Get Whitt it!
If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf.
11/7/19
Guided Reading check in's
Jessica Travis had this in her kinder newsletter that I thought was also relevant.
1.
Guided Reading should be in full implementation daily now! Using and following the templates (Jan Richardson) is a district expectation. Please DO NOT just rely on the F&P Guided Reading folders. While these are GREAT tools to support your lesson – our guided reading groups are intentional and purposeful lessons for students – the folder doesn’t know our students best – YOU DO!
Just remember – the folder is like your MENU. Take only what you need for your group!
Thanksgiving Lunch Times- please share!
Notes from the Nurse
Type one diabetes is not a lifestyle disease, it is not caused by eating too much sugar, it is not preventable, it is not contagious and it is not something that you can outgrow.
Students living with type one diabetes constantly balance their insulin, activity level and meals to avoid life-threatening hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) or the long-term effects from hyperglycemia (high blood sugar). Their blood sugar levels require constant monitoring either from frequent fingersticks or with a continuous glucose monitor. A change in activity, stress levels, illness, food intake and other factors impact their blood sugar on a daily basis.
Wearing blue on November 14th would encourage our students here at Whitt (and many other Wylie ISD campuses) that have type one diabetes!
PTA news
- Carnival money total emails coming within the week, thank you all for being there and helping!
- if you get magazines, hold onto them and send me a count. OUr recycle vendor is on pause, but we want you to get credit for what is turned in. The contest will be postponed.
- Student membership drive: From Nov 13 through Nov 22, whichever classroom has the most student member join, from each grade level, will receive a Krispy Kreme party. (Whoa.Yum.)
- PTA voted on and will be taking to the general meeting next Thursday three new playground pieces, totaling over $20,000 from our Boosterthon earnings. So impressive
- Reading program: we'll be sharing images soon to help promote/encourage students to be reading and turning in their book bingos for K-4.
Don’t Quit: We all have bad days! an Edutopia article
Ice crystallized on the windshield and then a tire burst on the way to school, making you late. By the time you arrived, the computer (with the video clip and presentation cued up) froze. Minutes later, Jason pulled the fire alarm while you tried to catch up on parent emails. During lunch duty, a student was punched in the nose. Your nose is stuffy while you explain to the principal right before an IEP meeting why your plans haven’t been submitted yet. The day trudges along... At last, the final bell rings, and in your first quiet moment of the day, thoughts of leaving the teaching profession suddenly seem, well, right.
It’s that moment when you want to say, “I quit!”
We don’t talk about those feelings because we’re supposed to be like those heroic teacher-as-savior figures that permeate popular narratives about our work.
But here’s a secret: Most teachers, at some point, feel like giving up. Most feel the weight of not having done enough, the frustrations of negative media attention, and the challenges of apathetic or disruptive students. Sometimes the limits and loneliness of the lighthouse keeper are overwhelming. That’s when the enormity of our task feels insurmountable and we despair.
Driving home from such a day, we can be tempted to call in sick and plan for a sub. Sometimes that’s the right call. But there is another opportunity, too. You can take that empathy and understanding normally reserved for students and focus it on yourself. You can consider some strategies for gently accepting your circumstances, reflecting on what is needed, and preparing to return tomorrow.
1.FIND A FRIENDLY SHOULDER
Call a trusted colleague, preferably one who’s been teaching a long time. Vent. Cry. Laugh hysterically and have a glass of beer or wine. Tell them about your struggles and frustrations. All teachers can recount a story of a crazed student or parent. Just ask them. Take this time to break the isolation of our work. No one escapes from teaching—or for that matter, any profession—without wondering if he or she made the right choice. Not even Teachers of the Year. In other words, dear colleague, you are not alone.
2. BREATHE
This sounds simple, and it is. Sit with the discomfort and notice it. Acknowledge the frustrations of the day and then let them go. Listen to your self-talk and try to be kind to yourself. Practice slow breathing. If possible, carry this habit into your workday. It will create space for less reactivity and a more grounded emotional stance.
