Final Friday Focus (for 2013)

Great Things This Week:

• I was so impressed by everyone; both staff and students, during our lock-down drill.  I was amazed by how many classes knew what to do as soon as I came with the officer to your room. I also noticed that none of our students were tearful or seemed afraid, which is attributed to your calming demeanor with them.
• We had a wonderful winter concert with great songs to entertain us. Thank you Mrs. Kopfer!
• We had 45 students participate in the after school Bucket Fillers to make ornaments and sing Christmas carols at Clearview.  It was such a great experience for our students to get to bring joy to the residents. I had numerous students make comments like, "we put smiles on their faces," "they were singing along with us," "they were happy we sang for them."  Thank you to everyone who helped (Mrs. Breselow, Mrs. Bartlett, Mrs. Harnisch, Mrs. Peterson and several parent volunteers)!  It is my hope that we can continue to find ways that we can be bucket fillers for our community.

Events Next YEAR: (doesn't that sound weird?!)

Thursday, Jan 2 - back to school

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

• Textbook quote activity for upcoming chapter.
• Creating Reading Plans Help Students Develop Healthy Lifelong Habits

Monday Musings - December 16, 2013

We have many things to celebrate and be proud of as we close out 2013.  Sure, there have been some days where we feel exhausted, but we have a common goal: deliver the best instruction every day for student learning! We have five days left to provide fun experiences, develop strong relationships with our students, and continue to encourage and be there for all of our students and each other.

I encourage you to think of all of the wonderful things that have happened so far this school year and find the time to reflect and celebrate with your students!

Friday Focus - December 13, 2013

Events Next Week:
Monday - December Bucket Fillers 3:00-5:00 (I'll email a student list so you know who's staying after)
Tuesday - 2/4th Grade Concert Rehearsal 8:00-9:00
K concert Rehearsal 9:00-9:30
Concert 6:30
Wednesday - December Bucket Fillers 3:00-5:00
Thursday - Christmas Sweater Day (whether you prefer nice Christmas sweater or a tacky sweater, it's up to you!)
Friday - Flannel Friday (flannel shirt or flannel pj's...it's your call!)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*You will each be receiving a Common Grounds coupon in your mailbox by Monday to redeem next week for a coffee/cappuccino of your choice from me for Christmas! :)
*When coming in each day, Mr. Schimmel has asked that we go through the commons instead of through the elementary office in the morning due to the amount of snow and salt tracked into the office.  It is more difficult to clean up than snow and salt on the thicker rugs than in the commons.  Thank you!

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

*Great post: Top Ten Ways to Encourage Children to Read Over Winter Break
*Cute video of First Graders in Verona, WI singing "Mathematical Humdingers" 
*Another really neat video from a class about fractions: The Avery Bunch



A couple of great app ideas I discovered at the SLATE conference:

Monday Memo/Musings - December 9, 2013

A few notes I missed on the Friday Focus:
*Tuesday - Grade Level Meetings agenda includes: K-3 need to update SAGE goals, Math Expressions Pacing and anything else your team needs to discuss.
*Please review our common drill procedures located in the red binder. These include Fire, Tornado, Lockdown, and Administrative Hold.

Monday Musings

It's that time of year when we are all in a "hustle and bustle" to get ready for Christmas while still continuing with everything else going on.  Some of us may be stressed by what seems to be a lack of time to fit it all in the countdown to Christmas.  Please keep in mind that, for some of our students, there are many stressors:

• Parents threatening children that Santa won't come.
• Overhearing parents stressing over money at this time of year.
• Worrying if they'll get anything for Christmas at all.
• Worrying about being away from school (their safest place) for two whole weeks.

