The Howler - November 7, 2022

Dear Awesome Timberwolves,

November 9, 2022 - Staff Meeting Canceled.

November 8 - Conference Day -

• Please try to include your students (kg-5th) grade for your conferences -- They can use their Leadership Notebooks to share how they are doing.

• The office needs your conference schedules for in- person conferences November 7 for November 8. . Please email them or bring them to Vinitha. She will coordinate the conference schedules for us all.

• Please start your last in-person conference by 6pm on November 8. If you need more time, let us know. Melissa will be here for the Conference on November 8 and I will be here for October 31.

Just a reminder - if you are outside for car or bus duty - please remember to wear your reflective vests. if you need one, please let me know. It is a requirement and expectation for those with outside transportation duty to wear.

Please remind students to bring their water bottles to lunch with them each day.

Please have kids use restroom before gong to Encore

Thank you for all you do every day!!

We truly do Everything Better Together as a Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence.

I hope you all have a wonderful week.

Dr. Andrew Buchheit

Principal

#TimberwolvesROCK

"Like the Sun, We are Here to Shine”

Next week, we will celebrate our Veterans and Active Duty Service Personnel. We will have an whole school assembly starting at 9:30am. I will start calling students at 9:15 am. Please remind your students about appropriate behavior. This Assembly will be our first in person assembly this school year. This occasion is especially meaningful for the dedication and service of these men and women to our country.

Near the end of the assembly - all students will get up and sing the Grade Old Flag - then you will take them and line them up tightly on both sides of the hallway from right out the cafeteria down the entire hallway -pass kindergarten and down first grade. If we run out of space - line the areas outside of door 19 on either side of the sidewalk.

Mrs. Bateman and Mrs. West's class will the last two classes on each side of the hallway to hand out the letters.

Our student leaders should hand out the flags - Mrs. Yuditsky please coordinate this with the students.

When our Veterans pass your class please applaud - we will have drumline - so if you have students who cannot handle the noise move them to another location - you can arrange with office to have them wait in office.

At 10:00 am, Encore should release 4th grade teachers and take their classes.

https://doe.virginia.gov/instruction/english/literacy/vla/index.shtml

Just a reminder that although it would be good to get all students on Lexia if you cannot, please minimally they should get EL and Struggling students.

We are encouraging all students to work on Lexia and meet their minutes – However, we are most focused on the struggling students and EL students.

Required: ALL EL Students

Strongly Encourage: BGL or Struggling Readers

Encouraged: Approaching students

If you have time for others: ALL others.

But focus on EL and BGL – but required for your EL (And they cannot do it during their pull out EL time).

• There is no expectation to report a numeric level on the report card.

• Teachers should consider all knowledge and observations of a student’s reading performance to determine if the student is reading at grade level expectations.

• Use multiple measures to determine below, on, or above grade level in reading. Assessments may include the PALS, HMH Growth Measure, running records, and unit assessments as evidence of a student’s reading ability.

• A teacher may select to use the DRA or DRA progress monitoring for certain students if another data point is needed to determine how accurately a student comprehends what they are reading and how fluently the student reads.

• The benchmark document will be revised to align with shifts in reading practices based on the information from the Virginia Literacy Act and will be communicated in the future. Although we are working to make shifts in reading instruction, teachers may still refer to these documents to help guide their evaluation of a student’s reading progress.
• K-2 Reading Benchmark Guidelines
• 3-5 Reading Benchmark Guidelines

Be Safe. Be Prepared. Lock classroom and interior doors

Initial reports of the recent tragic shooting at a St. Louis school that claimed the lives of two and resulted in six others being wounded, found that the shooter tried to enter classroom doors that were locked and moved on. This continues to underscore the importance of PWCS’ best practices that all interior doors are to be locked when students and staff are present. Locking the doors after a lockdown is announced is simply not a fast enough response. Staff and students have to maintain a heightened security posture at all times by keeping doors locked when students are present in areas such as classrooms, gyms, libraries, and cafeterias.

There are very few instances when acts of violence have breached locked doors inside a school. Unfortunately, acts of violence that occur in classrooms have almost always been the result of classrooms being entered because the door was unlocked.

Be safe, be prepared, and keep your doors locked.

