Essential Info- 12/22/17

• Monday, January 8th- You’ll be meeting in PLC’s
• Here’s the full Monday calendar for your planning purposes.
• Voyager Testing
• On Wednesday, January 10th or Thursday, January 11th all LEP students who don’t have a designated ELD class and haven’t reached a lexile of 960 will be taking their Voyager test to qualify for reclassification.  The students will be pulled out of classes by call slips or by district proctors. Although the test is untimed, it rarely takes more than an hour.  
• All LEP students who have a designated ELD class will be testing in their designated ELD classes on Friday the 12th and Tuesday the 16th.
• Shmoop
• Don't forget about all the resources available to you on Shmoop this year! Winter break is a great time to get Shmoopin'. Check out these links:
  AP Test Prep!                         SBAC (CAASPP) Test Prep!
• Office Drop Offs
• Please be aware that parent drop off service for food or personal items is not permitted (per district policy- see Handbook Highlight below). Parents will need to meet their students at break or lunch in order to hand off items to their students.
• New and improved Teacher Sound Byte @ pylusdsoundbyte.org  
• The Sound Byte will be updated weekly. Please consider bookmarking the link for easy access.

Shout Outs

Give a shout out to someone you’d like to recognize by writing a quick message on this Padlet: bit.ly/VHSShoutout. Bookmark the link. Your messages are embedded weekly in the Tiger Telegram. Simply write the name of recipient as title + twitter lengthed message to that person.

Academics, Activities, Arts & Athletics 12/22/17

Professional Growth - How Labels Can Affect People's Personalities And Potential

Heard this podcast from NPR’s “Hidden Brain” and it talks about the psychology of labels. I think it mirrors the messaging of Rita Pierson’s TedTalk watched during Monday morning’s staff meeting. Listen to this 6min podcast and see if you agree.

• How Labels Can Affect People's Personalities And Potential

Tech Tip - Google Classroom "Make a Copy for Each Student" + Google Forms "File Upload"

The best trick in Google Classroom is the ability to "Make a Copy for Each Student'. First, build a simple template with a title, directions, etc. within a Google Doc, Sheet, or Slide. Then, when you go to post an assignment, select - “Make a Copy for Each Student” (see video below)

Also, this just in! Google Forms now allows you to send out a survey and ask respondents to upload a file as their response. Check it out: New File upload button

Handbook Highlight - LUNCH AND DELIVERIES

All high schools are closed campuses. Only seniors are eligible for off-campus lunch passes. The application form is available in the Attendance Office. This form must be signed by a parent in the presence of a school administrator or notary public and returned to the Attendance Office for final approval. Senior lunch passes are only for the lunch period. If a student fails to return to school prior to the conclusion of lunch, they are considered truant (unless cleared with a parent phone call the same day of the absence).

Lunch Deliveries - We are unable to accept student lunch deliveries. If you would like to
deliver a lunch or lunch money to your student, you must arrange for them to meet you at the front of the school. 

Gift Deliveries - We cannot disrupt the educational process with delivery of cards,  messages, balloons, candy, etc. and will not accept or be responsible for gift items.

Essential Info- 12/15/17

• Holiday Reminders- Please be mindful that parent drop off service for food or personal items is not permitted (per district policy). Parents will need to meet their students at break or lunch in order to hand off items to their students.
• Funding Opportunities- Interested in grant opportunities? Click The Funding Tree for a wealth of resources.
• Energy Reminder - Please remember to shut-down, unplug, disconnect items that take power before break.
• Perishables - Please make sure to take home or throw out any food that won’t keep over the holiday break. Tend to live plants and animals too, if applicable. Please take down holiday decorations too.
• Custodial Support - To assist our custodial staff, encourage your last class of the day to pick up major trash off the ground; 1min of effort before the bell saves them hours.
• Office Visits - When sending students to the office, please make sure they are coming with either the yellow, laminated hall pass we provided OR a Hall Permit.
• New and improved Teacher Sound Byte @ pylusdsoundbyte.org  
• Soundbytes are updated weekly. Bookmark it for easy access.

Shout Outs

Give a shout out to someone you’d like to recognize by writing a quick message on this Padlet: bit.ly/VHSShoutout. Bookmark the link. Your messages are embedded weekly in the Tiger Telegram. Simply write the name of recipient as title + twitter lengthed message to that person.

Academics, Activities, Arts & Athletics 12/15/17

Professional Growth - 3 Ideas For Taking Care of Yourself Before the Break

This blog/website was shared at an AP meeting this week. It clearly resonated with us as we continue to remind each other of the importance of nurturing ourselves. The author, George Couros shares these simple tips while providing additional narrative and context for teachers:

1. It’s okay to need a break.
2. Learn to say no. 
3. Take care of yourself.

Tech Tip - 6 Interactive Tools for Students

Through my Feedly account,  I subscribe to 6 different website feeds that post new EdTech resources for educators. One of my favorites is educatorstechnology.com. This week's post was from ReadWriteThink and was titled: 6 Interactive Tools for Students. "Some of the things students can do with these 6 tools include: mapping out arguments for a persuasive essay or debate, summarizing and synthesizing information using cube Creator, creating newspapers and brochures, preparing for reading activities using K-W-L Creator and many more. We invite you to check them out and share with us your feedback."

