11-21-2014

The 5th grade students put on some awesome presentations yesterday. Using a program called Togul they were able to create maps of a country related to their heritage.  The maps were made of words and each word is a link to more information about that country.  Creating these projects took a lot of effort from the students and the teachers.  Special thanks to Michelle Fiorini for providing major support.

Here is a primer for teachers on Minecraft, so you can have a conversation:
http://www.iste.org/explore/articleDetail?article=Minecraft+A+primer+for+teachers&articleid=218&category=ISTE-Connects-blog

Thanks to Dr. Ehrhardt and the school board for providing the awesome lunch for us on Tuesday.  The subs were enough to feed an army and almost enough for our staff!  jk :)

Interesting graphic differentiating between "on Task" and "engaged":

Thanks to the 5th and 8th grade teams for organizing the reward trips today.  This is a great way to reinforce the positive behavior and academic performance displayed by most of our students.

Interesting article on Homework:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/debunking-homework-myths-ben-johnson?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=blog-debunk-homework-myths-blog-image

Basketball is in full swing, thanks to Dan, Matt, Tim and Nicole for working hard to help our student athletes grow and learn, showing great sportsmanship and athleticism.

6th grade put on some spectacular poetry presentations yesterday.  Who would have thought that Johhny Salazar and I would have shared an affinity for "Ickle me, pickle me, tickle me too"  Robert Frost has nothing on Shel Silverstein.

Since I am talking about 6th grade, how great is it to have Lauren Dunne back at Benjamin!  Welcome Back!

Thanks to Pat for working on getting all of our Parcc data set-up in the computer, it is a tedious thankless job, but necessary  and much appreciated.

Malcolm Gladwell interesting talk on why you might NOT  want to go to Harvard, Princeton...it's 20 minutes but interesting look at data if you want to watch something over break.

I want to thank everyone for the hard work you have put into helping students, I hope you get to relax and spend time with family and friends, you deserve it.  I am thankful to be working with so many wonderful educators and support staff.  Happy Thanksgiving!

At the beginning of the year I mentioned that you would have access to supplementary materials from our Project"Words of" Wisdom resources.  I didn't want to overwhelm anyone so I am sending out the instructions to sign up for an account now:  If you sign up you will be able to look at supplemental materials/activities that go with the announcements and you will be sent special individual announcements from time to time:  Here are the Instructions:

Hello Benjamin Middle School staff member,

We are excited to inform you that our school recently became part of one of the nation’s oldest and most respected character education programs. Project Wisdom has been helping students make wiser choices since 1992 and has been implemented in more than 19,000 schools across the nation.

Results from a third-party evaluation

With proper implementation, the Project Wisdom program creates:

·        More positive school climate.

·        Fewer incidents of bullying.

·        Fewer discipline referrals.

·        Improved teacher morale.

·        More focus on issues of character.

·        Increased social-emotional competencies.

Please register for this exciting online resource that has already been purchased for you.

You will have online access to all these resources:

·        Professional support sent by email. Includes a weekly Just For You message: a concise message written to foster professionalism, promote ethical and caring leadership, boost morale, and improve classroom management.

·        Featured easy-to-implement lesson plans that build character and social-emotional competencies. Great discussion generators, plus literature-based activities for elementary and follow-up activities for each core academic area for secondary.

·        Best practices and uplifting stories shared by educators for educators.

·        Access to the daily messages that will be broadcast over our school’s PA or in-house television system.

·        Student journal pages that work well for discipline referrals, classroom management, and advisory.

·        And much more . . .

Here’s how you register. It’s quick and easy.

·        Go to ProjectWisdom.com
Click on register

·        Key in the following:

o       Your Project Wisdom School ID: 22593

o       School Zip code: 60185

That’s it! As per the license agreement, this invitation is extended only to educators at Benjamin Middle School. Please honor this license agreement.

Questions: Team2@ProjectWisdom.com