Objectives posted for small group work

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Status of the Class

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Workshop Anchor Chart

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#lindberghlearns @Long for district walkthroughs

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Wildly Important Goals

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Class Mission Statement

Classroom or Cafe?

Comfortable reading areas in Ms. Frederich's room

Weekly Update 8.26.16-9.1.16

I just want you all to know how very much I appreciate each and every one of you!  You make this school such a joyful place to be, and I so very impressed with the way our children are welcomed into your classroom.  You have all done an incredible job of creating a warm, inviting atmosphere for kiddos and building a community of learners in these few short days.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being so AWESOME!

Thank you so much for your flexibility this week as we worked out the kinks with our schedules.  Just wanted to keep you all in the know on a few updates that have been made:

• 1st grade:A lunch swap and a recess time change.  Please reference the schedule in the drive which has the most up to date information.
• Dismissal: A HUGE thank you to Carla who will be our name writer on the Twilight lot.  This change was made so we could really utilize the least amount of staff at dismissal and be able to rotate jobs so the same person is not stuck with the job year after year.
• Have updates?  If you tweak the times, please be sure they are correct in the drive.   

Professional Growth Plan: Please use this document as you get started working on your PGP and scheduling a meeting with Marco or Angie by the end of September.

Reminder for Grades K-5: Many of you have already completed your on demand writing assessments.  This data can help you as you get to know your writers.

Reminder for Grades 3-5:

• Galileo:  The Galileo cheat can be found here.  The window opens next week.  Please refer to the computer cart calendar shared by Liz Keutzer.  Your student logins were in your mailbox.  We will work with this data during PLC’s.
• ALEKS: Please finish ASAP as we will use this data for math intervention.

Learning Lab Agenda: Just reminder we will meet on Thursday for Learning Labs.  Please take a look at the agenda as we will be meeting in different locations.  

Room Reservation Sheet: Please use this google form to make a room reservation.  The person calling the meeting should be the one to complete this sheet and request coverage for the classroom teacher.  This will help to streamline the process.

Flyervision Shout Outs: Just a reminder if you want Marco or I to make any announcements, please use this link.  It is also on the blog.

Staff Lounge: Just wanted to let you know we will be holding class in the teachers' lounge daily from 2:40-3:10. Please adjust your ice/soda schedules accordingly.

Outdoor vs. Indoor Recess: Thank you for your understanding that when the weather has a humidity of 100 degrees or higher, we will have indoor recess. We use http://www.accuweather.com/ to determine this.

Here is a great video to spark a conversation about being proactive.  You can have students put a thumbs up for “proactive” behavior and a thumbs down for “reactive” behavior.  

Overdrive (login with the 10-digit number)

Overdrive works just like a traditional library where the book is checked out for up to 3 weeks.  It works on any device that supports the Internet.

Capstone eBook Library

Here is the link to our Capstone eLibrary which has an awesome collection of over 1800 online, free books for our Concord students.  Students can listen to or read for themselves these highly engaging books.  We want as many students as possible to take advantage of these materials.  The username is concordes and the password is school.  Here is short video explaining how to log in to the website.

8.29 LEAP begins

8.31 RTI meeting in Conference room 8:25

9.1 Learning Labs during Block

9.2 Bus Driver’s Day in Lobby

9.2 iBelong meeting 8:00-9:00 in conference room

9.5 No School

9.6 Staff Meeting 7:45  

9.6 PTG Board mtg. 9:00-11:00 in conference room

9.7  RTI meeting in Conference room 8:25

9.7 Walkthroughs with Dr. Sparks

Angie Out of the Building:

9.2 Principal mtg. @Moore 1-3

9.8 PDC mtg. @Moore 8:30-12

9.9 SSD conference 8:30-12

5th graders using our outdoor learning space.

Setting expectations in Mrs. Schaefer's room.

W.I.G Wildly Important Goals

Classroom Libraries

Setting up Writer's Workshop

Check out this alternative seating for writer's workshop!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Reading Around the School

Book shopping

Reading to Self

Partner Reading 

Graphing Activities

Leader Roles for students

From Heinemann's website

The Teacher Tip

Help Students Grow As Independent Readers

August 22, 2016

Adapted from Not This But That: No More Independent Reading Without Support by Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss.

