February 27, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday and Happy March to everyone... that's right... adios February and hello to March! Hard to believe that we will soon be having our second parent teacher conferences and the next batch of report cards is going out... this year is ZIPPING by! Thank you all for your hard work - your passion, dedication and willingness to employ innovative practices is unparalleled! This was crystal clear to me on Tuesday during our F.E.O. based on what was shared... the love and respect that defines our staff filled the air. Meanwhile, several people shared that they did not have an opportunity to leave a comment for everyone... so, with that in mind, we will continue this activity at either the March 10th or 17th FEO so come with your ideas and pens ready to go! I will let you know as we get closer to the date. 

In regards to the report cards, if there any comments you want me to read (either a specific child or the whole class) please print out a hard copy and leave it in my office. I have difficulty reading the comments online so a printed out hard copy would be helpful. Please don't forget to touch base with families if there is something negative or concerning going on with a specific child... don't let the report card comment or conference be the first time the family is hearing about our concerns.

Finally, I am not sure if any of you saw my last blog post but I wrote a letter to Governor Cuomo expressing my concerns about his suggested revisions to the educator evaluation plan - he wants test scores to count for 50% of the evaluation and he wants an outside "independent" evaluator to be part of the teacher observation process for 35% so that 85% of the evaluation process would be out of our hands on some level and I don't think this is ok... it is not in the best interest of kids so I wrote this... Dear Governor Cuomo.



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

• Katie facilitated an awesome writing workshop experience with her kids this week. The children are immersed in the start of a fairy tale unit of study and they were learning about the various text features of fairy tales. After a read aloud, where Katie had the children identify the text features, the children worked in partnerships to explore different texts. During their explorations the children identified the text features to determine if the books would qualify as fairy tales and they did this really well. WOW!!! What an awesome activity that not only fostered collaboration but also critical thinking. 

• While visiting Janine's room during writing workshop time, I observed one of her students sitting next to another student and basically facilitating a peer writing conference. The little boy in need of assistance is still developing his English skills and his classmate got down right next to him and helped him stretch out words so he could spell them correctly in his piece. I was so in awe of this moment because not only was it great that Janine has created an environment where kids feel comfortable supporting each other but this little girl was doing a phenomenal job and it was clear to me that our building is filled with Lead Learners!

• While visiting the science lab with Jacquie, I happened to observe a fifth grade class in action and the children were doing an impressive job constructing DNA! The kids were so engaged and they were working collaboratively, which allowed them to problem solve so they could create structures that actual twisted like DNA and in the end, they all met with success - it was pretty awesome! A special thank you to our science team for creating such appropriate and engaging hands-on activities in the science lab!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As we continue to explore how we can harness the power of social media, check out this great article with some useful suggestions... How To Use Social Media as a Learning Tool. Please touch base with me if there is anything here you want to try!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, March 2

"A" Week
Happy Monday & March to everyone!
Gr. 3 - 5 Math After school Test Prep

Tuesday, March 3

Gr. 3 Open House at 8:45am
No F.E.O. this week! 

Wednesday, March 4

Shared Decision Making Team Meeting at 3pm
Gr. 3 - 5 ELA After school Test Prep

Thursday, March 5

CST @ 1:20pm
PTA Executive Board Meeting at 9:30am
Board of Ed Budget Workshop & Joint PTA Council @ 6pm

Friday, March 6

Happy TGIF!

Kids' Korner

While talking to a group of third graders during dismissal the other day, they could not stop talking about how much they love Genius Hour and how it is one of their favorite things about this school year. That was totally awesome news... thank you all for taking a chance this year and incorporating Genius Hour - the kids clearly love it!        

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

February 13, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday and Happy Winter Break to everyone! I hope you all enjoy a restful and relaxing break that will allow us an opportunity to recharge for March, which is always such a busy month with report cards, parent teacher conferences and the looming state tests. This week will be a busy one for me as I have to make some serious progress with my dissertation. I have class in Philly next week... only one more weekend of classes in March and then I am done with classes. Before all that business though, I am excited for this weekend because I am going to be celebrating Valentine's Day with Paul- the best valentine a dad could ask for! With that in mind, thank you all for the beautiful heart notes listing the things that you love about Cantiague - it is an honor to work with you each, learn from you each day and call you extended family. Happy Valentine's Day! 