If you have to use any type of translation services - please fill out this form - https://forms.office.com/r/mnpuf19SRg

Translation and Interpretation Poster: 03. Translation and Interpretation Services BEST PRACTICES FINALrev0928.2021.pdf

NOVEMBER

9 Andrea Hanover

11 Rachael Yim

14 Whitney Darno

18 Jennifer Ludlow

19 Jennifer Young

Objective on board matching instruction and shared with the class
Writing

Engagement

Closure

The Next Action Team meeting is scheduled for Dec. 7– you decide:

1. How and where you will meet – in person or ZOOM – chairperson should designate a room.
2. How much time you need to meet – 8am, 8:15am, 8:30 am. Since you just met – you probably won’t need an entire hour. However, everyone should at least discuss:

• Vertical Alignment Discussions (Again – to reiterate this is feedback from some of you about missing this opportunity last year).
• Discussion about your coming Heritage Night/Literacy Night or STEAM Expo. As you know we moved our evening curriculum events to just 2 and only ask each person to attend the one they are working on.
• And share any county level information.

All the rest of the Action Team meetings are listed on the calendar. You do need to keep your meetings to Wednesday mornings since this is the one before school expectation to meet and I have asked everyone to keep it free for staff meetings, Action teams, Leadership – but you may find that you do not need to meet for more than 15 minute touch base. You should meet monthly but it can be brief.

Monday, November 7, 2022- Day 1

• 10am - Admin - Counselor Meeting
  

Tuesday, November 8, 2022- Day --

• Teacher Work Day and Parent Conference
  

• Teacher Assistant Day Do Not Work

• 9:30AM - Crisis Team Meeting - Melissa

• 10:30 - Office Meeting

• Andrew out 12:30 - 3:30 - 7 STEPS -EL

• Melissa to stay for end of conferences tonight.

Wednesday, November 9, 2022- Day 2

• Staff Meeting Canceled today
• Timberwolf Trekkers
• 11:20 - Andrew out for TEAM Meetings
  
• 12:00 - Principal meeting
  
• 5pm - Andrew out VAESP ZONE Meeting

Thursday, November 10, 2022 - Day 3

• CLT meetings -

• Timberwolf Trekkers

• Intervention Meeting Day
  
• Veterans' Day Celebration - 9:30 am
• Military Wear Spirit Day or Red, White, Blue
• Andrew meeting with Lynn - 10:30 -
  
• Andrew meeting with Kristin - 11:30
• 6:30 -Advisory Council
  

Friday, November 11,, 2022 - Day --

• Veterans' Day - No School

Number Sense Routines should be included in your daily instruction. Resources for implementation are in each Canvas module. This is an excellent way to build number sense and fill the gaps for our students!

The Number Sense Course #35608 is a universal requirement this year. It is offered in person, virtual and asynchronous.

Please remember grades need to be posted each week. Please be sure you are keeping your grade book updated.
Especially as we get closer to Report Cards – we don’t want anyone surprised.

GRADING

Grades are available in ParentVue in the Gradebook. If you have questions about your student’s grade on an assignment, please follow up with your child’s teacher.

PWCS schools follow a Grading for Growth Model to include the following guidelines for All Grades:

• Students need to demonstrate they have studied more (example signed note from parent), attended some type of remediation, completed an error analysis of incorrect problems or worked with the teacher before they retake an assignment.
• Retakes should be completed between 5-10 days from when the grade was given to the student.
• Teachers inform families of these guidelines at the start of the school year and keep them posted on their Canvas pages.
• Retakes need to be completed before the end of the quarter.

Kg-2nd grade: Provide remediation after county assessments and then allow students to retake an assessment.

3rd-5th grade –Retakes allowed on quizzes and tests, but not classroom assignments. Students or parents should reach out to indicate if they want a student to take a retake or not with 5-7 days of receiving the grade.

It would be great to get all students on Lexia, however, if this is a challenge, please minimally get your ELs and BGLs on. It is required from PWCS that all ELs are on Lexia.

