Issue 7 - Oct. 26

Happy Friday to all! I hope you all had a wonderful and relatively stress-free week! I had the pleasure of attending the Long Island Technology Summit on Wednesday and it was so awesome - I cannot wait to share some of the great things that were shared at the conference. I learned how to create a QR Code (see the image below this paragraph and if you have an iPhone or iPad with the free scanning app downloaded, scan the QR code and see where it takes you), how to build an APP, how to turn an iPad into a Whiteboard and a bunch of other cool things that I think could be useful in the classroom!

As a follow up to our Faculty Meeting on Tuesday, thank you for confirming the plans for the night of the Curriculum Fair. I will email the parents in the next few days reminding them about that event and sharing the following plan... Kindergarten = MindUp; First Grade = Literacy Centers; Second Grade = Text Savvy; Third Grade = Tech/Blogging; Fourth Grade = Science or Math Games (let me know) and Fifth Grade = Science. Please let me know if any changes are made to this plan! Thank you for figuring this out so quickly - I know this will be a special night for our entire Blue Ribbon school community! In regards to the Blue Ribbon Celebration in Washington DC in November, I just wanted to share that MaryAnn will be joining me at the celebration as the teacher representing our school. MaryAnn worked so hard with the Compact Committee and other groups to help complete multiple essays for our Blue Ribbon application and then spearheaded my nomination for the Terrell Bell Award - THANK YOU MaryAnn!

On another note, I would like to spotlight some of our amazing part-time Teacher Aides - Janet, Elaine, Debbie, Olga, Chris, Mary and Diane. I would argue that these ladies have some of the toughest jobs in the building but they always do them with a smile and with the best interests of the children at heart! As if all of their hard work in the lunchroom and at recess weren't enough, they are also doing a lot of other things to help out around the building. Elaine has done amazing work in the Science and Reading rooms - no matter what the job, Elaine always goes above and beyond to make the results perfect! Janet has proven to be such an invaluable resource throughout the building - from supporting instruction in the Computer Lab to troubleshooting various tech issues in the building! Chris and Mary continue to support the Health Office and we would never be able to be successful without their support. Diane and Olga are always running around and helping out in different classrooms and the Main Office whenever they have a free moment - their hard work ethic is admirable! Finally, Debbie has contributed so much to the Library in her daily work supporting Lorraine's efforts and she continues to oversee the entire lunch and recess experience and even squeezes in time to help out in the Main Office. This is an amazing team and Cantiague Elementary is a Blue Ribbon School because of your hard work!

The awesome visits continued this week (I know, its not a surprise)! Yesterday afternoon I had the chance to spend time in Clare's room while she worked with Risa's class and I had a blast watching the kids engage and enthusiastically participate. Clare introduced them to a Halloween song and then gave them each an instrument to play at a specific point in the song and the kids were beyond excited to be having this musical experience (check out the pic below). The arts are such a critical component of the development of the brain and this experience was the perfect example because it gave every learner (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) an entry point - BRAVO! I also had a chance to spend some time in Allison's room and was so impressed by their growth since the beginning of the school year. In the forty minute period I was there, the children sat through a Reader's Toolbox mini-lesson (using picture clues to decipher unfamiliar vocabulary), all of them read independently while Allison pulled a strategy group who needed support (check out the pic below) and then the whole class came back together on the rug for a whole group share and self-assessment experience to discuss whether or not they were able to apply the reading tool. The whole experience was so robust and meaningful that it could have easily been a 1st or 2nd grade classroom. I was also fortunate enough to stumble upon Carolyn during Writing Workshop the other day (see the pic below). The children were at the editing stage of the publication process with their first publications of the year. The experience started with the whole class sitting on the rug in a circle with Carolyn facilitating a conversation about what it means to edit and what things they might attend to while editing. The children then worked in partnerships to peer edit while Carolyn supported specific partners and students. The whole group then gathered at the end for a share and it was clear that they successfully edited for things like punctuation, spelling and overall mechanics - they did an awesome job!

I also had a chance to visit Jen and Joe's room in the morning while the class was working in the area of mathematics. Joe was in the back working with two students who needed a modified and differentiated experience while Jen was gathered at the SMARTBoard with a small group who needed some support; and the rest of the class was working independently. The tone in the room was amazing and the children were all so engaged in their work - it is impressive to see how much they have grown since the start of the school year and to observe the power of the co-teaching model! Additionally, earlier in the week I had a chance to visit with the fourth grade as they were sharing their first published pieces of the year, which are now hanging up in their hallway. I loved the way the share was set up - the kids from all three classes were spread across the three rooms and engaged with a partner to share their pieces and offer each other feedback - it was awesome (see the pic below)! Finally, thank you all for making Red Ribbon Week such a huge success - check out the picture below of Rande's class who were a sea of red on Thursday!

Tech Tip of the Week...

I am thrilled to share that even more teachers in our amazing school have started their own blogs - ROCK ON Team Cantiague! I would like to share some more of the wonderful blogs started in our school over the last week or so...

Huzarsky's Happenings- http://huzarskyshappenings.blogspot.com/

Kalish's Cool Crew - http://room11ultimateblog.blogspot.com/ 

Moses' Marvelous Kids - http://mrsmosesclassnews.blogspot.com/ 

Please check out the blogs and leave some comments - everyone would appreciate it!

