Friday Focus -December 22 (on a Thursday!)

The Big Rocks
At this very busy time of year, both personally and professionally, I thought a reflection on the never-ending dimension of time would be very relevant.  My message is not one that delves into the Christmas theme, but rather one that has ample application to the holiday season.  It happens not only at this time of year, but throughout the year--there just doesn't seem to be enough time to accomplish all that we desire to.  Time always has lapsed and continues to lapse for each of us from minute to minute, class period to class period, sunrise to sunset, throughout our lifetime.

Do you ever feel stretched for time, like me?  (Did you just laugh at that question?!)  Do you leave loose ends at the end of the day? Wonder how you're going to get it all done? I have come to the realization that time constraints will always be present and that I will never get it all done (although I still find myself trying to get it all done).  I know that we all strive to be the best people that we can be.  In order to be our best, it is necessary that we take care of ourselves.  So what can we do to manage all of our life activities, both professionally and personally? I have come to find comfort in rereading the story of The Big Rocks by Steven Covey several times throughout the year.

You can read the story of The Big Rocks HERE   and you can see a video clip of Stephen Covey presenting in a seminar on Time Management (an older video) here:



The story of The Big Rocks is a great visual and a reminder for the priorities we make and our actions that reflect them.


Enjoy the time with your families over the holiday vacation and when you find some time to reflect on this short story, ask yourself this question: What are the ‘big rocks’ in my life? Then put those in your jar first.
Happy Holidays! :)

Monday Memo - Week of December 19

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*I've seen a couple of classes use the following strategy to get Daily 5 rounds started: Once you've gone through all of the students and recorded their choices (don't let them get up and move once they've told you) quietly tell them all to close their eyes and picture in their heads what Daily 5 choice they've made and what they will be doing.  This gets them focused and ready to go.  Since they're already quiet from closing their eyes to think, they transition almost silently to their Daily 5 round!
*One grade level meeting this week included discussion on their recent math test results. Instead of just using it to plan for WIN, they took the time to talk about student/class results and what instructional strategies each teacher used to learn from each other.  That's a PLC at it's finest!
*During a reading group in READ 180 I overheard a student say, "I'll use my resources!" on his own!

Events This Week:
Monday - I'm putting a variety of Christmas cookies in the lounge for you as my Holiday treat--enjoy!
Tuesday - Tech Tuesday in the Media Center. Bethany and Jean will be sharing Pinterest with us.
Wednesday- Professional Learning Media after school on 1:1 Conferring and teaching the CAFE strategy "Tune Into Interesting Words."

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*"I used to...Now I..."  I know that this week will be short and busy, but please take a few minutes to reflect on literacy in your classroom and complete this short survey at http://bit.ly/literacysurvey  I'm not asking for anything formally written, just whatever comes to mind when you think of how literacy has changed in your classroom---for your students and for yourself.  This could include your planning, instruction, assessment, or just general classroom environment.  Please complete this before you leave on Thursday. Thank you!

*Planning ahead for the New Year: Upon our return from Christmas break please keep in mind that you  will need to spend at least 2 weeks reteaching/retraining your students.  Please be ready to go over all your classroom routines and procedures and retrain your students.

• Re-build/work on stamina in Daily 5
• Hallway behavior – We have all become very relaxed with enforcing Short, Straight, Silent.
• Transitions within the classroom – Be sure to have a transition routine from activity/subject to subject.

Friday Focus - December 16th

"Inattentional Blindness"

(*I originally wrote this for my professional reflections blog, but decided to cross post it here for you)

When it comes to reading I usually choose professional education books over fiction to continue my learning as a principal and instructional leader. I have strayed from ed literature after hearing a podcast with Life Coach, Mel Robbins on the Manic Mommies podcast (in case you're wondering, that is just a podcast I listen to for fun).  Her sense of humor and powerful message led me to order her book Stop Saying You're Fine before I even finished listening to the podcast. Even though her book is not an professional education book, I have been making many connections to my position in education throughout reading it.

The biggest connection I've made to education is while reading her chapter on how admitting what you want focuses your attention. "Inattentional blindness" is a phenomenon that describes how we often miss what is right in front of us unless we are completely focused on it.

Here's the best example to point this out. Just watch this youtube clip for 1 minute to take the awareness test. You need to keep track of how many times the team in white passes the ball.


Did you see it? The only reason I did is because I read about the results of this in Robbins' book. In a study involving a similar clip, 46% of people missed it.

What's the point of this? Robbins states, "you miss an enormous number of opportunities to change your life on a daily basis because you are not focused on what you want. You are focused on your problems and maintaining the illusion that you are fine. Until you face the truth about your life and start focusing on opportunities to take action, you will continue to miss the gorilla moonwalking in the background."

WOW!

So often in education, our discussions can go down the trail of unending outside factors (home life, socio-economic status, the schedule/yearly calendar, previous year's teacher, etc.) When we spend our time listing outside factors affecting a student, we are wasting precious time to look at what we can change to better meet a student's needs. Here are just a few examples.

