Oops...

Teachers,
Here is your later than usual weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.”

Oops... —
I have been reading about students making mistakes and how we as teachers deal with that. So the question I want to ask is how do you deal with mistakes in your classroom? The brain research is showing that when a mistake is made the brain sparks and grows. This does not happen when we already understand something. It also tells us that how we look at mistakes (mindset) can either help us improve or shut us down. This is important in our classes because we want students to improve and not shut down. So how do we do this. We make sure the climate in our classroom is one that welcomes and encourages mistakes for learning. This can be tricky. We as teachers need to expect and encourage mistakes and show how persistence can help students understand that mistakes help us learn and our brains to grow. That also means we cannot be punitive with mistakes. We need to explain and correct misconceptions. Teaching persistence with unknown information will help our students brains grow. Sometimes we need to convince students to be persistence. That is where being an expert teacher comes in. It takes convincing and not just telling. Show them they can be persistent. It is worth it as their brain will grow. We are growing brains in our school. Big brains.

Quote I’m pondering —
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin." - Mother Teresa

What I’m watching —
Angela Maiers - You Matter
I have been following Angela on twitter for a long time. She is an education and technology guru. She has some amazing insights and thought on tech in the classroom as well as education in general. This video is about how much all of us matter. Everyone matters. Everyone.

Favorite Website This Week —
gonoodle.com
What a great site for brain breaks and just plain silliness a couple minutes. Get the students up for a minute and have them move. It has some great meditation videos also. It is a free sign up for teachers to use and track whet you have watched. Yes, they can be used K-12. Don't limit your class with what you think is too hard or too babyish. Middle school kids do these. Try one every couple days. You will be surprised.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you teachers. What an amazing night our First Annual Hispanic Culture Night was. You all deserve a big thank you. All the work you put into your classrooms to show off your country was amazing. The activities, the food, the fun, the photo booths, and the decorations. Amazing. A special thank you needs to go to Third grade for the idea of having this celebration. Thank you third grade. Another special thank you goes to Shelly for bringing it all together. Organizing this celebration was no easy task and it ran without a hitch. So many families come and just enjoyed themselves. So thank you all. Thank you for your dedication. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.

PBIS Again

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.”

PBIS Again —
I just found out I need to tell you to change the signs in your rooms. So you can change them. I would like to start out with the Responsible sign. After you change it, will you take a moment and remind your students what responsible means. I have been working on a cheer for the students to help them remember the five parts of our PBIS plan. I have it below so if you want to cheer with your students to help them remember the 5 behavior points, please do. I will be starting to make some short videos about each of the 5 words in the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Plan. I will start with Responsible in October. I will use students and teachers in the videos to help remind students how they need to act at school. I will send them out so you can show them to your students. They will start in October.

Remember the Principal’s 200 club cards. They should be handed our when students are doing something from PBIS that they need to be recognized for. This does not mean just at assemblies. I just had more printed up so I will be putting 2 in your box each Monday. Please hand them out 2 during the week. They do not need to be just for your students. If you see another student doing something amazing, please give them one. if you need more, I will give you more. Reward good behavior often and students will respond. We will Rise!

Cheer:
Teacher: At Dixie Sun we are…
Students: Responsible and Respectful!
Teacher: We will be…
Students: Resourceful and Safe!
Teacher: Dixie Sun is…
Students: United!

Quote I’m pondering —
“When a flower doesn’t bloom you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.” - Alexander Den Heijer

What I’m reading —
Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
I found this book many years ago after reading a column Malcolm wrote in the New Yorker magazine. I started reading it and as my team talked about it we decided to do our own team book study. We discussed the chapters and how we could use it in our classroom. We started doing our own little research projects with our students. We found that birthdays, generally, do matter. We found that the more we practiced with our students they remembered what we were doing. It changed my mindset on not just teaching, but providing new opportunities for students who normally would not have these opportunities. I lent out this book so I purchased it on my iPad to read it again. When I get it back, it will be lent out again, if you want to read it.

