Month: July 2016

Weekly Update: August 1, 2016

jgrondek

Greetings Emory Family! Here’s to a fantastic week 2.

Flag Salute:

We will have flag salute this Monday morning. For those of you who are new to Emory, grades 1-6 meet on the blacktop on our lines and a class leads us in the pledge of allegiance and we listen to a patriotic song.

Positive Behavior Support:

This month, we will begin our focus on Responsibility.The character trait award assembly for Responsibility on September 2nd. (Holli is searching for a fancy name for our new award- see her with suggestions!!)

The video is available on the connect with kids website (http://sbusd.connectwithkids.com/). The video can be reached by going to Student Resources-> Elementary->Character/Life Skills. Lesson plans to use/modify are right below the video and the K-2 lesson plans are available on the previous page.

If you have not logged into connect with kids before please take a moment to do so. Go to the website and select Sign Up. Create your own username and password. The SBUSD organization code is: 601ELM.

Blue Slips/Prize Wagon:

Please use blue slips to reinforce appropriate classroom, playground and school-wide behaviors. I will be visiting lunch and distributing prizes from the wagon on August 5th.

Dismissal:

Thank you all for being out there this week. You may have noticed that we were allocated money for afternoon supervision (2:00-2:45) Mrs. Manorina is working as a sub in this position. Families who arrive early for pick up have been asked to wait in the lunch area. Our hope is that this will minimize class disruption.

Grades 3-6 teachers- please remind your students and families to report to the Coronado gate and the end of the day.   

 

Staff Professional Learning:

We will meet in room 23 from 1:45-3:15 this Wednesday, August 3rd. We will review strategies to support independent reading and Fountas and Pinnell administration. Kudos to those of you who have begun assessing your students.

Workshop:

It was great to see some mini-lessons and so many students tackling independent reading. See the Frequently Asked Questions document which was prepared by the Learning and Innovations Team. Check out the Sequence of Units  which was created to best support our students. Let Araceli or me know if you would like any specific support or feedback this week as you get started. 

District Writing Day- Updates from Araceli:

  • August 2nd District Writing Day- Assessment Specifics and Updates
    • All students will respond to a Narrative prompt that will be in your boxes on Monday, August 1st.
    • Students will be given (no more than) 45 minutes to respond.
    • Writing response must be done with paper and pencil
    • Students will need to have access to as many sheets of paper as they would like.
      • They can start with one sheet and if they need additional they may take from a pile.
      • Please do not give them a predetermined amount (ie. 5 pages stapled together) as this may overwhelm some students.

    Kinder-2nd

    • Students will use paper with lines and a space for drawing (this will be provided in your boxes along with the prompt).

     

    3rd -6th

    • Students will use regular lined paper.

     

    SDC

    • Students will respond to their grade level prompt.

ELD and PLC:

I will receive more information on Wednesday, August 3, but it sounds like the District may move the IMPACT teacher start date until August 22nd. This will push our PLC and ELD start back a bit later. I will update you as I have more information.

 

Back to School Night August 10:

Schedule

5:00 Title I meeting Canceled

5:15 PTA Meeting

5:30 Principal Welcome

5:45 Classroom Session 1 (25 minutes)

6:15 (Classroom Session 2 (25 minutes)

Directions to Access Fountas and Pinnell data in Illuminate:

  1. Log into your illuminate account   https://southbay.illuminateed.com/live/
  2. At the top select Reports
  3. Then Select List Reports
  4. Click the clear button
  5. Type FOUNTAS into the search bar click search
  6. Scroll down- in the list of reports below select Fountas and Pinnell Classroom Report
  7. Select View in Browser or Download to PDF or Excel (if you select “View in Browser” click “show all” to see all your scores.

Let Araceli or me know if you need any help.

Box Tops Teacher Contest:

 

Our goal is to raise $1500 in Box Tops collections this school year. If we earn $750 in our first collection (until December), we will provide $100 to be spent on classroom materials (furniture, books, etc) to the teacher who’s classroom collects the most money. Please encourage your students and families to return them to the school.

ST Math:

Student accounts will be ready to go by Wednesday, August 3rd.

Any teacher who DID NOT attend will need to do the online training. This will take about 2-3 hours and is broken up into 3 parts. Directions to access the training are below.

  1. Go to stmath.com
  2. Click on Teacher Login
  3. Use the login information sent by Mind Research Institute
  4. If it’s the first time logging in, users will be prompted to change the password.
  5. Click on Teacher Resource Site in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
  6. Click on Online Courses:
  7. Complete Sessions 1-3.

