October 23, 2009

Red Ribbon Week - Jeannie will be getting a schedule for next week to you and we will be announcing it to students too.  Please review it prior to next week as there are several suggestions as to what you can do to support the activities during your literacy block.  An assembly will take place on Friday and times will be announced once they are set!

Fire Extinguiser Demo for the 4th graders has been rescheduled for Monday, October 26th.  This will begin after lunch so please do not park on 2nd Street (west side of bldg) after noon on Monday.  It looks to be cool - but no rain.  :)   

Tiger Behavior Plan - Please keep me informed of any concerns with our new building-wide behavior plan.  Positive feedback and success-stories are also welcomed!  I will be including information about the new plan in our November newsletter which will be sent home next week.  The same information can be found on our website now - this includes the forms we are using. 

Curriculum PLC - October 28th will be a curriculum PLC afternoon as we will begin at the middle school auditorium at 2:00 pm.  After a brief presentation by the ICC team, staff will move into your curriculum teams with K-12 teams meeting in the same room/location within the middle school.  More information will be sent out district wide Friday afternoon. 

Writing Activity - During opening, literacy block or journaling, students can pick some of these photos to write about or describe, or they can be used in class with your projector as part of the Picture Word Inductive Model teaching strategy:

Off the wall: The astonishing 3D murals painted on the sides of buildings by a trompe l’oeil artist
20 Awesome 3D Pavement Illusions  (Haven't seen these yet??  Wow...)
The World’s Ugliest Dog Show  (First one is a classic!)
Extreme Ironing: shirt-ironing the hard way
Here’s a TIME Magazine slideshow on wild human-powered flying machines.

Printing - (repeat of email sent Wednesday) A good time to reinforce the message of “If you don’t need it – don’t print it.”  We need to save on paper and ink as much as possible. This would apply to students printing things for ‘research.’ I would like to have students take notes and not print because often many pages are printed for 2-3 facts. Another option is for me to work (or Janelle if she’s available) with classes who are interested in students/teacher learning how to use Read & Write Gold in the labs.

Speaking of Janelle...you should have received an email from her about supporting you with an upcoming unit.  I know a couple of you have contacted her already and I would encourage all of you to do so!  Janelle can offer wonderful technology and research instruction, ideas and support for you and your students. Visiting the Google.docs site she has created can also give you ideas as to what other teachers are covering with their students.  I appreciate Janelle taking this on for our 4th-8th grade students. 

Budget Woes - As mentioned in our short building meeting on Wednesday, please keep the lines of communication open as we go through this budget cut process.  Ideas are always welcome so keep them coming - I will keep you as informed as I am able. 



Thank you! The "Boss's Day" song and potluck were very appreciated. Laughing and eating together is a nice way to end the week!