1-26-24

Jen and Joe have been doing a great job with the healthy cooking and Roller Skating for our PE students.  What a fun and engaged time to be a PE student.

Professional musician Michael Miles visited us again on Thursday and created engaged classes with music, discussion/questions and hands on learning.

Whether your students are in elementary or high school, these strategies will help them develop the emotional literacy skillset they need to better understand—and react—to their feelings

edut.to/48kaEJr

The Zoom PTA meeting was well attended on Tuesday.  Just as a reminder Benjamin still has 

money for classroom incentives in their budget $150 per teacher if you are a PTA member and haven't already used those funds.  Also they will be looking for some staff volunteers at Culvers for their March 11th fundraiser.  It ia a Monday evening before the board meeting.  Looks like fun and a great way to see some of our kiddos and their families outside the classroom.   Link below

Culver's Volunteer Sign Up

I have had a very busy week with observations, post observations, meetings both here and at Evergreen.  Since I have been less available than usual, please feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions or problems I can help solve.  

The way you answer questions can force students to think rather than look to you to do the thinking for them.

5 ways to stop thinking for your students

Thanks for everyone's attendance and participation at our staff learning meeting.  Going through the 5 essentials data can be tedious as we work through and identify weird, prompts, bad questions but also genuine areas for growth.  

Congrats to Megan P on her employee of the month recognition.  We are all proud of her NBCT status!

I am very grateful to the Specials Team, Melissa L, Michelle F, Michele Davis, April and Lynette for taking over the student of the moth bulletin boards each month.  Such creativity and artistic talent!  Special shout out to Michele D for identifying a need and replacing and beautifying our Lounge bulletin boards that were in desperate need of an upgrade.  

Edutopia's 60 second strategies are now all in one place.  Check it out for some fresh ideas and quick PD. 

60 second strategies

Good Luck to Matt, Dan and the girls basketball team as they have their first home game on Friday.

Team Leaders please send in your e-learning attendance for your grade when completed.  

Just to put a smile on your face at the end of a long-short week.  The Norfolk police department was challenged by another police department in Texas to a Lip-sync battle.  They shot this in one take, pretty sure they won.  #havingfunatwork

"It is either easy or impossible." -- Salvador Dali

"It is always important to know when something has reached its end. Closing circles, shutting doors, finishing chapters, it doesn’t matter what we call it; what matters is to leave in the past those moments in life that are over." -- Paulo Coelho

1-19-2024

 I know I speak for everyone when I say how much we appreciate the hard work the custodians put into clearing the snow/salting to keep our students and staff safe last Thursday through this Tuesday. Thank you!

I want to thank everyone for putting meaningful assignments and activities into your E-learning plan lessons last Friday.  It sounds like our completion rate is pretty high overall from the informal teacher conversations I have been having. 

Students tend to perform up to their teachers’ expectations for them—whether good or bad. Let *all* of your students know that you expect great things from them.

high expectations for all

Jessica and Jen H did a wonderful job organizing and running the NJHS ceremony on Wednesday night.  These student leaders will be a wonderful addition to our chapter and will certainly contribute to our school.  

I appreciate the work that was done on Wednesday after school in the subject area meetings.  Having dedicated professionals that can work independently and with their subject area groups allow us to accomplish a lot of varied objectives.  

6 Evidence-Based Instructional Practices Drawn From Cognitive Science

These research-backed strategies have the capacity to help students learn and retain more information. (pre-tests are #1)

6 strategies

Thanks to the Team Leaders, not for only meeting on Wednesday but for all of the communication and hard work they put into making sure the teams operate efficiently and meet their goals of helping students all year.  I appreciate their effort.   

Please make sure you fill out the County Wide Institute Day form that Sarah sent out.  This is for everyone regardless of what your plans are for March 1st.  Please see me if you have questions.  

The Maker club was packed Thursday afternoon.  I appreciate Josh's ability to keep this club actively engaged with different activities to match the interests of the kids.  

Please see Greg's email on STEAM Camp.  There is a lot of interest from students/parents but we need more teachers with ideas for "classes".  It is only one week (June 10th-14th) and you can earn some $$$ to fund the rest of your summer activities!  Let Greg or I know if you have any questions.  

Thanks to teams for organizing the STAR testing this month and for emphasizing to the students the importance of giving effort and trying their best on these assessments.  

Please set up your second formal observation if you have not done so yet.

"The world is full of obvious things which nobody by any chance ever observes." -- Arthur Conan Doyle

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." -- E.E. Cummings

"It has to be an awfully good meeting to beat having no meeting at all." -- Boyd K. Packer