In other really important news, I want to officially congratulate and recognize two of our amazing colleagues... Lorraine Tedesco and Ginny Lindner. For those of you who have not heard, both Ginny and Lorraine will be retiring at the end of this year. Congratulations to two of the most amazing, passionate and dedicated educators I have ever worked with in my career. We will miss you terribly and please know that you have left your mark on Cantiague! 

I want to begin by thanking Rande for helping me to facilitate our first every student-led Faculty Enhancement Opportunity. It was such a positive and powerful experience that really captured what Cantiague stands for - empowering students and amplifying their collective voices. Thank you Rande for giving them the time to prepare and thank you to each of you for being such a supportive and encouraging audience. The feedback many of you shared will be extremely helpful as we begin to plan for our next student-led professional development session. More details to follow on that event but we are aiming for early March. As a quick follow-up, if you want any of the students who presented to come to your classroom to either share with you or your students, please reach out to Rande - I am sure the kids would be thrilled!

Finally, whenever you get a chance, please reach out to either Donna, Christine, Melanie, Meryl, Jessica, Allison or Marissa (and there are others) to see the incredible digital publications created by their classes using Google Classroom and specifically Google Docs. The third graders generated newspapers about Brazil while the fifth graders wrote nonfiction pieces based on their own research. All I can say is... WOW! Thank you for pushing the kids to publish for a much broader audience!  


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

• Congratulations to our amazing 5th graders who worked diligently to digitally publish their latest nonfiction research pieces. The majority of the children published using Google Docs (from within Google Classroom) and they finally began to see the power of publishing for an audience beyond the four walls of our school. Thank you Marissa, Allison, Christina, Jessica and Rande for taking a risk here and pushing our kids out of their comfort zones... AWESOME!

• Adam and his munchkins did an amazing job exploring the power of QR codes to share their video book reviews of their favorite books. The children did such an incredible job sharing their quick video reviews of their favorite book from 2014 and then creating the library of QR codes in the hallway took the experience to another level... BRAVO!

• Special shout out to Nancy and Carly who turned their classroom over to a group of Chinese parents to immerse the children in a rich and meaningful Chinese New Year Celebration. There were a few parents parents who facilitated a read aloud, handed out red envelopes, included the traditional dragon and encouraged the kids to make their own paper lanterns for a beautifully comprehensive experience... a true home/school connection!

Tech Tip of the Week...

As we continue to steam ahead in 2015, I thought you might be interested in this resource that spotlights 52 Of The Best Apps for the Classroom for 2015 - how many are we already using?


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, February 23

"B" Week
Happy Monday & Welcome back from the break!
Gr. 3 - 5 ELA & Math After school Test Prep starts today
All teacher planbooks are due to Tony by Thursday!

Tuesday, February 24

F.E.O. @ 3pm - Full Staff 

Wednesday, February 25

Happy Wednesday!
ELA & Math After School Test Prep

Thursday, February 26

CST @ 1:20pm
Cultural Arts... FINAL ONE!

Friday, February 27

Happy TGIF!
Adios to February... March here we come!
This might be the date of Paul's surgery.

Kids' Korner

While walking through the lunchroom, a kindergarten student ran over to me, wrapped his arms around my leg and screamed, "Mr. Sinanis, I love rubbing my face on your pants!" Of course, it was ice cream day and you can guess what was all over my pants. Good times!        

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

January 30, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to everyone as we head into the final weekend of January... I cannot believe it is going to be Groundhog Day on Monday as we kick off February! So exciting to know that we are speeding towards the 100th Day of school - what an amazing year of learning it has been from the integration of Genius Hour to our experiences with coding to the continued development of reading and writing workshops... it has been an AWESOME year!

