CANNON LEGACY
A Newsletter For Cannon Staff 2017-2018
Principal Points - 1/22-1/26
What does leadership mean to YOU?
Depending on who you ask, the concept of leadership can be described in literally thousands of ways. Some define leadership as something that is connected to a title, specific role within an organization, or other position of power. Yet other descriptions of leadership point more towards the personal characteristics that we each believe defines a leader in our eyes.
On Monday night, at the monthly school board meeting, some special time will be dedicated to personally recognize some important leaders in our district. As part the annual School Board Recognition month, our trustees will be literally showered with cards, letters, small gifts, and posters that express gratitude for their work and leadership.
Our trustees provide a vital service in our community!! They have helped establish and support the vision for outstanding educational programs in our district, by maintaining the structure to achieve our vision, while providing accountability to the school community. Each member is an incredibly strong advocate for continuous improvement in student learning. They study, discuss and research so that they can make informed decisions on countless complex issues that are presented to them.
Yet, while we most certainly regard our school board members as critical leaders in our school community due to the position they hold, it's easy to forget that they are also just ordinary citizens – they are our friends and neighbors – with extraordinary dedication to our community and our children. Our school board leaders are volunteers - they receive ZERO compensation for their tireless work in these positions!
The job of a school board member is tough, the hours are long and the thanks can be few and far between. It's easy to forget about the personal sacrifices our school board members make. They spend hours in meetings and on committees, advocating for our schools with elected politicians by speaking out against budget cuts or pushing for policy and program reforms. It's easy to overlook the many ways in which they lead.
I suspect that there are MANY moments of "leadership" demonstrated every day by these awesome folks that actually go unrecognized or even noticed.
This idea of everyday leadership and how our actions impact (lead) others, whether we are conscious of it or not is beautifully illustrated in the video below. Drew Dudley calls these acts "Lollipop Moments" and as I watched it, I wondered how many "Lollipop Moments" have been inspired, because of the leadership of our school board members, that they truly have no knowledge of? How many student lives have been impacted by Cannon staff members, just because we are lucky enough to have landed here, in a great district, led and supported by school board members that trust us and empower us to do our job each day? As former GCISD employee Dr. Hollingsworth used to say, "It's not like this everywhere folks!"
So, as we set aside time to recognize these important leaders in our school community this week, let's express our ultimate gratitude to them by demonstrating that we are all leaders who want to be game changers for kids and who create "Lollipop Moments" that are truly unforgettable.
Oh, and even our GCISD school board members would appreciate a "Lollipop Moment"! Please join me in this effort by sending a quick note of thanks today to thank them for their inspiring leadership. Click here to access email addresses for each of our school board trustees!
Proud to be your principal,
Tona :)
Lisa's Coaching Corner
Intentionality is the Key to Instructional Agility
As we are gearing up for our next round of achievement data, I always think about the intentionality of instruction. Students make two types of errors: simple mistake or a reasoning/concept error. By knowing which error students make, we can design better interventions and assessments.
The critical mistakes teachers often make are grouping students based on percentage scores. The power and strength of truly moving a student is developing your small group and/or tier instruction around targeted error types. The beauty of formative assessments is you can use the types of errors your students as distractors to monitor their growth.
Take a look at Cassandra Erkens’ video below in which she shares a reading and math example of analyzing student errors that determines the teacher’s next step.
DATES TO REMEMBER
1/22 Girl Scout Recruiting event during K-5 lunch periods
1/22 STEM Leadership 3:15 in library
1/23 PLC Week B - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
1/23 Cubs Night Out @ Cici's Pizza!
1/24 PLC Week B - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
1/25 Play It Safe during Specials classes
1/25 Principal Panel's Lunch 11:45-12:30
1/25 PLC Week B - 3rd grade 2:15-3:45
1/26 PTA provides healthy lunch for staff!
1/29 CEC 3:15-library
1/30 PLC Week A - Kindergarten- 2:15-3:45
1/31 PLC Week A - 1st Grade - 2:15-3:45
2/01 PLC Week A - 2nd grade 2:15-3:45
2/02 BoM Catapult Launch Winners @ Friday Assembly
2/02 Data Day - 2nd & 4th grade
2/05 100th Day of School! How are YOU celebrating in your classroom?
2/06 Data Day - 1st & 5th grade
2/06 PLC Week B - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
2/07 PLC Week B - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
2/08 Data Day - Kindergarten & 3rd grade
2/08 District Spelling Bee @ CTMS
2/08 PLC Week B - 3rd grade 2:15-3:45
2/08 Special Programs EXPO @ CTMS 5:00-7:00 pm
2/09 Cannon Staff Employee Survey
2/09 Lockdown Drill - 9:00
2/09 Cannon Art Show - 5:00-6:15 pm
2/09 Cannon Talent Show 6:00-7:00 pm
2/12 Staff Potluck lunch in the lounge!
Congratulations to Karissa & Wes Smith! They will welcome their baby BOY in July 2018!
Congratulations to Rebecca & Isaac Hicks on their announcement! Baby Hicks arrives in August 2018!
REMINDERS AND UPDATES
GIRL SCOUT RECRUITING EVENT DURING GRADE LEVEL LUNCHES Due to recent changes in legislation, groups such as the Girl Scouts of America are allowed to hold recruiting efforts during the school day to recruit new members and share information. During the K-5 lunch periods on Monday, 1/22, representatives from a local Girl Scout organization have been approved by the district to hand our bracelets & information to girls during lunch.