3. PLAN FOR COMMUNITY
Consider pausing the scheduled lesson, and instead take time to engage in team-building activities with your students. An English teacher that I read about, after weeks of essays and test prep, surprised his 12th-grade class with a game of kickball out on the blacktop. The sun shone, the kids ran like mad, and everyone came back laughing. It was crazy, unanticipated, and utterly glorious.
4. PRIORITIZE
Do stacks of papers line your desk? Are parents waiting for your email? Are there field trip permission slips to process? Is the lab set up for tomorrow? Here’s what to do when the onslaught of tasks overwhelms you—write a list of everything that needs to get done in the next two days. (Yes, write it down. The physical act of writing provides a sense of control.) Look at this list and choose the top three tasks. These three are the must-dos, urgent actions that will help you survive until the next day. After completing the must-dos, cross them off your list and go to sleep early.
5. GET PERSPECTIVE
Teaching need not consume you. Devoting all of our waking hours to teaching primes us for burnout. And burnout is real. It happens when the demands and expectations of our work drown our joy. Your other roles are important, too: friend, spouse, sibling, hiker, reader, dancer, joke-teller, or baker—a million other energizing possibilities. These other facets to your personality might need attention. So forget work over the weekend. Go to the forest or to a ball game. Get a massage. Try not to let happiness slip away. We can be good, caring, rigorous teachers, but sacrificing our personal lives is a costly and unsustainable price.
“There are stirrings of life in discontent,” wrote E.M. Forster, meaning that even in frustration and despair, a small flame wants to warm us. Life—our own and our students’—nudges us. It is not wild or stormy, and chances are it’s barely a flicker. And on the worst school day, it may not be felt at all. But trust that life is there. And when you open your classroom door tomorrow morning, you’ll find it.
Morgan's Musings
Please review these with your students. A few reminders:
1. Do not cover the window on your door.
2. If outside at recess, go to the far fence and have students squat/sit. (If it was real, you would go over the fence and far away).
3. Do not open the door for anyone. We will come unlock and tell you when it is over.
4. Doors locked, lights out, kids (and teachers) out of sight.
Readworthy/tweet of the week!
HIGHLY encourage you to read this!!!
Counselor's Corner
Coming soon:
Nov:
7- UIL Competition @ Tibbals/Awards @ Cooper
12- AT out AM
13- Team Lead Meeting
14- MP out AM; Picture Retakes; 3rd Grade Program/PTA General Meeting
19- IF meeting, AT out
20- 4th Austin Trip
22- Miss Texas here, K-4
25-29 Thanksgiving Break
Dec:
2- Wylie Way Christmas begins
4- PLC AND TL meetings
6- Wolf Howl/ELA Vertical
9- Holiday store opens
10- AT out am; Sachse Chamber lunch
11- Relationships Day; Souddress's Retirement Celebration @3pm
12- MP out am; 4th grade program 6:45pm
13- AT out am
17- PLC Leader Academy @ESC 8-11
19- Polar Express Day
20- Parties and Early Release
Happy birthday to you!
November
11/2 Kristi Paramore
11/4 Brittany Brown
11/9 Jill Johnson
11/13 Marisol Schoeck
11/14 Denise Arellano
11/21 Troy Aikman
11/25 Morgan Power
11/26 Sheree Turner
11/27 Erin Jacobs
11/28 Lacey Boruk
Yee haws!!
- MW- You took time out of your evening to help a student on Halloween! THAT is the Wylie Way!!
- JS- Thank you for sharing even more spreadsheet amazingness!!
- JB, you are so open to adding more kiddos to your schedule, and so focused on meeting the needs of all kids!!
- DG-Thank you for taking extra time to help our friend early this week! You are such a calming, positive presence!
- From Ms. Matthews:….to Coach Kyle for making adjustments so my friends (who aren’t in the 3rd grade program) could still have PACK! He took it upon himself to get things all set up and spent time working and playing with them in the gym! J
Whitt Elementary
Website: http://www.wylieisd.net/whitt
Location: 7520 Woodcreek Way, Sachse, TX 75048, United States
Phone: 972-429-2560
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whittwolves
Twitter: @WhittWolves