Monday December 1st, 2014

Duties for the week:

     AM Bus: Taylor
                  Owens
                  Hammond
     PM Bus: Porter
                  Bloxham/Dickinson
                  Jensen
     Lounge: Garcia

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   December 2nd, 2014- Tuesday- RTI

   December 2nd, 2014- Tuesday- 1st-5th Grade Level Teaming with ESL, Resource, & Title 1

   December 3rd, 2014- Wednesday- Eval Team

   December 4th, 2014- Thursday- Kindergarten Grade Level Teaming with ESL, Resource, & Title 1

   December 4th, 2014- Thursday- Technology Meeting 3:40


Please bring the most current student data and work samples for grade level teaming. You can also bring a device and enter information into Milepost as it is discussed.

Please have at least one person per grade level for the school technology meeting on Thursday, but everybody is invited to attend.

Please review classroom and school rules. Five days off of school can make for a rough Monday. This would be a perfect time to review the habits and expectations.

I love this picture! Mrs. Nail made a powerpoint for the very first time, and she even had a powerpoint advancer clicker in her hand. Awesome job! A big thank you to Khrista for her encouragement and support as she assisted Ana in putting the presentation together. The Thanksgiving lesson was very relatable for our refugee students:

We had several Thanksgiving Feasts! Here are just a few pictures:

Thanksgiving Feasts

Tuesday November 22nd, 2014

Here is another Leadership Day article. Many items mentioned sound just like Harrison. It really is impressive to see older students model proactive behaviors when they think nobody is looking; such as assisting students during lunch with opening milk and other meal items.

Leadership Day

Students like Jeopardy? You can use your google drive spreadsheets to make a game. A Great assessment option:

Jeopardy

We started the morning on Monday to a special treat. Here are two pictures from the choir students singing during breakfast:

Here are two pictures from PE, with synergy!

Have a great Thanksgiving with your friends and family!

                                 

Monday November 24th, 2014

Duties for the week:

     AM Bus: Enders
                  Goodwin/Terrell
                  Kenyon
     PM Bus: Terrell/Goodwin
                  Coleman
                  Fullmer
     Lounge: Owens

Meetings/Reminders for the week:


   November 24th, 2014- Monday- Choir Singing at Festival of Giving 9:30-10 am, and Care
      Centers throughout the day.

   November 25th, 2014- Tuesday- RTI

   November 25th, 2014- Tuesday- 5th Grade 1st Quarter Reward Lunch, walking to Sizzlers

   November 26th-28th, 2014- Wednesday-Friday- No School Thanksgiving Break

We had a great turn out for Thanksgiving lunch, one of our best! Thank you for helping to invite families. We had about 100 parents/adults attend. A big thank you to Marla and the kitchen staff! Marla even had her husband and people from his work volunteering to help during the lunch, Standlee Hay Company- a huge thank you for their help serving, cleaning, and everything else that made the lunch so successful. Here are a few pictures:

Mrs. Taylor showed me a student test that I just have to share. A student noticed that one of the reading questions went very well with one of the 7 habits, synergize, and wrote that right on the test. He even spelled it correctly! Love this:

Friday November 21st, 2014

The big event today is Thanksgiving lunch. Patience is appreciated with the lunch line, and we can adjust lunch recess times if needed. This is a great family involvement activity.

                                      

Thursday November 20th, 2014

Here is a great video from Kid Congress about listening, and this would be great to share with students:

Listening

The additional chromebooks we ordered have arrived. Third grade now has a class set in their wing. Their world of learning is going to take off! Here are a few fifth grade leaders who assisted with unpacking and getting the laptops ready:

Wednesday is CSI day for the after school program. This week there were CSI students and professors teaching STEM, art, dance, and ropes courses/team building activities. I told the students they were so lucky to have people volunteer to come share and teach their talents:

Wednesday November 19th, 2014

There will be no after school program next week, please help remind students. We will have the before school program and we will have the before school Imagine Learning group.

Please remind students about the crazy socks day on Thursday, or crazy tights. We had a request for this, and also the no bullying day coming up in December. December will be stomp out bullying with your favorite boots, on the 12th. Could be snow boots, rain boots, cowgirl boots, sparkly boots, etc.. If you have an idea for a fun day in January please let me know.

We have a new job, the menu leader who writes the menu for the day:

Here is a great picture from the before school group on Tuesday. There was an assortment of activities which included homework, practicing a play, and making smoothies:

Tuesday November 18th, 2014

Today is grade level teaming.

