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This was a ton of work to plan all of this out for all of us! Thank you for this! And, thank you for hearing our teachers about the teacher to student ratio during assembly time. I think shifting these to grade-level wide and rotating teachers will be a welcome change to all!

~Rafferty

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I love the new DDI template. It is to the point and will lead to more meaningful discussions this coming year. - Greg Z

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I like how the template is organized and includes questions that will help with make the conversation flow smoothly. I do think, however, that it will be difficult for some to want to work together to come up with a single standard that should be addressed as a whole group. I am excited to see how we can come together and discuss the areas of need for all of our students and how to support them while still focusing on our individual students.

Having the reminders to work on the template will also give everyone some time to think more deeply about the data before attending the meeting.

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I think the template looks much more simplified this year and will be easier to use. I also appreciate the idea of implementing whole group reminders to complete the form. I think these small changes will show improved results for our teachers. Thank you!

~Rafferty

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The biggest takeaway in my breakout was thinking about how we can have teachers lead discussions during the meeting. This will be super helpful when we are all writing the individual lessons. Each person can talk about their lesson and help everyone see their vision.

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Rethinking how to make IXL work for us and the students will help with pushing it out during live lesson. I also really like that Alicia reminded me that it isn't necessarily when I am going to use it (beginning or end of the lesson), but it is important to think about how I am going to use it in my lesson. I definitely think that's worth talking about at the beginning of the year.

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I'm very thankful for the new template. I appreciate the support of admin with creating a calendar event to ensure DDI prep ahead of time.

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It is great to have the reminder that we shouldn't take these conversations personally and to remember that we don't always know what is going on in the life of the person that is upset. We have a great support system here. Sometimes, I might not be the "fixer" and it is ok to pass it on to someone else.

~Rafferty

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I am very grateful for the presentation on difficult conversations and accompanying slides. I downloaded the slides to refer back to them when needed! - Greg Z

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I like that the article highlighted that we need to empower our teams with leadership skills. It also made me think about how we can delegate more within our teams, like with lesson planning or even leading that meeting. The article also talked about having a compelling plan and vision and staying focused. This is going to be a big challenge this year as the science department looks to implement goals across 6-8 as we prepare for our new standards in the coming school year. -Melanie B

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Making sure to give yourself the time to think and generate the ideas for the conversation beforehand is super important. Having an example of how to speak to a CT is useful, especially when you are in a tense conversation about a student.

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I'm excited to see the new challenges this upcoming year and really looking forward to us being able to reward students for completing challenges.

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I saved the STORM graphic to my favorites so that I can quickly reference it when needed. I appreciated all of the tips for key phrases to use and not to use when communicating with caretakers. I feel more prepared to take on difficult conversations, especially with having some helpful sticky notes close by!

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I think reinforcing how much of a team approach these conversations are is very comforting for teachers. Learning a few key phrases, being consistent and professional with communication, and keeping others in the loop will go a long way. As long as teachers feel increasingly comfortable engaging in those conversations, everybody can grow with them. -Dylan Vamosi

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I love the spreadsheet and the alignment across grade levels. It's also great to be able to see the progression of skills and to know what is coming up in future assemblies. It seems very cohesive.

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I love that we are taking something that the kids loved last year and are working to make it even better! We shared so many ideas for challenges and incentives. I am really looking forward to seeing how this plays out and how the kids get into it!

~Rafferty

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I'm glad we're doing the spreadsheet as a team this year. Our discussions were more productive when we analyzed the data together.

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I think this was very helpful to review expectations. I definitely appreciate the idea of checklists and breaking them up into "required" and "extra" tasks.

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Please reach out to your grade level school counselors for support. We are specialists at having these difficult conversations and would be more than happy to support you!

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Please reach out to your grade level school counselors for support. We are specialists at having these difficult conversations and would be more than happy to support you!

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Love the idea of starting the year off with promoting good habits and routines for the students to get started on the right foot!

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The new template is easy to understand. It will make things much easier to keep information all in one space!

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So many great ideas, and ideas for rewards. I think the students will participate more changing things up!

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This is awesome and the time spent on creating it is so appreciated. I love the fact that we can see what will be/was done in the assemblies (even if we weren't there that week) and can try to link similar skills/themes to what we are doing within the classroom.

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I appreciate the graphic and all the information to make hard conversations easier!

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The template is simplified and easy to understand. I love the idea of unpacking standards and really thinking about the skills and competencies needed to master that standard.

I appreciate the idea of admin sending reminders or adding to a BOY checklist for teachers to set aside time on their calendars to prep the day before DDI.

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I loved the idea of reviewing basic expectations (checklist) but then asking teammates How do you shine? (Where do you go above and beyond?) 

