Final Friday Focus (for 2013)

Great Things This Week:

• I was so impressed by everyone; both staff and students, during our lock-down drill.  I was amazed by how many classes knew what to do as soon as I came with the officer to your room. I also noticed that none of our students were tearful or seemed afraid, which is attributed to your calming demeanor with them.
• We had a wonderful winter concert with great songs to entertain us. Thank you Mrs. Kopfer!
• We had 45 students participate in the after school Bucket Fillers to make ornaments and sing Christmas carols at Clearview.  It was such a great experience for our students to get to bring joy to the residents. I had numerous students make comments like, "we put smiles on their faces," "they were singing along with us," "they were happy we sang for them."  Thank you to everyone who helped (Mrs. Breselow, Mrs. Bartlett, Mrs. Harnisch, Mrs. Peterson and several parent volunteers)!  It is my hope that we can continue to find ways that we can be bucket fillers for our community.

Events Next YEAR: (doesn't that sound weird?!)

Thursday, Jan 2 - back to school

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

• Textbook quote activity for upcoming chapter.
• Creating Reading Plans Help Students Develop Healthy Lifelong Habits

Monday Musings - December 16, 2013

We have many things to celebrate and be proud of as we close out 2013.  Sure, there have been some days where we feel exhausted, but we have a common goal: deliver the best instruction every day for student learning! We have five days left to provide fun experiences, develop strong relationships with our students, and continue to encourage and be there for all of our students and each other.

I encourage you to think of all of the wonderful things that have happened so far this school year and find the time to reflect and celebrate with your students!

Friday Focus - December 13, 2013

Events Next Week:
Monday - December Bucket Fillers 3:00-5:00 (I'll email a student list so you know who's staying after)
Tuesday - 2/4th Grade Concert Rehearsal 8:00-9:00
K concert Rehearsal 9:00-9:30
Concert 6:30
Wednesday - December Bucket Fillers 3:00-5:00
Thursday - Christmas Sweater Day (whether you prefer nice Christmas sweater or a tacky sweater, it's up to you!)
Friday - Flannel Friday (flannel shirt or flannel pj's...it's your call!)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*You will each be receiving a Common Grounds coupon in your mailbox by Monday to redeem next week for a coffee/cappuccino of your choice from me for Christmas! :)
*When coming in each day, Mr. Schimmel has asked that we go through the commons instead of through the elementary office in the morning due to the amount of snow and salt tracked into the office.  It is more difficult to clean up than snow and salt on the thicker rugs than in the commons.  Thank you!

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

*Great post: Top Ten Ways to Encourage Children to Read Over Winter Break
*Cute video of First Graders in Verona, WI singing "Mathematical Humdingers" 
*Another really neat video from a class about fractions: The Avery Bunch



A couple of great app ideas I discovered at the SLATE conference:

Monday Memo/Musings - December 9, 2013

A few notes I missed on the Friday Focus:
*Tuesday - Grade Level Meetings agenda includes: K-3 need to update SAGE goals, Math Expressions Pacing and anything else your team needs to discuss.
*Please review our common drill procedures located in the red binder. These include Fire, Tornado, Lockdown, and Administrative Hold.

Monday Musings

It's that time of year when we are all in a "hustle and bustle" to get ready for Christmas while still continuing with everything else going on.  Some of us may be stressed by what seems to be a lack of time to fit it all in the countdown to Christmas.  Please keep in mind that, for some of our students, there are many stressors:

• Parents threatening children that Santa won't come.
• Overhearing parents stressing over money at this time of year.
• Worrying if they'll get anything for Christmas at all.
• Worrying about being away from school (their safest place) for two whole weeks.

We also need to keep our own buckets in check at this busy time of year. The most recent bucket fillers newsletter has a great message:

Good Busy and Bad Busy

There are two types of busy - good busy and bad busy. Good busy fills our bucket. When we do busy well, life is exciting and activities fill our buckets. Our minds are actually designed to be busy just as our buckets are designed to be full. Dr. Caroline Leaf, author of Switch On Your Brain, says that at any given moment of the day, we have four to seven thoughts going through our brain. Just living is a busy activity. But good busy can quickly turn into bad busy and empty our buckets. In good busy, we listen and watch in a focused, mindful way; in bad busy, we lose focus and shift our attention haphazardly from one thing to another. When we're in "bad busy," we tend to look at things more pessimistically and react more negatively. We see more "half-empty" than "half-full." Bad busy leads to bad choices, poor decision making, and emptier buckets. As we enter one of the busiest times of the year, try to stay in "good busy" by doing regular "bucket checks." Stop at regular intervals in your day and become aware of your body and what you are feeling. These feelings, which are neither good nor bad, are actually signals to get your attention. They let you know when good busy is switching to bad busy.      Good busy is living with a full bucket. It's remembering that it's not about the quantity of what we do; it's about the quality of what we do. Any job worth doing, is worth doing well.

Friday Focus - December, 6, 2013

Great Things I Noticed the last 2 weeks (I missed a Friday focus last week!):

• Students taking pictures of real life objects to make a book of shapes (using iPad apps) to create a book to teach their younger buddies different shapes (while learning the qualities of shapes they need to know).
• Students having powerful reflections to the "bruised and bullied" apple analogy lesson. You can read about it HERE.
• Youtube clips from Have Fun Teaching channel to help memorize some of those things that aren't as easy to memorize (and it adds a brain break with fun and learning at the same time).

Events Next Week: Secret Santa starts for those that are participating
Monday - No meeting: not even rescheduled. It's cancelled. :)
I will be gone all day for training at CESA 6
Tuesday - the Mid-Year SLO Review training will be rescheduled to Jan/February (when you have mid-year data to reflect on).
Wednesday - I will be at the SLATE conference for most of the day
Thursday - Mid Quarter (yes, it's that time already!) Please make sure there are no grading surprises for parents.
Any Toy Bank donations are due to Marie.
Friday - Staff Social Lunch (1st Grade/Bartlett/Mane)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• Just a reminder to pick up students from specials classes on time to prevent back-up/traffic jam in the hallway, which can be difficult for our specials teachers to manage.
• I'm still looking for additional people to help present (or organize students to present) for the Tech Showcase on January 13th. We have secured some really awesome prizes that I think will help us bring in a big crowd. Seriously, think big prizes. :)  
• As you saw above for next week's events, our Elementary Professional Learning meeting is cancelled. I will be gone for training and decided not to reschedule it. 

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!
*NonFiction Favorites for Boys: Book List
*A Gold Mine of resources: a  list of downloadable non fiction text from the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project: Digital NonFiction Text Sets

Monday Musings - December 2, 2013

The Countdown to Christmas Begins!

The next 3 weeks are going to fly by fast. I hope you are well rested from the 5 day Thanksgiving holiday and ready for more fun learning!

Some things to keep in mind over the next 15 days:

• For some of our students who will say “it’s almost break” and lack motivation, it is time to push them & keep them excited and eager to learn.
• For our students who come from challenging circumstances at home and are feeling anxiety about not being at Dodgeland for break (and acting out because of it), it is time to show them how much you care & make the most of these next 15 days.
• For our students that just keep smiling & working hard each day, it is time to pull them aside and tell them how much you appreciate them.
• Help model bucket filling for our students this month so that they feel the positives of giving to others.  We are collecting cereal boxes this week for the food drive.  I am also looking for people to help on Monday, December 16th after school for making Christmas cards and practicing singing Christmas carols and/or Wednesday, December 18th to deliver cards to Clearview and spread the holiday cheer. Please let me know if you can join us for one or both days.