Friday Focus - September 12, 2014

Image from Venspired.com

Great things I noticed last week:

*A math lesson that took 3 days last year only took 1 day for the students to get the concept! It is amazing to see how strong of mathematicians our students are becoming each additional year of Math Expressions.
*Students building up their stamina in Daily 5, excited about how much longer they read than the day before. 
*I've had two positive comments from new parents about how much they love the idea of Bucket Filling and what their children are sharing with them at home about being Bucket Fillers. 
*I've observed numerous different occasions already of returning students acclimate new students in such helpful ways...this is such a true testament to the years of procedures, expectations and positive modeling for our students to become such great "ambassadors" for our school...without even being asked!

Events Next Week:
Monday - Elementary PD Meeting in IMC (agenda below)
Tuesday - Morning Bus Drop-Off will have Bus Evacuation Drills for students (this means students will likely be to breakfast a few minutes later than normal).
*2:15 Fundraiser Kick-Off Assembly for 5K-5th grade in the gym (have them packed up before going, but don't need to bring backpacks)
*After School-Tech Tuesday (connecting to airplay/SMARTboard) in IMC
Wednesday - Support Staff mtg after school 
Friday - Staff Social Lunch - I'll have a sign up in the mail room for Jimmy Johns and will bring in goodies for a caramel apple bar.

Dates down the road...Homecoming Week
Sept 23 Tech Tuesday- printing from teacher laptops.
Sept 30 Tech Tuesday - Self Service system to access software


Nuts & Bolts 
*Monday's Meeting Agenda is simply: 

1. time for book study discussions (each group had a chapter to read)
2. work on Literacy Indicators (What should be observable in every classroom during literacy?)

*Just a reminder to teach students that when in the computer lab to NEVER turn off the computers or the monitors. They will go to "sleep" after inactivity.  All students need to do is Log Off.
*If you ever have a student issue that you want to have viewed on the camera, please contact me to do so (NOT Mark or Brad).
*Math Expressions has created a wiki of teacher resources at:  http://mathexpressions2013.wikispaces.com I'd highly recommend bookmarking it!

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
* @DrJ_Anderson: Remove the word "but" from convos: "You did this so well, AND you would/ could be better is you did ____" #educoach
*Helpful blog post for those of you using Evernote: Evernote for Digital Student Portfolios