Galloping Gazette
A newsletter for the Faculty and Staff - Week of 2/24
Put Students First • Seek Growth • Be Open to Change . Do Great Work Together • Value Differences
Principal's Message
Frindle School-wide Activities
- · On Friday, February 28, we will have our “New Word” parade. Students need to dress or wear something that explains and displays their new word.
Shout Outs...
- SHOUT OUT to my Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade team for helping me with everything while Sharon is out. You're the BEST!!! -Marissa
- Thank you to Mrs. Ratner for making sure Beach Bags were covered before the impending snow. Nicole
Thank you so much, Michelene, for taking the time to revamp the layout of that poetry assessment. It looked great! Susan
- Shout out and thank you to Whitney for sharing her awesome guided reading form for our early readers. Edie
- Thank you to Mrs. Pleasant and Ms. Mounce covering my duties in my absence -Nicole
Schedule for upcoming weeks
PLC/Collab Focus: Math - Bring Anecdotal Sheets
** School Book Drive Feb 24th-28th **
Monday, February 24th
- School Spirit Day- "Think Snow/Blizzard Bliss"
- VOYA Retirement Meetings- Guidance Conference Room, 7:30-4:30
- Tae Kwon Do 2:40-3:30 Cafeteria
- Girls on the Run 2:40- 4:20 Room 15
Tuesday, February 25th
- Math Tutoring-4th/5th Grade 7AM
Wednesday, February 26th
- PLC/Collab:
- 2nd 11:00-11:45
- 1st 12:45-1:30
- 4th 1:35-2:20
- Tae Kwon Do 2:40-3:30 Cafeteria
- Girls on the Run 2:40- 4:20 Room 15
Thursday, February 27th
- Math Tutoring-4th/5th Grade 7AM
- PLC/Collab:
- 5th 8:30-9:15
- 3rd 9:20-10:05
- Knd 10:10-10:55
- Robotics 2:45-4:00
Friday, February 28th
- "New Word" Frindle Parade
- Watch Dog Dad Rudy Sandoval
- 2nd Grade Native American Program- Room 15
10 AM- Zipprich and Greer
12:30- Bullard
- Specialists' grades due by 5 PM
- Mother/Son Dance- "Wild, Wild West" 6:00-8:00, Cafeteria
PLC Focus: Language Arts
** Music in our Schools Month **
** National School Breakfast Week **
** Citywide Youth Art Show March 4th-April 5th **
Monday, March 2nd
- Teachers' Grades due by 5 PM
- 1st Grade "Cat in the Hat" Reading 8:45 Cafeteria
- SCA Meeting 2:45-4:00
- Girls on the Run 2:45-4:20 Room 15
- Tae Kwon Do 2:45-3:30 Cafeteria
Tuesday, March 3rd
- Staff Day- no school for students
- Love and Logic PD Chapters 3, 4, 5 8:00 - 9:15
- Sped Inclusion Teams 9:30 - 11:00
- Faculty Meeting Make up from 2/18 - 11:15 - 12:00
- Voting Day in the building 6:00am - 7:00pm
- PBIS 3:00
Wednesday, March 4th
- Colt's Store 7:55-8:20 Foyer
- Class/Spring Pictures Today
- Progress Reports Issued
- PLC/Collab:
- 2nd 11:00-11:45
- 1st 12:45-1:30
- 4th 1:35-2:20
- Newspaper Club 2:45-4:00
- GOTR 2:45-4:20 Room 15
- Tae Kwon Do 2:45-3:30 Cafeteria
Thursday, March 5th
- PLC/Collab:
- 5th 8:30-9:15
- 3rd 9:20-10:05
- Knd 10:10-10:55
- Robotics 2:45-4:00
Friday, March 6th
- Watch Dog Dad Saulo Ortiz
- Spanish Expo 6:00-7:30 Cafeteria and Classrooms
Behavior Strategy Opportunity
A Miraculous Solution for Behavior Issues
Taken from Angela Watson @ https://thecornerstoneforteachers.com/the-2x10-strategy-a-miraculous-solution-for-behavior-issues/
I’ve been blogging since 2003, and I don’t think I’ve ever used the term “miraculous” in relation to behavior management (or anything in education, for that matter). But this is a technique that might be as close as it gets. If you have a student for whom no other solutions seem to work, read on.
