Friday Focus - January 18

Image from ktvee

Great Things I Noticed This Week:
*A teacher modeling writing in a mini-lesson, thinking out loud for the class to hear and even spelling difficult words the way her students typically would while modeling the process of sounding out the words to write them.
*The use of "clock partners" for a partner activity. Students quickly checked the clock chart of partner assignments in their desk for "2:00", found their partner and got right to work.
*Students cheering when they heard it was time for Puzzled Penguin and then they all went "ahhh" (nicer form of "boo") when math was over!
*Kindergarten students quickly completing a page of mixed addition/subtraction problems independently within minutes...older grades, just wait until they come to you in a few years!  I'm loving what I see with Math Expressions!

Events Next Week:
Monday - Staff Meeting at 3:05 (room to be determined)...see agenda below
Tuesday - Grade Level Meetings
Wednesday - Ronald McDonald "Giving Back" assembly at 1:30 (approximately 30 mts long).
Thursday - Last day of 2nd Quarter
Friday - Report and Planning Day: your agenda--report and plan.  I will be in a training 9-3 on Friday, so if you hope to catch me on Friday it will have to be before/after.
Monday, January 28th - Grades due by 7:30. Report Cards will be printed in the morning

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
Staff meeting on Monday:
-"Fun" yearbook picture of all staff (one of the HS students on the yearbook committee will be taking this)
-Demonstration of how to lock classroom doors from the inside
-Review of F&P Benchmark scoring. We will be watching 1 or 2 (depending on time) student clips to practice scoring and make sure we are all on the same page with this assessment.

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
*Great post on "Increasing the Volume of Writing" to help our students become better writers: HERE written by @MelanieMeehan1
*There is so much value to us learning from each other. This week a chat on twitter discussed Learning Walks-the practice of teachers observing each other (not for evaluatory purposes).  I know many of you have observed each other and I appreciate your work in learning from each other whether you have observed others or opened your room for others to observe you.  If you ever want to spend time observing other classrooms, just let me know and I can cover your class for you. Here's what some of the folks on Twitter had to say:

Blog post explaining the chart HERE