CANNON LEGACY
A Newsletter For Cannon Staff 2017-2018
Principal Points - 3/05-3/09
BIG thanks to all staff for your work to prepare for this week's Student Showcase! Scholars all across the campus will be sharing work/project samples, learning portfolios, journals, and other "glows & grows" in an interactive format throughout the evening!! Some teams have planned for their students to take their parents through a scavenger hunt to showcase various aspects of learning or to rotate with their parents through various learning stations to demonstrate their knowledge! Be creative and make it FUN!! Also, please remind students & parents that the Book Fair will be open during this evening's event!
Thank you for planning a GREAT event for our scholars & parents! I know that each of you will be READY for a long & relaxing Spring Break week after this busy night AND crazy start to our 2nd semester! I hope that everyone has an amazing time off with friends and family and takes time for YOURSELF...to relax, rejuvenate and get refreshed during this time!!
Proud to be your principal,
Tona :)
Lisa's Coaching Corner
Like most of you, I live a very full and happy life. However, to do that I have endured many challenges and life changing moments that have helped shape how I deal with things beyond my control. A major role I play in motherhood right now is helping my girls deal with not letting "outside influences" they encounter in college affect how they CHOOSE to live their life.
As teachers, we do have control over what we teach, how we teach, and the environment we provide for our students. But with that, many ability levels (academic and emotional of students), influences (staff & students) and specific situations are beyond our control.
As I sit here in my PJ's on Saturday at 1pm going through my Twitter feed Marina Luepnitz just tweeted a blog post titled "Make it a great day or not, the choice is mine!" Please take a minute to read Marina's "ah-ha" moment that she has so eloquently shared with the world!
Marina states, "I am definitely not an expert at this; I have to constantly remind myself to choose joy, do my best, and love with all my heart!" Her words echo in my heart and how I approach each day too.
As I witness Marina's level of self-reflection, selflessness, and maturity at such a young age, it refreshes me to know and believe that we are all shaped step by step. No matter how old or young we are, living by the motto "THE CHOICE IS MINE" is crucial on our impact on the world!
DATES TO REMEMBER
3/05-3/09 Book Fair Week
3/5 CEC 3:15-4:00 - Media Lab
3/06 PLC Week B - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
3/07 YUCK! science program sponsored by PTA - K-2 8:00-8:45; 3-5 9:00-9:45 - cafeteria
3/07 PLC Week B - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
3/08 PLC Week B - 3rd grade 2:15-3:45
3/08 Student-Led Showcase (Open House) 5:30-7:00 pm
3/09 PTA hosts staff Taco Luncheon in the lounge!
3/09 Last day of the 3rd nine weeks!
3/12-3/16 Spring Break!
3/19 STEM Leadership 3:00-3:45 - library
3/20 Bad Weather Drill - 2:00 pm
3/20 PLC Week A - Kindergarten 2:15-3:45
3/21 3rd Nine Weeks Report Cards can be viewed by parents
3/21 Instructional Rounds with district administrators @ Cannon 8:00-9:30 am
3/21 PLC Week A - 1st grade 2:15-3:45
3/22 Fire Drill - 9:00 am
3/22 PLC Week A - 2nd grade 2:15-3:45
3/23 3rd grade field trip to Elm Fork Education Center 8:30-2:00 pm
3/23 Friday Tech Talk - mBot 2-5; Cubetto - K-1
3/26 UCAN 3:00-3:45
3/27 PLC Week B - 5th grade 2:15-3:45
3/27 Cubs Night Out @ CiCi's Pizza
3/29 Principal Panel Luncheon
3/29 PLC Week B - 4th grade 2:15-3:45
3/30 Student & Staff Holiday - No school!
3/30 PLC Week B - 3rd grade 2:15 - 3:45
SPOTLIGHT ON LEARNING!
This week's SPOTLIGHT is on our awesome 1st grade team! Recently, as part of their unit on light energy, this team asked retired GCISD educator, Dr. John Doughney, and his wife Nancy, to share one of their creative passions, designing stained glass art, with their 1st grade scholars. The team sent the related science TEKS for light energy, academic vocabulary for the learning, and our Engineering Design Process to John & Nancy in advance and asked them to connect to their content standards and share how they do their design work, following the EDP process.
They came to Cannon and did a wonderful presentation, as well as sharing actual samples of their artwork, tools they use, and videos of the process. They even shared a "fail" they had encountered along the way in one design and how they problem solved through this in order to "improve" their design. Following this presentation, the students went to work to create some of their own stained glass art designs, using light boxes, and selected a single design to send to John & Nancy, who offered to make an actual stained art glass piece for each class, based on the selected design. Throughout the process, John & Nancy have Skyped with the classes to offer feedback and answer questions. These 1st grade Cubs canNOT be more excited to receive the art created specifically for their own class, based on their design submitted to John & Nancy!
Kudos to the 1st grade team for designing such an engaging way for their Cubs to learn this content! They will never forget what or how they learned about light energy! Check out some of the photos below from this learning & a video shared back to Mrs. Moore's class by John & Nancy, to show their work in progress!
UPDATES FROM THE CANNON LEARNING COMMONS
Reminders From Mrs. Wagner
NQIN4513
I now have admin access so I can help you with any problems you encounter. Let me know how I can help!
