October 23, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy TGIF to everyone! It is hard to believe that we are about to embark on the final week of October - the first two months of school have ZOOMED by - at least from my perspective! More importantly, it is the best October in a LONG time with our Amazin' Mets heading to the World Series for the first time in fifteen years - WOOOOO HOOOOO! I cannot tell you how excited I am about this postseason, especially because I have been able to share it with Paul and Felix who are becoming quite the baseball fanatics. So, as we prep for the next week, which also happens to be PARP Week, let's not forget to cheer on our local team... LET'S GO METS!!! #LGM

I am also excited about the upcoming weekend - it will be a busy one! Friday is my mom's birthday so we are having a family dinner. Saturday is the Fall Festival and then in the evening my family and I are going to PA to be in the audience at a taping of The Price is Right... I am SO EXCITED about this because I have always been a fan of the show!! I am so hoping to get picked to get on stage. Finally, on Sunday, I am teaching a course, through Skype, at Penn - it is such an honor to teach in the program I just graduated from and connect with a batch of new doctoral students. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful week filled with meaningful learning opportunities, exciting teaching experience and some happiness! It is always so amazing to walk our hallways because our children get so much individual attention and instruction and I cannot say enough about how much 1:1 instruction can impact a child - thank you for dedicating yourselves to meeting the needs of our children. With that in mind, please be conscious of the amount of HW being given each night to each child... less is more and not everyone needs the same HW! Finally, please do not assign ANY HW over the Halloween weekend - we want our kids to have lots of fun!


#EDUWINS for the week included...

• Small group/station math games in Rosanna and Alex's class while Joe was pushing in - it was awesome to watch! Every child was engaged with their math game/activity and each adult in the room was facilitating a group and it was awesome to watch. The power of small group instruction, even when there is only one adult in the room, can be transformational. Proximity matters!

• Reading workshop in Allison and Marissa's room was really impressive this week! I had the chance to observe a lesson where the children were challenged to determine the theme of shared classroom texts and then their independent reading books. It is such an abstract concept to teach and the teachers led the conversation that pushed the children to notice how the characters responded to challenges as a way to determine the theme. After the mini-lesson, there were two small groups, independent reading conferences, a mid-workshop check-in and then a wrap up at the end. It was a thorough and complete workshop that met the needs of the readers - WOW!

• Reading workshop in Rande's room was really engaging to watch! She focused the mini-lesson on making inferences using WONDER as the anchor text to practice the skill. The children were then challenged to make inferences using their independent reading books. While the children were reading independently, Rande was able to pull a small group for a strategy lesson and she was able to confer with each child in the group and give them specific feedback on their development as readers! She also managed to check in with individual students and then brought the class together for a whole group share - it was a robust and complete workshop... and there was only one adult in the room - AWESOME!  

Tech Tip of the Week...
Check out these awesome (& short) video tutorials on all things Google! They are listed by topic and generally run just a few minutes. And if you are like me, you will appreciate the visuals to support the step by step guide... Google Tutorials 

Blogs Worth Reading...
3 Things Students Desire To Hear From Teachers by Dr. Desaultes

60 Things Students Can Create To Demonstrate What They Know by Terry Heick (this is AWESOME)!!!

Helping Students Become Better Online Researchers by Sarah Muthler

Staff Reflection/Blog...
Our latest post comes from Nancy and Carly (Team Marsen) who share a personal reflection on the importance of digital citizenship from a young age...

Growing up in today’s digital world is fun and exciting yet challenging for kids, parents, and let’s face it, for us teachers too.  Think about it-Social Media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, texting, Facetime, email and about a million other ways to connect with people are on a larger scale) bring people closer together, but also create everyday  challenges for people of ALL ages.    

Let’s talk about #HaveTheTalk! It is this week’s hot topic on Common Sense Media and also seems to be on our brains as well.  We can’t tell you how often we say things like “We are so glad we didn’t grow up like these kids are today!” or “Life was so much easier before technology.” Yes- the benefits are truly amazing- connecting with people all over the world, shopping at the click of a button, access to a world of literature, music, coupons, movies and so much more.  Yet, the struggles that accompany all of this weigh heavy on our minds.  

