Moving Forward

New and Notes

 PBIS Info

The second semester is in full swing. Moving forward, Sem Yeto and Sem Yeto Satellite will be fully implementing more and more facets of Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS).

Beginning the first week in February, we will begin rolling out the new PBIS procedures. As a staff, we will go over the procedures during the February staff meeting. At that time, any questions or concerns that arise can be addressed and answered.  A power-point will be shared with the entire staff  that can be shared with students, and explain to students how the new process will work.  

A big THANK YOU needs to go to Daniel Mikkola for working with his students to create different ticket options during his CompArts/MMI classes.   

Our hope is that we will have the student designed tickets ready for everyone in the next few weeks.  In the mean time, all teaching staff will receive basic tickets to hand out to students beginning on Thursday February 4th.  Please begin handing out tickets immediately; we will be drawing winners on Friday February 5th.  

Depth of Knowledge (DOK)

As you prepare and perfect your lessons for the week, think of the vital role that your objectives and lesson activities play in ensuring our students are awarded an opportunity to think critically in your classrooms. Critical thinking happens at the 3rd level of DOK. Below, I have attached some great resources that can be utilized to assist in building these activities into already established lessons. 

Great things are happening at Sem Yeto; have a great week!

In the Tool Box

Level 3 and 4 task

Here is a DOK chart that can assist 

Welcome To Third Quarter

fresh start--review policies and procedures

News and Notes

please take the time to review policies and procedures with all your classes. make sure the students are aware of your expectations, class procedures, how they will be graded, what they will do immediately upon entering class, expectations during group work/independent work, consequences for not following rules, recognition for being on task and participating, tardy policy,  ect…. please make sure your students know your cell phone policies.  please enforce rules fairly and consistently:) 

AS YOU PLAN FOR THE NEXT TWO QUARTERS PLEASE REMEMBER SEM YETO'S MISSION FOR OUR STUDENTS IS TO PREPARE THEM TO BECOME 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS AND KNOW HOW TO :  COMMUNICATE CLEARLY, COLLABORATE EFFECTIVELY, THINK CRITICALLY AND DEMONSTRATE CREATIVITY….

STUDENT ENGAGEMENT AND RIGOR are ESSENTIAL:))

In the Tool Box
The beginning of a new semester or quarter is a great time and opportunity to establish positive relationships or repair poor ones with your students. Below i have attached an article that has some great activities/strategies for fostering a positive environment between teachers to students, and between students to students. Enjoy!

Building Positive Relationships

We Made It!

News and Notes
I would like to start off by first saying thank you for all of the hard work you all do for our students on a daily basis! We have arrived at the end of the first semester. Please utilize the time off to acquire some much needed rest and relaxation.

Our students are anxious to start their vacation, and you might see this have an effect on their actions in your classroom. Providing structured and engaging lessons, will ensure negative student behaviors in your class are minimized.

To show our appreciation for all that you do, Sem Yeto administration will be serving breakfast this Friday, December 18th at 8:00 am on the SYS campus.

With 2015 coming to and end and 2016 right around the corner, I would like to encourage us all to spend some time reflecting on the road ahead. Common Core is the tool being utilized moving forward to assist us in ensuring our students are prepared to meet the demanding needs of the 21st century workforce. Our students have a lot to learn (as do we as educational professionals)!

Our students success is greatly determined by the culture/environment we create on our campuses, and the instruction they receive in our classrooms. As we continue to grow as professionals, it is imperative that we reflect and identify the areas in our practice where we as individual, academic departments, and entire school educators need to grow and expand. Whether that area is building positive relationships with students, collaborating effectively with colleagues, improving on designing relevant, rigorous and engaging CCC unit and lesson plans, or acquiring more content knowledge in our area of expertise; focusing on our area for individual and collective growth will provide Sem Yeto students opportunities they never thought were possible.

In the Tool Box

Teaching Channel's Deeper Learning Series

I have included a video below on the series. Please take a moment to view and reflect. There are over 50 videos in this series. You can see more here. Enjoy!!

