Great Things Noticed:
Last week was a bit crazy and I wasn't able to get into as many classrooms as I usually do. Mrs. Naimo's Art class had students working at their own pace to complete works of art. Last week it seemed as if three different projects where going on at the same time. When students finished a piece they self-assess their work using a rubric and tape the rubric to their art. They also have to answer the question which art elements did you use and where did you use them in this project. This self-reflection is great to see and can be implemented into many other classes. Stop by Linda's room to see her in action and I know you will walk away with lots of ideas. Something else I was impressed with was that she posts student work not just in our halls, but on her website. The students take great pride in seeing their work in the halls and online. Check out her Web Site to see the great student work.
I left Linda's class wondering if we could display student work enough in our school. On our bulletin boards both in our classrooms and in the halls is student work being displayed?
In Jess Taylor's class the students began working in literature circles. As they began working it became clear to Jess that a few students were unsure of their roles. She stopped the class and developed a system for meeting with students to review job responsibilities. Sometimes when an administrator is in the room it is difficult to alter your plan, but when we do what is best for the students we can't go wrong.
We are lucky to live in such a caring community. We had several teachers attend and/or help with the Tricky Tray this weekend, THANK YOU! The entire gym was filled with people and over 280 baskets were raffled off. Later this week the BTEF will let us know how much money they raised for our school.
Every week I ask the students to talk about one thing they are learning in school and we film it and send to parents to keep them in the loop (we are working on the speaking loudly). The reason for this is to keep parents informed but also to fix a disconnect that exists. When students go home and their parents ask what did you do at school the answer is usually nothing. Yet, students say they have so much work to do and are so busy. I hope this begins to fix that disconnect.
Nuts and Bolts:
Reminder for grade posting: If you see students on a daily basis for a subject a good rule of thumb would be at least one grade per week, and this does include interdisciplinary.
- Conferences:Will be by teacher request first, then if parents request a meeting do to a concern/issue they will be allowed to request one.
- All students who are in danger of failing should have a conference as well as other students who might have behavior or academic issues.
- Please share your conference schedule with Tim and John
Thursday is St. Patrick's Day. I was talking to our School Climate team about having another contest similar to the one we had with finding our Love Connection and they let me know that some teachers who arrived later did not have a chance to take part in the competition. So on Thursday we will be Going Green. If you wear green you can have a dress down day, no green -- no jeans. We will then give away three DD gift cards for the three people with the most St. Patrick's Day spirit.
Up-Coming Events:
March 14 Faculty Meeting
March 16 BOE Meeting
March 17 St. Patrick's Day
March 22 & 23 CAP Program – 6th Grade
March 22, 23 & 24 Parent Conferences – Early Dismissal
March 25 – April 1 Spring Break – School Closed
Tech Tips:
Finding books that kids will like can be a difficult task. Literature Map is a tool that might make that process easier. Literature Map provides a web of authors you might like based on authors that you already enjoy reading. To use Literature Map just type an author's name into the search box and webbed list of authors will be displayed. The authors' names closest to the author whose name you entered are the authors whose work you're most likely to enjoy.
