The Roar
March 17, 2014
The best thing we can do for kids...instead of teaching them to be successful...teach them how to respond when they are not successful--author unknown
News to Roar About
- The Harbins Cafe Team for getting 100 ON YOUR HEALTH INSPECTION TODAY! Harbins Cafeteria ladies are ROCK STARS!!!!!
- Thank you so much to Thomas Woolfolk for letting me share the Media Lab with him.
- I want to make sure that Jennifer Rogers, Jennifer Samples, Dianne Eakin, Trista Clark, Linda Wood, and TJ Gibby... know how crucial their support and assistance has been to me in the last few weeks, with preparing for the county and school art shows. Whether it was helping to physically accomplish tasks or just words of encouragement and small gestures, everyone of them have been amazing!
- Parapros for your teamwork to cover lunch when sub jobs weren't picked up. You always put students first and it is greatly appreciated!
- Thank you Bridget Saldana for pulling all our Famous American books!!!
- Thank you Chris Rogers, Christy LeMaster, Trista Clark, Jennifer Dalton, and Cyndy Palmer so much for helping me judge the Witzzle Pro Competition! I couldn't have done it without you guys!
- To all of our mentors and mentees for your teamwork this year!
- Action Teams for your outstanding work on curriculum projects! Your work continues to be impressive and will make a significant impact on our work with students!
- Support and Tech Teams for another great session of planning for instructional leadership at Harbins. Your role is invaluable to our school!
- 1st and 3rd grade teams for outstanding common planning sessions this week! Your students are going to benefit from all of the great collaborative planning!
- Minh and Nicole for your leadership with Shamrock Grams to help our families in need. Thank you to all who supported these fundraising efforts!
- Montine Powell for all of your help with the School Council and cluster meeting.
- Bridget, Chris and Debbie for your support of common planning this week. We appreciate your leadership.
- Teachers for getting your grades in on time so reports can be printed on time.
- Linda Wood for all you have done and are doing to provide the talent showcase for our students. They are so excited!
- Shelly Everett for all of her hard work to prep a piece of artwork for every students for the art show on Thursday! We cannot wait to see the displays!
- Sharon Mauney for her leadership!
Announcements
ePortfolio Planning
Science and Social Studies Fair Reminders
Staff development tine will be used to score projects for the Science and SS Fair on March 19 and 20. We have an unprecedented number of projects this year so it will take us all to make this successful. Projects will be coming in Monday through Thursday of this week. Each certified staff member is responsible for scoring at least 6 projects. You will need to score on Wednesday and Thursday as most projects come in on Thursday.
When scoring: Write number on rubric/Write your name on rubric/add the score.
Rubrics for electronic projects will be in mail room.
Projects will be located in these rooms:
5th Grade - U Hall
4th Grade - Empty classrooms beside Inglett and Sirmans
3rd Grade - Theater
2nd Grade - Conference Room beside mail room
K-1 - Jennifer Dalton's room/bookroom
There are signs directing parents for Monday around the building. They are color coded by grade level. These will stay up until the Fair is over. We will ask parents to take them home the night of the fair. Lisa Newton will send a list of activities and locations on Monday along with the schedule for the night of the fair.
Thanks for all your help in making the Fair a success.
Volunteer Breakfast
PLEASE be sure you have added all of your volunteer's names to the Chrome doc that Montine sent out via email. We plan to send home invitations this week and we do not want to miss anyone who has helped our staff this year.
