September 5, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone after an awesome first week of school - it feels like we never left (in a great way)! I hope we all had a wonderful short week and that everyone has some great plans for the upcoming weekend (maybe stopping by the Gr. 5 Car Wash??). The start of the school year is such an exciting and invigorating time - a whole other fresh start to try new things, learn from failures and have fun! This is our year to incorporate more things like project/passion based learning, explore the possibilities of a Genius Hour, maybe consider a school-wide Innovation Day or Week (not something we really discussed but something to consider because we have the resources to make it happen) and allow for deeper connections between reading and writing workshop as we look to solidify an actual literacy block! Bottom line - it is going to be an AWESOME year!  :) 

First off, thank you for being the most amazing educators and individuals that I have ever worked 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 tech issues or moving spaces at the last minute, 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 days of school so successful and powerful for all of our students - new and returning. We started everything off on the right note on Wednesday with all specialists and support staff members joining me in front of our school as the munchkins came off the buses - from my vantage point, it was the BEST start of the school year EVER!

Additionally, I want to welcome all the Cantiague newbies one more time... Ally, Jessica, Grace, Sara, Christina, Kerry, Maureen and Kelly (and anyone I missed) - our team is now complete! We are so lucky to have each of you on our team because you have all helped make Cantiague an even better place!

In an effort to respect the idea that LESS is MORE, I will try and keep the Fast Friday Focus brief, specific and positive! This week, as I walked around the building, I spotted these #EDUWINS...

• Marissa and Allison challenging their students to work in pairs to figure out how they could stand on the same piece of newspaper without being able to physically make contact - it was incredibly challenging!

• Grade 1 students reacting to their first day after reading the First Day Jitters book... fortunately, very few of them actually had the jitters! Many of them were happy, excited and joyful!

• Grade 2 and 3 students writing about how they could be Bucket Fillers! Thank you to everyone who incorporated these types of activities to remind the children about the importance of being a Bucket Filler... it is a way of life here at #Cantiague!

Tech Tip of the Week...

I know I have mentioned this before, but if you have not done so yet, you should create a Diigo account (something I reminded everyone of during our summer in-service) where you can save your favorite websites to the "cloud" and access them from any and all computers. The best part of Diigo and it's new features is that you can create "GROUPS" and theoretically grade levels can be part of the same group and everyone has access to each other's awesome sites! Here is a Diigo Tutorial to help launch the Diigo experience!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, September 8 

"B" Week
Gr. 1 - 5 Playdates Begin

Tuesday, September 9

Faculty Enhancement Opportunity (F.E.O.) - 3pm 
PTA Meeting & New Family Breakfast - 9am

Wednesday, September 10

Happy Wednesday!

Thursday, September 11 

Meet The Teacher Night...
Gr. 3 - 5 at 6:30pm
Gr. K - 2 at 7:30pm

Friday, September 12

Happy TGIF!
PTA MOVIE NIGHT 
Homecoming Weekend activities!

Kids' Korner

During lunch one of our kindergarten students told me that lunch at Cantiague was the best because it was loud and noisy! LOL! Ain't that the truth?!

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