• Students are placed from where they ended the year. No need to retest
• Your New Students and Kindergarteners will need to auto place all students by September 1, 2022 (10 minutes to autoplace)
• Roll Over of new students will happen automatically.
• Teachers need to Log on to Lexia Once A week.
• Students should work on Lexia during Morning arrival and Daily 3 in class.
• How much time should students be on Lexia each Week

• Kg- 3rd – BGL – 60 minutes a week (Bubble students 40 minutes and on target students: 20 minutes)
• 4th and 5th – BGL 80 minutes a week (Bubble students 40-60 minutes and on target students: 20 minutes)
• It is important to note that the school division target is 80 percent of all students meeting those reading minutes. We had 26% students meeting the time targets last year. Our goal is 50% to move toward 80%.

Refresher training will take place on Oct. 10 - you will want to be sure students have been placed and you have had students working Lexia before the meeting –

10:00 – 11:30 (10-10:45 Kg-2nd and 10:45 -11:30 -3rd-5th) and on Jan. 30 – same schedule.

I have scheduled one Thursday a month for one Reading teacher to meet with teachers to review Lexia Progress and Discuss/share writing. I added to calendar already. – 3rd Thursday each Month.– Laura and Lauren will coordinate these meeting together. I would assume on that month – Laura will join Melissa for 3rd-5th and Lauren for Kg-2nd

Let Laura and Lauren know if you have any questions

Risk Management and Security Services will begin its annual safety inspections for the 2022-23 school year. Our inspections are founded on a memorandum of understanding with the Prince William County Fire Marshal's Office. Site inspections focus on Virginia Statewide Fire Prevention Code, Virginia Construction/Building Code, Occupational Safety and Health, as well as Prince William County Public School Policies and Regulations. Some of the issues that we commonly find in schools are:

• Items stored in boiler/mechanical rooms.
• Extension cords that are being used in place of an outlet (non-temporary use).
• Items stored in stairwells.
• Items such as desks, bookshelves, chairs, etc. stored or used in hallways that could hinder exit doors and exit accesses.
• Fire rated doors propped open with wooden/rubber doorstops.
• Required electrical panel clearance not maintained.

Please note that the required time for abatement of violations on the inspection report is 15 calendar days. However, all life-safety violations such as blocked egress or an electrical hazard will be abated while we are onsite. Any violations that require a work order through Facilities Services can be signed off as abated while referencing the corresponding work order number.

Please remember students need to be supervised at all time.

• This includes first thing in the morning, please be at your room to greet students by 9:05 am. Students should not be in the classroom without a teacher monitoring them. (They should also not be lined up in the hallway waiting to enter your room without you there).

• If you need to leave your room for a quick break, please ask another teacher to monitor both your rooms.

• Please continue to carefully monitor all students at recess.

• Student restroom behavior has been a concern in the past. Please continue to talk to students and remind them, supervise them, and carefully choose who their restroom buddy should be.

• Please Monitor students at dismissal (and arrival).

• As the year goes on, we need to strengthen supervision and monitoring of students and make sure we don’t get too comfortable or lax when it comes to this area.

• Please monitor student usage of laptops and devices.

• All teachers have a walkie-talkie- please take these out with you to recess and drills.

1. Please be sure you close the outside doors when you come in and out. It is the adult’s responsibility to make sure it is closed. If a student is responsible for closing it then you still need to check.
2. Lock your classroom doors and keep them closed.
3. Students should always be sent with a buddy – if you are sending a student for pick up then they will need 2 buddies so the buddies have someone to return with.
4. ALL Staff must ALWAYS wear their badges – be sure to get a visitor badge if you left yours at home.
5. Please check to see that all visitors into the building have their badges including all maintenance, sacc, Dr. McDade, etc. The badges should be visible. Please remind your co-workers as well.
6. When letting a visitor in the building – always ask why they are here and assess them. Do not let other visitors enter with the original visitor.
7. Send strategically chosen buddies when sending them to the office or rest room.
8. Supervise students at all times – especially at recess, hallway, arrival, and dismissal.
9. Make sure all your windows are CLOSED and LOCKED before you leave each day!!!
10. Know your Crisis Procedures
11. Bring your Walkie-Talkie Outside, keep the outside doors closed, keep your inside doors locked, send your students with the buddy in the hallway, know our school crisis plans, etc.

