Fast Friday Focus

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Issue 14 - Jan. 18

Curriculum Connections...

Happy TGIF to the whole Cantiague team! I hope everyone enjoys the three day weekend - that extra day off is definitely something I am looking forward to at this point (besides the boat load of HW I have to do for Penn, it means one more day of sleeping in). Being that Monday is the day we honor Martin Luther King Jr., it has been really impressive spending time in many of your spaces where the children have been exposed to nonfiction pieces about him and these important conversations have made their way out of the classroom - I have heard the kids talking about MLK Jr.'s significance in the hallway, lunchroom and beyond. Thank you for ensuring that our children understand the contributions of this important man in a meaningful way.

Thank you to all the teachers for their meaningful participation during our Faculty Meeting this week. A special thank you to Rande, Christine, Donna, Lisa D. and everyone else who shared their expertise or collaborated with a neighbor on a project or activity. I hope these opportunities for "personalized" professional development are meaningful for everyone. My hope is that we have another Faculty Meeting of this nature in the near future so if there is any expertise you want to share with your colleagues, please let me know in advance (or I might just come ask you)! As we discussed please dont forget that next Tuesday is the district-wide elementary level sexual harassment Faculty Meeting here at Cantiague in the auditorium. Our next Faculty Meeting after that is Tuesday, February 5th.

I am also thrilled to share that our PTA Meeting/ Introduction to Twitter for Parents Meeting was a huge success on Wednesday night! There were about 40 parents in attendance (thats really high compared to some of the recent meetings) and they were all actively engaged in the presentation. I explained the opportunities for them to get on Twitter so they can get a glimpse into everything that goes on in our school. I stressed all of the amazing work happening each minute in your classrooms and that checking out the pics that I tweet gives them a sense of that work. Thank you for making it so easy for me to capture the AWESOMENESS!!

Please hold on to this Fast Friday Focus because it covers the next two weeks!

Finally, as I try each week, I devoted the bulk of my time traveling around the building to capture the AWESOMENESS and during my visits this week, I...

Saw Jill's class sing in Spanish under Ilene's direction and it totally made my day - click on this link to check them out...

Grade 1 - Spanish Style

Saw Book Clubs abound (thank you Lisa D. for pushing us to get these off the ground)! I saw fully functioning Book Clubs in the following rooms: Jen & Joe, Ginny, Nancy & Carly, Lesley, Janine and Melanie (I know I missed a bunch) and the children were actively involved in these meaningful experiences. One of the best things about a Book Club is that you transfer the responsibility for learning from you to the children and that challenges them to construct their own understandings (remember- consume vs. create - this forces them to create) and experiences of this nature "Poo Poo" in the face of the Common Core because we are going way beyond what they expect! BRAVO!!

Spent time in the Gym during the Gym & Me Events and I cannot even begin to describe how cute and fun the whole experience was for the children and adults alike! Thank you to Rob & Phil for preparing the children to show off the different activities and thank you to the whole Kindergarten team for preparing the children for the experience. Even though some of kids ended up crying because their parent left, the parents left with smiles on their faces!

Spent time in Janine's room while the children were learning about Author's Purpose. The children were highly engaged in their work throughout the whole period and it was clear in the end that every child understood that an author usually writes a piece for one of three main reasons: to entertain, inform or persuade - AWESOME!

I spent some time in the Speech Room with Kim where she was working with three students on the idea of gestures in the social context. I was so impressed with these students and their blossoming ability to understand different gestures and then act them out for each other in a charades like game - what an awesome way to help scaffold students to better navigate social situations!

I spent some time with our 5th Graders while they were in the DNA Lab and I was really impressed by the work they were doing - retrieving cheek cells, putting them on a slide and then examining their own cells - it was awesome to watch because they were so excited! What a meaningful way to learn about DNA!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As I mentioned at the Faculty Meeting, you definitely have to check out Diigo as a way to manage and keep all of your favorite websites! Any time you visit a site, you can Diigo it (add it to your favorites) and you can access it from any computer by logging into Diigo - it is an amazing resource! If you go the site, watch the little video on the home page - if my sharing hasn't hooked you, this video will show you the power of Twitter!!

Schedule of the Week...

Tuesday, January 22

"A" Week
Faculty Meeting at 3:15PM - Auditorium - ALL STAFF
WRAP Testing throughout the next two weeks

Wednesday, January 23

CST at 1:20pm

Gr. 5 Winter Concert - 1:20pm - See email for Schedule
**Parent Performance @ 7pm**

Thursday, January 24

Cultural Arts
Phil Bildner visits with Gr. 5 - LIBRARY CLOSED

Board of Education Meeting at 7:30pm

Friday, January 25

Happy Friday!
Jump-A-Thon - Dress Down Day for all so we can JUMP!

