Friday Focus - June 1

June 1st...Wow!  We have 5 days left of school with our students.  In those 5 days see if you can accomplish the following:

5 - Give out 5 high 5's to students from another class.
4 - Give a thank you to 4 supportive parents from this year (could be a phone call, positive postcard home or just a quick note in the planner).
3 - Give compliments/thanks to 3 colleagues that have you have enjoyed working/learning with this year.
2 - Spend 2 minutes with a student that has been struggling this year with either behavior or academics and let them know you truly wish them well as they move on to the next grade level.
1 - Have a class-wide conversation with your students on the "best memories of the year."

Tuesday Memo - Week of May 29

I hope that you all enjoyed the holiday weekend.  As the last day of school is approaching, it’s very tempting to hit the “cruise control” button. Let’s make a commitment to finish the year as strong as we started & not hit the cruise control button…..our kids deserve better! Students will feed off our attitude and if we expect the best from them, then we must give them the best of us! 

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*Monday night was the music concert for 2/3/5th grades and it was awesome!!  If you didn't get to see it, the students all sang songs to go along with our American Treasures theme and did a fantastic job.  Our 5th grade band sounded better than I've ever heard 5th graders play before! Great job Mrs. Battenberg and Mrs. Kopfer! 
*As I happened to pass classes in the hallway coming from the computer lab I heard many students getting excited about beating their previous SMI score. I love how engaged they are in their own learning!
*A good problem to have--too many 1/2nd grade teachers are having to pull Benchmark Reading assessments from the 3-5th grade kit, because the students are reading so high!!!  (Just make sure to get the folders back into the right kits so we don't lose anything).


Events this Week:
Tuesday - Bike Safety Assembly with Officer Schultz for 5K-5th grades at 2:00 p.m.  (Please have students packed up before going to be on the safe side for dismissal)
Friday - 1st and 5th grade field trips

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*The calendar originally stated that grades were due May 31st. We can move this to be June 4 at 7:00 AM.  Report cards will be printed on June 4th for you to review. They should go home with students on Wednesday, June 6th (this is so no report cards left at the End of Year picnic!).
*Curriculum Work - Just a reminder that we have budgeted for 2 days of curriculum work for the week of June 11th.  I wish we could use this time for training on the new math curriculum, but we won't have everyone here to do so. These days are optional, however, would be a great time to plan cafe/6 Traits mini-lessons or complete other work with your grade level team.  Please let me know if you plan on coming in during this week.
*Before the end of the year, please make sure that your students/parents have their IXL login information so they can continue using it over the summer...even the 5K/1st grade classes that haven't used it at school.  Let me know if you need another copy of the letter that goes home with the login information.

Neat Ideas I Discovered on Pinterest Last Week:

Not sure what to read next? Enter in the book you just read HERE and it will give you book recommendations!

End of year activity-nominating books for class awards. Read about it HERE

Chalk Talk - write a topic in the middle and have students comment around it. They cannot talk, only write! They go up twice. First they write something original, then they comment on it

 

 

 

fun bookmarks

Friday Focus - May 25

Much is said  about student summer learning loss and there is data to clearly support this topic.

What about adults? Do we suffer from Summer Learning Loss? I believe we do. Now is the time to stop losing and start gaining.

I know summer is a time to refresh, rejuvenate, reflect, and relax. However, it is also the perfect time to learn, read, attend PD conferences, take a class, practice by “playing” with technology, growing your PLN (professional learning network), and on and on.

Before you get carried up in the end of the year events and to-do lists, take some time to open up your reflection journals and reflect on your goals you wrote at the beginning of the year.  How did your progress go?  How do you want to revise your goals for next year? What would you like to learn over the summer?  

 

 

Speaking of summer learning...

 The 2012 Summer Regional Teacher Academy will be this August 8 and 9th at Mayville High School.  This year we will kick it off with keynote speaker, Hal Urban. Has is the author of the book we read this year, Lessons from the Classroom.  The schedule this year also includes DART networking sessions, since the feedback from this year's DART sessions asked for more of them. 

You'll be receiving packets in your mailboxes today for all of the sessions available.  I'm excited by how many Dodgeland staff are presenting!  Please make sure to sign up to attend at: http://bit.ly/RSTAregistration

“A key characteristic of effective teachers & leaders: they learn….about themselves, 

about others, and about their job.”
-Garry Puetz

Monday Memo - 5/21/12

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*I've seen several classrooms integrate writing into math lately.  This week I saw 1st graders making up their own story problems for a given number sentence.
*Literacy integrated into music classes (reading picture books to the students that have song lines in them).
*A HUGE turnout of students/parents for Family Fun Night--they were all very appreciative of this event. Thank you to everyone who helped make it possible!
*****Congratulations to Jean and Bruce, our newly married Dodgeland couple.  Just when I finally got the spelling down of her last name, too!!

