Gattis Gossip
Volume 7, Issue 3 -------------Sept. 15, 2014
Great Thinking Happens at Gattis Elementary!!
I like a teacher who gives you something to take home to think about besides homework.
Upcoming Week At Gattis...
Sept. 15-17, 2014
Universal Screeners
PK BOY Assessment Window
1st-5th BAS Window Continues
Compliance Training Window Continues
Monday
- 8:00 Initial ARD
- 8:55 Temporary ARD
- 1:45 Initial ARD
- 3:05 New Teacher Support - Computer Lab
- 6:30-7:30 Open House 1st Grade Library
- 6:30-7:30 Open House 2nd Grade - Cafeteria
Tuesday
- RRISD Elementary Principals' Meeting - GE Library/Classroom Walkthroughs
- 9:50 Initial ARD
- 11:55 Brief ARD
- 3:00 Google Sites Training with Angie
- Picture Day!!
- 3-5pm CBA Open House - 4th grade writing - Old Hopewell
- 6:30-7:30 3rd Parent Orientation - Cafeteria
- 6:30-7:30 4th Parent Orientation - Library
- 6:30-7:30 5th Parent Orientation - Gym
Wednesday
- 3:05 LPAC Training In Library - Required for all teachers of record
Thursday
- Friday
- Friday Morning Assembly
Coming up soon!
- Sept. 22 Compliance Training Due Date
- Sept. 23 Leadership Meeting
- Sept. 23 Kona Ice
- Sept. 23 6:30 - 8:00 pm Watch Dog Dads Meeting
- Sept. 24 Early Release - Plannning for Parent Conferences
- Sept 26 SSTs All Grade Levels
- Sept. 26 PTA Readathon Ends
- Oct. 1 Faculty Meeting
- Oct. 1, 2 OLSAT testing - 2nd grade
- Oct. 8 Vertical Team Meeting
- Oct. 8 Vision & Hearing Screenings (all day)
- Oct. 10 Vision & Hearing Screenings (1/2 day)
- Oct. 13 Student Holiday/Staff Development
- Oct. 20-24 Book Fair
- Oct. 21 Leadership Meeting
- Oct. 21 Literacy Night
- Oct. 24 End of 1st Grading Period
- Oct. 29 Early Release
Friday Morning Assemblies
THANK YOU!!
Happy Birthday to YOU!
Sept. 12 Kyla Spady
Sept. 22 Patty Botello
Sept. 24 Karmela Edmond
Sept. 28 Daniel Brillhart
Action Required!! Compliance Training
Please click on the link below to find the district compliance training matrix. Sign up on ecampus and complete the required trainings for your position. Team Leaders, please support new team members with this process.
All compliance must be completed by Sept. 22 in order for us to get our campus report completed in time for the deadline.
http://goo.gl/aGJpFoSome thought about motivating students ...
Gattis-brations!!!
Great Ideas in Tech: Ms. Jefferson's 4th grade class is teaching Mrs. Sanford's Kinder class how to log on! Brilliant idea! Watch for photos on our Tech Blog soon!
Teacher Access Center (TAC)
Congratulations for your ongoing success with TAC attendance AND discipline! The link to the training videos is still here if you need to review them.
Click on the ELEMENTARY link on the left side of the webpage to access the videos.
Discipline:
Remember that discipline referrals will NOT be submitted on paper except in rare circumstances. You will enter discipline referrals via TAC using the INTERVENTIONS tab (top right of homepage) then CONDUCT REFERRALS. The system that will be used to notify me of referrals is not working, so be SURE to let LaWanda know via phone or face to face if you are submittin a referral until the system is corrected. Yellow Student In Need paper forms can still be use.
Kinder, 1st, and 2nd grade: ACTION REQUIRED!
You did not receive the training for documentation of classroom issues due to the technical difficulties experienced during the training at the beggining of the year. Please scroll down to the TIER I and INTERVENTION sectioon and view the training videos as a team or individually. This is important information for you to know. Discipline referrals will be submitted via this process.
3rd, 4th and 5th grade had this training in the original session at beggining of the year but you may want to review.
We have not yet done the Tier II training. We will do that at a later date.
And If You Have a Minute to Read...
Here is a great reminder to live/teach in the moment!
Clark Walking
We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.
Stacia Tauscher
My son is almost 16 months old, and he can't -- or won't -- walk.
I protest to my husband, my mother, my friends, our pediatrician, my son's teachers:
He's been cruising for months!
He pushes his high chair all around the kitchen! In fact, he can turn anything into a walker and push it around the kitchen!
He can hold big toys above his head while he shakes his hips... oh, and cackles! He taunts me!
He can stand and climb up and down the stairs!
And, in the ultimate bad mom move, I compare: His SISTER had been walking for four months by now.
It just makes no sense.
I tell his teachers, "So, I know if they walk for the first time at school, you won't tell us, right? Because you want us to think their first time is at home?"
They smile at me."No, we won't tell you, unless you ask us to." I nod vigorously. "He's so strong, though -- we aren't worried."
"Well," says one teacher, Ms. Stephanie, "he hasn't walked yet, but the closest he's gotten is holding these two trucks." She gestures to two large plastic trucks with handles on top (these women truly are angels). "He pushes himself along like this," she demonstrates. Bless her heart. "Maybe you could try that at home." Another strategy in my toolkit. Perfect. We've got this.
Later that evening at big sister Zoe's swim lessons, Clark and I sit together in a curved plastic chair, watching through the observation window as Zoe ducks her head underwater and screeches with delight as she surfaces. Next to Clark and me, two young boys toddle gleefully around the towering legs of their parents, and I get the fleeting, annoying question in my head again: Will Clark ever do that?
As if on cue, my warm, squishy little boy sighs deeply and tucks his fuzzy head under my chin, curling his knees to his chest and burrowing as closely in to my body as possible. Oh little man, I think. You are perfect just the way you are, aren't you? I wrap my arms the rest of the way around his soft belly and squeeze his thick baby feet, and he giggles.
My son is almost 16 months old, and he can't -- or won't -- walk. Yet.
I hate myself for leading with that.
I hate that too often my mind leads with that when it comes to "growing" my learners at school. True, there are developmental benchmarks that every child should reach: at 18 months, my pediatrician will take a closer look at Clark's walking. At third grade, we want all students to be reading. At seventh grade, we want to make sure that all of our readers have the chops to conquer rigorous academic texts.
My reminder that day at the pool was that even in races against time, when there are strategies to be deployed, causes to uncover, and trucks to be walked with, there are celebrations, too. Right now, at home my hesitant walker loves to snuggle. At school, my rigorous text struggler can't put down the Percy Jackson series she's read three times.
With both my kids at home and the kids I get for seven hours each day in school, I need to be like Ms. Stephanie: keep calm, stay focused, and remember that every child is on a journey to celebrate.
This week we reconsider the use of reading logs in classrooms. Plus more as always -- enjoy!
Gretchen Taylor