December 5, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to all... the first Friday in December! Hope everyone had a wonderful four-day week- even though I know juggling dozens of conferences is often more work than the daily teaching and learning. Please know your efforts do not go unnoticed and the feedback from the parents over the last couple of days has been incredibly positive - they are so grateful to be part of the Cantiague community because of each of you!

In other news, I wanted to share two baby related updates. First off, Melissa Cerullo has extended her leave to stay home with her babies until after the April break - we will definitely miss having her around but thanks to Christina for doing such an awesome job! Also, due to some unforeseen medical needs, Risa's last day was Thursday (today). Her doctors definitely want her to take it easy until Baby Thomas arrives in the next few weeks so Risa will be staying home. Being that this happened a little earlier than we expected we had to enact some plans in a quick fashion and I am thrilled to announce that Katie Quinn will be taking over for Risa during her child care leave. Katie - we know you are going to do an AMAZING job! 

Finally, one of our adorable kindergarten students (Dylan) had his last day on Thursday. Being that Dylan had an aide assigned to him, his leaving has facilitated some staffing changes. Starting Monday, Sara Stone will be splitting her time between Ginny and Ally. Also, Caylie Lehrer, will be moving from kindergarten to split her time between Jill and Janine's rooms. Good luck to both Sara and Caylie - we know you will be assets to your new spaces. 
This week, as I walked around the building, I spotted these #EDUWINS...

• Lois D. facilitated an awesome small group session in the speech room for two third grade girls. The focus of the lesson was on "-ed" verbs and she helped the children master the idea of past tense by having them caption real life pictures, play a game and unscramble various sentences. There was so much packed into a 30 minute period and I was blown away by how much the students had grown and how engaged they were the whole period - WOW! 

• Shout out to Lorraine and her work in the library. First off, I LOVE the "We Love Picture Books" poster because getting to see what books different kids and staff love has been so fun! Also, I had a chance to spend time in the library while Lorraine collaborated with Jessica to introduce the fifth grade students to databases and how they could be used to safely research a nonfiction topic. One thing that really impressed me was that Lorraine helped the children understand the difference between SEARCHING and RESEARCHING as a result of collaborating with Jessica and knowing what the kids needed. This was an example of the power of flexible scheduling in the library and the impacts it could have on extending the learning in the classroom... AWESOME! 

• Ginny implemented an awesome writing worksop block that was part of the List and Labels unit of study. First the children listened to a read aloud where Frog and Toad modeled using lists and then the children were challenged to create their own lists of favorite animals. Well, the kids were immediately engaged and they had no trouble generating ideas and they were clearly using various strategies to help them write the names of the animals - such as stretching out the words - and the end results were IMPRESSIVE!  

Tech Tip of the Week...

Check out this link for some suggestions on how to creatively use iPads in the classroom - I think there are some really awesome suggestions...

10 Creative Ways to Use Your iPads in the Classroom

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, December 8 

"A" Week
Happy Monday! 
Testing Forum hosted by Joint Council PTA - 7pm

Tuesday, December 9

F.E.O. at 3pm for all staff!
Holiday Boutique - be on time!

Wednesday, December 10

Happy Wednesday!
Holiday Boutique - be on time!
Shared Decision Making Team - 3pm!
Staff Holiday FIESTA - 3:30pm

Thursday, December 11 

CST Meeting at 1:20pm
Cultural Arts!

Friday, December 12

Happy Friday!
Tony at Penn - out of the building all day!

Kids' Korner

While playing music in the lunchroom the other day (thanks to Rebecca and Alli for being our first Lunch DJs), one of the first grade kids walked up to me and asked, "Mr. Sinanis, where are all the musicians hiding? I hear the music but don't see any people playing music!" Fortunately I was able to explain that all the musicians were hiding in the iPad! 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