Friday Focus - February 27, 2015

I'm keeping this post quick and "nitty gritty" since I'm sure you're as tired as I am after conferences!

Events Next Week: Read Across America Week
*Any day/anytime--there's a forecast of reading blizzards...be prepared to duck and cover with a good book!
Monday - Wear Red, White and Blue
Kick-off assembly at 2:30 in multi-purpose room (have students packed up before going down)

Tuesday - Pajama Day :)
Family Reading Night (6-7pm) Please feel free to bring your own children and enjoy
*I will be in the high school all morning for ACT testing

Wednesday - Crazy Socks day
*I will be in the high school all morning for ACT testing

Thursday - Hat day
Author Visit (see Mrs. Madsen's prior email for your scheduled time)
*I will be out of the building with the admin team for SAIL training (this was on our district literacy focus)

Friday - Wear your favorite color or many colors

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Please post your "what I'm reading" displays on your doors for students to see
*Just a reminder, if you capture any great moments of learning in your class that I can share on the school Facebook page, please email them to me with a 1 sentence description.  If we don't let our parents/community know about the great things happening in our school, who will?

Friday Focus - February 20, 2015

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Mini lesson on comparing/contrasting 2 pieces of text that had been previously read for mini-lessons. 
• Hands-on/Science inquiry collaborative engineering of catapults to learn about forces of motion. 
• Students working on the "Shades of Meaning" activity for words in the categories for: beautiful (included pretty, gorgeous, glorious), happy, awful, walk, and silly.
• Author's Choice of Words Activity (from the Bootcamp strategies) being used in kidblog. The teacher posted a picture and students responded in kidblog with their written responses.  Their responses included great word choices like:
• Preposterous because he has a towle and CUCUMBERS
• Relaxed 
  Because the cat is relaxing
• Ludicrous because he has cucumber on his eyes.

Events Next Week:
Tuesday - Grade level PLC meetings (see agenda below in "nuts & bolts")
Thursday - P/T Conferences 4:00-7:30
Friday- I will be in Madison most of the day for additional training on the Badger exam (this is to learn how to manage the proctor side of it)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• Staff are allowed to leave after school on Fridays, but please wait until the buses have left. We have had some issues with parents searching for a student and we are unable to find out from you how the student left the building if you beat the kids out of the building. 
• March is coming up fast and that means Read Across America! It's a good time to start putting up your "What I'm Reading..." display on your door to show students who you are as a reader. 
• Have hallway walls cleared by March 1st for Art Show artwork to be hung up
• Grade Level PLC meeting agenda:
• All-Bootcamp strategies we learned on Monday -what have you implemented, how did it go?, planning time for your next activity to for the classroom.
• 4/5 -Lucy Calkins
• 3-5 - Badger practice test-how's it going?
• K-3: Classroom interventions brainstorm for math

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!

*4 Fresh ideas for teaching digital citizenship sooner
*10 Random Thoughts about 1:1 iPads

Need some pictures for Author's Choice of Words activity? Here's some for you to use:

Friday Focus - February 13, 2014

Image from TheCornerstoneForTeachers

Great Things I Noticed This Week:

• Great discussions in our grade level PLC meetings focused on what practices have helped our students make such growth and what is needed to help our struggling students (I'll share a full list of notes and MAP data with you later by email). My personal favorite celebration is hearing about students that had worked on their lowest strand since the fall and now turned it into their highest strand...talk about the power of a Growth Mindset!
• After reading a Scholastic News article together as a class, the teacher pointed out that there were 4 other books in their classroom library related to the same topic (Can you guess what books disappeared from the classroom library by the end of the day?).
• Use of a youtube clip to help build students' background knowledge and serve as a thinking prompt (with small group discussions) before moving into the social studies lesson of the day.

Events Next Week:

Monday - Professional Development Day - see agenda sent out by Dr. Thompson

Wednesday - Workout Wednesday

Friday - Limo ride for top fundraisers 11:15-12:00/12:00-12:45

Jumpathon (with inflatable fun!)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• Just a reminder of High Impact Book Study chapters to read before our next meeting:
•  Part 1- ch 2 Guiding questions, Part 2 - ch 6 effective questions, part 3 - ch 11 Power with, Not Power over

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!

