March 31st-April 4th

Food for thought... Family blogging takes on a life of its own!

Flickr image credit

In early January, we kicked off our very first Family Blogging month in an effort to get our families excited about our newly created classroom blogs. Awesome teachers and students posted throughout the month, and learned the art of quality commenting. Student bloggers wrote posts at home and emailed them to their teachers via their Gmail accounts and the topics ranged from writing about yoga, Skype, vocabulary words, and even Minecraft. We also had Andra Goodwin , a parent, post on our school blog during that first month about the learning going on in her daughter's first grade class. During the month of January, our school wrote 66 blog posts and 356 comments, with over half by students. 

Almost three months later, student blogging has taken on a life of its own and the posts keep coming. Something that surprised me, though, was the excitement about blogging that has spread to our families. Last week, two of our first grade parents approached me about the possibility of doing some blogging about autism to coincide with April and Autism Awareness month. We met last week, and they walked into my office with books to share and a plan to share their story and information through a seven blog series on autism! Amazing! I am so excited to have them posting as guest bloggers for our school. Today, I received the first post that is scheduled for April 2nd, World Autism Day. I seriously get chills thinking about the power of writing and sharing and how our little Family Blogging month has turned into a vehicle for sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings for everyone in our school community. 

Our school will be helping to raise autism awareness this month! We'll begin by wearing blue on Wednesday April 2nd in celebration of World Autism Day 2014. Caroline and I will also be coming to read to your classes and share an art project for our front display. 

image credit

Dates and Details

No minimum day in April

April 1st- Minecraft Class 3:30

April 2nd- Staff meeting and wear blue spirit day- World Autism Day

April 2nd and 3rd Talent Show tryouts 3:30
April 3rd- no official tech time- finish up those amazing yearbook pages :)

April 7-10 Project GLAD demo in Tammy's room

April 12th-27th Spring Break

May 2nd minimum day- planning

May 7th, 13th and 14th Talent Show rehearsals

May 15th Open House and minimum day

May 21st Talent Show 10:30 and 7 pm

May 23rd & May 26th No school

May 27-30th GLAD Demo in Hope's room

May 30th Minimum Day and PIP Presentations at main campus, Ice Cream Social

Tech Tip

For three ways to screencast with a Chromebook, check out this post!

http://jonathanwylie.hubpages.com/hub/Screencast-Chromebook

March 24th-March 28th

Food for thought

This past week felt like the longest week ever. Was the lottery really last Monday? I was nervous about leaving school for three days but excited to attend my first Annual CUE conference in Palm Springs. There is definitely a blog post coming later, but I have to say I was totally inspired by several sessions I attended. I also was so excited to meet Linda Yollis in person! One session by Lisa Highfill (follow her on Twitter at @lhighfill) was all about YouTube videos-- she shared her playlists and I loved how she organizes them! Check out her YouTube channel here! This video she shared was one of my favorites and I can just imagine making one here at Star! Enjoy!

Dates and Details

March 24th-26th WASC visits --Updated WASC Schedule

March 25th Minecraft 3:30-5:00

March 26th-- Joe's birthday and Walking/Jogging Wednesday! Walking Wednesday 10:15-10:30 and 1:15-1:45 (choose one)
March 27th- tech time TBA
No minimum day in April
April 2nd and 3rd Talent Show tryouts 
April 7-10 Project GLAD demo in Tammy's room
April 12th-27th Spring Break
May 2nd minimum day- planning
May 7th, 13th and 14th Talent Show rehearsals
May 15th Open House and minimum day
May 21st Talent Show 10:30 and 7 pm
May 23rd & May 26th No school
May 27-30th GLAD Demo in Hope's room
May 30th Minimum Day and PIP Presentations at main campus, Ice Cream Social

Tech Tips
One thing I learned at CUE was that if you use alt+ctrl+shift+4 your screenshot saves to the clipboard, not your desktop! #littlethings

March 17th-21st

Food for thought...

Have a lucky week!

Flickr image credit

Dates and Details
March 17th- Star Academy Lottery 5:30 in gym

March 19th-Walking Wednesday 10:15-10:30 and 1:15-1:45 (choose one)

March 19th- Grade level planning
March 20th No genius hour this week... you might work on creating a yearbook page for your class!

