Friday Focus - February 8

Great Things I Noticed This Week (this was my last week of ACCESS testing, so I'm excited to spend way more time in classrooms next week!):

• Students and teachers telling me how much they love "Stop, Drop and Read" and asking for it more than once a day! 
• Teachers trying out new tech tools in the classroom, such as Voki, Educreations and a new website for research in 1st grade. 
• Teachers going above and beyond to help/support each other when dealing with students with some difficult behaviors.  It seems to be a crazy time of year for some of our kiddos and it takes the team of us helping each other out to support all of our students. 

Events Next Week:
Monday - Elementary PD Mtg: We're all SO busy right now, so just use this meeting time in your rooms to reflect and/or upload artifacts into mylearningplan.com and write your reflections there.  I will sit in the media center during this time in case you do want to come to me with any questions on it.
Tuesday - Grade Level Meetings: I'll have your magnets ready to move, please bring your Benchmark data and be ready to discuss (and celebrate) progress.
Wednesday - I will be at CESA6 all day for Effectiveness Project training
Friday - Staff Social Lunch

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• Today's assembly: I have NO idea how this is going to go with me being duck taped to the wall! I will be bringing folders of certificates/pencils to someone in each grade level before the assembly. Please plan to hand them out together. I will have to read over the shoulder of whoever has the certificates to announce their names from my duck taped place (thanks again to the JRFH committee for this fun plan...I think!)
• Please remind your students that if they would like to order a book from author Michael Scotto to have signed by him when he comes at the end of February that those orders are due by Friday, February 15th. I have only received 2 orders so far. 
• As I previously said, this seems to be a stressful time for everyone which is definitely evident in our students.  Please take 4 minutes of your time to watch the following video clip as a reminder of what some of the things our students may be dealing with:

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

• The 2013 Wisconsin State Reading Association (WSRA) convention is taking place this week and I've been learning what I can from those tweeting from it (and look forward to Mrs. Madsen sharing with us when she returns).  You can find tweets from Donalyn Miller's session HERE  and tweets from the Jeff Wilhelm's keynote kick-off HERE 
• "Don't forget that Teachers have the power to convert a "Fixed Mindset" with the power of words. #wischat" @twhitford

Here's a model of the 3-2-1 Nonfiction Reading Strategy Graphic Organizer. It was 1st modeled by the T on how to complete it, then the kids completed one at a station. Being able to read informational texts effectively is a fundamental quality of successful readers. After reading nonfiction books or articles, this graphic organizer helps st. summarize what they have learned.