Friday Focus - September 29, 2017

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*A quick reference to the CHAMPS expectations before sending students off in partners to work.
*1st graders giving "number flashes" for the page number to turn to as a way to fit in extra practice to build their number sense.
*At the start of a lesson, students were given a minute to turn and talk to restate the lesson objective in their own words.
*5th graders solving problems with fractions in a variety of ways, using the strategies of their choice, from the many different ways they have learned.
*Several staff going out of their way to assist with student issues multiple times this week.

Events Next Week: Homecoming
Monday - Captain America Monday (Wear red/white/blue)
 Mentors PLC mtg at 3:15

Tuesday - Moana/Lilo and Stitch Day (Hawaiian)
It's Mid-Quarter already...reports for P/T Conferences

Wednesday - Toy Story Day (Western)
Staff Mtg 3:10 in IMC

Thursday - Alice in Wonderland (Crazy)

Friday - Purple Pride Day
Assembly - ??time?? (I'm waiting to hear back on the time)
Early Release at 2:20, parade line-up 4:00, parade at 4:30

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*Please let me know if you have any P/T conferences that you would like me to be a part of. 
*Wednesday's staff meeting includes: staff share on PT conferences and a poverty simulation activity. Please bring your laptop and a tip/resource to share with your colleagues on having successful P/T conferences.
*If you see me recording video in your room in the mornings...I'm working on creating a video for parents that demonstrates the importance of being to school on time and that a lot happens in the first 10 minutes of school. My hope is for this video to be on constant loop play at P/T conferences.

**Now that we are in full swing (it's already October next week!) I'm getting into classrooms as much as I can. I have several goals when I'm in classrooms and when I'm in your room it could vary:

-I may be there to check-in with a student (and hopefully prevent them from visiting me in the office!). If you ever feel my presence seems to help a particular student behave better...just let me know and I can take some paperwork with me to just sit in the back and catch up on my own work while just being in your room.

-I may not want to go back to the piles on my desk and would much rather hang out with kids! (FYI: if you're ever having a rough day, there's nothing like the random comments of 4K kiddos to make you laugh!)

-I may be staying to observe student learning and provide you with feedback. 

When I'm in your room and stay for a while with my iPad, there's a good chance you will receive an email or a mylearningplan form from me as a means of providing you with feedback. My narrative emails will often include "I noticed..." with what I see happening in the room and "I wonder..." or another reflective question. These are reflective questions that you can just ponder, reply or have a discussion with me. As I have shared each year, my goal is to be in your classrooms with a "coaching hat." I may pose a question to you that stretches your thinking that is not meant to be intrusive or evaluatory, but is a question to have you reflect on why you do what you do. When you are reflective and consciously aware of why you do what you do, you will continue to utilize effective strategies for students in your classroom. So, unless I specifically say, "I have a concern..." then you have nothing to be nervous about when I'm in your room. I am just in there wearing my "coaching hat."

If you ever feel you need more or different feedback, please don't hesitate to let me know what you need!

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!
*When Reading is Trash or Magic - I love the student voice in this post!

Friday Focus - September 22, 2017

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*A mini lesson on retelling a story and then students practiced retelling a different story in partners.
*Students focused on reading, stopping to jot down big ideas and details while referring to their "readers thinking marks" chart.
*Students practicing math facts cards in partners with a timed routine so they each took 2 minutes, switched, then got right back to the class math lesson.
*Students recording videos of songs they created for digital citizenship (can't you just hear the song "SpamBusters" to the tune of Ghostbusters?!)
*Students presenting their comic strips to teach lessons learned in digital citizenship.

Events Next Week:
Monday - 3:15 EP Training in IMC (PPG, SLO, Surveys)
Tuesday - I will be out of the building for a training
Wednesday - 4th grade data mtg
Thursday - Packer Attire day (ok Bears/Vikings fans, you're allowed to participate too!)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:
*All staff: please remember to move, scan and interact on recess duty. If you're all chatting in a huddle, then there's a lot of ground for Mr. Lange to cover in supervising. He's close to superman, but he can't see them all! ; )
*The October calendar/newsletter goes home next Tuesday. Even if you didn't sign up for an article, please let me know (SOON!) if you have anything that can add to it to show the great things happening at Dodgeland! This could even just be a picture with a sentence about it.

