CANNON LEGACY
A Newsletter For Cannon Staff 2017-2018
Principal Points - 3/26-3/30
'Enough Is Enough; Students Demand Action on Guns in Massive March'
'March for Our Lives' Draws Massive Crowds Pushing for Tighter Gun Restrictions'
'Something needs to change': Students march for gun reform
'Will 'March for Our Lives' Win the Stricter Gun Laws Students Demand?'
You would have been hard pressed to miss all of the media headlines about Saturday's marches in Washington D.C., in several cities of every single U.S. state, and on six continents, where hundreds of thousands of students, parents, and educators packed the streets to demand more-restrictive gun laws or to decry gun violence, in response to the latest horrific school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
As with any type of social activism, those involved in these marches & demonstrations bring a myriad of opinions and perspectives on specifics about gun control laws, mental health issues, and criminal background checks, but collectively the unifying message that all participants wanted to communicate is simply their desire and right to "feel safe at school".
If you haven't read the blogpost recently circulating in our GCISD community by John Doughney, former GCISD Director of Curriculum & Instruction, about this topic, you might find it interesting as well. He brings an additional perspective in this post titled, Thresholds. In this post, he offers some outstanding graphics about school shootings and he references research from Malcolm Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point. He suggests that if Gladwell's theories on thresholds is applied to school shootings, this concept might offer some explanation for these horrific acts and suggest that they have less to do with gun control or mental health and more to do with thresholds.
Regardless of the perspective we bring to the important issues regarding school safety & security, I am personally encouraged and hopeful that as a result of the momentum created by these student marches and demonstrations, students will ALSO demonstrate:
- A heightened sense of awareness & personal responsibility about school safety and security by doing their part and adhering to our district's mantra of "hear something, see something, say something".
- Embracing and communicating voter registration as a pivotal strategy to effect change and call attention to the power they and their peers can wield in the voting booths as they turn 18 years old.
Proud to be your principal,
Tona :)
Lisa's Coaching Corner
According to an article by Lee Watanabe-Crockett, there are 9 common assumptions educators make about their learners. As I read through the article this is the one that stuck out to me:
#9. We assume they just don’t care.
Kids want to do well. It is certainly preferable to do well than not to. If they aren’t doing well, it’s likely because of lagging skills which may be physical, academic, or social in nature. When the demands of a situation outweigh a learner’s ability to cope, then you’re faced with some challenging behavior which can often appear as apathy.
Believe it—your students care and they want to learn. As teachers, we need to be able to peer deeper into underlying causes of what is on the surface. This is the time to ask ourselves critical questions about what we can do to help:
What social skills are lagging?
How do we teach these skills?
How can we get to the source of the problem?
What can we do in the limited time during the day that we have?
The first step is to change our thinking. Kids do well if they can. If they can’t, we can help them get the skills that allow them to.
Breaking down this wall of "I don't care" in a student isn't easy!! But changing our thinking to realize that the attitude is a "cover up" for academic weakness makes it easier to look for those gaps and help address them. I applaud your hard work to reach the most difficult students because they truly need you most! You may not see the reward NOW but I promise you are making an impact.
DATES TO REMEMBER
3/26 UCAN 3:00-3:45
3/27 PLC Week B - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
3/27 Cubs Night Out @ CiCi's Pizza
3/28 Special Olympics
3/28 PLC Week B - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
3/29 Principal Panel Luncheon
3/29 PLC Week B - 3rd grade 2:15 - 3:45
3/30 Student & Staff Holiday - No school!
4/02 Light It Up For Autism Day - wear BLUE & jeans! Encourage students to wear blue!
