Favorite Book Character Day! 1/7/13

Good Morning!

Welcome to a brand new day. It is Favorite Book Character Day! Thank you to all the faculty who have embraced Spirit Week. It has been a lot of fun and I know the children are enjoying it.

Family Affairs

I am very saddened to give you the news that Mrs. Smoot's mom is very ill.. She will certainly need our prayers as her family deals with this difficult time. I will give you more details as I receive them.

Mrs. Frazier is not in the building today.

I spoke with Mr. T. and he is progressing nicely.  Please keep him in your prayers. Thank you all so much for being such a great school family. You are the best.

READ-IN Tomorrow

A lot of planning and work has gone into the event for tomorrow. Thank you Amanda and your team! We will have many visitors. Tomorrow afternoon we will have the rescheduled Mineral Springs Gymnastics group and kick-off for Jump Rope for Heart. We will start calling classes about 1:20.

Have a great day!

Happy Wacky Hair Day!

Spirit Week Continues.........

Today is Wednesday, February 6, 2013. It is Wacky Hair Day. We should see some interesting "dos" today!

The Star 3 Leadership Meeting with Connie went extremely well yesterday. I believe the leaders are invigorated and ready to roll their sleeves up and move on.

Are you wearing black today? Black is the color of the day as we support our Black History pre-festivities.  Looking forward to more.

Happy Birthday this week to Jackie Pullen who celebrated her birthday this past Sunday:)  Karin Binkley will celebrate her birthday Feb. 10 and Marilyn GIlliam will celebrate hers on the 11th.  Happy Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!

Have a great day!
Please let 4/5th grade students know how very proud we were of their behavior last Friday at the Zumbatomic Event. We believe only 4 total students out of over 1100 did not finish. When that is certified, we will have surely broken the record.

Thursday, January 24, 2013

 

 

Demystifying Common Formative Assessments-I thought this information might be helpful to you as you plan your CFAs.......Velvet shared these with us at our last meeting. Let me know what you think:) I will be happy to answer any questions you might have.

• A common formative assessment is given by all teachers
• It provides data to the teachers to inform planning
• The purpose of a CFA is to tell us where the kids are along the journey to learning capacity
• Provides diagnostic information for feedback to be given to students
• An effective assessment is one in which teachers collaboratively discuss analyzed standard and design an assessment
• CFAs should ideally occur weekly but every 3 weeks minimally
• Weekly administration of CFAs typically provide optimal results and increase student achievement
• CFAs should not be pages and pages or in excess of 25 problems/3-4 items per standard are sufficient
• It is critical to give students feedback/Keep kids informed/Make any necessary changes in instruction
• Don't wait until the end of the unit before you give an assessment
• Assessments should be a blend of Item Types

Welcome LTFs-They will utilize Room 200 today from 2-6:00

Report Cards due to administrators this afternoon:)

Have a wonderful day!

January 23, 2013

Good Morning! It is a cold brisk day, so be sure to keep warm today.  Happy Birthday Jenny Jacobs!  UNCG Interns are here today:)

Family Affairs....

Mr. Gilliam is home from the hospital and recovering. Mrs. Gillliam will be out this week helping him recuperate.
Mr. T. will have surgery this week to help with his pain. He will be out about 4 weeks.
Mrs. Crookshank and Joanna came by yesterday to say Hi to all.  Brooke is still bandaged up from her fall and many other staff members have had or have one form or another of the stomach flu or respiratory infection.  Dr. Madison is also out sick today.
Please keep all these families in your thoughts and prayers as they are truly needed and appreciated.  Everyone else, follow Nurse Hall's advice and continuously wash your hands and use hand sanitizer. It does help cut down on germs being spread.

Badges.....

We have asked "School Pictures" (our picture company) if they would make new ID badges for us and they have agreed. They should be here shortly. There will be badges for those who had their individual pictures made. This will be a big help to us.

Report Cards....

Remember to let Mrs. Brown know when you are ready to have your report cards run. Please read over them carefully so we can catch errors and not have to print them twice. I truly appreciate your help and attention to details. Please give k/1/2 to Cannon in a folder with your name and grade and 3/4/5 to Ms. Frazier in a folder as well. Report cards are due to us tomorrow afternoon.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Welcome Interns!

Welcome UNCG Interns. We are so glad you are here.  We wish you the best of luck in yourn academic endeavors.  If you have a question, please just ask any of us, we will be happy to help in any way we can.