• The young elementary student that is tardy everyday, because his/her single parent works late the night before and sleeps past the alarm. Keep the child in at recess (not a favorite choice), add an individual incentive for that student if he/she does make it on time, make arrangements to keep the student after school, change the schedule so the student isn't missing the instruction that they need the most (I understand that's difficult to do) or start giving them a wake up call each morning (I've actually done that and after about a week of this, they get really sick of it and start coming on time...or change their number).
• The student that is 2 years below reading level and is already getting a "double-dose" of reading (full 90 minutes of literacy in the classroom and 30 minute reading intervention daily), but you know is never reading at home. Then add a "triple dose" of reading and set the child up with 15 minutes of the day reading to a volunteer. No volunteers? Contact a teacher of an older grade and have a student volunteer come down to listen to the student read. If you are the older grade, then have your student go to a younger grade. Or have your student record themselves reading into the free program audacity on your computer.
• The student that just transferred to your school and you wonder what in the world the previous district had for curriculum, because this child is so far behind, yet came with a glowing report card in their cumulative file. Get started on interventions right away.

I challenge you to think about what opportunities you're missing out on in your classroom, because you're focused on the problems or obstacles. What are you not doing, but making excuses for why you're not doing it? What is it that you want for your students? What are you going to do to make it happen?

Photo cc license shared by CrazyFast

Monday Memo - Week of December 12

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*A Time for Kids article was used in a 4th grade mini-lesson while teaching how to write a persuasive paper.
* 1st graders were practicing beautiful expression when practicing a poem during shared reading.
*A guest teacher (that also works in other districts) complimented our classrooms on our strong reading structure and asked for Daily 5 information to share with another district.
*I received a call from another school district asking for a teacher to come and observe Daily 5/Cafe in action in our classrooms this week---I love showing you off! :)

Events This Week:
Monday - Meeting for probationary teachers at 3:05 in the Media Center

Tuesday - I will be gone all day at an RtI Conference (along with Mrs. Cleary, Mrs. Patey and Mrs. Huelsman)

Friday - Staff Social Lunch (2nd grade/Madsen/Kuhn)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*This is the middle of the quarter already. Please make sure to send home progress reports.  As always, if you have any student with a "surprise" on their progress report, you should be proactive and call home.
*January is the month that we begin meeting on any students that would be considered for possible retention; however, if you have concerns with a student we should meet as a Student Intervention Team (SIT) first. If you have concerns with a student in this category that we haven't had a SIT for yet, please contact me.
*In a blog I follow, I found this great classroom activity for this time of year, just click on The Gift of Kind Words 

Tech Tips: 
*How is Conferring Going? You'll notice that title is hyperlinked to take you to another teacher's blog post on conferring.
*If you're looking for other blogs to add to your google reader, here is a list of blogs that were nominated for the 2011 Edublog awards.
*If you plan on coming to Tech Tuesday to learn about Pinterest next week, please email Bethany or Jean so they can send you an invite. If you're wondering what in the world Pinterest is, here's a teacher's blog post I found that explains it: http://prekinders.com/2011/07/pinterest-for-teachers/
or here's another post from Pearson School System here.

Friday Focus - December 9

This week I attended the SLATE (School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education) conference where I was put on brain-overload from the many challenging thoughts and great ideas shared to continue advancing integration of technology in education.

I was excited to hear our keynote speaker, Scott Mcleod, because I have followed his blog and twitterfeed for a couple of years now.  Scott created the following powerful video clip:



Just as I expected, Scott spent 2 hours sharing far too much information for me to share in this post, but I do want to share the "learning nuggets" that I took home with me:

*Web 2.0 -the internet is no longer just reading information, but interacting with it, connecting with others and easily sharing information (i.e. podcasts, facebook, twitter, blogs, youtube, wikipedia, linkdin, four square, pinterest, webkinz, wordle, the list goes on...)

*Consumers vs. Creators - With all the web 2.0 tools today, we are no longer consumers of the internet, we are creators. One well known example of this is the amount of sales from amazon.com that are attributed to the product reviews that people submit.  If you are submitting a review, you are helping to create amazon.  He also said that if you are reading reviews, but never leaving a review, then you're a "moocher" and you need to help contribute.  (With this thought, I'm making it my personal goal to try to add comments to the blog posts that I read throughout the week)

*With all these web 2.0 tools...
-We all have a voice
-We can easily find each other
-We can easily work together

*We are now preparing our students for jobs that don't currently exist.

*Our students need to be problem-solvers and critical thinkers (not "regurgitators")

*If we are going to prepare our students for the new jobs (that we don't even know about now) that require creative work, then we need to plan learning that is in the top 3 of Bloom's Taxonomy (visual above of this)--Analyzing, Evaluating and Creating.

My reflection prompt for you:
What are you doing in your classroom to encourage critical thinking, problem solving and creating?  How much of student time is spent consuming information versus creating it?

