Fast Friday Focus

Thursday, November 29, 2012

Issue 10 - Nov. 30

Curriculum Connections...

Happy TGIF to the most amazing team of professionals I have ever had the honor of working with in my entire career! As you all know, last week, before Thanksgiving, I was out for two days with the worst cold/fever/sore throat I had in years. In fact, I had not been out sick from work in almost six years so the whole experience was stressing me out (you know - so much to do, so little time). In the end though, the thing that really meant most to me (besides Kelly putting up with me being cranky and whiney) were all the text messages and emails from each of you. Your genuine concern and care seriously made me feel better - thank you so much for your unending support! Meanwhile, Happy December to everyone - that is correct- tomorrow is the start of the last month of the year! We are actually celebrating Paul's 8th birthday tomorrow with some laser tag with 40 of his closest friends (ok, first of all, these birthday parties are going to make me broke and second of all, 40 friends? Really- I don't think I have 4 friends- but thats a whole other story!). I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and please note that this Fast Friday Focus will cover the next two weeks so please hold on to it because there is a lot going on!

This week featured a lot of great stuff happening in our school. Our 3rd Graders had an amazing day yesterday with Brian Heinz, who literally had every 3rd grader hanging on his every word for over an hour while he told stories that inspired his writing. His passion and enthusiasm was truly inspiring to everyone sitting in the room. Watching him and the kids react to him solidified for me that our Author's In Residence Program is something that will resonate with our children for years and is worth every penny. A special thank you to Lorraine for making it happen - you are the best Library and Media Specialist around - hands down! I also had a lot of time to spend in different classrooms and spaces and cannot express how much I value and treasure this time with each of you and our kids - I learn so much! During my visits this week, I saw...

Jen and Joe conduct math stations, where the children were immersed in various activities related to geometry. They were learning about things like lines of symmetry, corners and sides. Within the station experience the children worked with everything from 3D shapes to 2D folding activities where they created new shapes - it was awesome to watch this transference and evolution from the concrete to the pictorial to the abstract- impressive! And their management system was tight and effective - highly recommend people check out their transitions from one station to the next!

Lorraine working with our Kindergarten students and introducing them to the Sad Book and Glad Book paper puppets. The children's enthusiastic engagement with these puppets was amazing to watch and they clearly communicated their understandings of how to correctly handle a book so that they never encountered Sad Book again - it was hysterical. Needless to say, the highlight of the period was listening to Lorraine's dynamic read aloud- so AWESOME!! And to hear the conversations throughout the read aloud where she challenged the children to make inferences based on the pictures was terrific!

Ginny lead a fun and engaging writing workshop experience where her class has recently embarked on a study of FUNctional writing. It was great to watch the lesson from start to finish because Ginny seamlessly employed the gradual release of responsibility for learning from teacher to students. She used an anchor text to model how to create a list; she then guided them through discussions with their partners about what they observed in the text; next the children worked in small groups to generate their own lists; and finally, she brought the whole class back together for a whole group share- it was so great because the children were so excited and the room was buzzing!

Some fun independent reading time in Jill's classroom. The children were in their comfortable independent reading spots and I had a chance to read with a couple of the children and was impressed with their use of post-its and their growth since the beginning of the year. While the children were reading, Jill was conducting several independent reading conferences. Being that this was happening at 2:30pm it could have been chaotic but it wasn't because all of the children were engaged and Jill clearly laid out the expectations - AWESOME!

I got to watch some awesome math work when I visited with Carolyn, Meryl and Janine! Carolyn had gathered all of her students on the rug and they sat in a circle as they practiced subtraction with regrouping, which can be challenging but having the kids sit so closely together, Carolyn maintained close proximity and was able to monitor each child's progress. Then Meryl was reviewing various concepts related to division as the children were preparing for a test the next day. The review session was comprehensive and allowed for both independent practice and partnership work where the children played a game - the kids had so much fun! Finally, Janine also did work with subtraction with regrouping that also involved zeros, which could be challenging but Janine broke it down step by step and the children successfully tackled the work. When the children worked in groups, Janine quickly pulled a group to support their understandings - what a great time for a small group!

Finally, I had a chance to spend time in Carly and Nancy's room during their Scientist of the Week experience where Ethan N. showed the children the salt water test. He was so adorable and thorough - he tested using different liquids to complete a circuit and conduct electricity based on how much salt is in the liquid. Be careful - there is salt in chocolate milk and apple juice - I learned a lot from Ethan!

Tech Tip of the Week...

This week I would like to offer two great tech resources...

1. Check out LearnZillion, which Tali shared with me. This is a great resource for Common Core lessons and resources - it is an impressive collection of lessons - check it out!

