November 1, 2015
Teachers,
As we discussed at last Monday’s staff meeting and our
Faculty Council meeting the week prior, we very much
need to focus on and “re-norm” to some shared
expectations, rules and practices here at Franklin. We
discussed holding grade-level assemblies this coming
Monday but upon more consideration I have realized we
need to spend time throughout the week working
collectively to introduce and practice the rules and
behaviors we hope to see at Franklin. Towards that end, we
will have a week-long roll-out of our renewed focus on
school culture. A brief version of the schedule is below
with details in the section following. I know this is a lot of
information in one email but all this really entails is each of
you focusing on reviewing and discussing school rules on
Tuesday and drafting a set of classroom agreements on
Wednesday. Then, of course, comes the daily work of
holding ourselves and our students to those expectations.
We will begin the week with Monday Morning
Announcements tomorrow at 8:50. We will continue this
each week following. I will ensure we keep our
announcements to 5 minutes or less, focusing on key
events/dates and student or school accomplishments. Please
be sure your class is ready for our announcements
tomorrow morning by 8:50.
On Tuesday (or Monday) we are asking each teacher to
dedicate at least 20-25 minutes of instructional time to a
grade-appropriate lesson reviewing the attached School
Discipline Policies. Rather than beginning with a focus on
negative rule infractions, please start with the Franklin 5
(see attached), the characteristics of a caring and safe
school community and the student and staff behaviors that
nurture that community. Please email or leave a lesson
overview in Ingrid’s box briefly describing your lesson and
how it went so we can build on your lessons in Friday’s
Assemblies.
On Wednesday please use at least 10-15 minutes of
instructional time to lead a discussion in your class on up to
five “agreements” your entire class can agree to for the
year. You can build on your lesson from the day prior.
Please write these up and have each student in your class
sign one copy, titling this the “Room # Class Compact.”
Please bring a copy of your “classroom compact” to
Wednesday afternoon’s PD. I will post these and we will
use them as the basis for drafting our school-wide Franklinstudent compact. (You can share with your students that a
compact is a written agreement that binds or holds all those
who sign to what they have promised.) A student-schoolfamily compact is a state-wide requirement and truly
building this compact student by student, classroom by
classroom will result in a meaningful and “living”
document.
On Wednesday the majority of our PD time will focus on
behavior management, classroom management strategies
and differentiating instruction as a key strategy for
classroom and behavior management. We will draw upon
your classroom compacts. We will also agree upon how we
would like to use our Tiger Cards and other incentive
structures in the year ahead.
Thursday we will draw, announce and reward our first
Tiger Card winners and I will work with Mr. Lowenstein
on highlighting student voice and participation via Student
Council Day.
On Friday all students and staff are encouraged to wear our
school colors (Red and White) and Franklin t-shirts if they
have them. I am ordering our shirts this week and we
should have them by next week so we can begin T-shirt
Fridays. We will also hold grade-level school School
Culture Assemblies to highlight our shared school rules and
expectations. The schedule for these assemblies is below.
Thanks everyone! See you all tomorrow,
Ingrid
Franklin School Culture Week
Monday, November 2
8:50 Monday Morning
Weekly Announcements
Tuesday, November 3
School Policies 101
Wednesday, November 4
Classroom Compacts
Behavior Management PD
Thursday, November 5
Student Council Day
Tiger Cards
Friday, November 6
School Color and Culture
Day
Students and staff wear
school colors (red and white)
and Franklin t-shirts
School Culture Assemblies
(by grade)
November 6th School Culture Assemblies :
TK/K 9:00-9:25
First Grade 9:30-9:55
Fourth Grade 10:00-10:25
Fifth Grade 10:30-10:55
Second Grade 1:00-1:25
Third Grade 1:30-2:00