Monday Memo - Week of December 5

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*While sitting in a 5K mini-lesson on setting a student excitedly said, "I just made a connection to another book we read!"
*In another 5K classroom students were practicing their Jolly Phonics with the SMARTBoard program and were able to read the following words: coast, grain, punch, and chimpanzee using their sounds.  I bet the 1st grade teachers love to hear this!
*After 5th grade student presentations, the class was asked to give 3 positive comments and 3 things to improve on. I was amazed to hear the feedback given to students by students and surprised how much Daily 5/Cafe language carried over into the feedback for science presentations.
*5th grade started keeping track of "Writing Non-Negotiables" as writing skills are taught in mini-lessons.  You can see the list from one class in the picture on the right.  Mrs. Bingen says that this list has really cut down on the time spent conferring  with students for writing revising/editing--she does NOT help revise if they have a mistake that is on the non-negotiable list. Wouldn't it be great if we had a list of expectations like this at each grade level?

Events This Week:
*Monday - Mentors meeting at 3:05 in Media Center
*Tuesday - I will be gone all day at the SLATE conference (School Leaders Advancing Technology in Education) in Wisconsin Dells.
*Thursday - No Office Day--I'll be spending my day in 3-5th grade classrooms
   K/2/4 Music Concert (including 5th grade band) at 6:30 PM
*Friday - Just a reminder to show your school spirit and wear your school shirt (please help remind your students too)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Just a reminder that next week is already mid-quarter (I had to triple check the calendar to be sure!) so make sure you're ready to send home a progress report for each of your students.
* We've added another Tech Tuesday to the calendar for December 20th. I know that's a busy week, but there's quite a few teachers excited about using Pinterest or wanting to learn how before break so Jean and Bethany will be teaching us how that day.

Tech Tip:
*I've seen some great websites being used on the SMARTBoards and in the computer lab that I'm sure students would continue to use at home if they have internet access.  You can show them how to access the site from the student resources on the district webpage (if it's there) or include the web address in your newsletter, which can be quite lengthy and difficult to type at times.  If you want to learn how to make a shortened web address to share with students/parents for home and for easy access in the computer lab you just need to go to http://bitly.com and sign up for an account. Here's a screencast I made to show you how to use this tool. Let me know if you need any help getting started on this.

Friday Focus - December 2

I see the school year as a marathon, not a sprint. There are long stretches at the beginning and end, then those long days where winter’s cold temperatures and lack of sunlight drain us. When viewed within the scope of an entire school year, 15 days isn’t really that many. However, 15  is the exact number of days that we have with our students before Winter Break.

• For some of our students who will say “it’s almost break” and lack motivation, it is time to push them & keep them excited and eager to learn.
• For our students who come from challenging circumstances at home and are feeling anxiety about not being at school for over two weeks (and acting out because of it), it is time to show them how much you care & make the most of these next 15 days.
• For our students that just keep smiling & working hard each day, it is time to pull them aside and tell them how much you appreciate them (Positive Postcard?)

In these 15 days, we have a lot of work to do & lots of wonderful learning experiences to provide our students.  We’ll continue to persevere as the professionals that we are! No matter what your title is, what grade you work with, or what you do at Dodgeland, please look at these next 15 days as times to deliver the highest quality service to our students, parents & community.
Be proud of what we’ve accomplished with our students so far this year, but please keep your ‘eye on the ball’ and keep the focus on learning in your classrooms until Winter Break. In addition, I’d encourage you to:

• Take a second and tell a colleague that you’ve noticed how hard they are working and that you appreciate them working so hard.
• Make time to reflect on some of the positives that we’ve had this year that may have been overlooked as we have overcome the challenges of not having enough time.
• Set a tone for your students that regardless of how much time is left before a long break that all of us will work hard and make the most of our school days.
• Celebrate being a member of our Dodgeland Family

Monday Memo - Week of November 28

I hope that you all enjoyed a restful Thanksgiving holiday with your families. It is hard to believe it, but December is already here this week and we have only 19 days until Christmas break. Many of us enjoy this time of year—shopping for gifts, decorating, baking cookies, etc. For some of our students, this is not a festive time of year due to the financial hardships their families face. It can even get to be a stressful time for these children that hear their parents talk about no money for Christmas or even the possibility of losing electricity. I don’t mean to depress you, but just ask that you keep this in mind and pay attention to these particular students in your class that may be going through hard times.

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*A math lesson introducing division with remainders had all students participating by moving around the room to make groups of different sizes and finding out how many were left over (out of a group).  Each student recorded this information in a chart, while still getting the chance to get up and move around with each problem.  (Physical movement is a brain based learning strategy).
*Upper/lower grades getting together for activities with their "buddy classes."  What a great opportunity for our older students to be a role model and for our younger students to get to know an older student.

Events This Week:
Tuesday: Tech Tuesday in Ms. Abegglen's room.  Agenda: Google Reader and SMARTBoard

Do you enjoy learning from educator blogs, but forget where you found them or forget to check back for new posts? Find out how Google Reader can be used to easily keep track of the blogs you like and to just check for new posts to read when you have time.  Click HERE for  simple video to show you what google reader is.  

The remainder of Tech Tuesday time will be for Q&A/Help on SMARTBoard/SMARTNotebook. 

