Kudos to Kaitlyn Goorsky, Liz Andersen, and Walter Nickles (SS teachers at Stanton) for creating meaningful learning experiences for their students on 9/11. I enjoyed discussing with your classes!
-From Natalie Molidor (Instructional Coach at Stanton)
Thank you Brittany Miller for helping me with my bulletin board and always giving me some amazing ideas! Your creativity amazes me!
and
Thank you Victoria Miller and Gayle McManamon for taking time out of your day to help me with a friend in PE who needs a little bit extra support!
and
Mr. Russ and Donny,
You both are always willing to help with anything PE needs! I couldn’t do my job without you guys! Thank you!
-From Amber Mysliwiec (PE Teacher at Lotus)
A big thank you to Mary Santi and Cortnee Snell for facilitating great "wrap-around discussions" for our IEP-entitled students during SST this week!
and
Kudos to the prek team for your dedication and commitment to inclusive practices! Being a part of your rich discussions and problem-solving has been so rewarding!
-From Erica Barraza (Instructional Coach at Lotus)
Kudos to Mike for adding those cable clips in our Chromebook carts. They have been so helpful with keeping those cords tucked away!
3rd grade really appreciates you for doing that!
-From Mollie Herchenbach and team :)
Thank you to all the support specialists for presenting at the agenda meeting on the what and why behind their positions: Erica Barraza, Amanda Lorenz, Ellen Stirrat, Joan Kantenwein, Joseph Fernandez, Abbey Kadera and Kim Leable
and
Thank you to Prek for your presentation to the staff on recess structures! It was awesome to hear how it is an extension of your learning, goal to all students engaged and participating and how supportive all the teachers are in the process with visuals and spreading out around the playground for safety and accessibility to students
and
Ellie and Nicole for offering so much support during our reset room times
and
Allie Mixon for assisting in submitting Indicator 6 data Inclusive Processes for ECSE/Prek
-From Natalie Udstuen (Assistant Principal at Lotus)
All of our coaches and club sponsors...
Dan Olson and Kaitlyn Goorsky - Soccer
Laura Livesay and Marla Walinski - Cross Country
Jill Becmer and Leah Falster - Girls Volleyball
Oner Medrano and Mark Perlman - Basketball Clinic
Lemar Wilson - Anime Club
Lemar Wilson - Art Club
Mark Perlman - Astronomy Club
Mark Perlman - Pokemon Club
Tim Yoder - Gaming Club
Betty Cwiak - Book Club
Everyone that played a role in a successful MAP Testing week. From scheduling, to small groups, to breaks and so on..........Great job everyone!! The students were focused on doing their best!
-From Jeff Sefcik (Principal at Stanton)
Shout out to the transportation team this week for all pitching in to get our students to school and home safely!!!
Shout out to Georgette Franco for helping at the very last minute to ride a bus in the morning to help a Safeway sub driver find their way.
Shout out to the Big Hollow School District, Jackie, Jessica, Mr. Gold - Thank you very much for helping us in our time of need for transportation. You ROCK and we are extremely thankful!!!
Shout Out to Jill, Michelle, Sue, and Paula for all the communication and help with transport!
-From Andrea DeMatteo--Your very grateful Operations Coordinator
A BIG Thank You to Mike Szotek for his quick action with our promethean board so our littlest learners could have engaging experiences with less distraction. We appreciate your fast action to make our board exciting but less of a toy by turning off the touch access. We appreciate you!
and
Fiona, Stephanie, Lisa, Ellie, Allie, Kim and Gianna: Thank you for being so open to share ideas and thoughts with. I look forward to our weekly meetings because I feel appreciated, listened to and I always feel like my voice matters. I am beyond thankful to work with you. I appreciate all you do, and your compassion for your craft.
and
Mr. Eddie, we love you! You always make sure to bring a smile, kind conversation and your heart in all you do. ECSE is beyond thankful for all you do to keep our room safe and clean for the variety of learners who walk, crawl and explore. Thank you for being you!
and
Mr. Russ and Mr. Tim stepped in to make sure the ECSE room was clean by vacuuming and washing the floors when Eddie was not in attendance. Your kindness is so appreciated, and we thank you.
and
Michelle, Mary and Ben: Thank you for coming together to share input and resources to create meaningful visual connections for all of the pre-k as a whole. Your insight, inspiration and collaboration helps to make rules clear and concise. Your work is incredibly important and your efforts are appreciated and noted. Thank you for all you do. You presented a fantastic presentation to all the staff, and you all ROCKED it!
and
Linda, Kate, Kristine and Mia: You all have been so wonderful to work with. Thank you for being incredibly flexible, positive, compassionate and receptive to the various ways we participate each and every day. I am so thrilled to have you as part of our ECSE Family.
and
Thank you Sharon for sharing the file system that I admired on your desk. "One person's trash is another person's treasure"....we are thrilled to use the old filing system as an adaptive song book for all learners to touch and explore. You inspired us to create an adaptive device for all and we are so appreciative for your generosity.
-From Erin Donovan (ECSE Teacher at Lotus)
Mary Foersterling.
A huge thanks for your quick response and such a detailed and thorough Preschool Family Report for the student I requested. The information in your report is incredibly helpful!