- Support and 1st grade- fruit
- Special areas- paper products
- Kindergarten- beverages
- Special ed teachers (s/c and resource)- pastries
- Self-cont paras- casseroles
- 2nd grade; casseroles
- 3rd grade: pastries
- 4th grade: 1 grits and casseroles
- 5th grade: bagels, cream cheese/spreads, etc. and condiments
Health Survey Schedule
Classroom Spirit Award
Atlanta Science Festival, March 22-29, 2014
GCPS is a partner of the Atlanta Science Festival, a weeklong celebration of local science and technology held March 22-29, 2014 at venues across the metro area. The week includes over 100 events - most of them free - for adults, children, families, and curious folk of all ages. The Festival concludes with the Exploration Expo, the city's biggest interactive science event on March 29 at Centennial Olympic Park. Meet local scientists and engineers, touch a brain, grow your own bacteria, control robotic roaches with your mobile device, crawl into the inflatable planetarium, tour the GSU Bio-Bus and the STE(A)M Truck, explore the Maker Village and Biotech Tent, drop in on the Science Café and the nearby Georgia FIRST Robotics competition.
The online Educator Toolkit has everything educators need to engage with the Atlanta Science Festival: cash incentives to attend the Expo, classroom flyer, volunteer opportunities, and links to relevant Festival events for teachers and students. Learn more at: http://atlantasciencefestival.org/educator-toolkit682-4270
News from Other Schools
- You are invited to Centerville ES 40th Anniversary Celebration on Sunday, March 30th from 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm at Centerville ES.
- Level Creek ES invites you to celebrate 10 years of learning at Level Creek. Please join them on LCES Heritage Night on Friday, March 28th from 6:00 pm - 8:30 pm.
- Fort Daniel ES Celebrates 20 years of Academic Excellence! Please join them for a 20th Anniversary Open House and Reception on Sunday, March 30th from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm. Special program at 3:00 pm in the Cafeteria.
Law Day 2014
Contest Deadline for submission to the Social Studies office is April 4, 2014.
Report Card Timeline
Placement Preference Forms for Parents for 2014-2015- grades K-5
Parent Letter about CRCT Date Changes- grades 3-5 only
Kindergarten Registration and Round-Up
Retrofit Reminders and Technology Updates
RETROFIT REMINDERS
- Clinic copier is now named 445-Copier-907X
- Remember to submit a TSR to Keith for tech problems.
- New audio enhancement systems for every classroom and new projectors are scheduled to be installed during the last week of March. We will offer more details after that planning session this week.
- As we continue to integrate technology across all grade levels and subjects, more and more great digital work is being created every day at Harbins. Chris is always looking for great digital student samples to share on our website, our technology page, and with other teachers and LSTCs.
- If you have any digital student work (a link, embed code, photo, video, etc. - no last names, please!) you would like to share, please fill out this short form (also posted on Harbins Technology Central front page) so Chris will have a record of it.
- Chris will change out the student work on the front page of the Harbins website every two or three days, so tell your students to watch and see if theirs will be next!
Study Island Updates-Welcome to the Island, mon!
- Study Island is here just in time to help you and your students welcome Spring and warmer weather.
- Quick-Start guide (2 pages) to answer all of your questions about login, password, access, etc. was sent by Chris via email last week.
- It will be live for students in grades 1-5 (ALL SUBJECT AREAS) to use on Monday, March 10th. There is also a Study Island folder in Google Drive with lots of documents and resources for you.
Lockdown Drill
Grayson Days Race
Personnel Updates
- Stephanie Smith will move to Patrick ES for the 2014-2015 school year. We are excited for Stephanie that she will be closer to home and get to teach with her two best friends. We will miss you, Stephanie, but wish you all the best in your new school home!
- Welcome to Julie Goolsby who will join us from Hopkins ES. Some of you already know Julie from the time she was at Harbins doing a long term sub many years ago. Julie is a veteran GCPS teacher and will be an asset to our school. She will serve as a 3rd grade teacher (for now) filling Stephanie's position. We are excited to have her back at Harbins!
- Mary Ann Berardinelli will retire at the end of the year. Her husband, Jim, is retired so we are excited about all of the fun they are going to have with grandbabies! We appreciate all Mary Ann has done for students at Harbins for many, many years. She will be missed!
