Friday March 13th, 2015

School is out at 1:30, and any extra adults outside during bus duty would be greatly appreciated. Hard to believe, but we only have one quarter left of school.

A big thank you to everybody who assisted with our Title 1 family night! We have a new PTA presidency and we had more parent volunteers than we have ever had. We had a great turn out, and the lunchroom was packed all night with families eating food. Here is a post with several pictures:

Title 1 Family Night

Two great resources for academic vocabulary:

Top 10 words

8 Strategies for Academic Vocabulary

Several classrooms have uploaded extra reading, writing, and language practice for students to access at home. This is a great resource for families:

English/Language Arts Practice at Home

Have a great Friday!

Tuesday February 24th, 2015

The Spelling Bee starts at 6pm, at Roper. We have three young ladies who are very excited, and they will represent Harrison very well.

This article is long, but a great resource with several ideas for how to increase and include more opportunities for students to be actively engaged with activities that target speaking and listening in the classroom. Collaborative conversations and activities has been a focus this year with the new reading program, and this gives students more opportunities to practice vocabulary and skills across all content areas. Students have been learning to include evidence, arguments, sequencing, and more. The focus with the article is English language learners, but strategies listed would be helpful for all of our students. 

Classroom Talks

After school students recently toured the CSI Wind Energy program. What a great opportunity to expose students to a future STEM career posibility:

Wind Energy

Here are pictures with classroom buddies!

Classroom Buddies

Great reminder, and perfect to share with students:

Monday October 13th, 2014

Duties for the week:

     AM Bus: Coleman
                  Miller
                  Standley
     PM Bus: Jacobson
                  Lancaster
                  Moore
     Lounge: Goodwin

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   October 14th, 2014- Tuesday- RTI

   October 15th, 2014- Wednesday- Eval Team

   October 15th, 2014- Wednesday- District Office Admin Team Visit

   October 16th, 2014- Thursday- Lighthouse Team

   October 16th, 2014- Thursday- 1st Grade Tubbs Berry Farm 12-3

   October 17th, 2014- Friday- PTA Cotton Candy .50 ¢ and last day for Box Tops


Here is the parent note that will be going home this week. Copies have been made for your class.

Parent Note Front

Parent Note Back With Upcoming Dates

The state department is having their annual holiday card contest.  Here is more information:

Holiday Card Contest

Here is an article about movement and vocabulary:

Movement and Vocabulary

We are going to have students K-5 participate in the hour of code event in December, during their computer class. Thank you Mrs. Sorensen for leading! Here is more information and a short video clip:

Hour of Code

We have new bulletin boards throughout the school. One is our new welcome board for families as people enter the school. We also one bulletin board ready from second grade with student leaders of the month for September from each classroom, and it looks great:

We had our first 'Caught Being A Super Husky' on Friday. She definitely displays synergy and helping others find their voice. You should have seen her during bus duty: sitting in the grass, reading her certificate, and the biggest smile on her face. The form is under the document tab and you can type right on it. There are also copies on my desk for you to take anytime. Any staff member can fill one out.

The fifth grade leaders who help walk kindergarten students to the bus everyday do such a great job. They absolutely make sure the kinders walk quietly and stay in a line. Here is one of the groups:

Digital Citizenship Week is coming up starting on October 19th. Is there one item you could teach and or remind students about digital citizenship? Students may be comfortable with technology, but they don't always know how to act appropriately online.

Tuesday September 9th, 2014

Here is a great article about the importance of increasing opportunities for special education students to learn alongside typically developing peers, particularly students with more advanced language skills. This would also benefit all of our students regardless of whether they are on an IEP. Striving to include more opportunities for all students to strengthen language skills is important.

Language Development with Inclusion

As we have been discussing classroom management, with the new school year starting, here is a pinterest board by Edutopia that has several great resources and ideas. Everyday is a new day to start over and try another strategy and plan if the first one is not working.

Classroom Management Ideas

Sometimes Christmas comes early! I found a Keurig on sale. It is in the staff room. You can make hot chocolate, tea, and coffee. Thank you to Claudia and Khrista for letting me experiment with their lunch! You can even heat hot water for instant soups and meals. There are k-cups next to it that came with the package.

Monday was a busy day at Harrison. We started full day kindergarten, the before school program, and the after school program. Thank you to everybody that helped students find their place to be.

I loved how the after school students didn't know the exact activities they were going to be involved with, and they were all so positive and excited. We have activities that include a running group, sign language, STEM, tutoring, dance, art, drama, games, soccer, technology, and more!