Events This Week:
Monday - Staff Social Lunch
    -1/3/5th grade Music/Band Concert
Tuesday - 1/2nd grade SAGE Teacher interviews
Wednesday - 3/5th grade teachers scoring for 6 Traits (several guest teachers in the building)
     -Elementary Meeting for class lists (room yet to be determined since the Media Center will already be in use)
Thursday - EC/4K and 5K filed trips
Friday - Carnival put on by 7th grade students 11:15-12:00 for 3-5th grades, 12:00-12:45 for K-2nd grades. The extra 15 mts will be extra recess for all, please coordinate amongst your grade level for teachers to be out there (that is the lunch break for all the support staff that supervise recess)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Usually by this time of year we have already generated ideas and voted on our theme. It is my fault that we're behind on this; however, I also recognize that we all have a lot on our plates moving into next year with implementing Cafe and the new math curriculum (and we already had several ideas for this year's theme that didn't get followed through on).  The Safe School Healthy Students grant had some money left over that was used to purchase books/materials for How Full is Your Bucket?  I'm sure many of you already recall that Mrs. Breselow read this to your classes last year or this year.  If not, it is basically a concept that encourages children and adults to have positive, caring and encouraging interactions with each other throughout the day. I've seen many other schools using this as their theme and since SSHS has already purchased books, we could just keep things simple and use this as our theme.
I do want you input on it though, so pleas go HERE to vote. 
*We are almost finished with the Regional Summer Teacher Academy schedule (this is for August 8 and 9th).  I will have it emailed out to you by the end of this week! 


Neat Ideas I Discovered on Pinterest Last Week:

Science notebooking-read about it HERE

End of Year Celebration idea-pictures of students holding the # of books they read this year.

Text/My Thinking T-Chart while reading. Read more about it here.

Friday Focus - 5/18/12

Thank you for your hard work yesterday on the common core math standards.  You all never cease to amaze me with your dedication to learning.  At the end of the day one of the comments I heard is how important it will be for our teams to work together; both in grade levels and across grade levels as we learn and implement the new math curriculum.  This is so true and so necessary to ensure that we are providing all of our students with the same curriculum and that we are working together as a team to learn together as we implement something new.  This does not mean that you all have to teach with the exact same teaching styles, just that we are focused together as a team on what we expect students to learn, how will we respond if they don't learn it and what will we do when they do learn it.

I recently read a blog post by someone I follow on twitter that speaks to this topic more than I could right now (I think reading the math practices/progressions fried my brain!).  As we work together in teams, it is important that we build our professional working relationships and not take things personally.  The original blog where this is taken from can be found here: Life of an Educator by Justin Tarte

Relationships...

A team with strong relationships among its members, will be a team that has the ability and power to overcome even the most difficult obstacles. Though there may be differences between our professional beliefs and our personal, it has become increasingly difficult to completely separate the two. Additionally, I see the importance of constantly evaluating the effectiveness of our teams. A team that is not achieving what it was established to achieve, must be changed, modified, or completely dissolved. We are all busy, so let's make the best use of everyone's time.

Mindsets that help teams:

- Teams are personal, but there are no hard feelings or grudges after a disagreement
- The proper personnel are involved, and the necessary resources and time are provided
- The focus remains on the big picture and the team does not waste time on the smaller issues
- The team comes with an agenda and is prepared to discuss controversial topics
- Decisions are made based on the best people and the majority
- Great teams are always open and willing to try new ideas for the sake of improving
Mindsets that hurt teams:

- Every discussion or disagreement is taken personally
- Something cannot be improved or changed due to limited personnel / resources / time...etc
- Remaining focused on smaller less important issues that don't affect the big picture
- Spending too much time on a topic that the team is obviously not ready or prepared to discuss
- Making decisions based upon the exceptions or the minority
- Not being transparent and open to other ways of doing things

Teams with strong relationships will be able to overcome any disabling mindsets that would negatively affect the forward moving progress of the team. When teams are built upon trust, open collaboration, and a shared common focus, teams are better able to address the organization's needs. Focus on establishing strong relationships with your team members and members of your organization, and you will be well on your way to achieving strong results among your teams...

Monday Memo - 5/14/12

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*Students writing academic & social goals on the backs of their progress reports and then conferencing with the teacher 1:1 to make more specific goals (instead of just "do better in math")
*5K students starting out read-to-someone quietly with partners by doing rock, paper, scissors to decide who would go first
*Heard 5th graders groan when they Daily 5 chimes rang, because they didn't want to stop reading/writing!
*Heard many great comments from the K-2 teachers visiting from Mayville last week to see Daily 5/Cafe in action. It's amazing to think back to when we wanted to see Daily 5/Cafe in other schools and now WE are that school! :)
*At lunch time a table of 4th graders were playing a quiet game of "10" that they have previously played during their class meeting.