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!!!
*Creating a Growth Mindset in Your Students

Friday Focus - September 14, 2017

Great Things I Noticed this Week:
*Students working together in partners/small groups to discuss digital citizenship questions.
*Many classrooms digging right into the Lucy Units of Study for Reading and applying their new strategies right away on the carpet.
*Students having so much fun with new recess activities -- pretend fishing from a bench (so cute!) and having a blast with the parachute.
*A parent of a new student shared with me that she has never seen her son so happy to come to school...he is so excited about iPads, learning in fun ways (not just worksheets) and that the teachers are all so nice! Another new parent shared that she couldn't believe she got a phone call home that was just to welcome them to our school and share something positive about her daughter. All those little things make a difference!
*An activity that blew my mind to make the point of how important our mindset/self talk is. You'll get to see this next Wednesday at our staff meeting.

Events Next Week:
Sometime during this week we will have our first Fire drill to practice.
Monday - Picture Day -Marie is working on a schedule. We will also have a new Dodgeland mom helping out as a volunteer.
*Start of fundraiser - good news, NO assembly to rile your class up! I will have a video to show your classes on Monday. Please make sure to show it in your room before sending home the packet on Monday.
Wednesday - Workout Wednesday -with a  fruit and yogurt bar to start your day off right (sponsored by Katie Najarian at Horace Mann)
*elem staff mtg 3:10 in IMC. Agenda includes: Educlimber discipline log entries (bring laptops)
*5th grade data meeting
Friday - I will be out of the building for most of the day at CESA 6
*Popcorn Friday starts!


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• A change for noon indoor recess: Just an FYI that if we have indoor recess during the noon hour the elementary gym will be divided in 2 for a different activity on each side of the divider. The 3-5th graders will also have the option of going to the gathering area to quietly play board games on the floor. (4K teachers--they will be done before your PM kiddos come to school).
• I know you are all working to build relationships with your students and you know how important this is for our students who challenge you the most. A principal in my PLN shared this post that really resonated with me: Relationships Matter. I find this to be brilliant and want to offer you the same: if you ever want me to cover your class so you can meet 1:1 with a student that is having an issue, please just let me know.
• Here's a new Badger Brain Break: Bailando!

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

*6 Questions to Ask Your Students on Day One (although I don't think it's too late to ask!)

*How a One Second Strategy Can Movivate Your New Class

Weekly Memo for Week 2

My apologies for this memo not coming out until today. In the future, this will be back to the regular Friday morning post so you can have information to plan for the following week.

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:

• Classroom community building activities, such as: a snowball fight/share, Guess Who about classmates, Escape activity, partner interviews, etc.  You all have such great ideas to build a trusting classroom community in which students feel emotionally safe to learn and take risks together!
• Mission Possible to start the year out with secretly spreading kindness, so students build the internal pride for doing good deeds without having to get anything in return. 
• Students reading letters from last year's students about what to expect this year and how to be successful. 
• Students starting to build reading/writing stamina.
• Teachers helping out with building lunch routines/procedures the first few days, as well as extra hands with lunch/recess hallway transitions. Thank you...it seems we never have enough for this to go smoothly!

Wow, this is going to be an incredible year!!!

Events this Week:

Monday - Boy Scouts presentation in the IMC during noon recess for K-2/3-5

  -Mentors PLC meeting at 3:15 in IMC

Tuesday - 5/6th grade Trojan Jr Football game at 6pm. If you want to cheer for our 5th graders, this is the last home game to do so

Friday - Elementary shirt orders/$ are due today

The following week...

Monday, September 18th is Picture Day and the start of our fundraiser (don't worry-no assembly this year!)

