September 24, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Wednesday to everyone on this kick-off to the four-day weekend - WOOOO HOOOO!! Happy Holidays to anyone celebrating this weekend - Happy New Year! Hope it is a healthy and happy celebration. For all of us not celebrating, enjoying the time for some R&R! I am excited about this upcoming weekend because I get to spend time with Paul and then on Saturday afternoon I head to DC for the Bammy Awards. Aside from being nominated this year, I am also co-hosting the Red Carpet Pre-Party, which is going to be a blast! It such an incredible opportunity to connect with some of the most awesome educators in our profession. I cannot wait to share some stories.

As we reach this final week of September the idea of HW begins to become a more pressing matter - especially for the families. How much are you giving? How often? What are the non-negotiables? What are the most important? What can be cut away? I challenge you to consider and reconsider all those questions and even discuss them as a grade level. I am a firm believer in the idea that if we are going to give HW, it must be meaningful, manageable and important to the students... and finally, we must be checking it and giving feedback! 

Here is a great short article that argues both the reasons FOR and AGAINST HW... click here! 

In an effort to respect the idea that LESS is MORE, I will try and keep the Fast Friday Focus brief, specific and positive! This week, as I walked around the building, I spotted these #EDUWINS...

• MaryAnn engaged the fifth graders in a whole lesson about the nervous system as it related to the brain and being mindful! It was great to watch Mare incorporate a School House Rock video about the "telegram system" (aka nervous system) and then challenge the students to think about neurons and dendrites. Awesome to see almost every child in our school has done some work with the brain and mindfulness. 

• Rande's class did exit slips in the form of paper tweets as part of reading workshop. The children did an excellent job generating ideas and supporting them with evidence!

• I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Grade 3 lunch planning meeting on Tuesday with Christine, Meryl, Donna, Melanie and Carolyn and needless to say, it was awesome! To listen to the flow of information, exchange of ideas and genuine enthusiasm about upcoming activities definitely served as an inspiration for me - THANK YOU! I am particularly excited to hear that they are planning on launching student led book clubs (with support) next week... AWESOME!!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As a follow up to our conversation yesterday about empathy at the faculty meeting, here is a short video (less than 3 minutes) featuring Barak Obama speaking about the importance of empathy...

http://youtu.be/Ft_M5tXRx28 

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, September 29 

"A" Week
Happy Monday!

Tuesday, September 30

NO F.E.O.
Photo Day - the Gym will be CLOSED for the day for pictures!
SEPTA Meeting - 7pm at the MS

Wednesday, October 1

Happy Wednesday!
Gr. 2 Trip - Queens County Farm

Thursday, October 2 

PTA Executive Board - 9:30am
Carvel Pre-Order Sale!

Friday, October 3

Happy TGIF!
EMERGENCY EVACUATION DRILL - Early Dismissal

Kids' Korner

While visiting a fourth grade classroom I heard the following exchange between two boys...
Kid 1: "Hey, what are you doing?"
Kid 2: "My math work. You?"
Kid 1: "I am busy pinching my nipples..."
Alrighty then! LOL!

Pics of the Week...

Check out Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...

WEEK IN TWEETS

September 12, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone as we head into the last few days of summer! I hope everyone had a wonderful week. It was a busy week that featured our annual Meet The Teacher Night last night and our New Family Breakfast and PTA Meeting earlier in the week. It was so great to have the families in the building because they are all so excited about the school year! Thank you for creating that positive buzz and nurturing a space that makes our kids happy and inspires them each day. I received so much positive feedback from our families this week because of your work so THANK YOU! 

A special thank you to MaryAnn for sharing all that important information with us at the F.E.O. on Tuesday about some of our classified kids and their needs. It is so important that we have that type of information because it helps us best meet the needs of our children. Of course, Mare just touched on a portion of the students who have special circumstances because we also have a bunch of unclassified students who have backstories that we should be aware of moving forward. If you know one of those backstories from last year because you had the student, please share it with the current classroom teacher because it could make a huge difference. Thank you in advance for your support in doing what is in the best interest of our children.