As some of you may have seen on Twitter, I am excited to share that I collaborated with two other administrators from NJ and Minnesota to develop a ConnectED Reading BINGO challenge! This such an exciting opportunity for our children to tackle various reading "challenges" as we kick off February, which is Love To Read Month! Click here for the details about the event and to access a PDF version of the BINGO board that can be printed out and used with the children... I think you will really love some of the challenges!

Finally, as you know the F.E.O. – Tuesday, Feb. 3rd – please note that our next full staff FEO will be happening on Tuesday and will feature APP presentations from students in Rande’s class. We will all gather in the Library to kick it off and then the students will work in small groups to present the following apps…

a. In Allison & Marissa’s room, there will be two presentations on the following apps… NearPod and Sticky Notes.

b. In Christina’s room, there will be two presentations on the following apps… Haiku Deck and Educreations.

c. In Rande’s room, there will be two presentations on the following apps… iMovie and BitMoji.

Based on the presentations you want to attend (about 35 minutes in total for both presentations in each room), you should probably download the apps in advance! I am really excited about this opportunity to have the children facilitate and lead our F.E.O. experience… we hope our teaching can reach them each day so it will be awesome to sit back and be the learners!

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

• I got to spend some time in Melanie's classroom during their Brazil project time and I was completely blown away by what the children were creating. Two kids took the information they learned about Brazilian food and created a Brazilian Food Truck with a menu and working radio-- AWESOME! Another group re-created the Amazon rain forest while yet another built a miniature soccer stadium including miniature players and goalie... WOW! I was really blown away by what they had learned and their attention to detail. In my mind, there is no need for a Brazil test - these were the perfect assessment points - AMAZING work! 

• Karen's class was working in small groups to research the 13 Colonies and they were doing such an awesome job collaborating. Each group had a device and they had each created a graphic organizer to help them gather relevant information in different categories. I was completely blown away by how engaged the children were throughout the experience and their discussions about what information to include was impressive - INCREDIBLE! 

• Dale, Diane and Clare did an amazing job preparing and presenting the Grade 5 Winter Concert. It was clear that the children worked so hard and have grown so much under their instruction - they really did beautiful job and they looked adorable on stage!

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

Tech Tip of the Week...
Looking for some great new apps to try out in your classroom, check out the 70 Best Apps for Teachers and Students!  

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, February 2

"B" Week
Happy Groundhog Day!

Tuesday, February 3

F.E.O. @ 3pm - Student Led Tech Workshops 
Special CST Meeting - 8:40am to 11am

Wednesday, February 4

Happy Wednesday!
Tony out of the building

Thursday, February 5
Happy Thursday!
Cultural Arts!
Tony is out of the building

Friday, February 6

Happy TGIF!
Grade 5 Bake Sale
Tony is out of the building (Paul is having surgery today assuming he gets over his illness... keep you posted)

Monday, February 9

"A" Week
PTA Health Awareness Week kicks off... Meditation Monday - please stop during the day and have the children breathe and be mindful!

Tuesday, February 10

NO F.E.O. 
Gr. 5 DNA Lab - in-house!
PTA Health Awareness Week kicks off... Team Up Tuesday - wear your favorite sports team jersey, shirt or gear!

Wednesday, February 11

Gr. 3 Author Visit - Library Closed!
PTA Health Awareness Week kicks off... Workout Wednesday - wear your favorite workout gear because we will be doing a couple of school-wide exercise breaks!

Thursday, February 12

CST at 1:20pm
Gr. 1 Open House... 8:45am
Bd. Of Ed. Meeting - 7:30pm
PTA Health Awareness Week kicks off... Wear RED for Healthy Heart Awareness!

Friday, February 13

Happy TGIF!
PTA Health Awareness Week kicks off... Jump-A-Thon today... dress down to participate!
Happy Winter Recess to all!

Kids' Korner
During lunch one day, I walked by a third grader who stopped me and said, "Mr. Sinanis, I am sexy and I know it!" LOL! Oh gosh... definitely not something I would have EVER said to my principal!

