Week 6

 Sept 25, 2022 

I hope each of you had a wonderful and restful weekend. I appreciate all of you for your commitment to our students and to teaching at high levels. As we start week 6 it is important that we are continuing to hold high expectations for all of our students. It is extremely important that we are at our doors during transition, we are using our discipline protocols when it is necessary, and we are making phone calls home to parents to both celebrate and ask for help with discipline issues. Consistency is key to turning positive behavior into positive habits. 

Middle School Madness and Spirit Week 

PLT Team Meetings 

As you meet this week as PLT and Grade level teams I need you to consider the following; 

1. How are you going to have those grade level 1 on 1 meetings with students about where they are on the Galileo assessment and what goal will they have for the MOY? And what date will these be done by? This is something that is in our SAP. 

2. How are you and your team tracking student achievement per priority standard? What tools are you using to keep up with this? 

3. Based on the data protocol we used during Monday's staff meeting, what are some areas of celebration and what are some areas with the greatest opportunity to grow? 

Team meeting with Rachel will be Thursday Sept 29th 

1. 7th Grade- Mrs. J. McClure room

2. 6th Grade- Mr. K. Ash room 

3. 8th Grade- Mr. Gegg Room 

4. Related Arts- Mrs. Cooks room (During 5 star) 

Growth Plans

Growth plans are due by Sept. 30th. Please refer to emails sent concerning them. If you have any questions please let us know. Click here for the slide deck to help complete this expectation. 

Strategic Plan

We had a consultant from EGL Assoc. in our building on Thursday Sept 22 to visit teachers and gather information from SPS staff about what our district is doing well and what areas of growth are needed. Please participate in the feedback using this survey. Feedback will be taken up to Monday night. 

Activate SPS:

All certified staff members will participate in 3 hours of professional learning on Tuesday, November 1, 2022. No registration will be required, as all will be assigned to a session with job-alike colleagues from either 8:00-11:00am or 12:00-3:00pm. A “Save the Date” will go to teachers the week of September 26 with full details communicated in late October. 

End of Quarter

Mid Quarter- Sept 21 

End of Quarter-  Oct. 20th 

• Staff Flu Shot:
• It’s that time of year where you can get your Flu Shot! In order to set our date, we NEED everyone to respond to this Google Doc and select whether or not you want a shot. We will only be able to pick up the exact number of flu vaccines. AKA, there won’t be extras to give out.
• We will make sure to take into consideration the events on the school calendar as well.
• Click HERE to let us know whether or not you want the flu shot. 

Safe Schools

Just a friendly reminder that another deadline for safe schools is coming up this week. The deadline to finish a few modules for safe schools is Sept. 30th.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher Conference Schedule is listed below. We are flexing out the time worked on these days in order to be off on Oct. 31st. 

Tuesday Oct. 25th Thursday Oct. 27th 

7:30-8:30 am 7:30-8:30 am

4:15-7:15 pm 4:15-6:30 pm 

Events 

Oct 3-7  Spirit Week 

Oct 7- Middle School Madness 

Oct 12- Flu Clinic 

Oct 25- Parent Teacher Conference 

Oct 27- Parent Teacher Conference 

Oct 28- Elem Monster Mash and Trunk or Treat 

Staff Birthdays  

9/21 Laura Mullins 

9/24 Paige Fleetwood 

10/6 Megan Patton 

10/7 Johanna Adamson 

10/20 Damika Bowden 

11/1 Megan Ebert 

11/18 Kevin Kleiner 

11/28 Lindsey Mitchell 

Week 5 Update

 I hope you had a restful weekend. This week signifies that we are halfway through the first quarter of the 2022-2023 school year. Several of us are using systems we have in place to ensure the smooth operation of the building. If any of you have any questions, concerns, or simply need us to clarify something please let us know. If you have a question, more than likely someone else has the same question. 

I also want to say that I am so proud of each and every one of you. Our kids have been bragging about the fun and exciting things you have been doing in class and our administration team has also witnessed this first hand with several walkthroughs. Keep up the good work. 