Free Area Carpets:

Coles Fine Flooring is giving away a free area rug for the classroom. The giveaway of these quality and large sized area rugs will be held at the San Diego and San Marcos locations on Saturday August 6th and Saturday August 13th from 8:00-11:00 or while supplies last. First come first served, limited quantity- come early. 1170 Morena Blvd 9210 or 2175 Montiel Rd San Marcos 92069.

South Bay District Assessment Calendar:

When you have some time, please

Check out the REVISED link here. (not urgent) P.S. it was revised again

Cybersmarts Week Aug 22-26:

Save the date- check out the resources below.

https://sites.google.com/site/sbusdcybersmarts/

Quote of the Week:

 

 

Weekly Update: July 25, 2016

jgrondek

It’s the first week of the new school year!!!! I am so excited to see our students, their families and all that you will be doing with and for our kids this school year. Have a great first day and enjoy the week.

PBS Playground and Expectations Schedule:

Before recess on Monday (yes, July 25th), be sure to review expectations for the new playground. Please see the two emails that Lindsay sent on Friday for the presentations and detailed PBS lesson schedule.

Attendance and rosters:

Please take attendance online, as usual, but we will also come to your classroom to do an official headcount within the first 30-45 minutes of the day.  We will do this for the first 3 days of school and then begin to drop “no shows”.

First day packets:

Please pass these out today! If someone new shows up today that is not on the roster you received in your mail box (this weekend/Monday morning), they should already have received a packet at the office.  If you have someone on your roster for whom you don’t have a packet, come to the office and get one for them.

6th Graders helping T/Kinders:

Thank you to our 6th grade teachers who are willing to offer the services of their students during TK/Kinder lunch.   Assignments: Molina/Leon, Valdivia/Olsson, Major/Martinez

Teachers please walk students to the tk/kinder rooms at 11:05 a.m. each day this week.

Daily Schedule and Stipend Request Due Dates:

Thank you to all of you who have already submitted both forms!!

Daily Schedule Due to Eunice by Tuesday, July 26

Stipend/Release Form Due to Eunice by Friday, August 12

 

 

Expectations Assemblies:

  • Jenn will visit TK/K classrooms Tuesday 12:30-1:30
  • Jenn will visit 6th grade classrooms Thursday 8:30-9:30
  • Jenn will visit 5th grade classrooms Wednesday 8:30-9:30
  • Assemblies (auditorium)
    • Grades 1-2
      • Friday 1:00-1:20
    • Grades 3-4
      • Friday 1:30-1:50

Blue Slips/Prize Wagon:

Please use blue slips to reinforce appropriate classroom, playground and school-wide behaviors. I will be visiting lunch and distributing prizes from the wagon on August 5th.

District Writing Day:

This is meant to be a 45 minute narrative on-demand writing piece. The purpose of this assessment will be to inform teaching by analyzing authentic student writing in grade level and vertical site teams.  All students will respond to a common prompt in order for writing to be evaluated across a developmental continuum (Writing Pathways, Calkins- Narrative)

Assessment can be done by hand or on computer. Instructions will be provided.

  • ALL teachers will be doing a Narrative Writing On-Demand August 2, 2016. Instructions will be delivered to sites within the next week. This is NOT something anyone should be teaching into. It’s a cold sample writing sample. Teachers should NOT score these until after you’ve attended ILT.

Workshop Teachers Unit 1 Resources: 

Kindergarten- Reading and Writing

First Grade- Reading and Writing

Second Grade- Reading and Writing

Third- Sixth Grade-Reading and Writing

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE only use the resources from the Units you will be receiving or need to teach.

If you haven’t already seen it here is the Sequence of Units we’ve determined for this year (only) based on recommendations from Teachers College.

