Bush Focus
September 7 - 11
Notes for the Week
1. Becky Slater's last day was today (Friday). She has done an excellent job and we will miss her!
2. The "Buddy Pack" kickoff began today. If you have any students that need to be added to our list, please let me know.
3. Our breakfast stations are going really well! Thank you for your help and patience as we've worked through this process. Please remind students to go to only one station and that should be in their assigned area. A BIG SHOUT OUT to our food service staff for doing such an amazing job! GO STAFF!!!
4. Grid Sheets: Please give me a copy of your Grid Sheets once they are completed.
5. The United Way kickoff is coming soon! All funds raised will help support our community needs in Callaway County. Student Council will be sending out information soon. If at all possible, please help support.
6. Students can start turning in their QSP orders on Tuesday or their slips for Garfield. Please have students bring their order, to the table outside the office, to receive their prize. See the office if you have any questions.
7. RTI - Next week, we will finish up our organization of groups during common plan. Thanks to Juanita, Libby and Heidi for helping complete testing and pulling together data collections for our students! Very positive conversations taking place!
8. Staff meeting is Tuesday at 3:30 in the library. Please come prepared and ready to work with your team. If you need something specific on the agenda, please see me Tuesday morning.
I hope everyone has a fun and relaxing weekend! Please be safe as you travel!!!
5 Stem Books to Add to Your Classroom Library
1. Sorting Through Spring
Written by Lizann Flatt, illustrated by Ashley Barron. $14.95.
The second in the author’s “Math in Nature” series, this springtime tour of the outdoors offers kids a glimpse of the numbers, patterns and shapes that exist in the natural world, inviting readers to think about sorting and probability, among other concepts.Best for grades K-3.
Activity to try: Go on a nature walk and invite students to take photos of their surroundings using a digital camera. Look for the mathematical patterns in the photographs.
2. Infinity and Me
Written by Kate Hosford, illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska. $16.95.
A 2013 finalist for the Bank Street Center for Children’s Literature Cook Prize, which honors picture books that teach STEM principles, this innovative look at the concept of infinity will help stretch your mathematicians’ thinking to the outer limits. Best for grades 2-5.
Activity to try: Invite students to make Mobius stripsand discuss their relationship to infinity.
3. Timeless Thomas: How Thomas Edison Changed Our Lives
Written and illustrated by Gene Barretta. $16.99.
Another one of this year’s finalists for the Cook Prize, this lively portrait introduces readers to one of America’s most prolific inventors, detailing Edison’s triumphs (the lightbulb!) as well as some of his lesser-known failures. Best for grades 3-5.
Activity to try: Listen to some of the first sound recordings Edison made in his Menlo Park laboratory.
4. Stronger Than Steel: Spider Silk DNA and the Quest for Better Bulletproof Vests, Sutures, and Parachute Rope
Written by Bridget Heos, photographs by Andy Comins. $18.99.
The latest in the excellent “Scientists in the Field” series details one researcher’s exploration of the ways we may be able to use spider silk to improve manufacturing, medicine and more. Your students will never look at a dusty cobweb in the corner the same way. Best for grades 5-8.
Activity to try: Watch a video of silk being harvested for research purposes.
5. Edge of the Universe: A Voyage to the Cosmic Horizon and Beyond
Written by Paul Halpern. $27.95.
Introduce students to some of the ideas behind quantum physics and cosmology with this accessible, entertaining overview of where scientists believe our universe came from and where it is headed. Best for grades 10 and up.
Renaissance Learning News
Hi there,
OpenEd continues to be the largest K-12 resource library and the only resource catalog that intelligently recommends resources for each student based on results of assessments. Our growth continues to explode, with over 210,000 teachers directly, and over a million teachers through partnerships with ed tech leaders such as Renaissance Learning, Atlas Learning and Otus Learning.
We are excited about the school year starting and have made a big push to provide a bunch of new features you have asked for. A couple of the most exciting:
Lesson Plans for Popular Textbooks
We introduced lesson plans (lists of resources such as videos, games, and assessments) based on a few textbooks last spring. It was very popular and we received a list of requests for other textbook lesson plans. We now have lesson plans for all of those requested textbooks.
Because we now have lesson plans for most popular K-12 textbooks, we ask you for the textbook when you create a new class. You will then get a lesson plan optimized for the pacing and sequencing of standards implied by your textbook. Each chapter and section will have a list of appropriate supplemental videos, games and assessments listed for it.
You can see all the current textbook lesson plans here. If we haven’t covered your textbook, please let us know which one it is and we will add it to our list to provide a lesson plan for.
Monitor Video Usage from Mastery Chart
Of course we always let you assessment and homework results from the mastery chart. Now we actually let you view video usage as well right from the mastery chart!
These are just a couple of the new capabilities. You will notice that the mastery chart in general is now much more powerful and feature-rich. You should be able to do most of your class management right from that mastery chart console now.
We have lots of other breaking features over the next couple weeks that we will be updating you all on soon.