Trantwood Times
"Captivating Every Student, Every Day!"
Kudos - singing the praises of our staff :)
Kudos to Megan Bailey for serving as one of 57 Design Fellows in VBCPS and for modeling Personalized Learning for the Design Fellows leadership. With your risk taking and willingness to go where few teachers have gone before, we are well on our way to providing students more voice and choice in their learning journey.
Our gratitude to Gina Lane for serving as our Teacher Assembly Representative. Thank you for being a part of the solution division wide - you have a great voice (pun intended!).
Many thanks to Debbie Gegner for serving as our Math Lead Teacher. You add much to our understanding mathematically and help us stay united with the rest of VBCPS rather than divided (again pun intended.).
So thankful to Hope Twine for serving as our Partners in Education representative and for submitting a Partnership award application for Great Neck Baptist Church. I hope they are honored for their 50 years of service to Trantwood. They and you, deserve it!
Feb. 22 – 26, 2016
Monday, Feb. 22:
Bus Drills, 7:30 – 8:00 a.m., Church Parking Lot
Grades K – 3 Fire Assembly, 9:00 – 9:30 a.m.
Awake Golf Birdie Academy, 2:40 – 3:50 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 23:
SOL Tutoring, 7:20 – 7:50 a.m.
Bus Drills, 7:30 – 8:00 a.m., Church Parking Lot
Girls on the Run, 2:40 – 4:00 p.m., Room 10
School Planning Council, Media Center, 3:15 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 24:
SOL Tutoring, 7:20 – 7:50 a.m.
Bus Drills, 7:30 – 8:00 a.m., Church Parking Lot
Lisa Lee, OTB, PM
STEM, 2:40 – 4:30 p.m.
Art Club, 2:40 – 4:00 p.m.
Thursday, Feb. 25:
Adjusted Dismissal Day, Elementary and Middle Schools
SOL Tutoring, 7:20 – 7:50 a.m.
Bus Drills, 7:30 – 8:00 a.m., Church Parking Lot
Collaboration with grade level during pm
Terri Hawley, OTB, PM
Transfer Meet and Greet, Green Run HS, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
PTA Reflections Celebration @ Kempsville HS
Friday, Feb. 26:
Bus Drills, 7:30 – 8:00 a.m.
Be Kind, Do Kind Assembly, Grades 3 – 5, 8:30 – 9:30 a.m.
Feb. 29 – March 4
Monday, Feb. 29:
Awake Golf Birdie Academy, 2:40 – 3:50 p.m.
Spinning A Yarn, 2:40 – 4:00 p.m.
Tuesday, March 1:
SCA Officer and Homeroom Rep Meeting 2:40 – 4:00 p.m.
Girls on the Run, 2:40 – 4:00 p.m., Room 10
ILT Meeting, 3:05 – 4:05 p.m.
PTA Board Meeting, 6:30 p.m., Media Center
Wednesday, March 2:
STEM, 2:40 – 4:30 p.m.
Art Club, 2:40 – 4:00 p.m.
Thursday, March 3:
Kurz, OTB, AM
Girls on the Run, 2:40 – 4:00 p.m., Room 10
Peer Tutoring, 2:40 – 3:30 p.m.
Math Night, 6:30 – 8:00 p.m., Cafeteria
Friday, March 4:
ITS Professional Learning, ATC Theater, AM
Sam’s Club Membership Sign-Up, 10:30 – 12:30, Teacher’s Lounge
Grade 2, SPCA Compassion Classroom, 1:00 – 2:30 p.m., Community Room
Progress Reports Issued
Due Dates and Reminders
- Employment Intent form completion deadline, Feb. 23, 2106 (See email from HR Feb. 2, 2016)
- Honesty COM due to Lisa Lee, Feb 26, 2016
- Please turn in your Military Affiliation forms to the office daily.
- Progress Monitoring meetings will be conducted during collaboration Feb. 23, 25, & 26 2016.
- Progress Reports Issued to Students, March 4
- Kindergarten Registration, April 26 @ 9 am
- The deadline to complete all PLP hours is April 30, 2016. Updated points sheets will be passed out soon.
