Akers' Updates
December 7, 2018
School News
Current Enrollment: 985
Our next Fri-Yay! is almost here! It's next Friday, December 14th. We can't wait to celebrate your students! Please send one or two students at a time so that we don't get too backed up! :)
Class Meetings - After discussing with the grade levels reps on the PBIS committee, A-team has agreed that the best time to set our goals and our expectations is on MONDAYS. We know that you may have already made plans to do this FRIDAYS through December, so feel free to hold your class meetings on either day during December. Starting in January, we are asking that all teachers hold their class meetings on Mondays. We will even remind you to have them on the announcements on Mondays in January! :) If you have any questions, please reach out! Thank you!
If you missed out on any of the amazing resources from last week's #EachOneTeachOne Purposeful PD session, they are still available in our Google Classroom. Click the button below to access them all!
Twitter Challenge
Not only do you show off the great things happening in your classroom and get ideas from other educators, if you use BOTH the #MakeDecemberMagic AND #WeAreRennell hashtags, you will also earn a ticket for each tweet!
I've had a blast searching for #MakeDecemberMagic to see what others are tweeting about! Ya'll - so many OTHER schools across the country have jumped on board to our little Rennell challenge! People are sharing great strategies and ideas for how to keep kids engaged and motivated throughout December! :)
As an added incentive to participate, for EACH tweet you send out to #MakeDecemberMagic AND #WeAreRennell (YOU NEED BOTH HASHTAGS), you will EARN A TICKET you can put in for some pretty amazing prizes such as:
Various Gift Cards
Sonic
Chick-fil-A
HEB
A Wireless mouse (5 to give away)
Other prizes for your classroom
Duty Coverage for YOU
Duty Coverage for your WHOLE TEAM
Lunch Taxi for your WHOLE TEAM
Sonic Drinks for your WHOLE TEAM
Snack Basket for your WHOLE TEAM
… and the grand prize… A DAY OFF!!!
(Rennell provides sub - does not count as an absence!!!)
We'll be placing tickets in your box on Monday for all the tweets we saw this first week in December! Keep on 'Tweetin'! :)
12 Days Before Break Fun!
As you know, you can earn tickets for participating in the #MakeDecemberMagic Challenge, but you can ALSO earn tickets for those same great prizes in many more ways:
You can earn tickets by participating in the upcoming sock exchange and the holiday game coming up in our "12 Days Before Break" Fun! If you find one of our A-Team Rennelves, you can turn it in for THREE tickets! You may just find a ticket in your box, as well! Be sure to write your name on all tickets and place them in the tin star bin on the round table outside of the AP office. See the full prize list shared above as part of the twitter challenge!
Rennell Tree Trimming!
Tweet of the Week!
#DitchSummit
I’m signed up for a GREAT free online conference for teachers in December and wanted to tell you about it.
It’s called the Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit. There are nine video presentations from awesome presenters on topics related to tech and solid teaching and learning. Get your free ticket at: DitchSummit.com.
HOW IT WORKS: New presentations are released every day from Dec. 14-22. They remain available until Dec. 31 so you can re-watch or catch up on any you’ve missed. They’re pre-recorded, so you can watch them whenever you want until Dec. 31. After that, the summit ends and the videos are unavailable to watch anymore.
FREE PD HOURS: You can get FREE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT CREDITS for watching the videos. There’s a form to fill out after each presentation, and you’ll get an automatic PD certificate emailed to you.
Sign up for the digital summit at DitchSummit.com.