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

January 23, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy Friday to the most amazing extended family ever!! I hope you all had a wonderful four-day week. By the time you all read this I will probably be on my way to Philly for another weekend of classes at Penn. After this weekend, I only have classes in February and March and then classes are officially DONE! Of course, there is still the little matter of my dissertation... but I am working on that too so I can be done on time for my May 2015 graduation date!

In other news, just an FYI, please review the procedures for a Stay Put Drill because it is very likely that we will be having one in the near future. The three biggest pieces we must remember is that the doors must be locked, the children should be out of sight and please call the Main Office to report that you have accounted for all of your children. 

This Thursday our Innovation Day Planning Committee got together for our first meeting and generated some great ideas for what our first ever Innovation Day (May 14th) might look like. Thank you Lisa, Ally, Jessica, Meryl, Jeanne, Donna and Marissa... your passion and insight were tremendous! More details will follow and there will be dedicated planning time during FEOs in March and April so be on the lookout for those opportunities. We are definitely trying to disrupt the norm here.. and have some FUN!

Finally, I would like to remind everyone that on Monday we will kick off our second annual NO WORKSHEET WEEK CHALLENGE for the week of January 26th! That's right... we did it last year so we can do it even better this year! A week without any worksheets... no worksheets in class... no worksheets for homework... NO WORKSHEETS!! Now, let's take a deep breath... I am not saying NO PAPER... just NO POINTLESS, THOUGHTLESS or MEANINGLESS WORKSHEETS! It is all about the content... not the paper! You know the ones... so join me on our annual NO WORKSHEET WEEK CHALLENGE during the week of January 26th! I AM SUPER EXCITED this year because I tweeted our NO WORKSHEET WEEK CHALLENGE out and it has gotten 100s of retweets so we are taking this event to a NATIONAL LEVEL! One of my Twitter friends, Aviva, actually blogged about and I think this piece is definitely worth a read - CLICK HERE!   


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

• I had a chance to be in the Art Room with Lois and a first grade class and I was totally blown away by the flowers the children were creating with paint. Lois modeled for them how to create the center and the petals and then the children quickly transitioned and got to work. There was such a positive buzz in the room and all the children were engaged. What impressed me most was how different each child's creation looked and how engaged they were in the process - Lois has fostered a lot of independence in that room - AWESOMENESS!

• Book Clubs are on FIRE here at Cantiague! This week alone I have seen book club discussions in every grade from first through fifth. The children are doing such great job of facilitating these conversations with a lot of independence and self-direction. I am also impressed that in most cases, the children were successfully able to find text evidence to support their thinking during the discussions. What an awesome way to not only ignite a passion for reading but also transfer responsibility for learning to the children - BRAVO!

• I was able to visit Janine's room during shared reading and the children were doing a close reading of a poem and they were doing an awesome job. They were labeling parts of the poem and thinking about the different text features as a way to enhance and deepen their comprehension - WOW!

Tech Tip of the Week...

I know many of our children enjoy creating Word Clouds so check out this link to 10 Word Cloud Generators!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, January 26

"A" Week
WRAP Testing
Kindergarten Gym & Me - 8:40am
Joint PTA Council - might be at Cantiague!

Tuesday, January 27

WRAP Testing
F.E.O. @ 3pm - Student Led Tech Workshops 
Kindergarten Gym & Me - 8:40am

Wednesday, January 28

Happy Wednesday!
WRAP Testing
Kindergarten Gym & Me - 8:40am
Gr. 5 Winter Concert - 1:20pm rehearsal & 
                                     7pm Parent Performance

Thursday, January 29

CST @ 1:20pm
Cultural Arts
WRAP Testing

Friday, January 30

Happy TGIF!
WRAP Testing... should be the final day!

Kids' Korner

While visiting Mandy's room they were celebrating the Star Student of the Week and giving her different compliments. Well, one of her classmates said, "She (the Star Student) is an active learner!" as a compliment... WOW!! How awesome is that for one kindergartner to say to another? I was blown away!         