4/02 STEM Leadership 3:00 - Special guest - SMU Maker Visit
4/03 PLC Week A - Kindergarten - 2:15-3:45
4/04 Global Day of Engineer
4/04 National American Heart Association Walk Day - Staff Walk after school! 3:30 -4:00
4/04 PLC Week A - 1st grade - 2:15-3:45
4/05 PLC Week A - 2nd grade - 2:15-3:45
4/09 PLC Week B - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
4/10 STAAR testing - 4th grade writing & 5th grade math
4/11 STAAR testing - 5th grade reading
4/11 PLC Week B - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
4/12 Parent Safety & Security Coffee Chat - 8:00-9:00 - library
4/12 PLC Week B - 3rd grade 2:15-3:45
4/13 Campus site visit - TEPSA team
4/14 Cannon Country Family BBQ @ Nash Farms - 4:00 pm-6:00 pm
SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING!
This week's SPOTLIGHT is on CHELSEA WHITE for being selected to participate in the Perot Museum’s Kosmos Energy STEM Teacher Institute. From a pool of talented applicants, her application stood out as an educator who possesses leadership qualities and a strong desire to enhance her teaching practice as a STEM instructor! Chelsea will participate in a 4-day summer academy, as well as ongoing workshops throughout the 2018-2019 school year, in which the group dives into STEM curriculum & instruction, where she will learn about & receive new STEM resources for use in her own classroom!
This institute is designed to improve K-12 grade teachers’ knowledge of science concepts and enhance classroom practice through expanded use of inquiry-based and hands-on/minds-on science. CONGRATS CHELSEA!! Your commitment to professional growth in your practices as a STEM teacher are commendable!
STAFF CELEBRATIONS
ASHLEY HOUCK is OFFICIALLY our new data secretary! She started late last week and has already attended her first training! We are excited to welcome her to this position and our staff!
Ashley is from Texas and grew up in DeSoto. She has been married to her husband Scott for 11 years and they have an eight-year-old son Preston who is in 2nd grade. As a family they love spending time together, going to the movies, crafting and hanging out by the pool. Ashley shared, "As the new data secretary I am going to do my very best to fill the big shoes Robin is leaving behind! I am super excited to join the Cannon family and I look forward to working with you!" WELCOME ASHLEY!
CAMPUS REMINDERS AND UPDATES
CHECK OUT THE NEW WEBSITE If you haven't already, be sure to check out the new GCISD & campus website!! The district is continuing to work on improving how the websites look when being viewed on a mobile device, but overall, the changes are wonderful and the new websites are beautiful! Thanks to all of our Cannon staff and a special thanks to Julee Vorachard for your work to help get our new site designed & complete! Click here for the GCISD website. To view our new campus page, click here. Note that the URL has changed for all websites. Please help us communicate this change to our families!
GCISD - http://www.gcisd.net/
Cannon - http://can.gcisd.net/
ELEMENTARY SCIENCE CURRICULUM SURVEY The science department would like to consider needs for curriculum revisions. Please click here to take this survey now. This needs to be completed by April 3rd.
JOIN THE STAFF HEART WALK ON WEDNESDAY, 4/4!! In recognition of National American Heart Association Walk Day, Kendra has organized a 30 minute staff walk in our school community neighborhood after school on Wednesday 4/4. Please join our staff in front of the school at 3:30 for a walk with your colleagues to support a great cause! For those that participate, please feel free to wear jeans and a red shirt!
VOYA TEACHERS GRANT: VOYA is offering teacher grants for projects that are innovative creative and positively influence students. Each year, 100 finalists receive a $2,000 grant and three are selected for additional grants. Check out the information here and apply today! You will notice that a LARGE percentage of the projects that have received grants are STEM related!!
GLOBAL DAY OF ENGINEERS Global Day is THE annual celebration of engineers.
On April 4th, post photos (#GlobalEngineer) of:
- A favorite engineering project.
- Engineering activities with students.
Take the pledge to recognize this special day by clicking here!
READY ROSIE is a wonderful new parent engagement tool that will be utilized by Kindergarten-3rd grade staff and families for the remainder of the year. Thanks to our K-3 teachers who attended training last week! Please start communicating to your parents about Ready Rosie and share information about how to get started accessing this great resource, in English & Spanish!
