EAGLE MOUNTAIN NEWS & NOTES #4
SEPTEMBER 8 , 2015
EAGLE MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY
Email: bmclain@ems-isd.net
Twitter: @bmacEME
REAL QUICK
I hope you enjoyed a relaxing Labor Day. We have a busy week ahead of us with several different important meetings taking place, an ICLE consultant will work with some of us, & we have an exciting Curriculum Night planned this week!
Important Information this week!
· Thanks for signing up for a committee last week. Our committee work will begin soon. If you haven’t signed up for a committee, please do so today.
· September 11th is the due date for having your Bundle Compliance video training completed, & we MUST be 100% in compliance with this.
· This reminder to join PTA if you haven’t already done so.
· Today our Vocabulary Word study resumes. We will start with some familiar words but will soon transition to new ones. I have some new ideas we can use for vocabulary instruction to keep the learning fresh & relevant this year! I have selected the words we will use for the entire year & will email those to you soon.
· I will be out on Wednesday with a team from EME to train with our ICLE consultant. We will be at Lake Pointe where we will delve deeper into the CIR process as we work on planning Quad D lessons.
· On Wednesday we will have a brief faculty meeting where the PTA board reps will share with you their roles & give us information about the mini grant process.
They are very interested in working with you this year. They do a lot to support us, so I appreciate your efforts to support them!
· Please make sure your grade level is prepared for Curriculum Night on Thursday. This is a wonderful opportunity to cover important information with your parents. I will send out a detailed email with suggestions of topics to be sure you cover, & please make sure you cover items such as dismissal procedures, communicating with you, having them follow you on your Twitter account, etc.
· I hope you found the RTI information Kelli shared last week helpful & useful. The district went to great lengths to simplify the RtI process which should make your job easier. It’s crucial to remember that you are responsible for documentation!
· Shelly will start seeing our PACE kids this week. Here’s her updated schedule:
Wednesday – 8:30 – 10:30 – 2nd grade - 10: 30 – 12:30 – 5th grade
Thursday – 8:05 – 10:05 – 3rd grade - 10:35 – 12:30 – 4th grade
· Regina & Tim have already started seeing kids. Tim will be here Wednesday & Friday of this week.
CHECK OUT WWW.DIY.ORG/SKILLS TO GET CLUB IDEAS.
TECH DO'S
Here are the The first nine week’s TECH DO’s we came up with that we would ask you to follow:
Week 2 – (Last week) Set up your district webpage. (This should have already been updated, but if it’s not please make sure it is.) We need to make every effort to keep our web-site updated as we transition over to using Canvas. Once you are more comfortable with Canvas, you can add a link on your web-page to your Canvas site. Please include your conference period along with any pertinent information. Cindy Tucker will be providing us with Canvas training soon.
Week 3 – (THIS WEEK) Set up your Twitter account if you haven’t already done so.
We will tweet as a campus to be globally connected & utilize social media. Eric Sheninger tweets multiple times a day. We think it’s reasonable to ask you to tweet 3-5 times a week! Several of you are already doing this, & I’m trying to get in the habit of tweeting more as well. It promotes communication & allows our families to be more connected with us, & it just takes a minute to do. If you’re new to EME please let Tim know your Twitter handle & he will fix you a poster to put outside your room & will put your Twitter address up on our “Connect with Us” wall by the office.
Week 4 – Brand your classroom – We want you to tell your story & what your classroom is all about. We will include a picture of a classroom that is “well-branded” so parents walk away with the assurance that they feel like they know what is going on.
Don’t panic – we will send out more information soon on what Branding means – it’s not hard – it’s just getting information out to parents that highlight some of the great work you are doing with our learners, it fosters open communication, & it helps build a true learning community.
Week 5 – Set up a SKYPE account to use within our campus. More information on this later. Last year Jennifer DeCorte skyped with Madeline Tittle’s class & it was very cool to see this unfold.
Week 6 – Set up your Canvas Profile Page – this should be after we’ve had the training, so you will know what to do, & we’re told it is easy to do.
Week 7 – Set up your You Tube Channel. Chase & Tim are our resident experts on this. More information will be shared soon.
Week 8 – Create a Flipped Lesson that you can use with your learners. (This will be modeled for you before our Fundamental Five faculty meeting at the end of the month.)
Week 9 – Create a presentation for your class using one of the following presentation tools: Prezi, Powtoon, Emaze, Power Point, or another one that you like.
I know that sounds like a lot, but we want to be modeling the use of social media & using technology to enhance our students’ learning. Remember, technology is a TOOL – it’s a catalyst, but should be used to ENHANCE learning – not replace it!
DOWNLOAD THE CANVAS APP
THIS WEEK AT A GLANCE:
Monday – Labor Day holiday
Tuesday – Vocabulary study resumes, Angela Kennedy meets with K-2 teachers along with Debbi Roest, Karyn Cooper, Hope Howell, & Chase Pettit - 3PM Library
Wednesday – I will be at Lake Pointe today with a team from EME for training with our ICLE consultant – We will have a brief faculty meeting today at 3PM.
Thursday – I am out today for principal’s meeting but will be back for Curriculum Night (1, 3, & 5 – 5:30 – 6:30 & K, 2, & 4 – 6:30 – 7:30)
Friday – Your TSR Section 1 is due today & your Bundle video training must be completed by today!
Advice for Writers of All Ages
In this interview with Rachel Toor in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Stanford professor Sam Wineburg says he remembers to this day the comment he received on the first paper he wrote as a freshman at Brown University, for which he received an A-: “The better you are, the more imperative it becomes to rid yourself of all the evidences of amateurishness, carelessness, and flawed education that your paper, good as it is, still reveals.” This tutor, Steven Millhauser, who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for fiction, also exhorted his students, “Never stop reading, and never be satisfied.”
Millhauser also urged students to stop trying to imitate other writers and listen to their own voice. “To write is to hear the cadence and rhythm of prose,” says Wineburg. “When my writing matters most, I sit at my desk and read it aloud. Not in a sub-vocal mumble. I enunciate the words so that someone outside my door can actually hear them.” He finds this is the best way to scrub out unclear writing and express himself clearly and authentically.
Wineburg is a stickler for topic sentences. “They should direct,” he says. “They should guide.” And he hates educational jargon. His advice to doctoral students: “[P]ut aside their abstracts, take out a sheet of paper, and rewrite the same abstract in language their next-door neighbors or great-aunts could understand.”
And he likes Mark Twain’s advice on the discipline of writing: “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” In other words, sit down, get to work, and do the worst first.
“Scholars Talk Writing: Sam Wineburg” by Rachel Toor in The Chronicle of Higher Education, September 4, 2015 (Vol. LXII, #1, p. A52), no e-link available
NOTEABLE QUOTABLE:
SHOUT OUTS
· I want to thank Brook Williams for serving as our UIL coordinator this year! Brook will bring a lot to this role & will set our first meeting for October.
· A big THANK YOU to Andrea Reed for laminating & cutting out our vocabulary words! Thanks Andrea for stepping up & helping us out – it is greatly appreciated!
· I appreciate Drew serving as our HR Ambassador this year. We appreciate you representing EME.