Staff Birthdays  

8/27 Jeff Tindle Birthday 

         8/30 Beth Thompson

        8/31 Jenny Thomas

9/2 Brooke Shivers Birthday 

9/3 Maria Grindstaff Birthday 

9/4 Jennifer Boyster 

9/6 Amy Rader Birthday 

9/7 Tammy Cook Birthday 

9/21 Laura Mullins 

9/24 Paige Fleetwood 

Events 

Aug. 31 Middle School Galileo ELA 

Sept 1- Middle School Galileo Math 

Pershing Night at Springfield Cardinals 

Sept 5- Labor Day (No School) 

Sept 12- 16- Book Fair

Sept 12- Health Fair 

Sept 13- Open House/SPS University 

Sept 20- Staff meeting (7:50-8:50) 

Sept 22- SPS Strategic Plan team on site 8am-5pm 

Sept-26-30th - Spirit Week 

End of Quarter

Mid Quarter- Sept 21 

End of Quarter-  Oct. 20th 

Growth Plans 

Teachers list below are step by step instructions on completing your growth plans for the 2022-2023 school year. Please access Perform and have your growth plan completed by September 30th. HERE is the slide deck with the updated Slide 16 and 17 with the language some of you were asking me about.

            

• Provide the following resources to staff members: 

• For Direct Reports (Employees being evaluated- share the below documents with those being evaluated using Perform platform. Please have them review prior to completing any forms in Perform. 

• Intro to Perform Video from Dr. Liz Cooper, Director of Human Resources

• SPS Evaluation Guidebook (Perform) for Educators- fluid document

• Getting Started with Perform- Evaluation Process- Teacher (Educator)

• Perform- Direct Report Quick Start Guide (“Direct Report” is individual being evaluated)

• Teacher Quick Start Guide

• Teacher Training Video: https://performancematters.wistia.com/medias/hcobo3xvd0

Perform Teacher Evaluation Training (BOY)- example provided by a principal (feel free to copy and update for your school and appropriate goals).

 

Growth Plan- Beginning of the Year Tutorial- Step 1 (step by step tutorial for direct report to enter in Perform)- tutorial for Direct Report (ex: Educator)

 

This years standards emphasis for the SPS are the following; 

1. Standard 2: Students Learning and Development 

1. Quality Indicator 3: Theory of Learning  

2. Standard 5: Positive Classroom Environment 

1. Quality Indicator 3: Classroom, school, and community culture 

3. Standard 7: Student Assessment and Data Analysis 

1. Quality Indicator 4: Effect of Instruction on individual/class learning 

Staff Meeting 

Our staff meeting will be Tuesday Sept 20th 7:50-8:50 I will send out the location tomorrow. We look forward to our time together. 

Elementary News

Elementary News can be found at the link below. Thank you Mrs. Frazier

https://www.smore.com/hxkw8

Team meeting with Rachel Bodoin Middle School 

This week’s team meeting with Rachel Bodoin will be on Friday the Sept. 23 instead of Thursday. You need to bring a device to this meeting. 

Galileo 

The IRT Analysis is complete for all levels of Galileo data.  We are working with Galileo to correct an error regarding accessing DL scores in kindergarten and first grade. Here are guides that can help access the Benchmark Performance Report: 

 

K/1 Work around (until fixed) for accessing DL scores

 

Benchmark Performance Report   

Parent Teacher Conferences

Parent Teacher Conference Schedule is listed below. We are flexing out the time worked on these days in order to be off on Oct. 31st. 

Tuesday Oct. 25th Thursday Oct. 27th 

7:30-8:30 am 7:30-8:30 am

4:15-7:15 pm 4:15-6:30 pm 

Spirit Week Middle School Madness 

Attention all Pershing staff:

 

• There is a need for game workers. Most of the volleyball games are covered but Coach Mitchell could use back up.  She is also looking to start getting workers lined out for basketball games 2nd and 3rd quarter.  Wrestling will also be 2nd quarter.

• $14 an hour (usually around 2.5-3 hours)

• More importantly, we can’t run the games without workers! So please help support our students

• Teamwork makes the dream work!  If we have several people willing to help, we wouldn’t need one single person very often (unless they wanted to work more).  Anyone who is already on payroll can work.  If you don’t know how to do something, we can teach you.  Also, if you know someone from another SPS school that would like to help us out, let Lindsey Mitchell know.

 

Compensation for elementary teachers covering classrooms during plan time

Elementary teachers who commit their plan time to cover for other teachers will be compensated for that time at $22.33 per hour, as allowed in the 2022-2023 salary schedule, Section 4 - Substitute and Temporary Staff Rates. This is the rate currently available for teachers at the secondary level and will also apply to elementary teacher coverage. 

 

Teachers must commit their plan time and must assume classroom teaching responsibilities in order to be compensated for the time. Principals will submit the coverage monthly for teachers to be paid. 

