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 18 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 17 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. I am also looking for people to help on Tuesday, December 15th after school for making Christmas cards and practicing singing Christmas carols and/or Tuesday, December 22nd to deliver cards to Clearview and spread the holiday cheer. Please let me know if you can join us for one or both days.
It is hard to believe how fast the school year is flying by and that it is already Thanksgiving. You have all been working incredibly hard this year; learning and growing as writers with your students, planning together as teams, focusing on responding to your students to help them all achieve, and all of the 8 million other little things you do every day to make Dodgeland the best place for all of our students! You all deserve a 5 day holiday weekend to relax and rejuvenate. :)
I always enjoy this time of year, because of the holiday decorations, the goodies and watching favorite holiday movies (like Elf for comedic relief). But thinking about it seriously, I have so much to be thankful for--my incredible family, supportive friends, and an amazing school to go to every day that is amazing because of all of you! As I network with educators in other schools, I always have so many reasons to brag about the amazing work that you do and how much you all truly care about our students, especially our neediest students. I often say that I'm dedicated to making Dodgeland the best school for our students for my own selfish purpose that my own children attend here, but I see the dedication and professionalism that each of you have to making Dodgeland the best place to be each day; for the students and the staff. I am thankful for all of you!
Kindergarteners holding focus to write independently for 25 minutes (yes, you read that number correctly). At sharing time, they read their story to partners and then each partner responded with "I noticed..." "I wonder..." It is amazing to see how much our youngest writers are capable of!
At the board meeting a board member gave the utmost of compliments of how our elementary students were a part of the Veterans Day assembly last week, starting with shaking the Veterans' hands to just how well they sat for such a long assembly. I know this speaks to what you did in your classrooms to prepare your students for the assembly. Thank you!
A parent of a new student has been so impressed with our school since her child transferred here. She loves school so much, which she never did before. She even wishes she could come on the weekends. Her daughter has always struggled in reading and hated it, but here she loves to read and is already seeing improvement. We truly have built a culture of children that love reading! :)
Great conversations at each grade level about reading mini-lessons, conferring, small groups, etc. I emailed the notes out on Wednesday in case you'd like to see what other grade levels discussed.
Upcoming Events
I have no staff events on the calendar for next week. Ahhh...did you just hear the sigh of relief? Please relax, refresh and rejuvenate over the Thanksgiving vacation!
"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*I know I say this every time we have a holiday, but remember with Thanksgiving and a short week that the more you get off track of the regular schedule, the more your students will get off track (with behaviors and everything). Try to keep things as normal as possible. :)
*I will be adding the annual Bucket Fillers activity to the December Calendar...this will be 2 Tuesdays for 3-5th graders after school. On December 15th they will make Christmas ornaments and practice singing Christmas carols. On December 22nd we will go to Clearview to go caroling and deliver the ornaments. Please let me know if you would like to join us for the holiday fun to bucket fill for our community.
*Just a reminder that if you would like to purchase gifts for the Giving Tree (items are on paper ornaments on the bulletin board by the computer lab/gym bathroom) to bring the gifts, unwrapped with the ornament by December 7th.
We can't expect kids to transfer EVERYTHING. We have to help them focus - what is the ONE thing you are going to carry with you? #tcrwp
(#tcrwp is the hashtag on Twitter for Teachers College of Reading Writing Program...Lucy Calkins. There is always all kinds of great things to learn from this hashtag of other educators teaching with writing and/or reading workshop!)
*Using the Writer's Notebook to Grow Ideas: Diving Into Information Writing
Great Things I Noticed This Week:
*Students writing positive comments to others in their small group to recognize what they noticed in their writing.
*First graders writing with transition words in their writing of a how-to book.
*Students recording themselves reading their published piece of writing to go along with the picture taken of their writing so the writing and their reading of it is all together in one digital piece to be shared with others (and their parents).
Events Next Week: Tuesday - Tech Tuesday Office Hours in the KASCADE room 3:15 to 4:00. Wednesday - Grade Level Meetings and Workout Wednesday :) Thursday - I will be out of the building Friday - Staff Social Lunch (5th Grade/Kuhn) "Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*For Grade Level Meetings, please plan to discuss reading...
It's easy to get into the routine of Daily 3, going from round to round, easing up on mini-lessons for reading strategies. Please plan to discuss what reading strategies you're going to be focusing on in the next month as a grade level. Also be ready to discuss your lowest readers; what strategies you are focusing on with them. Please bring what is necessary to share with your colleagues and have access to for our discussions (i.e. CAFE chart, lesson plans, reading group info, running records, etc.)
*Nov 16-24 we will be collecting non-perishable food items for The Gathering Source.
*Mrs. Breselow will be sharing information soon on The Giving Tree so that if you'd like to help purchase Christmas gifts for a family in need you can plan to shop on Black Friday.