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I loved the idea of reviewing basic expectations (checklist) but then asking teammates How do you shine? (Where do you go above and beyond?) 

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My breakout room discussed the importance of goal setting. This really encouraged me to set goals (both for myself and for the department), stay focused on the goals, and model that process for my team members.

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I like the thought of a "rebrand" and incorporating some fresh ideas into the Minutes In It challenges. The chance for us to break out and brainstorm is always welcome!

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I loved the idea of responding first to parents with a text letting them know that you received their message/concern and asking them for the best time to return the phone call. This ensures you have time to think, plan, and collect data before responding AND builds rapport with parents by giving them the opportunity to choose a good time for the meeting. You can ensure that both parties are prepared and ready for the conversation when it occurs.

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The resources/ scripting are super helpful! ~Kim

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Looking forward to continuing the great mini-PD time we had last year in MS. Love the differentiation options each month!

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I loved learning about more strategies/ideas that can be used with detractors. I feel like I will be able to use these strategies/ideas in a lot of different ways this year.

~Tina

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I love having all the information in one place; however, I am curious to see how easy it is to review this information when working with multiple teams. I think as we start to use these it might be easier to see the important information that we specifically need to see but it's hard to see it now when we haven't used it yet. Otherwise, I'm sure much of the team will be happy that all information will be in one location.

~Tina

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It was nice to have time to set aside questions for the year. Granted, I am still debating on what questions would be the most beneficial for the Encores/Electives Department but I was able to gather some great ideas from colleagues so I should have this finalized soon.

~Tina

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I like having the breakout rooms to discuss the focus for next year. Last year we had questions provided for us to go through as a group, but they didn't really seem focused on what ELA needed. The questions we created today gave us the ability to really pinpoint what we should look at as a dept.

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I thought these BO sessions were helpful last year and I'm glad to see them continuing this year!

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This conversation was beneficial in helping me to think outside the box and maximize the opportunity when the department is together. It also provided insights on bringing in resources such as coaches to better support everyone. It gave me plenty to think about.

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Great idea to have an agenda to keep meetings focused! - Greg

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It was nice having the time to collaborate and create questions for the upcoming year. I'm excited that we're keeping the padlet format this year so that we can have more in-depth conversations.

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No one cares, until you care!

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I love the new spreadsheet for RTI. Having everything in one sheet will make these conversations more efficient. - Greg

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It is nice to reflect on strengths and weaknesses at the start of the meeting. We are then able to keep those things in mind throughout the day. It puts us in a mindset where we are ready to absorb in areas of weakness, but also to share our areas of strength.

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Anxious to see this in action this year. It seems overwhelming, but I think having everything in one place will be a very good thing! - Rafferty

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All the info in one spot is AMAZING.

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Having everything on one spreadsheet will be super helpful when meeting. We can update as we have discussions with our students. My hope is that everyone sees beyond the number of tabs.

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We had a very productive conversation setting up our topics and setting parameters for each month

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I really liked the time to reflect on this meeting in particular and how it relates to VA meetings since they include the same people. My thought is that VA meetings are things that HAVE to be consistent 6-8, but Department meetings are things we can share with each other 6-8. I also liked the tie into the coaches and making sure we tap our valuable resources. -MB

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I am excited to have some flexibility with our vertical alignment topics this year. It will be very helpful for us to create topics that are important to our department specifically.

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I really appreciated the time to meet with our departments and develop VA topics for the upcoming year. It was also helpful to see/discuss what other departments were doing as well! - Rafferty

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We had some very healthy conversations about how to be a good leader today! We all have room to grow. Thank you all for helping us!

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We had some very healthy conversations about how to be a good leader today! We all have room to grow. Thank you all for helping us!

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There are tons of opportunities in VA to include coaches, members of other departments, and leaders to get on the same page. - Dylan Vamosi

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I appreciate the specifics that we discussed for this ONE FORM RTI!

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I appreciated this conversation. It eased some anxieties that I often have about meetings and now I have some strategies to use to keep the meeting on track.

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I think having all of the info in one spot is perfect! We can handle big documents!

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I think having all of the info in one spot is perfect! We can handle big documents!

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The new template is comprehensive and I think it will be a nice one stop shop for information on our students. Although some may see it as overwhelming at first, it really takes the place of a lot of other documents/spreadsheets and I hope everyone will see the benefit of that once we get started with it!

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Remembering that saying no is okay. :)

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Great convo time in BOR's about what vertical alignment questions should be for upcoming school year

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I enjoy having one document to house all the sheets on. I liked having the first tab be the agenda to help organize the students to discuss.