Friday Focus - October 31, 2014

Great Things I Noticed This Week:
*Great conversations in grade level meetings about students that have made progress in previous years (as a result of your great work) and your focus in literacy for the next month.
*Integration of new tech ideas learned in our last PD--student use of Keynote and Pages with plans to create a class book using iBooks author.
*Students writing at recess time, because they just didn't have enough time to write their exciting stories (and begged for more time).
*Halloween themed activities that were still completely focused on the same math/literacy skills you would normally teach (but the attention of candy hyped children!)

Events Next Week: *Don't forget to change your clocks this Sunday "Fall Back!"
Wednesday - End of 1st Quarter
Thursday - 1st Qtr Grades due by 7:30 am (report cards will be printed for you to make changes by Friday afternoon)
-I will be at CESA 6 in the morning for Effectiveness Project training
Friday - I will reprint report cards after school so you will have them to send home the following Monday


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes: 
*Grading notes: as always...no blank grades or *. Instead use P (pass) or else Mark will have to hunt you down to fix it for the errors it runs on his end ;)
*Sarah will be creating a google doc to share with you all to enter your Honor Roll and "On a Roll" students. Please enter your students into the doc instead of emailing her. Thank you!
*The Pride Assembly on November 14th will be moved up to 2:00, because we will be having the elementary dancers perform one of their competition routines for us first.
*I was "double dog dared" by one of our teachers who shall remain nameless (although I will share she is recently engaged) to take part in the Principal Challenge by Book It to read all day to encourage kids to "read their hearts out" and possibly win 101 copies of the newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.   Challenge Accepted!  I'm planning for this to take place on Monday, November 10th and am working on the details, but I'm pretty sure it will involve me being up high for all to see (but not on the roof). I will also likely make a schedule for classes to join me for reading if interested and will send that out next week.  Please feel free to plan EXTRA reading time for your classes on that day too!
*Back by popular demand: our Dodgeland clothing store! The link below will take you directly to the site for Dodgeland apparel.  The link will remain open until Friday, November 14.  Ameriprint estimates four weeks to fill the orders, so you should have your clothing before Christmas.

http://stores.inksoft.com/dodgelandstaff

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!
*Blog Post: Using Airdrop in the Classroom
*@CVULearns: If you give a summative and most of the class doesn't do well, then make it a formative and design more practice. That's our job. #sblchat
*Need Ideas for report comments? Check HERE for ideas.

This "pin" is from one of our classrooms!

Monday Musings - October 27, 2014

With Red Ribbon/Fuel Up to Play week I coincidentally came across this tweet:

You can read the full article from that tweet HERE. 

The article shares some great ideas for adding movement to the classroom (in addition to the great brain breaks you all already do).  I couldn't help looking at the brain scan image and also reflecting on  how much I personally struggle in our PD days or at conferences when I have to 

sit for an extended period of time...I end up fidgeting, feel the need to stand, look forward to the bathroom break to get to move my legs and sometimes beg Mrs. Kuhn if I can borrow a yoga ball to sit on.  Think about how long some of our students sit...on the bus before school, at breakfast, in the classroom, at lunch, the bus ride home, etc.  Keep in mind what their brain scans might look like if they were taken in your classroom.  Are they getting a chance for movement? Are they getting that needed blood flow/oxygen to their brain so they're ready to learn? 

With it being Red Ribbon/Fuel up to Play week, add in some extra movement this week and join in the fun...I'll bet you'll enjoy the movement too!

Early Friday Focus - October 23, 2014

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• Integration of math and social studies to give purpose to the story problems students were creating.
• Students playing math facts games while the teacher retaught a lesson to a small group.
• I sat in on several conferences and noticed teachers starting out by making parents feel welcome, highlighted positives of the student and then talked about areas to grow and sharing student made goals. 

Events Next Week: Red Ribbon/Fuel Up to Play Week

*I encourage you all to add in a little bit of exercise with your class (especially on Wednesday!), whether it is an extra brain break, some yoga or taking your class on a walk through the halls to get in some extra steps. 

*Monday - Wear Red

*Tuesday -Wear color of your favorite fruit/vegetable

Grade Level PLC Meetings (agenda below in "Nuts & Bolts")

Optional WEA Information meeting in the IMC at 3:30

Rock River Reading Council "Roadshow" on Effective Vocabulary Instruction hosted in our IMC

*Workout Wednesday - Wear your workout gear

*If it's not raining and we have enough recess coverage I will take interested students into the gym for Just Dance

3:15 Informational Meeting for all certified staff in Multi-Purpose Room about Alternative Compensation System

*Thursday - Wear favorite sports shirt

*Friday - Wear orange/black

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

*As I shared in our school assembly, I want to share my National Distinguished Principal bell with everyone...if you ever have a student that has just achieved a major accomplishment or even your entire class, please just let me know.  We can have individual students come down to ring the bell or I can bring it to your class.  It's a great way to celebrate small wins! :)

*Grade Level PLC Meetings Agenda:

-please bring your laptop and F&P Benchmark data (I'm going to have you put your class in a google doc spreadsheet

-As a grade level-what CAFE strategies are you teaching in the next month?