*Got a Minute? One Sure Fire Way to Get Kids to Read.

Monday Musings - February 9, 2015

Developing Wild Readers

Over the years I’ve shared my learning with you from Donalyn Miller’s books: The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild (previous posts are HERE, HERE, and HERE). I’ve seen many of the practices we’ve learned about from her implemented in your classrooms: reading choice, book talks, stealing reading minutes, sharing your lives as readers, reading goals posted (students and staff), etc.

Even though I have read both of Donayln’s books, I was re-inspired by hearing her speak last week and to hear her story of how she came to research reading habits and write the book, Reading in the Wild. As the well-known Book Whisperer, she always got her students to read voraciously and couldn’t understand what happened in the next grade level up when her students stopped reading, because their classrooms didn’t include the same practices. Instead of blaming other teachers, Donalyn realized that she needed to help her students to truly develop the habits of lifelong readers, not having to depend on her to get connected to their next book to read. How do you do this?

• Instead of requiring reading logs to track minutes (which most students and parents “fudge” anyhow) having students track their book titles read (that’s what adults do!).
• Instead of having required amounts of time to read, having students learn and find times to “steal reading” minutes like most adults do, by always having a book with them.
• Instead of making a specific book recommendation to a student when they finish a book, ask first: “What’s on your to-read list?” (After setting up the structure/habit for students to have a to-read list.)
• Instead of recommending a specific book to students, she started making a preview stack of books that included books she knows the student will like but included different types of genres to expose them to.
• Never give up on having a read-aloud, kids are never too old (that’s why there’s such a large market for audio books!) Use the read-aloud to expose students to different authors/genres/series that they may never try on their own.
•  Help students to build their reading community. If you are their only source of book recommendations, then they will be lost without you next year.
• And just for fun: skip the “selfie” and take a “shelfie”: a picture of yourself with a stack of books you want to read (or your favorite books)!

If you want to read more “nuggets” from her keynote presentation, there were many attendees tweeting from it and you can find them all HERE.

Take a moment to reflect on how you share yourself as a reader with your students and how are you promoting the habits of lifelong learners in your classroom?

Friday Focus - February 6, 2015

Image from Fun in First

Events Next Week:
Monday - Staff meeting-bring a device to see Kahoot tool and your High Impact books for discussion
Tuesday - Grade Level PLC Meetings (We'll be moving the magnets!)
Wednesday - The Energized Guys presentation 10:15 3-5th grades for and 10:50 for 5K-2nd grades

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Classroom teachers-if you're not sure how to print your MAP reports to review your mid-year data, please let me know. I will have your MAP reading/math magnets ready for you on Tuesday, but please plan to update your F&P magnets when we meet.
*With so many days out of the building, subbing and proctoring ACCESS/MAP testing, I'm behind on getting in your classrooms to see the great things happening and on getting into everything you've submitted into mylearningplan, but I plan to get caught up next week. Thank you for your patience!



Blogs, Pins & Tweets...Oh My!
*Advice from the OT: Why it's so hard for children to sit still and what you can do about it
*@LisaCarns  

4 hours ago

"It's not about reading a story multiple times. It's about getting kids engaged and interacting with it." Candace Head-Dylla #WSRA15

*@pernilleripp 

5 hours ago

9 different research studies show that choice in reading materials is biggest part of growing as a reader - even in high school #WSRA15

Learn more about this activity HERE

Monday Musings - Monday, February 2, 2015

We can look at the SmarterBalance/Badger Exam as a stressor in our lives OR we can look at it as an opportunity to strengthen our universal instruction.

We can look at some of our students and say "they can't" OR we can look at those students and say "they will" and find a new way to reach them.  

We can look at our colleagues and find their faults OR we can discover ways to share our strengths and make everyone around us stronger in the process.   

We can worry about how far we still have to go OR we can look at the exceptional things that go on at Dodgeland each day, and build on those positives.  

I am always impressed with the work that you are doing each and every day for our students. I also know that, at times, our work can be daunting, especially with new stressors being added each year. But I continue to be amazed at your commitment to our students and believing that all children can succeed.