Johnson Memo: Monday Memo - Week of Sept 17

Great things I noticed last week:
Where to start, there were so many great things in every classroom!
* When the Daily 5 chimes rang in a 3rd grade classroom, a student said, "oh I love this book SO much!
*When Mr. Lange and Ms. Abegglen taught how to use IPICK for choosing a good fit book, I had to laugh when Mr. Lange read from the WISC3 (I raised my hand for not being able to understand what he was reading!)
*I've seen several books during Daily 5 Mini-Lessons that correspond well to the Bucket Filling theme.
*I heard a 2nd grade teacher share with her students something she had just learned while reading a book for teachers--having students NOT use erasers is a good thing, because then they are not worried about being perfect and showing their thinking. By sharing this, she was modeling for students that teachers are readers/learners too!
*Overheard a 4th grade teacher say, "I'm not afraid of this math!"
*A teacher with a chatty bunch kept track of the "wasted minutes" throughout the day and then had a reflective conversation with the class when they were surprised by the amount of time wasted. They made a goal as a class for the week to decrease that time and have been making awesome progress with getting started right away!
*A 5th grade class has been working on writing their class mission statement. Here were some of the charts of brainstorming in the initial stages:

Events this Week:
Monday: Elementary PD Mtg at 3:05 in Media Center. This is training on the student surveys for the Effectiveness Project. Please bring your guidebook and your reflection journal. If you will be unable to attend, plan to attend the Wednesday MS/HS meeting for a repeat of this training. (Our next 3 mtgs will be this way--repeats of training at MS/HS meetings during the same week)
Tuesday: Fundraiser Kick-Off Assembly at 2:15 in the Elementary Gym. You will be given the student packets before hand to send home this day.
Wednesday: Bus Evacuation Drills before school. Please note that students will be about 5 mts late due to these drills. Please hold off a bit on attendance as our breakfast students may end up late to class due to the evacuation drills.
-4K/5K Bus Safety sessions
Thursday: Walk-a-thon 12:45-2:30
Next Monday: Elementary PD Mtg at 3:05 in Media Center for training on OASYS (the computer portal) for the Effectiveness Project.

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Our first day of Grade Level Meetings (scheduled for next week Tuesday, Sept. 25) will be time to revise our SMART Goals, math standards on the report cards, and talk about math progress. I will put last year's SMARTGoals and report cards in your boxes this week so you're ready to talk about them on Tuesday. Start thinking of any questions or confusions you're having with the new math curriculum (I would love for you to email me any ahead of time, since I likely will need to contact Darlene with any of them! That way I can you the answers you need by our meeting times)
*The Big Buddies Lunch Program is starting again this year. Lisa will be emailing out information for any new candidates. When buddies come to eat they will be eating in the art room or at the tables by the salad bar. During recess they can choose to go in the library or a conference room for a game, or outside for recess.
*As you're seeking classroom volunteers or chaperones, please remember our new policy requiring volunteer approval. You can send a packet home or pass them up to the office for a form. As Caryn runs the background checks, I'm maintaining the list of approved volunteers, so just check with me.
*Specifically for field trips: We have a number of students that would greatly benefit from bringing school sack lunches. Cathy can provide sack lunches for students at the same cost as their normal lunch (which is free for those already receiving free lunch). She will just need to know 10 days ahead of time to order what will be needed. Please let her know if you need a form from her for this (if you don't want to just have it on the grade level form that many of you create).
*There's quite a few left over "American Treasures" postcards in the mailroom. Feel free to take if you can use them in any way.
*We had a great first PTO meeting of the year--FAR more parents in attendance than I have EVER seen! Thank you to those of you that encouraged parents to attend and to Mr. Mane for providing this month's childcare. We are planning Family Fun Bingo night for October 5th and will be looking for any help we can get. Let me know if you're interested.

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