2-25-2022

 Thanks to Angela and Danielle for presenting to the 1st year mentee teachers Wednesday after school on the SWIVL technology.  It is a great tool for teachers no matter their grade level or content area.

Thanks to Melissa L, Lauren D and Jen V for their continued work as mentors this year.  Your experience and guidance is much needed and appreciated by teachers just starting their journey.

Just a reminder to keep plugging away if you are doing an alternative evaluation plan this year. Let me know if you have questions or need any guidance.

Please make sure you send me any ideas you have (individually and  as a team) for facility improvements.  Nothing is too big or too small.  I will forward the suggestions to Dr. Woell.

Instructional shifts to support deep learning (great article)

https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/instructional-shifts-to-support-deep-learning

Thanks to Jessica for working hard with the newspaper staff to put out the second edition of the Tiger Times.  I am always impressed with the quality and level of journalism put into this student newspaper.  

Thanks to Rich and Joe for helping to finish out the supervision of our Chess team for the rest of the year.  The kids are excited for their final practices and State Tournament on March 12th and 13th.

The end of the second trimester is today.  Please make sure you have your grades in to Kim by no later than 8:00am on Tuesday.  We have to have a quick turnaround to send report cards home on Thursday due to the County Wide Institute on Friday.

Thanks to all teachers for working with students during this week and last to get assignments turned in.  Giving extra reminders, allowing for late assignments and re-dos on poorly done work does show the kids you care about the work that they are doing and it being meaningful to their learning.

Newsletters were due this week to Ellen.  Also thanks to Ellen for putting this together each month for our parents.  

Thanks to Greg and Vanessa for approving and getting apps put on some of the IPADS in Kerry's room in an extremely expeditated manner.  We plan on using them to facilitate some of their Special Classes learning for the 3rd trimester. 

Doing a "Ted Talk" unit with your kids on their interests to boost their engagement, communication and tech skills.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-tap-students-interests-ted-talk-unit

If you have not already done so please send me your agenda for March 4th if you are staying in the building.  Their will be forms to fill out for PD credit in the office on that day.  If you are going out to a conference they will supply the forms you need.  

"The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young." -- Oscar Wilde

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm." -- Willa Cather

"If you want light to come into your life, you need to stand where it is shining." Guy Finley

2-18-2022

Thanks to Dr. Woell for navigating the district through the masking changes and two school board meetings this week.  We appreciate your careful planning and making student and staff safety a priority while still moving forward. 

 Thanks to Kim for providing the complementary extra drinks in the lounge for Valentines Day.  We appreciate it.

Reading 1.5 books a month will put you in the super achiever category

https://www.inc.com/carmine-gallo/reading-just-15-books-a-month-will-put-you-in-an-elite-category-of-super-achievers.html?cid=sf01001

Melissa L will be taking her choir students on a field trip to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra today.  What an exciting  and educational trip for these music students.

Thinking Critically about Goal Setting (good article)

https://www.edutopia.org/article/thinking-critically-about-goal-setting

What a great event we had on Tuesday, Lucas A and the 6th grade team was able to hear more than a dozen NASA scientists and engineers as he was honored with the perseverance award.  

Thanks to Jessica and Jen H for organizing the big valentine treat sales, they were able to raise a lot of money  that will benefit one of their charities. Thanks also to Colleen and Alex for organizing the food drive.  This will help the food pantry.  I love seeing Benjamin Student goops giving back to the larger community.

Good luck to Miss. Martin and our band as they will compete in the solo and ensemble contest this Saturday.  

The 7 habits that lead to happiness in old age.

https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/02/happiness-age-investment/622818/

As we embark upon another change today I wanted to thank you in advance for your flexibility, endurance and positivity this year.  The kids will need guidance, extra understanding and kindness as we stay together as one school community.  

I hope everyone enjoys their extra day on Monday and you get to take advantage of some extra rest and relaxation

"When you know how to listen, everyone is the guru." -- Ram Dass

"Where you stumble and fall, there you discover the gold." -- Joseph Campbell

2-11-2022

 Happy to have Michael Miles in the building today.  Stop by Melissa's room during your plan period for a few minutes if you would like to brighten your day.

How Hexagons can help students think critically. (pretty cool idea)

https://youtu.be/c88LmOC86D8

I sent out the sub support google form yesterday.  I accidently said it was for next week 7-14-2022, I obviously meant 2-14-2022.  Thanks to Jen H and Marilyn for the awesome job they are doing helping students and staff in the building.