We also need to keep our own buckets in check at this busy time of year. The most recent bucket fillers newsletter has a great message:

Good Busy and Bad Busy

There are two types of busy - good busy and bad busy. Good busy fills our bucket. When we do busy well, life is exciting and activities fill our buckets. Our minds are actually designed to be busy just as our buckets are designed to be full. Dr. Caroline Leaf, author of Switch On Your Brain, says that at any given moment of the day, we have four to seven thoughts going through our brain. Just living is a busy activity. But good busy can quickly turn into bad busy and empty our buckets. In good busy, we listen and watch in a focused, mindful way; in bad busy, we lose focus and shift our attention haphazardly from one thing to another. When we're in "bad busy," we tend to look at things more pessimistically and react more negatively. We see more "half-empty" than "half-full." Bad busy leads to bad choices, poor decision making, and emptier buckets. As we enter one of the busiest times of the year, try to stay in "good busy" by doing regular "bucket checks." Stop at regular intervals in your day and become aware of your body and what you are feeling. These feelings, which are neither good nor bad, are actually signals to get your attention. They let you know when good busy is switching to bad busy.      Good busy is living with a full bucket. It's remembering that it's not about the quantity of what we do; it's about the quality of what we do. Any job worth doing, is worth doing well.

Friday Focus - December, 6, 2013

Great Things I Noticed the last 2 weeks (I missed a Friday focus last week!):

• Students taking pictures of real life objects to make a book of shapes (using iPad apps) to create a book to teach their younger buddies different shapes (while learning the qualities of shapes they need to know).
• Students having powerful reflections to the "bruised and bullied" apple analogy lesson. You can read about it HERE.
• Youtube clips from Have Fun Teaching channel to help memorize some of those things that aren't as easy to memorize (and it adds a brain break with fun and learning at the same time).

Events Next Week: Secret Santa starts for those that are participating
Monday - No meeting: not even rescheduled. It's cancelled. :)
I will be gone all day for training at CESA 6
Tuesday - the Mid-Year SLO Review training will be rescheduled to Jan/February (when you have mid-year data to reflect on).
Wednesday - I will be at the SLATE conference for most of the day
Thursday - Mid Quarter (yes, it's that time already!) Please make sure there are no grading surprises for parents.
Any Toy Bank donations are due to Marie.
Friday - Staff Social Lunch (1st Grade/Bartlett/Mane)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• Just a reminder to pick up students from specials classes on time to prevent back-up/traffic jam in the hallway, which can be difficult for our specials teachers to manage.
• I'm still looking for additional people to help present (or organize students to present) for the Tech Showcase on January 13th. We have secured some really awesome prizes that I think will help us bring in a big crowd. Seriously, think big prizes. :)  
• As you saw above for next week's events, our Elementary Professional Learning meeting is cancelled. I will be gone for training and decided not to reschedule it. 

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!
*NonFiction Favorites for Boys: Book List
*A Gold Mine of resources: a  list of downloadable non fiction text from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Digital NonFiction Text Sets

Monday Musings - December 2, 2013

The Countdown to Christmas Begins!

The next 3 weeks are going to fly by fast. I hope you are well rested from the 5 day Thanksgiving holiday and ready for more fun learning!

Some things to keep in mind over the next 15 days:

• 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 Dodgeland for break (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.
• Help model bucket filling for our students this month so that they feel the positives of giving to others.  We are collecting cereal boxes this week for the food drive.  I am also looking for people to help on Monday, December 16th after school for making Christmas cards and practicing singing Christmas carols and/or Wednesday, December 18th to deliver cards to Clearview and spread the holiday cheer. Please let me know if you can join us for one or both days. 

Monday Musings - November 25, 2013

Thanks!
It sounds cliche, but I cannot thank you enough for all that you do for our students, families, and each other. You always step up to the next challenge with great effort and a true belief that what you do is ultimately what is best for kids.  Your conviction to get better for our students is incomparable.  In the following paragraphs, I will try to explain what my "THANKS" stands for not just during the Thanksgiving season, but all of the time.

T=Thoughtful
You are a thoughtful group. You reach out to support our students and one another. You bring in extra snacks or winter items for students in need or just give them someone to care about them.  Many of you notice when I'm swamped and offer to help.  I'm sure that our students and colleagues have a multitude of examples of how we support our Dodgeland family.

H=Helpful
You are a helpful group. There have been so many times that you have stepped up to help out a student, a colleague, or myself.  We have a handful of staff that put in extra hours to help students with their homework in PALS and others that spend prep/lunch time helping students or colleagues.  Just a couple of weeks ago I had several staff help with the fundraiser pick-up after school.  Once again, like the examples of your thoughtfulness, I'm sure that there are many more examples of how you step up daily to help our students and one another.

