Trantwood Times
"Captivating Every Student, Every Day!"
An Attitude of Gratitude Rocks!
~Way to finish this year strong #TeamTrantwood! You are knocking it out of the ball park when it comes to keeping students engaged in quality learning tasks all the way to the end. LAM
~Kudos to our STEM Trifecta sponsors Mrs. Bartczak and Mrs. Hawley! Our teams performed spectacularly under pressure. Way to prepare them well! LAM
~Many thanks to Mrs. Bailey and Mrs. Moore for a stellar SCA. We love what they do for our school. LAM
~Such a great time was had at the staff parrrr-taaaay on Friday. Gigantic thanks to Sue Jerasa for opening her lovely home to us and to Jan Roewer for organizing fun times! LAM
~Hats off to our new AP, Karen Lewis, for staying strong throughout SOL testing. We are almost done. Woot, woot! LAM
6 Ways to Connect with Kids the Last Week of School
The final days of the school year can feel like a whirlwind, and there have been many years in which I felt like I didn’t take enough time to enjoy my students and give our time together the recognition and closure it deserved. Here are six ideas for grades K-5 to help you connect with your kids and end the year on a high note:
Eat lunch together
Join your class in the cafeteria, or invite students to eat in the classroom with you. If you want to make more individual connections, invite a different group of 5-6 kids to eat with you each day Monday through Friday. If you have a snack time in your classroom, that can be a fun opportunity, too—bring in something special to share with the class during the last week and sit with a different group of kids each day.
Join in at recess
If you’re the type who normally stands on the sidelines, ask if you can join a basketball game or jump rope contest. Kids love to see their teachers having fun! Make it your goal to spend at least a couple of minutes with each child at some point during the week just hanging out, talking, or doing something they love.
Read (or re-read) your favorite books
If you haven’t had time to share your favorite children’s book with your students, now’s your chance! And if you have, the last week of school is a great time to revisit that book again and invite children to join in on the parts they remember. Encourage the kids to submit their favorite books for you to read again, too. If you don’t have enough time for them all, provide 10-15 minutes for kids to pair up and read their favorite book to a partner. This is also a great opportunity to remind your students of how much they’ve grown as readers throughout the year!
Record favorite memories
There are lots of creative ways to have students reflect on what they learned and enjoyed during the year, but many of them are time-intensive. If you only have a few minutes, hang a large blank piece of bulletin board paper and invite students to share their favorite memories and lessons during your morning bell work or dismissal time. Another easy way to capture students’ memories if you have a video release form from parents is to use your phone to capture video of yourself interviewing kids at lunch or recess (or have a student do it for you). Play the video clips back for the class to watch and reminisce together, or post them on your class blog so parents can see, too.
Give character certificates
Fill out a certificate for each child using the free blank templates widely available online, and write them out to acknowledge kids’ most outstanding character qualities, such as loyalty and friendship, responsibility, creativity, initiative, manners, flexibility, integrity, friendliness, dependability, and so on. Thinking of all your students’ positive qualities will create positive feelings in you, too! Hand out the certificates during an in-class ceremony, or call kids over to your desk individually to present the certificates and thank the children for being such an awesome part of the class. You can also have students create awards for one another.
Tell students how they can connect with you over the summer and beyond
For some kids, leaving your classroom for the last time will feel like losing all contact with a a beloved family member, and it can be very reassuring if they know you won’t be gone from their lives forever. You’ll have to determine what’s most appropriate for your situation as these ideas won’t work for everyone, but you could provide the school’s mailing address and invite kids to send you postcards during their travels, permit students to leave comments on your class blog, or reach out via school-approved social media outlets like Edmodo.
-Angela Watson https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com
Up Coming Events...
Tues., June 13 - Retiree Celebration, library, 2:50 - ?
Thurs., June 15 - Gr. 5 Moving Up Ceremony, cafeteria, 12:45 pm
Fri., June 16 - Last Day of School
Special NOTE regarding the 17/18 school year:
Thurs., Aug. 24 - Teacher Workweek begins, Division Mandatory PLP Day
Fri. Aug. 25 - Flex day for teachers
Report Cards - Updated Deadline for Specialists
The report card timeline from DOT for the last quarter has Specialists grades/comments due by 5pm on Thursday, June 15th and Homeroom teachers grades/comments due by 5pm Friday, June 16th. This is the last day of school; therefore, we will not be able to edit grades/comments for you. Please take your time to edit your own comments and then swap comments with a colleague to check before submitting them. If you finish them early, I’d be happy to review for you.
