Head U Gator News
October 2, 2016
A grateful heart...
My heart is grateful for....
...Cindy Farris, Annette Fennelly, Bryan Hendrickson, Jennifer Bisballe, Marnie, Jeanette, Heidi and Mary Spencer-Huber for staying late Monday to interview applicant to fill Laura's position.
....Will and Linda for taking such good care of Lauri's class this week -and so cheerfully!
...Jennifer Spence, for jumping in at the last minute to take Bryan's place at a coding training. When sub plans have to be created, we all know that's extra work but she did it without a moment's hesitation.
...Becca Adams, for looking beyond what a student "can't do" and finding something he's really good at. One of her little guys is really struggling, but she learned he's a great basketball dribbler! She used that to her advantage, when she found out he's able to say his ABCs as long as he's dribbling. Way to go, Becca, for digging really deep for something you can build on.
....Carrie Lee, whose classroom I walked into Friday morning during her conference period just in time to hear her call two parents to tell them what a good job their student was doing. She explained she picks two students each Friday and phones their parent. Great strategy for building positive relationships with parents and students!
....Tiffani Griffard, who I'm sure has questioned her decision to leave her previous campus and join our ASPIRE Academy! She has met the challenges of the first 6 weeks with grace and cheerfulness, and has already become a valuable asset for the first grade team, her ASPIRE team and our campus in many ways.
Lucy Calkins and our school....
You can judge the quality of what’s going on in a school by the number of conversations around teaching and learning in a school. Do your teachers share work? Do they refer to the kids in the school as “our” kids? How do we create these relationships? It’s not a matter of just being nice to each other, but being nice to each other around the important work.
People change b/c they have a small support group to help them do it.
You hear me say this all the time so when I read something that validates my beliefs I try to share it. Your willingness to share professionally with each other, and to do so on a daily basis will continue to make us stronger and better. Our GTU sessions, your conversation at lunch and Sherlock visits are all ways that we can spread good things (and failed things) that we are doing so that our colleagues continue to get better. When we do this, our school is operating at the highest level of professional actions. The only thing that we aren't doing yet on a consistent basis is sharing outside our walls, and we are beginning to work on that as well.
Kudos to all of you, for helping build such an incredible place to work. I keep reminding myself to savor each day because they are all special and memorable, and while we have no guarantee of the future we can revel in what we are able to participate in right now.
ADHD videos
This segment is about 8 minutes long. It is directly focused on parents, but again the advice he gives to parents is applicable to us: Become educated, be a scientist, and be skeptical. Still worth listening to, because what he says to parents is advice that we need to heed as well.
Election advice
However, in this year's very contentious and negative political climate, I'm going to advise that we soft peddle our interest in the national campaign as much as possible. The adults in our country aren't doing a very good job of modeling appropriate ways to disagree (which to me does not include shouting over one another) and I fear that any prolonged discussion or instruction about the campaign will become disruptive.
You all know your students better than I will, and you may feel they are capable of participating in a lively debate supporting their favorite candidate. My concern this year is that emotions are running very high and reason is not always present, and that could translate into damage to the community you've worked so hard to build with your students. Don't hear that I (or by extension) GCISD am/is banning conversation about the election. Instead, hear that I'm encouraging you to think long and hard before getting started in a conversation that could quickly become contentious and could damage the culture in your classroom.
Some requests from Maria, our cafeteria manager:
Students need to be as quiet as possible when in line, in order for us to hear them when they are making their selections at lunch.
We do get some help from a couple of teachers but please keep the order when they are here to help. This way the teacher can keep control of the students. I've notice that the students get loud and teacher don't say anything. We don't want to yell at the students and most importantly be rude to them. They are our customers and we want them to have the best experience when they come in to get lunch.
Also since we have lunch with the principal I would appreciate it if we would have the students who are having LWP to be first in line and the teacher would let Zohra know how mare are going outside.
One more thing, when they make the announcements in the morning they do mention what we are having for lunch right? If not we have a sign out by the first door that has listed the menu items for the day. That way teachers can read it to the students while they are waiting to be served know what we are having. This way we can make the line move smooth as possible and fast.
Lunch with Principal
I'd suggest printing a copy of your list with the students who can go indicated in some way so there isn't any confusion about who is supposed to be outside. Bring that with you when you come to lunch on LWP days so it doesn't hold up anyone else.
Goals
Calendar
Monday, October 3
Art Club 2:55
Math Lab 2:55-3:45
Tuesday, October 4
Spanish 2:55
CMT 3:15
Wednesday, October 5
Wynette gone -principal's meeting
Thursday, October 6
Good News Club
Friday, October 7
Spanish 2:55
Bowman Sports 2:55
Bricks4Kids- 2:55