Just the Basics Friday Focus -March 28

It's short and to the point, with no frills because I forgot that I needed to write this early due to no Friday. It's late, because I forgot that it was already the end of the week and I didn't have my new episode of The Big Bang Theory to remind me that it's Friday Focus writing time. Guess it's time for a 4 day weekend! (I'm sure you can all relate!)

Events next week:
Tuesday-I will be at an assessment workshop all day with Mrs. Cleary.
Wednesday-Grades due by 7:30 am
Spring Portraits Day (this is optional for students/families. This is NOT the picture that will be in the yearbook).
Friday- Report cards distributed

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*Summer School packets will be printed next week, along with the Teacher Recommendation letters. Please plan to look over the list of Teacher Recommended courses and identify students that you believe should attend. I will have blue copies of the letter in the work room for you to: write student names on, circle the classes you're recommending, sign your name on the bottom and then also give me a copy (I use this to keep a list of who should be in each class and call home if they do not sign up).  Please plan to send summer school packets/recommendation letters home on Tuesday, April 9th. Do NOT send them next week yet.
*Just a reminder to give your student tech surveys, if you haven't already. These should be completed by April 5th.

HAVE A GREAT 4 DAY WEEKEND!!!!

Monday Musings - March 25

Here's some March Madness numbers to dig into...

 (Don't worry, if you're not a basketball fan, I do have 
a purpose other than basketball for this!)

68 - The number of basketball teams entered into the NCAA Tournament
64 - The number of teams that remain after the first round of the NCAA Tournament
50 - The number of school days left counting today
32 - The number of teams that will remain after round two of the NCAA Tournament
32 - The number of school days left until the 3rd round of SRI/SMI testing to check student progress
22 - The number of school days until our final PD day (where we will have 1/2 day of iPad training!)
4 - The number of school days until our 4 day weekend
1 - The ranking I give to our staff!

Regardless of which number you feel is most important, the number of students you have in your room is the number of students who count on you daily to be at your best. The number of students you have in your rooms, is the number of reasons why you walk into Dodgeland Elementary each day. 

Find the inspiration you need from any one of the numbers listed above or find the motivation from the number of students in your room. Regardless of where it comes from, look forward to spring and keep doing the great work you do. 

If the winter blues still have you down, watch this video.
I hope it brings you the final push you need to be able to FINISH STRONG! (It may also be good for our 3-5th graders to see).

Friday Focus - March, 22

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• Everyone did a great job with the lockdown/evacuation drill yesterday. I must admit that I was nervous for you all, thinking about the extended period of time many of you were in lockdown mode, but you all did such a great job keeping your students quiet and calm. I was worried about students becoming unnecessarily scared, but saw very few tears thanks to all of your preparation and calming efforts.
• I heard many positive comments from parents at the Art Show. This was such a positive event to highlight our students' creativity and provide parents the chance to "capture" that in being able to order items with their artwork. Parents loved having choices of more than 1 picture this year...next year we're going to aim for 5 each! A HUGE thank you to the committee for helping get everything set up (Mr. Mane, Ms. B, and Mrs. Haan).
• I think I heard in at least 4 different classrooms, "I just learned___ and wanted to share it with you." These comments were all from teachers. I am always amazed by your ongoing professional learning and modeling for students that even adults continue to learn!

Upcoming Events: 
Please give student technology surveys by Friday, April 5 (see "Nuts & Bolts")
Friday - Special speaker for 4/5th grade classes at 2:10 in the MS gym.
Tuesday - Grade Level Meetings (please bring Common Core books and be ready to share what you've used so far)
Thursday - End of 3rd Quarter
Friday - NO School...relax and rejuvenate!!
Monday - NO School...relax, rejuvenate and hope for the snow to melt!!

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• Just a reminder: For upcoming end of quarter report cards: If you have a student missing science/social studies due to reading intervention you will need to do a grade override of P for passing. We can no longer leave this blank or with a *. Any questions, just ask Mr. Wallesverd.
• The District Tech Task Team (D3T) would like feedback from students on technology-what they like to use at school/home and if it's available at home. I will send you an email with the details and link to the online survey. Please complete this by Friday, April 5th. Let me know if you have any questions (or you could also ask Mrs. Petersen, Mrs. Huelsman or Ms. Abegglen).

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
*Do you have a student that often looks to you to tell an unknown word or quick support when reading?  *Here's a great article from Choice Literacy: Putting the "Gradual" Back into Gradual Release of Responsbility

Go HERE and scroll down to find this interactive chart to help select iPad apps!

