Sunday, November 28, 2021

This Week at LPHS, November 29 -December 3

I hope everyone had an excellent Thanksgiving and is ready to go for this three week stretch until Christmas.  As I stated prior to our break, this next three weeks are going to go a long way for us to set a tone and correct some behaviors that have gotten out of control.  Here are the consistent steps I need you to take to ensure these efforts are meaningful: 

1. If a student arrives in class with a backpack, tell them to go to their locker and they can't return with it.  If they get back after the bell, mark them tardy. 

2. Students are not allowed to "check in" prior to the bell and then leave the room until after the bell rings.  If they do this, they are tardy. 

3. No student should be given a pass at all for the first ten minutes of every class.  (This has always been the case, but has not been followed by some teachers.  I am not sure why this is the case, but it needs to stop.

4. If a student leaves your classroom, they MUST leave with a pass. 

5. If a student is tardy, mark them tardy.  If they are more than 10 minutes late, mark them as a Z.  Both of these apply to first hour. 

6. This one is critically important.  This year has been more difficult than most, but it hasn't been as bad as many of the stories I've heard from our own staff.  One day, many adults were discussing the six fights that happened that day.  There were two.  While two is two too many, the rumor spreading and fear mongering amongst the staff has to stop.  If you have questions, any of the four of us will answer them for you.  This is very unproductive and not helpful at all.  

These are the steps that we are making as an admin team: 

1. A Two Minute Drill will be provided for you to share today during third hour.  You MUST share this video and reinforce it's message with your classes. 

2.  After school detentions will start this week and will be targeted at our most habitual offenders of the tardy and backpack policies.  

3. Random students will be selected each hour if they are in the hallway when classes start  to have a conversation with an administrator, call home, and after school detention depending on their attendance record. (We won't be writing detentions for students that are tardy the first time and unlucky.)

4. Tardy sweeps will begin on Tuesday morning.  After second hour has begun, I will make an announcement for teachers to lock their doors and any student still in the hallways to report to the cafeteria.  These students will be assigned an after school detention for Wednesday.  Students will leave the cafeteria with a detention slip which will be their ticket into your classroom.  DO NOT LOCK THE DOORS BEFORE THE ANNOUNCEMENT.  

5. Admin, SSW, Counselors and Student Leaders will be meeting with every student that has been suspended this year on Tuesday during third hour.  (I will send you this list on Tuesday morning.). This meeting is designed to be an opportunity for us to provide some education, resources, and ultimately an ultimatum that their behavior can not continue.  All suspended students will be assigned a staff mentor.  This will be shared with you Tuesday as well.  

I promise you that correcting these behaviors will be my main focus for the next three weeks.  I need it to be all of yours as well so that we can get back to where we were pre-covid.  I know you are all capable and dedicated professionals.  I appreciate your every effort towards consistency.  Finally, if you have a sub in your hallway, please feel free to stop in and share this information with them.  We need them as well.  

This Week's Schedule: 

Monday:

* Two Minute Drill to be shared during all Third Hour Classes

Tuesday

* Second Hour - Tardy Sweep (This will begin two minutes after the bell rings to start class.  We will gradually move this up to the actual bell, but want to address our biggest offenders first.)

* Third Hour - Meeting with all suspended students in LPHS Auditorium.  A list of students will be emailed out on Tuesday morning.  These students will all check into class and then I will make an announcement to send them to the auditorium.  Please do not single them out with anything like "If you've been suspended, go to the auditorium."  We will address this when the students are in the same space, but I do not want any staff member saying this to the students prior to that.  

Wednesday

* SST meeting, 8:00 am, Room 144

Thursday

* PBIS Meeting, 7:10 in LPHS Media Center

* Tardy Sweep 5th Hour

Friday and Saturday

* LPHS Drama Club presents their fall musical.  7:00 pm in the LPHS Auditorium both days.  


Monday, November 22, 2021

This Week at LPHS, November 22-26

This morning, Chanelle shared the following attendance reminders via email with all LPHS teaching staff.  

Quarantine:

If a student's attendance code has been prefilled with "%" (quarantine) and the virtual icon appears next to the student's name,  this student has been given access to VL for a period of time.  If the student attends class virtually during the quarantine period,  the attendance code should then be changed to "present".  If the student does not attend class during such period,  the quarantine attendance code should remain the same. 