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, October 29

"B" Week
All Planbooks Due for All Staff
PARP Week Kicks Off - PARB Gr. 2 & 3 @ 8:45am

Tuesday, October 30
PARP Week - PARB Gr. K & 1 @ 8:45am
Faculty Meeting - Gr. K - 3 - 3PM in the Library

Wednesday, October 31
HAPPY HALLOWEEN
PARP Week- PJ Day & Community Read-In @ 8:45am

CST at 1:20pm

Thursday, November 1

PARP Week - Jester Jim Family Assembly!

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

Cultural Arts Begins

Friday, November 2

Happy Friday!
PARP Week - PARB Gr. 4 & 5 @ 8:45am
Gr. 5 Bake Sale at lunch
Weisblack - Whole Foods Trip
Gr. 5 SPORTS NIGHT @ 6:30pm

Kids' Korner

Yesterday, while I was playing handball with some 2nd and 3rd graders (yes, I play against them because it is an ego boost being that I often win) when one of them walked over to me and said, "Shouldn't you really be walking around and supervising people instead of just playing games?" I think maybe Kelly caught this kid's ear! LOL!

Pics of the Week...

Fun in the Music Room                    Joe differentiating instruction



Allison with a Strategy Group         Jen with a small Math Group

 

Rande's Class on Red Day                Carolyn supporting the Editing Process

 

Karen listening to a share                  Alex working 1:1 with a child


Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Nov. 15th (this one is at Cantiague to celebrate our Blue Ribbon Award!!)
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th



Issue 6 - Oct. 19

Curriculum Connections...

HAPPY TGIF to the entire Cantiague Community! I hope you are all doing well and that everyone had a wonderful week. Thank you to everyone for making our annual Book Fair experience a huge success! Please feel free to send a note, email or card to the PTA (they have a mailbox or you can email one of them directly) thanking them for organizing this amazing book fair and for the Wish List opportunity. This whole book fair experience is not easy to plan and execute (I have watched Kelly at home) so I know they will appreciate any expressions of gratitude!

Before I forget, just a reminder that at our Faculty Meeting this Tuesday, we do need to make a decision about our focus for the Curriculum Fair on November 15th! Please come to the table with some ideas... I am open to anything! 

This week the amazing visits continued and I am literally left walking out of many classrooms just shaking my head because I cannot believe what is going on every minute of the day in our building. WOW is the only word that accurately captures it! Late last week I had the chance to visit Rande's room during Reading Workshop and the children the were learning to synthesize and apply two different skills - making inferences and identifying character traits so they could make inferences about the character traits based on their actions and dialogue. This type of synthesis and application can be so challenging yet Rande effectively modeled for them and scaffolded them for independent success. While there I also observed a reading conference and the process Rande used, where the children also referred back to a reading goal they established at the start of the week was impressive - talk about accountability (see two pics below - a picture of the conference sheet and the kids reading independentlyy)! I also had the opportunity to see two of our labsites with Lisa D. in Grade 2 and Grade 1 last week. I was so impressed with the fact that our first graders were learning about envisioning and previewing and preparing. Meanwhile, in Grade 2, aside from the shared reading synthesizing lesson, the teachers practiced enhancing the timing of their independent reading conferences (see the pic below of Nancy and Lesley) and they were able to get two conferences done in 10 minutes - impressive! I also had a chance to visit Mandy's classroom while the children were launching back to back independent reading time and needless to say, it was something that could have been videotaped as a model experience! The children were actively engaged the whole time and were excited about reading while Mandy pulled a group of four students on the rug for a Guided Reading lesson and in 8 minutes she was able to set the children up to access the text and they continued the activity during the next reading block - talk about awesome time management skills (by the way, Mandy did Shared Reading right after the independent block and their previewing and preparing skills were superb!)!

I also had a chance to spend more time in the Science room with Laurie and the fourth graders and had a lot of fun watching them use the stream tables to see how the process of erosion and deposition are impacted by different variables such as the force of the water or the incline of the streaming table. Their conversations at the end were impressive! Earlier in the week I had a chance to watch Jacquie with our second graders who were comparing the weight of different things using scales. They were so engaged an excited about what they were learning (see the pic below). Finally, I had a chance to spend some time in the gym yesterday with Rob and Phil as they played the game Pinned Down with second graders. The period flowed so nicely and the children launched the experience with warm up exercises (the guys even incorporateted a version of Deal or No Deal, which the kids loved) and laps around the gym. After that Rob and Phil explicitly modeled and explained how to best throw and roll the ball to try and maximize the number of pins knocked down. It was great and the children had a blast! Again, thank you all for sharing these amazing learning opportunities with me!

As we bring this week to a close I just wanted to quickly share one thought... if anyone is uncomfortable with me spotlighting them or mentioning their name in this weekly blog or if they dont feel comfortable with pictures from their classroom being used, please let me know because I most definitely want to respect everyone's personal feelings on the matter. Even though I see this newsletter as an opportunity to celebrate all that is awesome about Cantiague, I dont want people to be concerned about what is being shared. Thank you again for letting me spotlight all of the awesomness taking place in our building! 

Tech Tip of the Week...

In case you haven't heard, more people in our building have started a blog as a result of the recent Blogging 101 session. Instead of spotlighting outside tech resources, I would like to share some more of the wonderful blogs started in our school (teacher and student blogs!!)...

