October 4, 2013

Curriculum Connections...

Happy October - I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend where we make time for some fun, rest and relaxation! Although I have a lot of HW for Penn, which mainly involves writing my dissertation proposal, my fingers are crossed that Paul does not come home with any HW this weekend - it definitely puts a damper on the fun (HW definitely feels different as a parent when it takes your child hours to complete)! 

Meanwhile, I hope everyone had a positive experience at the Faculty Enhancement Opportunity this past Tuesday - whether you were talking Social Studies, exploring math or choosing a "workshop" I hope the experience was truly a point of enhancement - please know that any and all feedback is welcome! Additionally, if you have not already done so, please enter your goals on OASYS at this point as we have discussed them and they have all been approved (if you submitted them to me). Let me know if you have any questions about entering your goals. Finally, please be aware that I have begun conducting formal observations, which will be both announced and unannounced depending on the situation. So far, I have been really lucky with the unannounced experience as I have observed some great stuff! 

This week, as I walked around the building, I spotted these awesome things...

• Christine and Donna's class immersed in the reading workshop experience and it was AWESOME! Donna pulled two students for a guided reading group where the children worked on monitoring for meaning by comparing and contrasting using a nonfiction text - take that Common Core! At the same time, Christine was launching a Book Club with four students who were reading the same book and within minutes were able to facilitate their own discussion after Christine modeled for them - talk about high level skills! It was really an impressive literacy block and I only wish I could have recorded it all!

• MaryAnn was conducting a social skills lunch bunch with a group of third graders and the experience was wonderful. The children were playing the Friendship Game and it was so impressive to hear them verbalize the characteristics of a "Good Friend" and then work together to navigate different situations presented in the game. MaryAnn's patience, sense of humor and encouragement made every child feel good about themselves and made the experience a successful one!  

• Tali and Marissa launching a new read aloud - I have never seen a group of kids so excited to find out what book their teachers would be reading to them! Tali and Marissa hid the book in the bag and were offering the children different clues about the book and the author and the children were literally jumping out of their spots to guess the text and were thrilled to find out that they would be hearing FRINDLE! During the interactive read aloud, the idea of accountable talk was promoted and the students were pushed to make inferences about the main character's traits based on his words and actions - it was AWESOME! 

Tech Tip of the Week...

As many of you saw in our update earlier this week, I worked witha group of kids to create the following VIDEO UPDATE! I have to share that the feedback has been really positive and creating the video was super easy using the iPad and the Touchcast app. I highly recommend you check it out because I think there a bunch of ways this tool can be used in the classroom - for presentations, alternative to "reports," for assessments, etc! Let me know if you try using it because I would be happy to assist in any way! 


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, October 7

"A" Week
Gr. 5 Meet the Author at JPL @ 10am
(Gr. 2 & Gr. 5 switch lunch periods for the day)

Tuesday, October 8

Faculty Meeting for all STAFF
Gr. 1 Field Trip - Outdoor Ed.
Book Fair Preview Night for Families - 6:30pm
PTA Meeting at 7:30pm

Wednesday, October 9

PTA Book Fair

Thursday, October 10

PTA Book Fair
CST at 1:20pm

Friday, October 11

Happy TGIF!
PTA Book Fair

Kids' Korner

Whenever a child celebrates a birthday in Allison's class, the rest of the children give the birthday child verbal gifts (compliments, kind words, etc.) Recently the children were giving verbal gifts but they only commented on the child's physical appearance and external characteristics so when Allison suggested that they try and compliment the INSIDE of the student one boy raised his hand and said, "I really like your blood pressure!" LOL!   

Pics of the Week...

Check out Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...

WEEK IN TWEETS - OCTOBER 4