CANNON TIMES
A Newsletter For Cannon Staff 2018-2019
Principal Points - Week of December 10, 2018
The holiday season is the perfect time to celebrate and practice kindness intentionally in our classrooms and school! As the Greek philosopher Aristotle supposedly said, “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”
This week's staff newsletter is FULL of special CELEBRATIONS, CONGRATULATIONS, & OPPORTUNITIES TO PRACTICE KINDNESS for staff, students, and our entire school community!! It certainly feels like Christmas has come a little early at Cannon this year!!
Our holiday fun will continue this week, as we make our way around campus tomorrow with the Cannon Holiday Trolley, while staff tries their luck for some special prizes in the Holiday Pull! Also, don't forget to show your colleagues some love this week by writing them a special note using the thank you cards that will be in your mailbox on Tuesday. Also, if you haven't ordered your Sonic drink yet for Wet Your Whistle Wednesday, don't forget to do this asap, and finally, we will have some more holiday fashion fun to end the week, with our annual Wear Your "Unique" Holiday Sweater Day and Flannel & Faux Fur days. We will take a staff "fauxtograph" on the Learning Stairs on Friday, so please plan to join us! Also, don't forget to RSVP by Wednesday this week to let us know if you will be at our special Staff Holiday Party on 12/17. We can't wait to celebrate all of you there!!
Proud to be your principal,
Tona :)
#BeCannonProud
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Lisa's Coaching Corner
Praise & the Growth Mindset
Most teachers are very consistent praising students' effort as a way to connect and encourage growth. But recent research has discovered that kids have become too savvy about the amount of "effort" it takes others to be successful and often wonder why learning seems so hard for them.
Growth mindset taught us all that we need to praise students process rather than ability. So exactly what is the process? The process consists of two parts:
Process = effort + successful strategy the student uses
According to two University of Pittsburgh psychology researchers, "The strategies part is really important, because that gives kids information on what they did correctly and what they can keep improving on. But it seems like the effort praise is what has been reaching parents and teachers the most and seems the most intuitive to do." Researcher and author, Carol Dweck of Stanford University, has even cautioned that focus on "effort praise" alone is a "false growth mindset".
Two things we can do to focus on the journey of learning is:
- Continue to have students reflect on their learning and how they have developed and changed.
- Highlight mistakes so students can share "strategies" that can help all students develop.
By adding the process to our praise, not only are we building relationships, we are "naming strategies" that make successful students. The repetition of strategies will help students to try them too.
Student Voice: If you are needing any ideas for student's voice, I thought it would be interesting to get some student feedback about our new building and learning spaces now that we are settled in.
LB
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DATES TO REMEMBER
12/11 Spelling Bee - 8:30 am - cafeteria 4th & 5th graders will attend
12/11 PLC Week A - 3rd grade 2:15-3:45
12/12-12/15 Santa Shop is open for business - Volunteer Room & lobby
12/12 PLC Week A - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
12/13 Lockdown drill - 8:00
12/13 Staff Potluck Lunch - Hosted by Instructional Specialists & Sped team
12/13 PLC Week A - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
12/14 Kid's Choice Prize Day for students who qualified through PTA Read-A-Thon!
12/14 GMS Choir/Band Holiday Tour - 9:30 am -1st-5th - gym
12/15 Breakfast with Santa - Hosted by PTA - 9:00-11:00 cafeteria
12/17 Cannon Staff Holiday Celebration - see invitation/information in this newsletter!!
12/18 Lunch & Limo Day for students who qualified through PTA Read-A-Thon!
12/18 Fire Drill - 8:30 am
12/18 PLC Week B - Kindergarten 2:15-3:45
12/19 PLC Week B - 1st grade 2:15-3:45
12/20 Candy Houses with Kinder Dads - cafeteria 8:00-10:00
12/20 Cannon Cubs Choir Tour - 8:00-11:15
12/20 PLC Week B - 2nd grade 2:15-3:45
12/20 Cannon Cubs Choir concert - 2:15 (K-5) & 6:00 pm - parents
12/20 Cubs Night Out @ CiCi's Pizza
12/21 Campus-wide singalong - 8:30 in cafeteria
12/21 Holiday parties in classroom - 10:30 -11:30
12/21 Early Release - 11:45 am
12/14-01/04 Winter Holiday Break
01/07 Teacher Work Day - student holiday
01/18 Students return to school!