Wednesday: 3rd Grade Field Trip
Friday: Leadership Team Meeting at 12:00 in D.O. Conference Room

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
**With SMARTBoards in every classroom now, Skype is a great tool to use to connect your class with anywhere around the world.  Last year 4th grade connected with Singapore and New Zealand to learn more than just what they could read.  A neat idea I've found online is Mystery Skype with another class that you can read more about here. Mystery Skype looks like a fun way to learn more about the states from your grade level's region for American Treasures.  I know that a few of our grade levels learn about Christmas around the World or how different cultures celebrate...if anyone is interested, I know of 2 Jewish schools that have skyped with other classes to teach about Hannukah.  If you're interested in Mystery Skype, I can help find a class for you to skype with. Just let me know know if you're interested and I can help you get started. 
**No Office Day--I'll be spending time with 3-5th grades on Thursday, December 8th. I'm setting aside days in my calendar throughout the year to spend immersed in classes/grade levels throughout the day.  I am really excited about this! I will be in the classrooms from students’ arrival through the end of the day; planning to spend time in the rooms during academic times and to visit specials with your classes. I am happy to sit and observe, but reeeeally what I would love to do is join in the fun. Please put me to work! Need someone to facilitate a small group? Want to team up to teach a topic? Would you like to have someone work 1:1 with a student? Want me to help prepare something on the SMARTBoard? These are all ways I’d be happy to help.  Please send me an email to let me know--my calendar is WIDE open!! If there is work/planning I need to complete before that day, kindly let me know a day or two in advance.

Friday Focus - November 23 (not really Friday)

I don't know if you realize it, but you play such an important role in your students' lives.  You are nearly as important to your students as are their own mothers and fathers...some of you may be their only adult role model.  Each day, you reach out your hand to our students to help them and to "make things clear."  Whether you are teaching a lesson about the scientific method, fractions, synonyms, history, or life in general, the hand you reach out to your studnets each day will be remembered long after it is extended.  Many of you have probably already heard of or read the story below, and I know it's a little bit sappy, but I wanted to share it again as an expression of thanks for all that you, as teachers, do to help our students.

Thanksgiving Day was near.  The first grade teacher gave her class a fun assignment--to draw a picture of something for which they were thankful.  Most of the class might be considered economically disadvantaged, but still many would celebrate the holiday with turkey and other traditional goodies of the season. These, the teacher thought, would be the subjects of most of her student's art.  And they were.

But Douglas made a different kind of picture.  Douglas was a different kind of boy.  He was the teacher's true child of misery, frail, and unhappy. As other children played at recess, Douglas was likely to stand close by her side.  One could only guess at the pain Douglas felt behind those sad eyes.  Yes, his picture was different. when asked to draw a picture of something for which he was thankful, he drew a hand.  Nothing else.  Just an empty hand.

His abstract image captured the imagination of his peers.  Whose hand could it be?  One chils guessed it was the hand of a farmer, because farmers raise turkeys.  Another suggested a police officer, because the police protect and care for people.  Still others guessed it was the hand of God, for God feeds us.  And so the discussion went--until the teacher almost forgot the young artist himself.  When the children had gone on to other assignments, she paused at Douglas' desk, bent down, and asked him whose had it was.  The little boy looked away and murmered, "It's yours, teacher."

She recalled the times she had taken his hand and walked with him here or there, as she had the other students.  How often had she said, "Take my hand, Douglas, we'll go outside." Or, "Let me show you how to hold your pencil." Or, "Let's do this together."  Douglas was most thankful for his teacher's hand. Brushing aside a tear, she went on with her work. 

Thank you for reaching out your hand each day to our kids at Dodgeland.  While we have many students from very supportive homes with loving mothers and fathers, we also have our share of "Douglasses." Your hand means a great deal to both.  So often, when I visit your classrooms, I witness "first hand" the power of your hands, as students soak in yoru wisdom, your warmth, your passion.  Many of our students express their appreciation immediately through their engagement, their quality work, and by returning your smiles with their own.  Others are less obviously responding to the hand you tirelessly extend; yet they, too are storing away these moments and wil remember you and your steady hand long after they have left the elementary. Thank you for teaching with passion for our students each and every day. 

Monday Memo - Thanksgiving Week

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*I have been seeing a variety of uses of the SMARTBoard in every grade level:
-display of shared reading poem/passage and students got to come to the board to highlight the star words
-interactive science diagrams (I don't even know how you make those!)
-opportunity for students to show how to solve math problems (but the rest of the class also solving problems on small whiteboards so all were actively engaged)
-editing of DOL
-a student "job" of turning the smartboard on/off

Events This Week:
Wednesday: Lunch is 11:00-12:00 and early dismissal at 12:20
Staff Development 12:45 - 3:00

Short week :) Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your families! 