Wednesday, September 20th staff meeting

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes:

• Just a review--if it's information you can read and we don't have to take up precious staff meeting time, it will be in this section of each week's memo, so you are responsible for reading the info. : )
• Bus duty - students get to start playing on the blacktop in the morning this week! It is ok for students to run on the blacktop at the end of the day (they do at recess).
• If you are given flyers/handouts on a Monday or Tuesday in your mailbox--they should go home on Tuesdays please. We tell parents to expect any office news/mail on Tuesday Newsday. Eventually, we'll get to knowing the "youngest child" count, but we're not ready for that yet. 
• Please remember to read the daily student announcements in your room each day...and to send birthday students to the office to pick out a birthday book!
• If you started using iPads, have you started talking about the Code of Conduct for Technology? 
• Check-In on Launching Writers Workshop:

• Do you have materials figured out and placed in easy to access spots? Do your students know where they are?
• Have you started teaching those routines that will help keep the mini lesson mini and the active engagement efficient/effective? This includes transitions to the carpet (possibly assigned carpet spots), teacher cues to signal your writers, partners for the active engagement, etc. 
• Do you want a Writing Strategies book? Let me know if you are hoping to get one. I will be submitting an order this week.
• I promise this is probably the longest the "Nuts & Bolts" section will ever be!

Blogs, Tweets & Pins...Oh My!

• Just a review...this section is not a must read, just if you want to read. I get excited about sharing ideas I come across!
• A great blog post (or you can download the podcast) answering the question: "What if my students don't like me and we don't connect? Overcoming the back to school teacher jitters." 

Ready or not...Let's go! (Must read nuts&bolts for day 1)

It's almost go time! Always remember...it doesn't matter if you have been in your classroom for 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. When students enter your door on Tuesday, it will be their first. The awe of what you have on your walls will last minutes. The feeling they have when they look into your eyes and you make them feel safe, cared for, and excited about this year is what they will always remember. So, go get it! Change lives! Make it awesome!

Some answers to your questions on the quick check in survey:

• Where's the lunch menu? 
• I will have the calendar/menu/newsletter in your mailboxes to send home on Tuesday.
• It is in the student announcements (a link will always be in Marie's staff announcements and it is in our elementary team drive).
• I don't see it on the website yet. 
• When is bus duty? 
• Same time as last year. 7:35-7:50 and right after school. If you are willing to add extra helping hands to help direct students the first day on the blacktop or hallways...it always helps!
• Where do students walk with those hallway lines? On the dotted line. They are out a bit in the hallway so students aren't dragging themselves on the wall (didn't that drive you crazy?!)
• Where are student/parent handbooks? OOPS!! I'll get those ready. That's another task that Sarah used to always do. If you think of something else I'm missing, just let me know!
• What is the testing schedule this year? This was put in your mailbox with the packet of schedules on blue paper this year. You can also find it HERE.
• Bus route info? We don't have bus route info yet, but as soon as we receive it, it will be in your mailboxes. 
• Can schedules and sign ups be in google drive? Yes, they are all still in the Team Drive named Elementary School Staff, then in the folder for DES Staff Handbook. I just double checked access and added a few of you who weren't able to access. If you still can't find it, just let me know and I can point you in the right direction. 
• Are you done with your to-do list?  Haha, very funny!!! No. 

Just a reminder on first week:

Recess Rules Orientation outside with Mr. Lange (teachers: please stay with your class)

Tuesday

9:00-9:15 5K

9:15-9:30 3rd grade

9:45-10:00 2nd grade

12:20-12:35 1st grade

1:15-1:30 4th grade

1:45-2:00 5th grade

Lunch Procedures Orentation with Mrs. Johnson (teachers: please stay with students).

Tuesday Wednesday

9:15-9:30 1st grade 9:15-9:30 2nd grade

9:45-10:00 3rd grade 1:45-2:00 5th grade

10:00-10:15 5K

1:45-2:00 4th grade