A=Attitude
Never in education has attitude been more important.  The changes to the landscape of education, from curriculum to schedules to negative perceptions of teachers, could have stifled and altered your attitude. You have not lost your positive attitude.  You say your piece, vent at times, but your attitude always returns to the belief that we are doing what is best for our students.

N=Nurturing
No matter the grade level, I see the nurturing nature that you have for our students. You want what is best for them and they, in turn really do their best for you. You may get frustrated with a student now and then, and I do too, but then you take them under your wing, develop a plan and move forward; celebrating their newfound success.

K=Kindness
You are a kind bunch. You truly believe in and encourage one another and our students. It's so much easier to be kind than mean and the benefits you reap from being kind can carry you through the day. Let's continue to be kind, and foster that in our students. They learn a lot more from us than just curriculum and whether you realize it or not, they mirror nearly everything we do.

S=Superb
You are all superb. What else can I say? The dictionary definition is excellent, superlative, first-rate. This definition fits you all. Continue to share with one another, push each other, and support each other. Together we will keep working on becoming the best that we can be, so our students can be the best that they can be.

Happy Thanksgiving!
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, thanks for taking the time to read this. My hope for you this Thanksgiving season is that you spend quality time with family and friends, enjoy a good meal or two, relax, refresh, and reflect to come back in December with the same vigor which you began with this school year.

 

Friday Focus - November 22, 2013

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Students working together in partners on challenging multi-step math word problems.
• Students discussing a topic using TodaysMeet.com
• Students starting blogging and learning about digital citizenship. 
  

Upcoming Events:
Today - 1st Quarter Dodgeland Pride Assembly at 2:15. Please start coming down at 2:10 so we can be ready to start at 2:15. Please also remind your students how to behave in the assembly.
Monday/Tuesday - I know that next week is an incredibly short week, but please keep in mind that the more you stray from the normal routine the more crazy your students will get (and they already will be knowing it's a short week).  Here's a reflective teacher's post on why to Not Show Movies Before a Break.
Dec 2-6 - Cereal Drive -please encourage students (that are able to) to bring in boxes of cereal that we will donate to the Reeseville food pantry.
Dec 4 - Mrs. Bartlett will be bringing any student Christmas ornaments to the Juneau Public Library for our school tree.

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Last year we discusses branching our bucket filling out to the community. I'm working with Clearview for this opportunity for 2nd-5th grade students. I am planning to have two days in December-one day for students to stay after school one day to make Christmas cards and practice singing carols. The next week after school we will go to Clearview to deliver cards and sing our Christmas Carols. The tentative dates for these (and will be confirmed by Tuesday) are: Monday, December 16 and Wednesday, December 18.  Please let me know if you would be interested in helping out with either of these days.

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
*@sjunkins: we use a method called an "Idea Bandit." Visit someones' classroom and "steal" a great idea.
*A great reminder for each of us: Take Some Time 
*A helpful article to share with parents of a child struggling to comprehend: What to Do When Your Child Can't Remember What He Reads

Read more about this HERE

Monday Musings - November 18, 2013

Fostering Grit

Here's a book review/blog post I just shared on my professional blog that I wanted to share with you for my Monday Musings.  This is a topic that I'm sure many of you will find relevant to our students' needs. I only had an electronic review copy of this book, but if you're interested in getting a copy to read for yourself, please let me know.

I recently finished reading the book Fostering Grit, which is an ASCD Arias book (it is short enough to read in a 1 hour sitting) written by Thomas R. Hoerr.

Every great educator knows that we can not only teach students content; that we must also teach character traits such as respect, responsibility, kindness, etc.  Hoerr wrote this short guide under the premise that we must also teach the virtue of grit, which he defines as tenacity, perseverance, and the ability to never give up.  The author points out that teaching grit can be difficult for educators, because "it runs counter to the caring school environments that we all esteem."  The author shares that we need to teach our students to respond positively to setbacks and to respond appropriately when things go wrong; as he writes, "turn a failure into a good failure, one from which we learn."

As I read Hoerr's book on how grit helps us to be resilient and to persevere when we fail, I made many connections to what I learned when reading Mindset by Carol Dweck.  The concept of having grit goes hand in hand with the teaching students the concept of having a growth mindset.