Tech Dept Info:

Remember that Tech Updates and notices are always also posted and archived on the http://tinyurl.com/integratedlearning resource website:

  1. Parent & Student Sign-offs Reminder: It’s a great idea for teachers to review the materials that are automatically sent home to Parents/Students in the Parent Notification packet, including the Student Acceptable Use Policy, the Google Apps for Education & Edmodo usage acknowledgements that are all turned in to your front office by parents. (Online versions found at http://tinyurl.com/ilcspecs)
  2. Parent Notification of ILC & Chromebook Program: We highly encourage ILC teachers to either print & duplicate a copy of the following “Chromebooks in our Classroom” welcome letter to send to parents or copy/paste portions that you’d like to use into your own start-of-the-year Parent Letters that you send home: http://tinyurl.com/ilcparents
  3. Student Account “Cheat Sheets” for Teachers:  Please be on the lookout for an email this week from your Principal or school IMRT providing ILC/ILD teachers access to a password-protected initial listing of student accounts by school & teacher name.  This is just a courtesy start-up sheet for easy initial lookups – for new students added throughout the year, remember that student accounts will show up within 48 hours (at most) of new students’ enrollment, and you can use their roster info in Synergy to determine their usernames/passwords:
    1. Student Username = firstname.lastname#### (last 4 digits of student ID)
      NOTE: If student name has a dash, apostrophe, or space, that character and everything following it is truncated, e.g.,  Betty-Sue O’Connor = betty.o1234
    2. Student Password =  DOB in 8 digit format (Year-Mo-Da) — Example: Feb 1, 2003 = 20030201

Teachers with new T460 laptops

 Tips regarding screen ‘size’ issues when docked or using Projector

Observed Behavior: If the laptop is docked while connected to a powered-on Elmo or a powered-on projector, the computer will try its best to resize to a compatible format for both the computer and projection screens. Because Promethean Boards are in a 4:3 format and new computers are in a widescreen (16:9) format, the screen might then appear either smaller than normal or ‘cut off’ in some ways.  There are a few recommended ways to address this issue in your class.

Tips:

  • Option 1: The Tech Dept strongly encourages teachers to consider turning on and using “Extended Desktop Mode” (instructions here), which is how Microsoft designed system software to interface with projectors for teaching and presentation modes. Not only does Extended Desktop mode resolve “screen distortion” or screen size issues, but it is also considered an instructional ‘best practice’ to allow teachers to control what’s seen by students vs. seen only by the teacher.
  • Option 2: If you just leave the settings as they are, you can use the “full-sized” Promethean screen to navigate while presenting to the class, and then can turn off the Elmo power and projector power while not presenting to the class and the computer screen will return to “normal.”
  • Option 3: You may adjust your resolution or scaling settings to your liking at any time by right-clicking on an open area of your Windows desktop, selecting Screen Resolution, and then choosing and applying different resolution or scaling options. However, there are currently no “perfect” settings to recommend.

 

ELD and PLC:

Tentative start date August 16. I will keep you posted. 

Staff Meeting:

Our first full staff meeting is schedule for August 3rd at 1:45 in room 23.

Back to School Night August 10:

Schedule

5:00 Title I meeting

5:15 PTA Meeting

5:30 Principal Welcome

5:45 Classroom Session 1 (25 minutes)

6:15 (Classroom Session 2 (25 minutes)

 

ST Math:

Student accounts will be ready to go by Wednesday, August 3rd.

Any teacher who DID NOT attend will need to do the online training. This will take about 2-3 hours and is broken up into 3 parts. Directions to access the training are below.

  1. Go to stmath.com
  2. Click on Teacher Login
  3. Use the login information sent by Mind Research Institute
  4. If it’s the first time logging in, users will be prompted to change the password.
  5. Click on Teacher Resource Site in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.
  6. Click on Online Courses:
  7. Complete Sessions 1-3.

 

 

 

Communication Expectations:

  1. Read email daily (minimum before and after school)
  2. Read Weekly Bulletin
  3. Read blog post (emoryeagles.org) by end of the day Monday
  4. Read White Board in Break Room
  5. Check mailbox every day
  6. Respond to emails/phone calls within 24 hours
  7. Update/establish your website

 

 

 

 

 

Free Breakfast and Lunch:

For your information, all students at Emory receive free breakfast and lunch every day.

Free Area Carpets:

Coles Fine Flooring is giving away a free area rug for the classroom. The giveaway of these quality and large sized area rugs will be held at the San Diego and San Marcos locations on Saturday August 6th and Saturday August 13th from 8:00-11:00 or while supplies last. First come first served, limited quantity- come early. 1170 Morena Blvd 9210 or 2175 Montiel Rd San Marcos 92069.

South Bay District Assessment Calendar:

This has been revised since we met Friday morning 🙂 When you have some time, please

Check out the REVISED link here. (not urgent)

Cybersmarts Week Aug 22-26:

Save the date- check out the resources below.

https://sites.google.com/site/sbusdcybersmarts/

Quote of the Week:

Video of the Week:

If you missed the kickoff (or just want to hear more) check out the tedtalk below.