August 11th, 2014

High Point News

Week of: August 11th, 2014

********NEWS*************************

Happy First Day of School! 

We want to thank all of you for your hard work in order to get ready for today. Your classrooms are welcoming, our school is clean, procedures are in place, and we are ready to go!!! We received a lot of great feedback from our Back to School Orientation on Friday and parents kept telling us how much they appreciated the phone calls they received prior to their children meeting you. Thank you for taking the time last week to introduce yourselves.

Please remember to make sure how every child gets home!!! If you aren't sure, please send your information to the front office as soon as possible. Also, double check your students' bookbag tags for the right color!  

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Tasks to Complete

• Class Disbursement Sheet for K-5 should be completed and placed on the G-drive under Disbursement Plans 2014. You will find your grade level and place your sheet in your grade level folder. This needs to be completed by August 12th.

• Handbook sign-off sheet should be turned in to Ms. Alexander by August 15th. Please make sure you have throughly read through the Handbook. An electronic copy is also placed on the T-drive. 

• Schedules: Please make sure that you place your final class schedule on the G-drive under "Schedules 2014-2015" by August 22nd. The master schedule, computer/media schedule, and lunch schedule are in this folder as well. 

• Staff Information Survey: Jenna sent out an important survey for you to fill out. This survey helps us make sure we know all about our staff such as degrees earned, birthdays, and accomplishments. Thanks for taking the time to fill it out!!! Please fill out prior to August 22nd!!

• TKES Orientation/Familiarization and the Self-Assessment need to be completed by August 22nd.

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What I've Been Thinking About…

While we are only just beginning our year together, this 3-minute video is a quick reminder about why we are all here. Whether it's your first day in your first year or your first day in your tenth year, we are all in this to make a difference in a child's life. I know that each of you have the power, the knowledge, and the passion to BE THE ONE to make that difference. I am honored to be working with each and every one of you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miPYLJI247g

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PBIS This Week!

To kick off the new school year, our focus this week is PROCEDURES, PROCEDURES, PROCEDURES. 
Make sure that students are aware of your classroom procedures (when to sharpen pencil, go to the restroom, how to ask a question, and what to do when they are done with an activity), school procedures (how to act in the cafeteria, how to walk in the hallway, who to go to if they are sick), and safety procedures (fire drills, take-cover tornado drills, and intruder drills).

We will begin our weekly focuses after the first week of school. Remember, being PAWS Up is important!
Practice Good Manners
Always Be Prepared
Work Hard
Stay Safe

PAWS Up Pep Rally on Friday, August 15th: In Cafeteria
8:00 - 8:30 = Pre-K - 2nd Grade 
8:45 - 9:15 = 3rd - 5th Grade

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Learning Opportunity

"Effectively Using Flipped Learning in the ElementaryClassroom"   

Workshop Highlights: 

With the advancement of media and production tools, our instructional practices no longer must rely on lecture and print resources alone.  Flipping our lessons allows for a better use of face to face classroom time, while redirecting the instruction to media form that can be accessed anywhere, and for as many times as necessary.  Differentiating our instruction and meeting the varied needs of our learners has never been easier!  Learn about the foundation of flipped instruction, how it applies within a blended learning model, and what tools exist to facilitate this model with ease.  Come prepared to collaborate, create, and take part in a day of simulated instructional practice that will easily be transferable to your classroom in the fall.

Click on the title "Effectively Using Flipped Learning..." to go to the workshp flyer.

 If you have trouble viewing the flyer, please go to www.griffinresa.net

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Drills

Please remember to discuss the safety drills with your students on the first day of school. We will be having 3 or our 4 mandatory drills during the first week. We are doing this to prepare our students and make them aware of our drills as soon as possible.

Monday - Review all drills

Tuesday - Fire Drill

Wednesday - Hard Lockdown Intruder Drill

Thursday - Severe Weather Drill (Take-Cover)

The Safety Drill powerpoint for students is listed on the T-drive under Safety 2014-2015. You can save it and tweak it to meet your students' needs.

The locations and safety team members document is also in this folder.

*****Our Math Corner******************

Strategies That Most Impact Achievement

From meta-analysis of research conducted by Robert Marzano (2001) and the US Department of Education (2002), we know the most important thinking strategies students should use to maximize their learning.  These are the top two strategies that consistently show the strongest correlation between use and learning.  Eat them cheerfully with your Wheaties.

Rank of Effectiveness	Strategy	Percentile Gain in Learning With Consistent Application
1	Extending Thinking Students engage thinking and working in the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy (Increased rigor of student engagement)	45%
2	Summarizing There is a special place at the end of every lesson for students to solidify and clarify what they have learned. (Distributed over the course of the lesson to gather wisdom, closing the lesson with a student-led reflection)	34%

 As you plan your lessons, ask yourself, “How am I pushing my students’ thinking to the next level?”  “Am I closing every lesson so that students can process what they have learned and have a chance to express it through writing and talking?”

Try this closing/summarizing activity this week:

The Important Thing

The Important Thing summarizer is a structure within which students write (or dictate) a paragraph-length synopsis of a topic following a pattern established and repeated in Margaret Wise Brown’s The Important Thing book.  The first and last sentences are the same.

The most important thing about ________ is  _________.

Detail sentence about the topic.

Detail sentence about the topic.

Detail sentence about the topic.

The most important thing about ________ is _________.

Keep tabs on this section of Monday Notes over the next several weeks for more high impact activities to extend thinking and summarize your lessons.

*****WRITER's GALLERY**********

The writers' gallery/ pledge is hosted by Ms. Simon's class next week, August 18th.

******CALENDAR OF EVENTS*******

Monday, August 11th
8:00 - Boo Hoo Breakfast in Media Center

Tuesday, August 12th

1:30 - Paraprofessional Meeting in Media Center

Wednesday, August 13th

Thursday, August 14th

Math PLC Meeting During Common Planning Time
Qdoba for Lunch - Order by Wednesday

Friday, August 15th
8:00 - PAWS Pep Rally for PreK-2nd
8:45 - PAWS Pep Rally for 3rd-5th

******BIRTHDAYS! ****************

Happy birthday to Lauren McClelland on the 12th. We hope you have a wonderful birthday!