She Reads

 

Quotable:  "We do not teach children to read so that they can read worksheets."  - Todd Whitaker

The next Couple Weeks:

Monday, April 30:  8:00 SST Meeting

Tuesday, May 1:  1st Grade Common Core

Wednesday, May 2:  4th Grade Common Core

Wednesday, May 2:  8:30 - 9:00 PLC Assembly Grades 3-5

Thursday, May 3:  Kindergarten Common Core

Friday, May 4:  Happy Birthday Gary Allen

Monday, May 7:  Teacher Appreciation Week

Monday, May 7:  8:00 SST Meeting

Monday, May 7:  2nd Grade Common Core

Tuesday, May 8:  6:30 - 8:30 Staff Appreciation Breakfast

Wednesday, May 9:  Walk/Bike To School Day

Wednesday, May 9:  8:30 - 9:00 PLC Assembly Grades k - 2

Thursday, May 10:  3rd Grade Mackinac Trip

Thursday, May 10:  Kindergarten Common Core

Thursday, May 10:  4:00 School Improvement Meeting

Friday, May 11:  10:00 - 11:00 Food Play

5 -4 -3 -2 -1:  Use the most important words:

Motivational Speaker, Zig Ziglar, spoke about this motivational strategy at his seminars.  The strategy was suggested for employers to get the best from their employees, but the applicability of using it with your students, parents, or each other will probably seem obvious.  Make a habit of using these words in a variety of situations.  Remember, if you give, you may be more likely to get!

• The 5 Most Important Words:  "You did a good job."
• The 4 Most Important Words:  "Can I help you?"
• The 3 Most Important Words:  "Would you please?"
• The 2 Most Important Words:  "Thank you."
• The Most Important Word:  "You."     

We all need to hear that we did a good job, and it sure is nice to have someone offer to help, and a simple thank you can make all the effort worth it.  If these words are proven to motivate adults, imagine what they can do for our kids.  Imagine if everyone in our school used these words....students to students, staff to students, staff to staff, etc.  Let's give it a try.....it just my be catching.

Videos about Reading:

 I Love this one!

 

This one you may want to share with your kids!  

Have a fantastic Week!

Educational Hoarding

Quotable:  The easy question is whether a student has learned something; the far more important, and unsettling question is whether the student has been given something worth learning.

The Next Couple Weeks:

Monday, April 23:  Grade 2 Common Core in TIC
Monday, April 23:  8:00 Student Study Team
Monday, April 23:  4:30 - 8:30 Kindergarten Round Up
Tuesday, April 24:  4:30 - 8:30 Kindergarten Round Up
Wednesday, April 25:  Secretaries' Day
Wednesday, April 25: 8:35 - 9:00ish Assembly, Grades K - 2
Wednesday, April 25:  Grade 3 Common Core in TIC
Thursday, April 26:  4:30 - 8:30 Kindergarten Round Up
Friday, April  27:  8:00 Staff Meeting

Educational Hoarding:

Have you ever watched the show "Hoarders"?  Honestly, that show makes me crazy.  The people on the show have held on to so much stuff that their homes become unmanageable.  Their gathering and keeping "stuff" becomes such an obsession that their normal lives are highly impacted.  As they work through the issue of sorting, organizing, and getting rid of their possessions, it becomes a traumatic time.

The same is true in school.  Especially at a time when we are faced with adopting new curriculum, changing from GLCEs to Common Core.  We may not be physical hoarders of "stuff", but we may want to hoard our teaching strategies and ideas that are no longer relevant.  Collaboratively, we need to work through the process of focusing each activity while letting go of less effective strategies, the strategies we want to hoard and the strategies that don't allow us to be most efficient for each student.  Can this be a traumatic time?  Absolutely!

We are often faced with new things to do.  One of the most powerful ideas of PLC is the idea of "what do we STOP doing" in favor of more focus on the learning and the results of that learning.  In order to become an efficient staff and system that focuses on the critical learning of each student, we need to look at all of the activities and strategies that are being implemented and evaluate their effectiveness.  What should we continue doing?  What should we let go of?