By the way, if you did not get a chance to read MaryAnn's latest post, click on the following link because it is an incredible read that could be helpful to all of us... Getting Your Kids To Talk

This week, as I walked around #Cantiague this week, I spotted the following #EduWins...

• Tali read the book Fireboat and facilitated an amazing conversation about September 11th! The conversation wasn't only informative as it related to the historical facts, but Tali seamlessly connected the day's events to the importance of being a HERO. #PowerfulReadAloud

• Jessica leading a conversation in her 5th grade class about author's tone and slant. One child asked for clarification about what the word slant meant and instead of defining it for her, Jessica asked the children to turn and talk to their partners to decipher the meaning. In the end, the children did a great job coming up with a collective definition with some support from Jessica!

• Laurie did an awesome activity in the Science Lab with the fourth grade where she used a cupcake baked with different color cake to teach the children about the earth's geology - it was AMAZING!

Please refer to this post (especially for the Schedule of the Week below) for the next couple of weeks! 

Tech Tip of the Week...

As I mentioned in an email yesterday, there is an awesome LiveBinder that focuses on Genius Hour that is worth exploring if you want to try implementing it at some point this year. Although there is a lot to explore in that virtual binder, definitely check out this link to one post in the elementary tab that would be most helpful to getting started (there are also tabs in the binder separated by grade level)... 5 Ways To Help Students Think Creatively.


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, September 15

"A" Week

Tuesday, September 16

NO F.E.O.

Wednesday, September 17

Happy Wednesday!
Constitution Day - try celebrating during the day!

Thursday, September 18

CST at 1:20pm
Bd. Of Ed. Meeting - 7pm

Friday, September 19

Happy TGIF!
PTA buys Pizza for Kindergarten
Tony is at PENN - out for the day!

Monday, September 22

"B" Week
Kindergarten Hot Lunch Begins 

Tuesday, September 23

F.E.O. for all staff - 3pm

Wednesday, September 24

Happy Wednesday!
Happy Holidays to anyone celebrating... have a great 4-day weekend!

Kids' Korner

During one of my classroom visits, on a particularly hot and humid day, one of the kids turned to me and said, "Wow- it is hot in here and I am sweating in some really private places!" I nearly fell out of my chair laughing!! 

Pics of the Week...

Check out Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...

CANTIAGUE WEEK IN TWEETS

September 5, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone after an awesome first week of school - it feels like we never left (in a great way)! I hope we all had a wonderful short week and that everyone has some great plans for the upcoming weekend (maybe stopping by the Gr. 5 Car Wash??). The start of the school year is such an exciting and invigorating time - a whole other fresh start to try new things, learn from failures and have fun! This is our year to incorporate more things like project/passion based learning, explore the possibilities of a Genius Hour, maybe consider a school-wide Innovation Day or Week (not something we really discussed but something to consider because we have the resources to make it happen) and allow for deeper connections between reading and writing workshop as we look to solidify an actual literacy block! Bottom line - it is going to be an AWESOME year!  :) 

First off, thank you for being the most amazing educators and individuals that I have ever worked 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 tech issues or moving spaces at the last minute, 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 days of school so successful and powerful for all of our students - new and returning. We started everything off on the right note on Wednesday with all specialists and support staff members joining me in front of our school as the munchkins came off the buses - from my vantage point, it was the BEST start of the school year EVER!

Additionally, I want to welcome all the Cantiague newbies one more time... Ally, Jessica, Grace, Sara, Christina, Kerry, Maureen and Kelly (and anyone I missed) - our team is now complete! We are so lucky to have each of you on our team because you have all helped make Cantiague an even better place!

In an effort to respect the idea that LESS is MORE, I will try and keep the Fast Friday Focus brief, specific and positive! This week, as I walked around the building, I spotted these #EDUWINS...

• Marissa and Allison challenging their students to work in pairs to figure out how they could stand on the same piece of newspaper without being able to physically make contact - it was incredibly challenging!