Hoerr writes that as educators we can help teach our students to develop grit by introducing them to levels of complexity that are out of their comfort zone, to cause frustration and then help students to understand the frustration and how to respond to it.  Students will benefit from us sharing our personal stories with them of how we have overcome obstacles and talking about the importance of grit.  We can also share examples of others we know or famous people such as professional athletes, actors or even former presidents that our students may be surprised (and interested) in learning about the obstacles they overcame and how having grit helped them to be successful.

The author of Fostering Grit shares Six Steps of Teaching for Grit that each have great strategies to foster grit in your students:

1. Establish the environment

2. Set the expectations

3. Teach the vocabulary

4. Create the frustration

5. Monitor the experience

6. Reflect and learn

During Daily 5, students come back to the carpet in between "rounds" for a check-in which often serves as an opportunity for students to reflect on the reading/writing work they did.  Many of our teachers have added other opportunities for reflection throughout the day. As I read Step 6, "Reflect and learn" I realized what a great opportunity reflection can be for students to stop and think about how easy/challenging a task is for them and think about how they felt when they didn't give up on a frustrating task.

What other ways can you foster grit in students?

Friday Focus - November 15, 2013

Events Next Week:
Today- Staff Social Lunch
Tuesday- Grade Level PLC Meetings
Friday-1st Qtr Dodgeland Pride Assembly at 2:15

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*I will be gone most of the day on Tuesday (for EP training at CESA 6) so I will leave it up to you to determine your agendas for grade level PLC meetings.  Marie will have my key for you to get into the Data Room).
*If you've been wondering where I've been lately, I promise I haven't been hiding; I've been doing make-up WKCE testing.  I am almost done with all of the 3-10th grade WKCE make-up tests and am eager to get "out of the cave" I feel like I've been in and get back into classrooms where the real action is!

iPad Tip of the Week:
How to have mutliple "tabs" of internet sites on your iPad browser:


Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
*A great teacher blog post on Public Conferencing as learned from Regie Routman HERE
*@teachersfriend

5m

Write More. Grade Less. Teach Grammar in Context. Write for Publication. Provide Relevancy. http://ow.ly/qOJpx  #engchat #edchat

Follow-Up to Staff Meeting

Notes from our meeting:

*Thank you for a meeting with great discussion yesterday!  If you missed the funny video clip at the start of the meeting, you can enjoy the humor HERE.

*I enjoyed reading all of your celebrations HERE

*Ideas for January Tech Showcase are HERE

*All of the notes from your group discussions on apps/technology can be found HERE.

Please expect more information to come in the near future requesting people to sign up for leading/facilitating sessions for the Tech Showcase.

Friday Focus - November 8, 2013

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• Evidence that we are truly building a culture of readers: When students are done with the WKCE test, they are given a packet of fun activities (i.e. word search, sudoku, etc) to keep them quiet. Many students looked at the packet contents and chose to read instead!!
• QR codes used during Daily 5 for quick/easy access to online stories for Listen to Reading.
• Use of Edmodo: students read an article online for science and then responding to a written prompt on the topic and submitted it to the teacher on Edmodo. They then posted their own questions about the article and responded to each others' questions on Edmodo.  (If you don't know what Edmodo is, it's like "facebook with training wheels" and a great tool in the classroom).
• Kindergarteners starting to write independently for work on writing. 
• From the mouths of babes: one student told her teacher, "I can tell my reading is getting better from all the help you teachers are giving me here."  

Events Next Week:
Monday - *I will be printing report cards at 7:00 am.

*Veterans Day Assembly at 9:35 in the HS Gym.  Please make sure to dress professionally, as this is a day that we have many guests in the building. 

*Elementary Staff Meeting - the agenda is HERE. Please bring your iPad or Laptop. If you are still unsure of what the SAMR model is, here's a good explanation of it in 2 minutes using google docs as an example: SAMR in 120 seconds.

Tuesday - Fundraiser pick-up after school

Wednesday - Report Cards to go home. Please make sure to include parent invitations for students being recognized at the assembly.

Friday - Staff Social Lunch

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*Remember to give your Honor Roll Names and the On a Roll Names/Reasons to Mrs. Jaeckel so she can type up the certificates.