Handbook Highlight - WICOR Schoolwide

Our team was VERY proud to show off WICOR Schoolwide during our tour with our guests from Australia 12/14/17. Link to pictures

WICOR SCHOOLWIDE

WICOR stands for Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, and Reading.  Our staff works together to learn and reflect on research-based WICOR strategies and how to best reach all students.  Our goal is that ALL students and staff will be proficient in WICOR strategies.

• WRITING (learning logs, summaries, Cornell notes, reflections, authentic writing)
• INQUIRY (Socratic Seminars, Tutorials, questioning techniques, Costa's levels of thinking, investigations)
• COLLABORATION (Philosophical Chairs, service learning, Tutorials, group projects, team building)
• ORGANIZATION (school-wide organizational system, agendas, weekly binder checks, graphic organizers, focused note-taking)
• READING (critical reading strategies, vocabulary building, DEAR (Drop Everything and Read!), reciprocal teaching, literature circles)

Essential Info- 12/8/17

• Assembly Schedule Today
• Please direct all Freshmen and Sophomores to enter on the Bradford Stadium side of the gym (north) and all Seniors and Juniors to enter through the south entrance through the foyer.  ASB students will be placed to direct students to the proper entrance.
• Holiday Pie Day Today
• Be sure to head to the library for some pie during single lunch. Don’t forget to wear your ugly holiday sweater or accessories.
• Staff Meeting on Monday
• Food and refreshments will be available beginning at 7:15am in the library. See you there!
• OC Pathways / Career Hub Webinar FLYER
• Hanukkah begins at sundown on Dec. 12 until sundown Dec. 13.
• Always keep in mind the variety of faiths represented in our school.
• New and improved Teacher Sound Byte @ pylusdsoundbyte.org  
• The Sound Byte will be updated weekly. Please consider bookmarking the link for easy access.

Shout Outs

Give a shout out to someone you’d like to recognize by writing a quick message on this Padlet: bit.ly/VHSShoutout. Bookmark the link. Your messages are embedded weekly in the Tiger Telegram. Simply write the name of recipient as title + twitter lengthed message to that person.

Academics, Activities, Arts & Athletics 12/8/17

Professional Growth- Building Resilience and Preventing Burnout

Don’t forget, nurturing others requires nurturing yourself! Check out these ideas for maintaining the energy and optimism required of us every day.

Building resilience and preventing burnout

Tech Tip - Videonot.es

I stumbled upon this great resource http://www.videonot.es/ Allows students to take notes alongside YouTube, Khan Academy, Coursera, etc. It stores these notes in your Google Drive automatically. Students can transcribe or take "Focsed Notes" on the information from the video: Listening Skills + Identifying Main Ideas + Writing + Tech = Winning!

Handbook Highlight - Assembly Policy

ASSEMBLY POLICY

In order that our assemblies shall be conducted with a minimum of distraction and interruption, the following guidelines have been made:

1. Review with your students the day before the assembly, which assembly they will attend and that they are to sit by grade-level class.  This will help minimize confusion.

2. Remind your students that attendance is required and that truancies will be dealt with in the same manner as truancies from class.  TEACHERS MUST BE PRESENT THROUGHOUT THE ASSEMBLY.

3. Tardy students will be admitted to the assembly.  Send them to an administrator so they may be seated.

4. Student Conduct during Assemblies:  Teachers should talk to their classes concerning behavior during assemblies.  Courtesy and attentiveness is expected at all times.  Teachers are responsible for the actions of their students when sitting as a group.   

5. Teachers having a conference period are also expected to attend assemblies in a supervisory capacity.

Seating arrangements will be provided by the Activities Director.

Essential Info - 12/1/17

• Save the Date - Orchestra / Jazz Staff Breakfast 12/15
• Monday Dec. 4 Professional Development. Please select a session if you haven’t already and prepare to dive in deep with your colleagues!
• Intervention Strategies Padlet - bit.ly/VHSReach
• Tech Supplies - SmartBoard pens, pen tips, rechargeable batteries for microphones, cords, etc. all with Mike Young. Come on by!
• OCDE Funding Tree -  Looking for grant $ to purchase classroom supplies / materials. Great resource you can subscribe to connecting you to opportunities in our area.
• PLUM Tech Tip - Google Calendar has a new look!
• New and improved Teacher Sound Byte @ pylusdsoundbyte.org  
• Updated weekly. Bookmark the link for easy access.