Bake Sale

Monday, January 28

Happy Monday

"B" Week

ALL Planbooks Due
Co-Teacher Consultant
WRAP Testing this week

Tuesday, January 29

NO Faculty Meeting

Tony's Cohort from Penn visits for the day

Wednesday, January 30

CST at 1:20pm

Thursday, January 31

Cultural Arts

Friday, February 1

Happy Friday & February!

Kids' Korner

One day while visiting a 2nd Grade classroom during independent reading time, one of the children waved me over and said, "Mr. Sinanis why don't you take a picture of me reading and tweet it so my mom can see that I read in school too!" WOW!! That totally made my day - talk about strengthening the home/school connection!

Pics of the Week...

Ginny launching a Book Club by establishing expectations

Jackie working 1:1 with Elizabeth on literacy work

Lorraine doing a round circle read of a MLK Jr. play with Karen's class

Marissa challenging her students to activate their schema

Ginny's students actively engaged in their independent reading

James reading independently in Jill's class

Jill conducting a small group reading experience

Ilene teaching the children the Spanish version of Head, Shoulders, Knees & Toes

Kids conducting their own Book Club in Lesley's class

Jen & Joe's kids excitedly reading letters from their parents as part of Writing Workshop

Janine helping a Book Club understand the expectations

Nancy & Carly launching a Book Club

Alex sharing his correctly sequenced story cards in Kim's room - TOO CUTE!

Dad helping out during a Gym & Me Cup Stacking Event

Logan checking out his own check cells as part of the Gr. 5 DNA Lab experience

Gym & Me launches

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

Thursday, Jan. 24th - Budget Work Session
Thursday, Feb. 7th
Thursday, Mar. 14th
Thursday, Apr. 18th
Thursday, May 23rd
Thursday, June 13th

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Issue 13 - Jan. 11

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday! I hope everyone had a wonderful first full week of the year. It was a hectic week and today I am off to Penn for some more fun this weekend - the learning never ends for me but I can honestly say that I love it so much and wouldn't trade it for anything (except maybe a Twix bar or Mountain Dew)! Whether I am learning in your classrooms, or from our students, or on Twitter or through my experiences at Penn, I feel like everything comes together and helps me develop an even deeper understanding of my work as an educator. Please don't forget about the importance to keep learning because your continued growth only has positive affects on your students and the entire school community. Please try something new next week - a new book, a new website, a different type of HW assignment, whatever - try at least one new thing next week and see how it feels and share the end result! This week I had the pleasure of sitting in on 4th Grades meeting with Lisa and they were discussing a revised reading response experience because they wanted to try something new (thank you Rande for the inspiration). I also happened to walk past Julie's room while she was using her iPad with a group and she couldn't want to share her experiences with an app that she used with one of her K students and how it had a positive impact because she tried something new (thanks for that awesome email Julie detailing those great apps)... so lets try it... next week... the challenge is to try something new (let me know if you need ideas)... maybe we are not doing something totally new but doing something we planned in a different way!! Next week is the week of NEW at Cantiague!!

This week was also hectic because of our Kindergarten Registration, which is going nicely (we have over 30 students registered already). Special thanks to Laura and Joan for overseeing most of the work during this experience and thanks to Pam for holding down the Main Office all week while Laura worked in the Conference Room.

As we discussed at the Faculty Meeting please dont forget that first thing Monday morning, at 9am, we will be having our first Stay Put Drill of the year. Please follow the directions laid out in the memo and after the experience please let me know if there is anything we could be doing better moving forward. Special thanks to our awesome Health and Safety Team - Joey, Rob, MaryAnn, Lesley, Carolyn and Joan (and Mrs. Newman) for their work as part of this team!

Also, a special thank you to Mandy, Jill and Carolyn who shared their students with the Math In Focus presenter and the teachers from across the district for some model lessons. I was so incredibly proud of our kids because they did an awesome job and it is thanks to their incredibly dedicated teachers - BRAVO!

Finally, I had some time to spend in different classrooms and spaces over the last couple of days and I cannot think of a better way to kick off the new year! During my visits this week, I...

Spent some in Mandy's room during their literacy work and I was completely blown away by how much they accomplished in a short time. Within a twenty minute period they read a poem, looked at specific sight words and Mandy introduced the idea of the Star Student and the entire time, the children were focused, attentive and engaged, which is no easy accomplishment when you have 26 kindergartners in one space - BRAVO!!