*If you catch any students being bucket fillers, please email me their names so I can take a picture of them and add them to the bulletin board. They love looking at it as they go by.

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
*I learned how to use Glogster in Mrs. Battenberg's XPD.  Look at how many great things you can use it for in this post: 40 Ways to Innovate Teaching Using Glogster   (If you want to learn how to use Glogster, she's teaching it again on December 17).

This just cracks me up....click below to see it enlarged:

http://avalaunchmedia.com/infographics/social-meowdia-explained

Monday Musings - November 4, 2013

As I started reading through/approving SLO forms this weekend I couldn't help but be amazed by the incredible work  that you all are doing with our students (don't worry, I haven't gotten through all of them yet, so don't feel bad if I didn't approve yours yet).  I am impressed with the degree of reflection and analysis that has gone into selecting a goal and what efforts are planned to help ALL students achieve these goals.  What's even more, it is great to see the level of collaboration that is occurring in grade levels to learn new strategies from each other and to help each others' students succeed through WIN.  You are creating a safety net for our students to make sure that each and every child achieves to their best abilities.  As I think about the work you are doing, it reminds me of what I have read about in the book Whatever It Takes by DuFour, et al.  Here's what a principal from Adlahi Stevenson High School was quoted in saying:

"Students simply cannot fall through the cracks here.  

We have too many systems in place to monitor their academic progress and 

general well-being and too many concerned adults involved in the 

implementation of those systems." 

~Dan Galloway, Principal, Adlahi Stevenson High School

You are all doing that amazing work we read about in PLC and RtI books; it is incredible to be at a school seeing it in action to benefit ALL students. Thank you for all your hard work!

Friday Focus - November 1, 2013

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• Students searching Internet to find interesting facts about a state and create a prezi to share what they learned.
• Students using QR codes to get to information about an Explorer they were researching in groups. What was even more exciting was hearing students ask, "Can I search other sites to find more information?"
• Students searching for facts about the science topic for the day for a few minutes to build their background knowledge before the lesson...students were engaged and excited to share what interesting facts they were finding with their neighbors.

iPad Tip of the Week:
Ok, this isn't just one tip, but it is one teacher's Pinterest board with many different "boards" for different categories of apps. Check it out HERE

Events Next Week:

*WKCE Testing for 3-5th grades Monday -Wednesday until 11:00

*WKCE Testing for 4th grade on Thursday until 10:05 am 

*PLEASE BE SILENT IN THE HALLWAYS DURING MORNING WKCE TESTING!!  Also please be aware that 3-5th grades have goofy morning recess schedules due to their testing and may end up outside with different grade levels than normal. Thank you for your flexibility with this and specials schedule changes for WKCE testing. 

Monday - Packers/Bears attire 

Thursday - Last day of 1st Quarter

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*The schedule says that grades are due by Friday at 7:30...I will give you extra time, but I will start printing them by Monday, November 11th at 7:00 am.  

*Please remember that if you have any student missing a core subject for intervention that you will need to do a manual override and enter a P. 

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!!!

*Formative Assessment Strategy: Find Someone Who...Review

Monday Musings - October 28, 2013

Last week I had the opportunity to join in on several Parent/Teacher conferences with different teachers.  I have to say that in each one I was amazed by the time and thoughtfulness put into deciding what student work/data to share with parents, along with the descriptions of the students progress (both strengths and targets to work on), asking for  parent concerns/questions, and how the teacher is planning to help support any areas that the student is struggling with.  I didn't make it to a conference for every teacher, but I'm sure that you all shared similar great information with parents.  I appreciate the time and work that you all put into conferences; not only to share with parents how their students are doing, but also to build rapport with parents and to help them know how they can be involved and support their child at home.

Now that conferences are over with you can continue to promote parent involvement in a variety of ways: weekly newsletters (to share what is happening and give parents questions to ask their children about their learning), class facebook page, class web page,  Remind101, positive notes/phone calls home, etc.  Any work that you do to help inform and involve parents will help the success of their child in your class.

Nity Gritty Memo - October 24, 2013

Sorry folks, but I forgot that this is already our last day of the week and didn't get this written until the last minute, so it's going to be short and "nity gritty" (after our long/short week, I'm sure you want that anyways!)

