Happy New Year to everyone and Happy First Friday of 2013! I hope you all had a wonderful December break! Our family had an awesome week, even though it was really busy. Paul made out like a bandit on Christmas - I guess that is what happens when you are the only child and the only grandchild - luckily he isn't too spoiled, yet. I will share that our vacation was somewhat affected by the fact that Paul came home with two packets that needed to be completed - a 45 page Math packet of all multiplication and division facts and 30 page ELA packet of reading passages and test-prep like activities. I can assure you that I was so disappointed by the quality and quantity of the HW and Kelly and I had many discussions about the value of this type of HW and whether or not we should protest and not have Paul do it. Well, in the end Paul is too much of a rule follower so he felt compelled to complete all his HW but he often used the word TORTURE to describe his feelings about the assignment. It was extremely disheartening because we never want to see Paul's love for learning compromised because of low-level activities that don't engage him. In the end, everything worked out fine and Paul did master most of his multiplication tables and even learned some information from the ELA packets.
I share this story with you for two reasons... I want you to feel my pain from sitting beside Paul as he completed these horrible packets (just kidding) and because I want to thank you all for being so thoughtful with your HW assignments - it is never about the quantity - it is always about the quality! Our HW, whenever possible, should inspire our kids to want to learn and create - not just get the "right" answer. I understand that there are certain things we must do (math worksheet, reading passage, etc.) but whenever we have an opportunity, let's give the children HW that is open-ended and engages them in activities that pique their interest and keep them excited to learn! I would love to discuss HW possibilities further if anyone is interested.
I want to take a moment to congratulate Kim, Melanie, Lois Z. and Elaine who were all recognized last night for their years of service here in Jericho - CONGRATULATIONS -we are so lucky to have you!! You are such amazing educators who are all collectively dedicated to doing what is in the best interest of children and it is an honor to work beside you - THANK YOU!
Additionally, my hope is that we will be able to run two fundraisers in the coming weeks to help the school in Island Park. Unfortunately, I need assistance in organizing and managing these two events so if anyone is interested or willing to help, please let me know because it will be greatly appreciated!
On another note, please make sure that your EdLine accounts are updated on a regular basis depending on your position because this is something that is being monitored - thank you for your hard work! Please note we will be having a Faculty Meeting next Tuesday to d that iscuss the status of a our Safety Plan, which was reviewed at a recent meeting with the Building Health & Safety Team. Additionally, I would like to extend a special thank you to Rob and Phil for organizing a wonderful Grade 5 Student vs. Teacher Volleyball game -we all had a blast!
I share this story with you for two reasons... I want you to feel my pain from sitting beside Paul as he completed these horrible packets (just kidding) and because I want to thank you all for being so thoughtful with your HW assignments - it is never about the quantity - it is always about the quality! Our HW, whenever possible, should inspire our kids to want to learn and create - not just get the "right" answer. I understand that there are certain things we must do (math worksheet, reading passage, etc.) but whenever we have an opportunity, let's give the children HW that is open-ended and engages them in activities that pique their interest and keep them excited to learn! I would love to discuss HW possibilities further if anyone is interested.
I want to take a moment to congratulate Kim, Melanie, Lois Z. and Elaine who were all recognized last night for their years of service here in Jericho - CONGRATULATIONS -we are so lucky to have you!! You are such amazing educators who are all collectively dedicated to doing what is in the best interest of children and it is an honor to work beside you - THANK YOU!
Additionally, my hope is that we will be able to run two fundraisers in the coming weeks to help the school in Island Park. Unfortunately, I need assistance in organizing and managing these two events so if anyone is interested or willing to help, please let me know because it will be greatly appreciated!
On another note, please make sure that your EdLine accounts are updated on a regular basis depending on your position because this is something that is being monitored - thank you for your hard work! Please note we will be having a Faculty Meeting next Tuesday to d that iscuss the status of a our Safety Plan, which was reviewed at a recent meeting with the Building Health & Safety Team. Additionally, I would like to extend a special thank you to Rob and Phil for organizing a wonderful Grade 5 Student vs. Teacher Volleyball game -we all had a blast!
I also had some time to spend in different classrooms and spaces over the last couple of days and I cannot think of a better way to kick off the new year! During my visits this week, I...
- Watched our second graders immersed in their poetry writing unit of study! They were peer editing, inserting white space and incorporating figurative language just to name a few things that they were working on and I cannot even begin to describe how impressed I was with their work - BRAVO to Carolyn, Carly, Lesley, Nancy and Lisa D. for collaborating on this unit of study, which unfolded beautifully!
