Thursday January 2nd, 2014

Duties for the week:
     AM Bus: Enders/Standley
                  Coleman
                  Warner
     PM Bus:  Enders
                  Garcia
                  Nail
     Lounge: Moore

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   Nothing! Only two days this week, but perfect for reminders. Two days is perfect for reviewing classroom rules, 7 habits of Leader in Me, and important routines and procedures. Every day is an opportunity to start new, and Thursday provides that. Here is a great video and article that goes along with the thought of starting new:

New

Here is an article about a inspiring student:

Inspiration From A Child

Here is the December 2013 Student Newsletter. Thanks Anne for assisting!

December Newsletter

Here is the latest post on the school website. Feel free to share the picture collages with students:

School Website Post

Please turn in time cards to Linda, including tutoring time cards. 

Thank you to everybody for the great food drive success: 1,285 food items! 
                             

Friday December 20th, 2013

I love this article. Having a positive attitude is important:

How We Respond is Our Choice

Here is an article on remembering to have our classrooms inviting to all students. It talks about boys, but could definitely apply to girls. We have some girls who want absolutely nothing to do with the color pink:

Classrooms

Have a great Christmas vacation with your friends and family!

                                

Thursday December 19th, 2013

There might be one item on this list that grabs your interest:

Web Tools For Teachers

Christmas time can be hard for some kids. Before students leave for Christmas break, try to mention to each in your class that you care about them and will miss them. Every kid at Harrison has a lot of adults that care about them, and they need to know that. Here is an article that goes perfectly with that thought:

3,000 Chances 

We have been very blessed at Harrison the last few weeks. People have donated brand new winter boots, tennis shoes, coats, and other winter items. If you have a student who could use assistance with shoes, please let the office know.

Wednesday December 18th, 2013

Please remind students about behavior expectations. I know you are using The Leader In Me lessons, as I hear it in the language of students when I talk with them. We have three days left this week, and I know we can make it.

I added all the grade level teaming minutes under documents, and here is the website Tyler shared with kindergarten during their grade level teaming meeting:

Power My Learning

The schoolnet demo site Tyler shared might not be working if you use www. Try http or https instead and it should work fine. It is in the grade level meeting minutes, and you can click right on that link to take you to the website.

Tuesday December 17th, 2013

Grade level team meetings with Tyler.

Please note that PTA will be having a hat fundraiser on Friday. Students in grades 1st-5th can wear a hat for one dollar. That should be fun, and help with attendance on that day. We do have a Santa for that day as well. Thank you Mrs. Moore for helping find one!

Talent show try-outs will be January 7th, 8th, and 9th. A phone call out will remind students and their families.

Thank you for filling out the technology survey. Between the student, staff, and parent survey- we were the first elementary school to meet the minimum responses suggested. Great job! That will help with decision making. Using a variety of communication tools helped to get a great turn out. Here is a note from Tyler:

Congratulations and thank you for fulfilling all the requirements for the BrightBytes/Clarity Survey!  Your schools have met the minimum number of responses.  More people can participate still but you have met the minimum number of responses needed in order to get a good picture of things at your school! 

Here are pictures from Mrs. Pauley's and Mrs. Simson's second grade classrooms. We want students to love math and know that math can be fun, and that is what I shared with them. You couldn't miss the excitement in the air when you walked into the classroom. Almost 50 second graders practicing money skills, engaging in discussions with a peer, and teaching each other. One side of the desk had a student who had been taught the lesson, and they were teaching their partner. Money is a big piece of common core math standards for second graders:

Monday December 16th, 2013

 Duties for the week:
     AM Bus: Triner
                  Lent
                  Lancaster
     PM Bus:  Pauley
                  Moulson
                  Garcia
     Lounge: Fullmer

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   December 16th, 2013- Monday- RTI

   December 17th, 2013- Tuesday- Team Meetings

   December 18th, 2013- Wednesday- Eval Team

During team meetings on Tuesday, Tyler will be attending. He will be showing you assessment information in schoolnet, and also how to have your students log on to schoolnet and take an assessment. 

Please remind students and families that Friday the 20th is a full day of school.

Here is a blog post of math game websites. Some you may be familiar with, but maybe some are new.

Math Games

This is a great video of a kindergarten student that surprised her two deaf parents by signing the Christmas songs:

Video

Here are two pictures from Mrs. Goodwin's kindergarten classroom that go right along with the last staff meeting. One picture has students using the iPad for a listening activity, and the second one shows a collaborative small group activity using the iPad.

Friday December 13th, 2013

PTA meeting today, and Kiwi Loco for one dollar each.

Here is a great website from the training I attended on Thursday. We are starting with standards when planning, and then assessments. Pre and post assessments are not always multiple choice items. Here are rubrics and assessments you might choose to try in your classroom, and several are great for digital assignments. This goes right along with our WISE tool school improvement plan:

Assessments and Rubrics

Thursday December 12th, 2013

We had a great staff meeting. One comment that came up was teaching students how to listen. Here are two articles that might give you an idea of something you could try in your classroom:

Listening Article #1

Listening Article #2

I'll be at Canyon Ridge for a training all day on Thursday. Email or text if you need anything.

Wednesday December 11th, 2013

Thank you to those that were so quick with teaming notes! I added first, third, and fifth grade notes under documents.

