The Cannon Connection
Staff Information & Updates 1/13/14
From The Principal's Pen...
Our first week of 2014 flew by so quickly!! This week is sure to do the same, as it will certainly be a busy week at Cannon. Dr. Ryan and the GCISD Leadership team will be on campus on Wednesday & Thursday of this week, as they host the Grapevine & Colleyville Community Leadership group campus tours. It is such an honor that the district has selected Cannon as the elementary campus to tour for both of these important community groups! Prior to arriving for their tours, Dr. Ryan will present to these groups to tell them all about GCISD, LEAD 2021, and the many exciting initiatives going on across the district. Since most of the members of these community leadership groups have backgrounds in business, rather than education, these opportunities to visit schools is very new and exciting to them! Both of these groups will be very large, which means we will divide them into smaller groups, in an effort to divide and conquer. They will be visiting all grade levels and will be told that they are free to come into any classroom, in order to observe a learning platform in action! Since our STEM & 1:1 iPad initiatives will be highlighted in Dr. Ryan's presentation, it is important that digital learning can be observed in all classrooms during their visitation times (see calendar below). If possible, plan to shift any STEM/engineering-related work that is planned to these timeframes, as it would be a great opportunity to showcase our work through STEM! I have NO doubt these groups will be highly impressed with the learning they see going on at Cannon! The Leadership Grapevine group that toured Cannon last year shared that it was "one of the BEST parts of their day" and they loved interacting with and learning from Cannon scholars.
You will also note that there are several other districts that have asked to visit Cannon this month, including Southlake-Carroll ISD on Monday. These groups are all either currently starting a STEM program or are in the planning stages of bringing STEM to a school in their district. Because these groups have specific interests and goals, we will let individual teachers/grade levels know if we are planning to bring these groups to your classroom. Please be sure to let your scholars know that if we come in the class while they are working, it is because they are doing such an outstanding job that others are coming to learn from them! Thank you for all of your hard work to make Cannon scholars shine!
LAST WEEK- A PHOTO REVIEW
Interactive Bulletin Boards!
Kami Receives $2,500 Raytheon-EIE Teacher Scholarship!
Kindergarten Goes To Legoland!!
Dates to Remember
1/13 Southlake-Carroll ISD tours Cannon's STEM program - 8:15-11:15
1/13 Cannon Scholars serve on student panel @ Engaging the Net Generation mtg.
1/13 EMT (Emergency Mgmt. Team) meeting 3:0 0
1/14 District Dual Language Teacher (Spanish side only) meeting - all day
1/14 U.CAN 3:00
1/15 Leadership Colleyville tours Cannon 7:45-9:15
1/16 Leadership Grapevine tours Cannon 8:00 -9:30 a.m.
1/17 PLC Week B - Kinder;5th;2nd
1/18 GCISD Health & Wellness Expo - 9:00-12:30 CTMS
1/18 First Lego League Robotics team qualifier competition
1/20 Student Holiday
1/21 National Archives for NASA - Animals in Space presentation - 5th grade 8:30
1/21 Cannon hosts GCISD Champions meeting - 3:15 - library
1/23 ESL Collaboration Session, 3:30-5:00, PDEC
1/23 Apple & HEB ISD tour Cannon - 8:30 -10:30
1/23 Federal Express- Packaging presentation - 2nd grade 12:00 - library
1/24 School Board Appreciation items due by end of day
1/24 PLC Week A -3rd;4th;1st
1/25 Fillie Trot - GHS
1/27 Irving ISD & Coppell ISD tour Cannon STEM/1:1 8:30 -11:30
1/28 CEC 3:15
1/28 Data meetings - 1st, 3rd, 4th - conference times
1/29 Data meetings - Kinder, 2nd, 5th -conference times
1/30 Lockdown Drill - 8:30
1/30 Standards-Based Report Card meeting - 2nd grade 3:30-4:30 -location TBD
1/31 PLC Week A - Kinder;5th;1st
January Is School Board Appreciation Month
GCISD trustees will be recognized at the monthly school board meeting during the last week of the month. All schools are asked to ―shower the school board members with special recognition by providing student-created posters, cards, letters or other objects of appreciation. All grade levels need to participate in this effort. Scholar work should be dropped off in my office by the end of the day on Friday, January 24th. As a reminder, Cannon’s school board representative this year is Jesse Rodriquez, pictured to the right. However, we need to have items for all board members, so please refer to the following link to read short bios on all GCISD trustees. Thank you!
REMINDERS & UPDATES
- EMERGENCY PROCEDURES UPDATE - Simplicity – the best way to ensure a correct and rapid response to any incident or emergency is to not over-complicate the process. As shared earlier in the year, GCISD is now using the SRP (Standard Response Protocol), in order to keep the response process simple. Each of you are already familiar with SRP, which essentially boils everything down to four basic responses. As you will recall, when you have a situation it requires one of four actions:
- Lockout – secure the perimeter; no one comes in but it’s business as usual in the building
- Lockdown (threat is in the building) – lock everything, turn off lights and get out of sight
- Evacuate – to a location in or out of the building
- Shelter – determine the type and method of sheltering needed (e.g. tornado, earthquake, hazmat, drop cover and hold)
It is critical that we continue to train scholars, staff and parents for each of these responses. Please review these on a regular basis with your scholars. The next important action that we will soon be training and practicing with scholars and staff is reunification. Our Emergency Management Team will be discussing and refining our campus reunification process this week, in order to share it out with all staff. Also, we are making plans to add a link to our campus website that has information for parents about our emergency response procedures. When this link is ready, we will share it with all staff, to be added to your parent communication.