PEBBLEGO & PEBBLEGO NEXT RESOURCES An email was sent to all staff last week to share the AMAZING lesson plans & activities that are available on PebbleGo and PebbleGo Next, in the Capstone Community. Don't forget to check this out - WONDERFUL RESOURCES HERE! Click here to read all about these resources!
MARCH & APRIL BOOK OF THE MONTH INFORMATION We are so excited about the TWO great paired books and design challenge that are being promoted for our BoM for March & April! After reading a wonderful story about a character who lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina & a non-fiction book about Extreme Weather & natural disasters, our Cannon Cubs can participate in the 2018 7th Annual Global Spark! Lab Invent It Challenge, by designing an innovative way for people to prepare BEFORE a natural disaster, stay safe DURING one, or recover AFTERWARDS. Check out the BoM resources below and share with your scholars!
CAMPUS REMINDERS AND UPDATES
TELPAS TESTING CONTINUES THIS WEEK Please make sure you have reviewed the TELPAS testing schedule that Anne sent out to staff. Click here to see this schedule now. As a reminder, testing will continue this week and the cafeteria, library, and E9 computer lab will all be used for testing. Please help out by monitoring noise levels in the hallways.
GCISD'S NEW WEBSITE will be live after Spring Break in March 2018! The website is completely NEW and will have a new look, interface, AND even a new webpage address. Since the website does have a new process for how staff will manage their own pages on the website, there will be some training required for ALL staff. For the convenience of our staff, Julee Vorachard has already started offering training on campus, instead of requiring staff to attend trainings off-site after school. Please note that ALL staff will be REQUIRED to attend & participate in this training. If you have NOT yet met with Julee, please make sure you have scheduled a time to do so! BIG thanks to Julee for her work to support our staff during this transition!
GCISD EMPLOYEE TRANSFER REQUEST PROCESS NOW OPEN
This information was shared by Human Resources with all GCISD staff via email on 3/1/18.
GCISD Employees,
As spring approaches and our staff works to further professional growth, the Human Resources department begins to work with employees on potential transfers. Policy DK(local) states that an employee may request reassignment within the District to another position for which he or she is qualified. If an employee is interested in requesting a voluntary transfer to another campus, they should complete the Internal –Transfer and Reassignment Request job posting. This job posting will be available beginning March 2, 2018.
Employees seeking to transfer to another campus are urged to fill out the transfer request application in a timely manner. The final day that transfers will be approved is June 1, 2018.
** Transfers do not apply to individuals who are seeking a new position. Employees wanting to move from a teaching position to an administrative position, for example, must fill out an application for the new position. A transfer is a move from campus to campus in a similar position.
Directions for employees seeking a transfer within the district:
· Apply online on the Human Resources Homepage
· Select Careers for Internal Employees
· Once logged in; select the Internal – Transfer and Reassignment Request job posting to apply
Once an employee has applied in the transfer pool, principals will have the opportunity to review this pool as they seek qualified candidates to fill vacant positions. Please express your desire to seek a transfer to your current principal in order to facilitate the process. Internal candidates are also welcome to apply for specific job postings if they choose.
Tuition-Based Pre-K Program Savings For GCISD Employees!
In the 2018-2019 school year, GCISD will offer a tuition-based Pre-K program at Bransford Elementary, Colleyville Elementary, O.C. Taylor Elementary, Grapevine Elementary, Heritage Elementary and Bear Creek Elementary. There will be limited availability at Timberline and Silver Lake Elementary for a blended program that includes English and Spanish (an option if you are considering Dual Language in Kindergarten).
The district will offer a 10% discount to current employees for the campus based pre-k program. Before and after school care will also be available in our KidzU program for employees with children enrolled in pre-k at no additional cost. The total cost of the program will be $5,650 including a $100 registration fee and $150 supply fee both due in the spring to reserve the seat. The first monthly payment of $540 will be due July 30th.
GCISD employees will have priority placement on the requested campus for their pre-k student. Simply fill out this Google Form to provide us with information we need at this time. Forms must be complete by March 9th. Additional registration information will be collected once the class placement is confirmed.
We are very excited about this opportunity! We will be located in the lecture hall at the Special Programs Expo on Thursday, February 8th from 5:00-7:00 at Cross Timbers Middle School. District and campus staff will be available to share more information about the program and answer questions.
CURRICULUM & INSTRUCTION CORNER
Updates From The Math Department
Updates From The Humanities Department
Worth A Read...or a Listen!!
GREAT BLOGPOST BY ANGELA WATSON titled Why I let 2 kids’ behavior ruin my school year (and what I wish I’d done differently). Check it out - reflective article!
HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT OF A SCHOOL AS A STARTUP COMPANY? The video below offers VERY thought-provoking ideas about ways to think about how to design schools to prepare students for the future. What if.....??
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!
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TO-DO LIST
- Set a timer and complete daily attendance ON TIME!
- Don't forget to show daily KCAN announcements every Monday-Thursday!! #KidsDeserveIt
- CEC representatives attend CEC on Monday, 3:15 in library
- Mark your calendars for the Yuck! program on Wednesday, March 7th
- Review the TELPAS schedule for the next week in this newsletter.
- Communicate to parents about Student-Led Showcase & Book Fair this week!
- Finalize plans for our Student-Led Showcase Night on Thursday -March 8th!
- Enjoy a Taco Lunch for staff in the lounge on Friday, thanks to our great PTA!
- Have an AMAZING Spring Break with family & friends! Take care of YOU!!
- 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.