- Spent time with Laurie in the Science Room yesterday with fourth grade and was completely blown away - I had so much fun learning about the concepts of energy, force, gravity and friction through some awesome hands-on experiences - check out the picture below! Laurie has a way of squeezing so many amazing learning experiences (that involved critical thinking instead of just doing a worksheet) into 40 minutes that I was hooked and didn't want to leave the room - WOW!!
- Spent time with Milissa in Tali and Marissa's room during the Spanish experience and had a blast working with a group of children. After commencing the learning experience with some breathing work (the children respond so well to this breathing and centering exercise) I then got to work with the children to answer questions about our age, birthday, where we were from and how we were doing just to name a few. I am so impressed with the children's development of their Spanish speaking skills - MUY BIEN!!
- I spent some time with Rande's kids in the Computer Lab and was blown away by the persuasive letters they wrote to Santa from the perspective of a well known villain just to convince Santa to get them what they wanted - their end products were AMAZING! They wrote from the perspectives of Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort, The Big, Bad Wolf and Godzilla just to name a few and they did such an impressive job persuading the reader with humor and appropriate information!
- The 3rd Graders and their awesome teachers (Christine, Donna, Melanie and Janine) must be recognized for their impressive Writing Celebration right before the break - the children's pieces focused on small moments and their use of language was incredible! We had a packed house and there was so much to be proud of because the children's growth as writers is IMPRESSIVE!!
Tech Tip of the Week...
Want to keep track of the awesome websites you visit in one place that you can access from any computer? Try Symbaloo - I just learned about it and LOVE it! It is like Diigo, which I shared at a Faculty Meeting last year but the presentation is different and it offers different features - check it out!
Schedule of the Week...
Monday, January 7
Happy Monday
"A" Week
Tuesday, January 8
Faculty Meeting at 3PM for all staff
Earth Balloon - Gr. 3
Kindergarten Registration in the Conference Room
Wednesday, January 9
CST at 1:20pm
Thursday, January 10
Cultural Arts
Math in Focus Workshop - Gr. K-2 teachers
Compact Committee at 3PM
Friday, January 11
Happy Friday!
Tony Goes to Penn (Gone by 10:30am)
PTA Executive Board
Kids' Korner
On Wednesday, a second grader came up to me and asked, "Mr. Sinanis, were you allowed to stay up and watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve? I wasn't able to stay up!" I could not help but laugh out loud and think that clearly he knows the deal in our house - I always need to ask for permission!! LOL!
Pics of the Week...
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| Carly conducting a guided reading group |
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| Joe working with some 5th Gr. doing enrichment |
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| Brooke earned the right to read to a K student - nice reward from Lisa P. |
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| L'Reindeer in action- kids hanging on her every word! |
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| Writing Celebration in Janine's room. |
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| Nancy conducting a 1:1 conference |
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| Katie getting to know her new student - a perfect match! |
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| Awesome writing samples from Mandy's kids! |
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| 1st Graders reading together in Jen & Joe's room! |
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| Allison working 1:1 with a student who has grown so much in the area of literacy! |
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| Kyra re-creating a cell using KidPix |
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| Meryl conducting a small group math experience! |
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| 4th Graders learning about Force in the Science Room |
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| Melanie conducting a guided reading group! |
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| Madeline (Gr. 5) working with an ELL student in K to help him learn his letters! |
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| How cute is Abigail?? |
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| Peer poetry selection process in Carolyn's room for Writing Workshop! |
Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...
- Thursday, Jan. 17th
- Thursday, Jan. 31st
- Thursday, Feb. 7th
- Thursday, Mar. 14th
- Thursday, Apr. 18th
- Thursday, May 23rd
- Thursday, June 13th
Regarding homework - I totally agree. From my experience as a parent, I think sometimes the teachers should attempt to complete the homework assignment he/she assigned for their students at 4:00 in the afternoon after a long day of work. Some of the assignments Sarah brings home can be a waste of her energy and use up a lot of her time with the family or just playing. I believe homework should be very well thought out by the teacher. It should be valuable to the student yet easy enough to be completed independently. This is an important topic considering it impacts time with the family and the student's free time.
ReplyDeleteI am willing to help out with the fundraisers for the Island Park school. Let me know what I can do!
ReplyDelete