I hope you enjoyed American Education Week. I want you to know that I truly believe in what I said earlier in the week- it takes a village to raise a child. Each of you play such an important role in making this place amazing!
Winner, Winner!
Last week, I hid a sentence in the blog that said, "If you read this, email Justin". I had only a few people send me emails. The prize for this little contest is an hour prep (with a trip to Starbucks) for one staff member while I cover for your class. The winner- Kathy Feltes! Kathy, connect with Lorri on a time and date and get your gift card for a Starbucks drink. It pays to read the blog carefully!
Winter Benchmarking
Winter DIBELS Benchmarking will be done by our wonderful Educational Assistants. I don't think this will come as a huge shock to many of you- we've been talking about this for a while now. Also, through our learning work with the Mattos book, we saw the importance of having a trained team do this for many reasons: it doesn't take away instructional time, it is done with fidelity, it can be done more efficiently, etc. Libby will be working with the EA's to train them- more information is coming on this!
Popcorn with the Principal
Don't forget to write Leader in Me Slips when you come across students living the 7 Habits! We only have 3 this time, so our Popcorn with the Principal will be a small group!
Coats to Portable
Our plan is to allow coats to the portable on cold (below or near zero) days. We will be encouraging students to have a hooded sweatshirt each day. With the limited space in the portable, the art materials, and the spread of lice, it's too hard to expect coats on a daily basis. We will try this for a while and see how it goes.
Mindset Link
I saw a great article on Twitter the other night on misconceptions with the growth mindset. I even had some of the misconceptions! Here's the article: http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/11/16/growth-mindset-clearing-up-some-common-confusions/
Resources for Close Reading
As follow-up to our staff meeting, Libby has provided some resources to close reading. If you need help with these resources, or close reading, contact Libby (she would love to help you!).
- www.readworks.org (Passages have a lexile, focus on a certain skill and many have questions included.)
- www.newsela.com (geared for 4th grade and up – includes quizzes and aligned to common core)
- https://learn.thinkcerca.com/teacher/lesson_library (similar to NEWSELA)
- http://www.elm4you.org/ (If you are looking for a specific topic, this site is helpful. Many of the sites on ELM either provide a lexile or provide 3 different levels of the same text content.)
Weekly Building Newsletter:
Click here to see the weekly building newsletter
Snapshot of McKinley Learning:
4th graders working with Mrs. Gislason on an arts integration of solids, liquids, and gases. Students were learning about the glass artist Dale Chihuly. In the pictures, they are predicting which cups will melt the fastest and recording their observations/graphs.
5th Graders engineering games at the Works Museum.
1st Graders participating in Literature Circles during the Power Half Hour.
1st Grade and Intervention Teachers are using their common assessment data to
create flexible groupings in their five classrooms.
Our Valet Parking of the Week goes to Grandma Dee Dee! Grandma Dee Dee is a daily volunteer in Lori Huisenga's classroom. She is such a support for our second grade learners. She is such a kind, positive woman who truly cares about kids. We are so lucky to have her at McKinley!
Enjoy your weekend.. and the snow (YUCK!).
-Justin
No comments:
Post a Comment