Gifted Tab!

The Gifted Resource Teachers along with the Advisory Committee have worked together this year to build a Gifted and Talented (GT) page on the SPS website for Stillwater families and stakeholders. The GT website serves as a resource for teachers and administrators, too! Thank you, Barry Fuxa, for your help in designing the webpage. Even though it’s in the beginning stages, check back often for updates! Visit the GT Webpage here: stillwaterschools.com/gifted 

Summer Book Bus

Each summer, Stillwater Public Schools supports our students’ reading development in a fun, convenient way. The Book Bus, a school bus decorated thematically in ways that attract children, travels across our city to share the love of reading with a wide variety of kid-friendly books. Children can check out books from the bus each week, receive giveaways, compete for AMAZING reading prizes, and receive reading encouragement and motivation from our dedicated staff. Click the link to find the Summer 2024 Schedule for the SPS Book Bus! 

https://www.stillwaterschools.com/bookbus

Summer training opportunities

While all of our 180 day contract employees are enjoying a summer break, ed services and technology services are working to provide fun, relevant and useful professional development opportunities for our teachers and staff. Below are links to the summer PD provided by SPS. Come join us in the air-conditioned facilities (we may even provide snacks!)

• Summer PD for Elementary
• Learnapalooza 2024
  
  

Ed Camp is coming - Fall 2024!

Ed Services is excited to be bringing back Ed Camp as a delivery method for quality professional development. Beginning at our back-to-school kickoff, we will have conference-style professional development at each district-wide CERTIFIED staff PD Day; August 12th and 13th, October 16th and January 6th. The format will be similar to a conference, where teachers and staff have a choice of which 50 minute session they would like to attend. Sessions will be color-coded to indicate specialized areas such as “new teacher only,” “elementary only,” “secondary only”, “the arts” and many more! We are excited to offer this again, as it allows our SPS staff to receive purposeful PD that fits the unique needs in a variety of specializations. We will even have a session to get guidance and time to complete GCN requirements! Attendees will receive an email confirming attendance after the events so each employee is able to track their own PD hours. More information will come from your site principal or supervisor on how to sign up for sessions. 

NWEA grades 6-11 for 24-25 School Year

Starting in the 2024’-2025’ school year secondary grades 6-11 will be using the Map Growth assessment. Map Growth provides teachers with accurate, actionable evidence to help inform instructional strategies regardless of how far students are above or below grade level. Using data gathered through this assessment  teachers will be able to tailor instructions by standard to challenge every student. Training for administering the assessment, interpreting data, and effectively using data will be provided throughout the 2024’-2025’ academic year starting at the Ed Camp in August.
 

Technology’s Summer Theme? BUSY!!!

Did you know that the summer is actually the busiest season of the year for the Tech Department? It’s true! While our students and teachers are enjoying a well-deserved break, we are hard at work taking advantage of the empty classrooms to engage in some much needed enhancements and repairs!  Here’s a little preview of just a few of the projects Tech will be knocking out over the summer break:

• New SMART Boards and Interactive panels: Over 40 classrooms across our elementary sites will be receiving brand new SMART boards, including GT, SPED, and CALT rooms! A handful of rooms at secondaries will also be receiving brand new Promethean interactive panels!
  
  
• New Chromebooks for Device Trade-Up: Tech and Ed Services have purchased over 1,200 new convertible touchscreen chromebooks for incoming 10th graders and 1st-5th graders at Highland Park and Skyline elementary schools. Tech will be busy casing, inventorying, updating, enrolling, and distributing these along with the nearly 6,000 other chromebooks that will be turned in at the end of the school year!
  
• New copiers coming district-wide: In an effort to make our print environment more efficient, Tech will be rolling out 48 new high-efficiency large-format multifunction printer/copiers at all sites across the district. Many of these high-speed machines will be able to print in color, and also come with external finishers that can provide deluxe finishing options such as auto-stapling and 3-hole punch! Along with these new copiers, the district will be introducing a new process for printing called “Find Me” Printing which offers some amazing benefits over our current system:

“Find Me” Printing:

• Rather than printing to a specific printer, you will print to a centralized “Find Me” queue, hosted on our network servers.
• After printing to the queue, you can go to any new copier in the district and sign in by swiping your badge.
• The new copier will retrieve and display on the screen a list of the print jobs you sent to the queue.
• You can then select which print jobs you want to print, at which point the jobs are securely released to that copier and printed.
• “Find Me” printing is device agnostic, which means you can print from Windows PCs, Macs, or Chromebooks!