Great Idea! Newspaper Needed - Covering Shelves
Let's use newspaper to cover bookshelves for the summer. You may also use old bulletin board paper that you are taking down and recycle it to cover your shelves.
* Our colored paper cost $.08/foot = $70-80 a roll & old newspapers are FREE!
SUMMER ACCESS TO ACHIEVE3000 AND TENMARKS DIGITAL RESOURCES
The following information is to highlight the availability of Achieve3000 and TenMarks digital resources over the summer. Students who currently have access to Achieve3000 and TenMarks will be able to continue to utilize the resources via Clever and the Student Portal. Links to Clever and the Student Portal are located under “Students” on each school’s website.
Summer access for Achieve3000 includes the ability to search over 10,000 articles archived in Achieve. All completed reading activities will be recorded for both the students and their teachers for the 2017-2018 school year to view. A flyer for parents detailing summer access to Achieve3000 is attached.
In order to support summer reading, Achieve3000 is offering an Achieve Summer 40-Activity Challenge. A flyer highlighting details of the challenge has been emailed to you. Registration is not required to join this contest; students simply login and complete their 40 activities throughout the summer. Questions regarding the contest can be directed to contests@achieve3000.com.
The Summer Achieve3000 Challenge is not intended to replace any summer reading programs currently in place in schools or conflict with the Summer Reading Challenge program sponsored by the Virginia Beach Public Library. Students interested in participating in both opportunities can log their Achieve3000 articles on the Virginia Beach Public Library’s Summer Reading Challenge log. The Achieve3000 40-Activity Challenge is another way to immerse students in literacy throughout the summer and provide opportunities for choice.
TenMarks access will continue throughout the summer as well. Teachers or administrators can assign a grade level assessment (GLA) to students. Once the assessment is complete, the program will prepopulate assignments for students for the summer based on the performance on the GLA. The person assigning the assessment will want to accept recommendations so the program will automatically assign activities for students. Students will be able to utilize all components of the program including Jam Sessions and Amplifiers.
The flyer outlining tips for a successful use of TenMarks over the summer was emailed on June 8. This flyer includes a parent letter in Spanish and English as well as some incentive ideas you can utilize in your schools. Summer access will end on August 21 to allow data to be archived and new student data to be uploaded.
2017-2018 Digital Innovators
VIRTUAL REFERENCE LIBRARY EXPANSION FOR 2017
The Office of Professional Growth and Innovation is pleased to announce the expansion of the Virtual Reference Library with 135 additional books, including a collection of 52 books from the National Science Teachers Association. One book of note is Excellence through Equity: Five Principles of Courageous Leadership to Guide Achievement for Every Student, which was highlighted at the regional equity conference
in 2016. Please see the book-list to review the additions to the collection that was sent to you via email on June 8.
The Virtual Reference Library is an online collection of 497 full-length professional books on a variety of relevant topics. The books can be read or listened to online or downloaded by chapter or article as a PDF document or an MP3 file for easy sharing with staff. Unlimited simultaneous access to the books in the collection enables the Virtual Reference Library to be an ideal resource for professional learning or individual research.
The Virtual Reference Library can be accessed through the Applications or Professional Learning menus on the Intranet (vbcps.com). The launch page contains directions, tutorials, topical book lists and direct links to the most accessed books. The most accessed books for the 2016-2017 school year were Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind: Practical Strategies for Raising Achievement; Causes & Cures in the Classroom: Getting to the Root of Academic and Behavior Problems; Integrating Technology in the Classroom: Tools to Meet the Needs of Every Student; Uncovering Student Ideas in Physical Science, vol. 2: 39 New Electricity and Magnetism Formative Assessment Probes; and Closing the Attitude Gap: How to Fire Up Your Students to Strive for Success.
Welcome Melissa Spivey, new LMS!
Here's a little about our new LMS: I have been teaching for 11 years. I have taught pre k, Kindergarten, 1st grade and five years in fifth grade inclusion. My school awarded me Reading Teacher of the Year. I was an assistant coach for Girls on the Run the last two years. The beach is my favorite place, especially the Outer Banks. My guilty pleasure is watching the Golden Girls. I look forward to meeting all of the wonderful educators at Trantwood!
Principal Thoughts...
Thank you for putting students first. Thank you for seeking growth and being open to change. Thank you for doing great work together. In short, thank you for valuing differences. Thank you for being YOU!
Beyond grateful for you,
LA
SCA Officer Installation
LouAnne Metzger, Principal
Email: louanne.metzger@vbschools.com
Website: http://www.trantwoodes.vbschools.com/
Location: 2344 Inlynnview Road, Virginia Beach, VA, United States
Phone: 757-648-4000
Twitter: @LouAnneMetzger