Ms. Mac's Memos
#ALL-IN
Park Street Mission and Vision
Park Street Mission:
We Learn. We Grow. We Thrive.
Park Street Vision:
Our vision is to provide a collaborative foundation for successful learning and living through:
P- Positive Experiences
S- Supporting all students
E- Engaging with the community and creating
S- Students of excellence
Learn
Week at a Glance
School Board Appreciation Week
Tuesday:
- Milestones Training
- Board Meeting- Ms. Grogan being recognized as Employee of the month 6:00pm
Wednesday:
- Staff meeting 3:40 in the Media Center
Thursday:
- Groundbreaking Ceremony 10am
- Townhall Meeting Marietta 6th grade academy (6-7:30)
Friday:
- Georgia Highlands Science Day
Mac's Mission
Mac's Monthly Missions
Your mission, if you choose to accept it is record or take picture of student talk in either partners, book club, or small groups.
You have to tweet using- #macsmonthlymission #parkstreetallin and @PSE_Principal showing your students in different student talk groups.
Mission Prize- $25 Target Gift card
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Grow
Park Street 75th Anniversary Gala....
PTA is hosting a Park Street 75th anniversary Gala on Saturday may 4th from 7-9:30pm.Cost is $100 per plate for anyone that would like to attend. Please see the invitation below.
Volunteer Breakfast
Don't forget to sign up to bring something to the volunteer breakfast on Thursday, March 28th between 8:30-10:30. Also, if you know of any volunteers, please feel free to share the flyer below.
Please help us by signing up to bring a dish or item to contribute to the breakfast. Please click the link to sign up. https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0A4BAAAF2AA1FF2-volunteer
Coaches Corner...
How to Read a Lucy Unit
As the school year comes to a close, many of the schools I work with are launching into a week or so of in-service, summer institutes, and other professional development. It’s “curriculum season” in many places around the country. For many writing teachers, that means diving into the Units of Study for Opinion, Information, and Narrative Writing by Lucy Calkins and colleagues. I’d like to share some tricks for reading the units, whether this will be your first experience with the Units of Study, or you’ve been using the units for many years.
Step 1: Keep an open mind. Seriously. You might think that you are willing to try anything, but then by Session 4 you’re starting to think, “Well I could just change that…” By Session 10 you’re thinking, “Well I could just do this session the way I did it last year…” Then you’ll decide to use a different kind of paper, and you’ll skip this and add that… and by the end of the unit, you’ve actually told yourself that you’re not going to do very much of the unit at all–even though you thought you were being completely open-minded the whole time. Instead, I recommend reading each session with the intention of teaching the session as it is. Then, during the school year, you’ll adapt your teaching to the KIDS, rather that preemptively adapting all the sessions before you’ve even given them a try. Resist the temptation to try to squeeze the new ideas to fit with what you already know, or what you’ve always done in the past.
Step 2: It’s not a script. Okay, that’s not really a step so much as it is a fact. The units are written as a guide, a suggestion for how the unit might go. No two groups of kids are the same, and no two teachers are the same, so you WILL need to make adjustments. This might at first seem contradictory to Step 1 above, but actually it’s not. The sessions make it pretty explicit that you can substitute your own examples, your own stories, connections, and ideas.The books are overflowing with advice for how to make each unit your own.
Step 3: Think long-term. As authors, we knew that our audience would be rereading the series year after year and we knew that we needed to pack the books chock full of advice about teaching writing, and about teaching in general. With that in mind, each year you might pick a lens with which to read. Maybe your first year, you’ll read just to figure out how to teach the minilessons. Then in Year 2, maybe you’ll read to pay more attention to the coaching notes in the sidebars. In Year 3, you might dive into the suggestions for conferring and small group work, and the charts in the second half of the If…Then Curriculum books (charts you might not have even known existed the first year).
Step 4: Read each minilesson. Take notes. This is what I do: I read the minilessons in parts. First I take the “Connection,” and I distill the main point. “What am I doing here?” I think to myself. Then I do the same for the “Teach,” the “Active Engagement” and the “Link.” I use a large post-it and make a few bullet points for each part of the minilesson, and that is what I teach from when I’m sitting with kids during actual writing workshop. Reading this way helps me figure out what I’m going to be doing, and then I don’t have to read directly from the minilesson like a script while I’m teaching!
Connection, Teaching, Active Engagement, Link. My minilesson plan goes on the post-it.
Step 5: Do the work that the kids will do. I cannot even imagine reading the units without trying out some of the writing that the kids will be doing. First of all: It’s fun! Second of all: I don’t think I could really digest the sessions without trying them out on myself (and sometimes on my husband, or my daughter, or my nieces and nephews…)
My own writers notebook.. I label each of my entries sometimes with a page number or a session title to keep me organized.
However you decide to go about reading the units this summer, it’s always better with friends. Recruit some of your colleagues to read the units with you. Maybe you’ll divide up units and then report back to one another. Maybe you’ll all pick one unit to read together. If you can’t get friends to read with you, tell as many people as you can that you’re going to be reading. That way, you’ve committed to it and you can feel great when you’ve accomplished what you set out to do.
Video clips embedded in the link below.
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Thrive
Ground Breaking Ceremony...
5th grade students will be invited outside for the ground breaking as a "farewell" to the old Park Street. We will not have space for all students and staff to attend, but if you are free at that time, please join in! Construction will begin prior to the official ceremony.
Staff Shout Outs..
1. Tamille Wilson Every STEM/STEAM day is better than the last! This past STEAM day was by far the best one yet! My students had a complete blast the ENTIRE day! Your hard work is MUCH appreciated! Thank you so, so much!!!
2. Erica Turnbull, Usher Ramcharan, Ashley Preece Thanks for staying positive during the long GAA prep process!
3. Ms. Wilson/Specials Team Outstanding Stem program on last week.
4. Mrs. Banks, Ms. Thomas, and, Ms. Cloud I just want to say thank you all so much
5. Parapros A Big Shout Out to our kindergarten paraprofessionals! They are always there to support students first thing in the morning and throughout the day! I want them to know that they are a valuable asset to our school and we appreciate them!
6. Chrissy Smith Mrs. Smith is a real team player and an asset to our ESOL team and students! She is always willing to help with whatever she is asked to do and does it a great attitude. Thank you Chrissy for going the extra mile!! We are grateful for you! :)
7. Idris Johnson For being a wonderful and flexible EIP teacher! I have enjoyed working with you this year. The students love you!
8. Nicole Renshaw For delivering word detective missions to my kiddos!! They are sure you work for the Super Secret Detective Agency! LOL!!
9. Ann Rakestraw You are an awesome teacher to collaborate with!! Our students have grown so much!!!