Why We Run: The Terry Fox Marathon of Hope

As some of you know, I lost a very dear friend to cancer on Friday morning and I'm sure all of you have been affected by this horrible disease. Raising awareness and finding a cure for cancer is very dear to my heart.

The Terry Fox Run is an opportunity for us to talk about our school value: We Nurture and how raising awareness and money is a way to contribute to our community. Here are some links I came across to with resources and lessons plans on Terry Fox.

The Terry Fox Foundation


Terry Fox ESPN

This Week's Hi5s!

It was a very busy week! I can't believe we are heading into October this week.

1. You are coming to the completion of your Professional Goals and Long Range Plans. Just through the brief glancing I have done of the plans that have been submitted I see evidence of purposeful planning that will facilitate responsive teaching. Way to Go!
2. Your RTI team has finalized what the Response to Intervention process will look like in our school and we are excited to share this with you at our next ED.
3. You have worked hard to get your students working Independently during the Daily 5 and Math pods and we are starting to see our students settle into this routine. I am excited about getting to the point where we can facilitate small guided instruction with students in the upcoming few weeks.
4. Your Davison "Green Machine", once again, made us proud at the Salcoats Autumn summit on Friday. Big thanks to all of our Cross country coaches, Christa, Shaelynn, Kim & Rebecca. Good luck at the District meet on Thursday!
5. Our Open House was a great success! Thank you to everyone for coming out and contributing to this success. The parents of our community are happy knowing that their children are in awesome hands.



I have one super duper hi-5 going out this week to the ENTIRE Davison team for the hard work you have put into the Individual Program Plans, interventions such as LLI, Tutorial and extra-curricular programs that are contributing to student success. An extra Hi-5 to Tammy for all of the work she has put into developing the IIPs and scheduling all of the meetings. Your dedication, compassion, and belief that ALL students will learn is inspirational!

When I saw this video, I thought about all of you and your care and compassion.

It's never too late to learn!

 

 

http://www.values.com/inspirational-sayings-billboards/63-Literacy

 

I'm sure you've noticed that when you walk into the local grocery store, Walmart or onto an air plane, you are greeted by someone who seems delighted that you've arrived. It's because customers who feel valued are more likely to buy what is being sold AND come back. It is vital that our students believe that their teachers are happy to see them every day as well. The following is from the 10 Minute Inservice by Todd Whitaker. I think it's a great message.

A Smile Can Go a LONG Way!

A teacher's smile can be contagious for even the most disaffected students. A teacher who smiles at every student, every day is saying, "I'm happy you're here, I'm happy to be teaching you, and this is a safe, pleasant environment." This is the kind of environment that promotes optimal learning. Students who believe that we are genuinely happy to see them each day are much more likely to learn from us. And, sadly, for some students, school is the only place where adults are happy to see them.

Standing at the door each day doesn't necessarily constitute "greeting." A teacher standing at the door saying, "Come on in,  Hurry up and get busy, Your work is on the board, Let's go, the bell is about to ring..." is not greeting students. An effective greeting is standing at the door with a smile and greeting students with remarks such as...
1. Good morning!
2. How are you today?
3. How was lunch/recess?
4. I'm happy to see you today.
5. I love your new haircut!
6. Welcome back...we missed you yesterday!

The key to a successful greeting is to show your students that you're elated to see them every day and that you miss them when they leave you. If you can convince students that you feel this way about them, you will see their behaviour improve immediately. The happier we appear-even when we're exhausted or cranky-the happier our students will be.

I will be making an extra effort to greet students in the school at the beginning and end of each break. I hope I will also see all of you in the halls greeting your students with enthusiasm.

If students arrive and leave on a happy note,

better behaviour and learning you're sure to promote!

This video has the best message! Be MORE AWESOME today. 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwlhUcSGqgs

Davison's Hi5s for this week!

 1. We love our Reading Buddies!

 

 2. We can build bridges and boats in Science.

3. We are mindful of the physical environment and how this impacts learning.








4. We are a NO EXCUSES school! Classrooms are making their pledges and students and teachers are using the language.

5. Our Pre Kindergarten Pancake Breakfast and Open House was a success! Looking forward to our PreK students starting on Monday. 