The 2×10 strategy is simple: spend 2 minutes per day for 10 days in a row talking with an at-risk student about anything she or he wants to talk about. There’s no mystery to the reasoning here, of course–the strategy builds a rapport and relationship between teacher and student, and lets the child see that you genuinely care about him or her as a person.
The miracle is in how it turns that abstract, overwhelming, where-do-I-start concept of relationship building into something easily manageable with an immediate payoff for everyone involved. And the miracle is in how well it seems to be working in real classrooms, at all grade levels, across the country.
Additionally, I love that this strategy helps teachers focus on the good in their most challenging students so we can avoid falling into the trap of viewing a disruptive kid as a problem instead of a person. It’s much easier to muster up the enthusiasm and patience you need for working with challenging kids if you have genuine empathy for them and get to spend time enjoying their company rather than always correcting them.
Bottom line: As much as teachers would like to have one-on-one convos with every student every day about anything the student wants to talk about…time restraints make that hard. The 2 x 10 is an easy structure to make sure it gets prioritized.
News and Notes....
Progress Reports are coming up quickly!!
- Specialists’ grades are due on Friday, February 28th by 5 pm.
- Teachers’ grades are due on Monday, March 2nd by 5 pm.
- Progress reports go home on Wednesday, March 4th by noon.
Please do not send Robin the PDF of your progress reports until you are completely finished. She only wants one copy sent to her…please and thank you.
- VBCPS has moved to using VOYA for your financial planning. Mr. Long will be here on Feb. 24th. Here is your scheduling link: https://go.oncehub.com/VBCPS_Christopher_Farms_ES This will take you to the booking page where all the available appointments will be listed. Each appointment is 20 minutes. First appointment starts at 7:40 (we go in 20 minute increments), last appointment starts at 4:00 in the Guidance Conference Room. That gives CFES 21 available appointments. We will plan our second visit for the Spring.
Digital Learning Day
Morning Meeting Moment - Problem Solving/Black History Month
Teach the Problem-Solving Steps
Come up with a simple problem-solving process for your child, one that you can consistently implement. For example, you might try the following five steps:
- Step 1: What am I feeling? Help your child understand what she’s feeling in the moment (frustration, anger, curiosity, disappointment, excitement, etc.) Noticing and naming emotions will diffuse their charge and give your child a chance to take a step back.
- Step 2: What’s the problem? Guide your child to identify the specific problem. In most cases, help her take responsibility for what happened rather than pointing fingers. For instance, instead of, “Joey got me in trouble at recess,” your child might say, “I got in trouble at recess for arguing with Joey.”
- Step 3: What are the solutions? Encourage your child to come up with as many solutions as possible. At this point, they don’t even need to be “good” solutions. They’re just brainstorming here, not yet evaluating the ideas they’ve generated.
- Step 4: What would happen if…? What would happen if your child attempted each of these solutions? Is the solution safe and fair? How will it make others feel? You can also try role playing at this step. It’s important for your child to consider BOTH positive and negative consequences of her actions.
- Step 5: Which one will I try? Ask your child to pick one or more solutions to try. If the solution didn't work, discuss WHY and move on to another one. Encourage your child to keep trying until the problem is solved.
Consistently practice these steps so that they become second nature, and model solving problems of your own the same way. It's a good idea to reflect: What worked? What didn’t? What can you do differently next time?
Ask Open-Ended Questions
Asking open-ended questions improves a child’s ability to think critically and creatively, ultimately making them better problem-solvers. Examples of open-ended questions include:
- How could we work together to solve this?
- How did you work it out? or How do you know that?
- Tell me about what you built, made, or created.
- What do you think will happen next?
- What do you think would happen if…?
- What did you learn?
- What was easy? What was hard?
- What would you do differently next time?
Open-ended questions have no right answer and can’t be answered with a simple “Yes” or “No.”
You can ask open-ended questions even when your child isn’t currently solving a problem to help her practice her thinking skills, which will come in handy when she does have a problem to solve.