CANNON TIMES
A Newsletter For Cannon Staff 2018-2019
Principal Points-Week of 5/6/19
This week is all about YOU!
Check out the image below to see what our awesome PTA has planned for ALL staff this week!
Please feel free to enjoy a JEANS DAY every day this week
just to make it a little bit MORE special!!
THANKS TO ALL CANNON STAFF FOR YOUR
COMMITMENT AND DEDICATION
TO OUR SCHOLARS!
We LOVE YOU!!
Proud to be your principal,
Tona :)
#BeCannonProud
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Lisa's Coaching Corner
As we move into teacher appreciation week, I want to encourage you to reflect on your why. Why teach? To survive as an educator, you have to possess a passion to want to help students grow and be clever to plan lessons to promote engagement. All we have control of is the seven and a half hours that we are fortunate enough to spend with students daily for 36 weeks a year.
“I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything,
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.”
― Edward Everett Hale
Do not get paralyzed by the end of the year challenges but focus on what you CAN do. Remember that increased academic engagement decreases disruptive behaviors. If you feel like you are stuck in a rut and want some fresh ideas, take a look at these resources from Lead4ward Instructional Tool section.
INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES PLAYLIST
There are LOTS of ideas here to keep things fresh in your classroom. Let me know if you need anything! LB
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DATES TO REMEMBER
5/6-10 Staff Appreciation Week!
5/6 - Final U.CAN @ 3:05 in Learning Commons! See info in this newsletter!
5/6-8 Cubs Night Out @ Wise Guys Pizza
5/7 - PLC Week A - 3rd grade 2:15-3:45
5/8 - 1st grade field trip to UTA Planetarium - 9:00-1:00
5/8 - PLC Week A - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
5/9 - 4th grade field trip to FW Stockyards 8:30-2:00
5/9 - PLC Week A - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
5/10 - Kinder field trip to Crayola Experience 9:00-2:00
5/13 - STAAR Math test - 3rd & 4th (5th retakes)
5/13 - Baby Shower for Ashley Houck - 3:15-3:45 pm
5/14 - STAAR Reading test - 3rd & 4th (5th retakes)
5/14 - PLC Week B - Kindergarten - 2:15-3:45
5/15 - STAAR Science test - 5th grade
5/15 - PLC Week B - 1st grade - 2:15-3:45
5/16 - Staff Potluck Lunch - hosted by Kinder/3rd/1st grades!
5/16 - PLC Week B - 2nd grade - 2:15-3:45
5/16 - Wedding Shower for Addi Freiner - 3:15-3:45
5/17 - GCISD Reads Celebration - 4th grade 2:00-2:30
5/20 - Career Day
5/20 - CHHS Graduation Walk in Cannon hallways - 9:00-9:30 (Career Day schedule has been organized around this event)
5/21 - Hawaiian Falls Choir Event
5/21 - GCISD Reads Celebration - Kindergarten & 1st grade - 2:00-2:30
5/21 - PLC Week A - 3rd grade - 2:15-3:45
5/22 - Cannon hosts the Association For Learning Environments event - 10:30 - 1:30
5/22 - GCISD Reads Celebration - 3rd grade - 2:00-2:30
5/22 - PLC Week A - 4th grade - 2:15-3:45
5/23 - EoY Recognition Event - 2nd grade 8:15-9:15
5/23 - Dove Drummers End of Year Tour Concert in gym - 9:15-9:45
5/23 - EoY Recognition Event - Kindergarten - 1:45-2:45
5/23 - GCISD Reads Celebration - 2nd grade - 2:00-2:30
5/23 - PLC Week A - 5th grade - 2:15-3:45
5/24 - Field Day - details coming soon with schedule!
5/27 - Student & Staff Holiday - no school!
5/28 - EoY Recognition Event - 1st grade - 8:15-9:15
5/28 - EoY Recognition Event - 3rd grade - 1:45-2:45
5/28 - GCISD Reads Celebration - 5th grade 2:00-2:30
5/29 - EoY Recognition Event - 5th grade - 8:15-9:15
5/29 - EoY Recognition Event - 4th grade - 1:45-2:45
5/29 - Retirement party for Debbie Van Pelt - 3:15-3:45
5/30 - Last Day of School - early dismissal for students - 11:45 am
5/31 - Last contract day for teachers
5/31 - End of Year Staff Celebration Breakfast 8:00-9:00 am
STAFF CELEBRATIONS THIS WEEK!