Team Maione -  http://maionegrade3.blogspot.com/2012/10/october-reading.html 

Samuel Lee (in Janine's class) - http://samuellees.blogspot.com/ - his work is AWESOME!

Weisblack- http://teamweisblack.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-bully-blockers-club-as-part-of.html- now it is up and running and it is a great post!

Please check out the blogs and leave some comments - everyone would appreciate it!

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, October 22

Weisblack Whole Foods Trip

Red Ribbon Week Kick Off

Tuesday, October 23
Montonelli Whole Foods Trip
Faculty Meeting - All Staff - 3PM in the Library

Wednesday, October 24

School Store Launch - during Lunch Periods
CST at 1:20pm

Hats Off To Healthy Living - Wear Your Favorite Hat to support Healthy Living
Tony is out of the building at a Conference

Thursday, October 25

Gr. 2 Trip - Queens County Farm!
Wear Red to Support Healthy Habits

Friday, October 26

Happy Friday!
Team Up for Healthy Living - wear your favorite sports team jersey/t-shirt

Kids' Korner

Yesterday, while I was playing tag (I think that is what we were doing) with the first graders at recess one of them stopped and said, "Mr. Sinanis I love having you run after me because I feel like I have my own big scary monster chasing me!" and he laughed hysterically! Compliment? I don't think so! LOL!

Pics of the Week...

                   
Conference Sheet Rande uses                               Kids reading in Rande's room

                  
Lesley & Nancy timing the conference                    2nd Grade Writing sample

           
Joey showing off his Prezi to Hank!           Marissa conducting a nonfiction rdg conf

            
     2nd Gr. having fun in Science                     4th Gr. baking NYS cookie cakes!

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Nov. 15th (this one is at Cantiague to celebrate our Blue Ribbon Award!!)
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th



Issue 5 - Oct. 12

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to all and hello to a wonderful weekend ahead! It is hard to believe that we are already in the middle of October - this whole "life speeding by" thing is not working for me! Meanwhile, as a follow up to our Faculty Meeting this week, I am happy to share that everything was resolved at Paul's school regarding his aide. His new aide is Mr. Luke, who is about 20 years old and wants to be an Art Teacher. He also loves everything Marvel Comics and Star Wars so Paul has a new buddy! Thank you all for asking and caring about my family - it means so much to me!

I also want to thank our amazing teacher aides for their incredible in the Library - it is totally ready for the Halloween experience. I think you should all consider opening an interior design business together as a side job!  :)

I would also like to spotlight the efforts of Christina G. who is working with one of our new second graders. Her student requires significant behavioral support and academic interventions to meet with success but no matter what the challenge, Christina always handles it with a smile and an incredibly positive attitude! Thank you for all of your work Christina!

As I mentioned at our Faculty Meeting the level of instruction and learning that is unfolding every minute of every day in our building is sick (in a really good way) and like nothing I have ever seen before in my life! I have been conducting random unannounced observations throughout the last month and no matter what time of day, I can always stumble upon something amazing happening in one of your spaces - BRAVO! This week I had a chance to spend some time in the Literacy Lab with both Ginny's and Jill's classes as they were getting ready to select a piece from their writing folders for publication as part of the Writing Workshop experience. The thoughtfulness and collaborative opportunities that unfolded while the children narrowed down their choices was impressive. While visiting with Jill's children, I was blown away by the conversations that were taking place between writing buddies who were trying to help each other select the best piece for publication! Then I had a chance to watch Lesley and her kids during the Shared Reading experience and they were working on the Envisioning skill, which could be so challenging. Lesley had the children create their own "movie strip" where they sketched the images they visualized after reading a poem - really important skill for the children to master! Additionally, I had a chance to visit Risa's room while the children were engaged in drafting their writing pieces and preparing them for publication. It was so awesome watching all the children immersed in their work - not one head looked up the entire time - while both Risa and Terri were conferring with students and offering them feedback on their writing - it was truly impressive!

I also had a chance to spend time in the Science room with Laurie and the fourth graders and had a lot of fun watching them fully immerse rocks in different types of solutions to see if they would erode or start falling apart. The children were so excited and could not wait to see the results of their experiments - this is exactly what a science experience should include - enthusiasm and excitement about the scientific process! Furthermore, I had a chance to spend some time with both our FLES teachers - Milissa and Ilene - and really enjoyed watching how much fun the children were having in both 1st and 4th grades! Milissa had the children presenting various skits in Spanish and the kids did such an awesome job - not only performing, but also speaking completely in Spanish! Then Ilene had the first graders taking turns identifying the different colors in Spanish, which they all did correctly and were able to come up to the board to color in different objects with the correctly identified colors - MUY BIEN! I also had a chance to visit Allison's classroom two days in a row while the children were launching back to back independent reading time and needless to say, I was really impressed. It was their first time really experiencing their "just right" books and using a process where the books they read were in one pile and the books they still needed to read were in another pile. The children were actively engaged the whole time and were excited about reading - that is the bottom line - instilling a love for reading in our children! Finally, I got to hang out in the Library while Lorraine was reading a book to a kindergarten class and words cannot do it any justice but all I can say is if you have some free time, you have to watch Lorraine read a Piggie and Gerald book to a class - it is one of the most dynamic and engaging experiences you will ever have! Again, thank you all for sharing these amazing learning opportunities with me!

