March 23rd-March 27 Happy Spring!

March Updates:

• I have been in contact with Mrs. Asbury throughout the weekend and she has let me know that Emily is stable and seems to be moving in the right direction. She is still on the ventilator so keep sending your positive thoughts and prayers to the family.  I will keep you updated.
• Welcome back to Mr. Schorer, we really missed him.
• IMPORTANT-STAR 3 ITBS Testing will begin on April 13th instead of April 14th.  Please mark your calendars accordingly.  Training Dates will remain the same.  If you have additional questions, please see Mrs. Perry.
• We have been notified by Brad Oliver that he can send us a special "Brass Under the Big Top Circus Show" for grades K-2.  Pre-K is also invited:)  The show will begin at 9:15 in the gym.  Be there and ready to go by 9:10.
• EOQS this week
• District Review of our SIP plan will be Tuesday at 1:00
• SIP meeting 3:00 on 3/24
• District will use the Media Center on 4:00 for District Science Training
• Friday was Steve's last day as Y Director. He is moving to Texas to pursue a new career.
• Our Spring Music Production is this Thursday, March 26th. Dress Rehearsal is 1:00, parent performance is 6:30.
• 3/27 is the end of the quarter.
• SPRING Break begins on Monday, March 30th.

LEP Parent Night Thursday Night was chocked full of important information for parents.  Thank you Mrs. Ochoa, Mrs. Jones and Mr. T.  and the rest of our ESL team for all your hard work in planning and executing this event.

Diggs-Latham Goes To Washington! What a learning-filled Adventure. Thank you Star 3!!!!!!!  We will share more with you later:)

Spring has Sprung!

Getting NBCT information!

Representing Diggs-Latham!

We are at the White House!

Flat Stanley had quite the adventure. Here he is with a Capitol Policeman.  Bet he ever did that before.

Don't you just love Dramatic Play?

These Pre-K students do!

PDP/FINAL RETENTIONS, etc...Important Information Regarding EOY PDPs.  By now you should have been uploading and completing your final evidences for End of Year PDPs.  I should aso have ALL Retention possibilities sheet. We would like to go over both after your last observation conference and before the summative.  We are well into final observations so do your best to complete your EOY pdps. asap.  Be brief with evidence and straight to the point so that it is easily evident that you completed your PDP. If you still have a family engagement night or parent activity not held yet, upload a copy of the flier as evidence.  If you have questions, please feel free to ask.  I will expect that you are well planned out in regards to completing your PDP. There will be no carry over to next year.  

 Please come out to Thursday's PTA Meeting and Spring Production to support our students and staff. A lot of work goes into these presentations and we need to be there for each other, especially our students. It is important that we as a staff show how important it is that we all support our students and staff:)

Thank You Mrs. Gordon and students for Representing us well at the Art Extravaganza. This takes tons of work, set-up and Take down. also........... CONGRATULATIONS FOR BEING CHOSEN AS A DISTRICT ART TEACHER TO SERVE ON A VERY SPECIAL PANEL AS AN EXPERT!

Congratulations again to Mrs. Batten for orchestrating the first ever for Diggs-Latham Battle of the Books Teams!!!!!!  WooHoo! We are so proud of all of you!  There are pictures on the Parent Blog.  Katie, Sara and Alisha have been doing a wonderful job keeping parents informed. 

 We are in the process of planning Kindergarten Screening. It will be held April 21st.

What A Wonderful American Heart Association Campaign.  Thank you Coach McNeil!!!!!!!!  What A Great Cause!

Happy Spring! March 16th-March 20th

Two Week Blog-February 27-March 7th

Let's Celebrate..........You all are Incredible...

DIGGS-LATHAM ELEMENTARY EARNS "WHOLE SCHOOL GROWTH" STATUS!

As I told you all yesterday, I am proud of all of you for earning $500 incentive bonuses for those who worked full time. Of course, if you worked half time or less, your bonus will be pro-rated. This bonus is earned for teachers and staff who worked last year.  All employees who are here now are working toward earning bonuses for next year which is the last year Star 3 will be in operation. I am sure we are even better than last year so let's keep trying and I know we will make it again!   I put an information sheet in your boxes and you can also go to the Star 3 website under Departments to get more information about the framework of Star 3.  Individual bonuses and grade level bonuses are also a possibility for teachers who have shown student growth.   I would expect those letters to be delivered to me in the next week. If you are fortunate enough to earn Individual bonus, grade level bonus and whole school bonus, you could possibly earn $5000+.  I am so excited for you. My husband asked me last night why I was smiling so much and I told him because I am blessed to have the most hard working, happy, dedicated and devoted to students, teachers in the whole county and we have fun!  We take care of each other and cheer each other on. We have coaches and district personnel who support us and bend over backwards to give us resources we need. I thank you for the shared vision and for not giving up when times get tough.  There is very little whining or gossiping and that shows true professionalism!!!!!!  I feel that we are a "Family" and I hope you feel that way too.  Remember, Dr. Frazier and I are always here if you need us:)

Diggs-Latham Art Displayed at Hanes Mall!!!