• Grade 1 students reacting to their first day after reading the First Day Jitters book... fortunately, very few of them actually had the jitters! Many of them were happy, excited and joyful!

• Grade 2 and 3 students writing about how they could be Bucket Fillers! Thank you to everyone who incorporated these types of activities to remind the children about the importance of being a Bucket Filler... it is a way of life here at #Cantiague!

Tech Tip of the Week...

I know I have mentioned this before, but if you have not done so yet, you should create a Diigo account (something I reminded everyone of during our summer in-service) where you can save your favorite websites to the "cloud" and access them from any and all computers. The best part of Diigo and it's new features is that you can create "GROUPS" and theoretically grade levels can be part of the same group and everyone has access to each other's awesome sites! Here is a Diigo Tutorial to help launch the Diigo experience!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, September 8 

"B" Week
Gr. 1 - 5 Playdates Begin

Tuesday, September 9

Faculty Enhancement Opportunity (F.E.O.) - 3pm 
PTA Meeting & New Family Breakfast - 9am

Wednesday, September 10

Happy Wednesday!

Thursday, September 11 

Meet The Teacher Night...
Gr. 3 - 5 at 6:30pm
Gr. K - 2 at 7:30pm

Friday, September 12

Happy TGIF!
PTA MOVIE NIGHT 
Homecoming Weekend activities!

Kids' Korner

During lunch one of our kindergarten students told me that lunch at Cantiague was the best because it was loud and noisy! LOL! Ain't that the truth?!

Pics of the Week...

Check out Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...

WEEK IN TWEETS

June 20, 2014

Curriculum Connections... 

Well, it is hard to believe that we have reached the end of another successful school year here at Cantiague - for most of us, our fifth year together as a collective team. The start of the next school year, which will be my seventh year at Cantiague, marks a special time in my professional journey because if everything goes well, I will be graduating from Penn in May! I am so excited that this milestone is happening here at Cantiague because there is no other place that I would rather mark such a highlight in my career. Being the Lead Learner of this school is such a gift for me because literally not a day goes by where I don't learn something new or see something that impresses me or experience something that makes an impression on me. Our school is the model for what every elementary school should look like - forget about Common Core and high stakes testing - every school should just model themselves after our school and not only will children be college and career ready but we will begin to close the achievement gap and help shape happy and productive individuals. Thank you all for another incredible year filled with critical thinking, engaged learning and happy kids who genuinely love coming to school!

Of course, we wouldn't be able to do the things we do in our classrooms if it weren't for certain support structures that are in place that help facilitate learning. First and foremost, thank you to Laura and Pam for all of their hard work each and every day. Many people would argue that the tone of the Main Office directly affects the tone of the rest of the building. Well, it is clear to me that our Main Office is a happy place where people feel supported and children/families feel valued, which can be seen in every one of our classrooms too. Additionally, I want to thank Joey, Joe, Edwin, Omar, Cliff, Michael and Eduardo (our incredible custodial crew) for keeping our building clean, beautiful and safe. Without this dedicated team, who approach their work with pride and thoroughness, none of us would want to be in this space (trust me, I have seen some dirty schools) and our children wouldn't be as available to learning! Finally, I want to thank our amazing part-time aides who do so much to support the smooth running of our school. Thank you Janet, Debbie, Elaine, Chris, Olga, Diane and Mary for all that you do each day for our staff and kids - your jobs are not easy ones but we appreciate and value your daily efforts in keeping the students safe and supporting different spaces in the building! Cantiague is a special place because every member of the community plays a critical role - THANK YOU!

Congratulations again to Linda and Mary on their retirements - we will miss you! To everyone moving on to a new job or phase in their lives - best of luck! And to everyone getting married or having a baby or any other life changing event - I wish you the best! 

As you know, an #eduwin may not be something I observed but it happened in our building and I heard about it (or saw it) and I want to spotlight here! This edition will be the #eduwins for the year...

• Meryl successfully piloted and implemented a 1:1 iPad program and the results were AWESOME! Her willingness to try different approaches and empower the students to take control of their learning in a totally different way was beyond impressive!