 Events this Week:
Monday - Probationary Teachers meeting at 3:05 in the Media Center
Tuesday - I may or may not be here (scheduled for my first of four days of jury duty this month)
              Family Fun Night is 5:00-7:00 We are in DESPERATE need for help running the booths. Here's the google doc sign up sheet. PLEASE HELP US!!!!! Bring your spouse, kids, parents, whoever...we need help!
Students that sold 25 or more items in the fundraiser will get their limo ride sometime between 11:00-12:30 on Tuesday. Teachers with students going on the ride have been emailed a schedule.
Wednesday - 4th grade Biography Fair in the commons 1:45-2:45
                   -Elementary Professional Learning meeting--this is for all of you to share the vocab strategies that you learned in your PLC groups at our last PD session

Thursday - Professional Development (we will be working on the CCSS for math--more details to come)
Friday - 3rd and 5th grade field trips (Staff Social Lunch is being rescheduled)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*We will be meeting next week Wednesday, May 23rd to work on class placements for next year. I will get more blank student profile cards to put in the mailroom and pass out the cards used from last year.
*I will be sending you another email this week with a link to a survey to complete to give your feedback on me as a principal.  I appreciate your time in completing this to help me reflect on how I can grow professionally. 
*Here's a couple of online articles with end of year ideas:
20 End of the Year Reflection Questions for Students 
A variety of end of year reflective activities for students 

Neat Ideas I Discovered on Pinterest Last Week 
(let me know if you find something you want me to share!)

Learn more about math journals in this post

Learn how this is used in a 1st grade classroom in this post

Click HERE to get the list of Brain Breaks to use with your students

Friday Focus - 5/11/12

Survive or Thrive?

Benchmark--check. SMI--check. SRI--check.  6 Traits--check. So you finished your end of the year assessments (or almost have), now what?  At this time of the year it is common to say we’re just “trying to survive,” but I challenge you with the question...is it possible to thrive until the last day of the school year?

You have all worked exceptionally hard this year and I recognize that it is no small task to maintain the same enthusiasm that you had on September 1st until June 7.  We have had many celebrations this year watching our students grow (while we’ve been growing professionally), yet I’m sure you can also each identify disappointments or set-backs that can wear you down.  In addition, I’m sure your end of year to-do lists are just as long as mine.  It is easy to just count this year as done and start making grand plans for next year; however, we still have 4 weeks to continue making progress with our students.  I know I’ve said it before, but can’t emphasize it enough---the more you stray from your routine/expectations with students or count down the days, the more they will too.

So, as we make this final stretch of the school year, I challenge you to not just focus on getting things done.  Instead, enjoy the final stretch with your students as you prepare them for the next grade level. Focus on celebrating the successes of the year with them and with each other as colleagues.  

Monday Memo - 5/7/12

Great things I noticed last week:
*I've seen the "turn and talk" strategy used a number of times in classrooms across the grade levels.  This is an effective strategy for student engagement, because all students are required to participate and process what they're learning. This is also a way to meet the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Speaking & Listening.
*Everyone did an amazing job to help Grandparents Day be a successful again (as always). The committee put in a lot of work to organize it, but I know that everyone had a part in helping to prepare, whether it was with student work in the classrooms or running to help set up last minute tasks before they arrived. I heard numerous positive comments as our special guests were leaving the building on Friday.

Events this week:
Monday - Mentors Meeting
Tuesday - Mayville teachers will be here in a few classrooms to see Daily 5/Cafe
Wednesday- Elementary Olympic day--J. Garland emailed all the details for this fun!
                  -DART for 4K/5K in the morning and 1st Grade in the afternoon (please help those 1st grade guest teachers if they look lost at Olympic day)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Please add Wednesday, May 16th Elementary Staff Meeting to your calendars so that everyone can share out your vocabulary strategies from our last PD session.
*At our May 23rd Meeting we will be working on class lists for next year.  Yes, all of us at one time in one room.  This way all of the specials teachers, special ed and pupil services staff will be available to help give input as well.  


Neat Ideas I Discovered on Pinterest Last Week:

Class incentive tracker:

 

Friday Focus - 5/4/12

 

 

Next week is Teacher Appreciation Week.  While not all of you have the title of Teacher according to your contract, this week is about celebrating all of you who influence the lives of our students.  I certainly appreciate all the little things you do (like planning last minute details for Grandparents Day and supervising for bus or recess duty), but what I appreciate so much more is the environment you create for our students.  Kids love coming to school each day, and parents feel welcome here by all of you. 

The compassion for our families, respect for one another, and focus on kids can't be neatly measured and represented on a school report card, but to me, it's more important than any other piece of data that exists.

 

This makes me think of the quote, "Years from now children might forget what you taught them, but they will never forget how you made them feel."