September '24 Newsletter
THANK YOU to the teachers who signed me up to visit their classrooms! I had a great time this week chatting with Erin Smith’s Global Issues class at Blendon. After kicking my butt in pickleball, Cassidi Johnson is graciously allowing me to be a mystery reader to her Pointview kindergarten class next week. Finally, Brent Morrison has invited me to give my WE Day presentation to his class at Westerville Central. I love being in your classrooms to share in your work with your students. In the link above, I have included the dates and times I have remaining in September and dates I currently have open in October! If there is a time that does not work for you, email me and perhaps we can work something out.
In the month of September, we are focusing on the Portrait of a Graduate competency - COMMUNICATION! As many of you already do, be extra-intentional this month in finding ways for your students to Communicate what they learn in ways limited only by your imaginations! It’s a skill they will need the rest of their lives.
There was an old teacher named Scott
Who missed the classroom quite a lot
He harbored a yearning
To visit the learning
Throughout Westerville’s Schools of Thought
STUDENT SERVICES
Tami Santa, Executive Director, Student Services
Jessie Martin, Director, Student Well-Being
Ja'Niece McAlpine, Director, Educational Equity
Megan Orlowski, TOSA, Educational Equity
Rachel Pinto, District Nurse Coordinator
Student Well Being
As we settle into the rhythm of the school year, remember that stressed brains can’t learn. When our students become dysregulated, it becomes difficult for them to access the parts of their brain responsible for communication and learning. Dysregulation is when the nervous system is not in balance. Things to try: movement, rhythm, repetition, routine, breathing techniques, flexible seating…the list goes on!
Interested in learning more about stress and trauma response on the brain and body? Sign up for the free Trauma-Informed Resilience-Focused Schools training on October 18th. See the link on the flyer!
Fields Trips and Preparation
We have heard a lot of chatter about why clinics need so much
notice for a field trip. Great question!
Our reasons: Depending on the building, some school nurses are only available 1 day/week. And in all instances, they are juggling other duties (hearing and vision screenings, new medicine, complex cases, covering another clinic, etc.). We want to make sure they have adequate time to examine the field trip roster and identify any medical needs in order to keep all students safe while traveling away from the building. Then time is needed for the staff member(s) to complete an online training as well as a hands on training for the specific medical needs. So remember, we need TWO WEEKS notice before a 1 day field trip and at least 1 month notice for overnight trips.
We really appreciate everyone’s help meeting these expectations.
Office of English Learners
Our district has a federal obligation to ensure meaningful communication with LEP (Limited English Proficient) Parents in a language they can understand. Our district has many resources to support you when communicating with our families.
The WCS English Learner Program Manual provides you with all the information you need to know to meet our federal requirement. See section H and I. Below are examples of what you can find in the manual:
- Determining if a parent needs an interpreter
- How to request an interpreter
- Resources we have in the district for interpreters and translation (Martti, Talking Points, etc.)
We are here to help you! Please reach out to your EL Building Specialist or the EL Coordinator with any questions. A list of our EL department personnel can be found in Section J in the manual.
SECONDARY EDUCATION
Anne Baldwin, Executive Director, Secondary Schools
Dr. Jennifer Knapp, Director, Secondary Curriculum & Instruction
Matt Misener, Director, Career and College Pathways
Becca Yanni, Coordinator, Extra and Co-Curricular Activities
We are excited about bringing secondary educators together to design engaging learning experiences for our middle level students! If you are interested in participating on the Middle School Design Team or Middle School Advisory Design Team, please share your interest with your building principal. Look for Design Team updates in our next newsletter.
Secondary Curriculum & Instruction
MTSS
We were excited to have our first Secondary MTSS Meeting on August 22nd and we have two representatives from each building attending, one assistant principal and one teacher. They will be sharing information from that meeting at their BLT meetings this month.
This Issue of Connections focuses on Communication! Tier 1 Tools that support communication are linked below. Also included are specific protocols to use when the content has various points of view or may be considered controversial.
- Turn and Talk
- This simple strategy works best when the question the students are to be discussing is focused and that they are given a concrete amount of time (1 minute or so) to discuss
- Think, Ink, Pair, (Square), Share
- This link explains think, ink, pair, share. When our co-teachers from North recently participated in a professional learning day, our facilitator shared the “square” component of having pairs share in small groups of four by combining two pairs.
- Points of View/Controversial Topics Protocols
- This document connects what you are asking students to do with several of the best strategies to support students in a collaborative and meaningful way.
Career and College Pathways
Our College Credit Plus courses are off to a great start- thank you CCP instructors! Just as a reminder, the day to drop without earning a “W” on the transcript is September 16th. At this point, students who drop the course have to pay for the course. Please check in with your counseling team if you have concerns about a student.
Career Center recruitment is beginning! If you weren’t aware, we partner with Columbus City Schools (Fort Hayes Campus and Downtown High School) and DACC to send our students to over 60 career technical education programs. The career centers will be out to present to all sophomores on September 24th (South), September 25th (Central), and September 26th (North). If you have time and want to learn more about the career centers, feel free to stop in any of the presentations. They run almost every period all day in the auditorium of each high school.
Extra and Co-Curricular Activities
Who Needs a Pupil Activity Permit? INFO HERE
4 Steps to getting a Pupil Activity Permit
ELEMENTARY EDUCATION
Cheryl Relford, Executive Director of Elementary Schools
Kate Thoma, Director of Elementary Curriculum & Instruction
We presented a recommendation to the board to change the entrance date for kindergarten. This has been a topic of discussion for many years, and kindergarten teachers participated in a problem solving collaboration last March. As a team, kindergarten teachers unanimously voted to support changing the kindergarten entrance date to August 1st. Upon approval from the board, the following changes will go into effect:
- Effective the 25-26 school year, Kindergarten students will need to turn 5 years old on or before August 1st to enroll in Westerville City Schools.
- The 25-26 school year will also serve as our transition year. Kindergarten students who will turn 5 years old between August 2-September 30 may be enrolled in kindergarten upon parent request. Students who turn 5 years old after September 30 who want to enter Kindergarten will be evaluated using our current early entrance process.
- Starting the 26-27 school year, all kindergarten students must meet the August 1st requirement. Any student with a birth date on or after August 2nd who want to enter Kindergarten will be evaluated using our current early entrance process.
Elementary Curriculum & Instruction
The Elementary C & I Team is trying something new! We have been working on creating systems of support that serve as resources for staff based on the feedback provided last year. Here are a few videos that highlight our current work, and we hope that they will be helpful to you. Please take look and feel free to share your feedback:
- MTSS Update
- Tier I Data Wall Updates