Wickedly Wonderful Wednesday 8.30.17

A great way to store dry erase markers for easy access to students.

Students creating their own bugs after listening to the story There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly in the Creation Station room.

Students working together to learn the difference between rhythm and beat.

Utilizing a Kagan placemat to easily find their partner.
Students setting goals before they write independently.

Students decorating their leadership binders.

Students using the design thinking process and STEM carts to create a form of transportation.  They came up with plan for materials, designed their creation, and then carried out the plan.

I Can Statements posted with clear expectations for learning outcomes.

Goal setting, character lessons, and class expectations

Buddy classes meeting to learn more about each other

Sunday Scoop 8.27.17

Boy Scout presentations in classrooms will begin at 9:00 on August 30th.  These presentations will last around 5 minutes.

LEAP begins this week. Please see this updated roster.  You do not need to mark these students absent.  Students should wait on the benches outside the gym and will be sent to the buses first thing in the morning.

Regarding Attendance: PLEASE, if you get an email or phone call from a parent, we need you to share that information with Debbie before 9 a.m.  At that point, Patti Benwell will be calling home to determine why the student is out.  This will eliminate the need for Patti to call into your room.  In addition, if you receive any messages that your students will not be attending Flyers Club, please let Debbie know so Flyers Club is not looking for this student.

Lunch: Please have students who want to use their water bottle for their drink at lunch to carry it with them to playground for recess and set it along the wall.  This avoids the lunch baskets getting too heavy and too many students having to return to their classroom.

Bus Driver Day: Friday, September 1st is Bus Driver day.  Feel free to create cards or something special to celebrate the drivers.  We have 12 bus drivers this year.  

Hats Off to You:  We will be placing a card in your mailbox each week.  Please take a moment to recognize a student.  If you already have a system in your room, feel free to snap a picture and send it to us so we can come recognize them as well (no need to complete something twice).  

Curriculum Nights:

• Tuesday, Aug. 29th: 6:00 1st grade / 7:00 2nd grade
• Thursday, Aug. 31st: 6:00 3rd grade / 7:00 4th & 5th grades

• Babysitting will be available for $1 per elementary aged student.
• PikMyKid:  We will have handouts for you to give to parents and Liz and I will popping in to your class to explain the process of downloading the app and registering.  Please show parents this video as a part of your curriculum night.  It is less than 10 minutes and you can feel free to watch it here.     

https://vimeo.com/226681351

Password:  pikmykid

Emergency Red Backpacks:  We will be ordering the materials you need for your red backpacks.  In addition, we will be putting an emergency contact form in your mailbox so please add this to the red bag.  

K

As you begin discussing the habits with your students, it might be helpful to organize your materials in their leadership binder.   Some ideas include class mission statements, goal setting, reflections, and habits:

This week I attended a session on how we can support our young writers.  I am challenging you to read this post and try it out this week.  Check out the blogpost here to learn how writers can use google docs to turn speech into text. This feature allows our struggling writers to easily get their thoughts into draft format.

• ET Phone Home Challenge!  I know many are still working to complete this task but a special thanks to all who have finished this week:
• Boyd
• McCoy
• Shaughnessey
• Hooper
• Hickel
• Tilley
  Joy
• Martin
• Leslie for all her work with the Eclipse.  And a special thanks to the teachers for modifying your lessons and making the experience so exciting!
• Flexibility to all on the spontaneous fire drill.

Angie will be out of the building:

Thursday  ALL DAY 8.31.17 @ Leadership Academy.  This will be a monthly commitment so please check with Liz if you need anything.

Friday 9.1.17 @ 1:00 p.m. @ Principal Mtg.

Tuesday, August 29	1st Grade Curriculum Night 2nd Grade Curriculum Night	6:00 – 6:30 pm 7:00 – 7:30 pm	Concord Classrooms
Wednesday, Aug. 30	RTI	8:00 am	Creation Station
Thursday, August 31	3rd Grade Curriculum Night 4th and 5th Grade Curriculum Night	6:00 – 6:30 pm 7:00 – 7:30 pm	Concord Classrooms
Monday, Sept. 4	NO SCHOOL	ALL DAY
Tuesday, Sept. 5	Leadership Committee	7:45 am	Creation Station
Tuesday, Sept. 5	PTG Board Meeting	9:00 – 11:00 am	Staff Lounge
Friday, Sept. 8	Movie Night	6:30 – 9:30 pm	Concord Gym

Wickedly Wonderful Wednesday 8.23.17

We have noticed such wickedly wonderful things happening here at Concord.  We just wanted to highlight a few on this wondrous Wednesday!

Reading is Thinking: Lots of anchor charts and mini-lessons to get students started building stamina.

Learning how to read with a buddy in the Eek! position: Elbow to elbow, knee to knee, book in the middle so we both can see! Finding bubble space is so important. We want to make sure our reading does not disturb others!    

Student goal setting: Having students create their own license plate to share their ONE WORD goal for the year.

Creating a Class Mission Statement:

Heart Maps for Writer’s Workshop:

Team Building and STEM:

4th graders created bridges with popsicle sticks and tape.  They then had to see how many books their bridges could hold.

And as a bonus, you might have noticed the tower garden has some GIANT bok choy growing.  You may want to introduce your class to this vegetable and take some for yourself to try at home.  You can remove the stalk leaving about a ¼ of the stem growing.  Here is a recipe you might like to try.

