Friday Focus - December 5, 2014

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Students in small groups playing charades with the vocabulary words they've learned the past couple of weeks. I'm amazed at how much their vocabulary has already expanded since I first shared this information with you (just 2 weeks ago!).
• Students proving their answers in literacy by marking where in the text they found each answer or underlining the clues that helped them to make an inference.
• I'm seeing more and more of you posting/referring to lesson objectives (especially during literacy/math).  If you'd like to see one way to use the posted objective, HERE is a quick video clip from teachingchannel.

Events Next Week: Monday starts the 12 Days of Christmas! :)
Monday - Packers Day (jeans too) as the 1st Day of Christmas (see more about this in "nuts & bolts"
-I will be out of the building in the afternoon
-Staff Meeting at 3:05-3:45. Yes I'll be gone, but Jenny and Joyce will be leading it. Please be prepared to discuss your next chapter in High Impact Instruction and bring your laptops to learn about the performance task portion of the Badger Exam (new name for the SMARTER Balanced test)
Tuesday - I will be at the School Leaders and Technology in Education conference (SLATE) along with a district team that includes Ms. Abegglen and Mrs. Larson.
Wednesday- "Giving Tree" gift donations due to Marie (unwrapped with the paper ornament).
Thursday - MID QUARTER!  Yes, it's already time to send home mid-quarter progress reports to keep parents updated on academic progress.


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*WI DPI has started a My Wisconsin Standards campaign that kicked off this week that you can check out at www.dpi.wi.gov/my-wi-standards. This week’s featured standard and example resources can be found at http://dpi.wi.gov/my-wi-standards/math/12-2-14. DPI and other educators are using the hashtag #MyWIStandard on Twitter to share other resources.

*Please let me know if you're interested in helping out with the December Bucket Fillers activity on Monday, Dec. 15 (for card/ornament making and practicing Christmas carols) and/or Monday, Dec 22 to sing at Clearview.

*Monday, December 8 starts the 12 Days of Christmas with something fun or yummy from me each day. My hope is that this will help you feel like you're not just surviving these final days before winter break, but keep you thriving.  I won't tell you all the days, but I will let you know in advance now of special dress days:

Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!*Blog post: There Are More Ways Than One to Teach a Mini-Lesson