9-30-2022

Thanks to the ELA Resource Adoption Committee, I appreciate their preparation and questions  they had for Wednesdays presentation. 

 5 must haves for your classroom library

https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-must-haves-your-middle-school-classroom-library

Please make sure to send me your student growth goals by Monday if you are on cycle.  Let me know if you have any questions.  

A phone call home makes all the difference.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/phone-call-home-makes-all-difference

Thanks to Dr. Salamone for running the BPAC meeting on Wednesday night.  The EL parents that were there appreciated the presentation and the ability to ask questions about our programs.  

Explicitly teaching expectations to your students sets up a classroom that can thrive all year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OdxVchUiXQ

Our sports teams are on a good "run" with individual school records in the boys and girls 2mile and our Varsity Soccer and Volleyball teams getting vitories yesterday.  

Check out the STEM Back to School Parade Congrats to Sherry, Angela, and Megan for an Awesome Job!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eIiv1g0z42g

Thanks to Jen and Joe for working with the PTA for organizing a Fun Run for our students in October.

Check out this great artwork that student Stephanie A did for April!

If you can help out with HW club please sign up on the link Nicole put together below.  

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12vCHkWb2lJA6DZ06M1Xtp6UX0NK_oZ3dH8k5_a1M0Yo/edit?usp=sharing

"Love not what you are but only what you may become." -- Miguel de Cervantes

"I have been bent and broken, but - I hope - into a better shape." -- Charles Dickens

"One of the greatest discoveries people make, one of the great surprises, is to find they can do what they were afraid they couldn't do." -- Henry Ford

9-23-2022

 Congrats to our Fall Sports Athletes and coaches as they all had games/meets last night.  I do apologize for the late start with eligibility.  I will be talking with students on Friday unofficially from the grades Ellen pulled and letting them know next week we will be pulling it for real.  Please make sure you are calling parents for any student that is receiving an F grade.  

7 things a teacher can say to create a supportive classroom. 

https://www.edutopia.org/article/7-things-teachers-say-create-supportive-classroom

Please let me know if you have any interest in coaching our chess team.  I can talk with you about details and am open to being flexible with the structure/times of the practices.  

Thanks to everyone for using your time wisely on our Subject Area meetings on Wednesday.  Time is valuable, especially time together.

Ice Cream Treat day was a big success.  5th grade was especially pumped for this PTA fundraiser.  

If you are not failing you are not learning. Interesting article!

https://www.edutopia.org/article/if-youre-not-failing-youre-not-learning

In case I haven't mentioned it, If  you are on cycle please schedule your first formal observation and let me know if you have any questions on your student growth goals.  Someone has pointed out that October 1st is a Saturday, so goals will be due on October 3rd!

Thanks for everyone pitching in to help with our dismissal the last two days.  It was just another great example of teamwork from our Benjamin staff.  

I want to thank everyone for their input in our grade level data meetings and PST members for attending multiple meetings throughout the day.  Special shout out to Nicole and Todd for their competency and professionalism in running these meetings. 

I appreciate Jessica's flexibility in making the school store work for students and staff.

exercises that help students focus on reading

https://www.edutopia.org/article/exercises-help-students-focus-reading

The fish slip store will be open on Fridays during 2nd period for 5th grade students and the recess portion of lunch for all other grades.  We will do our first drawing next Friday.  Please remember to use Fish slips as a positive reinforcement for students who are shining their positive light, making smart choices, working hard or setting an example for others.

Thanks to Kim for working her magic with our sub situations this week and to Ellen for helping ease our transition back to scanning ID's for lunch.  This is obviously on top of the great job both of them are doing in the office to help make our school run smooth each day.

If you have an announcement on the days where we have the BB 300 please email it to Chris F and it will just run a day later as they record their show a day ahead of when it views.

A list of what 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade students think we should do more often.  Pretty Smart.

I want to wish Kathy H a very special 70th birthday.  She was letting me know that she realized she was not only the shortest (thanks picture day line-up!) staff member but also the oldest.  I would say the best things come in small packages and with experience comes wisdom!

