On Friday, October 21, remember to say...

to Jeff, Matt, Natalie, and Rachelle! They are ROCK STARS and we are all so lucky to work with them!

For all those who do Medicaid billing, this is your reminder to do it! We need you to please stay on top of this!!! THANK YOU!!!! 😁

If you have no idea what this means...you don't have to do it! YAY!!!!

Oner Medrano for taking over as lead teacher in our ILP B program while Ryan was on leave.

and

Bobby Warneke for going above and beyond for our ILP B kids in partnering with Oner!

-From Jeff Sefcik (Stanton Principal)

Kudos to Lynn Smolen, Thank you for being on the front lines with me; I saw you subbing ILP A supported today ( which you have done many times) , and the kids were all smiles and excited to learn from you. Thank you for being you!

and

Thank you Chris Brown for being you. I could not have taught ILPA without you. The kids are so lucky to have you.

and

Thank you Deb Marienau for all your support this week. I appreciate you so much.

and

Thank you to the first grade team for being on top of things and planning an amazing field trip for the students.

and

Thank you to Nicole Mild for your fantastic smiley face idea to help students with learning how to read.

and

Thank you to Joan Kantenwein for always supporting me and helping me with anything I need. You ate truly amazing.

and

Thank you to Kim Leable for everything you do for all kids. I am so excited to collaborate with you on a student that has complex needs.

and

Thank you Ashley Wydra for everything you do with all of your students. You're awesome.

and

Thank you Sherry Tietjen for all you help and support. You are amazing and you make such a difference. Thank you for being you.

and

Thank you Mike Fefferman for being you. Your guidance and influence on students is fantastic.

-From Cathy Jawnyj (K/1 Special Education case manager at Lotus)

Thank you Fred Miller for inviting me to watch your class performances of a Reader's Theatre; it was so much fun to watch the students get into character!

and

Shout out to Katie Jalove-Fillippeli for doing "Flashlight Fridays" and getting the students excited about reading in the dark!

and

To Georgette Franco and the entire Stanton Kitchen Staff for getting the kids excited about National School Lunch Week with cute activities throughout the week!

-From Stephanie Kaye (Instructional Coach at Stanton)

Colleen Robinson-

Thank you Colleen for taking your time outside of work to make adaptations for seating for your student! It is so very much appreciated by me! I could not have done it without you! Your student is lucky to have you! And I am lucky you were assigned to him! I cannot thank you enough!!!!

-From Stephanie Silverman (Physical Therapist)

Thank you to everyone who helped out with Donuts and Dudes last week! It was a huge turnout, bigger than expected. The PTA appreciates all your help and flexibility with parking, students being late, etc.

and

Thank you to my amazing Specials Team! They have been so helpful and thinking outside the box for me and helping create positive adaptations and modifications for kiddos in STEM! You rock!!

and

Thank you to KIM for going above and beyond with PBIS! You are a true rockstar. Thanks for being such a great advocate.

and

Thank you to 3rd-grade team for including me in your planning for reading groups. And always answer questions when I have a ton and being flexible with my schedule.

and

Thank you Sue for always being on top of everything when it comes to LOTUS everything! Always helping out the PTA. You are a godsend and don't know what we would do without you!

-From Victoria Miller (STEM teacher at Lotus)

Kudos to Kelly Capp for unpacking, labeling and organizing all of the 5th grade ARC supplies.

-From Michele Burgess (Admin Assistant at Stanton)

I would love to give a kudos shoutout to Erin Connolly-Jordt. Today I subbed in her classroom for music and I was blown away at the students ability to clap out the rhythmic beats in the videos! As a retired band member myself, I was even struggling to keep up with them! The students ended up giving ME pointers on how to clap out the beats and how long to hold them for! We had a BLAST and I left the classroom feeling so thankful that our school has such a ROCKIN' music program! Thank you Erin, for everything you do!

-From Kendra Logar (1st grade teacher at Lotus)

Huge Thank you to everyone who helped with my class over the past 2 weeks! I appreciate how everyone pitched in to remind me to breath when I needed it. Special Thank you Cathy Jawnyj!

-From Chris Brown (Paraprofessional and Rock Star in ILP-A)

Thank you Norm for all your help in setting up our office space AGAIN!!!! We really appreciate all you do!
and
Thank you Mike Szotek and Michele Burgess for all the time and effort you put into the Fastbridge SAEBRS onboarding! Your persistence and patience with troubleshooting technology issues amazes me!

~Kim Mack (Social Worker, Stanton)

Thank you to everyone for all your kindness and handling things while I was out sick last week.

-From Heather (Your very grateful and blessed Superintendent)

Please send me your kudos for colleagues each week! I'll happily post them in this section!

Here's a link to all the ideas gathered for the HOW and WHY of the Friz 5...I'll keep adding as great ideas come forward.

Thanks to everyone for continuing to commit to the Friz 5 in your daily practices. I'm re-reading the book Ruthless Equity (fabulous, BTW) and sticking to these practices IS a path to equity...making sure kids are connected, clear on what they are to do, get feedback and support, and--most importantly--have access to grade level learning targets and assignments!

