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: