November 11, 2011 or 11/11/11

Welcome to 11/11/11

A somewhat interesting MSNBC article about the human tendency to find meaning or patterns

in randomly occurring data. If you read it on Friday at 11:11, I'm sure it would be even more inspiring.

Please Welcome Nichole Foxhoven to Maple Grove and our preschool room! Nichole started on Monday so take time this week or next to wander down to introduce yourself.  Also, please welcome back Lyndsay next week!!! We (most importantly, me) are very happy to have her back with us, starting on Tuesday!


Conferences - If you have a conference you wish for me to attend, please talk to me this week so I can get it on my calendar. Conference snacks/drinks will be available Wednesday afternoon and the meals will be coming by 3pm on Thursday. If you have booked yourself straight through on Thursday, please select a time (<-click here) that you could come down to eat prior to 4pm. I will try to find coverage.


Artifact Collection and Conferences Follow-Up: Conferences are approaching and we understand the stress level is at it's highest point. We hope the email sent out this week eases some anxiety. Please continue to send any questions or stop in to visit. Reviewing the presentations on our Wiki may be helpful too.

Book Fair Open House is Friday morning. Please stop in and enjoy some treats and take a look around!

Student Absences - If you don't see Paula's name in an email from parents about an upcoming absence, please let her know ASAP. This would include phone calls too. Please do not assume the office was notified.

Fundraising Opportunities - PTO has set up several restaurant fundraising opportunities for our staff to get involved with this year. The money raised from these events will go directly toward additional iPads for the classroom.  As an individual or team (great team bonding!), sign up on the Google.doc sheet I've created. Reminders will be sent out to teachers from PTO or myself.  If your team signs up and you'd like to extend your evening to enjoy some additional 'bonding time' together, let me know and I'll get those "excuses" sent to your spouse/significant other. :-) Sorry - I don't babysit though.

Contest Winners!  Our "First Snow" winner is Melissa Grimm as she picked the correct day! Prize to come. Our October At-Bat winning team is the 2nd grade team (won the tie breaker with RA)! Related arts still has a commanding lead, but several teams are within striking distance. Our 3rd grade team should begin warming up their voices... :-)

Final Thoughts for the Week

Where I keep typing/talking and you

don't necessarily have to keep reading/listening.

In an article from the Fort Dodge Messenger, Iowa Director of Education, Jason Glass, references Iowa's desire to be a world class educational system. As I've told parents, teachers and anyone else who will listen, Waukee/MGE has many of the pieces outlined in the proposed blueprint already in place. That doesn't mean we can be satisfied and wait for others to "catch up" nor be happy with being ahead of the game in Iowa. I truly believe all of you constantly and consistently look for ways to improve and push yourself and your colleagues! Jason Glass states this about high-performing organizations: 

"They don't stand still," he said. "All high-performing organizations

are constantly trying to improve and adapt."

Our BLT spent time reviewing data, feedback and information from our October Instructional Rounds. Most of the information shared, highlights the wonderful things that are going on at MGE. There was a lot of great things going on at MGE we were able to share with the district team and they noted many of these through their observations and data collection. The feedback also indicates areas of growth and possible next steps. When given this type of feedback, it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable but I was recently reminded by a colleague that sometimes in order to grow we need to feel a bit uncomfortable. AFTER CONFERENCES, we will begin to look at feedback from rounds and discuss where BLT sees us now and where they identified we need to go. Until then, I'll leave you with Colleen Canney's great analogy I found this morning:

If you feel too comfortable in life it probably means you are not growing as an individual. By nature growth is uncomfortable. As a child I experienced Charley Horses, otherwise known as growing pains, in my legs. I would wake-up in the middle night because I was uncomfortable. This is part of growing. Whether it is physical, spiritual, emotional, or mental growth, if you want to evolve and develop as an individual, be prepared to experience a certain level of discomfort.

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At-Bat Song Contest - Group C (November)!Two months down and November kicks off with a couple "old school" hitsand some more modern picks. This months separates the contenders from the pretenders!Good luck!  Third grade, you can phone a friend this month.

Hold Me - Jamie Grace	It It's Love - Train
Eye of the Tiger - Survivor	Manic Monday - Bangles

November's Group Includes...Adamson, De MouthFoster, LatchamMeyer, NortonPerrigo, RicherSchoene, Umphress

November 4, 2011

Friday - I am out of the district on Friday so please contact Paula or Shanyln if you need assistance. Thank you! I'm missing two "At-Bat" team forms so please turn those in so I can declare a September winner! The November songs will begin next week.

Conference Reminders and the Conference Brochures should be sent home with students on Friday. There was an email sent with the same information for you to forward to parents. Please take the time to read The Branch too - especially the information regarding conferences.  As mentioned, teams/classroom teachers need to communicate with parents as to how you want parents and students to engage in the student-led portion of the conference that takes place outside your room.

Progress Reports - Related arts will have progress reports completed by Thursday morning and I will have classroom teachers print completed progress reports on Friday, November 11, for parents who do not have internet or have requested hard copies of information. There will be an email sent to parents next Friday after school that the PS Portal has been reopened and steps for them to access their child's progress reports prior to conferences.  Questions - run those through BLT members and then to me if needed.

BLT went through some post-Instructional Rounds learning and sharing this morning. We hope to have some information to you soon as there are great celebrations to share and a solid foundation to build upon and continue our work toward moving from good to great! Thank you for their time this morning and leadership in this process.


Emergency Reference Guide - If you do not have a red ER Guide, notify me ASAP so we can get you one.

Internet Connection - An IT request was completed to hopefully address the internet connection issues many of you are having in the building. Thank you for being patient and continuing to turn on and off your airport several times a day. :-)

Robotics Club begins next week and will take place the first Tuesday and Thursday of the month. It will be held in the library and computer lab from 3:50 to 5:00 pm. There will be parent and 4-H volunteers leading these clubs and we have nearly 40 third-fifth graders signed up to participate! Should be a lot of fun to watch so stop in anytime!

Thank you to the third grade team for bringing in our special visitor today! I heard the students had great questions for our governor and represented Waukee and Maple Grove very well. Fun stuff! Thank you also to Natalie Shay for filling in for Kristin during her maternity leave. We are excited to have Kristin back but truly appreciate Natalie's job she did over the past 7 weeks!!

Items from District Admin Meeting - There were items to note from our Thursday admin meeting to share. If you have questions, let me know.

• Certified enrollment will show Waukee at 7,112 students. This is an increase of 431 students and is the largest growth in the state of Iowa this year.
• If you are purchasing items from a store and hope to be reimbursed, please find out if the store takes purchase orders first. If so - go that route! 
• Technology purchases/requests/inquiries should go through me until Carrie returns. After she returns, requisitions go through Carrie first and then me. 
• If you have an idea for a Community Education course you'd like to teach, Jeff Longman is collecting ideas for winter and spring course. Please contact him.
• Blogs - Please review your blog to ensure the required items are included. Just looking through them this week, there are several incomplete blogs sites. If you need support, let me know. Also, please review and/or have others edit your posts on a regular basis. The editing would apply to your newsletters too. Both are public forms of communication that represent us as a building and district!

No snow was spotted this week so the contest continues.  I'll post the guesses soon. :-)

October 28, 2011

This week I'm leading with "Final Thoughts for the Week" but don't think you can just read that and be done. :-) I just wanted to make sure each one of you knew how important your job is and how much you mean to each of our 698 preschool through 5th graders in our building. Enjoy the weekend - another one well deserved.  He who laughs, lasts. DB
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Ran across this quote from a great book Thursday morning and it made me reflect upon the work, conversation and collaboration I have seen during PLC meetings and in our PD this week. I also thought about the hard work, flexibility and caring nature our support staff displays on a daily basis. No matter what your job is in our building, each of you is in the business of serving and caring for others...

"Students care about great teachers

because they know great teachers care about them."

- Todd Whitaker (p.122 What Great Teachers Do Differently)

The focus we've had on SBAR, artifact collection, student feedback/student-involved feedback and goal setting, and engaging parents in meaningful conferences show your ability to be focused on the most important thing about our jobs - the individual student. Each of you could share stories about your colleagues around this character trait and I know those stories will be "on display" during conference week. A continued "thank you" for all you do each and every day to make each of our children feel cared for here at MGE. Have a great weekend!

Student Involved Conferences information will be shared with parents through our building newsletter next week. There will also be a pamphlet sent home with every child at the beginning of November.  At next Thursday's BLT meeting, BLT members should be prepared to briefly share their team's plan for the student-lead portion of conferences (i.e. (the 10 minutes of parent and child conversation outside the conference time). I look forward to everyone hearing each other's plans.


Problem Solving 101 - As mentioned, I will be hosting a short treat-and-learn next Wednesday, November 2, after school in the library.  This is for anyone who is new to Waukee or for those who want to better understand the process.  


Bus Referral Process - From this point on, when a student earns a bus referral, I will be talking with the student and sending home the slip to be signed. The student should return the slip the next day or will need to stay come to the office during 1 recess to visit with me. You may place those slips in my box when returned.


Overheads - If you want to get rid of your overhead projector, set it in the hallway. They will be taken to old Waukee Elementary. 


Daily 5 Math - I had posted a Twitter message about Math Daily 5 and had a couple of you ask me for more information. From what I've read and viewed online, it looks a lot like what many of you are already doing during your math block, but using the vocabulary from "Daily 5" may create or allow some consistency across literacy and math for teachers, students and parents. There are a couple videos and some information on the Daily 5 website for you to check out. It also states that "In the coming weeks we'll present games, strategies, and activities for each of the Math Daily 5 categories, as well as launching lessons and troubleshooting tips." Something to keep your eye on and share/collaborate!   


From the Nurses Office - Kara sent this email on Monday. Please make sure you review and make a mental note. Following the event that occurred last Thursday on the playground, we have decided to follow a head injury protocol here at Maple Grove to ensure the safety of our students (and staff as well). In the event that a head injury occurs, we ask that the following takes place:

1. The injured person(s) is sent to the health office accompanied by another person.
2. The teacher is notified by the nurse about the student(s) that sustained a head injury.

Instructional Leadership at It's Best! - Spending an hour measuring 18 inches from the ceiling was not likely the instructional leadership moment of the year, but it is done. :-) Please follow up on notes left in your room (if there was one) and keep items off the cabinets in your rooms and storage areas if it is near the ceiling.  Thank you for your help with this "nuts and bolts" item. 

Robotics Club - In a partnership with 4-H, a Maple Grove Elementary Robotics club for 3rd-5th graders will begin in November. We had so many students interested, that the club will be split in to two groups (Tuesday and Thursday) and will meet once a month from 3:45 - 5:00 pm (dates are on the district calendar). The club will take place in the media center and use the computer labs from time-to-time. If you're interested in volunteering as a leader, please talk to me. 


Please note, next week I will be in meetings at district office for most of the school day on Thursday and out of the district all day on Friday. Both days, Shanlyn will be here all day  to provide support if needed. 

Sites of the Week - Blooms Digital Taxonomy Pyramid and Blooms Taxonomy Apps

At-Bat Song Contest - Group B (October)!Last two songs this week! Turn in your October score sheet by Wednesday of next week it can be assessed and feedback can be provided. :-)

Dynamite - Taio Cruz	Templeton Rye - The Nadas
Group B includes: Beavers, Bode, Broich, Dirksen, Graziano, Harvey, Huisman, Jones, Pals, Swyter	ANTI-PRIZE Motivator:  The 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!!