 

Strategic Plan Engagement 

Please be aware that we have a consultant from EGL Association in our building Thursday Sept 22nd 8am-5pm to visit with you, if you choose to engage. The consultant is interested in gathering information from SPS staff about what our district is doing well and what opportunities exist for improvement. This feedback will be used to help revise our district’s Strategic Plan.  If you are available, I encourage you to participate in this important process. You may come and go as you are able. Participation is also sought through this survey. If you are not available on that day but would like to participate in another in-person opportunity, please send a message to communications@spsmail.org to express your interest and other options may be available. Thank you!

 

Week 4 Update

 Sept. 11 Week 4 

Good evening Pershing Staff, I am super excited as we begin week 4 of the 2022-2023 school year. This past week we finished Galileo testing, Pershing sports teams started competition, and many teachers were able to help us out by hosting classes though their plan time as we work through a lack of available subs. All of these celebrations speak to our mission of being a safe community where students learn at high levels to be prepared for a global society. 

Good Things 

Community- Mrs. Elaine Farrar and Mrs. Darlene Kilgore did an amazing job filling in for Mrs. Mostyn and Mrs. Routh on Friday. 

Community/safety- Officer Ball taking his time to inform students the importance of walking on the correct side of the hall. 

High Levels of Learning- Mrs. Megan Lannholm led us as a staff through our BOY Galileo test. She did a wonderful job of helping us create an assessment atmosphere similar to what students will experience when taking the MAP test. 

Community- Our elementary friends participated in reading buddies. I spoke to 2 students that  is where Mrs. Nasby’s 4th grade class and they enjoyed going to Mrs. Stienke’s 1st grade class to help with reading. 

Community- Our Nurses have went out of their way to help Ms. Miller with a procedure that must occur in her classroom. Ms. Miller’s class has been short handed and needed just some extra help. They were willing to help and we appreciate them for going out of their way to provide a much needed help. 

Community- Mrs. Fleetwood was awarded the PBL Classroom Grant!!!!

SPS-University Sept 13 

SPS-University/Open House will be held at Pershing Sept 13th 5:30-7:30pm. This is a mandatory event for everyone. We look forward to engaging our Pershing Families as partners in educating the total student. Parents will participate in a couple of sessions, have opportunities to see what Pershing K-8 has to offer, and visit your classroom. Listed below are some suggested topics to have available for our families as they visit your classroom. 

• Your contact information and plan time 

• Priority Standards for your content 

• Grading information 

• How to make up missing work 

Parent Teacher Conference Late Night

 Will be on Tuesday 10/25 until 7:30. Many of you have asked for this date so that you can communicate with your families and perhaps go ahead and schedule them. Please let us know if you need further information. 

PLT Meeting Expectations Middle School 

There are 2 days set aside for Professional Learning Teams (PLT) to meet. This is a meeting between two teachers that teach the same subject (2-Science, 2-Math, 2-ELA, 2-Social Studies).Those days are Tuesday and Wednesday. The expectation is that we are meeting around 1 of the 4 questions 

• Question 1: What do we want student to learn (examples below) 

• Lesson Plans 

• Priority Standards 

• Changes to instruction 

• Learning targets/objectives 

• Proficiency Scales 

• Question 2: How do we know they learned it 

• Evidence of CFA (Common Formative Assessment) 

• Formative Assessments 

• Summative Assessments

• Question 3: What are we going to do if they did NOT learn it 

• Intervention Activities 

• Intervention Groups 

• Question 4: What are we going to do if they did learn it? 

• Extension activities 

• Extension groups

 

Galileo Testing 

We have successfully completed Galileo testing and I look forward to diving into the data with you as we assess our current reality. This universal screener has many possibilities and features that will allow us to assess our students on a level that is similar to the MAP test. Like all new items, we will be working to see how the features of Galileo can help support us in ensuring high levels of learning for all of our students. 

Staff Birthdays  

8/27 Jeff Tindle Birthday 

         8/30 Beth Thompson

        8/31 Jenny Thomas

9/2 Brooke Shivers Birthday 

9/3 Maria Grindstaff Birthday 

9/4 Jennifer Boyster 

9/6 Amy Rader Birthday 

9/7 Tammy Cook Birthday 

9/21 Laura Mullins 

9/24 Paige Fleetwood 

Events 

Aug. 31 Middle School Galileo ELA 

Sept 1- Middle School Galileo Math 

Pershing Night at Springfield Cardinals 

Sept 5- Labor Day (No School) 

Sept 12- 16- Book Fair

Sept 12- Health Fair 

Sept 13- Open House/SPS University 

Sept 20- Staff meeting (7:50-8:50) 

Lets have a wonderful week!!!! 

Mr. Wells