Tech Tip of the Week...

In case you haven't heard, MORE teachers in our building have started a blog as a result of the recent Blogging 101 session. Instead of spotlighting outside tech resources, I would like to share some more of the wonderful blogs started in our school...

Team Marsen- http://teammarsen.blogspot.com/

Team Montonelli- http://montonelli.blogspot.com/ 

Weisblack- http://teamweisblack.blogspot.com/ - still under construction!

Please check out the blogs and leave some comments - everyone would appreciate it! I also look forward to sharing more blogs in the future!

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, October 15

Gr. 5 Author Visit at JPL- 9am

Gr. 1 Trip - BOCES Outdoor Ed

Tuesday, October 16

Book Fair - Please Follow Schedule

Wednesday, October 17

CST at 1:20pm

Book Fair - Please Follow Schedule

Book Fair Evening Grand Event - 6PM - Hank and I will be doing a read aloud!

PTA Meeting - 7PM - M.S. Library for an Introduction to Math In Focus

Thursday, October 18

Book Fair - last day for any kids who forgot money during the week!
Math in Focus Staff Development- Gr. K-2 

Board of Education Meeting - 7:30PM in the M.S. Library

Friday, October 19

Happy Friday!
Carvel Sale

Tony is at Penn this weekend - gone by 10:30am on Friday

Kids' Korner

The other day I was walking behind two third grade girls who were discussing being bucket fillers when one turned to the other and said, "I think so many people have filled my bucket that I might need a second one!" That totally made my week!

Pics of the Week...

 

             Writing Sample from Sanderly           Back2Back Reading in Team Marsen's Room

                   Lorraine's Dynamic Read Aloud         4th Graders Presenting a Spanish Skit

        Team Montonelli implementing B2B    Lesley's class creating sketches after visualizing

                Allison's kids reading Back2Back           Jill's kids engaging in Writing Buddies

   
 

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th (this one is at Cantiague to celebrate our Blue Ribbon Award!!)
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th

Issue 4 - Oct. 5

Curriculum Connections...
Happy TGIF!! I hope we all enjoy the wonderful three day weekend - I am so excited about that extra day off because I might be able to catch up on some of my HW for Penn! If anyone is in Queens this weekend and is looking to experience some fun Greek culture and some tasty treats, there is a Greek Festival at Paul's Greek school - St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on 196th Street and Northern Blvd (right off the Clearview Expy and west on Northern Blvd).

I want to begin by wishing Colleen Ferry good luck in her new teaching position in Fire Island. They are so lucky to have you and the children in that district will learn so much from you! Thank you for all that you have done for the children of Cantiague over the last two years - we will miss you! I also want to take a moment to welcome some of our new staff members. First off, Casey Carey, who has been in our building this week as the floater aide, will be working with Meryl and taking over for Colleen - good luck Casey! Additionally, we have Dawn Camilleri, who is our new permanent sub this year and will be present more often in the coming weeks. Dawn joins us from the Baldwin School District and we are so lucky to have her. Finally, welcome to Alana Goldberg who will be working as our floater sub covering the team meetings throughout the week. Welcome Casey, Dawn and Alana - the Cantiague community is lucky to have you!

I also want to thank all the teachers for our important Faculty Meeting the other day. It was so critical for me to hear about all the things that people are struggling with on a daily basis. Even though I try to be in your classrooms as much as possible during the day, I know there is so much more everyone is juggling and I thank you for working so hard to shelter our kids from the stress that we are all dealing with each and every day! I also want to thank you again for inspiring my most recent blog post... I do believe that we will be able to start this revolution for our kids!  :)

This week has provided me with many more wonderful opportunities to visit in all of your classrooms and learning spaces and see some awesome stuff (thank you)! I had a chance to spend some time in the Art Room with Lois and a 5th Grade class. Lois did an amazing job scaffolding the students for independent success in creating their own Artist Trading Cards. The children saw the directions written out then they got to watch a YouTube video spotlighting how to create the ATCs and finally, Lois explicitly modeled the process for the students. The children were so excited about this experience because they couldn't wait to express themselves as artists in the form of a trading card (check out the picture below). I also had a chance to spend time in Ginny's room during the independent reading block and was so impressed by the tone in the room. All of the children were scattered around the room in their independent reading spots and engaged in their books while Ginny was conferring with different children at the back table (there is a great picture below to check out)- it was a model for the independent reading block! Additionally, earlier this week I had a chance to spend time in both Mandy's and Allison's rooms watching MaryAnn implement the Mind Up curriculum with our kindergarten students and I was literally blown away (check out the picture below of Maryann with Jeffrey). Our kindergarten students are able to label various parts of the brain and explain their function. If that wasn't enough, the children then created illustrations of actions they completed while being mindful and they came up with some awesome stuff that they were excited to share with the whole class at the end!