Family Affairs Update:

Good News! I spoke with Mrs. Gilliam this morning. Greg is doing better and has been moved to the second floor. He is showing signs of improvement. She would like us to continue to pray for him. She wants you all to know how much she appreciates the cards, calls and emails. She loves her school family as we all do:)

Mrs. Martinez is out sick today, please keep her in your thoughts today along with many other staff members who are either getting over or getting colds/respiratory illnesses. 

Nurse Hall Recommendation:

Please be sure to wash your hands frequently and use hand sanitizer to ward off the spread of germs. Encourage your students to do the same thing.

Peer Evaluations:

If you need to have a Peer McRel Evaluation, please let me know when you have completed it. Be sure you and your peer evaluator meet to discuss it. I do not need to be in on that conference. Be sure you both sign off. Remember that there is a deadline.

HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!!!!!!!!

It's Tuesday!!!!

IC Meeting...

Thank you to Shakila Faqih, April Washburn, Cheryl Frazier and Danielle Friel for showing impressive leadership at our Instuctional Coaches Meeting yesterday. They displayed confidence and knowledge when describing common core, our tutoring program and our assessments. Dr. Martin, Steve Oates, Ken Simington, Janie Costello and many other program managers were present. I am so very proud of them. Our meeting went very well and I believe the teachers present painted an accurate picture of a challenging common core integration which we are all working through and learning together. Thanks ladies for a job well done!

Committee Meetings...No Star 3,

Please share your agendas with me via email on Wednesday.

Family Affairs Update...

Continue to pray and keep Mr. and Mrs. Gilliam in your prayers. He is in Intermediate Intensive Care at Forsyth Hospital.

Monday, January 14th and Tuesday, January 15th

It's a Brand New Week full of Possibility......

Happy Monday! I hope you like the graphic above. It is so very true. You are all angels. I would like you all to reflect on our very first faculty meeting when we talked about "state of mind". Your ability to be positive when things get challenging is so very important to your colleagues and most importantly, to the students.  You all are working hard, learning new things, challenging yourselves and learning new ways to teach. The new curriculum has enabled us to experiment and explore. Things will get easier as we navigate through this year. We need to support each other, be kind to one another and remember that we are a "family". We are in this together and we will learn and succeed together. We have our school family but you also have your own families. You are raising children, taking care of parents, spouses, significant others and being good friends and neighbors. That is hard work on top of all you do here. Everyone and every job in this school is important and valuable. Our working together, treating each other with respect, compassion, kindness and empathy will go a long way. Celebrate each other and especially our children. They are working hard and gaining confidence as you praise them and make them feel valuable.   Thank you all for being there for our kids and going above and beyond the call of duty.

Happy Birthday this week to Mrs. Perry on 1/16 and Sidonna Brown on the 17th!

Instructional Coaches Meeting Today at 3:30

Our Asst. Superintendent-Steve Oates, Ken Simington, District Program Managers and our Instructional Coaches will meet to discuss our progress this afternoon in Room 200.  Mr. Oates will also be here next week, Jan. 24 in the morning. He will most likely tour the building. Please make sure your schedules are posted, EQs up and plans available.

Bulletin Boards.....

Please make sure that you follow the bulletin board schedules and are current with your board. I have seen some great boards. Thank you for your attention to your boards to make sure that they are meaningful and relevant.

 

Zone Tours Continue...

We have had many people "on tour" and will continue to do so this week as well. At last count, we had about 40 families fill out magnet applications. This is terrific! This is a tribute to you all and your hard work!

Moment of Silence and Pledge of Allegiance... School Board Policy 6115

Please make sure that all children observe the moment of silence. 

Notes:

• Our new interns from UNCG will be starting this week on Wednesday. Remember that they will be here from 7:30-2:50 on Wednesdays and Fridays from 12:00-2:50. Thank you OSTES!
• We will be hosting 3 Interns from Forsyth Tech. There will be three. One in k,1,2. 
• Ms. Farthing is also acting as a cooperating teacher to mentor a WSSU music major! Please introduce yourself to him.
• No Star 3 meeting tomorrow but tomorrow afternoon is Committee Meeting Day. Committee Chairs, please make your members aware of your meeting. Please send me a copy of your agenda.
• I will host an Elementary Principal's PLC on Wednesday, January 16th from 7:30-9:00.
• End of the quarter is January 18th.