Thanksgiving

Teachers,

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

Thanksgiving —

What a wonderful time to remember all that we are thankful for. So I shall keep this short. Enjoy time with your family. Enjoy the time you have off.

Quote I’m pondering —

“I try to be available for life to happen to me. We're in this life, and if you're not available, the sort of ordinary time goes past and you didn't live it. But if you're available, life gets huge. You're really living it."

—Bill Murray

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Nov. 26 - Reunification Drill Nov. 27-29 - Thanksgiving Break Nov. 29 - Black Friday	Dec. 4 - TAT
Dec. 9 - Teacher Training Half Day Dec. 18 - Intervention Meeting Day with Aides

Favorite Article This Week —

How to Analyze or Assess Reading Comprehension

I have been learning about reading comprehension lately. This is an interesting article on comprehension. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you kindergarten for helping with Heathers class while she is gone. Thank you Tui for taking notes and gifts to Lily when you went north. Thank you teachers for al you do to support each other in times of need. We need our immediate families and extended families when we are in need. Thank you for your kindness and love toward each other. This is something to be thankful for anytime of year. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

Specials are Coming, Specials are Coming

Teachers,

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

Specials are Coming, Specials are Coming —

We are close to starting specials in the afternoon. This will be a learning experience for all of us. Please be patient as we get this started. We have 3 classes your grade levels will be going to. We understand there are 4 and 5 classes in each grade level. Please put your classes into 3 groups. Please review how to act in the specials classes. We would like you to walk your class to the first special and help them get situated in the class before going to your team meeting. Please pick them up at the end of Specials so you can take them back for the ending bell. Kim and Glen will meet with you at the first Team meeting each month. We will be starting Specials after Labor Day.

We will also start interventions right after Labor Day. During the team data meetings, we will get the students grouped according to their needs and start working on lessons for the students. If you have questions or concerns, please let me or Kim know. We want this to be as successful for the students and teachers as possible. 

Quote I’m pondering —

"HOW we praise students can have a big impact on their mindset and achievement. Praise the effort." - Jo Boaler

What’s Happening —

This Coming Week	In Two Weeks
Tues. Aug. 27 - Acadience testing (All day) Wed. Aug. 28 - Team Data 9-5th, 10-3rd, 11-1st Wed. Aug. 28 - SEP Conf. 4-7pm Thu. Aug. 29 - Team Data 9-2nd, 10-K, 11-4th Thu. Aug. 29 - SEP Conf. 4-7pm Fri. Aug. 30 - PTA Room Mom Meeting 1:00	Mon. Sep 2 - Labor Day (No School) Tue. Sep. 3 - Afternoon Specials Start T-4th, W-2nd, Th-5th
Mon. Sep. 9 - First teachers training ½ day. School out at 1:15. We will have a guest presenter and then work on Professional Growth Plans.

Favorite Article This Week —

An Updated Guide To Questioning In The Classroom

Here is an article to help with questioning in the classroom. I really like the cube. You will need to adjust for your grade level.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you, kindergarten teachers. What a week as you started your classes after getting them into the right places. We get the bus riders back to their parents and you have been amazing with the students. We appreciate your patience as we get help for you with your big classes. This will be an amazingly successful year. Thank you for the time you take with your students. Thank you for the love you give them as they start their first full ½ day in school. Thank you, kindergarten teachers, for all you do for your students. Thank you for all that you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

How Do I Learn?

Teachers,

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

How Do I Learn?—

One of the most important things we can teach students is how to learn. They should know that what we are doing is beneficial to them and, the most important thing, that they can learn it. Some students come to us with a fixed mindset and tell us they can’t do something. Some come to us and act as if it is not important to them. Everything we do is important to students and we just need to show them or convince them that what we have will help them grow. How do we do this? Relationships is the first way. Students learn to trust what we are teaching them is important because they know we will not lead them astray. We show them they can do things that are hard and make it through. They also need to know they can fail and life will still be ok. Students also learn how to learn when they track their own learning. Giving them a goal to work towards and then have them track their learning on the journey to that goal. Students want to learn. Look at all the things they do outside of school. They are searching to learn something new. The lessons we teach will open their worlds and provide more opportunities for them to learn and grow. We just need to teach them how to learn.

Quote I’m pondering —

Every day of our lives, we are on the verge of making those slight changes that would make all the difference.