Carly’s 3 year old daughter is completely infatuated with YouTube. Her favorite thing right now is to click on that red button and watch girls open eggs to find toys, watch kids play with Play-Doh and create things, or watch people playing with Shopkins.  It’s all innocent and in good fun through Ava’s eyes. Until one day, the suggested videos led Ava to watch grown up princesses playing flip cup at a party and chugging beer.  Is this really what we want our young children exposed to at such a young age? How does YouTube allow this to be a suggested sight connected to something so innocent?  Not exactly! This particular time was most likely harmless, but what if the next time it’s not so harmless? Ava’s growing up in a world, where even at the young age of 3, she needs to learn to be a Digital Citizen.  As a parent, I also need to be monitoring, more closely, what she is doing on the iPad.  It’s easy to use it as babysitter. It keeps her happy and quiet (which is rare), but that comes with dangerous consequences.  

Nancy’s 14 year old daughter is connected to friends through various social media sights such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and possibly others that she may be not aware of.  Rachel has enough challenges growing up as teenage girl on Long Island, in addition, to the academic pressure, hormonal changes, friendship struggles and clicks, and comparing herself to her “friends!”  Parenting her is a full time job! As parents, we always try to be our child’s tutor, doctor, therapist, friend, and role-model.  Now, we also need to be tech savvy/sneaky to ensure the safety of our children.  It’s a fine balance between giving your child privacy, but also being “in the know.” In Rachel’s world, it’s all about the amount of “likes” she gets within a certain amount of time.  She equates her self-esteem with these numbers and comments that go along with the pictures posted.  With Snapchat, she constantly knows where her friends are and who they are with.   Being included or left-out is taken to a whole new level with social media.  Kids today need “tough skin” and parents that listen and guide them. The conversation after school is, “Put the phone away! It’s interfering with your homework.” Or “Are you using your phone to help you with your homework?”  

As adults, we also face challenges of feeling accepted and envious of others and the things they are posting. We may not be as concerned with number of friends we have, or the number of “likes” we get on a photo, our main focus on Facebook is to connect with family and old friends.  We see the positive aspects of social media. We need to teach our children to be digital citizens early on, so they can enjoy the benefits social media truly has to offer.  Think about the impact Twitter has had on our school. At first, it seemed as though taking pictures and posting them to Twitter was an inconvenience.  However, we have truly come to love and embrace it.  It allows parents, other educators, and friends and family (near and far) to see exactly what is going on in our classrooms.  It gives others a lens into our classroom and lets our followers know what, how, and why we are teaching students.  We can’t tell you how often we say how much we wish our own kids’ teachers had Twitter. We would jump for joy to see a picture of them learning, or in action on the playground! It is a powerful way to communicate and connect, and we are so thankful to have been encouraged to try it.  

This week is called “Digital Citizenship Week-It’s Time to have the Talk!” and we are doing just that in our classroom and in our personal lives. Take a few minutes to think about yourself, personally and professionally, in the digital world.  Are you “in the know”? Are you a “Digital Citizen”? Is your child/student a “Digital Citizen”? www.commonsensemedia.org for information and lesson plans to help educate and learn to be an advocate for kids, families and schools. 

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, October 26
"A" Week
Specialist Read Aloud - first period
PARP Week 
Gr. 4 & 5 Literacy Check-In Meetings with Tony

Tuesday, October 27 

BYOD Literacy Day - please allow your children to bring devices in for tech based literacy!
FEO at 3pm for teachers only in the Library!
Gr. 1, 2 & 3 Literacy Check-In Meetings with Tony

Wednesday, October 21

EdCampCantiague - Sup. Conf. Day at Cantiague... get your awesome sessions READY!

Thursday, October 22

CST @ 1:20pm
Jester Jim Assemblies

• Gr. 3 - 5 at 8:45am
• Gr. K - 2 at 10:15am

Friday, October 30

Happy TGIF!
Students & Staff are welcome to dress up for Halloween
PARB is happening today... 

• Gr. K & 1 - 8:40 to 9:10am
• Gr. 4 & 5 - 9:20 to 9:50am
• Gr. 2 & 3 - 9:55 to 10:25am

Reminders... 

• Please limit the HW during PARP Week and NO HW on Halloween weekend!
• Next FEO meeting will be November 10th for all staff!
• Planbooks to be submitted next week; remember, there are alternatives - ask me about them!