Pow Wow Principal's Press
December 9, 2016
I wish my teacher knew...
The other day I was in a classroom observation and a simple question was posed, what is a struggle?
To hear some of their responses was truly heartbreaking. This time of the year ALL schools struggle with behaviors that rise and test our emotions. Please take time to think about the little humans you are working with. They are dealing with a lot more than sometimes meets the eye. Be patient. Be kind. Be loving. For some, you are the only adult showing them HOW to be these things.
It made me think about this article I read over the summer.
I heard this song while working with my Professional Learning Network last night. If this isn't the VBEVIBE... I don't know what is.
Upcoming Events
Permission slips should have gone home with students yesterday. Please make sure our families are aware of this. If you are planning to stay and help out for the dance, please see Mrs. Moree to choose a craft or project to do with students.
Pride of the Tribe
Our Pride of the Tribe celebrations will take place on Friday during lunches. Invitations were placed in your mailboxes on Wednesday. Please make sure you have invited the families of your Pride of the Tribe recipient, and that you have filled their name in the binder in the front office.
WINTER FEST CELEBRATION in the COURTYARD
Please encourage students not to bring back packs on December 20th.
From 12:50-1:40 we will be ending our day with a WINTER FEST CELEBRATION in the courtyard. Our VBE Band, VIBE Dancers, and VBE Cheerleaders will all perform for our school as we celebrate all the incredible growth we have made in 2016.
Please encourage parents to come and help us celebrate our winter wonderfulness.
Moonshot Moment SHARE FAIR TOUR!!!
Fair Share, who is sponsoring the grant will be doing preliminary walks at VBE on Tuesday December 13th. Please join us Tuesday at 7:45 am for FREE BREAKFAST.
Here are the phases on the grant and the layered roll-out:
Grant Focus & Targeted Outcomes
Focus - The focus of this funding will be to explore how technology can enhance literacy experiences in two elementary classrooms, Vero Beach Elementary and Rosewood Magnet in Indian River County Florida.
Outcomes -This will be a 3 phased and layered roll out.
Phase 1 - Schools will purchase technology to support the Moonshot Academy After School Programs (MSA). This will allow for the teachers to experiment with ways technology can personalize learning and support the development of deeper connections to each other and with text.
Phase 2- A Learning Journey:Teachers and administrators from both schools, select district personnel and TLA staff will attend a Share Fair Nation event in Denver in January or February. In addition, they will be able to tour schools selected by the staff at Share Fair that have successfully implemented technology.
Phase 3-Based on the learning from the after school programs and the classroom tours, along with the expertise of Share Fair nation staff, the remaining funds will be used to support deepening technology implementation at the schools.
Grant includes:
iPads (and protective cases) for 50 K-2 students at VBE Moonshot Academy (Second Semester)
● Total of $20,000
Opportunity for ONE early elementary teacher (K-2nd) to apply to administration
Teacher will be given 10,000 toward technology devices to support classroom implementation and learning. The principal will decide who are the hungriest early elementary teachers in their schools that want technology now in their classrooms.
December 13, 2016 Schedule
7:45am – 11:00am
Breakfast & Classroom Tours
Talk with teachers during breakfast
Presentation from Cindy Emerson & Rachel Moree
Q & A with Lead Leaders (Administrators)
Classroom tours
Debrief
VBE Schedule for Observations
9:00- 9:30- Fundations in 2nd grade
9:30-10:00- 5th Grade Technology integration
10:00-10:30- Kinder ELA
10:30-11:00- 1st Grade ELA
#VBEVIP
Love seeing evidence of student learning in the hallway!
VBE writes!!!
Messages from Ms. Van Brimmer
Writing Instruction: With our focus on writing across the content areas this year, I wanted to highlight a few strategies that will help your students build their confidence and develop compound and complex sentences. Especially with English Language Learners, sentence, paragraph, and essay writing can be a huge challenge. In order to develop our writers and thinkers sometimes it is necessary to give them a helping hand. The video below highlights the sentence frame strategy with a group of ELLs. This strategy can also be used with Speaking & Listening standards and Accountable Talk. This is a wonderful support during small group instruction to help our kiddos revise and expand their writing.
https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/jumpstart-student-writing?fd=1
Growth Monitoring: Our iReady Growth Monitoring data is in! You can access this by logging in to Reports > Class Reports > Growth Monitoring. Then you can select your class and click on individual students to view their data. This is a great time to review your small group instruction and make adjustments before our next iReady Diagnostic in January! If you need assistance accessing/analyzing your data or planning small group instruction, please let me know!
iReady Throw Down: Our iReady classes with 100% of students meeting their Reading usage goals have challenged a buddy class in a batthle of the minutes! The class with 100% of students meeting their goals AND the most minutes earns a popcorn party. I would love to continue this and expand it to Accelerated Reader as well. Let me know if there is a class you would like to challenge and I will add you to the next contest! In the meantime, cheer on this amazing teachers and their classes!
Science by Ms. Keeley
A lot of our science standards are embedded into the ELA block now, but don't forget about the hands on labs for the students. You will see high levels of engagement with science labs. The hands on labs really help with the nature of a scientist standards and allow for exploration, investigation, and demonstration. The labs should be intentionally planned into the unit.
Please let me know if you need anything from the STEM lab for your labs in the classroom. We probably have more than you think!!
I would like to do some donors choose for bigger items. Is there something that your grade level would like for a certain standard that might be coming up in the fourth nine weeks? For example fifth grade may like to have a few more snap circuits that they can house right in their classrooms.
Math by Ms. Ragley
Thank you for a great PD on Wednesday during your planning time. As we saw in Ms Hall's classroom. numbers are everywhere. Your classroom should include both ELA AND MATH anchor charts, updated student work samples, vocabulary, and steps to solve current math standards. Currently, our classrooms have 105 ELA and 55 Math Anchor Charts posted. Math anchor charts provide a visual reference to support student thinking, reasoning and problem solving. A good math anchor chart has a single focus, and shows current math skills (step-by-step) being taught.
As you plan, be intentional about creating pre-planned questions that scaffold through the levels of depth of knowledge. The yellow handout that included questions stems is a great tool and resource to use during your planning and to have easily accessible during math and RTi instruction.
Math benchmark is continuing next week. Please remember to check the schedule as to when and where you will be testing, have math manipulates organized and ready to bring, ISN's already set up, and pencils for all students. Teachers in grades K-2 must read the questions to ALL students. Teachers in grades 3-5 are not permitted to read questions or clarify vocabulary in accordance with state testing rules. Students that receive accommodations are being pulled by a coach or their ESE teacher as stated on the benchmark schedule. ALL teachers should be walking around and monitoring students during their testing time.
As students submit their benchmark test scores are available within 10-15 minutes through UNIFY for you to check. Click on report, student item analysis, choose test.