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

January 16, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy TGIF and here is to an awesome three-day weekend as we celebrate the efforts of the great Martin Luther King Jr. With that in mind, I highly recommend the movie Selma, which features King and tells the story of how blacks used peaceful protesting (didn't always end so peacefully) and incredible strategizing (and sacrifice) in Selma, Alabama to secure the right to vote. It was powerful, moving and sadly reflective of the lack of progress we have made as a nation as it relates to racism and segregation. I think it is a movie worth watching and am seriously considering taking Paul to see it too this weekend. Paul transitioned back to life with Kelly right before the New Year so this is our first weekend of 2015 and I am so excited to be spending time with him! 

As we all know, two of my favorite topics to discuss and reflect on are test prep and homework... well, throw the two of them together and it goes to a whole other level! Being that this time of year always seems to bring up questions about test prep, homework and the perfect storm of the two, I just wanted to share my position on both and open the door for future conversations - I would be more than happy to follow up in person. First off, I have spent hours over the last couple of days pouring over articles about the impact/importance/role of homework at the elementary level and the bottom line is this... at best, homework's positive impact on children's academic achievement and performance is questionable. Check out this article or this one to read about the fact that homework at the elementary level cannot be linked to any meaningfully positive outcomes. In fact, in one study I read, the children who are struggling academically in school, for those kids, homework actually has a negative impact. If we think about it... that makes sense! If a child can barely do it while they are at school without extensive scaffolding and support, how can we expect that they will meet with success when doing it at home where the level of support varies tremendously. So, when thinking about homework, please be thoughtful and keep it to a meaningful minimum - less is more in this instance. Make the homework matter; place value on the homework by checking it and giving the children feedback; and finally, try giving the children voice or choice in the development of homework assignments... I think the outcomes may surprise us. And, if we get push back from any families, we have research to support our thinking.

In regards to test prep, I have three things I must share because I think consistency in practice here is imperative to our collective success. First off I really believe that good instruction rooted in rich texts and resources that teaches children the skills they need to be good readers, writers and mathematicians is the bulk of the test prep that is needed. Embed test "preppy" questions into the shared reading or read aloud; embed reading responses that mirror the writing expected on the test in a limited but contextualized way. For example, I recently was in Meryl's room where she explained that once a week, the actual day of the week was up to the kids, the children had to write a reading response that they would share with her so she could get a sense of their thinking as readers. What an awesome idea... AWESOME way to embed test prep because Meryl could pose specific questions each week that mirror the language on the test and there is embedded test prep. Worksheets with pages of passages and multiple choice questions will not accomplish the same goal because I think that access lower level thinking. In fact, in this article on test prep, especially on page two, teaching to the test actually dumbs down teaching and learning! So, secondly, I am not saying that test prep should not occur (our kids need exposure to test taking skills, certain language, etc.) but make it as meaningful as possible and keep it at a minimum. I will support any decisions made in the classroom as they relate to test prep as long as we can all see the value in them and the positive impact it has on the children. Finally, the one thing I am not comfortable with and will have difficulty supporting is sending any test prep packets or worksheets or workbooks home for children to complete for homework. This type of work, if it is occurring at all, should be happening in school under our supervision - not at home for a child or family to complete for homework. From my vantage point, test prep, if it is to have any positive impact on our children, needs to be happening in school - not at home. So, please do not send any test prep home for homework and I ask that grade level teams are aligned in this practice because I do believe this is in the best interest of the children.

Thank you for taking the time to read my rantings from atop my little soap box and please know that my only goal and intent is to promote practices and approaches that are in the best interest of all children. On that note, I would like to announce our second annual NO WORKSHEET WEEK CHALLENGE for the week of January 26th! That's right... we did it last year so we can do it even better this year! A week without any worksheets... no worksheets in class... no worksheets for homework... NO WORKSHEETS!! Now, let's take a deep breath... I am not saying NO PAPER... just NO POINTLESS, THOUGHTLESS or MEANINGLESS WORKSHEETS! You know the ones... so join me on our annual NO WORKSHEET WEEK CHALLENGE during the week of January 26th!     