Events Next Week:
Mon-Thurs: MS/HS is taking the WKCE test so I may be hard to find at times
Fri: I'm out of the building for most of the day (don't worry 5th grade-I'll be back for your WKCE talk)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*I've got about 5 pictures up on the "Caught Being a Bucket Filler" bulletin board, but they're only ones that I caught. Please send me an email of someone you've caught so I can add them up there. If you're curious how I created those pictures--I simply took their picture on the iPad, opened the picture in Skitch and then typed on the picture what they were caught doing and then opened it up from the computer to print. 
*Just a reminder for Halloween it is fine for you to plan a classroom party, but please keep it to no more than 45 minutes and no costumes. We need to be consistent across the grade levels for this. 

Monday Musings - October 21, 2013

I have always shared this article with new teachers on the Phases of First Year Teachers, however, I've always found that I went through these phases as a veteran teacher and still now as a principal. The difference is that I know to expect these different phases of the year and that I will make it through each one.  I don't know about you, but I don't even need to look at this graphic to know that we're to the "survival" point of the school year (although I would have to add that to a few other places in the year too!)  

The key to the survival phase is to make sure that you are taking care of yourself, because you can't take care of others if you don't take care of yourself first.  I appreciate the thoughtful time you are putting into preparing for Parent/Teacher conferences and that you will have great conversations with your students' parents to inform and involve them in their child's learning.  I realize that this means you have a couple of late nights  this week so please make sure to make time for yourselves this weekend to relax or do whatever it is that you do to rejuvenate. (For me-it will be reading the 3rd book in the Divergent series that comes out on Tuesday!)

Some other great tips to avoid teacher burnout can be found HERE in this post.  Here's the shortlist of tips:

• Ask for help
• Don't sweat the small stuff
• Don't play the teacher at home (I struggle with this one!)
• Take time for yourself
• Remember why you teach

Friday Focus - October 18, 2013

Image from Venosdale

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• English Language Arts integrated into Social Studies when reading Scholastic News and discussing how the writer used descriptive words and then students later wrote their own diary entry as if they were on the Columbus voyage.
• Use of QR codes in literacy for students to scan the code to get a passage to read and then apply the skill "reading for details" and answer questions about it. They had so much fun I don't even think they realized they were learning!
• A staff member sharing with another teacher the following "Love and Logic" response to a student acting inappropriately: quietly say 1:1 to the student "Are you sure this is the right place to be doing that?" A respective, yet corrective request. 

Events Next Week:
Saturday - PTO Craft Fair/Bake Sale/Car Show - come for some holiday shopping, good treats, car show for the boys/men and support the PTO (who supports us!)
Monday/Tuesday - Parent/Teacher Conferences and the Book Fair (happy shopping!)
Thursday - PD Day (Apple Training-you will receive another email with a description of the session choices for you to sign up for)
Friday - a well deserved day off for all of you! :) :)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• A note about MAP Student Worksheet reports: The green area is a strand that is a strength for this child.  The strands that are highlighted yellow are a target area or area of possible concern for that student to work on improving. This is a strand that can be focused on in WIN for math or in differentiating CAFE strategies in Literacy. Please know that strands highlighted as Target/Strength for each child, are based on their score, so a child may be lower than expected, yet have a strand marked as strength because it is his/her strength, not because he/she is higher than expected. Likewise, a student with a higher than average RIT that has a yellow strand (target area) may still be higher than others in that strand, yet it is identified as their target area, because it is their lowest area. Students that scored the same in each strand do not have an identified strength or target area. 
• Grade Level PLC Meetings next week: please create your own agendas focusing on the student learning/curriculum work that you need to accomplish as a team.  I will need about 5 minutes with 3-5th grades to talk WKCE stuff. 3-5th please also bring any ideas/resource you may have for "test prep genre." Otherwise if you need anything else from myself, Jenny or Joyce, please let us know so we can be as prepared as you. 
• If you didn't already give your teacher iPad to Mr. Modaff, please do so on Monday to have it updated to ios7. 

iPad Tip of the Week:

Do you like using Google docs (actually, it's called Google Drive now), but have a hard time using it in safari on your iPad?  Use the app Drive. It should already be on your iPad and looks like this:

I love using Google Drive on the iPad with this app. If you want to see more of how to maneuver in it, here's a youtube clip that may be helpful: Quick Look at Google Drive for iPad

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!