— Mignon McLaughlin 

What’s Happening Next Week —

Tuesday, Sept. 11 - Grade Level training for all Kindergarten 8:30-11:30 (K)

Tuesday, Sept. 11 - Grade Level training for all First Grade 12:30-3:30 (1st)

Wednesday, Sept. 12 - Grade Level training for all Second and Third grade. 8:30-3:30

Wednesday, Sept. 12 - Worldwide Warrior Student Leadership Training Thursday, Sept. 13 - Grade Level training for all Fourth Grade 8:30-11:30 (4)

Thursday, Sept 13 - Grade Level training for all Fifth Grade 12:30-3:30 (1st)

Monday, Sept. 17 - Power Hour-10(Power 50) Starts

Thursday, Sept. 20-21 - Jennifer Throndsen Observations and Training

Thursday, Sept. 20 - Literacy Night 6:00 - 7:30pm

Favorite Podcast This Week —

Thoughts for Teachers: What is Your Label?

Three important ideas to remember as we start this year.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you kindergarten for all thou have done to prepare for your first couple weeks of school. Starting a new schedule and figuring out how OEK and English Classes will work has been a long process, but with the team working together it is working. Thank you for all you do for the students and making sure they come first. Thank you for all you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

Oops, Your Reflection is Showing

Teachers,

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

Oops, Your Reflection is Showing  —

One of the other topics Trisha talked about in our training was reflection in the classroom. One suggestion she gave to us is to have teachers reflect own their individual classroom engagement. What is the best way to do this? Video. Don’t freak out. Let me explain. She mentioned that each of the teachers in our present day has a video camera with them every day. It is your phone. All teachers need to do is set it up and video them teaching. No one else in the world needs to see it. No one else needs to hear it. But just watching ourselves will not give us the information we need to make us better teachers. We need to watch with intent to learn. No one else needs to see it…ever. So this is my suggestion. I purchased some wonderful tripods that hold phones. I also have a paper that goes with the tripod for reflection on the video. All a teacher needs to do is set it up in a corner of the room to video the class during a whole group lesson. I would even suggest putting gate camera in a couple different places over a couple days to get good data to reflect on. Then the teacher watched 15 minutes of the video (or a couple videos) and collect information on the paper. Look for opportunities to respond for students. The teacher asks questions and  during the reflection tallies each time a student responds. If the whole class responds with whiteboards or thumbs or chorally, a C is entered for whole class. Then the teacher looks for positive or corrective interactions. Positive interactions are comments or actions with students that are doing what they need to be doing. Corrective interactions are getting students back on task with a positive or firm correction. The last is how many distractions are there that take the instruction off course. From this information collected, a teacher can reflect on how students are reacting and acting when the teacher is teaching. If coaching is needed or wanted, the teacher contacts Alma, Glen, or Kim and we support, offer strategies or resources, and coach the teacher to increase student success in the classroom. This is an optional strategy to help teachers see what we just can’t always see. If the teacher is perfect, this will only show that in the video. If they are not, it gives them an opportunity to get better at teaching and increasing the success in the classroom. I thought back at how many times I had myself videotaped and the reflection process I went through with my coach. This is an opportunity to collect data on how students work in the classroom. If you are interested, please let me know and without question I will hand a tripod and reflection paper to you and will even take a few minutes to explain the paper to you. Make peace with reflection.

Quote I’m pondering —

“Whatever you’re doing, don’t give a voice to things you’re not able to change.” – Vince Vaughn

What I’m Watching —

This Is Water

This video was shown to the Tech Endorsement class on Tuesday by Tony. David Foster Wallace gave a commencement speech at Kenyon College in 2005. These are a few excerpts from it.

Favorite Article This Week —

Teaching Adding Decimals:What If You Gave The Answer First

A blog article about teaching decimals with an interesting idea that goes against how we were taught to teach. How do we scaffold to help students understand. This is a lesson that provides the scaffolding to get students thinking.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Kindergarten for all the opportunities you take to learn more. Thank you for being positive about teaching when you have half the time to teach your students. Only being able to teach each class twice a week is not an easy prospect when you have so many Standards to teach. Thank you for taking the time and asking the hard questions to make sure you understand what is expected. Thank you for taking care of our little ones and creating a great introduction to Dual Immersion learning at our school. Thank you for your time and efforts. Thank you for all you do. Thank you.

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

Good Intentions

Teachers,

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

Good Intentions —

As I sat in the Principal’s Literacy class today, the presenter said something that really struck a chord with me. She said that everything we do in our schools needs to be intentional. We are given children for 6.5 hours and we need to use every moment to help them succeed. If we are not intentional with our instruction, our lessons, and our attitude, it is not helping students. Every lesson should be planned out ahead of time with objectives, structure, and sequence to maximize the learning with each student. Students deserve to more than best intentions from teachers, the deserve to have teachers that are intentional in their teaching. I found that interesting and true. We have very little time in our day. Everything we do with students should be intentional to help them succeed in learning.

Quote I’m pondering —

"In the moment when I truly understand my enemy, understand him well enough to defeat him, then in that very moment I also love him. I think it’s impossible to really understand somebody, what they want, what they believe, and not love them the way they love themselves.” 