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

• I had a chance to be in Carly and Nancy's room while they were kicking off a revamped math lesson (thanks to the PD session from Jen and the other teachers at our F.E.O. on Tuesday) and was blown away by the fact that while the children were solving a basic division problem, Carly and Nancy walked around the room, took informal data and quickly met to discuss their data, compare notes and make some tweaks to the plan for the day. WOW... what an awesome site to observe because it showed the power of formative assessment data and how it can directly impact and guide instruction. AWESOMENESS!

• I spent some time in all three of our kindergarten classrooms this week during their centers time and I have to say KUDOS to them for remembering the developmental importance of creative play as part of the kindergarten experience! To see the children engrossed in building with blocks, creating with LEGOS and imagining in the Drama Center is a reminder that at Cantiague, we get it! The Common Core or high stakes testing is not going to deter us from meeting the needs of our children. BRAVO Team K!!

• Tali did a fun activity where her children created a STAMINA Ladder where each rung was an inspirational quote or idea that challenged the children to continue building their STAMINA for learning and getting better. The kids were so excited about the activity and after they analyzed the lyrics to the song The Climb, they generated their inspirational quotes and now their ladder is proudly displayed in the hallway by their classroom - definitely check it out!

Tech Tip of the Week...

One of my new favorite apps is Voxer! It is like a "walkie talkie" app that allows you to leave voice messages and text messages for people far and wide (you can have chats with one person or create groups... this might be a powerful tool for grade-wide and building-wide collaborations). I have used this resource to foster some really powerful and deep connections with members from my Personal Learning Network... people who started out as just Twitter friends, have now become real friends who I rely on daily for support, insight and perspective. Are you interested in learning more about this awesome tool? Click on this link for a Voxer tutorial by my friend and mentor, Dr. Joe Mazza. 


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, January 19

"B" Week
Happy MLK Day... School Closed!

Tuesday, January 20

WRAP Testing
NO F.E.O.

Wednesday, January 21

Happy Wednesday!
Shared Decision Making Team Meeting - 3pm!

Thursday, January 22

CST @ 1:20pm
Cultural Arts
Board of Ed. Meeting - 7:45pm at Seaman
Innovation Day Planning Committee Meeting - 7:45am.

Friday, January 23

Happy TGIF!
Tony will be out at Penn... only two more trips to Philly!

Kids' Korner

While visiting Allison and Marissa's classroom, where Allison was randomly incorporating a spontaneous British accent during the shared reading text, I was told that I spontaneously use a southern accent and that I look like a wannabe rapper during the weekly video updates because of the way I use my hands... LOL! Good times! I will say this about our school community... smiles and laughter are easy to come by and for that, we are lucky!        

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

January 9, 2015

Curriculum Connections...

Happy TGIF and here is to an awesome weekend that will hopefully not be as brutally cold as the last couple of days! Happy New Year again to everyone - hard to believe that this is our first Fast Friday Focus for 2015. I wish everyone nothing but health and happiness in 2015. Let's remember to dream BIG this year and take risks with our own teaching but more importantly, with our own learning! 

Make it a goal to learn a little something new every single day. Maybe something you will use or maybe something you don't agree with or maybe something that aligns perfectly to your current practice... whatever the approach, resource or case, try and learn something new every single day. You know I have been preaching about the power of Twitter for years and I applaud so many of you for getting connected to share the amazing stories of your learning spaces but maybe the time has come to digger a little deeper into the Twitterverse and start using it as a tool for your personal and professional development. Use it to connect with like minded educators; use it to read the blogs as a way to push yourself out of your comfort zone; use it as a way to find resources and materials that could enhance your craft; or who knows... maybe start tweeting about your own ideas, passions and beliefs! Check out my Twitter Getting Started Guided if you are ready to take the next step! 