Spent time in Marissa and Tali's room while the children were editing and revising their Feature Articles and getting them ready for publication. Every teacher in the room was engaged in a 1:1 writing conference and the rest of the children were engrossed in their work - not one person looked up the entire time and the children were asking thoughtful questions of their own writing and whether or not it made sense - IMPRESSIVE!

Spent time in Jill's room while the children were making Mind Movies as part of the visualization experience. The children were highly engaged in their partnership work where they shared what they visualized and I was blown away by their comments as Jill made her way around the carpet and listened in on specific conversations - such important work! It is amazing to watch the consistent skills and experiences our children are having and how they help scaffold them for success - these kids were doing such an awesome job because they had similar experiences in Kindergarten!

I spent some time in the Art Room with Lois and Melanie's class and I was so impressed with their work. They were painting and filling in geometric shapes and as I walked around the room I was blown away by the focus of the conversations on their work and color choices and the exciting buzz that filled the room - LOVED it!!

The 2nd Graders and their awesome teachers (Lesley, Carolyn, Carly and Nancy) must be recognized for their impressive poetry unit of study that is currently nearing the end! The children are incredible poets who are using things like metaphors, rhythm, white space and personification to bring their poems to life and the results are IMPRESSIVE and there was so much to be proud of because the children's growth as writers is AWESOME!!

Tech Tip of the Week...

Instead of the traditional tech tip this week, I wanted to share a one minute video of a student in Carolyn's class, Shiv, explaining his thinking about how to use the Bar Model to solve a subtraction problem (this video will not work on your iPhone). I think its impressive...

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, January 14

Happy Monday

"B" Week
Stay Put Drill at 9am

Tuesday, January 15

Faculty Meeting at 3PM

DNA In-House Visit - Gr. 5 (see Elaine's Schedule)

Gym & Me Event at 8:40am

Wednesday, January 16

WRAP Testing
CST at 1:20pm

PTA Meeting - Intro to Twitter @ 7:30pm

Thursday, January 17

WRAP TestingGym & Me Event at 8:40am

Board of Education Meeting at Seaman at 7:45pm

Friday, January 18

Happy Friday - three day weekend!

WRAP TestingCarvel Ice Cream Sale

Kids' Korner

On Wednesday during lunch I was eating with some 5th graders when one of them asked me, "So Mr. Sinanis, what do you do all day? It seems like a pretty easy job!" Really? Well, I guess if I can make it look easy to the kids then I may be doing something right... or I'm doing something wrong and they think I do nothing all day! LOL!

Pics of the Week...

Joe checking in with a student

Matthew preparing for his Book Club Meeting

Madison revising her poem

Grade 2 Team collaborating during the labsite - awesome planning!

Some fun with Carolyn's class creating the rainforest

Gr. 4 & 5 voluntary Orchestra rehearsal

Grade 1 Team watching Lisa model a Book Club - AWESOME!

Tyler engaging in independent reading

Deborah working with Kaylee and Max!

Nancy & Sam engaged in a 1:1 reading conference

4th Graders hanging on Lorraine's every word

3rd Graders having fun creating in Art with Lois!

Jill listening in on two students discussing their Mind Movies

Lesley conducting a guided reading group using nonfiction

Ginny's class with their eyes closed practicing their visualization skills

Max reading in Kindergarten!

Carly helping the children practice building on conversations with their partners

Linda facilitating a share of student wonderings!

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

Thursday, Jan. 17th
Thursday, Jan. 31st
Thursday, Feb. 7th
Thursday, Mar. 14th
Thursday, Apr. 18th
Thursday, May 23rd
Thursday, June 13th

Gr. 2 Student Explains Bar Model

Check out this video of Shiv from Carolyn Korrow's class explaining how he used the Bar Model to solve a subtraction word problem. Impressive work...

Thursday, January 3, 2013

Issue 12 - Jan. 4

Curriculum Connections...

Happy New Year to everyone and Happy First Friday of 2013! I hope you all had a wonderful December break! Our family had an awesome week, even though it was really busy. Paul made out like a bandit on Christmas - I guess that is what happens when you are the only child and the only grandchild - luckily he isn't too spoiled, yet. I will share that our vacation was somewhat affected by the fact that Paul came home with two packets that needed to be completed - a 45 page Math packet of all multiplication and division facts and 30 page ELA packet of reading passages and test-prep like activities. I can assure you that I was so disappointed by the quality and quantity of the HW and Kelly and I had many discussions about the value of this type of HW and whether or not we should protest and not have Paul do it. Well, in the end Paul is too much of a rule follower so he felt compelled to complete all his HW but he often used the word TORTURE to describe his feelings about the assignment. It was extremely disheartening because we never want to see Paul's love for learning compromised because of low-level activities that don't engage him. In the end, everything worked out fine and Paul did master most of his multiplication tables and even learned some information from the ELA packets.