–Ender Wiggin in Enders Game

What I’m Watching —

Kindergarten Assessments at the Beginning of the Year- thank you Politicians....

The fun we have with computers and kindergarten students. I understand that some of the older grades have issues like this also. Enjoy.

Favorite Article This Week —

 Stop telling kids you’re bad at math. You are spreading math anxiety ‘like a virus.’

One of the things adults need to understand is that sometimes we help children with their anxiety and fears. This also goes for more than math.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Heather for all you do. You have come to our wonderful school with high expectations and an amazing attitude and have picked up the job and ran with it. Everything we have asked of you, you have done. You have cared for the students. You have taken it upon yourself to be out at lunch recess with stickers so you can learn student names. You have done amazing and we just want to thank you for all you do for our school and for the students. Thank you for being with us. Thank you.

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

And We Are Off

Teachers,

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

And We Are Off —

Our first week is almost over and we made it through. I have watched everyone as you power through our first 5 day week in years. It is so easy to start off with a 3 day week, but I have seen you push through this week and the students love being at our school. I have heard so many great things. So many students love the rotations in the upper grades. All I can say is that the students are relating to me the Passion you have in your classrooms. You are truly Pirates showing you are willing to take risks and travel to the ends of the earth for that which you value… Students. 

We will be starting Specials next week. You will need to be with your students to make sure they know how to get from one class to the next. I will open the training room for you to use if you want to meet there between your students rotating specials. Kim and I will come in and talk to your team about how you are doing and discuss interventions and extensions. I also wanted to remind you that we are starting Tech class next Tuesday. We can do hard things because we are Pirates! Arrrr.

We are off and running.

Quote I’m pondering —

“Being a reflective teacher could be your own best personal professional development." —Robert John Meehan

What I’m watching —

First Week of School Stress

Starting off with a short Gerry Brooks video. Enjoy.

Favorite Article This Week —

5 Questions to Ask Your Students To Start the School Year

A good article to start the year. Get students involved in their own learning. Get them thinking about their education. They might not have the answers right away, but it might get the seed planted.

A Big Thank You —

Thank you for all your preparations and work you put into your classrooms and curriculum. Thank you for building relationships with your students. Thank you for being the best teachers for the students at Dixie Sun. You deserve a huge thank you for all you do. Every one of you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work.

What Truly Matters

Teachers,

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

What Truly Matters —

SAGE testing has started and we are looking through the scores and they come in and are seeing some great things and some areas we wished were better. So what do we do with these scores? What do we do with any scores w get from our testing? What truly matters in our classrooms and what we do here at Dixie Sun? Is the test the end-all, be-all? No, student learning is what truly matters. Bob told us something during the K-2 training about assessment that stuck with me. 

1. Assessments determine who is proficient. 
2. Assessments show us who needs additional support to get the skill assessed. 
3. 3. Assessments determine which teaching practices get the best results.

The last one is a tough one. But it is also the one that helps students and teachers grow. Which teaching practice got the results we wanted and how to we take that practice from one or more teachers and have it work in other classrooms? If we keep doing the same thing and we are not getting the results, we need to look at our practice and change it a little. What truly matters is what is best for the students in our classroom. How do we improve learning in our classrooms? Assessments help us find out what is needed for students and what is best practice in our classrooms. It is not used for teacher evaluation. There are too many variables in that equation. How we use the data we gather from assessments is what truly matters. What will we do with what we know to help students learn and grow.

Quote I’m pondering —

“The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving." —Gloria Steinem

What I’m watching —

Wait, What? (And other big questions)

Bob Sonju shared a piece of this video with K-2 during their team meetings this week. At least read the short article. It is an amazing video if you want to watch the whole commencement speech.

Favorite Article This Week —

The Pale Blue Dot

Bob also shared an article thing K-2 that talks about how we should think about how we should think in our lives. Read it. Ponder it. 

A Big Thank You —

Thank you Kindergarten, First, and Second grade. Watching you work in the meeting with Bob was amazing. i can see how your work will benefit the students and how your expectations will take our students to the next level. I loved watching the collaboration, the discussion, and the exchanging of ideas that made the curriculum more understandable for you and it will be more understandable for your students. Thank you for your hard work. Thank you for taking the time to learn. Thank you for all you do. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Have a wonderful 4 day weekend. 