From my perspective, the bottom line in the world of education is that we should not be mainly focused on the teaching but instead we should mainly be focused on the learning of everyone in the community!

Meanwhile, I am so glad we all survived one of the coldest weeks ever. Thank you to Joey, Joe and the crew for keeping everything running smoothly! Thank you to Kim, Lorraine, Lois, Lisa, Maureen, Rob & Phil for standing outside in the frigid cold weather this week to make sure our kids got in safely - you braved the cold weather with a smile on your faces - THANK YOU! Hopefully the worst is behind us in terms of the cold weather. With that in mind, I will say this... I will take cold weather over snow any day!   :)


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

• I saw several examples of peer tutoring where one child was helping another child work on a specific skill or address a specific issue. For example, from Adam's class I watched Rin work closely with Alan to help improve his English - whether it was working on his writing or reading, Rin supported him with patience and smile. I also watched Sara from fifth grade "tutor" Ivy from fourth grade because Ivy, who came here from China last year, is not progressing at the rate we would have hoped. Well, Sara was truly an amazing teacher both times I saw the girls together... she was a true Lead Learner - AWESOME!

• I spent some time in all three of our kindergarten classrooms this week during Writing Workshop and was blown away by how maturely the children handled getting ready to publish as part of the List and Label unit of study. They were looking through writing folders and examining their own pieces to decide what was worthy of being published - they are truly budding authors!

• Allison and Marissa have done an amazing job integrating Google Classroom into their instructional practices and their nonfiction writing unit has flourished online. The kids are doing such impressive and mature writing and the conversations between teachers and students during conferences have left me in awe. Yesterday, there was even a discussion about digitally publishing their work and making it accessible to the world... WOW! 

• In case you missed it, here is the national video our kids participated in where they shared their BIG dreams for 2015...

Tech Tip of the Week...

It seems that the integration of Google Classroom, Google Docs and other Google based educational resources are permeating many of our learning spaces. With that in mind, I offer the following resource: 5 Time Saving Ways Teachers Can Use Google Forms!


SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, January 12

"A" Week
Happy Monday.... Make it the BEST Monday of the week!
#NYedchat at 8:30pm to discuss PLCs... join or watch the discussion on Twitter!

Tuesday, January 13

Extended Faculty Enhancement Opportunity - teachers only!
See the email from Helene for details!

Wednesday, January 14

Happy Wednesday!
Grade 3 Earth Balloon

Thursday, January 15

CST @ 1:20pm
Cultural Arts

Friday, January 16

Happy TGIF!
Happy Three Day Weekend!

Kids' Korner

While walking around with my Jericho hat on Thursday someone commented that I looked GANGSTA...Yup... that's me, the 40 year old Greek Gangsta! 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

December 19, 2014

Curriculum Connections...

Happy TGIF to everyone as we launch into the final week of the year before we kick off 2015! I would like to begin by wishing everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR (this is the final Fast Friday Focus of 2014) and may the new year be filled with health, happiness and only wonderful things for each of you and your loved ones - you all deserve the best! 2014 was an interesting year for me, both professionally and personally (whether it was the whole gay thing or NYS Principal of the Year, it was quite the adventure) and during many moments of uncertainty over the last year, the one constant and certain thing in my life was #Cantiague - the kids, families and most importantly, each of you. Thank you for your support, encouragement and compassion over the last year. I know that I am kicking off 2015 as a better person, educator and father because of this space and because of the fact that I am finally comfortable in my own skin... THANK YOU!

As a follow-up to our conversation at the FEO on Tuesday, we know there are many students in our space who need us to STAND BY THEM... STAND UP FOR THEM... and be their personal cheerleader even during the most difficult times. As we discussed, we make these things through the relationships we cultivate with our kids - time is fleeting but strong relationships sustain us and our work. From my perspective, in order to nurture healthy relationships, we need to let go of the curriculum and educate with our hearts! Relationships. Smiles. Heart. Transparency. Insight. When we can embrace that these concepts should be as much a part of our educational philosophy as differentiation, standards and instructional techniques, we could take the connections with our students to a whole other level. Healthy and positive relationships with our students should always be our goal. Relationships rooted in trust, respect and heart can take a nice classroom and make it an extraordinary space. When our kids know that we value, respect and love them, they will develop higher levels of self-confidence and feel safe enough in their environment to take risks with their learning. 