The schedule looks like this:
December 14 (Fri) -- How Students Are Using Technology to Change the World (Ken Shelton, Disruptor, Keynote Speaker, Techquity Voice)
December 15 (Sat) -- Building Relationships and Communicating with Students (Kim Bearden, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Ron Clark Academy)
December 16 (Sun) -- Six Practical Ways to Amplify Learning with Technology (Matt Miller, Head Textbook Ditcher, Ditch That Textbook)
December 17 (Mon) -- Appsmashing Your Way to Redefinition (Jornea Erwin, Head of Educator Innovation, Flipgrid)
December 18 (Tue) -- Infusing Coding in Any Class (Bryan Miller, Co-Founder, TopTechEDU, Director of Education Strategy, Wonder Workshop)
December 19 (Wed) -- Fantastic Learning Activities with Google Drawings (Tony Vincent, 5th grade teacher / LearningInHand.com)
December 20 (Thur) -- Using Visual Thinking to Unlock Powerful Learning (Manuel Herrera, doodler and visual thinker)
December 21 (Fri) -- Sparking Student Creativity and Creation with Video (Claudio Zavala, video/creativity/storytelling enthusiast)
December 22 (Sat) -- Building Habits to Be the Most Efficient, Effective You (James Clear, author of Atomic Habits)
Looking Ahead
- Monday, December 10 - Garland for K/1
- Tuesday, December 11 - Garland for 2nd
- Tuesday, December 11 - Lifetouch Retakes and TX Roadhouse Night
- Tuesday, December 11 - Redtrizity Choirs at Towne Lake Boardwalk
- Wednesday, December 12 - Garland for 5th
- Thursday, December 13 - Committee Meeting Day
- Thursday, December 13 - Garland for 4th
- Friday, December 14 - Garland for 3rd
- Friday, December 14 - Fri-Yay!
- Tuesday, December 18 - Choir Holiday Concert, Santa, and Cookies!
- Thursday, December 20 - Staff Meeting at 7:50am
- Thursday, December 20 - School Spelling Bee
- Friday, December 21 - Winter Parties
Staff Shout Outs!
- Shout out to the A-Team for taking time to hear our concerns during At-Risk Meetings. Thank you! -Kelsey
- Heather Martinez for jumping right into our team! We are blessed and excited to have you join us! -Michelle Bellomy
- Katie Keating for moving furniture to give me more classroom real estate. :) -Ms. Szkody
- All staff for checking on me before, during, and after my classroom move! -Ms. Szkody
- Mr. Palomares, thank you for being a great help when we were "Capping" our new TechHeadz! Couldn't have done it without you. Thanks for sacrificing time that evening to make this a special event for families in our school! -Don Stabe
- Mrs Wilkerson for working hard on the science plans! -Shradha
- Melissa Thank you for the happiest of Birthday celebrations!!! I appreciate all you did for me! -Mary
- Heather Martinez for setting up her classroom so quickly and welcoming her students in so warmly. -Shradha Kaura
- First Grade thank you for the Birthday wishes and celebration! -Mary
- Ms. Szkody for moving your room so quickly and making it ready for your special friends. -Shradha Kaura
- Shout out to Mrs. Holderfield for being so patient with me and answering all of my questions! -Abby
- Shout out to Jenise for her fantastic artistic office signs for the students to go the back way!! -Kelsey
- Shout out to Heather for a wonderful first week in Kinder! We are all so glad you are on our team! Brittany Laurell
- Molly and Meredith for helping our new kinder class :) -Kinder Team
- Heather Martinez for being so awesome with her new kinder kiddos! They love her already :) -Ashlee
- Edith Patel for organizing dance team uniform sorting and delivering :) I don't know how you do it all! -Ashlee
- Thank you to Deanne, Sammie, Terri, and Belinda for always being kind and eager to help. -Jodi
- Thank you to coach for always being thoughtful and encouraging. -Jodi
- Mrs. Holderfield for using her stapler remover and making quick work of my walls before the move! -Ms. Szkody
- Shout out to Molly and AnnDrea for keeping the Class Meetings information in Google Classroom updated for us! -Kelsey
- Edith and Ashlee for working so hard on the dance team uniforms! Y'all are amazing! -Melissa Easterly
- Brittany Laurell for having patience and a kind heart. You are doing great things in your classroom! -Melissa Easterly
- Terri - Thank you for making me smile everyday. You are awesome. -Mrs. T.
- Mrs. Shah - for being eager to do whatever is needed. -Mrs. T.
- Lolita - for your help in pre k. -Mrs. T.
- Katie K. - for helping anywhere that is needed. You are appreciated. -Mrs. T.