November 18, 2011

Before the 2010-11 school year, I made the comparison of what we are expected to do in education to building a plane in midair.  We are not able to build the perfect airplane and then load it up with passengers. We don't have the luxury of landing and unloading our passengers to undergo a complete overhaul or tweak a few mechanical malfunctions. We even have to refuel and reload in mid-flight! 

Each of you constantly work with kids, plan with colleagues, investigate and research new learning, implement and then assess...and then do it all over again without touching the ground. This week, you were able to celebrate students' progress as we continue to move through the friendly skies toward increased student learning and achievement. We may not be able to land the plane, but we have arranged for a couple flight attendants to offer some in-flight snacks and refreshments to our crew on Friday! Friday, be on the look-out for some appreciative flight attendants who represent all the people on the ground (parents) who have passengers in your seats (students). They (and I) appreciate all you do.

Conferences - If you do not get 100% attendance at your conferences prior to Thanksgiving break and are having a hard time rescheduling a parent-conference, please check in with Lyndsay or I to help problem solve. Our expectations of parents is that every student is able to have a fall and spring conference one-way-or-another.


Next week - Lyndsay will be here on Monday instead of Tuesday. Shanlyn will not be here either day but will be "on call" Tuesday. Please contact Nicole or I if she is needed. 


Fundraiser Nights - Please talk as a team about volunteering a night for the restaurant fundraisers PTO has set up for us. The money earned from those nights will go directly toward an iPad for your classroom/grade level! Our current plan is to have an iPad available for every classroom and be able to pull those iPads together for a classroom set if needed. We believe that if all teachers have the option of incorporating them into their classroom instruction/routines, then (1) more ideas will be generated as to how to effectively use iPads; and, (2) comfort level of for every teacher will increase!  The first fundraiser night is sneaking up on us...December 6th at Panera! Sign up soon by clicking here!!!


iPad Website - Beau Barrett at Eason has created a great site for iPad users. Check it out!


Input Needed - If you have not done so already, all certified staff should take time to complete the district wide survey from our Diversity Leadership Team. Thank you!


Walk Throughs - FYI for certified staff - If I do a walk through in your classroom, I am emailing the form directly from the e-Walk website.  If you do not receive that form via e-mail immediately, it is likely stuck in cyber-space so just let me know and I will get you an e-copy.

NEXT WEEK

Monday - Associate interviews (Barry & Marron)

Monday - 3rd Gr PLC (AM), 5th Gr PLC (PM)

Tuesday - Five At-Bat Songs will be on the blog!

Wednesday - Happy Thanksgiving Break!

Nov 29 - 3rd Grade Music Program

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.

------------------------------------------------------------------

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. :-)