Betsy's Bits
October 10, 2015
In Case You Missed It:
The Language Arts and Math Team Meetings on Tuesday afternoon were filled with deep conversations about vertical alignment. A huge thank you to Kevin Degon, ELA team leader, and Erica Menter, Math team leader, for planning for such an interactive and engaging meeting and all ELA and math teachers which attended, participated and added to the learning. Each discussed where kids left the grade level previously on the standards taught, what the grade level objective expected for students to be able to do (verb in the standard/objective), and what that looked like in classrooms (performance task/test/project). Grade levels also shared what they expected from students when they walked through the door to be successful. Vincent Pienaar spoke up at the end of the math meeting about how helpful the dialogue was and a great use of time.
Observations are in full swing right now. This round is all announced with a preconference. You will receive an email from the administrator that is assigned to you to set this up. All observations are supposed to be completed by the end of the month.
Dr. Bryan sent middle school principals an email this week letting us know that there would not be a Head of the Class winner announced this year for middle grades. The funding for middle schools came from the federal Race to the Top grant, which has now expired. The funding for elementary schools comes from The Lee County Education Foundation, which has continued.
Mr. Michael Jones, Drama teacher at Southern Lee High School, reached out to us to start a drama club twice a month 45 minutes with 7th grade students and his Drama II students. Nejla deLambert found interested students and had them practice, perform, and video tape monologue for tryouts. Students must stay in good standing in their classes to be able to participate and are required to make up anything they miss from the elective class they miss on club days. The first meeting was Wednesday. Both groups of students had a wonderful time. This sounds like a Win/Win for everyone.
Roman Gabriel III is a motivational speaker on character education and highlights abstinence from drugs and alcohol. He was a college and NFL player and is an ESPN analyst. He uses the sports and social media platform to deliver his message. Roman visited our 7th graders on Thursday during electives to share his message and asked our kids to take the pledge on his Sold Out TV website to stay away from alcohol and drugs.
Cindy Quiggle, Vincent Pienaar, Mark Hildreth, and Miranda Colwell spent their Saturday at Southern Lee High School learning more about AVID. It is so exciting all the opportunities our district has given teachers committed to staying and putting in the time and hard work for our children to prepare them for graduating with something more than a high school diploma.
Talented Stallions!
Instilling the love of reading!
Motivating our kids to keep reaching and rising!
Coming Up:
Mark your calendars:
Tuesday: Health-a-ram during electives (B day), Science Team Meeting @3pm in room 717 LCS Board Meeting 5-7pm
Wednesday: A day, Football away @ Crains Creek Middle
Thursday: A day - Visitors (Paxton Patterson) on campus in Downey's room and PLC room, Downey will be in room 129, Away softball @ New Century Middle
Friday : Visitors (Paxton Patterson) on campus in Downey's room and PLC room, Downey will be in room 129, Achieve3000 new staff member training (room 128)