September 28th, 2015

Great Things Noticed:

#ByramPride

Nuts & Bolts:

Sign up for -- Before and After School help

Music Streaming - Is using a great deal of band-width.  I believe music in the background for students can help set a positive tone in the classroom and I do not want to loose it for those of you who use it.  What is the top music streaming apps you use?

October 17th Charity Hike 

Math - Big Ideas -- Links

October 17th EdScape -- Keynote Pernille Ripp

November 21st EdCampNJ

Fire Drill -- Thank You for helping to make our first Fire Drill so orderly.  The students were well behaved and quiet, and that is because of the great standards you have set in your classroom.  When we have a Fire Drill please check to make sure your windows and doors are closed before you leave the building.  In case of a fire it would slow the spread of the fire if these were closed.  There were some that were left open.-- Orderly -- Please close your classroom doors when you leave

UpComing Events:

September 28       -         Faculty Meeting -- Cancelled

September 29       -         School Pictures

September 30       -          School Pictures 

September 30       -          SGO & PDP Due -- Please contact the office if you need more time--

September 30       -          6th Grade leaves for Frost Valley

October 1              -           Sussex Tech presentations for 8th grade;

October 5             -            Mid-point of marking period 1 

October 6            -              Grades must be updated in Parent Portal For Progress Reports

October 9              -            BIS Spotlight/Student Council speeches

October 9               -           Faculty Meeting

Tech Tips:

6 Updates in Google Classrom

Welcome Back

Great Things Noticed:

Thank you all for a great opening to the school year!!!

Nuts & Bolts:

Assessments: This week we will be administering two assessments for the students, one for math and one for language arts.  In math we will be using the Plato web-based testing that was administered last year, but has been upgraded to give us a better way to look at the student data so that it is a useful source of information for teachers in the classroom.   For language arts we are using the Star Reading program which is a branch of Renesance Learning we used last year.  At the faculty meeting on September 14th we will be reviewing how to log on and navigate both sites.

Ren Learn

Plato Learning

Research Simulation Task

The School Way App: was a huge success this year, but this year has gone through a major update.  Last year when a push was sent out it went to a parent or student phone and then it disappeared.   Parents had difficulty accessing all the homework and messages for the day, and this is one of the features being upgraded so the assignments will be easy for the parents to archive.  When talking to parents please let them know we will be using this as our primary method to keep them informed, but we will need to wait until the update is complete.  Once the update is complete we will have a parent night to walk them through the steps and send out a notification the App is fully operational.

Lesson Plans:  Weekly lesson plans will be submitted through Google Classroom.  If you work as an ICS team please develop a plan that works best for you to both have enough time to submit your plans.  We realize this is a work in progress and people are at different levels when it comes to Google Classroom.  Thanks to so many of you who have offered me tips while using this program, it will be a learning process for me this year.

ID Units:  Last year was the first year of our ID class and those of you who were involved in the class did an amazing job planning units that were engaging for the students and focused on application of skills that were multidisciplinary.  When we met to discuss the ID class the overwhelming feedback from teachers was that class needed to have a grade attached to it, so  this year in Genesis it will be graded.  By the end of each ID unit we are asking for each team to submit a unit plan with assessments that were used throughout the unit.

Observations:
Click on the link here to view our Observation Process this year.  It outlines what was discussed at our first faculty meeting this year.

Back to School Night:
  Locations:

• 5th Grade -- Annex Cafe
• 6th Grade -- Gym - Mr. Cady's Side
• 7th Grade -- APR
• 8th Grade -- Science Room

  Times:

• 7:00 - 7:30 APR
• 7:30 - 8:00 Grade Level Meetings
• 8:00 - 8:30 Grade Level Meetings
• 8:30 - 9:00 In Classroom

Please make sure to coordinate a schedule to introduce teachers who may have more than one grade level.  We would like to have four student ambassadors for grades 5-7 one for math, language arts, science, and social studies.  8th grade is a more difficult situation as those students are no longer in the building, an ambassadors you are able to have would be wonderful.  Please remember to meet with your ambassadors to practice and ease their nerves.

 Student Ambassadors Letter to Parents

Upcoming Events:

September 14 Faculty Meeting

September 16 Board Meeting

September 17 Back to School Night

September 24 8th Grade Washington Trip Meeting

September 26 Byram Day

September 28 Faculty Meeting

September 29 School Pictures

September 30 School Pictures 

September 30 6th Grade leaves for Frost Valley

Tech Tips:

Google Classroom: Co-Teacher & Draft Assignments

Teacher's Guide on How to Create Forms Using the New Google Forms

Kidblog -- This year Kidblog will not be free, however the BTEF is looking for teacher projects to fund, and I feel this would be one they may say yes to.

BTEF Grant Application

BTEF Grant Rubric