First Week of School

Happy First Week of School 

I am excited to be with each of you as we journey together through this school 2024-2025 year.  As we start the new school year remember, what we spend time now to teach will help to save time later. I know we will have a wonderful 1st week of school. 

 

Good things 

Instructional 

Kick-Off 2024 Slide Deck

Professional Learning Teams (PLT’s) 

This week schedule will look like the following

Elementary

August 29th, curriculum leaders will be here to lead in learning around the implementation of Proficiency Scales during rise and shine.  

Middle School

Will meet in room 214 

Monday-Thursday through the month of August then transition to a Monday, Tuesday, Thursday in September. 

• August 29th, curriculum leaders will be here to lead in learning around the implementation of Proficiency Scales during PLT's 

September  Staff Meeting 

September 5: SPS U/Open house 5-7pm 

September 24: Committees 7:30-8:30 am 

Grading Expectations Reminder

Pershing Grading expectations is at least 2 grades per week entered into Canvas 

Lesson Plans and Template 

Some of you asked for me to send a visual of what a sample lesson plan could look like. Below is attached a lesson plan of the lesson I taught and some possible revisions I thought of during and after the lesson. 

The lesson plan is a necessary practice to ensure the execution of a successful lesson. With initial, systematic, action around the basic elements of effective teaching one can maximize that amount of learning that is achieved. 

Sample lesson from Mr. Wells (LINK HERE)

Operational 

Safe Schools 

Begin now working on your Safe Schools Vector training. The 1st deadline will be Oct. 21st, 2024. Please don’t let this date sneak up on you. 

Important Date

Sept 5- SPS University
Sept. 13- Middle School Madness
Sept. 24- Fall Pictures

August Birthdays

1- Michael McClure, Dylan Johnson 

3- Juliana Squire 

13- Jeanne McDonald 

14- Clarissa Pohlman 

18- Andrea Nasby 

19- Paul Satterfield 

21- Sarah Knedgen 

27- Jeff Tindle 

Happy New School Year

 

Welcome Back

Good morning Pershing Family, I am extremely excited to welcome you all back for the 2024-2025 School year. I trust that each of you had a fun and relaxing summer with the opportunity to recharge with family. It is my belief that each of you are at the right place and for the right time as we provide a world class education to all students that come through our doors. For it is our Pershing mission that we are a safe community where all students learn at high levels being prepared for a global society. I look forward to celebrating, learning, and growing together as we work to live out the mission.

Below you will find the schedule of events for the week that will include SPS district kickoff, Teach Forward and up to 11 hours of site professional learning (per CBA), and time to work in your classrooms.

I look forward to seeing you all as we kick-off the 2024-2025 school year Monday August 12th, 8:30-11:30 am in the Pershing cafeteria. Breakfast will be served from 7:50-8:30 am. Also, please take the time to fill out the information form attached below.

Staff Information FORM (If you can please fill out by Monday 8/5/24 as we try to have correct shirt sizes for all staff)

See you soon,


Mr. Wells

Dates	Actions
August 12 (8:30-4pm)	Pershing Kick-Off 8:30-11:30 am  Breakfast at 7:50 am  Work in classrooms the rest of the day
August 13 (8:30-4pm)	District Kick-Off 8:30-11am  Great Southern Bank Arena (doors open at 7:45 am)  Please wear Pershing Black Shirt. Work in classrooms/ Team meetings schedule of team meetings TBA.
August 14 (8:30-4pm)	Teach Forward/Work in classrooms. Check email for designated areas to report.  7th and 8th grade Walk-About 4pm-5pm
August 15 (8:30-4pm)	Pershing Kick-Off 8:30-11:30 am  Donuts and Coffee 7:50 am  Lunch Provided  Work in classrooms the rest of the day Elementary Meet the Teacher/6th Grade Orientation 4:30-5:30 pm  6th Grade Orientation 5:30 pm
August 16 (8:30-4pm)	Pershing Kick-Off 8:30-11:30 am  Breakfast Provided by PTSA @ 8 am  Work in classrooms the rest of the day

Year at a Glance- Important Dates - HERE

Work Calendars- HERE

2024-2025 SPS Calendar 

May 20

Good things 

It’s hard to believe we have made it to the end of another school year. As we talked about in PLT’s last week, we have accomplished a lot and we look forward to building upon those accomplishments. The message for this week is to simply finish strong. Everyday this week we have things going on that are outside of the normal school day, however, keep holding students accountable to the building expectations we have set. If we continue to do that we will have a great week.

