Checking Out

This Week's Events:

Monday, May 28:  No School - Memorial Day
Wednesday, May 29:  PLC Assembly grades k - 2
Wednesday, May 29:  FULL DAY - No early release
Wednesday, May 29:  Mrs. Allen's class to Abram's Planetarium
Thursday, May 31:  9:00 3rd Grade Awards, 4th Grade Awards 10:00, 5th Grade Awards 10:45
Thursday, May 31:  Volunteer Luncheon
Friday, June 1:  5th Grade Chicago Trip
Saturday, June 2:  8:30 a.m. Boy/Girl Quest final Run starts at Parkside

Checking Out:

We are definitely in the final days of the school year.  I think every one of us feels it.  The kids are feeling it and displaying it.  In looking back at Choice Words by Peter Johnston, I am reminded of the great information about how the little things we say can have a major impact on students' attitude and learning.  One application for me this time of year would be instead of saying to students, "I know you all have checked out", I could say, "I know you all are struggling to focus in these last days".  Or even better, I could say, "I know you all still have the desire to learn in our remaining time together."  How are you using choice words to help students positively reflect on their learning and behaviors these last several days?

Also remember to take time to enjoy our kids as we wrap up the school year.  Many of them will be displaying behaviors that are due to anxiety or fear of not having the security and consistency we offer them every day....not to mention the food, love, affection, and guidance.  We have 8.5 school days left this year.  In those 8.5 days I challenge you to accomplish the following:

On 5/29:  Get at least 8 hours of sleep tonight....we are on the final stretch and will need all the rest we can get.
On 5/30:  Sit in the cafeteria for 7 minutes with your kids....just sitting with them out of the classroom and eating with them or talking to them while they have lunch can be a great experience.
On 5/31:  Take 6 minutes to sit in your classroom in the dark while students are out and just look around your room.
On 6/1:  Give out 5 high 5s to students from another class.
On 6/4:  Send 4 thank you emails to volunteers who have helped you.
On 6/5:  Leave 3 voicemails for colleagues to make them smile or give them a chuckle.
On 6/6:  Spend 2 minutes with a student who gave great effort all year to tell them how proud you are.
On 6/7: Take 1 minute to seek out another staff member who helped you this year and say thanks.
On 6/8:  Take .5 hours to have a "best memories of the year" conversation with your students!

Are you willing to take on the challenge?  Let me know, will you?

Article worth your time:

Six engaging End-Of-Year Projects

- Note the additional links at the end of this article.  One in particular on ways to encourage students to read over the summer

Cool idea from Pinterest for a class picture:

 

End of Year Celebration idea-pictures of students holding the # of books they read this year.

 Videos that just make me laugh....could we pull this off?

One more....

Okay...one more since we are on the dancing theme...no reason to this one other than I absolutely LOVE IT!

Have a great week!!  Take care of yourself.  Remember 4, 7, 8....Deep breath in through your nose for 4 seconds, hold it for 7 seconds and blow out through your mouth for 8 seconds.  Do this 3 or 4 times at least twice a day!!  JUST DO IT!!!

Thrive

Quote:  "My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive; and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor, and some style."  Maya Angelou

Upcoming Events:


Monday, May21:  8:00 Student Study Team Meeting
Tuesday, May 22:  9:30 Admin. Meeting for Sue
Wednesday, May 23:  PLC Assembly grades 3-5
Wednesday, May 23:  Leadership Day in Beumont....Paul, Lisa, Suzanne and Marti (can't wait to hear what they bring back)
Thursday, May 24:  6:30 PTA Meeting
Friday, May 25:  8:00 Staff Meeting - Mr. Smajda will be here to discuss the Special Education Mileage
Friday, May 25: 1st grade to Potter Park Zoo, 4th grade to Greenfield Village
Friday, May 25:  5th grade Common Core Meeting
Saturday, May 26:  Happy Birthday Larry Gerth
Monday, May 28:  No School - Memorial Day
Monday, May 28:  My momma's birthday....Happy Birthday Patsy Haney

Survive or Thrive?  That is the Question:

Common Core work--check. Student Growth info--check. Common Assessments--check.  Write Steps--check. Observations--check.  Field trips done or almost done--check.  So you are working on your end of the year assessments, now what?  At this time of the year it is common to say we’re just “trying to survive,” but I challenge you with the question...is it possible to thrive until the last day of the school year?