Find other Tech Anchor Charts HERE

Monday Musings - March 18

This weekend I got to attend the national ASCD conference in Chicago. I was fortunate to have the chance to attend it with a Press Pass, which got me in for free, but I just had to tweet/blog a lot about that (definitely something I am good at!)  I already have several posts up with more to come. If you're interested you can find them on my professional blog at principalj.blogspot.com 

One of the great speakers I heard at this conference was Freeman Hrabowski, President of the University of Maryland Baltimore County.  Hrabowski's story began as a young boy when he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and he has continued his passion to change the story for children and minorities.  He has led his University to change the story for minorities in STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).

 Hrabowski spoke about  matching high expectations along with the importance of building community among students, helping faculty retool teaching to start where students are and emphasizing collaboration among students, and building trust so that students are comfortable asking for help.  The one skill he wants every student going to college with is the ability to ask good questions.

Some other "nuggets" of wisdom I quickly typed during his presentation include:

• We must empower children to speak for themselves.
• Excellence is never an accident, it is a result of sincere effort.
• Choice, not chance determines your destiny.
• Many students that would be the first generation to pursue college need to see others do it first. We need to share our stories with them of our struggles and how we got to where we are. We need to share stories of others so they can believe it is possible.
• It is not cheating when people work together (talked about cooperative learning).
• We want our children to be passionate about learning.
• Even when a child loses parents, if there is a teacher who cares, that child will rise to the occasion.
• Some of our students go through hell. Give them structure and let them know you care about them.

Hrabowksi ended with the powerful quote from Mahatma Gahndi:

“Your beliefs become your thoughts, 

Your thoughts become your words, 

Your words become your actions, 

Your actions become your habits, 

Your habits become your values, 

Your values become your destiny.”

While our school population isn't as diverse as the schools he spoke of, I couldn't help but listen to him, thinking of many of our students' needs and the backgrounds they come from.  Each of you play such an important role in the lives of our students; many of you providing the only structure, kindness, understanding and expectations that they have each day (several of you also providing clothes and snacks). Then you for all that you do for our students each and every day! 

Friday Focus - March 15

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• 3rd graders reading their stories aloud to the class that had incredible voice and word choice from a picture that they chose to write about.  
• 4th graders were excitedly perusing carts of biography books in the hallway. They looked as excited as if it were a buffet of candy available to them!
• Students writing weekly behavior goals and reflecting on them at the end of the week. 
• Many students bringing books/magazines from the hallway baskets to lunch each day. The magazines are especially popular and provide discussion ideas at tables.  I LOVE seeing how excited our students are about reading from all of the modeling you do in your classrooms! (If you have magazines to get rid of, please consider adding them to the baskets...I have "lunch book" labels to put on them). 

Events Next Week:
March Madness Week--please be ready to wear your college apparel and promote college paths all week! See more info below in "Nuts & Bolts"
Monday - Elementary Staff Meeting that may be an hour long. We will be hearing from Dodge County Sheriff's department regarding lockdown procedures.  If you are unable to attend, you can go to the MS/HS meeting for the same information on Tuesday (and we may have some MS/HS staff joining us on Monday as well).
Tuesday - Support Staff Meeting 7:15-7:30
Art Show 5:00-7:00 pm. Please remind your students to bring their parents to look at all of the great art work on display in the hallways and they can then order items with their art work.  Some of our 5th graders will be performing songs throughout the evening as well.
Friday - 4/5th grade presentation in the MS gym 2:10-2:40 (more info to be emailed to 4/5th grade teachers)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• We had great discussions in grade level meetings looking at the common core resource book, leveled books in K-3 and the article on note-taking in 4/5.  The notes (although not too much) can be found here: Meeting Notes  Please plan for the next day of Grade Level Meetings to bring your common core book again to share 1 piece you have tried from the book.  We will also look at the next the reading level book in K-3 again. 
• I gave Mrs. Porter a list of books on the page recommended for "Winning Words" activity and she is ordering books that we do not currently have for that list. 
• March Madness Week: Please plan to..
•  Advertise your education (a flyer will be in your mailbox from Mrs. Figarsky)
• Add your college info to the map in the commons (Red circles for Bachelor's degrees and Yellow stars for graduate degrees).
• Get your students involved in writing down their future dreams (a flyer will be in your mailbox). Please turn these in to the office and we will be displaying them somewhere (TBD).
• If you find any great youtube clips appropriate for elementary students, please share with the rest of us!
• For upcoming end of quarter report cards: If you have a student missing science/social studies due to reading intervention you will need to do a grade override of P for passing. We can no longer leave this blank or with a *.  Any questions, just ask Mr. Wallesverd. 
• Our discipline referral has been updated to have the codes that Sarah has to put into PowerSchool for state reporting. While updating it she also spaced it out to be front/back since there was usually not enough room. Throw out any old ones you have and pick up new ones in the office (hopefully you don't need them!)  The new one looks like this: New Discipline Referral PDF