I also had a chance to spend time in the Science room with Jacquie and the second graders and had a lot of fun working with cereal and removing the air from the cereal. The children learned that this solid substance was filled with air and by crushing it, we could remove the air and decrease the volume - impressive stuff! Furthermore, I started the week in Tali and Marissa's room for the Reading Workshop experience where they launched an exploration of the features of nonfiction texts. Within 30 minutes, they team taught the experience where they shared a PREZI spotlighting the differences between fiction and nonfiction texts; they taught a mini-lesson; they provided the students an opportunity to work with a partner to explore books and analyze how the text features helped them understand the book better; they conferred with students while they worked in pairs and finally gathered at the meeting area for a whole group share - all within 30 minutes - talk about awesome time management skills! Then I had a chance to visit Meryl and her class while they were discussing the title of one of the chapters in their shared text, Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. Meryl facilitated an amazing conversation where the children were challenged to go back into the text to decipher why the chapter was entitled Bad Seed. Although many students had theories, Meryl held them accountable for proof from the text, which they produced. I also had a chance to visit Carolyn in her classroom yesterday while the children were reading a book about Christopher Columbus. The children were actively listening and Carolyn would periodically stop and ask questions at different levels to help the students solidify their understandings. The reality is, I see amazing things everywhere - Melanie doing an incredible activity connected to the Envisioning portion of Shared Reading; Donna and Christine doing an awesome team teaching of how to create a Level 2 Post-it where the children have to go Back to the Book; Janine implementing an exit slip at the end of the math lesson to assess the students' understandings of adding using estimation; Alex and Rosanna having the children create a hands-on project to share their knowledge of three branches of government; Jen and Joe implementing stations for the first time and successfully differentiating the learning experiences for specific students within each group; Carly and Nancy setting up math stations where the children practiced 3-digit by 3-digit addition using different techniques and then the children self-assessed at the end to determine which technique best suited them; Lesley engaged in small group math activity with three students who needed additional support; and the list could go on and on and on - thank you for sharing these amazing learning opportunities with me!

Finally, to all our amazing teacher aides, thank you for all that you do for our children with special needs. You each get to know your kids so intimately and you are incredibly dedicated to doing whatever is necessary to help them meet with some levels of success. As a parent of a child who has an aide in school, I can assure you that we are always nervous about whether or not our kids are in good hands but with each of you, I know our kids are in AMAZING hands! Today is the last day for Paul's aide who is moving on to attend school full-time. The aide has been with Paul since first grade after his first major surgery and we will forever be grateful to him because he took care of our son as if he were his own child -- just like each of you does each and every day -- THANK YOU!

Tech Tip of the Week...
In case you haven't heard, several of the teachers in our building have started a blog as a result of the Blogging 101 session I faciitated last week. Instead of spotlighting outside tech resources, I would like to share the wonderful blogs started in our school...

Alites - http://alitesgrade5.blogspot.com/

Korrow - http://korrowsclasshappenings.blogspot.com/

Colucci - http://somethingspecialinschoolpsych.blogspot.com/

Please check out the blogs and leave some comments - everyone would appreciate it! I also look forward to sharing more blogs in the future!

Schedule of the Week...

Tuesday, October 9

Faculty Meeting - Teachers Only - 3PM in the Library
Hot Lunch Begins for Kindergarten
Team Montonelli - Trip to Safety Town

Wednesday, October 10
CST at 1:20pm

Thursday, October 11
Maione - Trip to Safety Town
Compact Committee Meeting - 3PM in the Conference Room

Friday, October 12
Payday
Happy Friday!


Kids' Korner...
On Tuesday, Rob had to leave and I had to cover the last gym period with Melanie's class. Even though I am pretty confident I did a pretty ineffective job, a couple of days later, one of the students from that class came up to me and said, "Mr. Sinanis you should probably stick to being the principal - not sue if the gym is for you." LOL - right on kiddo!  :)

Pics of the Week...

Marissa & Tali team teaching to review features of nonfiction text

MaryAnn implementing the Mind Up Curriculum with Mandy's class 

Ginny doing an Independent Reading Conference

Meryl reviewing how to decipher the meaning of a chapter title

Kindergarten Writing Sample

Steven (Alites) showing off what he learned about the 3 Branches of Government

Stations in Team Marsens class

Lois modeling how to create an Artist Trading Card for 5th Graders

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th (this one is at Cantiague)
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th

Issue 3 - Sept. 28

Curriculum Connections...
Happy Friday to everyone as we close out the first month of the school year - its amazing how quickly one month has flown by as we prepare to usher in October on Monday! I hope everyone has a wonderful upcoming weekend. If the weather is cooperative, please stop by the 5th Grade Car Wash Saturday morning from 9:30am to 11:30am - I will be there washing cars and helping raise money for our fifth graders!

I want to thank everyone for their hard work in getting most of our WRAP testing done over the last two weeks. I know it has been an intense time with the start of the school year but I really feel that assessing our kids this early allows us the opportunity meaningfully launch the reading workshop experience and meet each of our kids at their entry point. The data from the WRAP results should help guide upcoming mini-lessons, independent reading conferences, flexible small group conferences and guided reading groups based on similar readiness levels. Our children have become amazing readers and writers due to all the incredible instruction taking place in our building and I am firm believer that our stringent assessments are a TRUE and ACCURATE reflection of our children as readers - thank YOU for making that happen! Although the Common Core Standards and APPR supposedly mean that the work keeps getting "harder" and that our kids are expected to do more, I don't think that applies to us at Cantiague - HECK NO! The Standards and APPR merely represent the "floor" but here at Cantiague we are consistently reaching for the "ceiling" and are always exceeding expectations! By the end of this year, our kids will be where they need to be - both academically and developmentally and I am 1000% confident in the instructional expertise that permeates this building!