So, here are some things I have watched many of you do that speak to the power of educating with heart...

1) Share your passions, interests, fears and everything in between with your students; share yourself!

2) Smile! Each day, especially the really difficult ones, should feature smiles from the educator because if the educator is smiling, then the chances that the children will also be smiling are pretty high!

3) Talk to your kids... every single day! Not just about their homework, tests or assignments... talk to your kids about their lives outside of school; about their passions, interests and fears; talk to your kids and listen to them every single day!

4) Love your kids... yes... even if love doesn't come naturally to you, find it somewhere in your heart and soul and wrap your kids up in that love... they deserve it and will access it if and when they need it!

5) Build time into the educational experience for everyone to explore their passions and interests. When children are empowered to take control over their learning and direct it on some levels, a different buzz permeates the space!

6) Have fun as much as possible. Don't save the fun time for Free Time on Friday; instead, give the kids a chance to have fun during math, reading and writing each and every day because when kids are having fun their brains release endorphins, which increases their availability to learning!

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

• Special thank you to Lisa P. for doing an amazing job modeling the F&P Benchmark Assessment during the PD Day for Grades K & 4. Not only was the assessment tool thoroughly implemented, but Lisa's ensuing explanation and modeling made everything seem much more doable and reasonable. Lisa - you are an AWESOME teacher - THANK YOU!

• Melanie implemented a pretty awesome Genius Hour using the Wonderopolis site as the anchor for the experience! After sharing the site, which is an amazing nonfiction resource that has a little something for everyone, with the children, Melanie had them work in partnerships and use their devices to explore and research a topic of interest. The kids were highly engaged and the notes they were generating during their research was truly impressive... I suggest everyone check out this site or touch base with Melanie to get more info!

• Rande did a really great job explaining the idea of Bar Modeling to her 5th graders within the context of problem solving. After some modeling and guided practice during the whole class instruction, the children worked in small groups to solve various word problems involving decimals and the expectation was that they would use Bar Models to support their thinking and each group met with success because of Rande's support and guidance - WOW! 

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

Tech Tip of the Week...

To continue with the Google theme (remember to use Google Chrome as your web browser & consider setting up Google Classroom for your whole class), I thought this might be a useful resource to see the power of Google Chrome... 10 Free Google Chrome Extensions That Teachers Should Try!

SCHEDULE OF THE WEEK... 

Monday, December 22

"A" Week
Happy Manga Monday... Please join me for the Holiday Luncheon starting at 11:15am in the Faculty Room... a little THANK YOU from me to you!
Surprise Grade 5 Staff vs. Student Volleyball Game at 1:20pm
DRESS DOWN and be comfy!

Tuesday, December 23

HAPPY HOLIDAY BREAK!!!!

Monday, January 5

"B" Week
Happy New Year... May 2015 be AMAZING!

Tuesday, January 6

Kindergarten Registration Begins (in the Conf. Room) 
F.E.O. cancelled!

Wednesday, January 7

Grade 5 Author Visit - Library Closed!
Kindergarten Registration Continues (in the Conf. Room) 

Thursday, January 8

CST at 1:20pm
Cultural Arts
Kindergarten Registration Continues (in the Conf. Room) 

Friday, January 9

Happy TGIF!
Grade 5 Bake Sale
Kindergarten Registration Continues (in the Conf. Room) 

Kids' Korner

I was telling a 5th Grader about how I worked at Macy's during one Holiday Season but unfortunately, I was fired to which he quickly replied, "That is because you were too awesome to be there!" WOW!!! That was the best take on being fired EVER!! 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