Favorite App/Website This Week —
Wunderground
Do you ever want a great weather app? I am not a fan of the one that came with my phone so i offer you weather underground. It is my go to weather app. It shows rain percentages, wind speeds, of course temperature, along with sunrise/sunset, nearby hurricanes and tropical storms…why would we need that???…, local road cameras to see what traffic is like in St. George, and other weather needs. The weather is changing so this might help you to remember your raincoat and galoshes, or your sun dress. Enjoy.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you Preschool teachers. I spent Thursday night with the Preschool teachers, preschoolers, and parents. What a wonderful program we have here that prepares our littlest students for kindergarten and life in general. The love they have for each student and the fun activities they prepare to help students meet their learning targets and GVC’s. Thank you Preschool teachers for all you do. You start our students off with a very positive experience so they love learning as they continue the positive experiences in the rest of our school. You are amazing. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful weekend.

Mindset

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.”

Mindset —
A couple years ago I took an online class from Jo Boaler, an incredible Stanford Math professor, about how students learn math. One of the things I learned from her was that I needed to change my mindset on how students learn. Mindsets frame what is going on in our minds. There are two mindsets. A fixed mindset or a growth mindset. The research Carol Dweck has done teaches us that a fixed mindset is an internal monologue focused on judging. A growth mindset has an internal monologue, but it is focused on implications for learning and constructive actions. The trick is to find what situations we use which mindset with and change the internal monologue from a judging one to a growth-oriented one. How does this apply to what we do here at school? How can a growth mindset change the way we teach, learn, and work with students? Curriculum? Student Engagement? Homework? Planning? Working within teams? Coke vs. Water (Anita, this ones for me). How does this apply to us? If you were able to go to the Insurance Presentation a few weeks ago, our presenter also talked about the Power of Mindset and how it applies to our daily lives. Tammara posted the presentation if you want to watch it. A growth mindset helps us to become a learner rather than a non-learner. Our school is full of growth mindset teachers. Full of learners.

Quote I’m pondering —
"Astrophysicists assure us the universe has no center. Therefore you cannot be it.” - David McCullough, Jr.
This one usually keeps me grounded. Usually.

What I’m watching —
Too Late to Apologize: A Declaration
One of my favorite Music Videos… about the American Revolution. I taught 5th grade for 10 years and it was fun to play this for the students after learning about the American Revolution and have them understand what they are talking about. And it’s just fun to watch Ben Franklin shredding on the guitar.

Favorite Website This Week —
schoology.washk12.org
This is the Learning Management System the district has bought into… and it is amazing. I just learned (thank you Kristen) that each student at Dixie Sun has an account, and we can use it to our hearts content. So I will be using it with teachers here and there for discussions we will have as a faculty. If you are unsure what a LMS is, many of you used Canvas it in college. Canvas is a LMS and is similar to Schoology, but not a good. Some schools use it in grades 3-5, but there are schools that use it K-5. It can be powerful. To sign in (all teachers have an account) sign into your school email account. Open a new tab and go to the link above. It should sign you in automatically. If it doesn’t, use your email and password. Look around. If you are interested, we will play and learn about it. Enjoy.

A Big Thank You —
Third, Fourth, and Fifth Grade you deserve a big thank you for your hard work on the GVC’s/Learning Targets. Fourth and Fifth really made some big breakthroughs that will help when planning curriculum. Third narrowed down their focus with their GVC’s/Learning Targets. What we are doing with curriculum is not easy work. It can be downright painful at times. I really appreciate the hard work and willingness to dig deep and work through what is really needed in our curriculum. Instead of going an inch deep and a mile wide, you are digging deep with each concept and building a great foundation of learning. I know it has seemed like a long process to get where you are. I hope you will be able to see that is will make your schedule a little easier to manage. Thank you for your hard work and willingness to do great things. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your willingness to work with Annette this week. She has amazing things to share. Have a wonderful weekend.

Technology

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.”

Technology —
Technology in the classroom is an amazing tool to help in our teaching. It opens up the world to our students which can be amazing. As we use more technology in our classrooms it means more opportunity for teachers and students. It also means more management to see that students are doing what they are supposed to. Procedures need to be thought out. Students need to be trained. But what we can do with the Chrome books and Google Drive in the classroom is incredible. Using our Chrome books gives us opportunity to share devices and still track what each student is doing because their history and bookmarks follow the student, not the device. iPads will still be used in Kinder and First Grade to offer them apps that will help them learn but still gives us the ability to lock them into an app.

Wifi has been spotty lately and should get better soon. Have an alternative plan if it shuts down. have the students shut their Chrome books and read for a minute or work on something else. If you get them trained to do something like this you will know when there is a problem and if it is one student or the wifi. Have a wifi checker and when it is back up get them started again. Management. Plan for everything possible.