2. Check out Find It! which can be found on the home page of the Library page on our website. Lorraine is really excited about this one because it is an easy way to find resources on any subject that can quickly be gathered because it accesses various databases. See Lorraine about this one!

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, December 3

Happy Monday
PTA Joint Open Council
Parent/Teacher Conference Week

Tuesday, December 4

PTA Holiday Boutique
Faculty Meeting Cancelled
Report Cards GO HOME!!

Wednesday, December 5

Picture Retake Day

Staff Photo at 7:50am - please join me!
5th Grade Photos at about 9:25am

PTA Holiday Boutique

CST at 1:20pm

Thursday, December 6
PTA Holiday Boutique
Parent/Teacher Conferences: 3-5pm; 7-9pm

Friday, December 7
Happy Friday!
Payday
Tony is Penn and leaving at 10:30am

Monday, December 10

Co-Teaching Consultant visiting Teams Marsen, Montonelli & Sanderly
Happy Monday!
Ed Friedlander's Retirement Party - 4:30pm

Tuesday, December 11

Faculty Meeting at 3pm in the Library

Wednesday, December 12

CST at 1:20pm

Thursday, December 13

Board of Education Meeting at Jackson

Cultural Arts

Friday, December 14

Happy Friday!
Carvel Ice Cream Sale
Nancy Krulik Author Visit with Grade 4- Library Closed!

Kids' Korner

While visiting Nancy and Carly's classroom for their Scientist of the Week, I asked a child to speak louder because I am old and deaf to which one of the students responded, "Oh no- we have problems - our principal is deaf!" LOL!!

Pics of the Week...

Abby & Kareena playing during center time - such an important part of life in Kindergarten!

K students enjoying their time in the Library! Lorraine has really created an amazing space!

Ethan, who is Scientist of the Week, and showing everyone the Salt Test!

Brian Heinz showing our 3rd Graders how to enhance their writing- they hung on his every word!

Fun independent reading time in Jill's room!

Oliver is too cute & he did such an awesome job reading this book to me!

Allison discussing the idea of labels during the read aloud experience.

Mandy encouraging David to identify Word Wall words in their Shared Text!

Rosanna conducted a small group game experience to help reinforce division skills!

Alex with a small group playing a fun math game on the SMARTBoard!

Brian Heinz holding the attention of 75 3rd Graders for almost an hour- IMPRESSIVE!

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

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

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Faculty Meeting Information

Hello everyone! Here are some of the links discussed at the Faculty Meeting today...

1) Common Core Sample Tests – click on the following link (and please feel free to email this link to your parents or include the link in an upcoming BLOG posting if you are blogging – this is an important resource) and scroll all the way done for the different grade levels… http://www.p12.nysed.gov/assessment/common-core-sample-questions/

2) Engage NY Teacher Guides – these were also distributed at the Faculty Meeting but here is the link if you are interested in using them in some way… http://engageny.org/resource/test-guides-for-english-language-arts-and-mathematics

3) QR Code – here is the link for creating one of those cool bar code/scanner things - http://www.delivr.com/ - remember, this is a web based resource so you must link other websites to it. Check out the one below…

4) Print What You Like – click on this link to try out this resource where you can box out exactly the things you want to print out from specific websites. Could be a great resource for Shared Reading – showing just the text for a few days and then including the whole page as the week unfolds… http://www.printwhatyoulike.com/

Also, here are some fun pics from my visits in the classrooms yesterday and today - ENJOY because I know I did...

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Issue 9 - Nov. 16

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone as we reach the mid-point of November! Please note that this Fast Friday Focus will cover the next two weeks so please hold on to it because there is a lot going on after Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week. It was a great week in the Sinanis household. We had an awesome time in Washington DC (I highly recommend it as a little family get-a-way) and Paul had a wonderful report card followed up by a great Parent/Teacher Conference. It is always awesome to hear that other people love your child and are devoted to his success. Also, I am proud to share that Paul was elected to be Student Council President at his school - he is so excited! It is great to watch him grow up and want to represent the other kids and advocate for their rights - I am so proud to be his dad!