Let's get into the holiday spirit by celebrating the 15 DAYS OF CANNON CHEER! Be sure to check the calendar below and links embedded to see the holiday fun that is planned for each day!
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CONGRATULATIONS TO KATHERINE & BEN OLVERA!!! We are so happy for this beautiful couple!
CONGRATULATIONS MISSION IMPOSSIBOTS!
There were 36 teams from around the metroplex competing in this competition and three of the top 10 teams were from GCISD. Cannon's team and two teams from GMS are all advancing! It is SO exciting to see how many of our former Cannon Cubs are participating on the middle school teams and how their experience from Cannon has helped to build a successful foundation in robotics for them, as they continue to participate in robotics competitions.
Congratulations to the Mission Impossibots and to HUGE thanks to their amazing coaches, Julee Vorachard and Chelsea White for their tireless work with these teams after hours and their dedication to our kids! Our Cannon parents were there in full support of the team on Saturday, as well as many Cannon staff members - thank you Anne, Melanie, Lexi, Kristi, Addi, Joe, Lisa, and extra thanks to Julie B. for all of her work to organize and prepare to host this tournament in GCISD this year! Teamwork makes the dream work!! Click here to see some great photos from the tournament!
CONGRATULATIONS JENNIFER PETTIT ON RECEIVING A $175 EDUCATION FOUNDATION GRANT FOR KIMOCHIS FOR SOCIAL/EMOTIONAL LEARNING!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CANNON'S DADS CLUB!! 1ST PLACE IN PARADE OF LIGHTS!
REMINDERS & UPDATES
PROGRESS REPORT REMINDER The posting window will close at 10:00 p.m. on Monday 12/10/2018. Progress Reports will post to Skyward Family Access on 12/12/2018 by the end of the day. Please be sure all grades are entered for grading period 10/22/2018 - 12/7/2018.
REMINDER: TEXTBOOK SCANNING IN CLASSROOMS ON TUESDAY Anne has now received the "OFFICIAL" textbook scanner and will be coming around to scan any and all TEXTBOOKS that you have in your classroom and/or storage closet. She will be coming around the morning of Dec. 11. Please have your books placed where she can have easy access to them. The process does not take long so she should be in and out of your room fairly quickly. She must have this entire process completed by Dec. 21. If you are not sure what books she needs to scan it does include Texas Treasures and Go Math materials that are non-consumable. Investigations is a district purchased curriculum so she will not need to scan them. She will not need to scan any of the TIME FOR KIDS materials. SHE WILL NOT be collecting any books at this time to store. Texas Treasures is going out of adoption at the end of this year. So at the end of the school year she will be collecting, boxing, and sending them back to the warehouse. Let Anne know if you have any questions.
TECH AUDIT ON TUESDAY @ CANNON The Technology department recently began using a new asset management system called Asset Panda. Asset Panda will allow us to standardize our processes across the district and establish clear lines of responsibility for assets. They will have an independent audit company, Global Assets, coming to Cannon after hours on Tuesday, December 11th. They will assign a barcode to your room location and scan all “fixed assets” to your room. Examples of fixed assets are: projectors, document cameras, classroom macbooks, phones or printers. This is not to be confused with 1:1 assets that are assigned to you or your students (staff/student laptops, iPads, chromebooks). Those 1:1 assets will be inventoried at a later time. In preparation for the audit, please make sure you have all assets available to be scanned before you leave school on the day of the audit. These would be assets that are considered assigned to your room. The audit team will not go through cabinets or search drawers for assets - they will only scan what is out and visible in the classroom, so it is important you assist by having these items ready. Once Global Assets has completed their inventory, fixed assets can only be relocated by the campus technician so that they can update the inventory. If you have a personal printer or other item you brought from home, please tag this item as “personal - do not scan”. Please see Destinee for any questions you might have with identifying your assets.