Great post from author Jon Gordon: The Gift of Failure

Todd ‏@ToddWhitaker30 Sep

100 Best YouTube Videos for Teachers http://buff.ly/15eVmD0  #ipli #edchat

Great strategies to teach our students, especially preparing for WKCE. Read more HERE

Monday Musings - October 14, 2013

You've all heard me share many times now about how much I love learning from others and how easy it is to ask a question on twitter and get many possible ideas/solutions.  I just read a great blog post from Dr Spike Cook on the idea of not knowing everything and that it is ok to be vulnerable and just had to share it with you:

Do you know a “know-it-all?” You know, the person who always has an opinion, never listens, seen it all, knows so much information… I am quite sure that a “know-it-all” is lurking in your midst… I’m actually surprised that we still have “know-it-alls” because of the ever changing nature of information.

I decided to do some research for this post (because I don’t know everything). First, I wanted to see what the “great” minds had to say about this concept of knowledge.

Here is what I found:

The more I learn, the more I learn how little I know. Socrates

The more you know, the less you understand. Lao-Tse

To appear to be on the inside and know more than others about what is going on is a great temptation for most people. It is a rare person who is willing to seem to know less than he does. Eleanor Roosevelt

If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.  Albert Einstein

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance. Confucius

Nobody knows enough, but many know too much. Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach:

I like people who show their vulnerability. Sounds like the highly regarded minds thought the same thing.

Then, I did some research to see how information (and the universe) is growing in the 21st century.

Information

According to the Worldwide Information Growth Ticker from the Digital Universe study revealed that we have created 1,987, 262, 613, 861, 770,000,000 bytes of information since January 2011!

Universe

According to www.space.com, “Space itself is pulling apart at the seams, expanding at a rate of 74.3 plus or minus 2.1 kilometers (46.2 plus or minus 1.3 miles) per second per megaparsec (a megaparsec is roughly 3 million light-years).”

If you can keep up with all of that, good luck.

My advice for dealing with others in the 21st century is simple.

• Show your vulnerability
• Be humble and graceful in your interactions with other
• Listen
• Ask questions

By doing this, you will end up learning much more, and resonating with people in a deeper way.

And by the way, there is no way you know-it-all!

Friday Focus - October 11, 2013

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• Students sitting and reading their books in the Media Center right after checking them out...several of them walking back to their classrooms while reading.  
• One class taking a few minutes before Daily 5 for student book talks to share just enough information about a great book they each just read to "advertise" it to their peers.
• Students referring to the word wall to spell words correctly during work on writing. 

Events Next Week:
Monday - Elementary PD Mtg. Agenda HERE  *there is a XPD at 3:30 so our meeting will need to be done by then.
Saturday - PTO annual Craft Fair/Bake Sale and added CAR SHOW this year. Come for good holiday shopping and goodies!

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*For P/T Conferences:
-I will be creating a MAP results explanation letter to help you in explaining the information to parents.  -Please let me know if you need the "Student Goal Setting Worksheets" printed off for your class.
-3-5th grade teachers will also have a WKCE parent letter/brochure. If parents do not show then we will need to mail it home.
-If you have any conferences you would like me to join you for, please let me know as my times are filling up.
*I'll be adding "Caught Being Bucket Fillers" to the bulletin board by the office to recognize students that are carrying out this theme. Please help me by just sending me an email of someone and what they did. I will take their picture and add it to the board with what they did to be a bucket filler.  I've got a few to add up already, but need your help to keep this going.

iPad Tip of the Week: Need to Turn iPad caps lock on? To type a capital letter on the onscreen keyboard you first tap the left or right shift key, then the letter. If you need to type a whole word in caps this can be painful. Save time typing in caps by turning the caps lock on. To do this double tap on either shift key.

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
*Jerry Blumengarten ‏@cybraryman1

6 Oct

“If you want to be incrementally better: Be competitive. If you want to be exponentially better: Be cooperative.”

Great ideas on how to teach students about growth mindset HERE

click HERE for awesome post/ideas on Guided Reading made easy