CELEBRATING OUR SCHOOL LUNCH HEROES!
We need to let them know how much they mean to our students and our school! As part of Child Nutrition Appreciation Week, GCISD wants to provides an opportunity for students and school staff to thank those who provide healthy meals to 30 million of America’s students each school day. In your mailboxes, you will find "shout out" cards to sign and present to our school lunch heroes! These can be used by staff or students, so let's use these to show our awesome cafeteria staff some love this week!
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REMINDERS AND UPDATES
FINAL UCAN ON MONDAY!
PROJECT PRESENTATIONS:
Student STEM Skills Rubric: As a STEM campus, it is important for our students to recognize the importance of some skills that are specific to our Engineering Design Process and have a tool that can help them gauge their progress in these skills. Additionally, our parents are very interested in knowing how their students are progressing in these skills, since they have made a commitment to enroll their child at Cannon, specifically for STEM. This proposed rubric would be a tool that could be used by teachers to communicate progress for students & parents.
Revised STEM Habits of Mind: Our STEM Habits of MInd traits are very important to our campus mission, but they need some revision, in order to ensure that they are being utilized in the best way possible to enhance student growth & progress! These proposed revisions include the use of student-friendly definitions/images and MORE!
Please note that the final U.CAN, scheduled for May 20th, has been canceled. The work we had planned for this final meeting will be addressed in the last round of PLC's with grade level teachers.
AUCTION LUNCHES WITH TEACHERS ARE THIS WEEK - TUESDAY MAY 7th
During the recent PTA auction event, one of the popular auction items was "Lunch With A Teacher". Our PTA will be providing lunch to the students who "won" this item, as well as their teachers on TUESDAY, MAY 7th during your grade level lunch period. Please plan to enjoy lunch with students on this date in the PLC room. They will be serving Chick-Fil-A nuggets, fresh fruit and chips. If you prefer to provide your own lunch, please feel free! PTA is providing two volunteers to help cover lunch duty on this date with any teachers who aren't participating. If you have recess duty on this date, please plan to do your recess duty as scheduled - only lunch duty will be covered by volunteers.
See the list of teachers below who have students who "won" this auction item. If you have any questions about this, please let Tona know!
Kindergarten - Pettit & Balbaugh
First - Dinh; Norwood; & Moore
Second - Hall; Ganus; Hinzman
Third - Wolter; Griffin; Donaldson
Fourth - Ali; Crawford; Hill; White
Fifth - Parthemore; Freiner; Mayo; Paniagua
PRESENTERS WANTED FOR GCLI 2019!
Planning is underway for the 3rd annual GCLI event to be held on Monday, September 23rd! This day will again contain a wide variety of session topics, fun team-building opportunities, student performers, and much, much more.
The window for submitting session proposals will be May 1-19. Please consider proposing to present on a topic that would be beneficial to other GCISD colleagues.
- What classroom strategy or idea has had a big impact on learning for your students?
- What topic is of importance in your professional growth that others could enjoy learning?
- What have you seen other teachers/staff members doing that you could encourage them to present?
- What tool have you begun using that others could benefit from using as well?
- In your role (teacher, librarian, principal, instructional coach, athletic coach, intervention teacher, counselor, nurse, etc...), what information do you need to share that would be a good fit for this venue where others could all hear the message at once (without an after-school session or a substitute teacher involved)?
- What initiatives are going to be launched in the 2019-20 school year that might need learning/support in this venue?
The proposal form is a bit lengthy because we need the information to properly populate the "Sched" app, so give yourself a few minutes (approx 15-30) to record your ideas and send them in by Sunday, May 19th! Notifications of proposal status will be sent on or around June 1st. We look forward to this year's event being the best yet!
IT'S TIME FOR EoY PLANNING!
The end of this school year is quickly approaching and time will fly by quickly! Please make note of these important End of Year tasks that need to be completed. If you are new to your team this year, PLEASE talk to veteran teachers on your team and work together on these tasks. Ask Tona, Anne, or Lisa any questions you have - we are here to help support you in any way!
