could do as a class a few times and then after some time and with scaffolding as needed you can gradually release it to students to complete it independently. Also, please know that I placed the  WICOR Playbook on our dashboard under Instructional /Digital Resources for your convenience. Please let me know any strategies you'd like to know more about and I can feature here! Hope you have a great weekend and please take time to fill your cup. You're no good to anyone else if your cup isn't full. See you Monday! Angela Week of October 23-27, 2023 Birthdays No Staff Birthdays This Week YELLOW Duty Rotation for PM Duties Monday, October 23 Socktober Continues Grand Canyon Representative on Campus She will provide snacks and information in the office from 9:30-10:30 and...

  This week, I will not be sharing more WICOR strategies but instead sharing something that I have seen increase student proficiency and academic outcomes at the three school I have led previously. As we close our first quarter, this is an awesome time to take a few minutes to reflect on what you've accomplished so far this school year and what things you need to revise, review, and recalibrate to get you to where you want you and your students to be in June 2024. It's also a good time to reflect on the word you picked for this school year and ask your self if you are walking out your word in your daily interactions, conversations, etc.  Last week, a team from DRES attended a Standards Based Learning session which will be one of 4 this school year. The district is revamping and relaunching its focus on Standards Based Learning and I am personally excited about this journey. Although many in the room expressed the need for this work to occur quickly, we now realize to do Standa...

  This week, I would like to share just one strategy that can be used for Reading and you could then expand on that same activity by using a collaboration strategy. One of my favorite educators to follow on social media is Jennifer Gonzalez. She has an impressive website called Cult of Pedagogy. There you can do a search for all things education. This week, I am sharing an article about One Pagers. When you click here you are able to either read the selected article OR you can listen to the podcast. One pagers could be an awesome way to check understanding after students read a text or watch a video. Here are free templates and rubric information. You could then complete a gallery walk with students which falls under the collaboration and can extend the same activity. Students could each share their one pagers during this activity. As you work on incorporating WICOR strategies into your lessons, please remember that I do not expect to see WICOR strategies in every lesson. I don't e...

  Week of October 1-5, 2023 Birthdays Please check our staff calendar to see if your birthday is listed on the calendar. If it is NOT, please email Kelly at the front desk to get it added. Your birthday present is 45 minutes...come in late, leave early, have a duty free lunch, extended planning, etc. Just need to know when your birthday is to get you your time. This gift is for classified and certified staff. Collaboration Strategy: Carousel This activity encourages all students to interact through reading and writing. Write different but related questions or prompts on chart paper and post the papers around the room. Students move around the room either freely or in small groups and write ideas or answers on each paper. Alternately, you can have them record the ideas on sticky notes at their desks ahead of time and then post the notes on the appropriate papers. Share and process the ideas with the whole group with a gallery walk (students silently move from poster to poster, ...