OCTOBER 26 EARLY RELEASE

Just a reminder that time is alloted for everyone to work on Global Compliance requirements as well as a KnowBe4 training during CT time on 10/26. You'll receive the link for the KnowBe4 training that week. Thanks for doing these...I know they can be a pain, but they also keep us current in knowledge and compliant for our insurance providers!!!!

EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAM (EAP)

Attached to this week's Monday Memo email, you'll find an updated access flyer for the EAP program. Remember that this is FREE to all employees to provide a whole bunch of different supports (examples: mental health, finances, quitting smoking, etc.). ANY access of EAP is completely confidential. If you need any assistance or have questions, please reach out to Maddie Mercado.

BILINGUAL FAMILY LIAISON

Eli Panchi has resigned her position, and we are now looking for a new Bilingual Family Liaison. Please reach out to me, your principal, or Lynn Smolen for any interpretation/translation needs.

EXCLUSIONS

FYI, starting Tuesday, students who are not in compliance with physicals/immunizations/medical documentation will be excluded until they are in compliance. Many thanks to our nurses Sharon Preskill and Lora Viers for all their work on this. If you have any questions, please reach out to them.

OCTOBER WELLNESS CALENDAR

Thanks to Laura Livesay and Matt Shannon for putting together this October Wellness Calendar and for letting me share it with everyone!

Ohhh...Marshall Memo had this summary of an article about how to NOT burn out students' (or adults'!!!) working memory. I love these quick reminders...

How to Avoid Overloading Students’ Working Memory

In this Edutopia article, teacher/researcher Ian Kelleher says students’ working memory – their mental sketchpad – is a “huge bottleneck to learning.” That’s because the amount of real-time information the human brain can handle – its cognitive load – is only three to five items for 10-20 seconds. If teachers overload students’ working memory, “learning is hard or impossible.” Students may seem to be understanding during a lesson, but if there’s cognitive overload, very little will make it into long-term memory.

The key to learning that lasts, says Kelleher, is reducing extraneous cognitive load and providing temporary scaffolding. “Anything that isn’t intrinsic to the learning task itself, or isn’t part of the process of helping it stick in students’ long-term memory, is extraneous cognitive load,” he says. His suggestions:

1. Keep assignments and directions clear and simple. This is especially important with homework, when students are mostly on their own. “Remember that your students are novice learners in the subject, whereas you’re an expert,” says Kelleher. With assignments:

Number each step.
Make sure students have easy access to the resources they need.
Be sure that prerequisite knowledge and skills have been mastered.
Limit the ways students can submit their work.
Tightly align homework assignments with class work.
Remember that with homework, quality is more important than quantity.

2. Improve the classroom work environment. Eliminating distracting noise is part of Classroom Management 101, and that extends to music. “If you want to play music in class,” says Kelleher, “deliberately choose when, knowing that for some students it will add significant cognitive load.” The bottom line: music should reduce stress and improve attention. It’s also helpful to avoid visual clutter in the classroom. “Everything there should have a purpose,” says Kelleher. “Design, don’t decorate. Have less on show at once, and rotate it as the year goes on.”

3. Present visual content information effectively. Kelleher agrees with Rich Mayer’s principles of multimedia learning:

Provide only the text and visuals the learner needs, as economically as possible.
Give students verbal cues on what to look at; don’t make assumptions.
Minimize the amount of text, and don’t read slides out loud, which can create cognitive overload. “Prompt students to read the text,” says Kelleher, “and give them time to do so with you being silent.”
Use humor with caution, and only when it amplifies the idea being taught. It’s not good if students remember a cartoon or funny image rather than the content.

4. Nurture each student’s sense of belonging. “For many students, for many reasons, much of their active working memory may be taken up with things not related to the topic of your class,” says Kelleher. “To what extent do you help each student feel safe, build their trust, and feel that their unique story matters in your class? … To what extent do you work to eliminate identity threat in all its forms? To what extent do you help build each student’s sense of social belonging?” It’s wise to invest time early in the school year to get to know students, help them get to know each other, and establish routines and rituals that make for a safe, predictable culture.

5. Build in temporary scaffolds. “These help students to offload some of their thinking onto paper,” says Kelleher, “so that they have less ‘new stuff’ to hold in their working memory at once.” Here are some examples, each faded over time and brought back when necessary:

Visual planning sheets to help students organize their thinking. Students might be explicitly told that these will help free up space in active working memory so they can think more deeply.
For a writing assignment early in the year, students are allowed to have note cards with quotations to help them focus on mechanics and usage.
In a Spanish class, students make a help sheet on difficult verb tenses.
In a physics class, students use an equation sheet early on.
With a multi-week project, students have a single-column rubric for check-ins.
When launching a new curriculum unit, plan short activities to help students “awaken” and connect their prior knowledge and experience.

“How to Reduce the Cognitive Load on Students During Lessons” by Ian Kelleher in Edutopia, September 16, 2022

Thanks to everyone for your feedback! Erica and Stephanie are sending out Lotus- and Stanton-specific supports, but I'll also post the link to a folder containing them all here so they are easy to find, everyone can see everything, and you're reminded to check them out!