Fast Friday Focus

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Issue 16 - Feb. 14

THRILLING THURSDAY THOUGHTS

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Valentine's Day to the whole Cantiague team! This day is all about the love... love for our families... love for our friends... and love for our work family!! So, I hope you all feel the love coming your way because working in this building brings me a tremendous amount of joy, pride and happiness, which I depend on to get me through the difficult times! I hope everyone enjoys the upcoming Winter Break - this week off could not come at a better time! It will be a prime opportunity for all of us to rest, relax and recharge for the month of March, which is a busy one!

On another note, thank you all for your participation in our staff raffle/fundraiser for Hegarty Elementary School - it is so awesome to know that we are handing them a check for $5,700 from our community. We would not have sold as many raffles if it wasnt for all of you making such a dedicated effort - THANK YOU!

Additionally, just as a reminder, I will not be here after the break for at least three days because of Paul's upcoming surgery, which is scheduled for Monday, February 25th. I cannot begin to thank each of you for your support and understanding over the last few days in regards to this upcoming procedure. Although at this point surgery for Paul is "routine", it is never easy and it is totally nerve wracking for us as his parents but being in such a supportive and positive environment makes it that much easier so THANK YOU! Also, a special thank you to Laura and Pam for always holding down the fort in my absence... you ROCK!!

Please keep these Thrilling Thursday Thoughts because it will cover the next two weeks (because I will be out the week after the break)!

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

Watched two first graders playing Sight Word Ping Pong in Lisa's room! It was such a fun way to have the children practice their sight words - each ping pong ball had a basic sight word written on it and the children took turns spelling the word, saying the word and then tossing the ball to their partner who had to repeat the exercise - what a wonderful way to turn something rote into something engaging and kinesthetic!

Saw our 4th Graders in the Levermans participating in a "Spanish Mid-Term" with Milissa and they did an awesome job! After filling in a sheet where they introduced themselves in Spanish, the children then got up and acted out an exchange and their work was excellent as they could say hello, introduce themselves and share some relevant personal information - it was impressive!

Watched our 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders do their Chinese New Year announcements with Pei-Shan, which were truly incredible! Not only were the children excited but their singing was beautiful! I can barely carry a tune in English so to see them singing entire songs in Mandarin was impressive - BRAVO! Check out this short video...

Saw our kindergarteners getting ready for the Special Person poetry celebration! They were getting their poems prepared and I cannot even begin to describe how impressed I am with their ability to meaningfully embed various poetic crafts (like repitition or figurative language) into their work - AWESOME!

Watched our Alex, Rosanna, Jen and Joe bring their classes together for a Valentine's Day craft project and their collaborative efforts were impressive! To see the fifth graders guiding the first graders through their work and then proudly displaying their final creations was pretty cool!!

I spent some time in Jill's room where I watched the children do some basic algebra problems and the work was impressive. The children were trying to solve 13 - ? = 9 and they were using their whiteboards to work out the problem using whatever strategy made sense!

Tech Tip of the Week...

Thinking about finally taking the plunge and getting on Twitter, check out these BEGINNER TIPS for Twitter! The power of Twitter is AWESOME and the amount of free Professional Development is unreal!

Schedule of the Week...

Friday, March 1

Happy Friday & March!
Gr. 5 MS Articulation Meetings:

8:30 - Alites

9:45 - Burrows

10:50 - Siper

Monday, March 4

Happy Monday
PTA Executive Board - 9:45am

"B" Week

World Language Week
ELA/MATH Afterschool

Tuesday, March 5

Faculty Meeting for all staff at 3pm

PTA Meeting at 9:45am

Wednesday, March 6

CST at 1:20pm
Gr. 5 DNA Lab Trip
ELA/MATH Afterschool

Thursday, March 7

Cultural Arts - LAST SESSION
Gr. 5 DNA Lab Trip
Board of Education Meeting to review BUDGET

Friday, March 8

Happy Friday!
End of Second Marking Period
Report Cards & Comments due to Tony

Kids' Korner

While having lunch with a group of second graders, one of the boys told us a story of how he was skiing and accidentally crashed into this "sexy lady" instead of hitting a tree! Needless to say I nearly spit the Coke out of my mouth when he refered to the lady as sexy - HYSTERICAL!

Pics of the Week...

FEBRUARY 14th WEEK IN TWEETS

MARCH 1st WEEK IN TWEETS

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

Thursday, Mar. 14th
Thursday, Apr. 18th
Thursday, May 23rd
Thursday, June 13th

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Issue 15 - Feb. 1

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to the whole Cantiague family! I hope we all had an amazing week (I know it was a busy one) and that we are all gearing up for an awesome Super Bowl weekend! We are taking Paul to his first official Super Bowl Party and he is so excited to hang with his cousins and watch some football and root for the 49ers (I was a Joe Montana fan so my allegiance is there). He is also going to his first Knicks game on Saturday night thanks to an incredibly kind and generous friend who gave us tickets. It should be a fun weekend - too busy to get any work done for Penn, but in the end, it is what it is! :)

I would like to take a moment to officially welcome three new staff members... Brittany DeBlasio is the new Teacher Aide working with Alex and Rosanna - welcome! Also, Mallory McCoy, who student taught with Jill, Tali and Marissa, will be our Floater Aide for the remainder of the year! Finally, Harriet Mitchel is returning to Cantiague to work in the Learning Center - welcome back! We are so excited to have each of you on our team! **Note - due to the increase in LC staff, the OT/PT programs will be moved to Room 29 ASAP**