We had a new 8th grade student start yesterday.  The reason I bring it up was the multitude of times that I saw other 8th grade students genuinely helping her navigate her way through her new school on her first day.  #bengalpride 

How Fan Fiction can do wonders for student writing.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/how-fan-fiction-can-do-wonders-student-writing

I appreciate both the Team Leaders and the Master Schedule Committee for giving up some of their early release time to help support the school as a whole.  I truly appreciate it.

The curriculum map format doc that was sent out Wednesday is meant to help people that are done examining their curriculum maps and wanted to start inputting information on the new form.  There will be more discussion, information (including timeline) and help for this as this is just the very beginning of this process for those that are ready. To be clear, however, this is the format that we will be using.  Thanks once again to Danielle for helping articulate with teams and her work on putting the format together.

The Survival guide for being overwhelmed.  Lots of stuff we have talked about before but in a different way and a good reminder.

https://zenhabits.net/overwhelm-survival/

We have found out that Lucas Alvarez has indeed won the NASA Student Persistence Award.  We are excited to be honoring him on Tuesday, February 15th at 11;45am in the main gym.  Thanks to Vanessa for providing needed tech support and to Betty and Megan D for nominating Lucas for this award.

Congrats to Dan, Matt and the Girls Varsity and JV Basketball Team as they secured victories Thursday night.

Thanks to my lunchroom supervisors.  The following up after the kids are done eating before they are dismissed has done wonders for minimizing the mess.  

What kind of person do you want to see in the mirror each morning.

PST team met with SASED on Thursday morning who presented different ways we could support our students with Check-In/Check-Out like activities.  They are different and 2 of the three can easily be adapted to our specific needs.  More info to follow. 

I hope everyone has a great weekend.  You deserve it.

Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish that they are after.

                                                                                        Henry David Thoreau

The opportunities for enjoyment in your life are limitless.  If you feel you are not experiencing enough joy, you have only yourself to blame.  

                                        David E. Bresler

2-4-2022

 Thanks to everyone for providing meaningful lessons for our E-learning days.  From what I gather from teams attendance/participation by the students has been extremely high.  

Yesterday we had another round of grade level Data meetings.  Thanks for everyone working together to provide solutions and supports to help our students.  Please remember that parent communication is the best solution to helping most students to get homework turned in or bring up their grade.  

4 ways to remove bias from grading.  

https://www.edutopia.org/article/4-ways-fight-bias-grading

Thanks to Danielle and Angela for providing the content for our Staff Leaning meeting in the form of their podcasts # 8 & 9.  Link below if you haven't listened to them yet the link is below.

https://edtechsnacktime.buzzsprout.com/

Huge shout out to Tim, Tony and Frank for keeping our parking lots and sidewalks clean of snow and ice and safe for our students and staff.  

Three alternatives to detention.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/3-alternatives-assigning-detention

Thanks to Leslie for getting all of our March 4th County Wide Institute Day registrations processed and payment sent in.  If you are staying in house please send me your agenda if you haven't done so yet.

If you are on cycle and chose the alternative evaluation please check in with me next week.   

Thanks for everyone getting the 5 essentials survey done with your students and for taking it yourself.  

Our home girls basketball games have been fun this year, Dan and Matt have done a great job coaching as usual and the Varsity team is on an exciting winning streak.  Thanks to Bill, Rich, and Marcia doing the scoreboard and book and all of our staff supervisors.  

Supporting executive Function Skills by asking questions.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/supporting-executive-function-skills-asking-questions

This Wednesday is our early release day 1:45pm-4:00pm  Agenda will be forthcoming. 

On February 15th our 6th grade will be celebrating Lucas Alvarez as he is being honored as a finalist in the NASA perseverance award.  The live zoom will be in the main gym at noon.  Any staff that would like to attend are more than welcome.  Thanks to Betty for nominating him. 

If you don't make a total commitment to whatever you are doing, then you start looking to bail out the first time the boat starts leaking.  Its tough enough getting the boat to shore with everyone rowing, let alone when a guy stands up and starts putting his life jacket on.

                                                                                                        Lou Holtz

There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos.

                                                                                                    Jim Hightower

Morale is the greatest single factor in successful wars.  

                                                            Dwight D. Eisenhower