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Scholastic Book Fair Dollars: Each 4K-5th grade classroom teacher can spend up to $80 from the School Resource Catalog from what we earned at the book fair.  I only have one of these catalogs to shop from right now (but asked Scholastic to send a few more).  You will find a catalog and order form in the staff lounge.  Please complete your "shopping" by Friday, December 2 so I can place our order. 
*Next week on Tuesday, November 29th is our next Tech Tuesday. I know that several of you have been talking about Pinterest (one tool I don't fully "get" yet).  Some other tools that could be shared are: google docs, google calendar, google reader, google sites, diigo (online social bookmarking).  Please email me if there's something you want to share or something you would like to learn more about (or if you have smartboard requests!)
*This weekend I blogged about our Dodgeland Pride assembly and how we recognize students for their academic achievements here.  This sparked quite a discussion on twitter and in the comments on my blog which you can see.  There are quite a few schools that have done away with honor roll assemblies for a variety of reasons (they provide extrinsic motivation, further disengage students already not doing well, etc.)  There is a list of blog posts about doing away with assemblies here. The principals/teachers that responded to my blog and on twitter definitely challenged my thinking.  I'd be interested in your thoughts on this. Feel free to post comments below (you can use your name or stay anonymous).

Friday Focus - November 18

 With the Thanksgiving holidays quickly approaching, I thought it was a great time to simply offer heartfelt thanks to all of you for enriching the lives of our students & me. I am sincerely thankful for the roles that each of you play in our students' lives.   I have the best job in the world because I am surrounded by the best teachers. You may think I'm just saying that, but one of our teachers realized on Wednesday that we really do have awesome teachers here and are doing incredible work for our students.  When our 4th/5th grade teachers met with teachers from other districts in the DART meeting, they said they felt like they were the ones sharing many resources with other schools and bragging about all of the great things we're doing and one of our teachers realized that all the praise I keep giving you was legit---you are all doing amazing things at Dodgeland!

 This often is a thankless job and I want to make sure that I THANK YOU for teaching me so clearly what effective teachers do differently, and thanks for teaching with passion each day!

Monday Memo - Week of November 14

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*In 4th grade, I missed a mini lesson on retelling, but when I visited during Daily 5 time, could tell that the chart created during the lesson was a useful tool for students, because I saw several glancing at it as they were writing their own retell of their Good Fit Book.
*One of the 3rd grade book clubs were learning how to lead a discussion without much assistance from the teacher. They did a great job sharing their thoughts about the book they were reading.
*In Lessons from the Classroom (the Hal Urban book) he writes about the teacher and the classroom having a mission. Since reading this, I have noticed a couple of our classrooms that do have class written mission statements.
*After watching Mrs. Miller confer with a couple students during Daily 5 time and asking how it is going trying to juggle conferring and groups she responded with: "I love conferring with the students. I really get to know them as readers better. I can focus on strategies that they need to work on and I get to see their interests. I know that the students like it because they always want me to confer with them." (She did give permission for me to share that quote)

Events this Week:
Monday - Probationary Teachers Meeting in Media Center at 3:05
- PTO meeting
Tuesday - Title 1 Family Night
Wednesday - DART (Dodge Academic Resource Team) meetings for 4th grade (7:45-10:45) and 5th grade (12:15-3:15) in the DADE room
- Professional Learning Meeting at 3:05--our focus will be on key aspects of mini-lessons and a brief intro to conferring. After our meeting Mrs. Bingen will be presenting her action research on the implementation of Daily 5 in her classroom (as part of her grad class)
Friday - Staff Social Lunch (snacks provided by 1st Grade/Bartlett) Please gather together in the art room.
-2:00 Dodgeland Pride Assembly



"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*There was a Daily 5 conference yesterday with the Sisters and even though I didn't go, I didn't miss out. One of the teachers that I follow on twitter tweeted away during the day to share what she was learning. I tried to take screenshots of all of her tweets from the conference to share with you:

Friday Focus - November 11th

“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” -Voltaire

CC License shared by KTVee

Life is NOT a shipwreck, but it definitely presents challenges. Sometimes, when it is too hard to concentrate, when the kids don’t behave as you’d like, when a lesson doesn’t go as planned, or when the work piles up and time slips away, it can be difficult to find our singing voice. When we have ”these days” it is important that we take time to celebrate the successes in our school. It doesn’t mean we ignore the problems, but we can certainly use “the positives” to energize our efforts to address the challenges.

Challenge for the Week: Pick at least 1 positive thing that has happened in your classroom or at school and email it to a colleague or two. Encourage them to add to the list and pass it along. Like a chain-letter (without the associated misfortune) it will be good to hear the singing…even if we aren’t in lifeboats!

Monday Memo - Week of November 7

Great things I noticed last week:
**After the WKCE test 4/5th graders were given surveys. Here are a couple of comments that I found interesting: "I like the WKCE, but I don't like that we get less learning time with our teacher." "I wanted to have CAFE in the morning."  I don't think I've ever seen students write that they missed learning time during the WKCE test. This is very telling of the passion for learning and intrinsic motivation we are instilling in our students.
**5K classes are already over 12 minutes for Daily 5 stamina!  I remember a time last year when we weren't even sure that Daily 5 was possible for 5K.  I have to add in my mom voice here that it is also my son's favorite part of the day...over recess (which has been his favorite part of each day since preschool)!
**One of our grade levels started collaborating on their weekly classroom newsletters. Instead of each writing their own every week, they're sharing ideas with each other to work smarter.