I share this story with you for two reasons... I want you to feel my pain from sitting beside Paul as he completed these horrible packets (just kidding) and because I want to thank you all for being so thoughtful with your HW assignments - it is never about the quantity - it is always about the quality! Our HW, whenever possible, should inspire our kids to want to learn and create - not just get the "right" answer. I understand that there are certain things we must do (math worksheet, reading passage, etc.) but whenever we have an opportunity, let's give the children HW that is open-ended and engages them in activities that pique their interest and keep them excited to learn! I would love to discuss HW possibilities further if anyone is interested.

I want to take a moment to congratulate Kim, Melanie, Lois Z. and Elaine who were all recognized last night for their years of service here in Jericho - CONGRATULATIONS -we are so lucky to have you!! You are such amazing educators who are all collectively dedicated to doing what is in the best interest of children and it is an honor to work beside you - THANK YOU!

Additionally, my hope is that we will be able to run two fundraisers in the coming weeks to help the school in Island Park. Unfortunately, I need assistance in organizing and managing these two events so if anyone is interested or willing to help, please let me know because it will be greatly appreciated!

On another note, please make sure that your EdLine accounts are updated on a regular basis depending on your position because this is something that is being monitored - thank you for your hard work! Please note we will be having a Faculty Meeting next Tuesday to d that iscuss the status of a our Safety Plan, which was reviewed at a recent meeting with the Building Health & Safety Team. Additionally, I would like to extend a special thank you to Rob and Phil for organizing a wonderful Grade 5 Student vs. Teacher Volleyball game -we all had a blast!

I also had some time to spend in different classrooms and spaces over the last couple of days and I cannot think of a better way to kick off the new year! During my visits this week, I...

Watched our second graders immersed in their poetry writing unit of study! They were peer editing, inserting white space and incorporating figurative language just to name a few things that they were working on and I cannot even begin to describe how impressed I was with their work - BRAVO to Carolyn, Carly, Lesley, Nancy and Lisa D. for collaborating on this unit of study, which unfolded beautifully!

Spent time with Laurie in the Science Room yesterday with fourth grade and was completely blown away - I had so much fun learning about the concepts of energy, force, gravity and friction through some awesome hands-on experiences - check out the picture below! Laurie has a way of squeezing so many amazing learning experiences (that involved critical thinking instead of just doing a worksheet) into 40 minutes that I was hooked and didn't want to leave the room - WOW!!

Spent time with Milissa in Tali and Marissa's room during the Spanish experience and had a blast working with a group of children. After commencing the learning experience with some breathing work (the children respond so well to this breathing and centering exercise) I then got to work with the children to answer questions about our age, birthday, where we were from and how we were doing just to name a few. I am so impressed with the children's development of their Spanish speaking skills - MUY BIEN!!

I spent some time with Rande's kids in the Computer Lab and was blown away by the persuasive letters they wrote to Santa from the perspective of a well known villain just to convince Santa to get them what they wanted - their end products were AMAZING! They wrote from the perspectives of Darth Vader, Lord Voldemort, The Big, Bad Wolf and Godzilla just to name a few and they did such an impressive job persuading the reader with humor and appropriate information!

The 3rd Graders and their awesome teachers (Christine, Donna, Melanie and Janine) must be recognized for their impressive Writing Celebration right before the break - the children's pieces focused on small moments and their use of language was incredible! We had a packed house and there was so much to be proud of because the children's growth as writers is IMPRESSIVE!!

Tech Tip of the Week...

Want to keep track of the awesome websites you visit in one place that you can access from any computer? Try Symbaloo - I just learned about it and LOVE it! It is like Diigo, which I shared at a Faculty Meeting last year but the presentation is different and it offers different features - check it out!

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, January 7

Happy Monday

"A" Week

Tuesday, January 8

Faculty Meeting at 3PM for all staff

Earth Balloon - Gr. 3

Kindergarten Registration in the Conference Room

Wednesday, January 9

CST at 1:20pm

Kindergarten Registration in the Conference Room

Thursday, January 10

Cultural Arts

Math in Focus Workshop - Gr. K-2 teachers

Kindergarten Registration in the Conference Room
Compact Committee at 3PM

Friday, January 11

Happy Friday!

Tony Goes to Penn (Gone by 10:30am)

PTA Executive Board

Kindergarten Registration in the Conference Room

Kids' Korner

On Wednesday, a second grader came up to me and asked, "Mr. Sinanis, were you allowed to stay up and watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve? I wasn't able to stay up!" I could not help but laugh out loud and think that clearly he knows the deal in our house - I always need to ask for permission!! LOL!

Pics of the Week...