This week also featured the Blue Ribbon Ceremony, which was really nice as well. Thanks to MaryAnn for joining me (and Kelly & Paul - Paul thinks he has a new best friend in MaryAnn and can't wait to hang out with her again- LOL!). Although it was a hectic week, it was so amazing to celebrate our school community last night during the Curriculum Fair and the Board Meeting. First off, all of our teachers did an AWESOME job with the Curriculum Fair experience this year. Walking around the building from 6pm to almost 7:15pm was an incredible experience for me. Watching parents read with their children or do science experiments with their children or play literacy games with their children or even learn how to create a blog with their children was a night I will never forget. And to think it was put together in less than a week makes it even more impressive! A special thank you to Lois Z. for transforming our school into a Museum of Art. The Faculty Room looked amazing and the Board of Education Members could not stop raving about everything they saw in that room and throughout the building - BRAVO LOIS! Another special thank you to Joey, Joe, Lisa, Omar and Edwin for getting our building ready to host yet another Board Meeting. Our building looked spotless and I repeatedly heard people commenting about how it looked like we could eat off the floors - BRAVO Joey and team because no matter what the request, you always make it happen with ease and grace - THANK YOU!!

You are all such an inspiration for me and being the lead learner in our school is an incredible honor that I value and treasure. Please know that I meant every word last night at the Board Meeting about all the amazing things that happen in our building each day - this is a special place for all teachers and learners! Finally, thank you all for coming out last night for the Board Meeting - the strong Cantiague presence filled me with such pride and knowing that Board of Regents Tilles was there to watch it all, made even more special... thank you for making our school a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School - WE ROCK!!

Even though its been a crazy last couple of weeks, I have had the opportunity to observe some terrific things throughout the building. This week, I am going to try a bulleted list for sharing my experiences and observations, which I think will make them easier to read! During my visits this week, I saw...

Allison's students were involved in various centers, such as math and writing, which were impressive because the children were working independently and were actively engaged. In one group they were developing their basic number sense and solidifying their work with numbers 1-10 through a Bingo game - it was great to watch!

Lorraine, Alex and Rosanna worked collaboratively to create an amazing environment in the library (see the pic below) where children were beyond excited about picking new books. Our library is such a special place and while I was there, I saw Lorraine and Rosanna going from shelf to shelf with different students to pick the perfect books while Alex was checking out books - another example of the awesome team work that permeates our building!

As we know, the Common Core Standards are really pushing exposure to nonfiction texts and resources and throughout my visits I saw many students interacting with nonfiction texts. For example, both Karen and Melanie (see the pics below) were both doing read alouds with nonfiction texts as the anchors and the conversations in the classroom were impressive - who needs Common Core Standards when Cantiague goes way above and beyond??

Some amazing small group work that helped re-teach, pre-teach or create extension opportunities for our students. We know the affects of small group instruction and how positive they can be for children and over the last week, I have seen an abundance of small group activities, which is awesome! I watched Joe, Karina, Donna and Christine use small groups and manipulatives to help teach specific math concepts. Additionally, I had a chance to watch Tali, Marissa, Nancy and Carly use small group to help solidify different literacy/social studies concepts, which is awesome! The presence of small group instruction is critical and seeing it throughout the building speaks to the fact that we are meeting our kids' needs!

Finally, I had a chance to observe some 4th graders in the gym during a Cup Staking activity and I was really impressed with the collaborative efforts being employed by the children to create the tallest and sturdiest towers - it was fun and meaningful at the same time - nice work Rob & Phil!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As I mentioned in one of my October newsletters, I had the opportunity to attend the Long Island Tech Summit and I was exposed to some really great resources and tools that can enhance the classroom experience. One site you may want to check out is www.ujam.com, which is a great site for letting kids create their own music that they could even add to a presentation - let me know what you think!

Also, I want to share the link to Tali and Marissa's blog, which made its debut last night at the Curriculum Fair - please read it and leave them some comments...

http://levermanlearners.blogspot.com/

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, November 19

Happy Monday - 3 day week

Tuesday, November 20

Faculty Meeting Cancelled

Wednesday, November 21

Payday

CST at 1:20pm

First Marking Period Ends

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Monday, November 26

Planbooks Due for All Staff by Thursday

Tuesday, November 27

Faculty Meeting at 3pm in the Library

Visitors will be in our building from UPenn - we look forward to visiting different rooms!

Wednesday, November 28
CST at 1:20pm
SEPTA Meeting at 7pm

Thursday, November 29
Brian Heinz visits 3rd Grade - Library is Closed
Compact Committee Meeting at 3pm
Cultural Arts

Friday, November 30
Happy Friday!
Literacy Forum taking place in the Library all morning

Kids' Korner

Last night, during the Curriculum Fair, while walking around, I heard one parent say to another, "I am having such a great time tonight - school was never like this for me growing up!" And I think that says it all about our school - the experience at Cantiague is unique and powerful - THANK YOU ALL for making that our daily reality!

Pics of the Week...

Lorraine helping a 5th Gr. pick a book in our awesome Library

Cup Staking fun in the Gym with 4th Grade

Joe pulling a small group for extra support

1st Grader reading his published piece about a trip to Disney!

