2-27-2015

Jessica Adams brought her Spanish teaching alive by having a fiesta where each student brought in a dish and ate together over videos that celebrated the Spanish Culture.

Ten Random Acts of Gratitude:
http://thelettersofgratitude.com/10-random-acts-of-gratitude/

Thanks to Michelle Fiorini for setting up the Skype with Author Tommy Greenwold of the Charlie Joe Jackson book series.  It is always great for the kids to be able to talk to an author of the books that they have read.

5 reasons educators need to be using social media:

Thanks to John, Jen and Lynette who had the gym set-up in fitness stations.  With the tires, nets and other fun items the gym looked like the set of Battle of The Network Stars... all teachers under the age of 35 should google that last reference.

What do you want to create today?
http://showwithmedia.com/

Thanks to Todd, Betty and Jessica A for giving up their time to give presentations today to our staff.

 Good luck to our JV and Varsity girls basketball teams as they travel this weekend o play in the Jay Stream Tournament.

Pretty Awesome!

Thanks to Greg and Ellen B for setting up today's training and working next week to touch every device to get us ready for PARCC.

Also, a big thanks to Pat for running around yesterday and this morning so everything would be set for snacks for this morning and the afternoon.

Creative use of action verbs...or not

2-20-2015

I want to thank Michelle F for throwing the Rebecca Caudill Celebration this Thursday in the LMC.  Celebrating our students who read and read and read...

Here is a great story on good sportsmanship between two high schools in Wisconsin.
http://www.wkow.com/story/28134285/2015/02/18/spirit-of-sportsmanship-shines-in-2-wi-high-schools#.VOTXx7FgjmA.twitter

Thanks to Lauren G for starting an impromptu lunch book club at student request.  What a great way to spend lunch, talking about shared stories.

We are at 75% for teacher participation in the 5 essentials survey.

5 questions every educator must ask themselves daily.
http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/work_in_progress/2015/02/5_questions_educators_must_ask.html?cmp=soc-edit-tw
this is not one of them

The 5th grade is finishing up their Mrs. Frisby units and will have projects on display soon.  This was something students and teachers worked hard on and should be very proud of themselves.

50 questions to help students think about the way they think:

http://www.teachthought.com/learning/metacognition-50-questions-help-students-think-think/?_escaped_fragment_=ea95s9

Thanks to Gail for working relentlessly to "check in" students in the morning and at lunch.  Our whole school benefits from your hard work.  Thank you.

106 thousand free digital textbooks hit the web.  here is an article about the site  http://www.eschoolnews.com/2015/02/18/105k-digital-textbooks-904/?

but here is the site itself...have only spent about an hour exploring but I think this could be a real valuable resource for all teachers/grade levels/ subject areas

http://www.ck12.org/teacher/

Please watch this video:

If anyone is making it, I will see you at trivia night this Saturday at Benjamin.  I am looking forward to working with the foundation who works hard to help us.  

Thanks to Dr. Ehrhardt for writing a great letter to Benjamin 25 parents about our experiences and concerns in getting ready for the PARCC assessment.  Once again, thank you for everything you are doing to get ready for PARCC and more importantly to help them learn and grow.  

2-13-2015

We are at 68% for our staff completion rate on the 5Essentials Survey.  Please put it on your calendar to take the survey by next week.

Thanks to the 6th grade team for providing their students an opportunity to go to Triton College today and to see their Planetarium.  I'm sure the students had fun and learned something.

Thanks to Adrienne and Alex for being at the Tech Advisory Task Force Meeting on Tuesday Night.  Your input was valuable to the committee.

Just a reminder that we will be doing the second infrastructure trial on Tuesday.  Once we are done with this trial, it will be up to individual teachers to schedule more trials or to use the tutorials and practice tests that I sent to you.

We will be celebrating Fat Tuesday on Tuesday.  Please bring in a dish to share....Jen V will be speaking at each of the staff lunches about the importance of healthy eating habits.  :)

I went into Mike D's class on Wednesday and it was neat to see all of the students immersed into their units.  Whether it was writing music with garage band, making a model car, using interior design or using the power of water as energy, all of the students were engaged as Mike made his way around the class to guide and answer questions.  If you have never seen that room before I suggest taking time to check it out for a few minutes on your plan.

The District Foundation will be hosting a Trivia Night at Benjamin on Saturday, February 21st.  If anyone is interested in being a player(you can join my team) or another team if you like to win.  We are also looking for donations for the event, where you can give up your time to do an event with students.  I have two items up, myself.

Please make sure you send me an agenda for the time that you are not scheduled for on February 27th.  Thanks

5 apps that will change the way your students learn:
http://www.edudemic.com/5-apps-to-keep-your-students-engaged/

5 apps for student portfolios:
http://www.edudemic.com/tools-for-digital-portfolios/

Cool story of the week:  Adam Hey and Joe Orr were painting a ceiling tile of Chicago Bull Aaron Brooks last week and Adam instagramed(verb?) it to Aaron and he replied saying keep up the good work.  Yesterday they finished it and Adam sent him the finished product.  As soon as the Cleveland Bulls game ended Aaron Brooks replied to Adam that "It's the best work of art he has ever seen."

I don't do the awwwwwe that's cute stuff very much, but in honor of Valentines day here is something in that category that also could teach students that they can be friends....but different

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it. Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968)

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.

Groucho Marx

2-6-2015

4 strategies to remember everything you learn!  http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/four-strategies-for-remembering-everything-you-learn/articleshow/46018530.cms

I popped in some classes yesterday and saw students using their devices to:

help sketch their ceiling tile

complete complex math problems on Tenmark

create historical timelines coinciding with a composers life

conduct research on famous African Americans

perform earthquake simulations while changing variables

Even more impressive than the meaningful technology use was the great teaching that went with it!

Three reasons why your students should Blog.

http://instructionaltechtalk.com/3-reasons-students-blogging/?

utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost

Please remember to turn in your newsletter to Ellen today if you haven't done so already!

Thanks to everyone for scheduling the 5Eessential Survey with your students.  Please remind them to take the survey seriously and please remember to take the survey yourself.

Thanks to Keriann for dealing with all of the game changes for our athletic conference due to our snow days.  Here is hoping for a five day work week next week.  I also want to thank her for starting an after school math tutoring club for the 8th graders.  I'm sure they will benefit from the extra time and practice.

Products that have disappeared because of the smartphone.

Thanks to Coleen, Alex, and all of the student council members for all of their fun ideas that make our day at Benjamin a little brighter!  Even the game where 5th graders try to walk as far as they can with a scolding hot cup of hot chocolate with no lid is exciting!

Find the song that was number  1 on the exact day you were born.  Mine is George Harrison My Sweet Lord

http://billboard.fm/birthday-song

The 8th grade did a great job of bringing history alive as they had their 8th grade students write and perform skits using vocabulary of the 1920's.  The students were hilarious.  

I will be at a conference on Monday and Tuesday of next week.  I want to thank Melissa for being in charge while I am gone.  I will also be checking my email, phone and tweets.

Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it. - William Feather