- GRADE LEVEL DATA MEETINGS - All grade level data meetings have been scheduled and can be found in the calendar of dates in this newsletter. Please make note of your grade level's assigned date and prepare to participate in this meeting during your conference time.
- C & I DEPARTMENT WEBSITE UPDATED - Be sure to check out the new Curriculum Usage Guides on the C & I website! The guides will be very helpful for an "at-a-glance" view to easily identify how each curriculum document can be used. There have also been some recent updates with new technology resources and tech lessons added to this site. Please note that you must be signed in on the district website to access these documents.
- DID YOU KNOW THAT....Section 46.15 of the Texas Penal Code says licensed peace officers are excluded from the statute preventing someone from bringing a firearm on campus. This means that visitors to school, who are licensed peace officers, may carry their firearm with them anywhere on campus and anywhere on school property. It doesn’t matter whether they on or off duty.
SUMMER PROGRAMS INFORMATION
GCISD Summer Academy offers K-5 students an intervention program that not only meets academic needs, but is also highly engaging, interactive, and aligned with the learning platform goals of LEAD 2021. This year’s program will be hosted at Timberline Elementary School from June 9-25.
- If you are interested in joining the Summer Academy team, please complete an online application through the GCISD Human Resources website. The deadline for applications to be completed is February 3, 2014.
Summer Enrichment class proposals are now being accepted. Classes will be offered for grades K-8 in all areas (academic, physical fitness, fine arts). Summer Enrichment classes run for one week for 3 hours per day either morning or afternoon. Classes will begin June 9-July 18. For more information, including how to submit a class proposal, see this Summer Enrichment attachment.
GCISD students of all ages are invited to create artwork illustrating the fun learning opportunities available through GCISD's Summer Enrichment Program. This year's theme is "Making Connections Through Summer Enrichment". Click here for information to share with your scholars and parents about this contest. Last year's winner was Cannon student, Colin Jones!
UPDATE ON TEXAS BLUEBONNET AWARD VOTING
TWEETS FROM THE WEEK
Great job tweeting about the great things going on at Cannon! Keep up the good work!
Check out some of the staff tweets from last week!
TBlizzard @Tonataylor9 Jan @georuzo Look!You have inspired a Cannon Cub! You would make her day if you could respond to her letter! #inspired pic.twitter.com/wz82CWHXvu
Andrés Ruzo @georuzo18h @Tonataylor WOW! SO humbled by Sara's letter. I'm in Peru, but want to stop by Cannon & answer her questions in person. :) would that be ok?
Irene Boynton @ireneb201111 Jan Mingling in Math class...kinders love this engaging number sense processing activity http://goo.gl/ypA5AU #cancubs @kelleybj
Irene Boynton @BoyntonsBuzz10 Jan Ready for our first field trip! Legoland here we come!! #cancubs pic.twitter.com/76GYod6jRU
Catha Maples @CathaMaples20h Kindergarten scholars learn to build skyscrapers strong enough to with stand an earthquake at Legoland #cancubs pic.twitter.com/4rInMiAqJr
Joanna Mussey @JoannaMussey9 Jan Teamwork in Pre-K @cancubs @Tonataylor pic.twitter.com/vu68ZP0k2E
Patrick R. Lollis @canmaestro10 Jan PaperPort notes allows @cancubs to markup PDF files of music and turn them in on Edmodo. #paperlesschoir @tonataylor @DFA_GCISD
Tina Berumen @tinaberumen10 Jan Excited about our @cancubs @STEM4th graders joining The Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library via Google Hangout on Tuesday! #GHOAlamo
Cannon Library @Cannonreads10 Jan Completely beaming with pride! Our @cancubs have already logged into our new @MackinVIA ebook app 2900 times in two weeks! #ebooks
Deena Crawford @MrsCrawfordSSS10 Jan Analyzing characteristics of colonies, and then will defend which one they choose to inhabit #cancubs @cancubs pic.twitter.com/WhdzXrQGQV
Melanie Place @melanie_place10 Jan Creating robots and finding their perimeter in 3rd grade. @cancubs @Tonataylor pic.twitter.com/cxoZtgpbrr
Michelle Hall @Michelleh3409 Jan Examining base packaging materials for our plant package.@cancubs http://pic-collage.com/_OVgBCtKL pic.twitter.com/Zrwwq4Awbm
Gail Marin @gail_marin8 Jan Studying the physical properties of rocks! @Tonataylor @aricci1 #cannoncubs pic.twitter.com/kJxZANQdGK
Judy Hockenbrough @JHockenbrough8 Jan 2nd graders have been uploading PicCollage pages into the MyStory app to create books about the U.S. Holidays. #cancubs @Tonataylor
TO DO LIST
- Set a timer and turn in attendance by 9:45-10:15 daily.
- Add your grade level data meeting to your calendar.
- Review Emergency procedures with your scholars.
- Plan your grade level School Board Recognition activity & complete by 1/24.
- Be prepared for community leadership teams to see digital/STEM learning in your classroom!
- Check out the new curriculum usage guides on the C & I website.
- Tweet throughout the week to share the great work going on @ Cannon!