Shout Outs

Give a shout out to someone you’d like to recognize by writing a quick message on this Padlet: bit.ly/VHSShoutout. Bookmark the link. Your messages are embedded weekly in the Tiger Telegram. Simply write the name of recipient as title + twitter lengthed message to that person.

Academics, Activities, Arts, & Athletics 12/1

Professional Growth - How to Create Effective Homework

The value of homework is always a hot topic in education, and walks hand in hand with the grading conversation. What kind of work and how much should we assign? Certainly homework that is personalized and is “cheat resistant” is a good idea. This Mindshift article addresses a few ideas about effective homework.

• https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2013/10/18/how-to-create-effective-homework/

Tech Tip - Google Docs, Sheets, & Slides "Assigning Tasks using Comments"

Olivia started using this a couple weeks back and it's a great feature that is streamlining our collaborative efforts! 

Handbook Highlight - MODIFICATION/NEW COURSE PROPOSALS

Staff members are urged to submit proposals for instructional modification and for new courses as the need for such is evidenced. Certain proposals may relate only to Valencia High School and can be dealt with in informal ways. Others will affect the district and must be presented in the form prescribed in policy and in accordance with the district administrative calendar. Staff members considering such proposals should contact the Principal or Assistant Principal of Curriculum.

It’s that time of year when we begin the process of identifying courses for next year. Some teachers/departments may be considering new courses or shifts in existing courses. Remember that the process is a lengthy one, and includes going through cabinet and curriculum council. The next deadline is Dec. 5 to get onto the Dec. 19 curriculum council agenda. The following deadline is January 23. Anything beyond that date would most likely not be offered for 2018-19.

Essential Info- 11/17/17

Essential Information - Stuff You Need to Know!

• Monday’s DWI Session- Please meet in the MPR by 7:30am for a collegial discussion on grading.
• Water Shutdown over Thanksgiving Break- Please be advised that we have a scheduled repair of a water line over Thanksgiving break. As such, the water will be shut down on Monday, November 20-Wednesday, November 22 in the center of the campus. We anticipate the following buildings being affected: Administration, food services, MPR, quad, and library.  
• 2017-2018 Emergency Intervention Plan- Here is the final version.
• Bathroom Permission / Hall Passes - We have produced 2 hall passes with teacher last name for every teacher for use as bathroom passes and during emergency drills. Please be sure to issue the passes to students if they leave your class during the period. This will help us easily identify who is permitted out of class.
• New and improved Teacher Sound Byte @ pylusdsoundbyte.org  
• The Sound Byte will be updated weekly. Please consider bookmarking the link for easy access.

Shout Outs

Give a shout out to someone you’d like to recognize by writing a quick message on this Padlet: bit.ly/VHSShoutout. Bookmark the link. Your messages are embedded weekly in the Tiger Telegram. Simply write the name of recipient as title + twitter lengthed message to that person.

Academics, Activities, Arts, & Athletics- 11/17/17

Professional Growth- 5 Classroom Tools to Measure Student Learning

Formative assessment is a snap with games and other tools that let you see how students answer questions and review material. Here is an article on 5 Classroom Tools to Measure Student Learning

Tech Tips - Annotate PDFs

We are well on our way to equipping Tigers with the tools they'll need to become equipped with 21st century skills. In addition to developing close reading strategies and annotating text there's a fantastic, free Chrome Extension called "Kami". Once loaded, this tool allows teachers and students to annotate PDF files. You can save virtually anything as a PDF and have students highlight, underline, circle, add audio notes, etc. using this interactive tool. Give it a try! Pretty slick! For a great SmartPhone PDF scanner I recommend Genius Scan that allows integration with Google Drive. 

Handbook Highlight- Grading Overview

Grading Overview

Provide Meaningful Feedback to Students

• Use your comments to teach rather than to justify your grade, focusing on what you’d most like students to address in future work.
• Link your comments and feedback to the goals for an assignment.
• Comment primarily on patterns — representative strengths and weaknesses.
• Avoid over-commenting or “picking apart” students’ work.
• In your final comments, ask questions that will guide further inquiry by students rather than provide answers for them.

Maintain Grading Consistency within a Content Area

• Communicate your grading policies, standards, and criteria to parents and students in your course.
• Discuss your expectations about all facets of grading (criteria, timeliness, consistency, grade disputes, etc) with your students and parents.

Minimize Student Complaints about Grading

• Include your grading policies, procedures, and standards in your syllabus/outline. Distribute your grading criteria to students at the beginning of the term and remind them of the relevant criteria when assigning and returning work.
• Avoid modifying your policies, including those on late work, once you have communicated them to students.
• Keep in-class discussion of grades to a minimum, focus on course learning goals.
• Use Aeries and remind students when Aeries is updated so parents and students can track their progress.