-From Kim Rauchfuss (School Psychologist)
I would like to give a huge shoutout to Matt for helping me out on Friday, it was a very tough day and he continue to check in on me. I also would like to thank Paula and Sue for always answering my calls and assisting me on Friday. Also a huge shoutout to Victoria for being in the right place at the right time and jumping right in to help me out on Friday. Thank you to Misty for helping me at the end of the day so I could be in the room with my class. Also go my amazing mentor Nicole for texting me after school today to check in on me after my day. I can truly say I chose the right place work and have such amazing coworkers who are always willing to help.
-From Adisyn Illg (Permanent Sub at Lotus)
To:
Victoria Miller for doing some real heavy lifting for our PTA.
Kelly Roland, Kim VanHoorelbeke, and Natalie Udstuen for being at the PTA meeting.
Kim Husko and the Smeigh family for coming to Braden’s football game on Saturday morning! That meant a lot...sorry we ended in a crappy tie!
-From Heather 😍
In this Elementary School Journal article, Elizabeth Stevens (University of Kansas),
Philip Capin, Elizabeth Swanson, and Sharon Vaughn (University of Texas/Austin), and Alicia
Stewart (University of North Carolina/Charlotte) report on the types of feedback that 33 Texas
fourth-grade teachers gave their students during social studies lessons (which were mostly
PowerPoint presentations accompanied by class discussions):
- Repeating students’ answers (39.8%)
- Positive comments, mostly unspecific – e.g., “That’s right.” (32.2%)
- Corrections, mostly unspecific – e.g., “Incorrect.” (11.8%)
- Praise, mostly general – for example, “Great job” (15.6%)
- Positive comments combined with corrections – (0.5%)
The researchers note that there was considerable variation among teachers: one teacher
repeated students’ answers 65 times while another did so only once; one teacher praised
students 28 times while another provided no praise.
Feedback is a research-proven way to improve student learning, say Stevens et al., “the
vehicle through which teachers support students in narrowing the gap between their current
understanding and the intended learning goal.” But in these classrooms, the feedback many
students were getting was suboptimal.
establish a colony in Texas?” Student: “Stephen F. Austin.” Teacher: “Stephen F. Austin”) has
problems: “Repeating a student’s answer does not provide clear information to the student on
the accuracy of the response,” say the researchers. “For students with learning disabilities or
English learners, it may be especially important to remove this guesswork by providing direct,
immediate, and concise information while students learn content in general education settings.”
Stevens and her colleagues are also concerned about the non-specific nature of most
teachers’ praise, positive comments, and corrections, and the way these responses focused
more on the student than on the task or subject matter and the self-regulation skills students
need to develop. The feedback conveyed by most of these teachers doesn’t tell the student why their answer is right or wrong, the process they used or didn’t use, and “does not communicate information regarding how the student is doing and where they need to go next.”
Stevens et al. provide examples of teacher feedback that focuses students on their goal,
the instructional task, learning strategies, and self-regulation skills:
- That’s correct. You identified the most important events leading up the battle.
- I like how you used the glossary in your textbook to find the definition of “culture.”
- You’ve been working on spelling social studies words correctly. I like how you went
back and checked each of your words to be sure you spelled them correctly.
- Teacher: What was the battle called? Student: The Texas Revolution. Teacher: No, look
at the paragraph in your textbook to find the name of the battle.
- Remember that we are working on writing complete sentences.
- You identified two of the concerns Texans felt about the annexation of Texas. Go back
and reread to find the third concern.
“Our findings,” conclude the researchers, “illustrate the need for teachers to have a
better understanding of the levels of feedback, the direction of feedback, and how and when to
use feedback to improve students’ understanding… One way to accomplish this might be
through teacher study teams or professional learning communities in which teachers (a) learn
about the level and direction of feedback; (b) reflect on their use of feedback through video
analysis; (c) collaborate with each other on ways to improve the level and specificity of
feedback (e.g., combine positive feedback with corrective feedback, use positive specific
feedback targeting the task or process instead of unspecific positive feedback or praise); and
(d) set goals for using specific types of feedback.” Teachers should also increase their use of
project-based and team-based learning to create more opportunities for higher-level feedback.
Classrooms to Inform Teacher Preparation” by Elizabeth Stevens, Philip Capin, Alicia
2023 (Vol. 124, #1, pp. 109-128); Stevens can be reached at lizstevens@ku.edu .
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Medicaid Billing
You know who you are...please be sure to document your billable hours. This generates a TON of funding for our Special Education programming!
My Lotus adopted classroom is Ashley Wydra's Kindergarten class. On Monday, I got to join them for the first time for journal writing. When Ashley introduced me and then started talking about the kids' journals and they started to work, we had the predictable but still hilarious, out of nowhere comments like:
"I have a sister!" (no one was talking about their siblings)
"I don't have a journal" (they had never used their journals until that day...and the journals were in their chair pouches)
"Who are you?" (to me immediately after Ashley and I had told them who I was)
"Is that REALLY your hair color?" (when clearly it is not)
I swear...Kindergarten is a JOY. I am also more certain that ever that I do NOT have the patience to be a Kindergarten teacher. It's sure a fun place to visit, though!