We will be having a optional tech trainings every couple weeks starting in October. We decided to wait until October to give you another month to settle in. The trainings will be short and will be about tech you use or will use everyday in your classrooms.

Quote from Calvin and Hobbes I’m pondering —
Calvin: They say the world is a stage. But obviously the play is unrehearsed and everybody is ad-libbing his lines.
Hobbes: Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell if we’re living in a tragedy or a farce.
Calvin: We need more special effects and dance numbers.

What I’m watching —
The Power of Yet
When a student does not get a concept the first time, they get frustrated. We get frustrated. The power of yet is a mindset that they might not get it now, but they will. So the answer to a student that says, “I don’t understand this” is, “You don’t understand it yet, but you will”. Yet give students hope. It gives everyone hope.

Favorite App This Week —
Explain Everything $4.99
I don’t like paid apps, especially expensive ones, but this app is amazing. It is a whiteboard app that you can draw on, record video or take pictures on, and even record what you are doing on a web browser. So what you say? We have used it for tracking students for spelling, recorded students reading during one minute timings (adding notations during the reading), and had students cut out words for a word sort on the app. There are some amazing things to do. It is worth the price for me. If you don’t like the price, Doceri is a free app that is similar but not as powerful. There is a Chrome Book app (there is a cost here also) that is great for touch screen devices.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you Lisa Wright and her team. Scheduling the individual help for our LLI students is a nightmare. Lisa worked through the DRA scores and found the students that need the most help. Her team is amazing on how they work with each small group. With all the schedules they needed to work around and with as many students they needed to work with, it was a huge undertaking. Thank you Lisa and your team for all you do at our school for the students. Thank you.

I appreciate everything you do for the students. Have a wonderful weekend.

PBIS Responsibility Video

This our first installment this year of the Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports Video series for Dixie Sun. In this video We discuss Being Responsible and how it can help us at school. A few things we discuss are;

• Being to school on time
• Right Place, Right Time
• Wear your Uniform each day
• Look Good in your uniform
• Get your work done in class, on time
• Grow your brain

Professional Learning Community

Teachers,
Here is your weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.”

Professional Learning Community —
What can I say about PLC’s that has not already been said? Well, the name says it all We are professionals and should be treated and act as such. We should always be learning and growing as teachers to benefit ourselves and especially our students. We are a community of teachers trying to do our best to teach our students. So we move into our Team meetings to build our Professional Learning Community. As we worked together this week I have noticed there has been great work on our GVC’s and Learning Targets. In a couple weeks, Annette will be here to work with 3-5 grade on focusing our GVC’s and targets. We will look at building formative assessments to make sure we are testing what the are teaching and finding out the information we want to know from our students. As we finish this training, Alma and I will work with the younger grades to help focus our targets and assessments. I don't want you to think this will be a ton of more work. GVC’s and Learning targets need to be reviewed and refined often. This is one reason we look at GVC’s and Learning Targets each week as well as the tests we are giving. I had a great question asked this week. Do we need a test every week to discuss the data? No. We will work with the data we have and discuss interventions and extensions. We will discuss students and their needs. The data should confirm who needs what and then we plan our next steps. The CSIP is what we use to document what we are doing. I appreciate all your help and work.

Quote I’m pondering —
“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe."
—Winston Churchill

What I’m watching —
Audri's Rube Goldberg Monster Trap
When we inspire students, they go home and want to do more. That is the ultimate homework. Something they do themselves because of what a teacher did to inspire them. I do not know if it was a teacher that inspired Audri. But if it was…

Favorite Article This Week —
100 Percent is Overrated
This article quotes one of my favorite educators, Jo Boaler. She is a Professor of Math at Stanford and has done research on how Math should be taught. It is a change from what is traditional math teaching. I was fortunate to take an online math course from her about How to teach math. Her research is fascinating. If you are interested, I have the videos on my Google Drive I can share.

A Big Thank You —
Kirby is the man. He keeps our school clean, in working order, and well stocked. We have a few issues, but those are beyond Kirby’s control. He has taken this school and made it a work of art. The halls are always clean and the students are always taken care of in the lunchroom. He may say he doesn’t like opening milks, but I am sure he does deep down… really deep down. He loves this school. He loves making sure we are all taken care of. He is the man behind the scenes that makes our school run smoothly. Thank you Kirby. Thank you for all you do.

Thank you teachers for all you do. I appreciate all your hard work. Have a wonderfully long weekend.