March 27, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

TGIF to everyone on this final Friday of March... that is right my friends... April arrives next Wednesday, which is unreal. I want to wish everyone a happy Spring Break and happy holidays for anyone celebrating anything. This break will be my final chance to finish the dissertation... I hope I can return on April 13th sharing that it is all DONE!

Meanwhile, we have less than 3 months of school left and before we know it, we will be kicking off our awesome ABC Countdown - I cannot wait! Unfortunately, before then, we have to get through the state tests for ELA, Math and Science (for Grade 4). The week after the break is the ELA on Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday, which means that some services will be cancelled and many rooms will be used for testing - but, I am happy to say that it will be less disruptive than last year. 

Also, all of the children OPTING OUT will be supervised in the Library where they will be encouraged to read, write or draw quietly - no massive hangout! The children will be supervised by Matt, Debbie C. and Alana as their students have also OPTED OUT - thank you in advance to the three of you!

Please make sure you review all scheduling changes for the upcoming week so we are all where we are supposed to be at the right time! Click on the links below to access the scheduling changes and test modifications...

Scheduling Changes

Test Modifications

I want to take a moment to thank all of you for your hard work over the last week or two with getting report cards done and handling the onslaught of conferences this week... you all AMAZE me! From all the specialists who attend every team meeting, to all the classroom teachers who facilitate every conversation, to all the aides who provide the specific data and information, the feedback from our families is always positive. They know that we put children at the center of our work here and our kids are happy, they feel safe and are supported by each of you until they meet with success. BRAVO! I am honored to be associated with this learning organization. 

Finally, best of luck to Amanda Longo on her new job! Welcome back to Melissa Cerullo! Congrats to Janine Maione! And best of luck to Christina G., Gina and Mallory on their new gigs after the spring break... we know you will all be awesome!

Please not this Fast Friday Focus will cover the next two weeks so hold on to it for the necessary information! 


This week, as I walked around #Cantiague this week, I spotted the following #EduWins...

• Last week, while visiting Jen and Jeanne's room with some guests, we were blown away by how engaged each child was using the Epic site/app for the independent reading block. The children were exploring nonfiction text features and they each had a device or desktop computer to access the site. They were doing such a great job and were completing the task with high levels of success and minimal reading support needed from the teachers - thank you for taking such a different type of "risk" with technology - BRAVO!! 

• This week I had the chance to spend time in our Learning Center with Karina, Harriet and Kelly and all I can say is... WOW! Each teacher did such a different type of lesson but the common features included different instructional approaches throughout the forty-minute period to keep the students engaged and tap into their strengths. They also used such wonderful techniques for reinforcing the behaviors they wanted to see in the children and the results were impressive. Clearly we have an AWESOME resource here so please don't hesitate to ask the Learning Center for ideas and strategies you can use in your classrooms!

• While visiting Mandy's room I was blown away by their work as poets. The children were working in small groups and generating poems about someone they love and hearing their exchanges to help generate ideas was not only adorable but really impressive. At the same time that most of the children were independently working in their groups, Mandy pulled a small group for a writing conference while Terri supported another group... it was writing workshop at its best! 

Tech Tip of the Week...

As we continue to plan for our upcoming Innovation Day (May 14th), I wanted to share this interesting article with suggestions on how one could HACK their classroom! Hacking is really about disruption, which is ultimately a form of innovation. So, check out 7 Ways To Hack Your Classroom!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, March 30

"A" Week
Grade 5 DNA Lab Trip - Garrison/Malone
Gr. 3 - 5 Math After school Test Prep - Final Day!

Tuesday, March 31

Grade 5 DNA Lab Trip - Levlons/Siper
Full staff FEO @ 3pm in the Library - Review Testing & open common planning time

Wednesday, April 1

Happy April Fool's Day... and Welcome Spring Break!
Gr. 3 - 5 ELA After school Test Prep - Final Day!

Monday, April 13

"B" Week
Happy Monday... Welcome Back!

Tuesday, April 14

Gr. 3 - 5 ELA Testing... approximately 9am to 11am
No FEO this week!

Wednesday, April 15

Gr. 3 - 5 ELA Testing... approximately 9am to 11am

Thursday, April 16

CST @ 1:20pm
Gr. 3 - 5 ELA Testing... approximately 9am to 11am
Jericho Alumni Hall of Fame - 7pm JPL

Friday, April 17

Happy TGIF!

Kids' Korner

This one actually comes from a parent... he stopped in on her way to a conference and said, "Mr. Sinanis, I cannot thank you and your teachers enough for all that you do - from the secretaries to the custodians to the classroom teachers I have never seen a more positive group of people who clearly love their jobs and love the kids!" And that, my friends, is the absolute truth... #Cantiague is a special place!        

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

March 13, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone! Hope everyone has some great plans for the weekend especially with the temps finally above the single digits- I know I am THRILLED!!! As you are reading this, I am in Washington D.C. participating in Digital Learning Day, which is the kickoff for the Teaching and Learning Conference. I am so excited to be presenting and representing our school community alongside people like Linda Darling-Hammond, Andy Hargreaves, Randi Weingarten and Martin Luther King III (check out all the speakers here and if you scroll down in the ABC order, you will see me) in an event supported by the Department of Education and the White House under the umbrella of the #FutureReady initiative. It is pretty exciting to bring the work we are doing at Cantiague to the national stage... GO #CANTIAGUE!!

In other news, the good ole dissertation is coming along... about 115 pages written so far and nearing the end. It is such a consuming and laborious process but it will be done soon - I could not have survived the last three years without all the support from my Cantiague family - thank you. I am scheduled to defend my dissertation on Friday, May 1st and assuming I get it all written and that goes well, I will unofficially be done! Graduation is on Saturday, May 16th and I am super excited for that event too. I am hoping that Paul will be able to join me too - part of this whole journey has been about him and him understanding the importance of working hard for something you value! 

Finally, a special thank you to everyone who came out to the PTA Game Night Event - it meant the world to me to see so many of your faces in the crowd from all the tweets - you all ROCK!

Please not this Fast Friday Focus will cover the next two weeks so hold on to it for the necessary information! 


This week, as I walked around #Cantiague this week, I spotted the following #EduWins...

• Carolyn took the whole Genius Hour experience to another level this week with a snowman building challenge! That's right - Genius Hour went outdoors and it was awesome. The children were challenged to work in groups and their task was to build the tallest snowman possible and the results were impressive. This whole experience was important for so many reasons... not only did the kids get outdoors and move around for the physical well-being but they also worked collaboratively and accessed their critical thinking skills during the challenge and that is all at the core of 21st Century skills... BRAVO! 

• Melanie and her kids for trying Google Presentation/Slides as a way to share the children's passions and interests. Giving our children access to collaborative cloud based resources like Google docs or Google classroom will make them a lot more college and career ready than any multiple choice based test! I also have loved watching the book clubs unfold in Melanie's classroom - the kids have had some great discussions and seeing them build their levels of independence are impressive!

• Genius Hour is on FIRE at Cantiague and I thank you all for even taking a risk and incorporating this hour into your classrooms in some way, shape or form! I can tell you that I have gotten a LOT of positive feedback from the children and families and when we get positive buzz, it is a great sign that we should keep doing it! So, please continue to share your Genius Hour ideas across the grade levels... the results have been AWESOME! 

• Finally, if you didn't see it in the email I sent out earlier in the week, check out the Student-Led PTA Meeting because they were truly awesome. It is about 10 minutes but well worth your time... 

Tech Tip of the Week...

To shift gears a little this week, I wanted to share this 2 minute video that Christina B. (thank you) shared with me last week. It is such a positive reframing to dealing with a bullying situation and I would LOVE to try something like this at #Cantiague... Maybe Thursday, March 26th? Check it out and let me know what you think...

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, March 16

"A" Week
Gr. 3 - 5 Math After school Test Prep

Tuesday, March 17

Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Grade 5 Articulation Meetings - All Day- Faculty Room
Full staff FEO @ 3pm in the Library - 5th Graders Teaching us about Google Classroom, Docs & More! 

Wednesday, March 18

Suzy Kline visits with Grade 2 - Library Closed!
Kindergarten Field Trip - Hofstra
Gr. 3 - 5 ELA After school Test Prep

Thursday, March 19

CST @ 1:20pm
Budget Review Meeting - Board of Ed. at 7:30pm
PTA Staff Appreciation Luncheon - Library closed!

Friday, March 20

Happy TGIF!
Tony's LAST WEEKEND of classes at Penn!

Monday, March 23

"B" Week
PTA Joint Council - 9:30am at Jackson
Gr. 3 - 5 Math After school Test Prep
Tony is out because Paul is having surgery

Tuesday, March 24

Report Cards posted today
No FEO this week!

Wednesday, March 25

Gr. 3 - 5 ELA After school Test Prep

Thursday, March 26

CST @ 1:20pm
Board of Education Meeting at 7:30pm
Parent/Teacher Conferences - 3-5pm; 7-9pm
Positive Post-It Day??

Friday, March 27

Happy TGIF!
NO School for Students... Parent/Teacher Conferences

Kids' Korner

On my birthday one of the first graders said to me, "Mr. Sinanis, you look good for an old man!" LOL... thanks, I think!        

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

March 6, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

TGIF to everyone (and Happy Snow Day because technically it is Thursday when this is being published). I hope we all had a wonderful first week of March! It was a busy week with so much great stuff happening. I hope everyone has some fun plans for the weekend. It is great to see the weather starting to warm up a little bit... maybe some of this ice and snow will finally start to melt (after this last snowstorm of course)! 

In other news, congrats to Caylie, who will be taking over for Janine during her leave. Caylie, we know you will do an AWESOME job and Janine we will miss you!

I am not sure how many of you watched the Oscars a couple of weeks ago but the one speech that resonated with me was by Graham Moore, who struggled with being gay in his teens, but framed it in such a positive way here...

Let's remind our kids that it is OK to be WEIRD! Thank you to my friend Jay who shared this quote with me last week and was the inspiration for sharing it with you today. 

One of the focal points we need to be considering for next year is the idea of teaching our children about digital literacy and citizenship. This will be a critical opportunity and focus for us as our integration of various technologies, including devices, Google for Education apps and students digitally publishing their work, increases, we need to be proactive and teach our children the skills they need to be successful in a digital age... that continues to grow and evolve. I would like to make a few suggestions... 

• One would be putting a vertical team together (one representative from each grade level & any interested specialists) to help develop our own digital citizenship curriculum using the many online resources that already exist (we are NOT reinventing the wheel). This team could meet a few times during the remainder of this year to come up with a rough plan, which will continue to evolve... this won't be something set in stone... it will be a living document. Although I know we barely have room to "add anything else" this is another aspect of character development and social and emotional literacy we need to be addressing that can replace other "stuff" or be incorporated into reading workshop, writing workshop or even social studies. It can also happen in the computer lab during your scheduled times or in addition if that works better... whatever the case, we will figure it out but it is imperative that we are proactive in this area;

• A second component would be increasing the opportunities for us to model appropriate digital citizenship for our children - our modeling is critical. Whether we walk our students through composing a tweet (they can all do this with a little supervision) so they can begin sharing the stories in our classrooms or allow them to comment on each other's work using Google Docs (some of our kids are already doing this too) or showing them how to write an email, we need to model for our kids whenever possible!

• Finally, I am suggesting everyone check out the Common Sense Media Scope and Sequence for Digital Citizenship and maybe even try a couple of lessons. This is broken up between Grades K - 2 and then Grades 3 - 5 and beyond. It is some basic stuff and not that many lessons - definitely worth trying a lesson or two at some point during the remainder of the year to see if it is something that would work well for our children.  

This week, as I walked around #Cantiague this week, I spotted the following #EduWins...

• Karen took a risk and took her kids outside to play in the snow this week - what an awesome time! It was so great to see the kids just being kids and having fun running in the mountains of snow, building snowmen and just having a good time. In my mind, these are the moments that define the elementary school experience... I hope more of you might be willing to try some fun in the snow (please inform the parents in advance so the children are prepared). 

• Kudos to our Grade 3 team for taking the #GeniusHour experience and making it a family event during their Open House this week... it was really AWESOME! Although all the families were experiencing Genius Hour, it looked a little different in each room, which is what makes it even more awesome from my lens. Whether the families were redefining a brown bag, transforming a paper plate or taking on the marshmallow challenge, they were all really actively engaged. I can honestly say, it was one of the most engaging Open House events I have ever witnessed... families were not allowed to sit back and be passive audience members. They were building, cutting, pasting, discussing and having a GREAT time. BRAVO! 

• In kindergarten the children are in the midst of a poetry study in writer's workshop and this week I had a chance to hang out in Ally's class and work with a small group while they tried to generate a poem about a marshmallow (lots of marshmallows going on this week)! The children were challenged to create a list poem and I was so impressed with the words they were using to describe the marshmallow... squishy, tasty, yummy, soft and white just to name a few. I was totally blown away by their vocabulary. They were having such a great time coming up with the words and of course, in the end, they had a blast eating the marshmallows (yes, I had some too)... AWESOME!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As we continue to consider the ways we can use Google in the classroom, check out this resource: 5 Ways Google Tools Can Make Education More Exciting!




SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, March 9

"B" Week
Happy Monday & Happy World Language Week!
Gr. 3 - 5 Math After school Test Prep

Tuesday, March 10

PTA Meeting at 9:30am - Our kids will be talking debate/argument writing!
Full staff FEO @ 3pm in the Library to finish our activity from last time and discuss Innovation Day... May 14th 

Wednesday, March 11

Gr. 3 - 5 ELA After school Test Prep

Thursday, March 12

CST @ 1:20pm
PTA Game Night @ 6:30pm - please join us!

Friday, March 13

Happy TGIF!
End of the Second Marking Period

Kids' Korner

Last week I had the chance to play CandyLand with some kindergarten students (definitely one of the highlights of the week) and during the game they were clearly kicking my butt (I never came out of last place). Anyway, right before I left, one of them said to me, "Don't worry Mr. Sinanis, I think you're a winner!" That might have been one of the sweetest things EVER!        

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