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.