We were asked by the American Heart Association to put together an Art Display for a store window (upstairs by the carousel) in Hanes Mall. Mrs. Gordon and her students worked their magic and here is the result.  I am not the best photographer so please excuse the glare.  It is a beautiful display!

Retention Letters: I am forwarding you a great article I read on retention. I will forward it to you with Retention Information.  Now is the time to make initial contact with any parents of children you are considering retention for.  Remember you should have parents sign off that you talked to them about the POSSIBILITY of retention.  You also need to be able to show that you put interventions in place to target the high needs areas.  Keep work samples so that when it is time to make that difficult decision, we will have lots of evidence.  Thank you:)

Promise Awards

It is that time of year where we choose a first year teacher who shows "promise".  I think all of our first year teachers show promise.  They are all outstanding teachers.  This is a difficult task and that is why I would like you to help me with it. We can only choose one to send on to the district level to be recognized as our school representative at the Spring STAY Banquet.  Whomever we choose will have to answer some essay questions and I will as well.  The STAY Banquet is usually in April.  Our first year candidates eligible for a Promise Award are:  Cymbre White, Caroline Bostian, Lisette Prato, Hafida Boutkhili, Megan Shoaf, Zenyth Thomas and Taylor Mathis. I think I remembered everyone.  All will be recognized for completing the STAY program.  I am proud of them all.  I am going to put a ballot on Survey monkey and will send the link to you through email.  As you reflect on what you know about these candidates, choose a candidate that has promise in the areas of student achievement, teacher leadership, motivation, great attitude, building relationships with students and families as well as the community.  I realize this is difficult as you may not know all the candidates, but do your best. Talk with them if you wish:) to give you an idea of what they are all about.  If you could complete this by MONDAY at 3:30, I would appreciate it.  It should just take you a couple of minutes.  The candidate with the most votes will be our representative. Only vote once please.  The candidates can vote.

 Family Affairs:

• Please keep Mr. Schorer in your prayers today as he is having a knee replacement.  If you wanted to send a card, let us know and we will get the address for you. 
• Please keep Miss Greenlee's family in your prayers as her dad lost his brother unexpectedly yesterday. Safe travels to her parents who went out of state to be with the family.
• Continue to keep Mrs. Gilliam in your prayers as she continues to recover.
• Please keep Mrs. Asbury's granddaughter in your prayers as she too continues to recover.  This is the strongest little girl I know. She has truly been through a lot.
• Nurse Hall's son has been a little under the weather so keep him in your thoughts and prayers.
• Flynn, Mrs. Wolfe's grandson is doing well:)  He is a cutie!!!!
• My happy, energetic, curious, sometimes naughty, puppy, Molly is keeping me busy!!!!

And she looks so innocent!  Don't let that cute face fool you, she has the puppy "crazies" every night around 6:30.  But, I sure do love her!

 Mark your Calendars:

• Our SIT meeting for today will have to be rescheduled.
• 2/27-Black History Celebration/District Committee her to review our SIP/ACCESS team here as well/CC meeting off campus
• 3/3 Cannon to UNC Chapel Hill to present to MSA students on Community Engagement and Teacher Leadership
• 3/3 Tornado drill this week. Practice with your students please:)
• 3/7 Cannon to present with Principal Trish Gainey to the Explorers Program. Topic: Maintaining Strong Community Relationships
• 3/10 Faculty Meeting
• 3/11 Early Release Day
• 312-3/13 Conference on Teaching and Learning (Cannon and Teachers)
• 3/13 Newsletters due
• 3/19 Spring LEP Parent Night
• 3/19 Sarah Huddleston will be using Room 200 on the 19 and 20th 7-3:30
• 3/19 as of now 3rd grade EOQ rdg.
• 3/20 as of now 3rd grade EOQ math
• 3/23 Grade 4-5 Reading EOQ
• 3/24 Grade 4-5 Math EOQ
• 3/25 Science EOQ
• Science Program Manager Benika will use the Media Center for Training after school at 4:00
• 3/26 Spring Production 1:00 dress rehearsal/6:30 Parent Performance
• 3/27 End of 3rd quarter

STAY TUNED..........

I AM SO HAPPY TO BE BACK!! I have missed you all!!

February 9th-13th, 2015

I am so happy to be back.  I truly appreciated the flowers and cards galore.  You really cheered me up and helped me to recover. Thank you all for doing your part to help. A very special Thank you to Dr. Frazier, Gloria, Katie, Connie, Sarah, Alisha, Barbie, Jennifer, Gwen, Krystal, and Ana  for making my absence go so smooth.  Thank you to all of our coaches as well. We are a TEAM.