Little Things

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

Little Things —
I am a huge fan of the band Van Halen. I have been since a friend played me their first song on their first album. They were a no-holds-barred, take-no-prisoners type of band. They innovated and created their own path through rock and roll history. But there is a story about them that always intrigued me. It goes something like this (From entrepreneur.com, ):

Buried amongst dozens of points in Van Halen’s rider was an odd stipulation that there were to be no brown M&M’s candies in the backstage area. If any brown M&M’s were found backstage, the band could cancel the entire concert at the full expense of the promoter. That meant that because of a single candy, a promoter could lose millions…
To ensure the promoter had read every single word in the contract, the band created the “no brown M&M’s” clause. It was a canary in a coalmine to indicate that the promoter may have not paid attention to other more important parts of the rider, and that there could be other bigger problems at hand.
Whenever the band found brown M&M’s candies backstage, they immediately did a complete line check, inspecting every aspect of the sound, lighting and stage setup to make sure it was perfect. David Lee Roth would also trash the band’s dressing room to prove a point — reinforcing his reputation in the process.
Van Halen created a seemingly silly clause to make sure that every little detail was taken care of. It was important, both for the experience of the fans and the safety of the band, to make sure that no little problems created bigger issues.

As teachers we need to look for the little things that need our help. There are times we find something amiss in a student's learning and we need to search every aspect to find what is needed and address it before it becomes a bigger issue. The band did not put that clause in to be funny, they put it in to make sure the experience of the fans and the safety of the band was taken care of. Everything we do is about the experience we give our students, the learning we design, and the opportunities we create for our students and their future. It’s the small things we sometimes lose track of in our lives. Even the little things like a smile or a positive comment makes a difference. A little thing like a smile at any given moment can make a student feel good and know that someone cares. If things do not go right you don't get to trash your room, but you can check and recheck what you are doing to make sure you are doing the little things, because those are things that can help as our students learn.

Quote I’m pondering —
“If the cat wishes to leave the room, he makes no fuss about it and does not annoy you with vocal opportunities; he selects a position near the door. Now you may change his position, but you cannot change his purpose: his purpose is to leave the room; and he knows that opportunities come to those who are ready.”
― William Lyons Phelps

What I’m watching —
What Homeless Keep With Them
We have a small population of homeless in our school. This article with accompanying videos put more of a face and background on who we are working with when it comes to the homeless.

Favorite Article This Week —
10 Things High School Teacher Can Learn From Elementary Teachers
This is more of a reminder of all the things you do as an elementary teacher. Nice job.

A Big Thank You —
Thank you Kindergarten. I love that you problem solved how your grade level would increase your imagine Learning usage. We appreciate that you came up with a solution and then came to ask its that works with the schedule. First grade also mentioned how well the students are coming to them more ready for first grade. Thank you for your hard work.

Thank you Amanda for the Shoe project. It went so smoothly and the students had the biggest smiles on their faces. Thank you for taking care of our students and helping to keep them warm, shoed, and giving them a place to feel listened to. thank you for watching out little ones.

An one more thank you to Fourth grade for having everything put into CSIP and putting together a plan to get it put in each week. That really makes our meeting more about the students and not about entering numbers into CSIP. Thank you.

There is so much going on in our school that is wonderful. thank you for all everyone does. Thank you.

I appreciate you and your the work you put in for the students. Have a wonderful weekend.

P.S. I just wanted to use Van Halen in one of my messages.

Principal’s 200 Club

Teachers,

Here is another weekly dose of “5-Point Friday.”

Principal’s 200 Club —

I have appreciated the teachers that are sending down the cards already for the Principal’s 200 Club. The reason we give out principal’s 200 Cards is to encourage students to be Respectful, Responsible, Resourceful, Safe, and Unified. When students show one of these qualities, make a big deal about it and give them a card. Write a small blurb about how great they are on the bottom and send them to the office. Resourceful is a great one to use when students make a mistake and then find a way to correct it. One thing we do not want is for all the cards to come down at once. It should be student specific, not done as a class. I will put 2 in your box each week, please send two students down each week. If you have questions, please ask. Make it a habit to catch students that need redirection when they deserve a card. We will Rise!

Quote I’m pondering —

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” - Lao Tzu

What I’m watching —

Grit: The power of passion and perseverance by Angela Duckworth

I love Ted Talks and this is one I have watched over and over. It is about 6 minutes about her research on perseverance. She quickly realized that IQ wasn't the only thing separating the successful students from those who struggled. Here, she explains her theory of "grit" as a predictor of success. Enjoy.

Favorite Chrome App This Week —

Google Keep 

This is an app I use everyday to track my notes and lists. It is an app you can download on any smartphone. Once you sign in you can get your notes on any device you sign into. It is Kim’s new favorite app.

A Big Thank You —

Kindergarten started without a hitch this week. Thank you Kindergarten for your preparations and hard work to get the students comfortable with being in a new place. thank you for taking care of our little ones. This is where they get their love for education from. Everything I ever needed to know I learned in Kindergarten. Everything else build on that beginning. Thank you.

I appreciate all of you and your hard work. Remember Monday is an early out day. We will meet at 1:30 for learning and growing. Have a wonderful day.