November/December Teaching and Learning Newsletter

Both elementary and secondary math teams have met several times since the start of the year. Our 6-12 math team has dug into state testing data to look at our strengths and weaknesses, and has prioritized unit planning to include higher-level thinking skills (Domain of Knowledge 3-4) and vertical alignment on algebra skills. Our next step is to look at teaching practices within our planned unit. Our elementary team’s focus is on looking at math curricula for a pilot and potential adoption. We have narrowed down our choices from ten to four, and our next step is to do a deeper dive into our top four.

The K-2 Early Literacy team met for their initial meeting in November. K-2 Team members began their day walking through K-2 classrooms in their building during literacy blocks to identify strengths and celebrations and commonalities in early literacy . The team spent the rest of the afternoon reviewing trend and current ELA data, reviewing ESD’s balanced approach to literacy and instructional minute guidelines, and began brainstorming next steps needed for supporting our teachers and students as we work to close yawning gaps in early literacy. The team ended the afternoon visioning what we want our balanced approach to literacy to look like and feel like for students in our K-2 classrooms. A link to our work can be found on the T&L Hub on the Focused Leadership Teams document, and Early Literacy team members will share takeaways with K-2 PLC teams in each building.

We are thrilled to congratulate three outstanding educators on achieving their National Board Certification, a mark of excellence in teaching!

Your dedication, expertise, and commitment to this profession is an inspiration. Thank you for setting an example of excellence in education!

Please join us in celebrating their incredible achievement! 🌟

We now have a place on the website to honor all of our National Board Certified Teachers. You can see that here.

Ellensburg FFA proudly represented both Ellensburg and the Washington FFA Association at the 97th National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana this past October. Competing against the best from across the nation, our members showcased their talent and dedication, earning Silver Awards in two prestigious Career Development Events (CDEs).

In Ellensburg School District we believe generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) can enrich teaching and learning when used responsibly and ethically. Joell Boast recently led a day-long training on the use of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in the Ellensburg School District. The session included a diverse group of participants, ranging from elementary to high school teacher representatives, as well as building and district administrators. Together, we reviewed a draft of the district's AI-related documents, which covered the following key areas:

Look for more information on these topics following winter break.

During the training, Joell also introduced SchoolAI, a secure platform designed for both teachers and students. SchoolAI prioritizes data privacy while offering a range of features that benefit teaching and learning. Starting in January, the Ellensburg School District will pilot this platform. Additional details will be shared soon, but if you're interested in exploring how to incorporate SchoolAI into your classroom, feel free to reach out to Joell Boast directly.

We will be providing a number of different opportunities over the coming months around AI, so keep a lookout for those!

A group of 24 staff members from our elementary schools will be gathering together on Wednesday, 12/18 to participate in professional development on tier 1 behavior practices. The trainer is Jessica Djabrayan Hannigan from Solution Tree. We are able to bring this trainer to our district as part of our multi-year PLC grant. The session is “designed to help educators learn how to assess their current state for tier 1 behavior and develop processes and actions necessary to build an effective tier 1 schoolwide system.” (from the description on the Solution Tree website)                

                  

As a reminder, you can find out what all our leadership teams are working on here, and if you want a high level overview of the outcomes of each of the meetings, you can see that here. There’s a lot of great work being accomplished in these teams!

Our district’s official enrollment count for this year is being finalized and will soon be published on OSPI’s website . Our preliminary total student enrollment is 3,462. The State then breaks down our total enrollment into racial and ethnic categories based on family reporting at enrollment. Families indicate whether their student is or is not of Hispanic/Latino origin, then indicates the racial origin(s) of their student. The State then reports the student’s race/ethnicity in the following way: 1 - If a family reports that their student is of Hispanic origin, the student is reported as “Hispanic/Latino of any race(s)”. 2 - If a family reports that their student is not of Hispanic origin, the student is reported as either a single race or as two or more races. This results in students who seem to be “missing” in our data. For example, a student who is Black/African American who is also of Hispanic/Latino origin would only be reported by the state as “Hispanic/Latino of any race(s)”. To help see the actual diversity of our school district, we can look at every race/ethnicity that a family reported. Below is a table with our State and family reported race/ethnicity data. Please note two things: “Hispanic/Latino of any race(s)” is the same in both columns because that category is first in the State hierarchy. And the family count will total more than 100% because families can report their student as belonging to more than one race/ethnicity.

What would you like to share with the T& L Team? Please let us know here.