UPDATES FROM THE CANNON LEARNING COMMONS
Reminders From Mrs. Wagner
WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH IS MARCH! Here is a link to a great collection of resources on Women's History Month. It includes Pebble Go lessons, articles, websites, and quotes that you might find useful this month. You can search collections yourself in destiny by following this path Classlink- Learning Commons Resources-Destiny Discover- three lines at the top left-Collections. Then you can search for collections on particular subjects or just browse.
NQIN4513
I now have admin access so I can help you with any problems you encounter. Let me know how I can help!
PEBBLEGO & PEBBLEGO NEXT RESOURCES An email was sent to all staff last week to share the AMAZING lesson plans & activities that are available on PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, in the Capstone Community. Don't forget to check this out - WONDERFUL RESOURCES HERE! Click here to read all about these resources!
MARCH & APRIL BOOK OF THE MONTH INFORMATION We are so excited about the TWO great paired books and design challenge that are being promoted for our BoM for March & April! After reading a wonderful story about a character who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina & a non-fiction book about Extreme Weather & natural disasters, our Cannon Cubs can participate in the 2018 7th Annual Global Spark! Lab Invent It Challenge, by designing an innovative way for people to prepare BEFORE a natural disaster, stay safe DURING one, or recover AFTERWARDS. Check out the BoM resources below and share with your scholars!
CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION CORNER
Updates From The Math Department
Updates From The Humanities Department
Worth A Read...or a Listen!!
GREAT BLOGPOST BY GEORGE COUROS about Your Best Classroom Management Strategy! His conclusion to this awesome post is powerful: ...one of the best teachers I have ever known said something that has always stuck with me;
"The more innovative I have become, the less I have to deal with classroom management."
A true statement at all levels of learning
AFTER YOU READ LISA'S ARTICLE ABOVE, WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW This short 5 minute video of Josh Shipp's incredible story about how one caring adult changed his life supports the thinking she wrote about. We have 10 marbles left for this school year. Who will YOU care for that will make a difference in 10 weeks?
TWITTER REMINDERS FOR @canSTEM
Please help us reach our campus goal for all staff to participate in a 5-minute a day communication plan, as stated in George Couros's quote shown here. It's truly a simple way to SHARE & LEARN from the best minds in GCISD! I am going to be highlighting our school twitter account HEAVILY with parents & our school community, to help create our own "outward culture of celebration"!!
As a reminder, please include our school's handle, @canSTEM, in all of your tweets, so that they can be automatically retweeted on our school account. At the end of the day, simply go to @canSTEM and scroll through our school's tweets for 5 minutes and see what your colleagues are sharing! If you want to learn more from them about an idea they shared....you will only have to walk across the building to get more information firsthand!
Please click here to see our staff list of social media accounts. Please add/update any information so that we can make sure we follow each other!
About This Background Image...
TO-DO LIST
- Set a timer and complete daily attendance ON TIME!
- Don't forget to show daily KCAN announcements every Monday-Thursday!!
- Encourage your families to support Cannon at Cubs Night Out @ Cici's Pizza on 3/27!
- Communicate, communicate, communicate about student holiday on Friday, 3/20.
- Check out and familiarize yourself with our new campus/district websites.
- K-3 teachers - start communicating to your parents about Ready Rosie!
- Complete the Elementary Science Curriculum Survey by 4/3.
- K-5 teachers - please communicate that NO PARENTS can be on campus to volunteer or have lunch during upcoming STAAR testing dates on 4/10 & 4/11.
- Share the March/April Book of the Month information with your scholars!
- Take your scholars out to the back of the school to see the construction progress!
- Review the information in this newsletter about the 5-minute a day communication plan. Tweet & blog about all of the great things you are doing in your classroom/grade!
- Update teacher website, blog and other social media.