6. We work collaboratively to set goals for learning improvement. Learning without Limits...Achievement for All! 



School is so much better when the kids show up! It was a smooth start up!

There have been a few questions about the long-range planning so this is what I am choosing to address in this week's Friday Focus.

The purpose of long range planning is for you to thoughfully and purposefully plan specific learning goals you will be ensuring your students achieve during the year. If we don't know where we are going, how will we know when we get there? These documents are not for Juanita or I, they are for YOU so they need to be designed by you in a way that works for you. If we are to provide responsive teaching in order to ensure ALL students learn, there are a number of details we need to address in our planning. We need to be aware and our students need to be aware of EXACTLY what it is they are expected to know and do throughout each unit of study. As you begin each lesson it should be easy for you to share with students the learning goal (I can statement) they are expected to achieve.

Your Long Range/At-A-Glance plans need to include (due September 30th):
1. Strands/Big Ideas/Units in each subject area you will be teaching
2. Time frames for each Strand/Big Idea/Unit
3. Curriculum Outcomes linked to each Strand/Big Idea/Unit

Your Short Term Plans are where you begin to fully develop each unit. Short term plans need to include:

1. Outcomes/Essential Learnings/Essential Questions
4. Indicators/I can statements/Understandings
5. Assessments/Performance Tasks (pre-assessments, formative assessments & summative assessments)
6. The Learning plan-detailed lessons/tasks and activities. This is where you describe the learning experiences/lessons, instructional strategies and resources you will use in order to ensure students achieve the learning goals (Outcomes) for the unit. This is also where you plan for differentiated instruction, flexible groupings, etc.
7. Integratation of First Nations and Metis resources and perspective 
8. Technology integration.
9. Assessment tools with short term plans (rubrics/performance tasks).

Short term plans are where the UbD template comes in. My challenge to you is to pick 1 or 2 subject areas ( at least one being ELA &/or Math) and use the UbD template to plan your Term 2 and 3 units if you haven't already started using this template. This is the template I forward to you earlier in the week from Quintin.

I have been thoroughly impressed by the long range planning I have seen so far. Thank you for your efforts.

I would expect that short term plans for Term 1 would be submitted to me by the end of September, Term 2 short term plans by the end of November and Term 3 plans by the end of March.

The curriculum cards that I emailed you earlier this week had all ELA & Math Outcomes unwrapped into I can statements.

There are many excellent sites out there that can support you with your planning:

Good Spirit School Division Grade Level Resources http://blogs.gssd.ca/mmorley/
Many online resources and blog entries for all subject areas at all grade levels.

North East School Division Curriculum Corner http://curriculum.nesd.ca/
This curriclum corner has many well developed plans, tasks, activities and RUBRICS that are linked to outcomes. They are all done in word document format so you can edit them for your own purposes.

Regina Public School Division http://www.rbe.sk.ca/teachers-staff/instruction
Many links for resources to support Literacy and Numeracy Instruction.

Saskatchewan Common Mathematics Assessment  (Pre- and Post-Assessments for all Grade Levels and Strands K-9):  https://docs.google.com/a/go.rbe.sk.ca/folder/d/0B-9OIfscHhC6MDM2ZTA0N2MtMTc0ZS00ZTA3LTgwZmItMDg5ODQzNmZiMjA3/edit?hl=en_US

1. We are contributing to a positive school culture! Students are learning about our School Values and what each looks like. Students are also learning about No Excuses, making No Excuses pledges, and starting to use the language. Slow down on those highways, Mrs. Young...No Excuses!

2. Students are engaging in hands-on learning! There were
many Math lessons going on this week that had students using manipulatives or the SMARTboard and working collaboratively to solve problems.


3. We have begun communicating to students what their learning targets are. I hope to see even MORE "I can statements" posted in classrooms over the next couple of weeks. Remember, when students know what it is they are supposed to be learning we increase the likelihood of them learning it.

4. Students celebrate when their principal enters the room. YES!!

This is a hilarious video! I'm sure none of you have EVER felt like this while teaching students.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdxEAt91D7k