OLL Elementary School Communication

We are excited to share that we have secured funds for all elementary school principals, assistant principals and select instructional coaches (1 per site) to engage in the 5 day Kagan Cooperative Learning series throughout the 22-23 school year.  We will then provide this large training opportunity in the summer of 2023 for teachers and teacher leaders in schools.  Leaders will spend time this year learning together, leveraging collaborative structures learned in staff meetings, school-based PD, etc. and prioritizing all things student engagement with Kagan as the vehicle to support these efforts.  For those that spent funds this summer and are engaging in the learning with your staff- AWESOME, let us know how we can support or potentially learn more from your experiences.  Our system wide efforts will serve to enhance the learning you have begun, but we are supportive of all you are already up to. 

Here are a few things to note for now- 

• We are working on dates, times and logistics but anticipate that there will be 2 days of training in quarter 1, with an additional day in Q2-Q4. 
• Schedules will be developed so that no building is ever without an admin on site due to this training
• If you have engaged in the 5 day Kagan cooperative learning workshops within the past 4 years, please let us know.  You are welcome to attend for a refresh, but we may also be able to make some adjustments to include other teacher leaders at your site. 

Thank you so much for attending the Grading from the Inside Out workshop with your school teams. We hope that the learning helped your teams shift towards a standards-based grading mindset wherever you are on your journey.

As we move one step forward on our district journey to standards-based grading, we will utilize the Elementary Grading Practices for 22-23 document and the Standards-based grading principles and tenets one-page document. These are both located  here.  These documents support the implementation of the workshop objectives and all the great work and learning that is currently happening in schools around our district.

To support the implementation of these practices, we ask school leaders to:

• Share these documents with your staff.
• Take time to reflect on the current grading practices and mindset of the teachers in your school
• Support the development of a deep understanding of the essential ELA and math standards for each grade level during PLCs.
• Support the work through the School Leadership Team, School Intervention Teams, and PLCs by spending time creating a shared vision of the standards-based mindset and how that would look like in your building.

Thank you for leading this very important work in your buildings!

K camp is just around the corner! Many schools have posted flyers on social media and have sent out emails to their upcoming kindergarten students to ensure that as many students as possible are signed up for this experience.

OLL has been hard at work creating the kinder kits that each student will receive to support the family engagement part of K camp. Each bag contains a notebook, pencil, wiki stix, playdough, an EZ reader strip, printed activities, a K camp informational flyer, and a copy of the read-at-home plan.

The goal is to ship the boxes out to schools next week.

Remember that the materials, activities, and framework for  K camp along with many other resources are located  here.

In response to your input, this year’s ERD will include a combination of district supported and school driven professional development.  Here is a quick overview of the framework for learning with some additional details that we hope supports your planning. 22-23 Early Release Framework – FOR SCHOOLS.pptx Also, below are some key pieces of information shared by Vanessa Hilton earlier this month. 

• • Teachers and instructional assistants who support any pre-kindergarten learners will have synchronous PD for the entire ERD session, similar to this year.
  • NEW: Instructional support staff (Kindergarten IAs, behavior assistants, Discipline IAs, ESOL IAs, ESE IAs, etc.) will be provided synchronous professional learning focused on supporting academic and social behaviors in your schools. This will be a 60-minute session.
  • Each school will develop a professional learning plan for this time (22-23 School-Based Early Release PD Plan.docx), and submit to your assistant superintendent for approval by 8/12/22.

The School Support Management site that is used to upload your deliverables, house principal and AP meeting info and documents as well as provide ongoing updates related to your school support team services will be rolled to the new year on July 1st.  The 21-22 information will be archived and still available, but new folders and information will be loaded by July 1st. 

We hope that you are filling your vacancies and finding some amazing candidates for your school!

As you hire new to Pasco teachers, please share this flyer with them and have them use the QR code to register for the New Teacher Kickoff on Monday, July 25^th at Land O’ Lakes High School from 8:30am-4:30pm.

Here is a checklist to support you with all of the information for all of your new hires. 

If you have any questions, please contact Charlotte Kralik or Tricia Graham.

This is the most current information from Discovery Ed about the delivery of the Techbooks for grades 3,4, and 5.   Shipping has been delayed and they will now ship beginning June 23rd.   In the attachment you will find the order detail by school.  Any books needed above what is being shipped will need to be ordered.  Please let Mayra Pitts, Angie Torres, or Fran Howard know if you have any questions. 

The Florida Department of Education is very excited about the Civics Seal of Excellence asynchronous course launching in the Fall, that will provide Florida educators the opportunity to earn the endorsement on their certification and a $3,000 stipend. With that in mind, FDOE now has a way teachers can sign up for updates as the program  prepares to launch. Please encourage all K-12 teachers who are interested in taking the course to use this link https://civics.cpalms.org/ to sign up for updates.