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

• March Madness turned into a book edition HERE  Here's a post on the UPDATE of where their class March Madness book edition is at. 
• Joy Kirr ‏@JoyKirr
  Authors on Twitter, updated daily https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QoxdpYkKzcbtO1wAKiXDsIalE5DCILwOaLOJSqGENZM/edit?usp=sharing … Feel free to add and use to connect students to authors! #mra13
  

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Monday Musing - March 11, 2013

Writer's Block

While having a mental block of not feeling like I have anything worthy of sharing with you all in a Monday Musings post (because I've spent my weekend in a book entirely for pleasure, not thinking of anything school-related) it made me think about our students having writers block, not knowing what they should write about. This immediately led my thoughts to modeling writing for our students in an authentic way, which I learned from Regie Routman. (Unfortunately for the students I taught it was after I already moved into the principal role).

When I taught writing, I modeled the writing process for my students; however, I modeled how to write a piece that I had already previously planned out before.  I had completely gone through the writing process on my own, wrote my piece and then recreated the process in front of them so there was no authentic modeling or thinking out loud of writers actually do as they are trying to think of what to write.  How can our students learn to get through a writing struggle if it is never modeled for them?  In the book Writing Essentials, Regie Routman says, "One of the most powerful ways for students to grow as writers is to watch you write--to observe you plan, think, compose, revise, and edit right in front of them, pretty much off the cuff. Very few of us just write down page after flowing page. Students need to see and hear our in-the-head thinking as we change our mind, 'mess up,' make adjustments, do everything 'real writers' do." (page. 45).

So, how can you help model for students that may have writers block? This comes from constantly modeling for them and sharing yourself as a writer with them.  Start with a story...tell students a story that you want to write about.  On page 25, Reige writes to pick a story that:

• Is easy for students to relate to.
• Is appropriate to share with students.
• Is important to me.
• Lets students know more about me.
• Allows me to take some risks.

Tell students the story you have chosen. Routman writes, "saying the story outloud engages the students, lets me clarify my thinking, and reinforces the importance of conversation before writing."  Then take that story and model writing it in front of your students.  Write the story just as lively as you told it: include the details, descriptive words, or recreate the conversations you told.  

As you model this process for students throughout the year, they will continue to make the connection between reading and writing...writing is a way to tell stories for others to read.  They will learn how to use events from their lives or use what they are reading to inspire them to write. 

Have you written in front of your students before without having planned it? If not...try it. Take the plunge and share your writing struggle with students. 

(Please note-this post took me about 10 minutes...I opened it only having the idea of writing about writers block and helping our students.  I did not take time to thoroughly plan it out, I just wrote as if I was talking about it.  If I were doing in this in the classroom I would then tell students that I will need to go back to revise/edit later, but this was to just get my ideas out). 

Friday Focus - March 8, 2013

Image from Fun in First

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• Class discussion to check in on students' reading goals progress and update their goals for March. 
• Cooperative learning activity in which students had to practice coming to an agreement (on any given topic) within 10 seconds, practicing a compromise if they couldn't agree, and then saying their response together as a team. 
•  In preparation for designing their own board games, students applied informational reading skills to comparing several board game instruction packets to determine common elements to include in their board game directions. 
• 4th graders were completely afraid of their new math lesson (algebraic expressions), but by the end of the lesson were so excited as they figured out how to solve them. I love watching "light bulbs" flashing around the room with smiles as their confidence grew. 

Events Next Week:
Today: Due to a HS event in the Media Center at the end of the day, I cannot play our celebration song on the announcements.  Please celebrate in your classes together, by playing the song from this youtube clip: Celibration  You don't need to actually show the video (unless your students are interested in seeing the band performing this in the 80's) although, please stop it before the very end, since there's no telling what youtube will recommend for videos to visit afterwards!
Tuesday -Grade Level Meetings
Wednesday - 2/3rd grade DART Meetings in Mayville
 -Vision Screening, scheduled by class
Thursday - Vision screening, scheduled by class
Friday - Staff social lunch
The following week is our annual March Madness college promotion week. Please see the email of details from Mrs. Figarsky.