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Wolfe on the birth of their new Grandson, Flynn. He is just beautiful!!!!! Flynn arrived on February 4th at 11:45 am weighing 9 lbs. 2 ounces. WOW!!! What a Blessing:)

Speaking of BABIES, We have a new puppy....Meet "Molly"

We Re-Homed her from a family that has four kids under the age of five.  Need I say more? Anyway, she has found a great home with us and she will receive endless love!

Arts Council Fundraiser

Amanda Gordon is doing a wonderful job as our Arts Council Representative for the 2015 Campaign.  She needs all of our support to make it a success.  The campaign will run through the first week of March so please do your part to help the Arts Council.  There are lots of prizes! Every little bit helps:)

WEAR ORANGE ON FRIDAY!

Retention Information-It is that Time to be thinking about possible retentions. Look for an email from me with clarifications and sample letters. Please make sure you read the email as even if you do not foresee any retentions there is a form you will need to turn in to me.  You need to conference with parents and have them sign off on possibility sheet.

February Will Be Filled With Collaboration, the Building of Relationships, Utilizing Data and Celebrations Including Black History Month 2/2-2/6

February 2nd to February 6th, 2015

As usual, this will be a very busy week. We begin Monday with 3rd graders testing. Vision Screening is on Tuesday as are our Instructional Walks which will begin at 1:00 sharp.  You will be notified below if a team will be observing you.  There may be additional classes added but this is where we are as of now. We had to be very creative in scheduling as we wanted to have as many grade levels/programs, etc... visited as was possible. You all are awesome. We would have liked the teams to see you all but they are only here for one hour and the observations last 10 minutes. There are classes in specials, recess, etc...1:00 is definitely a challenge but I know that we will be able to shine. There will be five teams who will visit three classrooms each. The visits will last 10 minutes and the team will meet to debrief and then go on to the next observation.   The teams are made up of Assistant Superintendents, Content Coaches, Star 3, ELA,Title I, Our Curriculum Coordinators and Administrators/Teacher Guide from our School and other district personnel. As I mentioned in the blog last week.  Please make sure all Bulletin Boards inside and outside of your rooms are complete, relevant and up to date. Have your current student work posted as well as your "I Can" and "EQ" statements. Each Grade Chair, specialist chair, etc... do a quick hallway check to make sure everything is up to date and there are no empty boards. If relevant, standards should be on board.  Thank you:)  If you are on the Observation list, pop in to see me tomorrow so I can give you additional information.

Learning Walk Teams: 

Team 1-Bullin/L. Wright/Sapp -   (Cannon, V. Simington, Hartman,Squire)

Team 2-White/Rice/Bersch-   (McGregor, S. Studies coach, Costello, Hoskins, Leslie Baldwin)

Team 3-C. Bostian/Stevenson/Friel-(Frazier, Amy Nail, Benika Thompson, PLT Coach, ELA Coach

Team 4-A. Wright/G. Jones/L. Greenlee-Gloria,Kenneth Simington, Andy Kraft, Shawn

Team 5-Faqih/Snider/Ochoa-Amanda G, Steve Oates, David Sisk, ESL, Connie or Wayne Foster, Science Coach

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MARILYN GILLIAM, AMANDA STEVENSON and JACKIE PULLEN

Family Affairs- I am scheduled for my surgery on Wednesday Morning. I will be out of commission for about a week, hopefully less. Dr. Frazier can reach me and you can email me or text if you have a problem. I will start reading emails as soon as I am up to it. I will listen to the doctor's orders and do my best to heal after the surgery.  I have all observations finished but two and will finish those on Monday., so most of you should have or will have your post observation. Please be sure that you have signed off on your post conference once completed:)  All peers have been given rights to enter peer evaluations. They should all be done by  Wednesday at the latest.

CONGRATULATIONS to another GRANT AWARD WINNER!!!!!  Julie Magness wrote and secured a Math Fluency Grant to obtain software that will help students learn their Math Facts!  Way to go Julie!  

LAST WEEK's and emails from me were chocked full of important dates and upcoming events. Please make sure you reread them, check your calendars so that you are up to spped on all that is happening.  Also, please respond, only needs to be a sentence or two to my post at the end of this blog. Thank you!

BLOG - PART 1 Dress As Your Favorite Hero Day!!!

Dress As Your Favorite Hero Day Was So Much Fun!!!!

There were so many more pictures but I couldn't get them all on. I wish I could have because they are all great. Our technology wizards will get them to all play on our hallway media tv.  I hope you enjoy them!

January 26-January 30th A Week Filled With Quality Teaching and Intentional Planning:)

PEER EVALUATIONS - Completing an Observation

Here are some tips that might help those of you doing Peer Evaluations.....