During your PLC meetings, have the STOP doing conversation.  Becoming a non-hoarder of educational ideas and strategies gives us freedom to focus on what is critical, brings a deeper calm and is worth the trauma of the whole process.  The positives of the STOP doing conversation outweigh the trauma of letting go of some of our "favorite" strategies or teaching ideas.  If anything is a hindrance to student achievement, we must STOP doing it.  Collaboratively, we need to be an efficient system that is focused on the results of each and every child at Parma Elementary.  We all must be non-hoarders of what we have always done.

Math Facts:

111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321

What did the zero say to the eight?......"Nice Belt"
Now that is funny!


Highlights from the Week:

• Betsy Powers is celebrated for earning a Top Teacher Award at the School Board meeting.

• I had a kindergarten student ask me this week, "Ms. Haney, is it your honor to be at this school?"  To which I replied, "Absolutely!"
• Kindergarten students were so excited about their poetry unit they snuck Shel Silverstein books out of the classroom to read at recess and lunch.
• A third grader told me that he was reading a book and completely lost track of time.  I love that!

Inspiring Video:

When you have 3  minutes, please watch this video on attitude.  This is a good reminder for this time of year.

http://www.flickspire.com/m/Lgroup/AttitudeIsEverything?lsid=0456b107c3048e98137057a41e3cb37b

 Interesting Article to Read:

This article addresses those students who seem to be tuned out or appear to not be paying attention or the ones who constantly are blurting out.  It gives lessons this teacher learned from these students.

http://mrspripp.blogspot.com/2012/04/if-they-would-just-sit-still-they-might.html  

Have a fantastic week!!!

New Week New Blog

The Next Couple Weeks:

Monday, April 16:  8:00 Student Study Team
Wednesday, April 18: 8:35 - 9:00ish Assembly, Grades 3 - 5
Wednesday, April 18:  4th Grade Common Core Meeting
Thursday, April 19:  Mackinac Presentations for grades 3 and 4
                                  6:30 pm Board Meeting
Friday, April  20:  5th Grade Common Core Meeting
Sunday, April 22:  2:00pm Ice Cream Social and Book Fair
Monday, April 23:  Kindergarten Round Up begins

Your grade level should be scheduling Common Core meetings.

To Blog or Not to Blog:

It is my intention to begin doing our Parma Plan It through this blog.  I will update and post to it at least weekly and possibly more often as things come up or I have something amazing to share with you.  As this is my first attempt, hopefully, it will get better.

This week's Highlights:

I loved our conversation at staff meeting.  We have to make sure skills are solid.
If you taught it but they didn't learn it, whose problem is that?
Paul Wiley rocked it out at the Bruce Springsteen concert.
One of the students who won the bike for reading month literally jumped in the air on his way up to get his bike.
Dean Archer danced with kindergarten and first graders in the lunchroom on Friday.  Smiles were priceless.
Kindergarten Round Up parent meeting proved Western is still the School of Choice.

Our bike winners from reading month were drawn at Wednesday's assembly.  The winners were Amelia Walicki and Skyler Nauman.

Interesting Read:

I just began reading the book Mindset by Carol Dweck.  I have been hearing about and reading about this book on twitter and other blogs, and I heard enough that I knew it was a book I needed to read for myself.  The premise of the book is that there are two different mind states from which we operate:

• Fixed Mindset- you believe your intelligence, skills and abilities are carved in stone, or static.

• Growth Mindset - you believe that you can cultivate your basic qualities through your efforts.

You can count on hearing more about this book in future posts.  I would love to have you read it with me if you are interested.  I believe it has a great deal to say to educators and the way we teach and praise our students.

Inspirational Video:


*The video below is an old one that you may have seen before, but it is worth revisiting.  Remember, you have the ability to make an incredible impact on each and every student you come in contact with on a daily basis.  What you say and do has such a huge impact on your students.  You may never know how much you inspire your students, but please know that you do!  Take a moment to watch this video below and revisit it when needed.  What we have is a gift!

Useful Website:


Here is an interesting website found on pinterest for math charts and bulletin board ideas:

http://www.alyciazimmerman.com/math-charts.html