- STUDENT PLACEMENT FORMS will be placed in teacher mailboxes this week (pink -girls & blue-boys) along with a key to use for completing these forms. Upon receiving these, please start completing a form for each student in your classroom. If you are new on your team - please ask a veteran teacher any questions you may have. Plan a date with all members of your team, including GT & Sped teachers, so that you can all work together to create classes for next year. Remember to include any information that will be helpful for next year's teachers as they welcome students into their classrooms. Please be sure to ask if you have any questions about this process. Before you turn your team's placement forms in to Tona, please add a sheet for each group in next year's grade level folder here. Directions & an example form are in this folder.
- EoY GRADE LEVEL AWARDS CEREMONIES Don't forget to share EoY grade level awards ceremony dates with parents! Click here to access the folder for this year's awards ceremonies. In this folder, PLEASE read these instructions first before adding your student names/information on the slideshow templates within your grade level folder. If you are new to your team this year, please talk to veteran teachers on your team for more information and work together! Also, please don't forget to add a form with the awards descriptions that your grade level will be handing out to scholars this year, so that this information is ready to go on our awards program dates! ALL AWARDS THAT WILL BE GIVEN BY SPECIALS TEACHERS, CLUBS, etc... must be filed in the grade level award boxes by Anne's office by Friday, May 17th - no exceptions please!! A list of all "separate" certificates that will be awarded can be located in the folder for this year's award programs provided above. Please make note of the dates/times of our End of Year Celebration Ceremony for each grade level and communicate this information to parents NOW, so that they can make plans to attend.
CANNON EoY LPAC CHECKLIST
Please refer to this checklist shown below for the end of year LPAC procedures and meeting dates. If you have any questions, please contact Alejandra PRIOR to your scheduled meeting time. HUGE thank you to Alejandra for her hard work this year as our campus LPAC coordinator! We are SO fortunate to have someone like her leading our campus in this role!
Legislative Update
There is only one month left in this year’s session of the Texas Legislature and just about every major issue remains unresolved. That’s not unusual for this point in the session, but it does mean there will be a lot to watch in the next four weeks. Many of the highest-profile issues yet to be resolved focus on education, school funding and property taxes.
CLICK HERE TO READ MOST RECENT UPDATES ON LEGISLATIVE ACTIVITY!
DON'T FORGET TO RETURN YOUR EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS!
Everyone who is receiving a contract should have received an email from gcisd.human.resources@gcisd.net last week. The email contained a letter from Gema Padgett with directions on how to sign your 2019-2020 contract. These contracts are housed in Skyward.
Failure to electronically sign your contract on or before May 30, 2019, constitutes a rejection of this offer of employment contract and the Employee's resignation from current employment, if any, at the end of the existing contract term.
SPECIALS SCHEDULE CHANGES DURING STAAR WEEK
Grapevine Garden Club Civic Seed Program for Educators
The Grapevine Garden Club is wanting to provide teachers with a grant to pursue professional development.
If you would like to apply for up to $300 of “Seed Money” for educational enrichment, please apply here.
UPDATED ELAR/SLAR Professional Learning Opportunities!
Please review these updated Professional Learning opportunities available this summer, around our newly adopted ELAR/SLAR K-8 resources. All General Education & Special Education teachers are encouraged to participate in order to ensure equal training/access to the materials, prior to the start of the new school year.
GT LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES THIS SUMMER
New Technology Help Desk
Starting today (Tuesday, April 23 ) the GCISD technology help desk will change to a new system a powerful yet really easy to use source for technology support.
Here is a brief intro: http://gcisdtv.gcisd.net/gcisd-technology-servicest/features/IfPnJc52140dIv5EW_oH
Not only will submitting a help request be significantly easier than in the past, there’s also a searchable knowledge base already populated with GCISD-specific help instructions. This will help users to find the answers to their issue quickly and easily with a simple keyword search.
Starting Today (April 23rd) the regular help desk link will redirect to the new Help Desk. If you’d like to look over the quick start guide before then you can check it out HERE. When asked to log in just use the regular GCISD credentials that you use when signing in to your computer.