Keep focus on the Fundamental Five:

• Frame The Learning/Setting the Stage/Communicating the Objective/Teacher Clarity/Checking for Understanding/Closure
• Power Zone- Be near students working
• Collaboration/Small Group/Turn and Talk
• Positive Reinforcement and Feedback
• Frequent Writing

Quiet in Hall - Also thank you to everyone for reminding your students to be quiet in the hallway. I have noticed a huge difference.

Student Friendly Objectives -Please continue to put student friendly objectives on the board and refer to them at the start of the lesson and for closure to help frame the learning and support teacher clarity.

7/8 Habits - Please embed 7(8) Habits into your instruction and provide direct instruction in 8 habits each week on Wednesday. – Set Goals each week and reflect on the progress toward your goal

Morning Broadcast - All classroom teachers need to have the morning broadcast on and students watching. They can eat their breakfast during this time and complete morning work. Resource teachers can pull students.

Daily morning meetings – should be held each day.

CPS – 24-hour reporting window – the person who first hears disclosure must make report – CPS phone # 703-792-4200, after 4:00 and weekends call State Hotline at 800-552-7096. When calling, you will need student demographic information. Remember to get the name of the person taking your report. You will need to complete the county online form afterwards. Please let a counselor and admin know if you make a report so we can send you the link to the required online form. After submitting the form, you will get a confirmation email and copy of the form sent to you. Please forward to a counselor so it can be placed in the appropriate file. (This file is separate from student file)

CANVAS – please keep your CANVAS page update.

Water bottles – encourage kids to bring them and allow them to refill them. If someone doesn’t have water, let Lynn know. We have water bottles (not reusable)

Lunch Time

· Please be on time dropping off and picking up.

· Please be patient and respectful with our hostesses and cafeteria staff we are all trying our best in the situations we are in, we are all here for the students.

· Please remind students: menu choices, lights off=silent, hands to self, personal space, and to bring a water bottle.

Room Cleanliness - Please help the custodians help clean your room by doing the following:

• Stack chairs against the shelves not in center of room

• Remove small personal carpets spread out around the room – they get in the way of cleaning the floors
• Put Trash cans outside the classroom door – both trash cans.
• Don’t leave jackets on the floor
• Pick up trash from the floor

• Isolation for students will be five days (reduced from 10 days).
• Isolation for staff will remain at five days.
• Students and staff who are COVID-19 positive will isolate for five days with a return on day six if they are asymptomatic, or symptoms are resolving, and they have been fever-free for 24 hours. Students and staff will wear a mask when returning on days 6-10. There is no masking requirement if the student or staff member has a negative test result on day six. There is no requirement for staff or students to provide the school with a negative test result.
• Water fountains (bottle fillers and bubblers) should be uncovered and operational once flushed by facilities.
• There are no restrictions on after-school activities.
• Bathroom hand dryers should be turned on and operational.
• Volunteers and visitors are welcome in our schools, classrooms, and lunchrooms. There are no restrictions.

A Prince William County School of Excellence

“A Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence”

10600 Kettle Run Road; Nokesville, VA 20181

Andrew Buchheit, Principal - buchhear@pwcs.edu

Melissa Yuditsky, Assistant Principal yuditsml@pwcs..edu

“A Community of Leaders and Learners Achieving Excellence”

School hours: 9:15 am – 3:55 pm

(Office hours: 8:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.)

SCHOOL SCHEDULE

Doors Open: 9:05 a.m.

Students tardy after: 9:15 a.m.

Dismissal: 3:55 p.m.

School Phone Number: 703.594.3990

School Fax Number: 703.594.2653

Attendance Email: cwes-timberwolf-attendance@pwcs.edu

Attendance Phone Line:– 703.594.3992

Motto: “I seek to make a POSITIVE DIFFERENCE AT SCHOOL”

Website: http://tclaywoodes.schools.pwcs.edu

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TClayWoodES

Twitter #TimberwolvesRock

Email: buchhear@pwcs.edu
Website: http://tclaywoodes.pwcs.schoolfusion.us/
Location: 10600 Kettle Run Road, Nokesville, VA, USA
Phone: 703.594.3990
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TClayWoodES
Twitter: @AndrewBuchheit