You have all worked exceptionally hard this year, and I recognize that it is no small task to maintain the same enthusiasm that you had on September 1st until June 8th.  We have had many celebrations this year watching our students grow (while we’ve been growing professionally), yet I’m sure you can also each identify disappointments or set-backs that can wear you down.  In addition, I’m sure your end of year to-do lists are just as long as mine.  It is easy to just count this year as done and start making grand plans for next year; however, we still have 3 weeks to continue making progress with our students.  Remember that the more you stray from your routine/expectations with students or count down the days, the more they will too. 

So, as we make this final stretch of the school year, I challenge you to not just focus on getting things done.  Instead, enjoy the final stretch with your students as you prepare them for the next grade level. Focus on celebrating the successes of the year with them and with each other as colleagues.  How we finish is just as important as how we begin.  Thrive, and do so with passion, compassion, humor and style!

Highlights this Week:

• A favorite this week for me was a first grader telling me after dancing outside during lunch, "Ms. Haney, you are the best Ms. Haney ever."
• Michigan Breakfast was a huge hit.  I love seeing our kids enjoying pancakes and breakfast.
• Our community including parents, firefighters from Parma and Spring Arbor and the Sheriff Department spending time with our kids and cooking and serving them breakfast.
• We turned the speakers outside at the end of lunch and danced in the back parking lot....good times!
• I enjoyed the professional discussion regarding spelling with grades k - 3.  
• Casey Patterson got enough diapers to get her through at least the first month!  Wow...that is a lot of diapers...and poop!
• I enjoyed sharing with the board our "fame" in the new DuFour book.  Yes, we should be proud!
• I was reading with 4th graders, and they asked for more time because they were "into their books."  Gotta love that!!!  
• Your reaction to Paul's presentation at our staff meeting this Friday was by far my favorite moment this week.  Of course we are all on board, it is what is best for our kids, but I still get chills when I am in that moment and see and hear your response!

Articles to Read:


Recapturing the last days of school
How To for your Ipad


Neat Ideas Discovered on Pinterest 
(let me know if you find something you want me to share!)

Learn more about math journals in this post.

Learn how this is used in a 1st grade classroom in this post.

Click here to get a list of Brain Breaks to use in your classroom

Videos Worth Your Time:

If you are not familiar with the Ted Ed website, this is a great video to watch and get some ideas on how it could be used in your classroom:

This weeks assembly is with grades 3-5.  I plan to talk about random acts of kindness and doing for others.  Here are a couple videos I plan to share with them.  Yes, I wish he was buying Pepsi instead:

This one got me thinking.  What if every now and then we lined the sidewalk down Elizabeth in the morning with signs like these, or held signs like these at the end of the school day every now and then as the buses pulled out.  It wouldn't have to be every one every time, but maybe a few of us randomly.  Hmm.....

Random act of kindness song:

Thank you for caring so much for our kids:

Have a fantastic week!!

Mother's Day

I hope you had a wonderful Mother's Day.  If you are a mom or had the opportunity to spend the day with your mom, I hope your day was spent in laughter, fun and love.  I am sure anyone who reads this knows that my mom, Patsy, means the world to me.  I am blessed and am so thankful she knows you and you know her!  I wish all of our kids were as lucky as I am!!

 Quotable:
"That best academy, a mother's knee." ~James Russell Lowell.

 Highlights this Week:


Monday, May 14:  Happy Birthday Sue Crawford
Monday, May 15:  9:00 SE Team Meeting
Wednesday, May 16:  PLC Assembly grades k - 2
Thursday, May 17:  6:30 School Board Meeting
Friday, May 18:  Michigan Breakfast and assemblies
Friday, May 18:  2:45 Pizza with the Principal

Priceless Experiences:

One of my favorite things about going on field trips with our students is watching them with their parents.  It is nice to see the one on one time our kids get when it is just them and their mom or dad.  I know that so many of our kids don't get that time and attention every day, so it truly is a gift.  Our field trips, like Mackinac, offer so many educational and rich experiences for our kids, but the experience that we can't overlook is the valuable time between a parent and child.  I try to capture as much as I can on camera, but some of my favorite images are those I never seem to have my camera ready.  Often it is a mother and son laughing or a father and son looking out over the water, or a daughter resting or getting warm in her mom's arms.  It is in that moment that I realize that though at times it seems inadequate, those moms and dads love and adore the kids with whom they entrust to us.  Unfortunately, my realization doesn't stop there.  It is also in those moments that I realize just how much many of our kids are missing.  There is always the child not picked up.  The child who didn't pack appropriately.  The child whose parent simply drops him off and leaves without checking in with the teacher or hugging him goodbye.  It is that child that we must also remember.  It is that child that it truly is up to us to make sure every experience includes someone to laugh with, someone to notice the water or the big boats, someone to make sure he/she is warm enough, someone to make sure he/she has an amazing experience.

