Weekly Update

Team,

What a busy, but positive week at QUEST Elementary! 

I spy: 

Walking around taking in the school is a complete gift--modeling of the IB profiles can be found around each corner. There is so much good happening at QUEST, yet when we get in our "work silos" it is hard fully absorb it. This week, I was amazed at: 

• A management team problem solving together to ensure Halloween is a win! 
• Student work displayed that highlights who the students are! 
• A couple students ringing the bell! 
• Staff going above and beyond to welcome and affirm our parents. 
• Staff being beyond flexible and collaborative with the added chaos of  school events like the book fair! 
• A teacher throwing a shower, with kids, for a student teacher! What a lesson in the profile of caring.
• AIS providers looking at student MAP results and making informed decisions about student interventions. 
• A team owning their level meeting without Greg running it. 
• A nurses office making time to check-in on the social-emotional health of a student. 
• Two staff members verifying that their communication with a parent is sending their intended message correctly. 
• A handful of people relaxing and eating together in the staff lounge!
• Staff members greeting students at their doors! 
• Students doing the communicating in a math class. The instructor was pushing the thinking.
• Students learning how to agree or disagree by using cards that indicate  .
• Lunch staff reteaching expectations and exhibiting patience and student centeredness. 

Management Team Updates

• Teams are up and running. Incredible work happening. GREAT TEAMS=GREAT CULTURE! Keep owning this, all! Thumbs up.
• We are shifting to goal sheet and revised report card (no g’s). There is a hard copy of the report card that was shared with each management team rep. Goal setting is about student agency and ownership. Report cards are there to communicate with parents, along with the various other methods, how their child is performing based on state standards.
• Support for students and staff in October given trial. Please reach out to Val and I. 
• Homecoming parade October 7th! We always love when staff join. No pressure, but the invite is there. 
• Please remember to share conference times with Derek by October 24th (earlier if you are starting earlier!). 
• Sweet went well the first week. Please be sure to always take attendance. 

Help Needed!

Recess is a fun time, but we have had instances where students are taking off in the halls the second they see the exit; these actions can produce a lot of noise while exiting and entering the building. If your classroom is located near an exit, I have no doubt you feel this.

How can we all help and walk in one another's shoes?

-Please expect students to walk out in a straight line and voices off when exiting the building and when entering.

-Teach students the why behind this: so classes can remain focused on their learning and to honor the work of their fellow schoolmates.

-If your class fails at that, consider turning them around and walking back into the room to try again. Remain consistent or they will do it for two days and fail on the third.

Also at management team: Halloween Need-to-Know

• Halloween is a Monday. 
  
• This is a half-day of school.
• There are no specials on this half day as special area teachers go to department meetings.
• We will have a parade only @ 9:30 am (no assembly). This parade will be outside, but modified to indoors if it is raining or below freezing.
• Route can be found below (thanks to our management rep. who put this helpful sheet together for us).
• Have a student who does not celebrate? Please send me their name and times for your celebration and I will find an alternate activity and adult to support their learning.
• An FYI inviting parents to be outside to watch the parade, as well as costume expectations, will go out in October.

 

The Bell is BACK!

Purpose: 

The purpose is of the bell is to allow a student, or staff member, a chance to celebrate. 

Meet a goal? Ring the bell!

Had a rockstar day or did something above and beyond? Ring the bell! 

When: You can send a child down to ring the bell at any time of day. It is located outside of Paula's desk. We typically take a picture and send it to you, the staff member that sent a child, so that you can send it to the parents...celebrating the win!

Who: ANYONE can send a child to ring the bell. Let's celebrate the good, QUEST. 

Weekly Update

 Team,

I Spy

I am so fortunate that I get to experience the entire school each day. Getting to notice best practices and seeing how our culture plays out is really a wonderful thing. This week, I'm grateful that I got to witness: 

• A team having a hallway meeting to discuss business quickly. 
• A teacher telling their class that their voice and writing is gold. A Lucy Culkin's video brought that point home.
• A custodian greeting students with a giant smile and hello.
• A special area teacher leaning over to get to the level of a crying student off the bus loop.
• A specialist sitting on the floor because that will save the most time and it keeps the interaction with the student feeling comfortable. 
• A lunch monitor pointing out the good in kids. 
• A mental health team finding ways to support a student in a very out-side-the-box kind of way. 
• A teacher new to a level and completely finding ways to meet each student where they are.
• A staff member calling homes of students to tell their students' parents that their kids are great and have plenty of strengths. 
• A veteran staff member willingly helping colleagues that are new. 

I'm grateful. Thanks for always affording me the chance to witness plenty of good. WE are QUEST! 