Professional Learning
Grade Level Professional Learning
Grade Level professional development:
- March 19- Science Fair Judging
- March 20- Science Fair Judging
- March 27- Literacy Professional Learning
- April 2 - Tool Time
- April 3- Math Professional Development
- April 16- SPG data entry and staff development log on the PD&E tool
- April 24- CRCT Testing Meeting for grades 3-5 and support staff involved in testing. Please attend a grade level session during specials.
- April 25- Make-Up CRCT Testing Meeting at 3:45 for all involved in testing that were not at one of the meetings on April 24.
- May 1- Literacy and Math
Upcoming Common Planning - March
Make sure you have turned in your leave request through the Portal for your next upcoming Common Planning day along with your request for a sub through AESOP.
- March 17- Kindergarten
- March 21- 5th Grade
- March 25- 2nd Grade
Book of Honor
Nomination forms are in the mailroom. You may nominate a student to sign the Book of Honor at any time. Send them to the front lobby after announcements with their nomination form just as you do for handshakes. We will issue a special sticker and certificate when the student comes to the front to sign the book.
Below are the criteria for a student earning the opportunity to sign the Book of Honor:
· The student must consistently on a daily basis exhibit ownership of 7 Habits by:
· Showing use of the habits through their actions, attitude, and verbalizing them.
· The use of the 7 habits should be student initiated, independent, not teacher directed
· The criteria should be used to judge the students ownership of the habits against the individual student, not group comparison
GTES Updates
As brief observations are finished, the administrative team will begin the 2nd formative observation for 30 minutes. Remember that the 2nd formative observation is not announced.
Media Center News
Tiger Tales:
Don't forget to let me know if you need a class set of wristbands if you are reading the Lemonade War as a class. Please send your students to the media center to get their wristband if they are reading the book on their own. Also don't forget to remind parents to let us know if THEY are reading the book - I can give wristbands to the students to give to their parents.
I have a close reading lesson that I created to go along with the book (I think it will work for grades 3 and up). If you want a copy of this please let me know.
Check out what is going on in the Media Center on this Smore Flyer - included is the story time schedule for this month, ideas for lessons and a list of the NEW BOOKS we got in this month - plus a special PRIZE for reading :)
Faculty Meeting
Our next faculty meeting will be held on March 25th from 3:45-4:30. Bring your copy of Rigorous Reading with you to the meeting. The reading assignment for all is to read chapters 5 for the faculty meeting (note the changes in reading assignment due to extended day adjustments_.
Y'all Come Sessions for RTI and Progress Monitoring
Y’all Come Sessions for RTI and Progress Monitoring
Please plan to have at least one grade level member...all are invited to come to the monthly Y'all Come Sessions to learn more about Interventions and Progress Monitoring for best results. These dates are on the school calendar but wanted to bring them to your attention for your grade level. Sessions will be held in Jennifer Dalton's room next to the Book room. See you at 3:45
· 3/24-General questions about collecting data and graphing-Lee and Herrington
ABCD Awards
Please send your nominations to Cindy Truett by March 18th for recognition of staff members who have gone above and beyond the call of duty to ensure that teaching and learning at Harbins are at the highest levels.
School Improvement Team
The SIT team will meet on Tuesday, April 1st from 1:15-4:00 in the Professional Development Room. The reading assignment from your Teacher As Assessment Leader book is to read chapters 5 & 6 for our meeting.
Roar Deadline
If you want to add something to the Roar, it must be sent to Montine by noon on Thursday of each week. If not turned in by Thursday at noon, it will have to be entered into the following week’s Roar. Thanks for your help!
News to Roar About
We will place “News to Roar About” in the Roar each Monday. It is our hope that throughout the year that you will take time to send us a note to let us know about a colleague who deserves recognition for outstanding work. Please be sure to share your compliments with us so we can highlight those individuals in the Roar. You can email compliments to Cindy Truett or Montine Powell.
Leaders in Learning
A link will be sent to you in March for your Leader in Learning.
Through the Eyes of a Child
Send your cute kid stories, in detail, to Cindy Truett over email to have them included in the Roar.