WANTED: CANNON TEACHERS TO PRESENT! Our Cannon staff has SO much to share with others about STEM learning! We would LOVE for as many of our teachers as possible to present at the upcoming Mini-CAST conference! Not sure what to present on or how to write a presentation proposal? No problem! Julie B. & Lisa are happy to help brainstorm and help with this process! Presentation proposals are now being accepted at www.dfwminicast.org/proposals.html. Note that there are a variety of presentation options this year, ranging from the traditional workshop to TED-style talks. See the proposal form for more details! **Presentations that are accepted receive complimentary registration to Mini-CAST for up to two presenters.** Tona will pay registrations for other presenters as well! :)
GO RED- GCISD HEART CHALLENGE! It's time to kick-off the Go Red District Heart Challenge! Please mark your calendars with a reminder to GO RED on Friday, February 1st! Donating is easy! From your phone, simply text DHCGRAPEVINE to 41444, or CLICK HERE to order online. Shirts must be ordered by Thursday, January 10th to receive them in time for National Wear RED Day. Everyone that donates to receive this year’s shirt can wear jeans with their 2019 Go Red shirt every Wednesday in February!
SANTA SHOP SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK
Santa Shop is open WEDNESDAY, THURSDAY, & FRIDAY of this week. PTA will also have the Santa Shop open during the Pancake Breakfast on Saturday.
TECH NEWS FROM JULEE
Maker Achievement Badges
Maker achievement badge sessions are scheduled to begin in January. You will be receiving a sign up from me soon. I have dedicated 10 recess sessions to the Level 1-Robotics badge. Each grade level can assign 10 students per session, therefore you will need to discuss scheduling and selection of your students with your grade level before signing up. Each student will only need to attend one session to earn their badge. Please email me if you have any questions after you receive the sign-up.
Digital Citizenship Week
Mark your calendars for Digital Citizenship Week January 7 - 18, 2019. All our GCISD Digital Citizenship resources may be found here and the instructional technology team will continue to update them for 2019 in the coming weeks.
Tech Talks
Tech Talks will kick back up in the new year!
DECEMBER CANNON KINDNESS CHALLENGE!
Help us promote KINDNESS at Cannon all month long!! Below is an image of a Kindness Challenge Calendar for our Cubs to use for ideas on ways to do an act of kindness each day of the month! Click here for a PDF version of this challenge and share it with your students.
We are doing many things throughout the month to promote acts of kindness for all of our Cubs, including our annual campus-wide community service project! It is so awesome to see how our Cubs have embraced our Soles 4 Souls challenge to collect 500 pairs of shoes for someone in need! Thank you for your support of this project!
WIN $1,000 FOR YOUR CLASSROOM!!
All GCISD teachers who have student with projects selected will be invited to attend a luncheon with their principal and will be awarded a $1,000 grant! Let's make sure Cannon is represented this year!!
- Have your students write or draw a one-page idea of what he/she thinks the teacher could do for the students with the $1,000 grant.
- The teacher is to select the one from his/her class that he/she thinks best expresses a good use of the grant; the selections must be submitted to the Education Foundation Office by Friday, January 11, 2019.
- The Education Foundation will deliver the teachers' selections to Schroeder Orthodontics for selection of the five winners.
- The winners will be announced with check presentations to the teachers at the annual GCISD Council of PTAs Founder's Day luncheon and program, Thursday, February 21, 2019. The winners will be the guests of the Education Foundation.
There are no rules as to how the one-page drawing or writing should be done so be creative! Please make sure that your students have their name, grade, teacher's name and school's name on the submission.
Through the Education Foundation, Dr. Schroeder is providing an exciting opportunity for additional support for our teachers. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Sue Franks at sue.franks@gcisd.net
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Worth A Read, Watch or...Listen!!
SHOES!! OF COURSE WE NEED A FEEL-GOOD STORY ABOUT SHOES!! This story is incredible and truly reminds us that kids CAN be change-makers. Take a moment to read all about how a 9-year old girl communicated with Steph Curry and got him to make a change for girls everywhere!
WHY SOME KIDS HATE CHRISTMAS and a great reminder for all educators during the holiday season about the impact we make on our students. For some of our Cubs, we are not just teachers, we are home.
JUST FOR FUN Check out the video below with an instrument that uses 2000 marbles to make music! Amazing and beautiful!! Even more interesting is THIS VIDEO where the musician shows how he made this instrument - it's a wonderful example of the Engineering Design Process in action - iteration at it's best!