FROM THE MAKERSPACE
Happy Making!
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Worth A Read, Watch or...Listen!!
10 Reasons Why I Teach Because I Can’t Do Anything Else! Mike Gorman recently published the following blog post and Teacher Appreciation Week is the PERFECT time to share it! Enjoy!
I have spent over 40 years in education because I cannot do anything else! The idea of not being able to do anything else actually is something I have learned in the last ten years, something I did not know when I presented my very first classroom lesson! Little did I know that because I could only teach, I would find richness beyond monetary wealth! I dedicate this list of reasons to all of those great educators who teach because they cannot do anything else! – Mike Gorman
The List
- I can’t be a banker or work in the financial business because while I might enjoy counting money and financial growth, I would rather count and measure the success of my students.
- I can’t be a doctor or dentist because while I enjoy seeing people smile as they leave and are healed, I get even more satisfaction if I see a smile when they first sit down.
- I can’t be a professional athlete because while I do enjoy competition, I get even more satisfaction coaching young people to play each game with honor, integrity, and respect.
- I can’t be a computer programmer because while creating new digital applications is exciting, finding ways to integrate technology to inspire real learning is rewarding.
- I can’t work in agriculture or landscaping because while supplying food and natural beauty is appreciated by all, I enjoy planting seeds of life-long learning knowing that it will nourish one’s life.
- I can’t work as a cook or chef because while I appreciate the art in a great meal, I enjoy even more finding just the right ingredients that allow for a child’s success.
- I can’t work in sales or marketing because even though I have learned from their great people skills, I would rather sell students on their abilities and possibilities.
- I can’t be a pilot even though I appreciate them as I travel to new places, as I would rather facilitate young people as they climb in altitude and arrive at new destinations.
- I can’t be an artist despite my appreciation for the beauty they bring, as I have found that my art is the ability to inspire and nurture children as they discover their innate abilities.
- I can’t be a scientist or inventor because, while I am aware of the great advances they bring, I wish to create innovative learning experiences that always end in success.
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CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION CORNER
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INFORMATION TO SHARE IN PARENT NEWSLETTERS
Our New District ATTENDANCE Zone Maps Are Live!
Our new maps are live! There are a few ways to get to the page if you need it:
1. Type in www.gcisd.net/maps
2. Linked under the "Our District" and "Parents" menus
3. Linked on the Quicklinks page
4. Linked on the enrollment/registration pages
SAVE THE DATES!
More information will be coming home soon about our Field Day. Due to construction, we will be holding our Field day off-site again this year. We are SO excited to announce that GCISD's beautiful new stadium will be the site for our Field Day! Information about transportation, schedule of activities and MORE will come home with all students in early May.
CAREER DAY 2019
We are looking for individuals to come present at our Career Day for all students K-5 on Monday, May 20th. Our hope is for students to gain knowledge about possible careers/jobs and the college and/or experiences required to obtain these professions.
We would love for our guests to bring any hands on materials or pictures that will help the students better understand your job/career.
Please complete this survey to let us know if you are interested.
Contact Mandy Coburn, Cannon Counselor, if you have any questions. (817) 251-5684 or amanda.coburn@gcisd.net
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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!
- ENJOY every day of Staff Appreciation Week! Feel free to wear jeans each day this week and don't forget to thank our awesome PTA for everything they do for us!
- Attend UCAN on Monday @ 3:05 in the Learning Commons.
- Sign & return employment contracts for 2019-2020!
- Review EoY LPAC information in this newsletter from Alejandra and BE PREPARED for your grade level's upcoming LPAC meetings!
- Teachers who are participating in Lunch With Students on Tuesday will enjoy lunch in the PLC room during your lunch periods and PTA is providing volunteers to help with lunch duty. Enjoy!
- Don't forget to celebrate our School Lunch Heroes this week!
- Begin working on Student Placement forms & EoY Awards ceremony planning with your team.
- Check out the information in this newsletter about the changes to our district's technology help request system. This is effective immediately!
- Adjust your calendars now for upcoming Specials schedule changes during STAAR testing week in May.
- Check out the Summer Professional Learning opportunities in the C&I Learning Letter.
- 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!