Teachers in Action
Writing Teachers Demonstrating Excellence
As a turnaround school, we have had intense focus on improving reading and math scores at Haskin Elementary. This year, we will continue this effort, but we will also be adding a necessary focus: improve writing scores. Thanks so much to Christy Mikeljack, Jeri Trujillo and Colleen Hurst for giving up early mornings to begin this work! Collectively, they will be looking at different ways to improve writing instruction in 2nd through 5th grades. They will be meeting again next week to begin creating a continuum (K-5) of writing skills. They will also be looking at creating a School Wide Writing Equity/Effectiveness Prompt (SWEEP). Along with S.W.E.E.P., they will be creating The Viking 5, to address draft book expectations. As if this were not enough, they will also be addressing how to effectively teach 6-traits of writing. Thanks for going above and beyond for our students!
Lindamood-Bell Intervention Begins
Lindamood-Bell intervention groups and After School Academy are well underway. This year, due to adjustments in the schedule, we are able to provide this intervention to many more students than ever before. Last year, we served just over 50 students from grades 3 -5 in small intervention groups. We also had one after-school group of 5 first-grade boys. This year, we are serving 76 students in first- through fifth-grades! Intervening with younger students, who may be only a year or so behind in reading, offers the best possible opportunity to bring them up to grade-level. Providing this intervention to all of these students requires a great deal of effort and it simply could not happen with the commitment of many people who use their training and talent to help these students. All classroom teachers provide whole-group instruction to their students. In addition, we would like to recognize the following people who teach small groups during the day and/or after school: Lu Ortega, Sharon Windhorst, John Noriega, Cheryl Garcia, Shelly Lopez, Chris Hintz, Andy Hawkins, Gabriel Swanson, Julie Weatherford, Jessica Stevens, Honey Stecken, Zoraya Velasquez, Kathy Garcia, Carla Vigil, and Sherry Pearson. Your efforts are making a tremendous difference to our students. Thank you so much for your work.
As a turnaround school, we have had intense focus on improving reading and math scores at Haskin Elementary. This year, we will continue this effort, but we will also be adding a necessary focus: improve writing scores. Thanks so much to Christy Mikeljack, Jeri Trujillo and Colleen Hurst for giving up early mornings to begin this work! Collectively, they will be looking at different ways to improve writing instruction in 2nd through 5th grades. They will be meeting again next week to begin creating a continuum (K-5) of writing skills. They will also be looking at creating a School Wide Writing Equity/Effectiveness Prompt (SWEEP). Along with S.W.E.E.P., they will be creating The Viking 5, to address draft book expectations. As if this were not enough, they will also be addressing how to effectively teach 6-traits of writing. Thanks for going above and beyond for our students!
Lindamood-Bell Intervention Begins
Lindamood-Bell intervention groups and After School Academy are well underway. This year, due to adjustments in the schedule, we are able to provide this intervention to many more students than ever before. Last year, we served just over 50 students from grades 3 -5 in small intervention groups. We also had one after-school group of 5 first-grade boys. This year, we are serving 76 students in first- through fifth-grades! Intervening with younger students, who may be only a year or so behind in reading, offers the best possible opportunity to bring them up to grade-level. Providing this intervention to all of these students requires a great deal of effort and it simply could not happen with the commitment of many people who use their training and talent to help these students. All classroom teachers provide whole-group instruction to their students. In addition, we would like to recognize the following people who teach small groups during the day and/or after school: Lu Ortega, Sharon Windhorst, John Noriega, Cheryl Garcia, Shelly Lopez, Chris Hintz, Andy Hawkins, Gabriel Swanson, Julie Weatherford, Jessica Stevens, Honey Stecken, Zoraya Velasquez, Kathy Garcia, Carla Vigil, and Sherry Pearson. Your efforts are making a tremendous difference to our students. Thank you so much for your work.
Students in Action
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Students at Haskin continue to have fun on the new playground. While there are a lot different things to do on the playground, playing there does require students to stand in line, at times, and wait their turn. Our students are doing a tremendous job of this. Whether it is waiting to cross the overhead bars, or lining up to get on the X-Wave, our students have demonstrated good manners and patience with each other. A prime example of this is the way they take turns giving each other a spin on the Tornado. Take a look at this video!
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Fourth-Graders Say Goodbye to a friend |
Students in 4th grade had a friend leave them moving to Oklahoma. Our students took some time to write heartfelt letters to let her know she would make friends, she would be welcomed and that they could all keep in touch by being pen-pals. They shared cookies and serenaded her with a beautiful song! |
Core beliefs in Action
Quality planning, instruction, and assessments lead to high achievement for ALL students
As we all know, we are charged with focusing our efforts on the items that are written in our district’s Unified Improvement Plan. This plan is a way to guide our district to success. One of the goals from the plan states that we must “Obtain a guaranteed and viable K-12 curriculum and ensure it is being taught effectively to all students.” We are fortunate to have a guaranteed and viable curriculum that is being implemented at every level. We are also fortunate that we have had Kagan training that assists our efforts to teach effectively by increasing student engagement. As an Elementary School, we are now ready to begin putting a few more pieces together.
Last year, we focused a lot of our efforts on videotaping, reflecting on our instruction and then adjusting our instruction based on what we saw. This year, our unified improvement plan states that “Teachers will become more reflective practitioners by agreeing to participate in instructional walks with principals and instructional coaches for the purpose of observing other teachers and to offer instructional feedback to peers.” What does this mean? It means that we will begin to implement instructional walks with all teachers. What does an instructional walk look like? Each classroom teacher will be asked to accompany an administrator on some walkthroughs and offer feedback to peers. What is the importance of this? We must begin to rely on each other to improve the level of quality of teaching/learning. At Haskin Elementary, we have experts on classroom management, student engagement, instructional planning, etc. It is important to share these amazing skills with our peers for the benefit of students. In doing so, this will reflect our core belief that “Quality planning, instruction, and assessments lead to high achievement for ALL students.”
Kathy Kulp, Principal
Sarah Vance, Instructional Coach
Sarah Vance, Instructional Coach