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CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION CORNER
STUDENT VOICE INITIATIVE
ALL STAFF RECENTLY RECEIVED THE FOLLOWING EMAIL FROM DR. NEWELL. Please make sure you have read the following information and completed the requested form by 12/15.
Colleagues,
One of the GCISD goals for 2018-19 is that every teacher in the district will utilize "student voice" as a tool to increase learning. The implementation of this goal can take many forms. Essentially, the expectation is that students are asked about their learning experience, their thoughts on school, and their needs. Teachers are expected to listen and respond in whatever way is appropriate to the views expressed. Research is clear about this: students who feel their perspectives are valued by teachers will invest more in their learning.
In order to collect the great examples of "student voice" that are being implemented as we meet this goal, all teachers need to complete this form by December 15th to share the way they have decided to meet this goal in their work with students. Every campus will spend some time in the next few weeks to help teachers determine what the GCISD Student Voice initiative might look like in each teacher's setting. Throughout the spring semester, examples will be shared with staff to spotlight how this goal is being met and ideas for how teachers can deepen their implementation to improve learning. Additionally, students across GCISD will be asked to let us know if they have had an opportunity to share their voice. These student surveys in February and May will serve as a very authentic report on progress toward our goal.
Additional information about the Voice initiative (including sample survey questions, vignettes of voice in GCISD, and a variety of articles and support resources) can be found on this website. For further support, please contact your campus learning liaison or complete a support request (available at the link on the Student Voice website).
Science Blog and Curriculum Map Information
If you teach science, please take some time to read the GCISD Science blog and watch the screencast explaining our newly designed elementary science curriculum map. Please subscribe to the blog in order to stay up to date!
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INFORMATION TO SHARE IN PARENT NEWSLETTERS
Parent Technology Academy
GCISD Parent Technology Academy is BACK! Sessions are scheduled monthly with more to come! Come and learn along with others about the ever-changing world of technology in which your children are living!
Sessions can be found on the Parent Technology Academy Webpage
Have a question about GCISD Parent Tech Academy or like to request a presentation? Let us know just email kyle.berger@gcisd.net
Please include this image in your parent communications about our new safety app
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TWITTER REMINDERS FOR @canSTEM
BIG thanks to all of our staff members that have already been actively tweeting about the great learning going on in your classrooms!
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, and our hashtag, #BeCannonProud 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!
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TO-DO LIST
- Set a timer and complete daily attendance ON TIME every day!
- Don't forget to complete progress reports by 10:00 pm on Monday.
- Check out the 15 Days to Holiday Cheer staff calendar and participate in the daily fun activities!
- Don't forget to RSVP for you and your special guest to our Staff Holiday Celebration!
- Tuesday audits for textbooks & technology. Read information about these carefully!
- Wish our Spelling participants good luck this week! 4th & 5th graders will attend in cafeteria 8:30.
- Check out the December Kindness Challenge in this newsletter and share with your students and encourage them to participate!
- Follow the Santa Shop schedule Wed-Fri for any students who bring money to shop. Please read information in this newsletter about escorting large groups of students.
- Consider presenting at Mini-CAST - the world needs your brilliance!
- Prepare students in advance for the lockdown drill on Thursday at 8:00.
- Enjoy the staff potluck lunch in the teacher break room on Thursday!
- Enjoy the holiday music from GMS students in the gym at 9:30 - Kinder-5th
- Remind students to act responsibly at lunch and clean up their space!! Also remind students to pick up paper towels in the bathroom areas if they see them on the floor. Don't Pass It Up, Pick It Up is our new motto - use the link in this newsletter to nominate students to receive a special sticker from Tona in recognition for helping keep our school clean!
- Read information in Curriculum & Instruction section of this newsletter about Student Initiative from Dr. Newell. Complete the required survey by 12/15.
- Check out the latest Learning Letter, the November issue of the C & I newsletter.
- Encourage your students to participate in the Dr. Schroeder & Grapevine-Colleyville Education Foundation grant program and win $1,000 for your classroom!
- See the Information To Share With Parents section of this newsletter for communication about campus events & other district news that needs to be included in your own newsletters, blogs, etc...
- 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!
- 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! Don't forget to use @canSTEM and our hashtag #BeCannonProud this year in all of your tweets!