For students to achieve the skill levels we hope for, their independent reading needs to be supported by a collection of effective practices. What are these practices?

To grow as independent readers, students need:

·         Classroom time to read. If our goal is for students to read independently, then we have to make it a practice that happens during class.

·         To choose what they read. It is important that we balance school reading opportunities with choice reading opportunities. Self-selected reading is twice as powerful as teacher-selected reading in developing reading comprehension.

·         Explicit instruction about what, why, and how readers read. Have students read one book from a bunch of different genres, including fantasy, mystery, science fiction, folktale, poetry, realistic fiction, biography, informational, historical fiction, and fairy tale.

·         To read a lot: a large number of books and variety of texts. By increasing reading volume, students can improve reading achievement.

·         Access to texts. Host independent reading time in the library. Literacy knowledge develops from different literacy experiences. For children to find things they want to read, they need access to lots of materials.

·         Teacher monitoring, assessment, and support during independent reading. Confer with students during or after reading time. Have your students share their reading in some way.

·         To talk about what they need. Text discussions can enhance critical thinking, metacognition, and the ability to structure arguments.

Student growth happens when these practices exist together.

From Not This But That: No More Independent Reading Without Support by Debbie Miller and Barbara Moss.

Weekly Update 8.19.16-8.26.16

#beawesomeconcord

If you can, be sure to add this #hashtag when you are posting to your FB or Twitter accounts.  It is a great way to see all of the awesome things happening at Concord.

ConcordU:

If haven’t already done so, please be sure to join our facebook page.  This is an easy way for us to share tips, tricks, and best practices.

Random Reminders:

• Attendance: Please remember to enter this first thing in the morning.
• Lunch: We are using the white lunch sheets only to record lunch orders.  Send to Terri first thing.
• Voicemail: If you moved rooms or are new to Concord, please be sure to change your voicemail as soon as possible.  See Terri’s email on how to do that.
• Parent Contact: Have you had a chance to reach out to parents yet?  I would suggest that you take a moment to contact your families at some point this week by phone to check in and see if they have any questions/concerns.  This will go a long way for building relationships.

Grades 3-5 ALEKS pre-assessment:

A message from Tara Sparks-With the transition from eValuate to Galileo and the delay of MAP scores, it's necessary for us to realign our data points to determine math intervention students.  For that reason, all teachers will need to give the ALEKS initial assessment.  This will result in the following data points for determining math intervention students:  teacher recommendation, end of the year tests, and ALEKS initial grade level assessment.

Please note that we are short a few ALEKS licenses; those are being purchased, but you may have a couple of students who are not in the system.  I know this will cause a few headaches, but go ahead and begin testing.

***Reminder: Your login information can be found here. ***  Liz Keutzer is our new point of contact for ALEKS so please contact her with any questions.

Curriculum Information:

In lieu of our curriculum night, please share your slideshow and documents with parents by this coming Friday, August 26th.  

PD Grant Opportunity:  Several PEGS teachers just received a grant to attend several out of town conferences, and there is more money available with an application due on Dec. 1st.  The grant focuses on innovative learning opportunities, so think about current innovations:  STEM, PBL, etc.  Learn more about it here:  http://innovteched.com/lean-into-learning

PLC:

In your teams this week, here are a few topics you might want to visit:

• Nightly reading accountability piece
• Data binders-what kinds of data are you collecting
• Getting to know your readers: Reading Teacher Priority One: Getting to Know Your Students as Readers

Please share this with parents in your weekly newsletter or on social media:

This year, curriculum information will be shared electronically instead of being presented live during Curriculum Night events. Parents, please adjust your calendars accordingly.

Nightly Reading Homework:

This is a great video for parents to help them as they support at home reading.

A special thanks for a great 1st week of school!  I so appreciate all of the fun activities and excitement you have for your students.  

8.29 LEAP begins

8.31 RTI meeting in Conference room @8:30

9.1 Learning Labs in Conference room-SSD and ELL invited

9.2 Bus Driver’s Day

9.2 iBelong meeting 8:30-9:30

Angie Out of the Building:

8.26 Planning mtg. @ CO

9.2 Principal mtg. @Moore 1-3