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• I've had many staff and students asking for "Stop, Drop and Read" to continue! I'll go back to doing it a couple times a week at random times...please make sure your students are in the habit of taking their books with them to specials. We started this so that they develop the habit of always having a book with them to read for any of those opportunities to "steal reading minutes." There will also be a few baskets of books/magazines in the music hallway area to be used for waiting in line or take to the lunch room. Please tell your students about these. 
• Please remember to use your named clips when you take books from the book room. There are many missing books without a clip on there...we don't know if the books are missing or if you forgot to use a clip.  Many $ (and teacher time) has gone into creating the book room and we don't want to lose any of them!
• Kohls field trip grants are still available until they run out. 2nd grade received notice this week that their request was granted already!  Brochures with more information are up in the lounge if you're interested. 
• Just a reminder to stomp your feet off well in the vestibule in the mornings before entering the office area. Mr. Schimmel said that the office rug/carpet are starting to look bad...the rug in the vestibule is meant to handle the water and salt from our boots.

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

• 7 Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension (Thank you to Mrs. Madsen for finding this)
• Mrs. Laidler's blog...an intermediate science teacher in Chicago that posts many ways she uses ipads with her students. 

Monday Musings -March 4

Image from Venosdale

It's that time of year to begin planning for this summer's 2013 Regional Teacher Academy.  Our collective vision for this professional development opportunity is to honor the Teachers Teaching Teachers paradigm.  In order to do that, we need your help.  All area principals are asking teachers to reflect on their own teaching practices to determine what they do that makes them an effective educator. If you have an idea for a breakout session, please open the 2013 RTA Proposal form and submit it to me by Friday, March 15th.  I have listed some of the areas we would like to target below, if you have other ideas, those are welcome as well.  You all have many great things to share with your colleagues!!

Elementary School Workshops: Daily 5, C.A.F.E., Behavioral Interventions in the classroom, Math & Literacy Interventions and Enrichment's, Developing Quality Assessments with the Common Core.

Middle School Workshops: Math Interventions, Reading Interventions, Classroom Enrichment's, Assessments and Grading, Utilizing the Next Generation Science Standards.

Technology Workshops (K-12): The Flipped Classroom, Moodle, Google Docs, Beginning SmartBoard, Advanced SmartBoard, Utilizing iPads in the classroom.

I will be sending you all a separate email with an attachment of the proposal form.  Here is what it will look like:

Friday Focus - March 1

Image from Stars and Rainbows

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

*Great discussion and ideas on writing shared in grade level meetings. The google doc is HERE. We have great things going on across our grades, however, a common theme is wanting to know what other grades are doing and having continuity across the grades. We've done this for reading and math, I'm thinking the time for discussion on writing will be coming up at our next staff meeting. 

*I was in very few classrooms this week, other than the ones I subbed in, but enjoyed the time with our students! I heard great excitement from students during their lunch conversations about Read Across America week and "when are we going to Stop, Drop and Read" again?  It is always great to see how excited our students are about reading and learning! 

A HUGE thank you to the Read Across America for planning this week and the Family Read-In Night.  The families that attended read a lot and had fun together as a Dodgeland family. I know I enjoyed just being a mom and reading with my boys. 

Events Next Week:

Monday: Dress Like Your Favorite Book Character Day

 Mentors/Probationary Teachers Meeting

Friday: I will be at CESA 6 in the afternoon

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*Please have hallway walls cleared by Monday, March 11 so student art work can be hung up for th art show. 

*If you love using Google Drive (used to be called Docs), but hated how it worked on the iPads, it now works wonderfully in the app "Google Drive."

*The Edhelper account has been renewed (thank you for the reminder Mrs. O'Toole!)

*Teacher Effectiveness Project Update: The admin team is constantly learning throughout this year (along with all of you). Recently, Dr. Thompson heard a great deal of research from Dr. Stronge. He emphasized that in the teacher selection of artifacts for the Documentation Log that it is more fundamental for you to choose artifacts for standards 2, 4 and 6 as those are often not observed by administrators in an observation. 

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

*Classroom Reading Strategies at Reading Rockets

*Evernote Skitch is another app (linked to your evernote account) that can be used to add things to photos. I've used it for fun, but not with students yet. Here's an example from a (kindergarten) classroom that someone tweeted out:

Image from Matt Gomez's blog

The teacher from this blog also tweeted out the following graphic that makes it easy to understand the basics of Evernote Skitch:

Image from AppsinEducation