I'm still working on reviewing your Student Survey Growth Plans and SLO/PGG's. I appreciate the deep reflection put into analyzing student survey results and making plans to improve your classroom communities with this student input in mind. A common area that many of you have found students to rate lower is: "I am able to do the work given to me." Several of you have used this feedback to help you in planning to differentiate for the various student needs in your classroom. As I ponder this student perception, I can't help but also think about the concept of a Fixed Mindset and a Growth Mindset and the impact that has on how students feel about the work they are given.
Over the next couple of weeks I will be continuing to review/finalize student survey growth plans and your SLO's. Please know that I may be scheduling times to meet with you about your SLO/PPG if I need additional information and to find out how I can help support your goals. Please know that if I meet with you it is not anything to be worried about...it is more for my learning and for my own SLO to support student learning/growth.
I am also continuing to get into classrooms and may give feedback verbally, via email or use my visit to complete a documented walkthrough form in mylearningplan. As you get notifications of my submitted walkthrough form in mylearninpglan, please review it and acknowledge it (and add a comment if you would like). My final step then is to finalize the form. I enjoy the conversations that we get to have about student learning and wish I could meet with everyone after being in a classroom, but it is just not a realistic goal for me. If you ever want to chat after I've been in your classroom, just let me know and we can figure out a time.
Personally, I will share with you that one of my top goals is to be in classroom frequently and to provide you with feedback. As I reflect on the 1st quarter of the school year, I have logged 173 classroom visits and provided feedback just under 70% of the time (either verbal, emailed or in mylearningplan). I hope to increase my rate of feedback in classroom visits during the 2nd quarter of the school year.
Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*Several students excited to help paint the new mural in progress outside the art room. This extra splash of color is looking nice!
*Students reviewing their academic progress and writing a letter to parents to go home with their report card to talk about what they worked hard on this quarter and what their goals are for 2nd quarter.
*Several math lessons that included the teacher probing students for further explanation of their answers, how they got the answer or just explaining their thinking. I am always amazed to hear how many different ways our students can solve the same math problem!
*Students practicing having each other check for understanding for "read to someone." The teacher modeled for the class with a student partner and then students were sent off to practice with their partners. It was amazing to hear students prompt each other to check for understanding of what they read on that page and to hear one partner say, "What I heard you say is..." Events Next Week: Monday - Grades/comments due by 7:30 am Tuesday - Report cards to go home
Fundraiser Pick-Up 3:00-5:30pm in the commons.
Wednesday - Veterans Day Assembly starting at 9:25. Please review behavior expectations with your students before taking them down to the gym.
*Please dress professionally as we will have many community visitors here this day.
Thursday - Bus evacuation drills in the morning before school. This may cause some students to be late in getting to breakfast (and then to class). Please plan to hold off on attendance for this reason.
Friday - 1st Quarter Dodgeland Pride assembly starting at 2:30. Again, please talk to your class about behavior expectations for this assembly.
Evening Family Movie Night in the elementary gym, sponsored by the HS FBLA (free admission with concessions open for cost) at 6:30pm.
"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Grade Level PLC Meetings were moved to Wednesday, November 18th.
*Just a heads-up: On Monday/Tuesday there will be some gentlemen in the building working on our heating/cooling units and will need to go into every classroom to check on the status of the air in your room. This should take about 5 minutes when they are in your room and it could be at any time.
Many people think of celebrations as a time to get together with family/friends for a birthday, , wedding, anniversary or other reason for a party. I would bet that some of your greatest family memories may come from one of these special events.
In school, we need opportunities to celebrate too and can do so for a variety of reasons. When we celebrate together it can be a great way to motivate our students and to reinforce what we value (learning, hard work, bucket filling, etc.). When we celebrate, it helps build the momentum for the work that we do and it's just fun! Several years ago we started our Friday celebration with the purpose of having students reflect on something that they are proud of for the week, have some students share their reflections on the announcements and get to dance/celebrate together. We have been using our opportunities of sending high school athletes off to state competition to build a culture of Dodgeland Pride.
This year, I am excited to see the writing celebrations that are already starting to take place as students get to publish their work at the end of the unit. As you celebrate with your students, keep in mind that this is also a celebration of your work:
Taking on a huge new way of teaching writing that you haven't had experience with before.
Reading every day so you know how to teach the next session.
Growing yourself as a writer as you learn the writing tips that you're going to impart with your students and be ready to share your own writing in mini-lessons.
The time you took with your students to practice/rehearse the procedures to make the writing workshop an efficient use of students' time for writing.
The time you have taken to get to know each of your students individually to help pull out their ideas/experiences to add into their writing.
Your attention to the teaching points in effort to keep the mini-lesson focused and mini so that students could spend more time writing. The more time they spend writing, the better writers they will become.
This list could go on and on. My point is, we have a lot to celebrate at this point of the year already, so please take some time to enjoy it with your students and be excited for the growth that is yet to come. I would love to see when your class is celebrating/sharing published work, so please let me know when it is scheduled and I will try to make it.
And for our teachers that are not teaching writing, I didn't forget about you. Please take some time to reflect with your students on the hard work you've accomplished in your content area so far and celebrate together too!
