Issue 3 - Sept. 28

Curriculum Connections...
Happy Friday to everyone as we close out the first month of the school year - its amazing how quickly one month has flown by as we prepare to usher in October on Monday! I hope everyone has a wonderful upcoming weekend. If the weather is cooperative, please stop by the 5th Grade Car Wash Saturday morning from 9:30am to 11:30am - I will be there washing cars and helping raise money for our fifth graders!

I want to thank everyone for their hard work in getting most of our WRAP testing done over the last two weeks. I know it has been an intense time with the start of the school year but I really feel that assessing our kids this early allows us the opportunity meaningfully launch the reading workshop experience and meet each of our kids at their entry point. The data from the WRAP results should help guide upcoming mini-lessons, independent reading conferences, flexible small group conferences and guided reading groups based on similar readiness levels. Our children have become amazing readers and writers due to all the incredible instruction taking place in our building and I am firm believer that our stringent assessments are a TRUE and ACCURATE reflection of our children as readers - thank YOU for making that happen! Although the Common Core Standards and APPR supposedly mean that the work keeps getting "harder" and that our kids are expected to do more, I don't think that applies to us at Cantiague - HECK NO! The Standards and APPR merely represent the "floor" but here at Cantiague we are consistently reaching for the "ceiling" and are always exceeding expectations! By the end of this year, our kids will be where they need to be - both academically and developmentally and I am 1000% confident in the instructional expertise that permeates this building!

It has been almost two weeks since I have been able to share all the awesome learning and teaching I have seen taking place in our building so please indulge me as spotlight just SOME of the awesomeness! First off, let me say that spending time in the different classrooms brings me to one conclusion - I wish I was that good of a teacher when I was in the classroom. Yesterday I had the chance to spend time in Nancy and Carly's room and I got to watch Carly lead the Envisioning portion of the weekly Shared Reading experience. They were using a nonfiction text about lemonade and Carly was explicitly modeling what she pictured in her mind as she was reading the text (check out the picture below). The children then went back to their seats and illustrated the image they pictured after reading the text. This was a wonderful way to practice an important skill but also incorporate nonfiction texts. Melanie and Janine also completed similar experiences with their students where they had them sketch what they envisioned after reading a text. I also had a chance to spend time in Kim's room during a second grade group where she used the book Mossy by Jan Brett (check her out in action below) to help the students refine their listening skills while also practicing how to make a statement about a text while using evidence from the text to support their thinking. The skill was a sophisticated one but Kim offered the appropriate amount of support to help all the children meet with some level of success. Then I had a chance to watch Lisa (twice this week) with a second grade group where she was working on building fluency by reading dialogue with expression (see the picture below). The children practiced basic skills, such as the appropriate placement of quotation marks, and then more sophisticated skills such as reading dialogue with expression.

I also had a chance to spend time in Rosanna and Alex's class where they participated in a writing workshop experience where they challenged the children to write about a special family holiday or tradition. Rosanna and Alex each read aloud from a mentor text (Fig Pudding and Halloween) and then they each read an excerpt from their own personal writer's notebooks - talk about awesome modeling and scaffolding! I also had a chance to watch Laurie in the Science Room with a 4th grade class and the children were challenged to create an earthquake-proof structure, that was at least two levels high, using only paper cups and tape. The kids were so excited about doing the activity that as soon as Laurie was done giving directions, the children jumped to work (see the great shot below of them in action). Additionally I had a chance to watch both Joe and the Montonelli's work on place value skills where Joe had the children create a Human Number Line (see the picture below to get an image of this cool hands-on/kinesthetic activity) and Christine and Donna implemented station teaching activities that were beautifully differentiated and tailored to meet the needs of all learners. Finally, I had a chance to watch our awesome kindergartners in Mandy's class work in the Literacy Lab where they were writing (drawing and writing) about the many things that are important to them and what they like to do. While drawing, they were challenged to label their illustrations and write a sentence if possible (see the pics below)!

Additionally, I would to spotlight two of our amazing teacher aides - Jen B. and Adam. They have been working in first grade classrooms with children who exhibit very challenging behaviors and are easily distracted and regularly off task. By implementing personalized behavior plans that emphasize the positive, collaborating closely with the various team members and relying on a tremendous amount of patience, they have literally transformed the behaviors of their assigned students in three short weeks. Granted, we have not attained perfection and there are still many things that need to be addressed, but the growth since August 29th is TREMENDOUS! Thank you Jen and Adam!