- Mandatory Site-based PLP due by March 31, 2016
I Make A Difference & SCA Teacher of the Month
I Make a Difference:
Pam Jacobs/Gina Howes
Bernette Owens
Lisa Lee
Stephanie Piron
Becky McCallum
Karen Francis
Nancy Lambert
Tim Cassidy
Cassandra Arena
Nancy Kurz
Megan Bailey
Hope Twine
SCA Teacher of the Month
Becky McCallum
Kathy Dungan
Helpful Emails
Can't find that favorite/helpful/gottado email? Search by date or name...
Sitebased PLP from Mrs. Metzger on Jan. 25 (2nd time), due March 31, 2016
SchoolNet - Saving Test Items in School's Item Bank from Mrs. Kurz on Feb. 12, 2016
VBCPS Employment Intent form from HR, sent Feb. 2, 2016, due by Feb. 23, 2016
VBCPS 2016 Employee Survey, sent Feb. 2, 2016, due by March 4, 2016
Regent University School of Education Information Sessions, sent Feb. 18, 2016
News from Ten Marks
To achieve a growth mindset, we commit to the following:
- We will celebrate our mistakes as opportunities to learn and grow.
- We will be confident and share our thinking.
- We will persevere through difficult practice.
The website has some great videos and resources about the growth mindset and grit. The link is...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/withmathican
On another note, TenMarks is very interested in hearing from educators. A few of my colleagues at JBD recently attended a TenMarks conference in Boston. I encourage you to share your knowledge and who knows where it will take you!!
Enhancing Your Classroom Library
Here are some tips and questions to consider when giving your library a makeover:
1. There is no perfect way to organize your library. Organizing it, however, is important.
2. Find the right spot in your room. Does this spot allow you to organize the books in such a way that they are appealing to the eye and easily accessible?
3. Who should organize the books and how should they be organized? Should they be organized by you or your students? Should they be organized by genre or by level or by ?
4. What do you expect from your students when borrowing and returning books to the classroom library? To decide this, consider this: Who keeps you up at night because they don't like to read? Whatever system you create, does it allow students to select books that are a good fit for them?
5. Which books should I keep and which ones should I donate? I've learned over time that if a student is interested in a book, that's way more important than the level of the book. Go through your pile of books and consider donating those that are out of date, unappealing, or have had severe wear and tear.
Here's what I know...our students want to read. They want to be introduced to a great book. Classroom libraries are a wonderful way to inspire them to read more. Give it a go and let me know how I can help. This journey won't disappoint.
Student Centered discussions are engaging.
Collaboration not coblaboration!
Respect or talk to the hand.
Student Culture of Excellence
To ensure our discussion leads to direct application, our next step will be to identify at least three items from this rubric that we will expect to see in our building every day by everyone. Please give this some thought. We will begin these discussions during collaboration and then finalize the plans with ILT and PAC.
Lastly, if you are interested in learning more about the Gradual Release model, there is a powerful video on the Gradual Release model embedded in the Teaching and Learning Framework. While it's important we all know where to find the Teaching and Learning Framework on the intranet, I'll save you a click or two or three. Here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjURdvzty4c
Again, thanks for your time and attention on Tuesday. I thoroughly enjoy our moments together and listening in to your rich discussions. In short, your efforts were an excellent example of our new VBCPS values: Student Centered Decision Making~Continuous Learning~Innovation~Collaboration~ Respect. Well done!
Continuous Improvement together is way more fun!
Innovation - I see it differently now...
Student Culture of Excellence - that's us!
Technology Tips: Printers and Toner
When requesting replacement toner, please keep the following items in mind:
- Although a printer may display the message “low toner”, that does not mean that the cartridge is actually empty. It may actually continue to print properly for several weeks or months. Cartridges should not be replaced until printing is actually affected, i.e.,splotchy printing, blank lines in your sheets, or it stops printing all together.
- Please avoid using your classroom printer as a copy machine. If you need to print multiple copies of a sheet for students, please use the workroom copiers. This will help extend the life of your toner cartridge and printer.
- If your toner cartridge IS in need of replacement and for all other issues such as jams, odd printer behaviors, etc., put in a Service Desk.