Events this week:
Monday - End of 1st Quarter already!
Tuesday - Art Show 4:00-6:00 If anyone is available to help anytime after 1:30 until 3:30, please come down to the commons to help us set up.
Wednesday - PowerSchool grades are due by 7:30 AM. Report cards will be printed and in your mailboxes for you to review (hopefully by lunch).
Thursday - Seussical performance in the elementary gym 2:00-2:45 (have students packed before just in case)
Friday - Report Cards sent home.
   -Veterans Day program 9:35 (We will hold the 2nd AM recess right after the assembly).
*I will be involved with MS/HS WKCE testing Tuesday-Thursday this week. 


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*Please review your report cards on Wednesday, make any necessary changes and email me the student names for report cards you need reprinted. I will reprint them Friday morning.

*I would love to add pictures of student work on the website. It could even be great writing pieces from your students.  Please let me know if I can highlight your students' work on the website.

*Just sharing the article "Why the Word 'Go' Is an Effective Classroom Management Strategy" from the Smart Classroom Management Blog.  I have actually observed this strategy be used effectively in a couple of our classrooms.

*If you're looking for any resources for Veterans Day, here is a wiki full of classroom resources.

Myself, Todd Whitaker, and Curt Rees

*Just sharing that I got to meet/talk with Todd Whitaker in person at the AWSA convention, I blogged about it here.

Friday Focus - November 4th

"What you accept, you teach." 

"What you permit, you promote."

"People behave as they're expected to behave."

 "Be proactive, not reactive."

I am enjoying reading Hal Urban's book, Lessons from the Classroom and agree with those of you who were sharing reflections on it--it is an easy read, with practical, common sense things great teachers do in the classroom.  (Hal says "good", but I'm going to stick with "great"!)  I'm sure that as you're reading the book, you recognize many things you already do and it is just reaffirming of why it is effective and how it makes you a great teacher.

Since I spend an hour in the lunch room each day, Lesson #5 "Good teachers teach manners and the Golden Rule" really stood out to me.  I have been in conversations myself with colleagues (and my husband) regarding the lack of manners people (children and adults) show these days.  Hal Urban states his theory that "90-95% of the time in which kids are being rude, they don't even know they're being rude. They're acting out of ignorance...simply not knowing better...because no one has taught, reinforced, or trained them in what is used to be known as common courtesy."    Urban goes on to talk about moving from a reactive position (complaining about it, referring back to the "good old days," allowing rude disruptions in the classroom) to taking on a proactive approach to the issue.  You'll have to read that chapter to find out how he did this (I'd love to hear if anyone tries his activity or has done something similar).

As I read this, I also made the connection to Todd Whitaker's books and my previous Friday Focus post on how great teachers know they can only control themselves and when children fail, they look to themselves to look at what they can do differently.  Even though I have worked hard at home as a parent to instill manners in my own children (I'm proud to say that Alex has said "Thank you" since 15 months) I had never made the connection to how important our role is in teaching students these manners each day and that complaining about their lack of manners is a waste of our time. 

Since reading this chapter, I have been using some of Urban's ideas in the lunch room. When a student says, "I need ketchup" I no longer say "you need to say please", I simply just smile and pretend I don't hear them.  When they repeat "I need ketchup!" louder, I react the same way.  It doesn't take long for even the kindergarteners to ask, "Can I have ketchup please?" 

Something to reflect on in your reflection journals (someone in the feedback survey asked for this to be added, so feel free to respond in your journals or just think about it--I'm not checking):
How are you being proactive to teach/model manners and the golden rule for your students?  Are there any behaviors that you are "promoting" in your classroom, because you are allowing students to behave that way?  What would you like to differently.

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Thank you for your feedback on the Friday Focus/Monday Memo survey. It does take me extra time to write these each week, but from your feedback, it seems to be something you enjoy reading.  I appreciate the suggestions given, like trying to shorten them and adding a reflection question.  Several of you appreciated the links/resources/thoughts shared from articles I've read. A couple asked where I find them all...I find everything shared from other educators on twitter.

A couple people said that they would prefer to receive this on paper.  Since it was just two I am not going to print this for all, but please just let me know who you are and I have no problem printing it out and putting your mailbox.

Week of October 31st

I hope that you all enjoyed time with your families over the 4 day weekend and had the opportunity to relax.  It is hard to believe that we are already moving into November!
Last Wednesday-Friday I attended the AWSA (Association of Wisconsin School Administrators) Convention in LaCrosse.  I was thinking back to my first AWSA Convention and how I went there seeking so may ideas/solutions from what other schools were doing.  This year I found myself on the opposite end...I was telling about how our school has implemented great practices! From a formal networking session with elementary principals and informal networking 1:1 conversations I had, here were the issues that other principals were seeking input on:

• How to schedule an intervention block for RTI
• How to plan for intervention
• Progress monitoring tools for reading/math
• How to start a data wall?
• Research based reading intervention programs
• Research based math intervention programs
• How to move all staff into teaching with Daily 5/Cafe

Look at that list and how many of them we are doing well!  Seriously, the only thing we don't have is a research based math intervention program.  As I shared with principals what we are doing I felt like I was coming from the school of superstars!  In fact, during one conversation a principal said, "you must have really great staff."  My reply--"They are the best!" I think my favorite moment was in Todd Whitaker's session when he asked for a show of hands for "How many of you have several teachers that spend a lot of time at their desk?"  Almost every hand in the room went up (my hand was down).  He looked my way when he said, "now how many of you without your hands up are lying?"  Not me!!  I know I've said it before, but I just can't say it enough times, our kids are so lucky to have you!

