November 12, 2010

Books for BINGO is Friday night from 6:30-8:00 pm in our gym!  Come join the fun.

Conferences - If you have a student/parent conference you want me to attend, let me know.  I do like to walk around during conferences and may stop in to observe.  I will be attending my own children's conferences next Wednesday afternoon and Lyndsay will be in the building if you need an administrator or a parent would like to speak to one of us.  


Lunch/Recess Duty Concerns - PLEASE read below as there have been some recent safety concerns that need to be addressed.

• Staff on duty should be present in the cafeteria or on the playground when the scheduled time starts.
• Classroom teachers bringing students to lunch should remain in the lunchroom until both staff members on lunch duty are present.  Do not drop off at the door and leave.
• Please find your own replacement if you cannot cover a duty.

• 1+1 does not equal 2 (i.e. although tempting and much more fun, standing next to each other on duty does not work well for supervision)
• Classroom teachers may be inside the doors when picking up students from recess but need to be present at the end of recess.
• Staff members on recess duty should have students lined up and ready to come in at the scheduled ending time of lunch recess.  Students should be sent in at the ending time.   

Important Information from Dr. Buck - ***Please share this with your staff members who interact with HEART, Inform, MAP and DIBELS*** Kara Freeman's last day in the district was Thursday, November 11th.  We have been working to fill her position and have been in interviews earlier in the week.  Until the position is filled, we will not be completing updates to these various assessment systems/databases.  For example, if you have been used to sending a student name to Kara to be added to HEART, those services are currently suspended.  Please keep them on a list that you have at the ready for when these services resume.  We will alert you as soon as we have a new staff member in place.  In the interim, if you have questions, they need to come to me. :-) Thank you for your patience as this moves forward.  Brad.

PTO Learning Presentations -  Help!!  On Monday at our PTO meeting, I will be presenting information Dr. Wilkerson shared with our elementary PAC this week.  It will include information about the district enrollment numbers and futures plans.  The PTO loves when teachers share information about what is happening with their children at school.  Please email me if you or a group of you would like to give a 10-15 minute presentation about anything you're doing in the classroom or at MGE as teams of learners.  Let me know which of the dates available you'd be willing to do!   1/24, 2/21, 3/28, 4/18, 5/16.

Kudos to....

• Mrs. Grotewold and her students for putting on a wonderful Veterans' Day program. I heard a ton of positive comments from those who attended and the student presentation was great! Way to go!
• To all of you for continuing to do what you do each and every day. I know the bottom of the plate is never seen, but you continue to put your students first and do what it takes to get it done - and do it masterfully!

Dates to Note...
Monday
- Second Term begins
- Book Fair begins
- PTO Mtg @ 7 pm (Library)Tuesday
- K-2 PLC (8am)
Wednesday
- 3-5 PLC (8am)
- Early Out / Conferences
Thursday
- Barry at Instructional Rounds @ the HS
- Character Council w/students (8am)
Friday
- Problem Solving Core Mtg (8am)
Monday (Nov 22)
- Conferences (4-8pm)
- Every one help pack up book fair at 8:00 pm!!! Please!
Tuesday (Nov 23)
- YMCA Fitness Day with Whipps
- Barry wears a dress...do you have one that will fit me??

Final Thoughts for the Week

...where I keep talking/typing and you 

don't necessarily have to continue listening/reading. 

Dress Shopping and Student Motivation - A student asked me at lunch today, "Mr. Barry, have you been dress shopping yet??" I've been asked more questions about what I'm going to wear (color, size, shape, accessories, etc) than I've been asked about anything else this year.  The kids are excited and they ask me - "Are you excited, Mr. Barry?"  I can't honestly say I am excited about the wearing-of-the-dress but I am excited to see kids motivated, inquisitive and hungry to know more - even if it is about my choice of attire.  You see that same motivation and hunger with students on many occasions - sometimes with the whole class (i.e. student projects I hear about and see in the classrooms) and sometimes with individual students (i.e. how they talk to me about what they are reading when I'm walking through rooms).  You've had experiences this year that get you excited about being an educator.  It reminds you why you chose to be an educator.  You all have many tricks to stimulate that excitement and it gets me excited when you share those talents and ideas with others.  I'm looking forward to continuing to see the collaboration, the planning and the delivery of wonderfully engaging and exciting projects and learning as we continue through the last 2/3rds of our school year.  "Oh....and no, Rachel, I have not been dress shopping yet.  I assumed that since I'm working with 40 women, spmeone would have at lease one extra one for me to wear." ;-)