Tech Room

The tech. room needs to be cleaned out. Please swing by if you have anything there and either bring it to your classroom or work with Mike on storage. 

MTSS District Actions 

Little by little, one walks far. 

Our district will be shifting toward MTSS based practices and continue to leverage those current practices that align with the philosophy and vision. Please find the districts overview from Leadership Council. 

In addition, keep in mind regarding QUEST shifts this year: 

District plan for this year and next two years: 

Warm Demander

When you sign up for sessions (sign up will be forthcoming in the near future) at the Superintendent's Conference Day, you will notice that Warm Demander is a session. You are welcome to sign up for that, but please keep in mind that we will also be doing work on Warm Demanders in October as a staff. You would be getting a double dip. 

Subs

Just a reminder regarding our protocol when you need to be out. You can find this on the Hub! 

Support is Available 

In light of the news that Casey just shared regarding the trial in October, please reach out to Val, Lance, or Derek if you need support in any way. In addition, please reach out should students be discussing and need to be supported. 

Email Etiquette 

Disclaimer: this is not an email so it may be long winded! Challenge by choice!  

An interesting video was shared by Sean D'Abeu, former QUEST intern, on Twitter this past weekend. It is well worth the watch as we sometimes spend too much time sifting through emails. 

Why does this matter to you? 

Our jobs take up a lot of time, and the work is meant to be meaningful and engaging...we are working with kids, after all!  We can't have you tied up all the time with emails if you're going to do your best work, and your brain is not meant for the communication onslaught. 

For those looking to have complete control over that email beast, here are some etiquette ideas to try:

• Keep email under 5 sentences. Write the long email, but then find the main idea and make it under 5 sentences before hitting send.
• Don't open emails during meetings. It will reduce your engagement.
• Have a clear shut down time for emails at home. Sure, there are emergency circumstances where you need to rattle one off, but it's okay to have that boundary with parents and your colleagues. You need, and deserve, to recharge daily! 
• Go visit people! Talk quickly in the hallway versus an email. You get the steps AND you get to form a human connection. Both of these benefits are healthy for you! 
• Instead of being more narrative in nature, siphon out the action so your goal is clear. Example: 
  

Whether this topic interests you are not, email plays a big part in your life. Having a strategy or two is essential for the health of your brain and your work productivity. 

Culture and Climate

Some strengths as indicated on our culture and climate survey: 

An area that we will work on this year: 

There were a lot of positive comments, but two comments hoped that we could be better at being curious and not judgmental with one another...talking to a colleague when they are frustrating you. That can be tricky to do, we are humans, but a good goal nonetheless. 

Focus: 

As a building, we will be working on getting to know one another again this year, with some tips and strategies shared throughout the year regarding how to have a hard conversation with a colleague. Our actions and approach are highlighted below. More to come as the year goes on, but please be aware of our focus as a group. We all own our culture! 

Weekly Update

Team,

School-Wide Meeting

School-wide meeting is scheduled from 8:55-9:10. We have specials that begin at 9:15. This is not to produce anxiety, but when you are planning to lead the meeting please plan a tight share-out and be sure to do a hard stop at 9:10. 

Thanks for your help! 

Book Fair and Lunch With a Loved One

Our Book Fair is in a week, and with that comes Lunch With a Loved One. We are excited that we are able to provide this again. This will occur the last week in September. 

SIT Focus

SIT is focusing on Inquiry this year. QUEST has long been known as a school of inquiry, yet so much of that can be lost if we are not revisiting it regularly. In terms of school growth, this falls under our focus on a Tier 1 common practice. See below from our Playbook for the year. 

RtI Problem Solving Team

RtI Problem Solving Meetings are up and running starting 9/22. These will be each Thursday (versus the random schedule from the past, thanks to having Lance full-time!). The sign-up is now on the Hub! More adjustments will be made to this process as we work alongside the district. 

YOU CAN ALSO CLICK HERE! 

16 Personalities

Our level meetings took a look at our personality profile through https://www.16personalities.com/ . It was crazy how many were spot on! For those that did not attend a level meeting, check it out! It is worth doing and has a lot of implications to how we perform our work. 

CIA for 9/20/22 (yes, after a Monday Night game for Philly and Buffalo...yikes!)

Evacuation "Did you know?": 

Did you know: 

If it were a real evacuation, we may need to call transportation or walk over to Village Elementary to warm. In the case of a real emergency, we would still go to our Zones, take attendance, and THEN wait for further instructions (buses are coming or we are going to walk with our kids to VE). 

Hand Washing

Hand washing and sanitizer is no longer required, but as we get closer and closer to cold and flu season, consider establishing a routine with kids! 