It has been almost two weeks since I have been able to share all the awesome learning and teaching I have seen taking place in our building so please indulge me as spotlight just SOME of the awesomeness! First off, let me say that spending time in the different classrooms brings me to one conclusion - I wish I was that good of a teacher when I was in the classroom. Yesterday I had the chance to spend time in Nancy and Carly's room and I got to watch Carly lead the Envisioning portion of the weekly Shared Reading experience. They were using a nonfiction text about lemonade and Carly was explicitly modeling what she pictured in her mind as she was reading the text (check out the picture below). The children then went back to their seats and illustrated the image they pictured after reading the text. This was a wonderful way to practice an important skill but also incorporate nonfiction texts. Melanie and Janine also completed similar experiences with their students where they had them sketch what they envisioned after reading a text. I also had a chance to spend time in Kim's room during a second grade group where she used the book Mossy by Jan Brett (check her out in action below) to help the students refine their listening skills while also practicing how to make a statement about a text while using evidence from the text to support their thinking. The skill was a sophisticated one but Kim offered the appropriate amount of support to help all the children meet with some level of success. Then I had a chance to watch Lisa (twice this week) with a second grade group where she was working on building fluency by reading dialogue with expression (see the picture below). The children practiced basic skills, such as the appropriate placement of quotation marks, and then more sophisticated skills such as reading dialogue with expression.

I also had a chance to spend time in Rosanna and Alex's class where they participated in a writing workshop experience where they challenged the children to write about a special family holiday or tradition. Rosanna and Alex each read aloud from a mentor text (Fig Pudding and Halloween) and then they each read an excerpt from their own personal writer's notebooks - talk about awesome modeling and scaffolding! I also had a chance to watch Laurie in the Science Room with a 4th grade class and the children were challenged to create an earthquake-proof structure, that was at least two levels high, using only paper cups and tape. The kids were so excited about doing the activity that as soon as Laurie was done giving directions, the children jumped to work (see the great shot below of them in action). Additionally I had a chance to watch both Joe and the Montonelli's work on place value skills where Joe had the children create a Human Number Line (see the picture below to get an image of this cool hands-on/kinesthetic activity) and Christine and Donna implemented station teaching activities that were beautifully differentiated and tailored to meet the needs of all learners. Finally, I had a chance to watch our awesome kindergartners in Mandy's class work in the Literacy Lab where they were writing (drawing and writing) about the many things that are important to them and what they like to do. While drawing, they were challenged to label their illustrations and write a sentence if possible (see the pics below)!

Additionally, I would to spotlight two of our amazing teacher aides - Jen B. and Adam. They have been working in first grade classrooms with children who exhibit very challenging behaviors and are easily distracted and regularly off task. By implementing personalized behavior plans that emphasize the positive, collaborating closely with the various team members and relying on a tremendous amount of patience, they have literally transformed the behaviors of their assigned students in three short weeks. Granted, we have not attained perfection and there are still many things that need to be addressed, but the growth since August 29th is TREMENDOUS! Thank you Jen and Adam!

Finally, I would like to thank Jill for her hard work dedicated to data collection on one of her students to assess how often and for how long this child was not attending. By dedicating a week to collecting data and pinpointing the issue, which was recommended at last week's team meeting, now the intervention for this child can be targeted and specific! The success with data collection is all about FIDELITY and Jill successfully dedicated the necessary amount of time and energy to this process in the best interest of the child- BRAVO!

Tech Tip of the Week...
If you have not done so yet, create a Twitter account because it is the BEST and most PERSONALIZED Professional Development you could ever experience! You can start small (follow me) and then check out the people I am following to see who tweets about the things that most interest you. This is a free and powerful resource that can change the way you view teaching and learning - CHECK IT OUT!  :)

If you dont believe me in all my Twitter Madness, check out the following links...

Because of Twitter

100 Ways to Use Twitter

Schedule of the Week...

Saturday, September 29

5th Grade Car Wash Fundraiser - 9:30am to 11:30am

Monday, October 1
PTA Joint Open Council

Tuesday, October 2
Faculty Meeting for Teachers Only - 3PM in the Computer Lab

Wednesday, October 3
CST at 1:2opm

Thursday, October 4
Weisblack - Trip to Safety Town

Friday, October 5
PTA Executive Board at 9:45am
Kindergarten Hot Lunch Begins Today with pizza from the PTA!


Kids' Korner...
While picking a birthday prize from my office the other day, one of the kids said to me, "Mr. Sinanis if this was my office, I would want to keep all the birthday prizes for me - how do you control yourself?" LOL!!  :)



Pics of the Week...

              
                    Kim doing a read aloud while           Lisa working on various skills
                    practicing listening skills


        
     Joe had the kids make a Human        Carly leading the Envisioning portion
     Number Line                                       of the Shared Reading experience

 
                      
                  4th Graders building an                      Math Stations in the Montonellis
                  Earthquake Proof Structure                practicing place value & rounding
                  using only cups and tape!



                  
                                 Awesome Kindergarten Writing Samples 

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th (this one is at Cantiague)
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th

Issue 2 - Sept. 14

Curriculum Connections...
Happy Friday to everyone as we close out the first full week of the school year! It was a busy week that featured our annual Meet The Teacher Night extravaganza, which was a huge success once again. Thank you all for working so hard to not only prepare such wonderful, thorough and informative presentations but also for making our building look so beautiful for the parents on their first official visit of the year. Between the pictures, writing samples, works of art and everything else, our hallways looked better than those of a museum - BRAVO Team Blue Ribbon! I hope everyone has great plans for the four-day weekend. Happy holidays to anyone celebrating - may the holiday be filled with only health and happiness! For those not celebrating, like us in the Sinanis household, just enjoy the extra days off - they are well deserved!