We have some new school wide leadership jobs. Please encourage students to apply, and you might even point them out when your class walks by the office.

We have a school mission statement. We are now working on a school vision statement, our long term goals. There is a paper in your mailboxes to help gather ideas. Your input is valuable.  I would love for our students to leave us in fifth grade and know that their future is so bright and full of promise, full of potential and opportunities.

Our school Leadership Day is scheduled for Friday April 3rd. Here are two examples from other schools to help explain what this is:

Leadership Day 1

Leadership Day 2

Here is a great article to reflect upon:

5 Things I Learned to Say

Here is a thought for today. Kindness, pass it on:

Monday November 17th, 2014

Duties for the week:

     AM Bus: Pauley
                  Warner
                  Garcia
     PM Bus: Moulson
                  Lent
                  Triner
     Lounge: Ardito

Meetings/Reminders for the week:


   November 17th, 2014- Monday- BLT

   November 18th, 2014- Tuesday- RTI

   November 18th, 2014- Tuesday- Grade Level Teaming 1st-5th

   November 19th, 2014- Wednesday- Eval Team

   November 20th, 2014- Thursday-  Crazy Sock Day! (Changed due to no school Friday.)

   November 20th, 2014- Thursday- Kindergarten Grade Level Teaming

   November 21st, 2014- Friday- Thanksgiving Lunch

   November 21st, 2014- Friday- PTA Kiwi Loco for $1

Being proactive is doing the right thing even when no one is looking, and that can include kindness. Acts of kindness is part of being a great leader. Here is a great article about the importance of kindness.

Kindness

For grade level teaming this week, please remember to bring the most current data and student work samples.

For the BLT meeting, building leadership team, please have at least one grade level rep for pre/k-5th. Everybody is welcome to attend.  Please bring pen, paper, and your calendar- which might be on your phone or iPad.

Thanksgiving lunch is on Friday. Adults are $4.15 each. Please encourage families to attend. This is a great parent involvement opportunity.

Friday November 14th, 2014

Crazy sock day!

We usually have people ask during the holiday season about items our school could use. I put a link right in the middle of our school website, and here is the direct link. I added items people have asked for, but let me know if you think of anything else:

School Christmas Wish List

It's that time of year. We usually have several classrooms that have students write letters for the Macy's Believe program. Here is more info.

Macy's Believe

We had a Franklin Covey consultant visit our school Thursday afternoon. He came last year in the Fall, and he was so complimentary of the great things our school has done in one year. We even had a great tour guide leader from a young man in second grade:

Here is a calendar leader from Mrs. Goodwin's class. She loves to lead her class:

Thursday November 13th, 2014

Please remind students about crazy sock day on Friday. It's going to be a really fun Friday!

Here is a picture from Mrs. Popa's preschool classroom.  Students were at centers, and at this center students were practicing letters names and the 7 habits. They will be kindergarten students next Fall:

Here is a fifth grade classroom using the chromebooks to take an end of unit assessment with the new reading program. They were also learning how to highlight text and other technology tools. This is perfect practice for the SBAC test this Spring:

Sometimes the lunchroom is used for other fun activities, like air rockets! We had a U of I engineering and technology education instructor working with the kindergarten and first grade group on Wednesday. They were learning about STEM topics, and shooting their air rockets across the lunchroom was the exciting finale:

Wednesday November 12th, 2014

Staff meeting after school in the library. We have great topics, and we get to learn from our colleagues.

The cold weather has arrived. We will have students inside from recess when it is really cold. Even if students do go outside, please don't send students outside if they are not dressed appropriately. Several of our students have zero body fat, and the icy wind just blows right through them. Let us know in the office if students need assistance with coats, gloves, hats, or other warm clothing. We even have a very gracious parent who has offered to buy snow boots.

This young man applied to be a website reporter leader. He did an awesome job interviewing Mrs. Dickinson, selecting the questions, typing up a report, practicing speaking, and then delivering the final piece with a video. This would be great to share with students in your classroom. Here is the video from a post on the school website:

Choir Video Report

We had two students give Dr. Dobbs a tour on Tuesday. They collaborated together as they made a list of items to show along the tour. They did a great job! The fifth grade student is from a much warmer state. He said he had never seen snow before. It's coming this week! Here is a picture:

Here is a post from the school website from Mrs. Bosh's preschool classes during the recent Halloween activities. She used the pic stitch app on her iPad for picture collages:

Preschool Halloween

Tuesday November 11th, 2014

We had an excellent training at Harrison on Monday for the fourth grade team and specials teachers. Here is a short video clip that the trainer shared. How we think as a person, as a team, and as a school- it all impacts students:

8 Mindframes of Teachers

This website is geared towards secondary, but many ideas relate to elementary as well. I keep checking back for new learning modules. There are so many items that relate directly to our school improvement plan, The Leader in Me, and our own school and what we are doing. The schools profiled are very similar to Harrison. This would be a great website to bookmark and refer to throughout the school year, and there are short video clips:

Leading Success

This is a great article about conversations in the classroom. Danielson, our evaluation framework, is mentioned as well. We've seen a big increase this year with collaborative discussions in the classroom, and that assists students with developing a deeper and better understanding of content.