The 50+ videos in this series showcase 10 Deeper Learning networks that are preparing students for success -- they collectively serve more than 500 schools and 227,000 students. 

Meet students and teachers who exemplify what can happen when the Common Core is approached with innovative teaching models that emphasize real-world experience, academic mindsets, and collaborative project work. 

We hope their work inspires you, and sparks new ideas for helping students think critically, and communicate powerfully about their classes, their own learning, and who they are becoming in the world. 

Welcome Back!

News and Notes

Welcome back Sem Yeto Family!

During the last week of school before we went on Thanksgiving break, Sherry, Bonnie, Astrid, Elvira, and myself, attended a Restorative Justice Professional Development that focused on utilizing restorative practices to improve school culture and community.

The fundamental premise of restorative practices as it pertains to schools is that students are happier, more cooperative and productive, and more likely to make positive changes when those in positions of authority (e.g. administrators, teachers, and campus monitors) do things with them, rather than to them or for them. Essentially, the idea is to bring students together in peer-mediated small groups to talk, ask questions, and air their grievances.

Restorative practices can also be utilized in the classroom to improve collaboration, and student engagement. Below is a link with some more information on Restorative Justice/Practices which give you an idea on how it is being implemented in a setting similar to ours. Have a great start to your week!

In The Tool Box

Restorative Practices at Work in High School

Newsletter November 16th-20th

News and Notes

At the end of last week, we participated in POD’s with Patricia from West Ed. Our Social Science and Science department teachers from both Sem Yeto and Sem Yeto Satellite participated in the collaborative professional development. It was great to see how teachers from both sites utilized the opportunity to collaborate on lesson planning to ensure that content rich, and engaging lessons were formulated. The entire process was very demanding; identifying/planning ways to engage students at different levels of Depth of Knowledge as a collaborative team was a new experience for some of us. The process that the staff participated in, highlighted the extensive intentional planning that needs to be present to ensure that lessons are meeting the level of rigor and student engagement required for students to be successful in the 21st century educational arena. It was great to visit the classrooms of the teachers who were involved in this collaborative effort, and observe the finished product. Our staff took some risks and tried some things that were outside of some of their comfort zones, and for this they should be commended!

Suspension data from October is in, and we went from 42 days of suspension in October of 2014, to 16 days of suspension in October of 2015. This is a significant drop in the number of students suspended for that period. Now the question becomes; how is this drop in suspension rate affecting our school culture for the positive, and identify what (if any) are the strategies we as a school are implementing to enable students to make positive decisions centered around them being more successful in achieving their academic goals.

Next week is Thanksgiving break. Please take time to relax, and reinvigorate yourselves. There will be a small luncheon during lunch on Friday, November 20th for the entire staff.

In the Tool Box

There is Always something to be thankful for. Be thankful, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Newsletter November 9th-13th

News and Notes

Last Friday, we celebrated all the students with 90% or above attendance, and who received 20 or more credits for first quarter. In total, 103 students took part in the celebration. Of the 103 students who participated, 73 were on both list. I believe this is a significant number because, 73 students who consistently attended school, received the majority of their credits.

If we can continue to recognize students for their efforts in continuing to come to school, we may also be contributing to enabling our students to be successful academically. That being said, I do not think that rewarding students for coming to school is going to solve all of our student's problems; however, some students do not come from environments where they are recognized for any of their positive achievements/behaviors.

We as a Sem Yeto family can create a culture and environment that allows students to feel safe and rewarded for working hard at the little things. This can in-turn inspire/encourage our students to step out of their comfort zone, take risk educationally, and experience some measure of success in their lives. Please continue to recognize our students and stand in the gap!

The design for the Sem Yeto Facilities Master Plan will be posted in the office. Please stop by and provide feedback and suggestions on how we can improve the design. The input that we provide will be collected December 7th, and utilized to ensure that the plans meet the needs of our future students. No one knows what our students need more than we do; so please share your thoughts.

In the Tool Box

Strategic Goals: FormativeSummative =Rigor

Strategic Goals: Formative Summative = Rigor | Edutopia

Strategic Goals: Formative Summative = Rigor | Edutopia