Finally, I would like to thank Jill for her hard work dedicated to data collection on one of her students to assess how often and for how long this child was not attending. By dedicating a week to collecting data and pinpointing the issue, which was recommended at last week's team meeting, now the intervention for this child can be targeted and specific! The success with data collection is all about FIDELITY and Jill successfully dedicated the necessary amount of time and energy to this process in the best interest of the child- BRAVO!

Tech Tip of the Week...
If you have not done so yet, create a Twitter account because it is the BEST and most PERSONALIZED Professional Development you could ever experience! You can start small (follow me) and then check out the people I am following to see who tweets about the things that most interest you. This is a free and powerful resource that can change the way you view teaching and learning - CHECK IT OUT!  :)

If you dont believe me in all my Twitter Madness, check out the following links...

Because of Twitter

100 Ways to Use Twitter

Schedule of the Week...

Saturday, September 29

5th Grade Car Wash Fundraiser - 9:30am to 11:30am

Monday, October 1
PTA Joint Open Council

Tuesday, October 2
Faculty Meeting for Teachers Only - 3PM in the Computer Lab

Wednesday, October 3
CST at 1:2opm

Thursday, October 4
Weisblack - Trip to Safety Town

Friday, October 5
PTA Executive Board at 9:45am
Kindergarten Hot Lunch Begins Today with pizza from the PTA!


Kids' Korner...
While picking a birthday prize from my office the other day, one of the kids said to me, "Mr. Sinanis if this was my office, I would want to keep all the birthday prizes for me - how do you control yourself?" LOL!!  :)



Pics of the Week...

              
                    Kim doing a read aloud while           Lisa working on various skills
                    practicing listening skills


        
     Joe had the kids make a Human        Carly leading the Envisioning portion
     Number Line                                       of the Shared Reading experience

 
                      
                  4th Graders building an                      Math Stations in the Montonellis
                  Earthquake Proof Structure                practicing place value & rounding
                  using only cups and tape!



                  
                                 Awesome Kindergarten Writing Samples 

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th (this one is at Cantiague)
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th

Issue 2 - Sept. 14

Curriculum Connections...
Happy Friday to everyone as we close out the first full week of the school year! It was a busy week that featured our annual Meet The Teacher Night extravaganza, which was a huge success once again. Thank you all for working so hard to not only prepare such wonderful, thorough and informative presentations but also for making our building look so beautiful for the parents on their first official visit of the year. Between the pictures, writing samples, works of art and everything else, our hallways looked better than those of a museum - BRAVO Team Blue Ribbon! I hope everyone has great plans for the four-day weekend. Happy holidays to anyone celebrating - may the holiday be filled with only health and happiness! For those not celebrating, like us in the Sinanis household, just enjoy the extra days off - they are well deserved!

Please refer to this blog post (especially for the Schedule of the Week below) for the next couple of weeks because the next Fast Friday Focus will come out Friday, September 28th.

This last week has allowed me many wonderful opportunities to visit classrooms and different learning spaces and I cannot tell you how much fun it is to hang out in your rooms! First off, I am completely blown away by the launch of Writing Workshop in our building this year. I have seen it in almost every 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classroom and I am in awe of the work being done. First off, the kids are actually sitting and writing for extended periods of time and it is only the 12th day of school - that is unheard of! Not only is the quantity of their work impressive but the quality is awesome too. When visiting Karen's room, I could literally hear a pin drop because every kid was engrossed in their piece (check out a sample from Lindsey in Karen's class in one of the pics below). The kids had learned how to write off a picture on their notebook and the work was impressive. As if that weren't enough, Risa's kids jumped right to generating entries after her mini-lesson on special holidays and family memories - they were all so excited to share and generate entries. While visiting the third grade classrooms, I also saw some awesome stuff. The Heart Maps in the Montonelli's classroom were the most rich and impressive ones I have seen in a long time. Also, Janine had students sharing entries and she modeled how to offer positive and constructive feedback, which was so powerful. She used an entry from her own notebook and allowed the students an opportunity to share for the purposes of modeling the skill of offering feedback in appropriate ways. The importance of modeling for our kids had never been more apparent to me than what I have seen in the last couple of weeks! I have never experienced this type of Writing Workshop launch and I think this success is a credit to our collective efforts to implement the workshop in every classroom so now our kids are writers and are comfortable writing in a notebook and generating entries - it is so awesome! Thank you to all classroom teachers, Lisa D. and Team Literacy for making this happen!

