December 10, 2010

Today is Kara Beckstrom and Lindsay Gardner's last day of student teaching! 

Enjoy your last day at Maple Grove and best of luck to the both of you!

Holiday Luncheon Celebration - Lyndsay and I would like to invite all staff members who are a part of the Maple Grove Family to a Holiday Luncheon Celebration on December 20th!  A "taco salad bar," dessert and drinks will be provided to everyone that day to celebrate your hard work put in so far and as a thank you to everyone during the holiday season. Lunch will start at 10:50 am and continue on through 1:30 pm.  

Teacher Quality Requests - I received everyone's TQ requests on time (yeah!) and had a chance to look through them over the weekend. They are all approved and you can begin to make plans if necessary.  We will need to coordinate days with a district calendar so we make sure we do not have multiple teams from across the district wanting subs on the same day.  One piece your team needs to consider is the application portion of the process - what will you do with and how will you share your learning?  Be thinking about that important piece as Leslie and I begin to schedule your working or observation dates.

Responsibility to Our Public - Please make every effort to return phone calls or emails from parents (or community members) in a timely manner.  I know that we all lead a busy life so sometimes a quick phone message or email in response to a parent's email to let them know you got the message and will get back to them as soon as you can will help.  As mentioned at the start of the year, we are 'public servants' and to provide the best customer service, we need to ensure we respond in a timely manner.  Something you may want to watch closely is your SPAM summary email each day as some of our parent emails may be getting caught up in that 'web.'  If you don't know how to fix it - see Carrie or I.  We can help!!


AEA Print - A link was sent out on Monday with updates and information from our AEA regarding print options beyond our central print capabilities.


MGE and District Print - Our last copy update would put us about even with where the building was the past two years.  Things to consider with those numbers are that we do have 100+ less students but we also have a considerable number of new staff members (which likely requires more copies initially).  With a smaller budget at MGE this year, I will continue to try to update you on our progress with print costs as it is easily our largest "cost" within our overall budget.  Also...building print copies will be added to teachers accounts when we returned from break.  If you need copies added prior to then, please speak to me.  


Computer Updates - In the future, you may notice some Tuesday mornings that your computer is doing an auto-update.  Please allow it to run its cycle as Ray has set up these automatic updates for all Waukee computers.  


Looking for Writing Help? - You may already have this link, but I received it from 3 different sources just last week so it has to be good, right?  A teacher himself, Keenan Hart's desire is to instill the love of writing not just in his own students he teachers, but students across the globe.  The 10 minutes I spent on the site made me think it was worth the time to send to you and make you aware of this resource.  Students can get their work published and the site provides tons of prompts and resources for teachers.  It may be taking a closer look at The Daily Writing Prompt to see for yourself.


Survey Reminder - Brad Buck sent an email earlier this week regarding a survey Waukee is collaborating with Iowa State University.  This is just a reminder if the email got lost in the 'shuffle.'  The purpose of survey is to gather perceptions of data driven decision making. The study itself is being conducted by researchers at Iowa State University.  You are invited to participate in this study.  It is anticipated that the survey will take about ten to fifteen minutes of your time. Your participation is voluntary and your responses will not be connected back to you individually, in any way.   Please click on the link to take the survey.

Monday - PBIS Core Mtg (8am) - 5th Gr Human Growth and Development begins - Meteor Shower!	Monday, Dec 20 - RA PLC (8:00-45am) - Holiday lunch (you just show up!!)
Tuesday - K-2 PLC (8am) - 4th Gr TI Mtg @ 8am - District Math Curriculum Mtg	Tuesday, Dec 21 - K-2 PLC (8am) - 3rd Gr TI Mtg @ 8am
Wednesday - 3-5 PLC (8am) - KG TI Mtg @ 8am - Early dismissal (Building PD)	Wednesday, Dec 22 - 3-5 PLC (8am) - Winter Class Parties (2:30-3:15)
Thursday - Character Council (w/ students @ 8am) - Barry @ Instructional Rounds (@ Waukee Elem)	Thursday, Dec 23 NO SCHOOL!
Friday - Staff Celebration @ 8am  - Music Assembly (PM)	Friday, Dec 24 NO SCHOOL!

Final Thoughts for the Week

...where I keep talking/typing and you 

don't necessarily have to continue listening/reading. 

Any skill is best learned,

through consistent and meaningful

"Time on Task"

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How do you make practice time consistent and meaningful? That's a question asked (at one time or another) by every parent, teacher, coach, and tutor! When a child understands that a particular skill is important (to them) and can be fun (right now), their motivation to participate increases dramatically. Key components necessary for "quality time on task" are then in place and real learning happens naturally. 

The words above come from Keenan Hart's writing website in the FWR.  How do you make this a reality within your classroom walls?  My hope is that you're sharing your tricks and tips with your team so that the successes seen in one room spread like wild fire!  If we are truly living our mission and vision, we are creating opportunities for students to engage in these types of challenging, relevant and engaging experiences that will allow each child to be successful in our global community.