August 25, 2014

Pirate Booty!
Last Monday was my first "official" No Office Day and I enjoyed being in classrooms and with students and teachers all day! I was able to visit 9 out of 13 classes and am looking forward to spending time in classrooms this Monday. Please let me know if you'd like me to come at a certain time, to work with a small group, or even teach a lesson! Let me know how I can support you and your students. There are four questions that I will be keeping in mind this year as I visit classrooms:

What did I learn?  

What did I notice?

What does the teacher want me to learn?

What do the students want me to learn?

I am looking forward to learning with you! Here's a little collection of images from my first #noofficeday!

Book Love
Check out this 40 Book Challenge trailer made by Jennifer DeWeerdt and her 5th grade class in Martinez! Could you make one with your class?

Dates and Details

August 26: Jennifer off campus in AM at admin

August 27: grade level
August 28: Genius Hour 3:15 in the lounge Click here to view/edit agenda

August 29

Fit Friday walks
3rd-5th will walk from 8:40-9:05
AM TK/K-2nd will walk from 9:10-9:35
PM K and PM 12:30-12:55

September 1: Labor day, no school

September 2: NCS PD day (no school) main campus in the AM, lunch on your own, staff meeting at Star in the afternoon. Please bring your writer's notebooks! We will meet in Petra's room.
September 3: Star Staff meeting 7:30-8:30 Click here to edit/view agenda location: 
September 11: Star Parent Ed Night: Google Apps & the Common Core

September 15: after school enrichment starts
September 19: Picture Day
September 23: Star Family Book Club 6:30-7:30  Library Mysteries! 
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and Stella Louella and the Runaway Book
October 3: Jog-a-thon
October 6 & 7: Two day GLAD training- Fassler, Duley, Steinlein, Rohrbacker, Bullock-- subs needed
October 9: Star Academy Parent Ed Night
October 13-17 Fall Break!
October 20-24: Book Fair!
October 27-31: Minimum days- parent conference week

Tech Tips

Google Plus and Auto Awesome

Get fun special effects added to your photos, mini-movies automatically made just for you, & relive and share your adventures.

Here are just a few examples of what Auto Awesome did to my photos-- I did nothing! (And it is even awesomer that they automatically back up from my phone!)

April Fool's Day added a friend to this pic!

Turned my pics into a gif

Cool effects

Snow added to Karen's bulletin board from last year!

August 18, 2014

Week one- check! Congratulations on a fabulous first week! It was so fun to walk the campus and see happy kids and teachers building community and diving right into academic content from the very first day. Our smooth opening is due to the hard work of every person at Star! Thank you so much for making our school such an amazing place to be every day! I see treasure everywhere!




Here is a little collection of images from the first week...

And here is a fun video and song to make you smile! Turn it all the way up! 

Teachers are...I don't know!

Dates and details
August 18th and 19th BTSN Schedules
Monday August 18th:
TK-2nd grades 5:30 PM-7:10 PM
TK & K 5:30-6:05 in classrooms
6:10-6:30 general session in gym - All grade levels attend
6:35-7:10 1st & 2nd in classrooms Tuesday August 19th:
3rd-5th grades
5:30-6:00 in gym
6:10-7:00 3rd-5th grades in classrooms

*If you present during the earlier session Monday, be sure to end on time so the general session can start right on time. Feel free to turn out the lights and walk out with your parents or you may be stuck there forever!

August 19: Jennifer off campus in AM at admin

August 20: prep, Jennifer off campus in afternoon

August 22: 

Fit Friday walks- PM K and TK can pick a time and walk together. Just avoid a pickup time :)
3rd-5th will walk from 8:40-9:05
K-2nd will walk from 9:10-9:35

August 27: grade level

September 1: Labor day, no school

September 2: NCS PD day- main campus in the AM, lunch on your own, staff meeting at Star in the afternoon

September 15: after school enrichment starts
September 23: Star Family Book Club 6:30-7:30  Library Mysteries!
Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library and Stella Louella and the Runaway Book

Book Love
I'm adding this section to share a book or two each week. This week I'm sharing two books by Katherine Applegate-- The One and Only Ivan (have you read it yet?) and The Remarkable True Story of the Shopping Mall Gorilla, which comes out in October! Enjoy the book trailers!

Tech Tips:

Random name selection tools from Richard Byrne

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2014/08/two-good-random-name-selection-tools.html

FASST Math is coming! Preview the information and try it out for fun!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/math-fact-fluency/fastt-math-next-generation/

All about FASST Math

http://teacher.scholastic.com/math-fact-fluency/fastt-math-next-generation/about

Watch the demo and play!

http://teacher.scholastic.com/math-fact-fluency/fastt-math-next-generation/about/watch-demo

Sushi monster iPad app

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/sushi-monster/id512651258?mt=8

Back to School! August 11, 2014

Pirate Booty
Welcome back to school! It's going to be a great year! If you are new to Star Academy, welcome aboard our pirate ship! I'm looking forward to seeking treasure and celebrating with you all! This blog will be posted weekly- every Sunday, usually, and it will include important dates and details, a little message at the top (Pirate Booty!). I usually try to include something to think about or something to inspire. Starting next week, I'll include things I loved around school. You will also usually find a tech tip or two. Please take a minute to subscribe to this blog in the box to the right- that way you'll receive any new posts via email as soon as they are posted. Feel free to leave a comment as well! Have a great week!

Here's a post from Michael Linsin about setting the tone the first day of school. Enjoy!










Dates and Details
August 11- 

Quick staff meeting in the lounge at 3:30- just to check in about the first day. Very short!
August 13- 

Staff meeting- all teachers 7:30-8:30 in the lounge. Here's the link to the agenda- feel free to add items!
August 14- Genius Hour! Tech time from 3:15-4:15-- Anything goes this week! What do you need help with? BTSN presentation? Your website?  We'll be in the lounge!
August 15- 

Fit Friday walks- PM K and TK can pick a time and walk together. Just avoid a pickup time :)
3rd-5th will walk from 8:40-9:05
K-2nd will walk from 9:10-9:35
August 18- 

TK-2 Back to School Night
530-610 TK and K present in classrooms
610-630 general session in cafeteria
630-710 1st and 2nd present in classrooms
August 19- 

3rd-5th Back to School Night
5:30-6:00 General session in gym
6:00-6:45 teachers present in classrooms

Tech Tips & Treasure

How to Find and Credit Creative Commons Images from Flickr by Richard Byrne

Richard is a genius. Check out his blog- he shares tons of tips and tricks! The one above can help you find images and attribute them correctly using Flickr.