This week for PLC's we had a presentation by our RTI (Response to Intervention) leaders.  As a school we have been fine tuning our interventions for students who are below grade level or aren't making the progress we as educators would like to see.  We discussed all the types of interventions we currently use and made charts to share with each other.  It was great to see the variety and depth to which we go in order to support our students each day.  The RTI group also presented information from the district about the difference between varying levels of interventions and explanations about each of them.  It was great to have the opportunity to ask any question we may have had about the process and also to gain ideas from each other.  We have such a talented and supportive staff here at Bill Roberts that it's great to get the time to collaborate!

This week the SLT (Staff Leadership Team) presented information on the district PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge) Modules.  We looked at tying the leap framework and writing standard two into our practices and instruction in all content areas.  Teachers shared writing from their classrooms and were able to reflect and discuss with peers what is going well and gain ideas from each other on how to incorporate them into future plans.  We then sat with grade level teams to plan a specific lesson to use in the coming weeks in which we incorporated a new ideas that we have learned from our professional development book (Making Thinking Visible), discussions with other teachers or other resources. 
Finally, we looked at our T-CAP data from the past few years to see what we noticed or what stood out to us as trends.  We then wrote a statement about those observations so that in the future we can take that information and use it to plan where to focus and collaborate as a school.

Today we did not have our typical PLC meetings as it was a district wide assessment day.  Teachers spent the day DRA testing students, grading our benchmark testing from the week and compiling data.  These are district tests that give us information on where students are academically.  We also administered M-Cap and M-Comp testing in math to help us get a clearer picture on student progress. 

This week we were joined by Michelle Jones from PEBC for our professional development.  As a school we are focusing on our thinking strategy routines this year through a book study on "Making Thinking Visible" by Ron Ritchhart. 

You will begin to notice a lot of work up in the hallways around writing and the thinking strategies.  Our main hallway has a wonderful display to show the development of writing throughout the grades, beginning from ECE and continuing through 8th grade.

This week we were given an amazing opportunity to talk to our students teachers from last year.  They were able to provide us with strategies, test scores and let us know about any extensions or help they provided our students.  During this time we were also able to have really great conversations so that we could share what we had already discovered from our first week and clarify any information that was provided to us from their Body of Evidences (folders passed year to year).  We then also had the opportunity to share with students that we had last year and repeated the process.
This was a wonderful gift that not all school provide, but this information helped us get to know your children even faster as learners and whole children.

Each Friday the teachers a Bill Roberts participate in Professional Learning Communities.  It is a time for us to collaborate and work with other staff members to further our own learning.  This year we are focusing on 21st Century Learning Skills and deeper level thinking.  We also work in Data teams to analyze what is working here at Bill Roberts and ideas we have to help our school improve. 
I will be updating this throughout the year with things that we are learning about and incorporating into my classroom.  If you have any questions, please e-mail them to me and I'd be happy to answer them!
There is also information available on the Bill Roberts Website about Early Release Fridays.  (You can also click here!)

This week we have spent time looking at the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as well as going over data and new initiatives from the district such as LEAP.  It is such a great opportunity to have valuable time to collaborate with our teammates and discuss ideas for our classrooms for this year.