Stir-Fried Sesame Bok Choy

Ingredients:

1 tsp. coconut oil 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tsp. fresh ginger, peeled and minced 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (or to taste) 1 1/2 lbs. baby bok choy, carefully cleaned and cut into bite-sized pieces 1/4 cup chicken or veggie broth 2 Tbsp. naturally fermented soy sauce 1 tsp. honey 1/2 tsp. flour 1 tsp. toasted sesame seeds

Procedures:

1. Heat a large skillet or wok to med-high heat until a drop of water sizzles. Add oil to the skillet and swirl to coat the pan.
2. Add in the garlic, ginger, and crushed red pepper; stir-fry until fragrant - about 30 seconds.
3. Add in the bok choy; cook, stirring often, for 3 minutes. Stir in the broth, soy sauce, sugar or honey, and flour; bring to a boil stirring constantly. Cook 1 minute or until thickened.
4. Remove from heat and sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Sunday Scoop 8.20.17

Some amazing things we noticed this week:

• Relationships, relationships, relationships!
• Having FUN with your students
• Great digital communication with images and updates for parents-we all LOVE seeing your classroom.
• ET Phone Home Challenge Accepted by many
• Tons of collaboration-even on Friday afternoon at 4:30!

Eclipse Information for Monday:

• ALL RECESS will be inside from 11-3 *per central office
• Start time of total eclipse 1:17 and 13 seconds
• End time of total eclipse 1:19 and 2 seconds
• Glasses are only off during the total eclipse (horn will sound to take them off and put them on)
• Please practice with your students
• Students may opt out and go to the library and watch it streamed via NASA
• Students cannot see with glasses on so they will need to put them on outside. They should walk outside looking down.
• Parent volunteers will arrive at 12:45 unless you have told them earlier.

Emergency Bag

Check your classroom to see if you have the following supplies to take with you during our Emergency Drills: red bag, flashlight, batteries for flashlight, green/red booklet.  If you need any of these items, please add your name to this list.  Debbie is working on printing out a list of your emergency numbers to also add to the bag.  We will have our first fire drill this week.

Curriculum Nights:

Please talk with your teams about the content of your curriculum nights.  Be sure to mention myon and how parents can access this resource at home.  I will be copying directions on how to access the pikmykid app and be sharing a 9 minute video for you to preview that night with your parents.

Aleks (3rd-5th grade teachers)

The District was waiting on a few more subscriptions last week to get Aleks up and running.  You will receive an email from Sandy Woodfin soon with your information to begin Aleks this week.

myON:

This year, myON will be accessed through Clever, not through myon.com. Please use the email you received from Sandy Woodfin to log into Clever.  It includes your username and password.  Please note:  Teachers and students will never go through myon.com.  K-3 teachers, please let us know if you did not receive your QR codes for easy access for  your students to log in.  MyON is a resource for you to use as you'd like.  Ideally, we'd like students to know about it and be able to read on devices when appropriate.  Please play around all you want this year and explore.

• Parent Letter-Grades K-3:  You can make a copy and change it if you'd like
• Parent Letter-Grades 4 & 5:  You can make a copy and change it if you'd like
• Samantha Gatzemeyer at Dressel created a slides presentation with tons of great tips for using myOn.  Feel free to take a look here.  Slide 2 has everything you need to know about logging in.
• When students log in to myOn for the first time, they will take an interest inventory. Please see slide 3 of the above presentation for more information.

Mandatory PD:
Don’t forget to complete the mandatory PD sent by Megan in an email.

News from Dr. Sparks:

Stay Connected to Lindbergh colleagues and the great teaching and learning happening throughout the district.  Follow and use #LindberghLearns in social media, and check out the Lindbergh Learns blog at www.lindberghlearns.blogspot.com to get inspired!  You can follow the blog by entering your email in the "Follow by Email" widget on the right side of the page.  #LindberghLearns

As many of us process the horrific events in Charlottesville, here are some resources that you may find helpful:

Resources for Educators to Use in the Wake of Charlottesville

How am I supposed to confront white supremacy and racism on the first day of school?

Bus Riders on the 1st day:   Gina, Valerie, Liz, Katie, Joanne, Chris, Chandra, Leslie, and Sarah.   It is always so helpful to have you on the bus so we can find children.  

Special thanks to Dave, John, and Cheryl making our building so BEAUTIFUL!

ET Phone Home Challenge: I’m sure there are many others who have taken the challenge so please let me know because I have a special little treat for you.  Thanks so far to TK, Lindsay, and Krissy!  You can never have enough relationship building.

Boy Scout presentations will begin at 9:00 on August 30.

Angie OUT:

• Thursday, August 31st: Leadership Academy All Day
• Friday, September 1st: 1-4 Principal Meeting @ Moore

Monday, Aug. 21	Eclipse Celebration K Curriculum Night	6:00 – 7:00 pm	Concord Classrooms
Tuesday, August 29	1st Grade Curriculum Night 2nd Grade Curriculum Night	6:00 – 6:30 pm 7:00 – 7:30 pm	Concord Classrooms
Thursday, August 31	3rd Grade Curriculum Night 4th and 5th Grade Curriculum Night	6:00 – 6:30 pm 7:00 – 7:30 pm	Concord Classrooms
Friday, September 1st	Bus Driver Day