Friday Focus - April 21, 2017

Great Things I Noticed this Week:

• Our 3-5th graders showed great focus, determination and persistence while taking their first round of Forward testing. I proctored a group of 5th graders during the writing session and was so pleased to see them applying the strategies that they have been learning/practicing in class.
• 1st graders singing Japanese in music. You read that right...Japanese!
• 4th graders took a break from state testing for a STEM project--designing an invention to pick up trash for Earth Day. I noticed students working together in their teams: problem-solving, asking each other questions ("What if we did..." "Well, how will that work?")
• Dodgeland's Got Talent!  Seriously, the talent show was amazing!!!  A HUGE Shoutout to the Talent Show committee for all of their hard work leading up to this big night. A HUGE kudos to Mrs. O'Toole's mastermind behind the teacher act (seriously...how does she always come up with stuff?), Mr. Mane's artwork on the ghosts, and Mr. Muenchow's musical talents to lead our boomwacker band. It was so great to see some of our students' amazing talents. Some of them were such a surprise that I'm so grateful to get to see! I know that special events like this take quite a bit of work and can seem like "one more thing," but they sure do create such wonderful traditions and memories for our students and school community. THANK YOU AGAIN!!!
• Please feel free to share the staff Ghostbusters act with your class, which you can find HERE.

Upcoming Events:

Today - 2:25 State Send Off for HS Forensics at your normal post

Monday - Optional EP training at 3:15 in the IMC. This will be a work time on your end of year SLO's and/or Documentation Log. I will be in there to assist/answer questions. If you are a great procrastinator like me, then going to this space/time may be what you need to get some of your work done in mylearningplan.

Tuesday-Thursday -State Forward testing continues for 3-5th grades in the mornings. Please keep hallways quiet. 

Friday - Grandparents Day for K-2 in the afternoon

-Budget requests for next year are DUE TODAY!!!!

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

*A must read that I'm sure you can each think of at least one student that this pertains to: The Difference Between a Motivation Problem and a Discipline Problem