Please refer to this blog post (especially for the Schedule of the Week below) for the next couple of weeks because the next Fast Friday Focus will come out Friday, September 28th.

This last week has allowed me many wonderful opportunities to visit classrooms and different learning spaces and I cannot tell you how much fun it is to hang out in your rooms! First off, I am completely blown away by the launch of Writing Workshop in our building this year. I have seen it in almost every 3rd, 4th and 5th grade classroom and I am in awe of the work being done. First off, the kids are actually sitting and writing for extended periods of time and it is only the 12th day of school - that is unheard of! Not only is the quantity of their work impressive but the quality is awesome too. When visiting Karen's room, I could literally hear a pin drop because every kid was engrossed in their piece (check out a sample from Lindsey in Karen's class in one of the pics below). The kids had learned how to write off a picture on their notebook and the work was impressive. As if that weren't enough, Risa's kids jumped right to generating entries after her mini-lesson on special holidays and family memories - they were all so excited to share and generate entries. While visiting the third grade classrooms, I also saw some awesome stuff. The Heart Maps in the Montonelli's classroom were the most rich and impressive ones I have seen in a long time. Also, Janine had students sharing entries and she modeled how to offer positive and constructive feedback, which was so powerful. She used an entry from her own notebook and allowed the students an opportunity to share for the purposes of modeling the skill of offering feedback in appropriate ways. The importance of modeling for our kids had never been more apparent to me than what I have seen in the last couple of weeks! I have never experienced this type of Writing Workshop launch and I think this success is a credit to our collective efforts to implement the workshop in every classroom so now our kids are writers and are comfortable writing in a notebook and generating entries - it is so awesome! Thank you to all classroom teachers, Lisa D. and Team Literacy for making this happen!

This week has also provided me the opportunity to observe the launch of Shared Reading in many classrooms. I specifically spent extensive time in Rande's and Melanie's classrooms where they started the experience by introducing the Preview and Prepare process. I was so impressed with the sophisticated language used in both classrooms and with the knowledge our kids possess - they were able to identify text features, explain what they could gain from scanning the page and other such strategies and skills (check out the pic below of Rande and Melanie each introducing it). The implementation of Shared Reading is such an important component to the Reading Workshop experience for many reasons but most importantly, it allows us the opportunity to "tuck" content area material into the literacy block. Use the Shared Reading experience to incorporate social studies, current events, science, non fiction, etc. because not only will it expose our kids to a bevy of genres but also helps them build schema when previewing new texts.

Finally, I saw some awesome math work happening in many of our classrooms! I spent time in Joe's room (with Melanie's kids) and I was so impressed with the fact that the children were able to dissect numbers and represent them in different ways. For example, they took 124 and expressed in words, expanded form, pictures, etc. I was so impressed by the strong number sense that permeated the room and the students' ability to explain their thinking and show their work - BRAVO JOE! (Check out a picture below of one of the whiteboards used during this group activity).

Please know that there are at least ten other things I could have written about here (doing Prezi with the Alites, the amazing independent reading conference I watched Tali do, the great math activity I watched in Meryl's class, the fun Spanish/English read aloud I saw Ilene do with 2nd graders, the awesome Fundations parallel activity I saw with Team Sanderly, etc.) but I don't want to overwhelm everyone with too much text...  :)

Tech Tip of the Week...
In last week's blog I spotlighted Wordle, which was being used in the Library and many of the classrooms around the building. Jeanne also uses some alternative Wordle like sites that you may want to check out (thank you Jeanne!!)...

abcya - which has a lot of resources but the Word Clouds are the Wordle-like feature; check out some of the games on this site too - really kid friendly and broken up by grade level!

tagxedo - this one costs money but worth checking out

tagul - this one allows you to create word clouds in different shapes

Schedule of the Week...

Wednesday, September 19
CST at 1:20PM

Thursday, September 20
Board of Ed. Meeting - 7:30PM at MS Library

Friday, September 21
Happy Friday!

Monday, September 24
Fire Prevention Assemblies...

• 8:45am - Gr. K, 1 & 2; Siper & Huzarsky
• 9:15am - Gr. 3, 4 & 5

Tuesday, September 25
Photo Day - please follow the schedule & be on time!
Emergency Evacuation Drill - Early Dismissal at 2:40PM (we will do a Fire Drill too)
NO Faculty Meeting

Friday, September 28
Bake Sale - Gr. 5 (Alites)

Saturday, September 29
5th Grade Car Wash Fundraiser - 9:30am to 11:30am

Kids' Korner...
During recess a second grader, who was working with a bunch of other kids to construct something in the sand, came over to me and said, "Mr. Sinanis I am like the principal of this construction company." My response - "Oh yea, cool! How are you like the principal?" He says, "Because I walk around and tell people what to do!" LOL! I laughed out loud and he was totally confused why I was laughing!  :)

Pics of the Week...