This week has also provided me the opportunity to observe the launch of Shared Reading in many classrooms. I specifically spent extensive time in Rande's and Melanie's classrooms where they started the experience by introducing the Preview and Prepare process. I was so impressed with the sophisticated language used in both classrooms and with the knowledge our kids possess - they were able to identify text features, explain what they could gain from scanning the page and other such strategies and skills (check out the pic below of Rande and Melanie each introducing it). The implementation of Shared Reading is such an important component to the Reading Workshop experience for many reasons but most importantly, it allows us the opportunity to "tuck" content area material into the literacy block. Use the Shared Reading experience to incorporate social studies, current events, science, non fiction, etc. because not only will it expose our kids to a bevy of genres but also helps them build schema when previewing new texts.

Finally, I saw some awesome math work happening in many of our classrooms! I spent time in Joe's room (with Melanie's kids) and I was so impressed with the fact that the children were able to dissect numbers and represent them in different ways. For example, they took 124 and expressed in words, expanded form, pictures, etc. I was so impressed by the strong number sense that permeated the room and the students' ability to explain their thinking and show their work - BRAVO JOE! (Check out a picture below of one of the whiteboards used during this group activity).

Please know that there are at least ten other things I could have written about here (doing Prezi with the Alites, the amazing independent reading conference I watched Tali do, the great math activity I watched in Meryl's class, the fun Spanish/English read aloud I saw Ilene do with 2nd graders, the awesome Fundations parallel activity I saw with Team Sanderly, etc.) but I don't want to overwhelm everyone with too much text...  :)

Tech Tip of the Week...
In last week's blog I spotlighted Wordle, which was being used in the Library and many of the classrooms around the building. Jeanne also uses some alternative Wordle like sites that you may want to check out (thank you Jeanne!!)...

abcya - which has a lot of resources but the Word Clouds are the Wordle-like feature; check out some of the games on this site too - really kid friendly and broken up by grade level!

tagxedo - this one costs money but worth checking out

tagul - this one allows you to create word clouds in different shapes

Schedule of the Week...

Wednesday, September 19
CST at 1:20PM

Thursday, September 20
Board of Ed. Meeting - 7:30PM at MS Library

Friday, September 21
Happy Friday!

Monday, September 24
Fire Prevention Assemblies...

• 8:45am - Gr. K, 1 & 2; Siper & Huzarsky
• 9:15am - Gr. 3, 4 & 5

Tuesday, September 25
Photo Day - please follow the schedule & be on time!
Emergency Evacuation Drill - Early Dismissal at 2:40PM (we will do a Fire Drill too)
NO Faculty Meeting

Friday, September 28
Bake Sale - Gr. 5 (Alites)

Saturday, September 29
5th Grade Car Wash Fundraiser - 9:30am to 11:30am

Kids' Korner...
During recess a second grader, who was working with a bunch of other kids to construct something in the sand, came over to me and said, "Mr. Sinanis I am like the principal of this construction company." My response - "Oh yea, cool! How are you like the principal?" He says, "Because I walk around and tell people what to do!" LOL! I laughed out loud and he was totally confused why I was laughing!  :)

Pics of the Week...

                                
               Alites graphic organizer for                              3rd Gr. whiteboard showing
              describing a character's                                     the break up of the number 124
               personality with text evidence

               
      Writing sample from Karen's class          Students offering feedback in Janine's room
                                               

    
               Melanie & Rande intro. Preview & Prepare (Shared Rdg)
                 
                     
                Joe doing FUNdations in parallel teach    Madeline's heart map from the Alites

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Sept. 20th
• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th (this one is at Cantiague)
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th

Issue 1 - Sept. 7

Curriculum Connections...
Happy Friday to everyone and welcome to the first ever Blog Edition of the Fast Friday Focus! I hope we all had a wonderful second week of school and that everyone has some great plans for the weekend. I am personally thrilled about the start of the NFL season and although the Jets aren't looking so great, I still can't wait to watch some football!