9-16-2022

 Thanks to Melissa L for representing me/Benjamin at the PTA meeting last night.  It is much appreciated.

Please don't forget to set up your first observation with myself and/or Melissa if you are on cycle this year.  

Thanks to Chris for organizing the BB300.  The new and old crew looked and sounded great.

  Thanks to Betty and Julie for their work in preparing and presenting PD on our early release day on Wednesday.  Also thanks to Danielle for helping me get ready for the ELA Resource presentation.  

Why Students forget and what you can do about it.  Research Based.

https://www.edutopia.org/article/why-students-forget-and-what-you-can-do-about-it

The Bengal Cafe is back in business.  Thanks to Megan D for keeping this worthwhile learning activity going for our core students.  Recruiting some 5th grade helpers was a great idea as well.

Using Empathy Maps to Build Relationships

Thanks to Kerry and Kendra for putting up their Lightning Bug Tree and inviting students and staff to contribute a lightning bug to spread positivity or to set a goal.  You can either write a goal for the year that you have for yourself or how you will let your light shine. Lightning bugs can be found in the silver bin outside room 104.

Don't forget to pay your social fund and PTA $5.00 membership fee.  

It's great seeing all of the clubs starting and kids getting to explore a variety of interests.  Thanks to all of the sponsors for their hard work before and after school.  

Thanks to Morgan for doing a great job of getting the 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grade and jazz band students off to a great start. 

Thanks to the lunchroom supervisors and subs for going through the computer scanner training on Wednesday.

"Good advice is something a man gives when he is too old to set a bad example." -- Francois de La Rochefoucauld

There is a lesson in each experience. Learn it and become wise. Every failure is a stepping stone to success. Every difficulty or disappointment is a trial of your faith. Every unpleasant incident or temptation is a test of your inner strength. March forward hero! -- Sivananda

"For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'." -- John Greenleaf Whittier

9-9-2022

 Thanks to Greg for organizing the Registration meeting between the school secretaries, district nurse and administrators.  It is always smart to review new processes and implement improvements for a smoother process next time around.

Thanks to Jessica and Todd for going to Evergreen to help with Fastbridge screening.  It is nice to see time and time again that we have the mentality of two schools, one district.  

Small daily habits to boost mental health

https://www.edutopia.org/article/small-daily-practices-boost-mental-health

Just a reminder to all staff to make sure we are being consistent with the expectations we set at the opening assembly and in your student handbook presentations the first week of school.  Cell phones, hallway and classroom behavior, study skills, lunch and academic expectations are all important.  Students look to us for guidance and for us to teach expectations in all areas.  Also please remember that while write ups can certainly be necessary at times, fish slips can also be used to reinforce positive expectations.

I would like to thank all of our teaching assistants for doing a fabulous job supporting our students and teachers and a special shout out to Holly, who with almost no notice was switched into the 7th grade teaching assistant position to rave reviews.  I appreciate her flexibility and the 7th grade team appreciates her attention to detail in following their expectations.

Metacognition for teachers:  Quick Habits of Mind Reminder

Do you ever find yourself talking to yourself? How do you take note of what is going on inside your head? Thinking about your thinking is something that we all do, even if we are not aware of it happening. When we become more metacognitive, we grow our inner awareness by becoming more self-observing. It is our ability to plan a strategy for producing what information is needed, to be conscious of our own steps and strategies during the act of problem-solving, and to reflect on and evaluate the productiveness of our own thinking. Planning a strategy before embarking on a course of action assists us as we keep track of the steps in the sequence of planned behavior at the conscious awareness level for the duration of the activity. It facilitates making temporal and comparative judgments, assessing the readiness for more or different activities, and monitoring our interpretations, perceptions, decisions, and behaviors.

• How am I thinking about this?
• What kind of thinking will be called for in this situation? For example, Analyzing? Comparing? Creating?
• How effective is the strategy that I am using? What changes might be needed?
• Did my efforts succeed? What could I have done differently?