Events this week:
Tuesday: Tech Tuesday (in Ms. Abegglen's room) afterschool
2:00 5th Grade Student WKCE Meeting in Media Center
2:25 3rd Grade Student WKCE Meeting in Media Center
Wednesday: WKCE Testing for 3-5th grades until approximately 10:15. Please be quiet in the hallways
Thursday: WKCE Testing for 3-5th grades until approximately 10:15. Please be quiet in the hallways
2:00 K-5 assembly in gym "Giving Back with Ronald McDonald" (I would recommend filling out planners before going to the assembly)
6:00 Rock River Reading Council Daily 5/Cafe focus at Prairie View
Friday: WKCE Testing for 3-5th grades until approximately 10:15. Please be quiet in the hallways
 12:00 Leadership Team Meeting in D.O. Conference Room

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*Next Monday, November 7th is the last day of 1st quarter. PowerSchool grades will be due by 7:30 Wednesday morning (11/9).
*Our first art show is next week, Tuesday, November 8th 4:00-6:00. We will be looking for anyone willing to help after school to set up in the commons.  
*One of the phenomenal speakers I heard at the AWSA Convention was Marcia Tate, who has written numerous books on brain based strategies to engage students.  She is also known as "The Dendrite Lady" because she has written a series of books on practices that "Don't Grow Dendrites." You can find my notes from her session at http://bit.ly/marciatatenotes  I am making it my goal to include more of her brain-based strategies in our future professional learning meetings.  You can also learn more from her here.  This youtube video is about an online class to take with her, but she includes some of her strategies within this video.

Monday Memo - Week of October 24

CC License shared by KTVee

Here are some great things I noticed last week:
**2nd graders counting by 3's along with a fun song on youtube.  Seriously, how can you not enjoy counting by 3's with that funny penguin?  The "Have Fun Teaching Channel" that created this has many other youtube clips for math, grammar, letters, etc.  I always loved using the School Rock videos, but I could see kids pulling these up at home to show their parents and keep practicing. 
**A parent newsletter that included a list of "conversation starters" to give parents specific questions to ask about what they learned. Every parent knows that if you ask a child, "What did you do today?" the answer is usually "nothing" or "we had recess." If you give questions and the answers for parents, it will help them get their children talking about their day. Ex: What is another name for 43? (4 tens, 3 ones)
**5K has started Daily 5 in their classrooms and is going VERY WELL!!  It is great to hear about their independence and stamina already!
**I have been hearing so many great comments from staff already reading the Hal Urban book (Lessons from the Classroom).  Now that I finally finished Ron Clark's book, I can catch up and join in the conversation.  We have a lot going on in the next month, but maybe we can have a before school or lunch conversation to talk about the book in early December? For now, I'd encourage you to share your thoughts on what you're reading in Urban's book at http://bit.ly/dodgelandbookstudy This is a google doc that you should all be able to access. 

Events this week:
*Monday - Wear red for Red Ribbon Week
-4th graders are taking the WKCE Language Arts test right away in the morning. Please be silent in the hallways (they should be done by 8:45). 
-I will be involved in 8/10th grade WKCE testing taking place during their regularly scheduled English classes throughout the day on Monday/Tuesday, so I may seem to be MIA.
*Tuesday - Wear the color of your favorite fruit/vegetable for Red Ribbon Week
-4th graders are taking the WKCE Writing/Social Studies tests in the morning, Please be silent in the hallways (they test until 10:00 Tuesday).
-Flu Shot clinic after school
*Wednesday - Wear your favorite team shirts/colors for Red Ribbon Week
-12:30-2:30 Fall Festival--please take pictures and add them to the shared drive (elementary/Fall Festival)
-I will be leaving at 9AM for the AWSA Convention in LaCrosse. 

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
**By vote, the Tech Tuesday will be moved to Tuesday, November 1st (due to the Flu Shot clinic).  I will actually be talking to MS/HS staff about the WKCE testing, so I will miss it.
**I'm sure most of you know this already, but it's "WKCE season" for me. The WKCE lasts a few days for students/teachers, but it's about a month of a LOT of work for me.  This means I will not be in classrooms as much as I would like to.  I'm just letting you know since I always feel guilty during this time of the year.

Friday Focus - October 21

"What really makes the difference between two schools? What matters most in the classroom? Effective educators understand the answer to these questions; indeed, they know that the real issue is not what is the variable, but who. Great teachers know who is the variable in the classroom: They are." 

~Todd Whitaker

In Todd Whitaker's webinar on What Great Teachers Do Differently, he brought up the classic classroom situation of giving an assignment/test to your class and the students do poorly on it.  What do you do?  Whitaker says that the best teachers blame themselves.  You can only control yourself.  This situation can and does happen to all of us as educators.  The variable that separates teachers is the response...the worst teachers blame the students. 