Karen doing a nonfiction read aloud on Pueblos

Melanie doing a nonfiction read aloud

5th Graders playing a division game in Meryl's room

1st Graders "turning and talking" in Jen & Joe's Room during a read aloud

2nd Graders learning about different types of communities

Karina pulling a small group for math instruction

Kindergarteners doing Back2Back Independent Reading in Mandy's room

4th Graders having fun in the Science Lab

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

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

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Issue 8 - Nov. 6

Dearest Friends,

I have been contemplating how to start this week's newsletter every day for the last week and a half and every time I sit down to write it, I either find out that school will be closed again or I simply can't put into words all the things I am feeling and all the ideas floating around in my mind (its a scary place up there). First and foremost, let me say that I miss you all so much and having a chance to chat, text or email with most of you over the last few days has been a source of strength and inspiration for me in light of Sandy and the devastating affects she has had on many of our lives in some way, shape or form.

As some of you know, Kelly, Paul and I are doing well and fortunately missed the brunt of the storm as our block was spared any damage and in the end, we never lost power (mind you, being home isn't all fun and games - Kelly is ready to throw both Paul and I out but thats a whole other story). Knowing that this is our reality over the last few days, I feel some guilt because I wish I could share my home, electricity, power, heat, supplies and anything else any of you might need to start to return to some semblance of normalcy. Unfortunately, the fact that gas is hard to come by makes it difficult for me to make it out to Long Island and for most of you to come to Queens (the door is always open though -- our couch is comfy and Kelly is an amazing cook). Late last week, Kelly, Paul and I gathered bags of baby clothes, winter clothes, toiletries and a bunch of other things that we could donate and headed off to Queens College, which is currently being used as a shelter for those displaced by Sandy. We felt it was imperative for Paul to see how blessed we are and how horrible Sandy has been for many people around us. It was humbling, to say the least, to see families with babies who lost their homes and were now living and sleeping in the gym at Queens College - it is unreal to see how quickly life can change in a matter of minutes.

Of course, I know for some of us, the experience I just shared has become a reality - the idea of normalcy was shattered in seconds. I know Terri Shannon, Allison Yablon, Carolyn Korrow, Jen Broughal and Laurie Oddo (and there may be others that I don't know about) suffered significant amounts of damage to their homes and cars and in the end, lost a lot more than the material things that can be replaced. To Terri, Allison, Carolyn, Jen and Laurie (and anyone else affected), know that the entire Cantiague community (and Jericho community at large) will stand by your sides during this difficult time and offer whatever support possible and necessary.

The next few days will show once again why Cantiague Elementary School, and the entire Cantiague community, is the most amazing one in the world. In my short time here, we have survived a lot of "stuff" - the loss of our beloved Phyllis, you all helped me navigate and survive Paul's multiple surgeries and we lived through Hurricane Irene last year - just to name a few. After each situation, we struggled, came together and pulled through stronger than before. I am confident that the same will be true after our most recent experience with Sandy. We will come together, share a laugh, compare stories, lean on each other for support, regain normalcy and persevere because that is what we do at Cantiague - that is what defines Cantiague - strength, courage, character, a sense of humor and perseverance.

Sincerely (& humbled to be leading our school),
Tony

Schedule for TOMORROW (Wednesday, Nov. 7)...
Staff reports normal time;

Staff gathering/meeting/debriefing in the Library at 8:20am;

Students are on an hour delay so they should start officially arriving by 9:10am;

Specials will begin at about 9:25am (or around that time after morning announcements & everyone is settled) except for the following scheduling changes...
(Weisblack & Maione will have P.E. at 10:10am; Montonelli will have Art at 11:40am);

Lunch periods & dismissal times will stay the same;

Schedule of the Week (& Next Week)...

Thursday, November 8
All after school activities postponed;

Friday, November 9
Photo Retake Day is being rescheduled

Monday, November 12

School Closed

Tuesday, November 13

Tony & MaryAnn out of the building- Blue Ribbon Ceremony in DC

Wednesday, November 14
PTA Meeting at 9:45am
CST @ 1:20pm

Thursday, November 15

Cultural Arts Begins

Curriculum Fair

Gr. 3, 4 & 5 - 6pm
Gr. K, 1 & 2 - 6:40pm

Board of Education Meeting @ Cantiague at 7:30pm

Friday, November 16

Happy Friday!
Tony is at Penn (leaving by 10:30am)

Gr. 1 Open House @ 9am

Ralph's Ices Sale at lunch

Thursday, October 25, 2012

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!

Gr. K-2 - 8:45am
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

Thursday, October 18, 2012

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...