PTA LUNCHEON ON FRIDAY PTA plans to provide our staff with lunch on Friday and is planning to include some healthy option for those staff members taking our Weight & Wellness Challenges. Don't forget to send your thanks to PTA for this effort!
GCISD's Love Your Device Contest
The idea: Capture the spirit and creativity of our students to promote better care of the Grapevine-Colleyville ISD student devices. Create a sense of student pride in our one-to-one initiative. Encourage our students to exercise self/peer governance.
The dates: Technology Services will be accepting a wide range of presentations, posters or other public service projects through February 7.
Student winners will be announced on February 14
The prizes: Our coveted #Love Your Device t-shirt, district and school recognition, snack vouchers....plus many other cool items.
Teachers who actively participate will receive a voucher good for class and/or duty coverage of their choice, and will be eligible for a t-shirt. Your campus technologist will have a poster with a QR code linked to our district website with more details. The district website link is also included below:
AMAZING Opportunity For STEM Teachers!
Texas Space Grant
This aerospace workshop, called LiftOff, emphasizes science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning experiences by incorporating a space science theme supported by NASA missions. Teacher participants are provided with information and experiences through speakers, hands-on activities and field investigations that promote space science and enrichment activities for themselves and others.
- Texas Participants: FREE - All expenses paid by TSGC upon selection
Liftoff 2018 will be June 24-29, 2018 at NASA Johnson Space Center.
PROGRAM FEATURES:
- Presentations by NASA scientists and engineers
- Tours of NASA and Space Center Houston
- Hands-on, inquiry based classroom activities aligned to educational standards
- Career Exploration
- Teacher Feature (sharing of classroom lessons and activities)
- Opportunity to interact with researchers dedicated to space missions
The deadline for receiving applications is March 30 for LiftOff 2018 and should be submitted through the online system:
VALOR APPLICATIONS COMING SOON!
Applications for VALOR (Vanguard Association of Learning, Observation, and Reflection) will be coming out in February. VALOR is a group of innovative teachers that commit to reading, learning, observing, and reflecting together. If accepted you will have the opportunity to visit classrooms all over the district as well as be observed by your peers based on group and personal goals and receive individualized feedback from an instructional coach. Following is specific information on the application process:
Applications (google form) will go out February 12 in an email from Dr. Newell and due by Feb. 26 at 5 pm. The VALOR team will score based on a rubric and on input from campus principals
A group will be selected to move on to the interview portion and if you make it, you will be contacted by a VALOR team member to set up a time for the interview at your campus either during your conference or after school
You will be contacted by Dr. Newell with the final decision
We hope to invite about 24-28 people to our next class of VALOR
For more information, please visit our web page, ask a former VALOR teacher, or contact Melanie Gonzales (melanie.gonzales@gcisd.net).
INSTILL A PASSION FOR READING!
Worth A Read...or a Listen!!
CURIOSITY & CONFUSION... is a great read! This link actually takes you to Step 2 in this series, but I encourage you to check out all 4 steps. This concept of creating curiosity in our students is strongly supported by brain research. Haven't you wondered before why some kids can become SO interested in an awesomely curious topic while others have no interest at all? It's all about creating cognitive dissonance- for students to become curious, we must prepare that curiosity with sufficient context or otherwise students will simply be disinterested. Interesting implications for this learning!
SPEAKING OF CURIOSITY TO SPARK LEARNING... click here to check out information about 3-Act Math tasks, if you aren't already familiar with this. A Three-Act Task is a whole group mathematics task consisting of 3 distinct parts: an engaging and perplexing Act One, an information and solution seeking Act Two, and a solution discussion and solution revealing Act Three. Curiosity certainly sparks learning in these math lessons!
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...
You can see what looks like LOTS of cardboard boxes stacked up in this photo and that's exactly what they are! These cardboard boxes, known as void boxes, are placed under the slab, between the footings. The concrete foundation is poured directly on top of these boxes to form the slab. Wait, what?? As strange as it sounds, these boxes are
designed to provide a void space between expansive soils and foundation systems. They provide a temporary support formwork for the weight of concrete and construction loads during placement until the concrete sets to the point that it can span between its permanent supports. Then the cardboard boxes are designed to gradually absorb ground moisture and lose strength over a period of time, leaving a void space between the expansive soil and the foundation. So....if the soil below the foundation expands, the soil can then heave into the space provided by the void boxes without lifting or impacting the foundation. Sound confusing? Let me know if you want me to draw you a simple diagram to illustrate this! I was amazed at this and went to get a void box of our very own....just in case you want to check it out! :)
TO-DO LIST
- Set a timer and complete daily attendance ON TIME!
- Don't forget to show daily KCAN announcements every Monday-Thursday!! #KidsDeserveIt
- Please take a moment to send emails of thanks to our GCISD School Board Trustees!
- Attend STEM Leadership at 3:15 in library on Monday, 1/22.
- Remember the fire drill on 1/24 @ 9:00 am!
- Encourage your scholars to participate in GCISD's Love Your Device contest!
- Complete the quick PTA survey in this newsletter!
- Enjoy lunch on Friday, courtesy of our amazing PTA!
- Attend Friday Tech Talks with your team to learn all about Osmo!
- Create "Lollipop Moments" for kids this week!!
- 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.