October 26th, 2015

High Point News

Week of: October 26th, 2015

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

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Condolences

Brenda Hart, a former teacher at High Point and also one of our substitutes, lost her husband this past weekend. Please keep her and her entire family in your thoughts this week. We will send out more information regarding funeral arrangements when we get it. Thanks! 

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Do You Have Questions about Redbird Advanced Learning???

Robyn Cohen from Redbird Advanced Learning will be at High Point November 12 from 10:00-12:00 noon to answer questions about the program.  She will be stationed in the conference room and you are invited to bring your questions and lunch for an informal lunch bunch chat.  This is not a required meeting.  Come if you are curious or confused!

If you lunch time falls outside the 10-12 slot, please let Kerstin know so she can arrange coverage for your class while you talk with Robyn.

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Leadership Observations

This Wednesday, October 28th, each grade level chair will be getting a sub to observe their grade level during their reading block. The observations will be about 10 minutes. These observations are not evaluative and no names will be shared with the administrative team. We are hoping to discuss the strengths and areas of improvement they observe in order to focus our PLCs and our work as a school. Please welcome them into your room. 

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What I've been thinking about...

I know that everyone knows about Wordles but this version of a word splash is done using Google Documents. 

Have students type up facts they are researching on a Google Document and then the Word Cloud app will turn their paper into a Wordle. This is a great way for them to see their main idea in their work. 

"By copying the text of a document into a word cloud generator your students can quickly see the words that appear most frequently in that document. Word clouds can also be used to help students see which words that they have frequently used in their own works." - Google Apps for Educators

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2015/10/how-to-create-word-cloud-in-google.html?m=1

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Doodle for Google

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A NOTE FROM THE CLINIC

WAYS TO PREVENT HEAD LICE INCLUDE:

• Avoid head-to-head (hair-to-hair) contact during play and other activities at home, school, and elsewhere (sports activities, playground, slumber parties, camp);
• Do not share clothing such as hats, scarves, coats, sports uniforms, hair ribbons, or barrettes;
• Do not share combs, brushes, or towels. Disinfect combs and brushes used by someone with lice by soaking them in hot water (at least 130°F) for 5-10 minutes;
• Do not lie on beds, couches, pillows, carpets, or stuffed animals that have recently been in contact with an infested person. Bed linen’s must be washed in hot water if a infested person has slept in the bed. Machine wash and dry clothing, bed linens, and other items that an infected person wore or used during the 2 days before treatment using the hot water (130°F) laundry cycle and the high heat drying cycle. Clothing and items that are not washable can be dry-cleaned OR sealed in a plastic bag and stored for 3 days;
• Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay. However, spending much time and money on housecleaning activities are not necessary to avoid re-infestation by lice or nits that may have fallen off the head or crawled onto furniture or clothing;
• Do not use fumigant sprays or fogs; they are not necessary to control head lice and can be toxic if inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

If you suspect a student has head lice, please contact Ms. Dickie.

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****VISUALS OF BEST PRACTICE****

Questions are flying about in Ms. Churchwell's 1st grade classroom! She is using a strategy she learned on the teacher work day at the Inquiry Lunch and Learn called, "The Answer Is....What's the Question?"  She has modeled the strategy this week using simple answers, like, The Answer is Red, What is the question?  Students are suggesting all kinds of appropriate questions, then Ms. Churchwell asks them to add more adjectives to make an even better question!  Next week, she plans to use answers from her reading plans to connect the questions to content standards!  See if you can ask a question!

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In Ms. Jannausch and Frappier’s 4^th grade classroom, they used the Fishbowl Inquiry process as a provocation into their Mythology standard. In the mystery bag was a picture of Zeus. Teachers made sure the student that they chose had a little bit of background knowledge of the god (location, symbols etc). The other students were responsible for asking yes/no questions to figure out what was in the bag. It took some modeling at first, but the more "yes" answers they received, the more excited they got! The questions they were asking kept getting better and better. Once they figured out what was in the bag they were begging to do it again for another subject in the afternoon. We found something they love to do which is always a win for us!

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The students  in Ms. Wright's Kindergarten classroom drove their own investigation. Ms. Wright showed them a picture of police officers from United States, Africa, Japan, and Mexico. They then voted on which country they would like to explore. Students listened to Japanese music, made their own Japanese Flags, and began looking at police officers from Japan. The students asked “wondering questions” that they posted. They will continue to explore their questions this week and next! 

********MATH CORNER**********

REDBIRD ADVANCED LEARNING Access for Teachers and Students

We are full into our launch of the Redbird personalized learning platform.  Here are some reminders for accessing several areas of RAL.  As with student access, the developers recommend that you use Chrome for teacher PD and report downloads.

• Teacher Access to Professional Development Resources: Teachers create their own usernames and passwords via personalized registration links distributed via e-mail. Once registration is complete, teachers return to https://redbird.massivepd.com/ to login to access their PD resources. 
• Teacher Access to Redbird Learning Center (Reporting System): Teachers login to Redbird Learning Center with the username and password they use to login to the Fulton County Schools Employee Portal. Teachers may login at https://fcs.redbirdschools.com/. Teachers may also find a link to login to Redbird Learning Center within the employee portal by clicking on the “View More” button in the “My Apps” section of the portal homepage, and then on the “Red Bird Learning” icon. 
• Student Access to Redbird Mathematics: Students login with their lunch ID and their 8-digit birthdate at https://fcs.redbirdschools.com/. Students may also find a link to login to Redbird Mathematics by visiting fultonschools.org and navigating the menu as follows: Students and Parents -> Resources -> Area: Students -> Redbird Advanced Learning

*****WRITERS' GALLERY**********

The pledge and writers' gallery is hosted by Ms. O'Daniel's class this week.

The pledge and writers' gallery will be hosted by Ms. Collin's class next week. 

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

Monday, October 26th 

9:30 - Parent Tour

Tuesday, October 27th 

2:50 - Faculty Meeting

Wednesday, October 28th

Math PLC During Specials
Pitchford at Focus Meeting

Thursday, October 29th

2:50 - PLCs
GKIDS Go Home
PSC Go Home for 1st Grade
Pitchford at Focus Meeting

Friday, October 30th     
Book Character Dress Up Day
Costume Dance - 5:30 pm in Cafeteria
Student of the Week Certificate

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

We have no birthdays this week.