Since these new copiers will fill in the gap previously filled by Duplication, Duplication will be going away at the end of this school year.

• New Tech Ticketing System: Many of you are already familiar with Incident IQ as our chromebook check in/out system, but this summer we will be moving our Technology Support tickets over to this system as well. Stay tuned for more information!

Wellness & Student Support

Did you know that we have a Student Support Resource Library? This is located on the SPS Student Support page, which is dedicated to student support and wellness within the district and serves as a resource hub for students, parents, educators, and the community at large. Looking for information on SPS counselors? Local mental health resources? Family Support Services? School Health? Look no further. This site is designed to offer information and support aimed at nurturing the holistic well-being of students. From mental health resources and counseling services to additional support programs and community outreach initiatives, the site is there to address a wide range of needs and challenges that students may encounter. Through this platform, both students and staff can access valuable resources, guidance, and opportunities aimed at promoting a positive and healthy learning environment for all students within the district. 

Summer Academy 

Summer Academy is quickly approaching, and our students are beginning to be enrolled in summer offerings. There will be three sites running from June 3-June 21; the elementary is half day mornings at Will Rogers Elementary, the middle school is half day mornings at SMS, and all high school credit recovery will be held at the high school mornings and afternoons only if the morning session fills. Openings for summer school positions are filling quickly and are posted on the HR webpage. In addition, this link takes you to all things summer school! stillwaterschools.com/summer

Teacher of the Year 

April 23rd, the 2024-2025 SPS Teacher of the Year was announced at our SPS Celebration of Teaching. Site TOYS were celebrated with gifts from local sponsors, and finalists were highlighted before the announcement of Rebecca Palmatary as our SPS Teacher of the Year. Wilson Auto Group surprised her with an extra special surprise of a two year paid lease on a 2024 Chevrolet Equinox LT, insurance paid! In addition, WIlson provided cash awards to site winners for $500, and $1000 for runners up. We are incredibly grateful for the support that Wilson Auto Group has shown for our winners - they truly love our teachers! Next year, Mrs. Palmatary will compete for the title of Oklahoma Teacher of the Year, hosted by the Oklahoma State Department of Education. We are so proud of her, and wish her all the best at next year’s competition.

Elementary Education

Whew!!!  What a year!  It seems like we just started and in a blink of an eye we are at the end of the year!  

We have a few training opportunities for elementary this summer!  We will be offering LETRS Modules 5-8 on May 28-29. LETRS Early Childhood on May 30-31 and LETRS Modules 5-8 on July 16-19!  Our mission is to have all elementary teachers trained in LETRS.  Please sign up via Sign Up Genius if you want to attend!

We have a new elementary math curriculum……….Big Ideas!  We will be doing training for K-1st on July July 29th (AM), 2nd-3rd- July 29th (PM) and 4th /5th- July 30th (AM).  Please sign up on Sign Up Genius if you plan to attend!

A HUGE shout out to all the elementary teachers/admin that have volunteered their time and expertise to present at the August Ed Camp! Stillwater has the best people  and I am excited for them to showcase their passions and skills!

Please remember iStation and IXL end of the year testing window -  May 1-10th!  All students are required to test!

Indigenous Peoples Education

• Battle of the Books is coming up - May 2nd at First Christian Church, 9:00 am (4th Grade Native Students)
• Senior Recognition Cook Out - May 9th at Couch Park #2, 6:00 pm (We celebrate our Native Seniors wishing to be celebrated) 
• 506 Form - if you are new to the District, and willing to do so, please fill out the Federal 506 form for Indian Education.  We will also need a copy of the CDIB being used.