First off, thank you for being the most amazing people that I have ever had the honor of working with in my career. Thank you for making our school such a fun and positive place no matter what we are dealing with on any given day. Whether it was the intense heat over the last few days or some behavior problems in different classrooms or the fact that a few of our classes are at full capacity, there was never an issue because we always kept positive energy flowing through our building and joy consistently filled the space - THANK YOU!! Also, thank you all for making the first couple of weeks so successful and powerful for all of our students - new and returning. We started everything off on the right note last week with all specialists and support staff members joining me in front of our school as the munchkins came off the buses. It was the first year I saw such few tears on day one and I was especially impressed with our kindergartners who came into school ready to learn (and have some fun)!

Additionally, I want to welcome all the Cantiague newbies one more time... Deborah, Joe, Milissa, Ilene, Jacquie and Laurie! We are so lucky to have each of you on our team because you have all helped make Cantiague an even better place!

The first couple of weeks provided us many opportunities to implement various hands-on learning experiences to help nurture a sense of community throughout the building. Last week I had the chance to spend some time in four different classrooms (Risa, Rande, Levermans and Alites) where the children were participating in some variation of the Marshmallow Challenge (or something along those lines) that stressed the importance of problem solving through collaboration and it was amazing to watch (I even tweeted some pics). We have spent so much time talking about the Common Core Standards and the idea of College Readiness with a great emphasis on the students' performance on standardized assessments (unfortunately this is what happens when politicians, not educators, are making decisions) when in fact we should be focusing on these types of activities - what says "I'm ready for college!" better than I know how to work with others to solve a problem??

I also had a chance to spend some time in the Library where Lorraine used Wordle to have different classes generate ideas about what the Library means to them. This is such a great resource, it can be a wonderful summary tool for a class discussion, because it allows someone to enter the words generated during a share and then it creates a "work of art" based on the words entered. The power of this tool comes in the fact that the words that are entered repeatedly will come out larger in the final Wordle so that the whole class can see what words, themes or ideas were the most common and powerful threads during a given experience... I definitely think its worth a try during a book talk or at the end of a unit of study!

I have also seen some awesome writing workshop work in Melanie, Christine and Donna's classrooms where the children were introduced to the concept of the writer's notebook and then had a chance to decorate their own. It was so great to watch the three teachers share their own personal notebooks and artifacts - the kids were clearly hooked! Then I got to watch Tali and Marissa do some great work linking reading and writing workshop where the children were assigned reading partners and they had to create Venn Diagrams comparing and contrasting themselves. Then they had to use the information from the graphic organizer to create "juicy" sentences (ask one of the Leverman kids to explain what a "juicy" sentence is - they are great!)! Finally, I had a chance to watch team Marsen (Nancy and Carly) do some great small group/station teaching. They recently introduced place value by giving the children place value mats (from Math In Focus) and challenging them to "build" numbers and watching the children work was impressive! I could go on and on about all the amazing things I saw in the last few days but I have written too much already... I will save some for next Friday!

Tech Tip of the Week...
Google Docs is a wonderful resource to use to promote collaboration among staff and students when working on a common document. First off, if you haven't created a Google account, get on that ASAP because between the power of sharing documents, blogging and other awesome resources, Google is a resource that can take your teaching to a whole other level! In regards to Google Docs, check out this blog about the power of using this tool in a collaborative way. 

Schedule of the Week...

Tuesday, September 11
New Family Breakfast @ 9AM
PTA Meeting @ 9:45AM
PTA Executive Committee Meeting @ 10:45AM
Faculty Meeting @ 3PM

Wednesday, September 12
CST @ 1:20PM
Meet the Teacher Night: 

1. Gr. 5, Brotman & Leverman - 6PM
2. Gr. K & 1 - 6:40PM
3. Gr. 4 - 7:20PM
4. Gr.  2 & 3 - 8PM

Friday, September 14
Constitution Day - Possible Outdoor Pledge

Kids' Korner...

1. During the first week of school one of our new second graders walked up to me at recess and said, "Mr. Sinanis, I really love this school because all the teachers are so nice - they make coming to school so much fun!" Thank you to each of you for making that comment possible!
2. While explaining to some new kindergarten students how they might remember her name, Lois B. shared that they should remember that if they get to close to a hot stove they might get BURNed. As they were leaving at the end of the session she reviewed her name with each child and when she questioned the last child the student responded, "Your name is Ms. Stove!" LOL!!

Pics of the Week...

                    

                 

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Sept. 20th
• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th (this one is at Cantiague)
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th