-Be ready to discuss your lowest readers-what strategies you are focusing on with them

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!

*10 Quick Ways to Give Students a Voice

*Tip learned in today's iBooks Author training: When using TodaysMeet if you click on "Room Tools" on the bottom left you can get a QR code to use with your students or get a transcript of your class discussion. 

This is from one of our classrooms!

Monday Musings - Back from DC

I'm back!  I'm hardly caught up on emails or anything else, but have to say that it is good to be back!
I made a quick video to share some photos with students, along with our Trojan that you can find HERE.

I blogged about my reflections on the National Distinguished Principals program HERE, but here are some "snippets" I want to share with my Dodgeland family:
 I never understood why people say, “it was a humbling experience” or “I feel so humbled to receive this.”  But I think now I fully understand that phrase. This week I attended the NAESP National Distinguished Principals Program in Washington DC as the Wisconsin 2014 Elementary Principal of the Year and had a humbling experience as I joined 60 other amazing school principals from across our nation (and those leading American schools overseas).  There were several points of the program that I thought to myself, “do I really deserve to be here?” or “I have to go back next week and be as awesome as these people are making me feel!”  In reality, I know that I was only able to have this experience because of how hard the staff in our building work each and every day to make our school the best school for our students.  I am blessed to have had the opportunity to hear about the great things happening in schools across the country, learn from their amazing leaders and reflect on the work that I can continue to do as a leader for our great school. 
...
As I heard firsthand from principals about some of the challenges in their states, I was so thankful to be in Wisconsin.  I am thankful that our state has not gone as “high stakes” as some other states, like Florida or New York and that Wisconsin has things right with support for preK/K (see more in my full post about that topic!)

Monday Musings - October 13, 2014

Image from Delivering Happiness

So much of the work that we do has to do with motivating students. I recently read a great (and short) article on motivation by Carol Ann Tomlinson HERE.  According to this article, there's no quick fix to solving a motivation issue, but there are 3 areas that you can consider for a student with motivation issues.
Here's a short synopsis of the article:

            In this Educational Leadership column, Carol Ann Tomlinson (University of Virginia) says that when a student is unmotivated, something is amiss. “Either we can’t see what motivates the student in question,” she says, “or the student’s life is dangerously off course. In either case, ‘unmotivated’ behavior should register to educators as a call for help.” Teachers are crucial to motivation, and they should tune in to students’ unspoken questions in three concentric circles of their school lives to help build self-motivation:
• The personal sphere – Does the teacher see me? students wonder. How does the teacher see me? “Some students feel invisible in their classrooms,” says Tomlinson. “Some feel judged and found wanting.” Good teachers combat low expectations and provide all students with visible support and an appropriate amount of voice and autonomy.       
• The social sphere – Do I belong here? students wonder. Am I valued? Do I have something meaningful to contribute? Good teachers help connect isolated students to peers and they model and insist on mutual respect.  
• The academic sphere – Is this stuff worth my time? students ask. Can I do what’s being asked of me? Good teachers build wonder, imagination, and curiosity into lessons, link the curriculum to students’ lives, challenge students to work beyond their current level, and support all students to listen, ask, find out, reason, disagree, self-correct, and start over. 

“Releasing the Will to Learn” by Carol Ann Tomlinson in Educational Leadership, September 2014 (Vol. 72, #1, p. 86-87), http://bit.ly/1rrSwEO; Tomlinson is atcat3y@virginia.edu.

Friday Focus - October 10, 2014

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Hands on science experiment connected to trying to determine if the "5 second rule" for eating fallen food is an ok rule (while learning about bacteria).
• Several different brain breaks that were fun, got wiggles out and practiced math and spelling at the same time.
• Students working in partners to peer edit before writing their final copies.
• "Clock partners" meeting to share about what happened in the books they read at home the night before (more engaging than having a parent sign a reading log!)
• Some great finds from Connected Educator month tic-tac-toe challenge...please keep sharing!