Welcoming and Affirming 

Have a relaxing weekend! 

Be well,

Derek 

From the Office of Instruction

 

If there are any K-4 classroom teachers and reading teachers in need of training for the F and P Benchmark Assessment System, you have an option of completing online training on a release day or on your own time for compensation at Teacher Training Rate. The time commitment is 5.5 hours.  Please email Karen Spillman directly with your choice, and she will provide the directions/agenda.

 

If there are any 5-6 classroom teachers that are interested using the F and P Benchmark Assessment Syste for at risk students,  you can complete online training on your own time for compensation at Teacher Training Rate. The time commitment is 5.5 hours.  Please email Karen Spillman directly and she will provide the directions/agenda.

 

 

Karen Spillman

Director of K-12 Learning & Staff Development

585-392-1000 ext. 6051

“What we learn today doesn't make yesterday wrong. It makes tomorrow better.”

-Jeff Zoul

Outdoor Classroom!

Don't forget to send Paige thank you cards, drawings or pictures for Will Green. Let's show him how much we love what he did.

District Phone List

 

Caught Ya!

ITS CAUGHT YA TIME! We will be reading the caught yas at Wednesday morning meetings. Use the form below (this is also on the hub) to submit students using IB learner profiles!

 

https://forms.gle/c9p83zbJYDvWGGEXA

Weekly Update for the week of 9/5

 A Fun Start!

https://www.wevideo.com/view/2783864518

Need-to-Knows

• Info. Night is coming up! Save the Dates and begin sharing with parents! This will also be published in our September blog for parents. 

28th: Primary 6-6:45, Intermediate 6:45-7:30

29th: K 6-6:45, Elem. 6:45-7:30

• Thank you for your patience with late buses this week(both at arrival and dismissal). The district has many new drivers, and those long parent goodbyes each morning, coupled with a new driver, can make for longer routes. It will level off. 

• Shana and Derek have met regarding conferences. In alignment with the new teacher contract, there is greater flexibility this year. Conferences need to be held between October 11th and November 22nd. We have day conference times on November 15th and the 22nd. In addition, after school and evening times need to be made available for our families. Once you have your schedule, please share a signup with parents and communicate the schedule via email directly to Derek. Shana will discuss this further at the next union meeting.

• Our copiers are working on borrowed time. There is absolutely no solution for this other than waiting patiently for the new copiers to arrive and to submit tickets for their repair when you see one down. The new copiers were due in April, however, due to supply chain issues world-wide, we are waiting. To work towards a positive, this is a great opportunity to consider a way or two that you can “go green” and shift to the 1:1 in lieu of paper (when feasible).

• There is a new claim form! Click on the link, download a copy for yourself, fill it in electronically, then print and turn it in like normal to the office.If you need to fill out a claim form for anything, it is now found on the Hub as well.

The Principal’s Professional Improvement Actions: 

Like all of you, I want to be my best. I’ve always valued self-reflection and goal setting, and like most years I hope to leverage this to become a better leader for you. My goals for this year are as follows: 

• Only check my email 4x a day. Once before school (7:45-8:30ish), once mid-morning, and mid-afternoon, once after school. Please know you can call me if there is an emergency that can’t wait for a response. Please also know that this may mean I am not as fast as normal with my response time to emails; however, this affords me the chance to be present with all of you during the day, fully noticing what is happening around me. 

• Increase my time focusing on gratitude. I’ve started a journal that I leave on my desk. I’m pushing myself to notice the good in each day and to write it down. I’ve started this at home, but I also want to do it professionally. Looking forward to seeing how this sharpens my focus on the good, something that I need to do intentionally or the lizard response part of my brain will focus on the fear and the negative. 

Two Quick Surveys: 

Joy Shop–Mrs.Coyle has asked if you, or your classroom, will be interested in making an item to sell at our joy shop. Please fill this out by next Wednesday if you are interested. 

Joy Shop Survey: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSflqiAL-R_sk1aIt-3E-EztzZ4XRsQbfg8HqULf3R1_J1hVNg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Culture Survey–at the start and end of each year we will continue to do our culture survey. This will help me make actionable culture experiences for us. Please complete the survey below–your opinions matter to me. 

Culture and Climate Survey: 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScy84HTniIyJYLs6rbk8TV8TsYewg_joeDc6C3tKRKMq6mLeA/viewform?usp=sf_link

Opening Day, September 6, Schedule

 Team, 

After the district stuff, we will meet for 20 minutes as a staff in the aud. There is no set time as it always flexes based on how long the union meeting takes. I'll make an announcement.