Meanwhile, just to give you all a quick update on Paul's health, he is having his next surgery on Monday, February 25th (hard to believe that 6 months have already passed). It should be a routine procedure and hopefully we will be home the same day. I expect to be out for most of that week (the week after the break). I will also be out all day on Monday, February 11th to take Paul to all his pre-op testing appointments. It is never a dull moment but Paul's courage and incredibly positive outlook are what give us the strength to navigate these challenging moments. Paul, through his actions and words, has clearly communicated that although his medical issues are beyond his control, they will not define him and as a dad, I could not be prouder. Please know that I share this little story because I know all of our lives are consumed by stress, pressure and many other issues that are beyond our control but how we handle them can really affect our emotional well being! (thanks for indulging me- a lot of Paul talk in this week's newsletter).

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

I want to thank all of our awesome teachers for their work over the last three weeks with WRAP testing - we are finally done! It is incredible to hear the stories about how our children have grown as readers - especially in Kindergarten where they have blossomed - and how they are developing sophisticated strategies and skills to deepen their comprehension. All that growth is because of the varied teaching techniques - the shared reading experience; the guided reading groups; the 1:1 independent reading conferences; the meaningful mini-lessons; and the accountable talk unfolding during Reading Workshop and many of the Book Clubs- we have made some significant strides this year - BRAVO!

As many of you know, some of my classmates from Penn visited on Tuesday and they could not stop raving about all of the awesome things happening in our building. From Reading Workshop, to the incredible writing displayed in the hallways to the exchanges with the children - they were buzzing about it all. They visited many spaces and were impressed with each thing they observed! Special thanks to Jill, Mandy, Rande, Meryl, Christine, Donna, Melanie, Tali, Marissa and everyone else who let us invade their spaces and take in the awesomeness! Being the lead learner of this building is an amazing gift and honor!

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 Ginny conducting a small group reading experience using the iPad as the anchor for the activity; the children were huddled around the iPad, where they were reading a book, and it was clear that their level of engagement was affected as a result of the iPad- AWESOME!

Got to hang with Karen's class while they were immersed in the Spanish experience with Milissa and their growth since the beginning of the year was impressive! Check out this quick video of Anjali introducing herself and describing herself in Spanish...

Spent time in Lesley's room while the children were conducting the Book Club experience on their own and the conversational exchange was IMPRESSIVE. Check out a short clip of their discussion...

Spent time in Rande's room while the children shared their Paper Bag Character Studies! The children presented a lot of information about different main characters in the books they read - from Harry Potter to Joey Pigza - and the information they shared was thorough and comprehensive! Check out this clip of Wesley sharing and describing the project...

I spent some time sneaking up on Mandy and Allison while they were WRAPing some of their kids and words cannot even begin to express how much these munchkins have grown since the beginning of the year! BRAVO to Team Kindergarten!

I spent some time in Donna, Christine and Melanie's rooms while the children were doing their country group research projects and the discussions and exchanges were awesome! This specific project allows for a meaningful and easy connection between Social Studies and Writer's Workshop - BRAVO!

Finally, my Penn friends and I spent some time in the computer lab with Meryl's class and were really impressed with their current work learning about, and playing, the stock market - AMAZING!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As some of us discussed at the Faculty Meeting a couple of weeks ago, KidBlog is definitely a resource worth exploring (talk to Lesley, Christine, Donna and anyone else I may have missed who is using it) to get your kids online and blogging. Check it out and let me know if you start anything with your class!!

Schedule of the Week...

Monday, February 4

"A" Week

Moustache Monday - hope everyone participates!

Gr. 3-5 Math Benchmark is happening this week

Tuesday, February 5

Faculty Meeting at 3PM - ALL STAFF

Wednesday, February 6

CST at 1:20pm

Thursday, February 7

Cultural Arts
Gr. 5 DNA In-House Presentation

Board of Education Meeting at 7:30pm

Friday, February 8

Happy Friday!
Ralph's Ices Sale

Tony leaves by 10:30am for Penn!

Monday, February 11

"B" Week
Happy Monday!

Tony out of the building all day

Tuesday, February 12

Faculty Meeting - details to follow- different things happening

Wednesday, February 13

CST at 1:20pm

Blue Ribbon School Store is happening today!

Thursday, February 14

Happy Valentine's Day
Kindergarten Valentine's Day Breakfast!

Cultural Arts

Friday, February 15

Happy Friday & Happy February Break!

Kids' Korner

While visiting Nancy & Carly's Room (by the way, I get a lot of my quotes for this space from Team Marsen) with my friends from Penn, someone asked if I was the Class Clown at Penn and all four of them immediately said YES! Gosh - is it that obvious?

Pics of the Week...

My new addiction is Storify, which I started sharing with the parents last week. Basically, it is Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...

FEBRUARY 1st WEEK IN TWEETS

FEBRUARY 8th WEEK IN TWEETS

Upcoming Board of Education Meetings...

Thursday, Feb. 7th
Thursday, Mar. 14th
Thursday, Apr. 18th
Thursday, May 23rd
Thursday, June 13th

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...