Friday Focus - March 18, 2016

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*A writing mini-lesson emphasizing the importance of paying attention to spelling during the rough draft phase so that the editing process isn't so difficult. The class reviewed all the strategies they know to use when they don't know how to spell a word so they can still get their ideas out the best they can without getting bogged down by spelling.
*When reviewing the prior day's lesson of 4 strategies to write a good introduction, students shared their examples to match each strategy that the teacher reviewed. As students shared it helped gave great ideas/examples for those that hadn't written theirs yet or needed to make it more interesting to hook their reader.
*Students reviewing science terms using quizizz.com, another fun online quiz application that had students engaged in practicing this vocabulary.
*The Talent Show and Fuel up to Play committees have been hard at work with great things coming our way!

Events Next Week: March Madness/College promotion (see "Nuts & Bolts" for requirements)
Tuesday - Elementary Art Show 4:00-6:00pm *Please have your students make sure nothing is hanging out of or in front of their lockers and pick up any hallway messes. :)
Wednesday - Grade Level PLC Meetings (see Nuts & Bolts for the agenda and what to bring)

Upcoming dates after break:
Wednesday, March 30th end of 3rd quarter (yes, already!)
   -EP Training (Doc Log and End of Year review) for those on summative year (nothing has changed from last year so it is not mandatory to attend)
Thursday, March 31st budget sheets and grades are due


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*For next week's grade level meetings, please plan to bring/discuss:

1. Writing from a student that is struggling in your classroom. Be prepared to describe what you're seeing and bring sample writing to share with your team so we can brainstorm together ways to help support your writer. 
2. Test prep. Not the skill and drill kind...you know that I'm not a proponent of that, but we do need our students to be prepared to be able to answer test questions using a variety of strategies. What practices and resources are you using to help your students know how to take tests to show what they know?

Yes, it's March Madness week so you can wear jeans with your college apparel, but there's a catch....
You have to promote college next week! Please make sure to post your "I went to college..." sign by your door.  I will add in a blurb to read to your class in the student announcements google doc. I will also post a sign in the front entrance so parents know why we're wearing jeans.

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!
*The Burning Vocabulary Question Series: Which Words do I Teach?
*More Picture Books to Teach Theme

Practice persuasive writing in a college entrance letter! Other great ideas HERE.