Talking and Listening

Talking and Listening Infographic


                                         

Monday November 10th, 2014

Duties for the week:

     AM Bus: Simson
                  Lancaster
                  Anderson
     PM Bus: Porter
                  Enders
                  Taylor
     Lounge: Bloxham

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   November 10th, 2014- Monday- No Students- Teacher Practical Application Day/Training
   
   November 11th, 2014- Tuesday- Veteran's Day- Please include in lessons today

   November 11th, 2014- Tuesday- RTI

   November 12th, 2014- Wednesday- Eval Team

   November 12th, 2014- Wednesday-Staff Meeting

   November 13th, 2014- Thursday- Lighthouse Team

   November 14th, 2014- Crazy Sock Day!

Here is the agenda for the staff meeting this week:

1. Ms. Montano- Migrant Program
2. Mrs. Jensen-  Homeless Conference Notes
3. Mrs. Lent- Autism Class Notes and Calendar Committee Notes
4. Ms. Ardito- Custody Situations/Notes and Handouts from Project Leadership
5. Ms. Hammond and Mrs. Lancaster- Handouts from Idaho Leads

Please help remind students and families about Thanksgiving lunch on the 21st. This is a great opportunity for parents to visit.

Please remind students about crazy sock day on Friday. I have mine ready and I've heard other staff members planning.  

We had an excellent online chat with Dr. Dobbs. I was so impressed with the students as they talked and discussed the questions with each other, what to type, and what to ask. They were practicing their typing skills, using their voice, learning technology, and demonstrating leadership. The seven students were a great example of Harrison. Here are two pictures and a copy of the chat. You can download to see all eight pages, start at the bottom of the forum copy, and scroll up to read.

Online Forum Copy

Friday November 7th, 2014

PTA meeting is at 11:40 in the library, and we have our online chat with Dr. Dobbs today. You can watch the forum online at the Magic Valley newspaper website, and we will start at 1pm. We have 8 students who were identified by their teachers for leadership and a great example for Harrison.

We had an awesome first quarter leadership assembly on Thursday. Student leaders did a great job leading the assembly! Here are pictures posted on the school website, and please share with students:

1st Quarter Leadership Assembly

We had a great training with the reading consultant. Thank you to everybody for patience during the day. We even had resource paras slide in for questions and training. Great collaboration and teaming! Here is a great picture:

Thursday November 6th, 2014

Thursday is a busy day, and we will need flexibility with intervention groups. This is our once a month meeting day for grade level teams that includes Title 1, ESL, and resource. Here is a reminder of the schedule for the day:


1. Kinder Grade Level Teaming with Wonders reading rep, Title 1, ESL, coach, and resource-
    8 am- Bring all your questions, and something to take notes with.

2. 1st Quarter Leadership Assembly in the gym- 8:40 am-
    Bring iPad to take attendance, and use both doors to help quickly get seated.

3. 1st-5th Grade Level Teaming with Wonders reading rep, Title 1, ESL, coach, and resource-
    9:35-4 pm- Bring all your questions, and something to take notes with.

4. Principal lunch with grade level leaders for September/October- 11:30 am in library


We had three teachers do the scratch for schools Wednesday night. Great job Anne, Julie, and Sally! We will use the money for Leader in Me environmental items. Here is a picture:

Wednesday November 5th, 2014

Today is picture retakes. If you did not get your picture taken during the first picture day, please remember to have your picture taken today. Somebody will call your classroom, or come get your students, for any students that are getting retakes. Please make sure all new students have their picture taken.

We are always looking for guest teachers. Here is a post I added to the school website. Please consider emailing and sharing the post with parents you think might be good candidates.

Guest Teachers

Here is your thought for today, about finding your voice. This applies to both students and staff:

Tuesday November 4th, 2014

This article about bullying includes three items that relate directly to what we are doing this year.

Bullying

Here is the note going home to families this week:

Front

Back

Please remember to vote today.