Monday Memo - Week of March 19th

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*Tribes activity of students collaborating to come up with for solutions to a student problem that each group (tribe) identified (ex: arguing in 4 square or saving seats at lunch)
*Fun new class attention getter: Teacher-"Read to rock?" Students-"Ready to roll!"
*2nd graders (with learning disabilities) practicing math facts in partners and keep track of each others' facts that were correct and incorrect. Jim Wright calls this peer delivered intervention.
*5th grade students gave biography presentations using google docs presentations instead of using powerpoint. What I found very powerful was that when I asked how many of them accessed their google presentation at home, almost every student raised their hand!
*When I was reviewing grade level meeting notes I noticed that one grade level was not only listing their current academic focus area, but also listed the common core state standard. What a great way to become familiar with them...using them in your grade level meeting discussions.
 
Events this Week:
Monday- 5th grade field trip
Wednesday- in the afternoon I'll have the 2 essays winners with me to be student principals in the afternoon. I plan to have them join me for classroom walkthroughs.
                  -3:05 Cross-Grade level meetings in place of our elementary prof. learning meeting

Friday - National Childrens' Theater presentation of Men In Plaid: The Kilowatt Connection.  12:40 for K-2 grades/1:30 for 3-5th grades.  You can find the teacher guide and classroom activities here if you're interested.



"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*Just in case you missed last week's Daily 5/Cafe Tip of the Week, I found this FAQ interesting: How can I keep my one-on-one conferences brief?
*Gail and Joan ("The Sisters") tweeted the link to this website this weekend that they have found to be helpful for listing books by focus subjects.

*Here's a great video clip Mrs. Patey found on the Power of Word Choice (if you share with your students there is one short shot of someone smoking):

Image from Langwitches