• MaryAnn successfully moved the MindUp experience to second grade with regularly scheduled lessons and activities that challenged the students to learn about the parts of their brain and how they could be more mindful in an attempt to be optimistic, flexible and calm - AWESOMENESS. 

• We were all able to watch and be connected to the amazing transition Adam made back into the classroom - like he was meant to teach second grade his whole life! We are so lucky to have him join the #Cantiague team and share his passion and instructional expertise with us!

• Over half of our classrooms and specialists are now actively tweeting from their spaces and sharing the amazing learning happening - I have no words to express how much this means to me!

• Our reorganization process was SUPER smooth (for the most part) thanks to each of you!

• In case you missed them, here are the latest Video Updates of the Week featuring kids from Gr. 5 & K - please show them to your class...

Tech Tip of the Week...

Check out this blog post with 5 really cool End of Year Activities to do with kids (even though it is geared towards HS)... 5 Reflective End of Year Activities!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, June 23

"A" Week

Tuesday, June 24

F.E.O. at 3pm in the Library. 
Gr. 5 Moving Up at 9am!
Gr. 5 Moving Up Party - 6pm

Wednesday, June 25

Students dismissed at 11:45am

Thursday, June 26

Students dismissed at 11:45am

Friday, June 27

Happy LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!! 
Zoom and Zip into SUMMER!!!

Kids' Korner

During #GuysDay on Monday one of the dads pulled me aside and said, "I don't know how you all do it here at Cantiague but my son is literally excited every morning when he wakes up because he cannot wait to go to school!" Thank YOU to all of you for making Cantiague such an amazing, warm and inviting place for kids!        

Pics of the Week...

Check out the last two Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following links to see our Pics of the Week...

WEEK IN TWEETS

June 6, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone - it is hard to believe that the first full week of June is behind us! It is unreal that there are only days of school left at this point - so much to do and so little time! I want to thank you all for a wonderful discussion at our F.E.O. on Tuesday - I was so inspired thinking about everything from the Genius Hour to the Maker Space because I think those are things that we can make realities in our school in the future! I believe our children would respond and be enriched by these types of opportunities in our school! 

I want to take a moment to thank Rob, Phil and all the specialists who helped out on Field Day - it was an awesome day and the kids had a blast, which is the most important thing! I am so glad the weather held up and that GOLD and BLUE spirit permeated our building - I am already looking forward to next year! 

On another note, this Fast Friday Focus will cover the next two weeks so please hold on to it. 


Here are some of the #eduwins that unfolded in our building over the course of this week...

• MaryAnn totally had a MakerSpace happening during her grade 2 lunch group. Kids were building with lego, creating with sand and constructing with Jenga pieces just to name a few of the hands-on activities unfolding in the space - it was AWESOME and so perfect for those kids! You all should check it out some time!

• Christine and Donna turned over their shared reading experience to two boys this week and they did such an incredible job facilitating the learning for the rest of the class - they planned well and thought about everything they did each day - BRAVO!

• Listening to first graders dissecting musical notes with Clare in the Music Room was truly awesome! They knew the difference the various notes and were able to show how they different in sound - AMAZING!

• Our fifth graders are doing an incredible job with their Heritage Projects - the pieces are so clearly their work and this opportunity to learn about their family history is priceless - AWESOME! 

• Janine's class had such a great time writing in their writer's notebooks and then had an opportunity to share their work with the class - this is exactly what the workshop should look like - fun while writing and then excitement while sharing - TERRIFIC!

• In case you missed them, here is the latest Video Update of the Week featuring students from Karen's class - please show it to your class...

Tech Tip of the Week...

Check out this short video (less than 2 minutes) about the concept of the BYSTANDER - short but powerful and may be worth sharing and discussing with students...

THE BYSTANDER

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, June 9

"A" Week
Gr. 5 Heritage Day 

Tuesday, June 10

F.E.O. Cancelled 
PICNIC AROUND THE WORLD - 5pm
Cerullo - Writing Celebration

Wednesday, June 11

Jericho Public Library - Summer Reading Presentation - see Lorraine for the schedule!
Reorganization Meetings

Thursday, June 12

Reorganization Meetings
PTA Executive Board
JTA Retirement Party

Friday, June 13
Happy Friday!
Moses Writing Celebration
Tony at Penn!