After hearing Whitaker's webinar I had to pull out his book to reread (I've reread his Great Teachers and Great Principals books a few times each now!). 

Whitaker states that great teachers consistently strive to improve, and they focus on something they can control---their own performance.  Other teachers wait for something else to change.  Great teachers look to themselves for the answers.  

As I reflect on the webinar/book on What Great Teachers Do Differently and our conversations last week for Data Days, I know that we have some of the greatest teachers that he could write about!  I was amazed by the conversations last week that resulted in:

• Cafe Menu strategies to focus on with at-risk readers
• Problem solving on scheduling for students in need of additional reading intervention
• Ideas of how to try to fit in reading groups and 1:1 conferring.
• A way to prevent the need for so much time to be spent on writing conferring-using writing mini-lessons to make a chart of Writing Expectations for their grade level.  (This will be like a "No Excuses" List--if a student brings a paper for revision that has an error on the list the teacher will not confer/revise with them).
• Ideas to manage the paperwork of reading groups/conferring.
• Using math chapter pre-tests to create WIN intervention groups and for having students make their own goals for growth.

Look at that amazing list that came out of collaborative conversations focused on what WE can do for our students.  I honestly have no idea what each of you have said/done when your class did poorly on an assignment or a test, but based on the work I see happening, I would be willing to bet that it would not just be putting a long list of F's into PowerSchool--it would be reflecting on how the lesson could be retaught in a different way with the focus on student learning.

I also see how this variable, "how the teacher responds," applies to classroom management. Just this week one of our classes behaved poorly for a guest teacher.  Did the teacher spend her time complaining about her kids? Nope. She focused on what she could do about it. She spent her lunch period calling parents the next day, asked that the students each write the guest teacher an apology letter and then went even a step further to create an I-Chart with the class on what to do if there's a guest teacher. Brilliant!

I truly appreciate your hard work and dedication to our students and I am always inspired by how you rise to the challenge of providing the best for all of our students.
 


 

Monday Memo - Week of October 17-21

Celebrations from our Data Days:

• 5K Math Benchmark (# Identification) found that 60% of students are already Proficient or Advanced--of where they should be at the end of the year!
• 1st Grade Reading-67% of students are Proficient/Advanced on the Benchmark assessment!
• 2nd Grade Reading-69% of students are Proficient/Advanced on the Benchmark assessment!
• 3rd Grade SRI: 43% Proficient or Advanced (this is based on where they should be at the end of the year)
• 3rd Grade Reading - 81% of students are Proficient/Advanced on the Benchmark assessment!
• 3rd Grade SMI: 35% of students are Proficient/Advanced on the SMI
• 4th Grade SRI: 50% of students are Proficient/Advanced
• 4th Grade: 67% Proficient/Advanced on Benchmark
• 4th Grade: 51% Proficient/Advanced on SMI
• 5th Grade: 81% Proficient/Advanced on SRI (at the start of school last year, this same group of students started the year with 57% P/A on the SRI 
• 6th Grade: 62% Proficient/Advanced on SRI 

*Please note that the Proficiency levels for SRI/SMI assessments are for where 

students should be at the END of this year--that makes this news even more exciting!!!

It was great to see such incredible results and we are only in the beginning of the year.  This just shows our hard work from last year paying off already!!

Events this Week:
Monday: P/T Conferences 4-7:30
Tuesday: 7:35 WKCE Mtg for 3-5th grade (and any other teachers involved in testing) in the D.O. Conference Room
3:05 Art Show Fundraiser meeting--anyone is welcome to join and share ideas you may have.
-Last HOME game for our 5th graders on the Trojan Jr. Football team
Wednesday: Elementary Professional Learning Meeting--the google doc for the agenda is HERE  Feel free to add to it if you would like. We will be talking about 
Friday-Staff Social Lunch
Saturday-PTO Craft Fair/Bake Sale --great opportunity for holiday shopping!!! 
Future events to make sure are on your calendar:
*Wednesday, October 26 Fall Festival
*Thursday, November 3 Elementary Assembly for "Giving Back with Ronald McDonald" presentation.  He's previously come to get kids excited about reading, but this year the focus is on service and giving back to others which fits perfectly with our character focus in November (and is a great break in the afternoon for 3-5th graders that are WKCE testing in the morning).

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*Our next Tech Tuesday is schedules for Tuesday, October 25th which is also the flu shot clinic.  Would you prefer that I reschedule Tech Tuesday to November 1st?  Please vote on the blog (most of you get this in your email, so make sure to go to http://johnsonmemo.blogspot.com to vote if you were planning on attending Tech Tuesday).
*The Leadership Team met for the first time last Friday.  LT members are: C. Abegglen, P. Bartlett, J. Huelsman, S. O'Toole, P. Prinsen, and J. Ratajzcak

We only had time to talk about how the P.D. conversations/beliefs process went on October 7. Overall, it was great feedback on learning what is happening across grade levels/disciplines and to get rid of the "what did the lower grade level do last year?" that always seems to come up.