We will have a staff meeting after school. I want to talk about audio and images. That will be a piece on the SBAC for technology enhanced questions. Students need to be familiar and comfortable with different digital medias, like audio recordings. Please bring your iPad, have the QR scanner app, and your common core standards book. If you have the app with the standards, that will work. Here is the agenda, just two items:

1. Audio and Images blended learning activities via stations. Khrista has put together resources that will be very helpful.
2. Discussion about common core standards with your grade level.

Here is a picture with an idea for when you do group activities in your classroom, and it goes right with common core standards. You can click on the picture to make it a little larger. Collaborative work and discussions, explaining thinking, evidence- all the good stuff. You might already do something similar, and this might have additional ideas to add.


Idea for Group Activities

Idea for Group Activities in Printable PDF

Tuesday December 10th, 2013

Tuesday is grade level teaming meetings. It is also the once a month meeting that Special Ed, ESL, and Title 1 attend. Thank you for you flexibility and patience.

Change can be hard, but it can also be exciting for growth opportunities. We definitely have several changes occurring in education right now with curriculum, assessments, demographics, environments, and others. Here is a short article and image with 9 items to consider as we approach each of those changes that we encounter:

9 Statements of Affirmation

This chart is from California, but it might be helpful when deciding which technology and digital skills to target when teaching common core state standards.

Digital Literacy and Technology Skills

We talked at WISE team on Monday about a mind shift. There is definitely a skill shift, but also a mind shift. Instead of starting with activities and lessons, going unit by unit or chapter by chapter, we are starting with the standards first. Then we determine assessments to help us determine whether students have shown mastery with those standards. Finally, we decide the activities and instruction. You may have seen/heard this from Wiggins and McTighe. Here are two handouts that explain this with the new common core standards. The second link has some fonts hard to read, but should still give a nice overview:

Understanding by Design Link 1

Understanding by Design Link 2

Monday December 9th, 2013

Duties for the week:
     AM Bus: Taylor
                  Kolsen
                  Hammond
     PM Bus:  Simson
                  Bloxham/Dickinson
                  Jensen
     Lounge: Garcia

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   December 9th, 2013- Monday- RTI

   December 9th, 2013- Monday- WISE team meeting

   December 11th, 2013- Wednesday- Eval Team

   December 11th. 2013- Wednesday- Staff Meeting

   December 13th, 2013- Friday- PTA selling Kiwi Loco for $1.00

   December 13th, 2013- Friday- PTA Meeting

There are three technology surveys that need to be completed. There is one for students in grades third through fifth. Lesa will have students complete that survey when they go to computer class next week. There is a staff survey for you to complete, and I will send out a reminder email/link when it opens tomorrow. 

There is also a survey for parents and guardians. The letters went home today. I will send an email reminder tomorrow to parents/guardians when it starts, and they can click right on the link from their phones or tablets without having to type the link. I will also put the link on the school app, so they can click right on the link from their phones. There will be a link on the school website as well. Please also remind families in your newsletters and class blogs.  

We have our first monthly student newsletter! Very exciting to see student leaders complete that, and a big thank you to Anne for assisting them:

November Newsletter

Here is a new handout from the state department that you can share with families regarding the new state testing:

Parent Guide to New Assessments in Idaho


Considering our demographics, education truly is a powerful tool:

 

Friday December 6th, 2013

This is a letter we received for the Chobani food drive. It says 620 pounds were collected! That is very impressive. Please share the letter with your students:

Letter of Thanks

Staff Christmas Party tonight!

                                           

Thursday December 5th, 2013

Please remember that Dr. Dobbs will be speaking in the library after school.

Here is a great article about a student starting a buddy bench at recess:

Buddy Bench 

The mass email to staff took three tries, but now we can do a mass email of the tech survey to parents/guardians through powerschool. Thanks for your patience during the email trial practices!

Wednesday December 4th, 2013

Please remember to sign up for the staff Christmas party. It is always really fun, and there is always really yummy food.

Thank you to MaryAnn for organizing the annual food drive. The food will be boxed up on December 19th, so we have a few weeks. It is always impressive how much food is collected.

I received some BSU player cards from the Albertson's Foundation Go On Program. We are always talking with students about college or some other training after high school. We have some students who are not interested in sticker charts or other incentives, but they might be interested in BSU football players. The cards are on the back counter in my office, first come first served. Even if I'm not there, feel free to take a few.

We are going to have a technology survey for families to complete starting on the 7th. It is from the district office, but will be helpful for us for technology decisions. We have a letter that will be sent home with students, and I will work on putting that letter in a call out via email to families as well. I figure I'll start with a call out to staff email first for practicing. You are used to me. Letters, email, school website, phone calls, texts, school app- we try all forms of communication to meet all of our families.

Tuesday December 3rd, 2013

It was a fantastic Christmas program! Thank you to everybody that helped to make it so successful, and the snow flurries in the evening afterwards was perfect. Here is a picture of the super hero reindeers, and a video from the morning practice:

Christmas Program Video

Sorry for the short notice, but Dr. Dobbs will be speaking Thursday after school about the upcoming bond levy. It is a very important meeting to attend, so you are aware of the important facts. You will then be able to inform your friends and family as well. So please put that on your calendar. The meeting will be in the library.

Let us know in the office if you notice any students that could use assistance with winter clothing. Winter is definitely arriving.