If a student is not in quarantine/the virtual learner icon does not appear, the student should not  log in virtually and the attendance code should reflect an "unexcused absence" unless otherwise notified.  In other words, students should not log in virtually just because they are unable to attend school for the day. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please let Chanelle know.  It is very important that we get accurate attendance, especially as we work to track and trace students.  

Tardies/Backpacks: 

* We recognize that things have gotten out of control with tardies this year.  There are lots of reasons for this, but we will be rolling out a plan immediately following Thanksgiving to address this.  There will be a Two Minute Drill Video to share on Monday during fourth hour that will address this and consequences.  In addition, admin will be meeting with our most frequent fliers for Tardies, Suspensions, and other miscellaneous issues in the week ahead.  As we do this, I again ask to ensure that you are dealing with all of this with as much fidelity towards building policies as possible.  

Please see below on notes for this week: 

Monday

* Lock Down Drill, 2:00 - Please continue teaching in place, however make sure doors are locked.  

Tuesday

* Half Day for Students: 

1st  7:50-8:18

2nd  8:23-8:50

3rd  8:55-9:22

4th  9:27-9:54

5th  9:59-10:26

6th  10:31-10:58

* Progress Report Grades due by 8:00 am for Progress Period 2! 

Parent Teacher Conferences

12:00-1:00 - In Person

1:00-3:00 - Virtual (Record Communications here.) 

5:00-6:00 - In Person

6:00-8:00 - Virtual (Record Communications here.) 

Wednesday through Friday: 

* No School for Thanksgiving Break! 

Friday

* Happy Birthday, Scott Sitek! 

Monday, November 15, 2021

This Week at LPHS, November 15-19

 Good Afternoon, 

In the schedule for the week below, you will find the information regarding the SEL lesson that is to be taught during fourth hour on Tuesday, November 16.  This information has been organized in one place for you.  This lesson is not optional for you.  This is curriculum that must be taught.  

I want to be very clear about this, so that there is no confusion.  I fully recognize the difficulty of this school year.  With that being said, relationships and teaching are our only tools to get through it.  Thus far, 93% of the suspensions in this building have been given to 9th and 10th grade students.  This is the result of us not having time yet to do what you all do best, develop meaningful relationships with students and provide sound instruction.  We are working on solutions.  These are the expectations of being a teacher at LPHS: 

* Active Supervision Wherever Possible (This includes being present at classroom doorways, actively moving around the lunch room if you are a lunch worker, and addressing hallway behavior concerns where appropriate.)

* Teach Social Emotional Learning and embrace that your relationship with your students is what matters most. 

* Complete this survey to help be a part of the solution.  

Tuesday

SEL Lesson during Fourth Hour - For easy access, here is all of the resources for the SEL lesson for 4th hour tomorrow:

Lesson Plan

Slides

Pre-test; Please utilize this pre-test with the lesson tomorrow: https://forms.gle/xS6BjTeU9pxhUTKWA 

Please remember to add the slides to your google classrooms for students to return back to. 

Also, I know our presentation was quick and didn't allow much time for questions, I apologize for that. I know there were some questions about the data backing Social-Emotional Learning, which we did quickly jump over while presenting. Here is a link to CASEL which touches on the data that supports the need of social-emotional learning for your review. Also, we understand that this may be out of your comfort zone for many of you, and I appreciate you being vulnerable to learn and teach something that you aren't as familiar with. 

Finally, to clarify, SEL is not a new initiative that is taking the place of Trauma-Informed Resilient Focused teaching or PBIS, but rather they are all pieces of the same puzzle. Many of you teach Social-Emotional skills daily without even realizing that you are (or maybe you are intentionally doing it). This curriculum is about intentionally and explicitly teaching these skills to students, many of which seem to be struggling with many of them.

As always, we are here to support you. Reach out to your coach or an admin if you would like support or have any questions. 

* Tuesday is an early release - We will meet in the Media Center from 1:48 until 2:43. After the meeting, you will complete the PSP we were supposed to do last week and will be dismissed.  

* Happy Birthday, Mendie Russell! 


Monday, November 8, 2021

This Week at LPHS, November 8-12

Tuesday

* SST Meeting, 8:00-9:30, Room 144

* Staff Meeting, 2:48-3:48, LPHS Media Center (This will NOT be a PSP meeting, The PSP will be completed during the second half of the meeting on 11/15.)

Wednesday through Friday: 

* Dan will be out of the building serving on an Accreditation Review Team.  Mr. Kaminski will be the administrator in charge.