Thank you for all the extra work and time spent in scheduling field trips for our kids.  I hope you realize that they offer so much more than feeding the giraffes, seeing the stars, watching the Titanic sink, eating at the Grand Hotel with 6 pieces silverware, seeing Chicago from the sky, etc.   These truly are once in a lifetime experiences for so many of our kids.....and for our parents.  The time this gives them together is priceless.

Great Videos:

A must see for Moms:

This lip dub was filmed by Most Teens Don't in Jackson and is worth watching:

Link to Check Out: 

10 Videos Every Educators should see

Neat Classroom Ideas from Pinterest:

Classroom Incentive Tracker:  I love Mr. Potato Head! 

Have a Great Week!!

Teacher Appreciation

Quotable: "The best thing about being a teacher is it matters.  The hardest thing about being a teacher is it matters every day." ~Todd Whitaker

A topic for this week's blog was an absolute no brainer for me:

This week is Teacher Appreciation Week.  While not all of you have the title of Teacher according to your contract, this week is about celebrating all of you who influence the lives of our students....and that is each and every one of you!   I certainly appreciate all that you do.  What I appreciate the most is the environment you create for our students.  Kids love coming to school each day, and parents feel welcome here by all of you. 

The compassion for our families, respect for one another, and focus on kids can't be neatly measured and represented on a school report card or data spreadsheet, but to me, it's more important than any other piece of data that exists. This makes me think of the quote, "Years from now children might forget what you taught them, but they will never forget how you made them feel." I love working with a group of people who not only believe in the potential of our kids, strive to help them be the best they can be, but also care so much for the students and community in which we work.  So, if our students don't tell you today how much of an impact you are making on them, please hear me tell you now that you are making an incredible impact on our students!

From the bottom of my heart, I thank you so much for all that you do everyday to make Parma Elementary School a great place for kids to learn and grow!! You are the Best!!  Simply the Best!


Calendar in Review:
Please note the calendar on the right....
Welcome Back Joan Fitzpatrick
Monday, May 7:  Teacher appreciation Luncheon provided by PTA
Monday, May 7:  8:00 SST Meeting
Monday, May 7:  2nd grade Common Core
Tuesday, May 8:  6:30-8:30 Staff Appreciation Breakfast at HS 
Tuesday, May 8:  Common Core for Administrators Conference
Wednesday, May 9:  Walk To School Day
Wednesday, May 9:  K - 2 PLC Assembly
Thursday, May 10:  3rd grade leaves for Mackinac
Thursday, May 10:  5th grade Common Core
Thursday, May 10:  Kindergarten Common Core
Friday, May 11:  10:00 - 11:00 Food Play in the gym for all grades
Friday, May 11:  "The Talk"....4th grade at 1:30 and 5th grade at 2:30
Sunday, May 13:  Happy Mother's Day to all Moms!!


Highlights from the week:

• I observed a second grade math lesson and the students were making grammatical corrections to the story problems.
• A fourth grade student brought her published book to me in the hallway and wanted to share it with me.  She was so proud and so was I.
• I observed fifth graders performing small plays and realized that we have many students who truly need to go into theater.
• I loved working with our fifth graders on our weekly news show.
• I witnessed a group of students stopping another student from making fun of someone.  Wow!
• Our Panther KNex kids are doing an outstanding job.  Seeing those connections every day and watching how our kids are growing from the experience is amazing.
• Betsy Powers was honored at Ella Sharpe Museum for the Top Teacher Award.  She had more the 3 tables full of family, friends and colleagues to help honor her.
• I think something has happened in third grade, and our kids are enjoying writing! 
• I got to drive Michelle Rogotzke's car.  : )

Videos:
 

You are Simply The Best:

The short version of a student's speech to school staff:

The full speech:

Articles of Interest:

12-effective-end-year-activities

Bloom's Digital Taxonomy Pyramid