March 19-20 GLAD two day trainings at Star (Room 114 and Library)

March 19th- Facilities meeting hosted by NUSD at the main campus 6 pm

March 19-22 Jennifer at CUE in Palm Springs-- Petra, Hope, and Amy will be sharing teacher-in-charge
March 21st- Progress reports go home (only students at risk of not meeting end of year benchmarks)

March 23rd- Sacramento Kings Game 3 PM

March 24th-26th WASC visits

March 26th-- Baby Jax day! (and Joe's birthday!)
No minimum day in April
April 2nd and 3rd Talent Show tryouts 
April 7-10 Project GLAD demo in Tammy's room
April 12th-27th Spring Break
May 2nd minimum day- planning
May 7th, 13th and 14th Talent Show rehearsals
May 15th Open House and minimum day
May 21st Talent Show 10:30 and 7 pm
May 23rd No school
May 26-30th GLAD Demo in Hope's room
May 30th Minimum Day and PIP Presentations at main campus, Ice Cream Social

Tech Tip...

Saving files to a Chromebook- a quick tutorial

March 10th-14th

Food for thought...

Over the next few weeks, I am looking forward to being in your classrooms as part of your year-long goal setting process. Although we'll meet in advance of the actual observation date, I thought it might be helpful to share some thoughts about this process. First, this is not a test! I don't want you to feel anxious about it, even though I know sometime these more "formal" observations can make people feel a little nervous. But, I also know that information can be helpful when planning, so here are some thoughts I have that may help you to focus as you choose your lesson, time, or content for your upcoming observation.

1. Don't do something special just for me. I want to see what goes on in your classroom every day.
2. Have you tried something new lately or made a change? Is there something you'd like feedback on, or would like suggestions around how you might improve? Choosing something that is a work in progress is a great idea!
3. It doesn't have to be a "direct instruction" lesson with you in front and the kids in desks or on the floor. I am coming to see teaching and learning, which takes many forms in our real-world, differentiated school. I'd love to observe your workshop, centers, or math groups if that's something you are working on this year.
4. Our focus this year is student engagement, and that is the lens through which I'll be observing your classroom. It doesn't have to be quiet-- I'm most interested in seeing students actively involved in learning.
5.  No matter what content area you choose, think about the emphasis of literacy across subjects in the CCSS. Are students having opportunities to read, write, listen, speak, and think about academic content? I'd love to see GLAD in action as well!

As part of this process, we'll meet a few days in advance of your observation to talk about your plans. I've shared the Google doc with you so you can begin thinking about what you'd like to choose. I'd like to have observations completed before Spring break, so please schedule a day and time with me- I'm hoping I can get you all on the calendar by the end of this week.
Thank you for all you do!

Something I loved this week:

Skyping with Ame Dyckman!

Dates and Details

March 12th-Walking Wednesday 10:15-10:30 and 1:15-1:45 (choose one)

March 12th- Cadre meetings (ELA at Star)
March 13th Genius Hour & WASC with Pat Brougton
March 17th- Star Academy Lottery 5:30 in gym

March 19-20 GLAD two day trainings at Star (Room 114 and Library)

March 19th- Facilities meeting hosted by NUSD at the main campus TBA

March 19-22 Jennifer at CUE in Palm Springs-- Petra, Julie and Amy will be sharing teacher-in-charge
March 21st- Progress reports go home (only students at risk of not meeting end of year benchmarks)

March 23rd- Sacramento Kings Game 3 PM

March 24th-26th WASC visits

March 26th-- Baby Jax day! (and Joe's birthday!)
No minimum day in April
April 12th-27th Spring Break

Tech Tips
Our Chromebook cart arrives Tuesday, and we will get a chance to play on Thursday! Check out this interactive Chromebook 101: Getting Started ThingLink to learn some cool features about the Chromebook! No laptops needed for Genius Hour :)

March 4th-7th

Food for thought...

This quote reminded me of our conversation today...

Dates and Details
March 4th- First grade field trip
March 5th staff meeting 8-8:30 

March 5th 10:20 Author Skype with Ame Dyckman!

March 5th- schoolwide walk begins (normally two times) 1:15-1:45 and 11:10-11:25-- time adjusted for the morning time due to the author Skype (choose one)
March 6th- no Genius hour 
March 7th- minimum day and afternoon planning time
March 12th- Cadre meetings (ELA at Star)

March 19-20 GLAD two day trainings at Star

March 19th- Facilities meeting hosted by NUSD at the main campus TBA

March 19-22 Jennifer at CUE in Palm Springs-- Petra, Julie and Amy will be sharing teacher-in-charge

March 23rd- Sacramento Kings Game 3 PM

March 24th-26th WASC visits

March 26th-- Baby Jax day! (and Joe's birthday!)

I'm keeping this one short and sweet! Have an awesome week!