·        Click on the Evaluation Process tab.

·        Click on the Staff Evaluations tab.

·        Find the name of the teacher you are evaluating.  Click on the down arrow by their name and select the plan you are going to be editing. 

·        You do not have to complete the Pre-Observation options.

·        Click on “Edit” beside Formal Observation.

·        This will take you to the Formal Observation screen.  Click “Start New.”

·        Enter the observation details.

·        Complete the observation.

·        Return to the top of the screen and click on “Save Changes.”

·        If you are ready to share the results click on the “Share” button.  A box will appear.  Click on Share.

·        Click on “Save and Exit.”  This will take you to the summary screen.

·        If you have completed the observation click the down arrow under menu and select “Finalize.”  Note that once you select “Finalize” you will not be able to make changes.

·        A “Mark Complete” button should appear.  Click on “Mark Complete.”

·        Click “OK” on the text box that appears.

·        This will return you to the evaluation screen.  Click on “Actions” beside Formal Observation and select “Send.”  You will be able to do this when we are given the rights by HR.  If you have done a peer eval. and can't get it in, then you need rights and I need to let HR know so be sure to shoot me an email to tell me who you have observed if you haven't done so already.  All probationary teachers need a peer eval. It should be completed this week.  Questions?  See me:)

      Report Cards..... Thank you for doing such a great job on your

report cards. Dr. Frazier and I are working this weekend to get them back to you on Monday.  They will go home on Tuesday.

Mark Your Calendars! 

 Magnet Tours All Week...So far there are almost 80 Magnet Applications and Growing. This means we are on an application as either first, second or third choice. Wow!!

Formal Observations will continue this week as will CWTs.

• 1/27 Report Cards sent home 
• 1/27 SIT meeting
• 1/30 Dr. Frazier, Jennifer Hart, Katie McGregor and Steve Friel to Ron Clark Academy
• 2/3 We will have observers from Central Office in your classrooms conducting Instructional Walks beginning at 1:00. They will be working in teams. Please make sure you are well planned out/have current student work posted inside and outside of your classrooms. EQs/I can statements posted. Rooms are clutter free and student desks are orderly.  These are all actually things that should be done automatically. All holiday displays should be down...yes, there were a few still up.  Please make sure your team's assigned Bulletin Board is up and content based.
• 2/4 Vision Screening
• 2/5 Lifetouch Class Pictures (please remind students)
• 2/6 HEALING FORCE Assembly pre-k-5  at 1:15 
• 2/6 Go RED Day!!
• 2/9 Our Very First Dairy-O Night from 5-8.  "Frozen" Theme.  Diggs-Latham will get 10% of the profits and we don't even have to wash tables, so come on out and bring your families or come for dinner with friends.  We will be sending a flier home to parents. This is a PTA event.  Please support us, its important.  We need extra funds for school projects.
• 2/10 Faculty Meeting (SIOP Training continues)
• 2/11 Third Early Release Day-Focus on Vertical Alignment
• 2/12 Arts Council Show NC Musical History 9:00-9:45 Grades 3-5

SO..What is an Instructional Learning Walk?

As you know, on February 3rd, we will have teams visiting our classrooms for Instructional Learning Walks.  The Learning Walk is an instructional support strategy that aligns with our other Instuctional Coordination Work. The format of the walk is below:

1. The Learning Walk Teams will consist of 3-5 members per team. including the district's Chief Academic Officer, Asst. Superintendent, Principal, Asst. Principal, Program Manager, CC, Academic Coach, other central office personnel.
2. Team will visit classrooms for 10 minutes each using an identified template
3. Schools will be asked to identify in advance three instructional foci (must align with our school improvement plan) and two to three related results indicators student or teacher behaviors or artifacts that would be present if the focus is being addressed) that we would like to focus on during the visits.  For example, if a focus is standards-based instruction, an indicator would be posting and referencing the EQ/I Can statement.
4. The classrooms selected will represent a cross-section of the classes in our school.
5. Following each classroom visit, teams will have a 5 minute debrief to discuss.
6. The meeting will conclude with a post walk debrief that includes feedback from the Learning Walk Teams.

We will discuss this at Tuesday's SIT Meeting.

Reflection Questions

Are you keeping up with your PEPs, and progress monitoring?

Very soon you will get information on Beginning to Think about Retentions.  Make sure that you are having Parent Conferences as needed and are communicating with parents.  Report Cards should not be a shock to any parent as you should be communicating throughout the quarter.  Each grade level is supposed to have an additional Parent Engagement Night this year.  It can be done as a grade level or individually. Several of you have already done this.  It could be a writing night, an author's chair, a Fun with Science or Math Night, an informational night or any other creative idea you dream up to engage our parents and help them help their children. Let us know when you will be doing these so we can get them on the calendar.