Kick-Off Slides 2023 

Day 3- Kick-off Slides 

Day 2- Kick-off Slides 

Day 1 - Kick-off Slides 

Why collaborate- presentation HERE

October Staff Meeting Slides - HERE

December Staff Meeting Slides - HERE 

How to mitigate and respond to name-calling

January 3rd Staff Meeting - HERE

Feb Staff meeting 

Chunking/Processing 

Instructional 

Professional Learning Teams (PLT’s) 

This week schedule will look like the following

Elementary

Middle School

NO PLT'S THIS WEEK 

Science- Julie McClure’s room 

ELA- Christina Burt’s room 

Social Studies- Kevin Kleiner’s room 

Math- Maria Grindstaff’s room

Elementary- Mrs. Fleetwood's room

May  Staff Meeting 

May 14th- Whole Group in Library 7:30-8:30 am 

Map Testing Schedule

8th Grade MAP Schedule

7th Grade MAP Schedule

6th Grade MAP Schedule

MAP Adjusted Bell Schedule 23-24

Grading Expectations Reminder

Pershing Grading expectations is at least 2 grades per week entered into Eschool.

Mid-Quarter Dates

September 22

November 17

February 2

April 19 

GOCSD Innovation Summit

GOCSD provides an excellent conference each year for regional school districts.  This year GOCSD Innovation Summit will be held August 1-2 at the Branson Convention Center. SPS has room for up to 200 teachers, coaches, and leaders to attend.  Beat the rush by registering today.  When you register, please use your school email address rather than allowing the system to pull your Google account.  

 Summer Professional Learning

There are many professional learning opportunities available in Kickup.  View this quick guide to support you as you explore and sign up for learning.  In addition to seated learning, there are book study options. View this overview of the texts offered and then sign up in Kickup under Self-Paced Courses.

Professional Learning

The intention of the Site Professional Learning Log is to give credit to professional learning that you have done at our site that is not tracked through district sign-in sheets. This year the process has changed and lives in Kickup.

In place of signing and turning in your Site Professional Learning Log, confirm your attendance of completion of at least 21 hours of site learning by using this link to Kickup. Complete this task by Tuesday, April 30. If you are short hours, let me know. If you have tracked your hours on paper this year, that document is for your records. Questions? Feel free to reach out to me or to Martha Doennig (mdoennig@spsmail.org) in the Department of Professional Learning.

Operational 

If you would like to have summer work opportunities with SPS 

• Summer work opportunities 

MS Device Collection 

We will collect devices this week. Below are the action steps I need everyone to complete.

8th Grade Student: Tuesday during 8th hour 

6th and 7th Grade: Wednesday during 8th hour 

• Submit a roster/Inventory of Chromebooks collected to Coach Obrien so that we can contact parents of missing devices
• Noting damaged, missing, etc..
• Who turned device in and who did not 
• Have students to remove all stickers from devices as best as they can
• This includes the student label sticker
• No device will be sent home or distributed after Wednesday. 

ATTENDANCE CELEBRATION SCHEDULE 

Tuesday- Attendance Celebration

9:15-11:15- 6th Grade

11:20-1:20- 8th Grade

1:30-3:30- 7th Grade

*If you have these kids at this time, supervise them outside. Thank you! : )

Explore @ Pershing 

Pershing will be one of the host sites for explore (summer school) for the month of June. If you have personal belongings or things that you do not want tampered with , please ensure those things are put up.

BACK to School Grants 

Back to School Grant applications are now open!

The Back to School Grant program is the Foundation for SPS’s yearly grant cycle that provides teachers the opportunity to apply for funds that meet needs in the areas of innovation, engagement, and collaboration. Grant winners are selected by committees made up of the Foundation’s board members, donors, and community members.

All certified district employees are eligible to apply! Let those at your school know about this great opportunity! The deadline to apply is June 21, 2024, but don’t put it off. Apply TODAY!

Here’s the link to all of the guidelines, categories of grants, and a list of the criteria used for selecting the winning applications: https://www.supportsps.org/back-school-grant-application/

This year’s grants will be awarded on September 13, 2024!!

 

Pershing Shout Out 

This is a way for you to celebrate your colleagues by sharing with the school the great things you witness them doing. Click the link below to send in a celebration. We will publish celebrations weekly in the blog.

Nominate them HERE

Positive Office Referrals- LINK

Please send in Positive Office Referrals the link is above and permanently to the right of the page. 

 

Elementary Parent Newsletter 

https://secure.smore.com/n/1gwax

Important Dates 

MAY Birthdays

1- Debby Grant 

3- Kara Martin 

29- Darlene Kilgore

May Dates 

14- Orchestra Concert 6 pm 

14- Staff Meeting (7:30-8:30) 

15- 8th Grade Field trip- Wilsons Creek 

16- Spring Band Concert 

17- Music Dept. Silver Dollar City 

20- NJHS Silver Dollar City 

20- Elementary Field Day 

21- Attendance Celebration 

21- 5th Promotion 2:45 pm 

21- Kindergarten Promotion 6 pm 

22- 8th Grade Celebration (2 pm) 

23- 8th Grade Promotion 

    * Team Red 9:30 am 

    * Team Silver 10:30 am 

23- Last Day of School