Monday, June 16

"B" Week
Guys Do Recess
Guys Game Night at 6pm 

Tuesday, June 17

F.E.O. at 3pm in the Library
PTA Meeting at 9:45am
SEPTA 7pm

Wednesday, June 18

Happy Wednesday!

Thursday, June 19

CST @ 1:20pm
Board Meeting - 7:30pm

Friday, June 20

Happy TGIF!
Kindergarten Farewell Breakfast
End of Year Party

Kids' Korner

During Field Day I overheard one of the kids saying that they love the end of the year because of the ABC Countdown and Field Day because it makes school feel like camp! I think that is awesome because it means our kids are happy and happy kids are productive kids!          

Pics of the Week...

Check out Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...

WEEK IN TWEETS

May 30, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone - the last Friday of May! That is right my friends - we have raced towards the end of the year and June is upon us. It was certainly nice to end May with two four-day weeks and relatively nice weather. I hope everyone has some wonderful plans for the weekend - some R&R before we enter what is likely to be a hot and busy month. 

For a couple of our staff members this June will be their last at Cantiague... both Linda Groy and Mary Gatt are retiring at the end of the school year. I want to congratulate on both of them on many years of service and dedication to the entire Cantiague community - our kids were so lucky to be in your presence. I wish you both nothing but health, happiness and awesome things during this next chapter of your lives and I hope you are both willing to come back and sub every once in a while. We will miss you a LOT!

On another note, I would like to share a concern I have as it relates to recess and students missing that experience. While I certainly understand that are certain circumstances that leave us with no option but to take away recess, I feel strongly that it should be a last resort or a result of something that happened at recess. Our children, especially some of our most challenging and at times difficult, need that outlet. Our children need to learn to navigate the often unstructured recess experience. Our children need fresh air and movement because it is a long day. I just think about myself as an adult - if I cannot get even a few minutes away from the "work" at some point each day, I am definitely more stressed and even cranky sometimes. Again, I am not suggesting that impacting recess should never happen but I don't feel it should be the first resort - it should really be as a result of an incident or situation. So, for example, if a child gets physical at recess and hurts someone, then impacting that child's recess the next day makes sense. Maybe the child misses a portion of recess or even all of it depending on the situation. On the other hand, if a child has incomplete HW or still needs to work on an assignment or activity (aside from the children on structured behavior plans), we should consider a working snack or during free time in the classroom the work must be completed or any down time is time to work on a missing assignment/activity. Whatever the case, there are alternatives to taking away recess and moving forward I would like everyone to be extremely thoughtful about when and why recess is being taken away from a child. With that being said, I would love to hear different perspectives on the matter because in planning for next year, we may want to establish some parameters for taking away recess - thank you!    

As you know, an #eduwin may not be something I observed but it happened in our building and I heard about it (or saw it)...

• Our awesome second graders did an incredible job with their fairy tale celebration! From  the performances to their publications, the results were beyond impressive - WOW!

• Some kindergarten kids have started participating in a book club... that's right - book clubs in kindergarten! That is AWESOME because it lays a solid foundation for future independent small group reading experiences. 

• The kids in Rande's class have started facilitating the Shared Reading experience and our teaching their classmates on a daily basis - it is really amazing to see and hear what they do as teachers - AWESOME!

• Our 5th graders did an amazing job during their spring concerts - thank you to Diane, Dale and Clare - WOW!

• In case you missed them, here is the latest Video Update of the Week featuring Melissa's students - please show it to your class...

Tech Tip of the Week...

Check out this great blog post with 5 really cool End of Year Activities to do with kids... 5 Reflective End of Year Activities!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, June 2

"B" Week
Gr. 4 Science State Test in the classrooms

Tuesday, June 3

F.E.O. at 3pm in the Library. 
FIELD DAY is here - make sure you review the schedule!
Senior Reunion - 7:45am in the Library!