 

My students AFTER I provide CLEAR, PRECISE directions

Thanks to Dr. Woell for his assistance with securing buses for our sports and field trips.  It was a lot of work behind the scenes to make it happen and really benefits our students.   

Please don't forget to turn in your social committee $ and PTA $ and membership form.  Also thanks to Kerry, April and Jessica for already signing up to attend a PTA meeting.  Next weeks meeting on the 15th is still open if anyone is interested.  

The cognitive benefits of daydreaming: 

Next week I will be busy after school with a Team Leader Meeting on Monday, Mentee Meeting on Tuesday and the ELA Resource Committee Meeting on Wednesday.  Thanks to all staff for your participation in committees and leadership roles of all kinds. 

Please take time next week to look at the IAR scores I sent and think about possible school improvement input(not necessarily related to IAR)  in your team meetings.  

 "A good example has twice the value of good advice."

-- Albert Schweitzer

"Creativity is the defeat of habit by originality." -- Arthur Koestler

9-2-2022

 As mentioned previously in my email, thanks for all of your hard work and preparation that went into making curriculum night a great success.    

Thanks to Dan, Kerry, Matt, Joe, Bill and Courtney for all of their hard work and dedication in getting the Benjamin Fall Sports Teams ready for competition.  Special thanks to Dan for his role as AD and dealing with a lot of parent questions at the start of the season.  Also thanks to Lynette, Jessica and Megan for helping to supervise the games yesterday.

The 5 types of Mentors you need in your life.  Kind of goes with our beginning of the year discussion on the people you want to be around.

https://blog.ed.ted.com/2018/10/09/the-5-types-of-mentors-you-need-in-your-life/

I was able to get into about a dozen classrooms this week, which is my favorite part of my job.  It's great to see the varied talents of our staff and how they engage students in the lesson by role playing bad science safety, leading a short nature trip behind our school, teaching PE expectations so students can succeed in following them, combining get to you activities with student presentations, leading engaging discussions, keeping students accountable with note cards,  o making the worst cake in America to show the importance of the scientific method and many, many more.

Just to update information from my monthly meeting email:  September 14th the teaching assistants will have PD at Evergreen at 2:20pm and the rest of the staff ML PD at Evergreen from 3:00pm-4pm.  Members of the ELA adoption committee will meet at Evergreen from 3:30pm-4:30pm

Thanks to Bill, Joe, Lynette, Kathy, Sue, and Melissa L for doing such a great job with morning lot duty and Nicole, Jen V, Sue, Sherry and Melissa L for doing a great job with after school bus/car duty.  Getting kiddos to and from school in a safe manner is priority number one.  

Thanks to Angela and Danielle for working with our subs and giving them a refresher training so they know what to do when coming into our buildings.  Knowing we have subs knowledgeable about procedures and tech use makes our school run so much smoother.  

5 ways to get to know students at the start of the school year.

https://spencerauthor.com/5-ways-to-get-to-know-your-students-at-the-start-of-the-school-year/

Thanks to Lauren for picking up donuts and Todd for bringing coffee yesterday for a much needed pick me up after curriculum night! Please don't forget to get your money into Lauren for the social committee as well as your $5 for PTA membership to the PTA mailbox.  

Thanks to Jen V, Jim, Jen H, Bill, Jessica, Lynette and Joe for doing lunch duty each day.  Getting students to follow procedures so that lunch/recess goes smoothly between the 4 grades and two lunch periods is extremely important and requires patience, many verbal and great use of proximity.  

The Power of Relationships in Schools.  Watch this 3 minute video.

Huge thank you to Kathy for stepping up in the lead role for the bookfair on short notice to fill in for an ill Michelle F.  It is a lot of work over three days and one night  including packing everything up at the end.  The students definitely benefited from your dedication.  

"No matter how you feel today, get up, dress up and show up." | Paulo Coelho

"If you can't say it clearly, you don't understand it yourself." -- John Searle

Delusions of grandeur make me feel a lot better about myself.

Jane Wagner