Federal Programs

Did you know that as a district we receive federal funding for more than just Title I?  We received federal funding through 8 different Title programs. These programs support our district through instructional supports, professional development, and family supports across the district, along with funding our ELL, Indigenous People Education, and McKinney-Vento/Homeless programs.  This summer we will be creating a committee to help create our Comprehensive District Academic Plan for the next 3 years.  This plan is one of the requirements to maintain our federal funding.  The committee members will meet a couple of times each year to create and evaluate the plan.  If you would be interested in joining the committee please contact Beth McBee ([email protected]). 

ELL

Multicultural Night is on May 2nd from 5-7pm at the Student Center. Come support SMAC and eat dinner before attending the band concert at 7 in the PAC. 

Ed Tech

• It is unbelievable that the end of the year is just around the corner. Summer will go by quickly and before you know it you will be planning for your 2024’-2025’ school year. Please keep the following things in mind as you consider educational technology in your classroom.
• As you consider using new technology tools in your classroom please check the approved list to see if there is an already approved technology that functions in a similar way. 
• Teachers need to turn in requests for technology that is not on the approved list to their principal. Ed Tech and Technology prefer that technology requested be used by a team of teachers or a content area. If it is a site, program, or software that only will impact one classroom it is less likely to be approved.
• It takes time to get technology programs vetted and implemented. Please plan ahead.
• If you teach in a PLTW classroom please submit your required technology/software list to [email protected] to ensure that you have access to your required programs at the start of the year.
• Canvas - Coming Soon!
• Canvas will be implemented at SHS and SJHS starting next academic year. 
• Our first training will be May 3rd at the SJHS. Please bring your computer.
• We will be offering auto rostering and grade pass back via Canvas.
• Any teacher using Canvas next year will be receiving invitations to your Canvas sandbox over the next few weeks. Please accept the invitation by clicking “Get Started”. 

• Technology Spotlight
• The following applications were approved recently for use in our district. There are some   really great applications on this list. Go check them out and let me know if you have any questions or want to meet and do training!
• Canva- Approved for teachers and students. You must access via Clever. If you already have an account you will toggle to your old account in the upper right hand corner.
• Wakelet- Approved for teachers only. A great collaborative tool that can be used for presentations or  lesson planning. When using please do not include photos of students in presentations as the Wakelet can be shared publicly.
• Flashlight 360- Approved for school year 2024-2025 for elementary and secondary ELL student population.
  
  

Secondary Education 

As we closeout another incredible year and begin to look toward the next year with anticipation, don’t forget the awesome things that occurred in our secondary schools this year: 

• Lincoln Academy received a $15,000 TSET Grant for their new Bike Club!
• SMS implemented NWEA screener for all students in Math, Reading, and Language!
• SMS and SJHS implemented new intervention programs such as Read180 and Math180!
• SHS added a new BMITE program to provide more opportunities for students to meet computer technology requirements!
• SMS, SJHS, and SHS CareerTech teachers met to vertically align their programs!
• SMS, SJHS, SHS, and LA math teams collaborated by site in one of the most challenging adoption cycles to overwhelmingly agree on a 6th - 12th grade math curriculum that will provide students with high-quality, rigorous math learning experiences at all grade levels, and teachers will have valuable, evidence-based teaching tools and online resources for the next 6 years! 
• SPEF awarded numerous SMS, SJHS, SPVA, SHS, and LA teachers, administrators, and staff with grants to supplement their classrooms!
• SJHS was exited from the CSI designation list a year early because they met all of their academic criteria by the middle of the year! 

Thank you ALL for the hard work and dedication this year to SPS and especially in your school site. EVERY secondary site in our district is thriving, and students are making academic gains and competing at the highest levels because of the continued efforts of teachers, staff, and administrators.

We're looking forward to SY24-25! Have a great break, and prevent the "Summer Slide for Teachers"  

• Rest up, relax, and do something fun to share with your colleagues when you return,
• Attend Summer trainings when/if you can,
  • Learnapalooza 2024
• Be a life-long learner in some way, 
• Read something that will impact what you do/teach in the classroom,
• Enjoy your hobby, whatever that may be, to the fullest!