September 26, 2011 - Tuesday Update

AT-BAT SHEETS FOR SEPTEMBER DUE ON WEDNESDAY!!

Gym Closed Thursday - Work will be going on in the gym this Thursday (putting in blinds and hooking up the power to the projector) so PE classes will be outside. If you have PE on Thursday, make sure your students dress appropriately by letting your parents know.

Fire Drill Feedback

• Students moved outside quickly and quietly! Thank you for your leadership.
• Thank you to everyone who helped! All-hands-on-deck was needed!
• If you had students who had troubles exiting that we are not aware of, please let me know so we can create a plan for them in case of a real fire.
• Not all rooms have signs posted or were not in a visible location. If you do not have one, email me today as these should have been posted in August. 
• ALWAYS have a list of students in your sub plan folder. Not all lists were present today and some subs didn't have a list. This is a safety concern.

Wednesday PD will begin at 2:05 pm and the agenda will be completed by the end of the day and can be found on our shared Google.doc. I will be at a funeral tomorrow in Algona so PD will be facilitated by Leslie and BLT members. There will be ample time for teams to follow up on prior PD (artifact collection, goal setting & student reflection and ITPDPs - BLT members will share focus tomorrow if they have no already). Meeting notes should be posted on the PLC Log.  Thanks for your work in advance.

September 23, 2011

Staff Meeting is scheduled for tomorrow (Friday) at 8am. Fifth grade is bringing treats and I'll have a quick opening activity before Jeff Longman speaks and I talk about some Reading Lab and problem solving updates.


Friendly Recess Reminder - Until it gets cold, teachers should go outside to pick up their students from recess. This helps our associates get to their next duty (often being covered by another classroom teacher) more quickly. They have commented how much better it is when this happens. It is not the first reminder so please stick to it until the weather requires a coat.

Communication - While Lynday is gone, if you have something pressing to talk to me about (student discipline, parent concerns, instructional questions, etc.), I would suggest calling, stopping in or catching me in the hallway. As I've mentioned to a couple of you already, my email moves up my screen quickly right now and I'm reading/skimming all of it but responding to "must respond" items at this point. :-) Thanks.


PTO Presentations - I would LOVE to have a teacher or group of teachers present at each of our PTO meetings this coming school year. I've put a list of dates and some ideas on the shelf in front of the mailboxes. Please sign up - it would be a great way to meet Iowa Teaching Standards 1, 7 and 8 for your portfolio no matter what year in the cycle you are this year!


Projector Bulbs - It is EXTREMELY important you shut your projectors off when you are not using them as replacing them is EXTREMELY expensive. A new bulb is $196 and change. Wow.  Once the bulb goes over 500 hours, it is not covered by the warranty. If your bulb does go out, please contact Carrie immediately.

Student data and your ITPDP will be due Friday, September 30th. An hour of our PD next Wednesday will be available for your team to dig deeper into the "fresh" data from DIBELS, MAP, Benchmarking, etc., and finalize ITPDPs.

AESOP provides each teacher an opportunity to 'rate' your substitute. Looking at the data from the start of the last March until today, teachers are only rating subs at a 5% rate. The rating is one of the factors I use when trying to locate a sub (call them first) so if you can quickly rate your sub after your leave, it would be helpful data to have. If you do not know how to do this, check with a colleague first and then ask me. Speaking of subs...we have about 25 who have been added to the pool so it will help to provide feedback on these new subs as they begin to trickle in our building!

Recycled punches can be placed in the basket by the mailboxes. These are extremely useful to our lunch/recess associates (and me!) to grab before they go into the lunchroom.

The Early Out Schedule has been added to the wiki under Staff Handbook. Make sure you have the latest and greatest one by looking here.

Weekly Admin/Instructional Coaches Meeting - If you're interested and have extra time on your hands, you can always check out our weekly meeting minutes and agendas. We meet each Tuesday morning (listed as Admin/IC Mtg) Click on "More Details" to see

Website Spotlight - Check out Mrs. Bebout's webpage and Ms. Miller's webpage. Creative stuff!! If you don't have the word "blog" next to your name on our staff page, please email your site link to Carrie soon!

YouTube Launches Site for Teachers on September 21st!  The new channel: YouTube.com/Teachers, a guide to using videos in class. Teachers can follow tips that show everything from organizing videos to sparking lively discussions to help struggling students through videos.. Teachers can also sign up to become part of a YouTube Teachers Community, a mailing list that allows them to share ideas and best practices.




At-Bat Song Contest Continues!That wraps up the 10 songs from Group A! Teams should turn in theirscore cards before the end of PD on September 28th. 

Written in the Stars - Tinie Tempah	Lost Highway - Bon Jovi
The tie-breaker for the month of September: Rank order the songs to the right as to how often Doug has karaoke-ed these songs in public sing he graduated from college. The amounts are 25+ times, 5+ times and 1 time (he wasn't allowed to finish this one either).  Write it on your sheet. Group A includes: Bebout, T.Broich, Crannell, Grote, Hedrick, Kirby, R.Miller, Ochoa, Robinson, Sheldon	Doug's Karaoke List (a) Sweet Child of Mine (b) Bust a Move (c) Cat's in the Cradle ANTI-PRIZE Reminder: Team with the lowest score for the year has to sing one of the songs chosen by the winning team at a spring staff meeting!!

September 20, 2011 (mid-week update)

A few almost-mid-week announcements that can't wait until the FWR...

• School pictures in the boxes today. PLEASE PLEASE everyone send them home with kids today. If they ALL go home today then it avoids a dozen phone calls tonight about "why did my son get his but not my daughter?"  Great question that I'd like to avoid this year.  If you're a score keeper, I'm 0-9 over the past 10 years as an administrator on accomplishing this specific task (this should be a secure SBO for me) so let's start a winning streak today. :-)
• CELEBRATION - Our recess and lunch associate positions have been filled!  In addition to our rock-star associate, Kelli Sparks, we are adding Katharine Houghton and Cherie (shuh-REE) Rau to our lunch and recess associates! They will all be here in full-force come Monday.  Please take time to introduce yourselves. 
• Staff meeting Friday morning at 8:00 am - 5th grade is bringing treats (yeah!) and I will be talking about our PS process and reading lab. 3-5 teachers will be dismissed when we get to reading lab.