This felt like the smoothest start of a school year ever. No major first day tears...from students or teachers! ;) I've seen...
- teachers spending time teaching/rehearsing procedures like the pros that Harry Wong writes about in The First Days of School.
- students already using their iPads for a variety of uses--math facts games, recording partners to create an iMovie, QR code scavenger hunt and using IXL.
- students excited about literacy-in classroom book shopping, checking out books in the IMC (and already mastering the art of reading while walking back to their classroom) and writing reading resolutions for the school year.
You all are off to great start to an awesome school year!
Upcoming Events:
Today: Elementary Assembly at 2:30 in the elementary gym. Have students packed up before coming. We will end our day with our Celebration dance dismissal.
Monday: Elementary staff EP training for the Self-Assessment/PGG. This is for all staff, not just those on the evaluation year.
Thursday: I will be out of the building for training at CESA 6.
Monday, September 16: MAP training for K-5 teachers. I'm sorry to add another meeting, but have learned that the MAP test involves a bit more from your end than the SMI/SRI did. Please know that it also means you'll have access to all the reports and won't have to wait for Mrs. Huelsman or myself to print them. It will be a great resource for you!
"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
- Your team's PLC norms are in your mailbox. One thing that I learned from the PLC institute is that effective teams also revisit those norms at the start/end of each meeting. One way to help make this easier for you all is I typed up your norms in a google doc (HERE) and also put a QR code to lead to this doc in the data room for you.
- PLC team expectations-one question that came up as a result of our PLC discussions last week is how often are we supposed to meet? We have our scheduled grade level team days twice a month, but I know you have more to talk about then that meeting time allows for. I would expect that you would need to meet once a week on the weeks we don't have our rotating subs. I do know that several grade levels meet more frequently and that is fine.
- Please send birthday students to the office to pick out a book for their gift.
iPad Tip of the Week:
(I'm planning to add this section to each Friday Focus. If you've got a tip that you think others might find useful, or a question that others might have too, please let me know. I'll share them in this section.)
- If you have a website that you frequently use on the iPad you can add to your homescreen (to make it look just like an app) to get to it quicker. Watch this video clip to find out how. I've taken my bookmarked webpages on my homescreen and put them all in a folder.
- How do you make a folder of apps? Watch this video clip to find out how.
Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
- Great blog post comparing going 1:1 and having a baby: What to Expect When Expecting Technology.
- "If we create a "team" its not sharing or bragging its increasing "OUR" students success #educoach @stevebarkley
- "we r on a journey, not a race! We must remember the power of our collective intelligence is amazing!" @DrBillBrennan
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