Wednesday, June 4

Gr. 5 is on a trip today - Soundwaters!

Thursday, June 5

CST @ 1:20pm
Gr. 5 is on a trip today - Blue Man Group!

Friday, June 6

Happy TGIF!
Leverman - Writing Celebration. 
There will be visitors in the building from East Williston!

Kids' Korner

During the Dance and Donate experience one of the children said that we should rename the school "Club Cantiague" and have some dancing time EVERY day! I don't know about all of you but a little dancing break each day may not be a bad idea... thoughts?        

Pics of the Week...

Check out the last two Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following links to see our Pics of the Week...

WEEK IN TWEETS

May 16, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone - we are officially midway through May! As exciting as this is for us, it also means we are full on in allergy season - I have been struggling for the last couple of weeks but hopefully things will improve moving forward. I, for one, am excited about the fact that we have two 4-day weeks coming up, which features the kick-off of our Cantiague ABC Countdown. With that in mind, this Fast Friday Focus will cover the next two weeks so please hold on to it. 

On another note thank you so much for the wonderful breakfast on Thursday morning. You all are the BEST! It is such an honor to work in the most amazing school on the planet. This award is just a reflection of all the awesomeness that unfolds at Cantiague each and every day - THANK YOU!!!

Here are some of the #eduwins that unfolded in our building over the course of this week...

• Our literacy planning meetings facilitated by Lisa D. Thank you Lisa for helping us reflect at a deeper level about our practice and kudos to all the classroom teachers for looking at literacy instruction through a critical lens. Although I only sat through portions of some of the grade level meetings I was blown away- WOW!

• The second graders are doing such awesome work within their fairy tale unit in writer's workshop where they are publishing their own fractured fairy tales - impressive!

• Listening to first graders dissecting musical notes with Clare in the Music Room was truly awesome! They knew the difference the various notes and were able to show how they different in sound - AMAZING!

• First graders were using safesearchkids.com (powered by Google) to surf the web and the results were pretty AWESOME! If we start teaching 

• A class of 4th graders were working in small groups using technological and non-technological resources to solidify their scientific understandings - one of the highlights was watching them play TRAIT BINGO!

• In case you missed them, here is the latest Video Update of the Week featuring students from Team Leverman - please show it to your class...

Tech Tip of the Week...

Check out this 2 minute video about Digital Citizenship, which is definitely something we should be thinking about for ourselves and our kids...

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, May 19

"B" Week
Planbooks due for all staff- LAST time for the year!
PTA Meeting at 9:45am- I will be doing an APPY HOUR!

Tuesday, May 20

F.E.O. at 3pm in the Library for all staff 
Laura Vaccaro Seeger visits with K in the Library!
1st Grade is on a trip today!
BUDGET VOTE is happening today!
Gr. 4 Math in Focus Training

Wednesday, May 21

Gr. 3 & 5 on trips today!
Happy Wednesday!

Thursday, May 22

CST @ 1:20pm
Principals for the Day - Zach and Chloe
School is CLOSED tomorrow (Friday) & Monday

Tuesday, May 27

"A" Week
F.E.O. Cancelled
SEPTA 7pm

Wednesday, May 28

Grade 2 Fairy Tale Gala - AM!
Gr. 4 Science State Testing - Hands on portion for IEP Students

Thursday, May 29

CST @ 1:20pm
Gr. 4 Science State Testing - Hands-On for all students
Gr. 5 Spring Concert - 7pm
Board Meeting - 7:30pm

Friday, May 30

Happy TGIF!
Adios to May!

Kids' Korner

During the morning announcements yesterday, one of the Kindergarten students doing the pledge saw me in my neon yellow shirt and without skipping a beat said, "Mr. Sinanis, you are so fat!" And then laughed hysterically. From the mouths of babes... LOL!          

Pics of the Week...

Check out Cantiague's Week in Tweets - click on the following link to see our Pics of the Week...

WEEK IN TWEETS