Wildcat Weekly September 13, 2024

Happy Friday Wildcats!

Way to go this week with your school spirit! Our first spirit week for Ponderosa Homecoming was fantastic and I loved getting to see everyone band together and unite with the Spirit days. The students love seeing you get into it and thank you to all of you played along.

On Thursday I had a principal meeting and we looked at our CMAS and discussed the rigor level that is expected of our students. My big takeaway was that our students need to consistently be exposed to rigorous problems and challenging questions if we want them to be successful.

Last year we saw tremendous growth by ensuring all our students were engaging in writing across all classes and content areas. Using R.A.C.E. as a universal strategy for writing prompts along with A.B.C.D. for attacking the prompts is something we need to continue to do in order to build on the growth we had last year.

Also, last year we told our students that we would have a schoolwide celebration if we moved off of "Improvement Plan" status on our School Performance Framework. We will be sharing more details soon regarding our plans for that celebration.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend! I'm out next Thursday for a principal meeting. Sic 'em bears. - Ben

Denise Reynolds - 9/14

No blocks this week!

Monday, September 16

• Walking Club for Staff - 3:00 pm - Meet at the security desk
• 6/7th Girls Volleyball - A/B Away vs Sierra, C Home 4:00 pm

Tuesday, September 17

• AVID Site Team Meeting - 3:00 - 4:00 pm, Room 215

Wednesday, September 18

• Shelter-in-place drill 10:35 am
• Department Meetings
• 6/7th Girls Volleyball - A/B Home vs Mesa, C Away
• 6/7th Flag Football vs. Mesa Home, 8th Grade Away

Thursday, September 19

• Parent/Teacher Conferences 3:15 - 6:45 pm. Dinner provided by PTO starting at 2:40 pm

Friday, September 20: Professional Development Day. Here's the agenda! Please use THIS LINK to select your PD sessions for Sept 20!

No blocks this week; we will not have Wildcat!

- Each team should have a representative to report to electives about their plans for Wildcat
- How to use your PBIS points: document
- Culture Calendar: fun things for staff!
- Watch Dogs will start on Sept 23
- Please make sure you complete your Mandatory trainings in Canvas by Sept. 13th. Once done, go into Workday and complete your Workday inbox task

Please see this slideshow that explains why. You will start to get notifications to restart your computer in you're not doing it once a month.

Sagewood's Parent-Teacher conferences are coming up! September 19 & 26th from 3:15 - 6:45pm. We are planning on having open house style conferences. However, if you would like to make sure you meet with a family, feel free to schedule with them directly!

This is Trent Feldt's first year at SGMS as our 8th grade Health teacher. Trent lived in Washington for a year before moving back to Colorado. He got married in the summer and Trent and his wife are getting a puppy in October! He likes to play golf, hike, run races from 5K's to marathons, and go to concerts.

What the Heck is Inquiry-based learning (Edutopia)

How to Ease Students Curiosity: Strategies and Resources (Education Week)

Facilitating Student Curiosity: Strategies and Resources (Education Week)

Sparking Student Inquiry Key to Classroom Engagement (National Education Association)

The Case for Curiosity (Educational Leadership)

As we prepare for the roll out of Watch D.O.G.S. - Heroes of the Hallway at Sagewood, we'd like to get your input. We will have parent volunteers starting here on September 23rd for potentially the whole day and we need to know which classrooms they can come into. You will be able to let parents know if you'd like specific things they can help with. This could include sitting with kids and helping with work or even working with a small group, potentially.

For a quick overview of the Watch D.O.G.S. program, check out this video.

Please take a moment to fill out this FORM so that we can prepare for which classrooms we can allow parent volunteers to come into and what you'd like them to do.