Events Next Week:

Monday - Girl Scouts presentation for K-2/3-5 during noon recess

3:05 Elementary PD meeting in IMC (book group discussions)

Tuesday - Grade level PLC meetings (be prepared to discuss student data and what we can do to provide Tier 1/2 interventions within in the classroom)

Wednesday - the official deadline for student surveys and the SLO/PPG form in mylearningplan.  (I will not be checking to see who turned it in until the following week so you have some extra time.)

Friday - Staff Social

**Wednesday - Friday - I will be in Washington DC for the National Distinguished Principals Program

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• I am humbled to get to go to Washington DC next week, which is a result of the amazing work that all of you do here at Dodgeland for our students!  While I will be spending 2 full days in meetings/principal panels with policy makers, I'm hoping to get to sightsee and bring a little bit of Dodgeland with me (and then share back with students).  With Mr. Mane's help, I'm bringing a "flat Trojan" with me to take pictures with. I'm going to start sending it around to classes today to ask all students to sign the back of it for me. 
• Computer lab reminder-now that MAP testing is done, students should be logging in with their unique logins (first.last/ID number)
• Friendly reminder--save your jeans for Fridays and remember to save the first row of the parking lot for our parents/visitors.
• Please keep "busting" students for bucket filling!
• Discipline referrals are starting to increase for bus behaviors. Please set aside a few minutes next week to share this video (from last year's contest) with your class: Dodgeland Bus Safety  Thank you!
• If you are going to have any absence for any reason during P/T conferences: you will need to enter 2  absences into AESOP...1 for your regular work day requiring a sub (unless you do not normally need a sub) and an additional absence of 3:30-7:30 with no sub needed. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

*@TonySinanis: Show your students empathy today- it goes a long way in building healthy & sustainable relationships. #edchat

*Blog post: 15 Effective Ways to Use Google Docs in Class

Monday Musings - October 6, 2014

It's Connected Educator Month, the month where educators choose to actively showcase their connectedness or take the leap to get connected with other educators online to continue professional learning.  What does that look like for you? How can you take control of your own lifelong learner status?

The goals of Connected Educator Month Include:

• Getting more educators proficient with social media to improve their practice.
• Deepening and sustaining learning among those already enjoying connection's benefits.
• Helping schools integrate connected learning into their formal professional development efforts.
• Stimulating and supporting innovation in the education field.

I know I've shared with you all how much I get out of being a connected educator (like constantly finding great ideas or connecting with other educators with experience to benefit us), but if you still think I'm just a crazy Twitter lady, here are some video clips/blog posts that show the power of being a connected educator:

District 123 on Twitter (video clip)

Twitter Using Teachers (video clip)

I'm Not Going to Convince You that You Need a PLN (blog post)

Twitter is a Teacher Super Power! (blog post)
My getting started with Twitter checklist is HERE

I'd love for you to try something new for Connected Educator Month or strengthen what you already do on Social Media for your personal/professional learning.  To make it fun, I'll have copies of the following Tic Tac Toe in your mailboxes.

Friday Focus - October 3, 2014

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Students working together in collaborative groups to create iMovies about their books.
• Students in partner discussions to predict what will happen next in their read-aloud book.
• 3rd graders super excited to practice their recorders so they can pass each level and earn a "karate belt."
• Students showing different ways to solve a math problem on their whiteboards and then standing if they see their method on the SMARTBoard...allows all to be engaged and get a little movement in. 

Events Next Week:

I actually have nothing for all on the calendar....really?  Please let me know if I'm missing something!

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*We are continuing to lose books from the Book Room.  Please help make sure that when you take a bag of books to your room that they don't get lost in your classroom libraries or student desks.
*5th grade will be leading us in Bucket Filling this month...news to come from them soon on "Busted for Bucket Filling."
*Repeat of my email on MAP reports:

I have completed all Make-Up MAP testing so you should be able to print your class reports now.  I also think I corrected all students in MAP (ex: new students that needed to be in your class, students that needed to be removed), but please let me know if I missed anyone. 

Just a reminder since it’s been a while, here are the reports that you will find helpful:

• Student Goal Setting Worksheet (prints for individual students and helpful for parent/teacher conferences)
• Class Report (allows you to print list of students in alphabetical order or in order of RIT scores)
• Class Breakdown (this is the report that allows you to see students across the RIT levels in the columns/rows chart)

Some of these reports automatically show math and reading, but some will require you to check the boxes for which assessments you want to see. 

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!

*@pernilleripp: Share your own mistakes and flaws as a reader, the students need to know adults aren't perfect readers #titletalk" #literacy
*Great blog post on Feedback to Students: Motivating Students with Effective Feedback and Clarity

Just for book fun...All About the Books (song parody the book nerds will love):