Here is a post from the school website that has pictures you could share with students:

Pictures and Registration Packet

Wednesday April 23rd, 2014

Special visitors in front of the school at 9:30 am. Please have students outside by about 9:15.  More information in your email.

We've talked this year about the new speaking and listening standards, particularly with collaborative conversations and discussions. Here are twelve questions, and maybe there is one that could be modeled and practiced with students in both the classroom and intervention groups. Sometimes a sentence starter, as a model, can be the catalyst to an engaging conversation and an opportunity to be engaged with deeper learning.

12 Questions

I was out on bus duty with Amy K. the other day, and I thought of this picture. As we were with students waiting for the bus outside, there was innovation and creativity everywhere on the playground.  From using a backpack like one of those ball hop jump ropes, to who can get their backpack in the tree the highest, to pretending the gravel was money, to acting out book characters on the playground equipment. Here is your image for the day:

Monday January 6th, 2014

Duties for the week:
     AM Bus: Osborn
                  Buschhorn
                  Goodwin
     PM Bus:  Kenyon
                  Moore
                  Hammond
     Lounge: Simson

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   January 6th, 2014-Monday- RTI

   January 7th, 2014- Tuesday- Grade Level Teaming Meetings with Resource, ESL, and Title 1

   January 7th-9th, 2014-Tuesday through Thursday- Talent Show try-outs after school

   January 8th, 2014- Wednesday- Eval Team

   January 8th, 2014- Wednesday- Staff Meeting

   January 9th, 2014- Thursday- All Day Mad Scientist Day

   January 10th, 2014- Friday- PTA Meeting 

We have a new student teacher who will be at Harrison for about 12 weeks. A big thank you to Julie O. for being the host teacher. Her name is Chrystine, and please help her feel welcomed.

The big item for students this week will be the talent show try-outs. The list for signing up is quite long! The final talent show show night is always impressive.

The big item for the rest of us will be IRI testing. A big thank to MaryAnn for completing that. We are also lucky to have Colleen as her guest teacher.

If you didn't sign up for credit for the upcoming common core inservice on the 20th, please email me and I will send the information to you.

This isn't a real letter from a student, but it could be. Here's a great welcome back letter from a student's perspective:

Letter

Sometimes we have websites that don't work well on the iPads because of the flash issue. Puffin is a great resource for solving that. Here is an article from Jenni that talks about the Puffin app:

Puffin App

Academic vocabulary is one big shift with ELA common core state standards. Here is an article that discusses strategies for this topic:

8 Strategies for Teaching Academic Language

This list is from the above article. It refers to testing, but the ten words are essential for all students and contexts:

10 Words for Academic Language

Monday November 25th, 2013

Duties for the week:
     AM Bus: Pauley
                  Warner
                  Garcia
     PM Bus:  Triner
                  Moulson
                  Lent
     Lounge: Ardito

Meetings/Reminders for the week:

   November 25th, 2013- Monday- RTI

   November 26th, 2013- Tuesday- Yes for Tutoring Afterschool  

   November 26th, 2013- Tuesday- Optional meeting with Noni, Insurance Rep Update

   November 27th, 2013- Wednesday- Eval Team

   November 27th, 2013- Wednesday- Time Cards due by 9 am.

   November 27th, 2013- Wednesday- Early Dismissal at 1:30 and No Kinders

   November 28th-29th, 2013- Thursday and Friday- Thanksgiving Break
 

Boise State has webinars available that address connections between the MTI training you have taken, common core math standards, and the new smarter balanced assessment:

BSU Math Webinars

When it comes to Fall student conferences, teachers are always persistent! Several were still completing conferences this last week. Final conference parent involvement number is 98%!

From MaryAnn: I would like to mention to teachers that when students take an AR test, there is often a vocabulary review (test) to go with it.  It would be beneficial for our students to take the vocabulary review.  Most of our students fit into the lower economic range, so they do not have enough vocabulary development and exposure. Here is a handout with more information:

Vocabulary Review with AR 

Thank you to those that emailed what you were thankful for. You will laugh, you may shed a few tears, and hopefully you will notice many items that we can be thankful for this holiday season. The next few months are often hard for students and families: holidays, family situations, finances, and sometimes even the weather. These videos are great to remember the reason for the season. Part 1 has most, and part 2 is short. I wanted to make sure all the comments were included:

Thanksgiving Thankful Video Part 1

Thanksgiving Thankful Video Part 2

Here are three pictures Anne took from the Thanksgiving lunch on Friday: