April 24, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

TGIF to everyone on this final Friday of April... I don't know about you, but I am totally excited for these last few weeks of school. It means celebrations, reflections on all the amazing learning that has unfolded, end of year reading assessments, the ABC Countdown, Moving Up and Field Day just to name a few! Even things will speed by, I hope we can all slow it down and reflect on all of the amazing things we have accomplished this year... thank you all for always being willing to take a risk and try something new... BEST. SCHOOL. COMMUNITY. EVER!

Special thank you to everyone, especially Joe P., for working so hard to get our little mathematicians prepared for the NYS Math Tests! I think our kids did a really amazing job and that is because our math instruction goes above and beyond the Common Core and the state of New York. Thank you Joe for setting that bar so high and pushing our kids to think critically and reach for those deeper conceptual understandings - that is always our goal. It is such a relief to be done with the majority of the state tests... enough time wasted on disrupting learning... back to what matters... KIDS!

In other news, please note that it is Annual Review and CSE season, which means MaryAnn and I, along with many of the specialists, will have crazy schedules over the next weeks in our attempt to get to every annual review and CSE meeting. There are many classified children in our building and thus there are many meetings to attend. With that in mind, I apologize in advance for disruptions to specialists' schedules and to my own schedule... running around like a chicken without a head isn't all its cracked up to be... LOL!    


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...

• I had a chance to be in Katie's room during independent reading time and I was so impressed with how comfortable and engaged the children were throughout the entire visit - they have grown so much this year! Their reading stamina has come such a long way and it was so great to watch them be so focused on their books and enjoying them so much. I don't care what NYS says because at Cantiague, we value the development of life long readers... not day-to-day test takers! BRAVO! 

• While visiting Caylie's room this week, the children were engaged in an activity connected to Earth Day... turning trash into treasures. Well, the end result was very much a Genius Hour experience because the children were taking cardboard, plastic, paper and a bunch of other types of "trash" and were creating some of the coolest new treasures. The room was buzzing with ideas and energy. The best part was, they were all immersed and engaged - AWESOME!

• While visiting Ginny's room during the shared reading experience in the morning, I was blown away by the children's ability to basically lead this experience on their own. One child was at the board with a pointer and she led the children through a reading of the poem and they were all engaged and reading the poem aloud with little teacher assistance - WOW!! Talk about lead learners! 

Tech Tip of the Week...

As we continue to plan for our upcoming Innovation Day (May 14th), I wanted to share this interesting article piece about how any classroom can be turned into a Makerspace, which aligns with many of our efforts this year (Genius Hour, Passion Projects, etc.). So, check it out and let me know if you are interested in buying any of these materials for your space so we can start putting together our own Maker Space. How To Turn Any Classroom Into A Makerspace!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, April 27

"B" Week
Alites & Kupferman - Earth Day Open House - 8:45am
Planbooks due by Thursday for all teachers!
PTA Shoe Drive is happening this week!

Tuesday, April 28

Moses - Earth Day Open House - 8:45am
Joint PTA Council - 9:30am - HS
Full staff FEO @ 3:30pm in the Library - Innovation Day - Meet at 3:30pm in the library to debrief

Wednesday, April 29

Happy Wednesday! 

Thursday, April 30

CST @ 1:20pm
Carvel Ice Cream Sale
Incoming Parent K Orientation - 7pm

Friday, May 1

Happy May Day... it's like a fresh start for all!
Grade 3 Trip
PTA Ladies Luncheon
Tony will be out today... I am defending my dissertation!

Monday, May 4

"A" Week
Happy Monday... 8 weeks before we close out for the summer!

Tuesday, May 5

No FEO this week!
Gr. 3 Chick Workshop
Gr. 5 Trip to Blue Man Group - district-wide trip
Happy Cinco De Mayo

Wednesday, May 6

Incoming Kindergarten Student Orientation - in Mandy's classroom - her students may be occupying the 2nd Computer Lab!

Thursday, May 7

CST @ 1:20pm
PTA Executive Board - 9:30am
Gr. 3 Spring Concert - 7pm
Gr. 4 Spring Concert - 8pm 

Friday, May 8

Happy TGIF!
Career Day... schedule and details to follow!