                                
               Alites graphic organizer for                              3rd Gr. whiteboard showing
              describing a character's                                     the break up of the number 124
               personality with text evidence

               
      Writing sample from Karen's class          Students offering feedback in Janine's room
                                               

    
               Melanie & Rande intro. Preview & Prepare (Shared Rdg)
                 
                     
                Joe doing FUNdations in parallel teach    Madeline's heart map from the Alites

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Sept. 20th
• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th (this one is at Cantiague)
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th

Issue 1 - Sept. 7

Curriculum Connections...
Happy Friday to everyone and welcome to the first ever Blog Edition of the Fast Friday Focus! I hope we all had a wonderful second week of school and that everyone has some great plans for the weekend. I am personally thrilled about the start of the NFL season and although the Jets aren't looking so great, I still can't wait to watch some football!

First off, thank you for being the most amazing people that I have ever had the honor of working 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 behavior problems in different classrooms or the fact that a few of our classes are at full capacity, 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 weeks so successful and powerful for all of our students - new and returning. We started everything off on the right note last week with all specialists and support staff members joining me in front of our school as the munchkins came off the buses. It was the first year I saw such few tears on day one and I was especially impressed with our kindergartners who came into school ready to learn (and have some fun)!

Additionally, I want to welcome all the Cantiague newbies one more time... Deborah, Joe, Milissa, Ilene, Jacquie and Laurie! We are so lucky to have each of you on our team because you have all helped make Cantiague an even better place!

The first couple of weeks provided us many opportunities to implement various hands-on learning experiences to help nurture a sense of community throughout the building. Last week I had the chance to spend some time in four different classrooms (Risa, Rande, Levermans and Alites) where the children were participating in some variation of the Marshmallow Challenge (or something along those lines) that stressed the importance of problem solving through collaboration and it was amazing to watch (I even tweeted some pics). We have spent so much time talking about the Common Core Standards and the idea of College Readiness with a great emphasis on the students' performance on standardized assessments (unfortunately this is what happens when politicians, not educators, are making decisions) when in fact we should be focusing on these types of activities - what says "I'm ready for college!" better than I know how to work with others to solve a problem??

I also had a chance to spend some time in the Library where Lorraine used Wordle to have different classes generate ideas about what the Library means to them. This is such a great resource, it can be a wonderful summary tool for a class discussion, because it allows someone to enter the words generated during a share and then it creates a "work of art" based on the words entered. The power of this tool comes in the fact that the words that are entered repeatedly will come out larger in the final Wordle so that the whole class can see what words, themes or ideas were the most common and powerful threads during a given experience... I definitely think its worth a try during a book talk or at the end of a unit of study!

I have also seen some awesome writing workshop work in Melanie, Christine and Donna's classrooms where the children were introduced to the concept of the writer's notebook and then had a chance to decorate their own. It was so great to watch the three teachers share their own personal notebooks and artifacts - the kids were clearly hooked! Then I got to watch Tali and Marissa do some great work linking reading and writing workshop where the children were assigned reading partners and they had to create Venn Diagrams comparing and contrasting themselves. Then they had to use the information from the graphic organizer to create "juicy" sentences (ask one of the Leverman kids to explain what a "juicy" sentence is - they are great!)! Finally, I had a chance to watch team Marsen (Nancy and Carly) do some great small group/station teaching. They recently introduced place value by giving the children place value mats (from Math In Focus) and challenging them to "build" numbers and watching the children work was impressive! I could go on and on about all the amazing things I saw in the last few days but I have written too much already... I will save some for next Friday!

Tech Tip of the Week...
Google Docs is a wonderful resource to use to promote collaboration among staff and students when working on a common document. First off, if you haven't created a Google account, get on that ASAP because between the power of sharing documents, blogging and other awesome resources, Google is a resource that can take your teaching to a whole other level! In regards to Google Docs, check out this blog about the power of using this tool in a collaborative way. 

Schedule of the Week...

Tuesday, September 11
New Family Breakfast @ 9AM
PTA Meeting @ 9:45AM
PTA Executive Committee Meeting @ 10:45AM
Faculty Meeting @ 3PM

Wednesday, September 12
CST @ 1:20PM
Meet the Teacher Night: 

1. Gr. 5, Brotman & Leverman - 6PM
2. Gr. K & 1 - 6:40PM
3. Gr. 4 - 7:20PM
4. Gr.  2 & 3 - 8PM

Friday, September 14
Constitution Day - Possible Outdoor Pledge

Kids' Korner...

1. During the first week of school one of our new second graders walked up to me at recess and said, "Mr. Sinanis, I really love this school because all the teachers are so nice - they make coming to school so much fun!" Thank you to each of you for making that comment possible!
2. While explaining to some new kindergarten students how they might remember her name, Lois B. shared that they should remember that if they get to close to a hot stove they might get BURNed. As they were leaving at the end of the session she reviewed her name with each child and when she questioned the last child the student responded, "Your name is Ms. Stove!" LOL!!

Pics of the Week...

                    

                 

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

• Thursday, Sept. 20th
• Thursday, Oct. 18th
• Thursday, Nov. 15th
• Thursday, Dec. 13th
• Thursday, Jan. 17th
• Thursday, Jan. 31st
• Thursday, Feb. 7th
• Thursday, Mar. 14th (this one is at Cantiague)
• Thursday, Apr. 18th
• Thursday, May 23rd
• Thursday, June 13th