Kids' Korner

While visiting Ginny's classroom, one of her little munchkins came up to me and said, "From now I am going to call you Dr. Mustache!" Not only was the title funny but he said it with an evil voice, which made me crack up! So, I have my new personal hashtag... #DrStache!!  :)        

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

April 17, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

TGIF to everyone! I hope we all had a wonderful first week back after spring break - in spite of the ELA testing that unfolded. Thank you to our amazing teachers in Grades 3, 4 & 5 who worked so hard this year to implement sound instructional strategies to address the standards and give the children meaningful learning experiences. I think the tests were ridiculous and "unnatural" - who reads without stopping for 70 minutes and answers dozens of questions in the real world??? NO ONE except for our kids... it frustrates me beyond belief but that is a whole other newsletter! 

In the end, I can honestly say the amount of formal test prep that took place this year was the least amount that I have seen in my seven years here and I am really proud of that trend! Thank you for taking risks and incorporating ideas like Genius Hour, Shared Reading and Book Clubs, which, if implemented faithfully, will accomplish the same goals as any test prep! Also, a special thank you to our Grades K, 1 & 2 teachers for laying such a solid foundation in the areas of reading and writing workshop - our kids could not meet and exceed expectations without your efforts, which built upon one another each year! BEST TEACHERS EVER!!!

Next week is an important week because on Wednesday we celebrate Administrative Assistant's Day. In honor of this special day, I must send a huge shout out and thank you to Laura and Pam who hold down the fort each and every day. The greet everyone with a warm smile and hello, they put the needs of the children first and always figure out a way to get things done. Thank you both for being you and for taking such great care of me and our entire school community. Finally, a special thank you to Debbie, Elaine and everyone else who helps out in the Main Office each day - we are a better place because of the collaborative efforts in the office!

Finally, the Math State test for students in Grades 3, 4 & 5 will be unfolding next week on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Please make sure you review all the testing accommodations and scheduling changes to ensure a smooth and successful week for all. Here they are again in case you misplaced the links...

Testing Accommodations

Testing Scheduling Changes  

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

• Reading workshop in Jill's classroom this week has been AMAZING! I had the opportunity to visit twice this week during this time and the children have been immersed in exploring nonfiction texts and the results have been impressive. At one point hey were discussing "NL" post-its, which they were going to use to document New Learnings in their books, while at another time they discussing cartilage, which is found in sharks and they made the connection that it is also found on our noses... WOW!  

• While visiting Jen and Jeanne's room during Weekend News time, I was really impressed with how much they were pushing the kids to add volume and depth to their writing with appropriate mechanics. All of the children were actively engaged and most of them were able to generate almost two pages of text about something they did over the vacation with some great descriptive language - AWESOME! 

• While visiting our entire second grade team - Carly, Nancy, Katie and Adam - they have been working so hard with their fractured fairy tale unit in writing workshop. Their ability to manage small group conferences to scaffold the children and help them generate meaningful and appropriate fractured fairy tales has been impressive to watch. It is clear to me that small group writing conferences can be powerful - BRAVO!!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As we continue to explore different types of exit slips to serve as formative assessment opportunities, check out this article: 10 Smart Tools for Digital Exit Slips!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, April 20

"A" Week
M.S. Counselors Visit Gr. 5 in the PM

Tuesday, April 21

Grade 1 Author Visit - Library Closed
Full staff FEO @ 3pm in the Library to discuss Innovation Day... May 14th 

Wednesday, April 22

Happy Administrative Assistant Day - Thank you Laura & Pam!
Happy Earth Day!
Gr. 2 Field Trip
Gr. 3 - 5 MATH State Test

Thursday, April 23

CST @ 1:20pm
Gr. 3 - 5 MATH State Test
Board of Ed Meeting - LEGO Robotics Presentation - GO JOE!

Friday, April 24

Happy TGIF!
Gr. 3 - 5 MATH State Test

Kids' Korner

After the testing, one of the third graders said to me, "Mr. Sinanis, I love independent reading but hate reading for the state tests because the stories are so boring and hard to understand." From the mouths of babes...        

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