Week 12: November 18, 2016

It is Friday! 

Housekeeping: 

- I am proposing the implementation of a Student Run Bank through a partnership with PNC Bank. Student Run Bank Fun Fact: Promotes financial literacy and money management for children and adults. If you are interested in helping this come to fruition, please let me know and I will invite you to the next meeting.

- I wanted to send a special shout out to the 5th grade team for their usage of the Benchmark Universe resources to drive and assess instruction! They will share their experience with this resource, at an upcoming faculty meeting.

- There's great appreciation for your honest feedback about the Flipped Meetings. As it is a work in progress I thank you for your reception. One piece of advice that stood out was the request for a quick face-to-face meeting on the actual scheduled faculty meeting date. This will allow for clarification, questions and extensions. The feedback received was documented as "attendance" to the meeting. On December 13th we will meet for 30 minutes to review the Flipped Meeting. It will be sent out on Friday, December 9th.

- Laptop carts: please be sure to return laptop, within a window, following dismissal by 4:15 p.m. in the designated grade level chairperson's classroom. 

Highlights of the Week: 
- Congratulations to Deanna for bringing forth life to her princess, Miss Madelyn, on Friday, November 17th. Welcome to Motherhood! 

- Thank you, Mrs. Jones, for formatting K-5's Yearlong Templates! Your support, leadership and focus is most appreciated! 

- Congratulations again to Ms. Jewell for her recognition as our 'Teacher of the Month'!

- Thank you Mrs. Gandee for sending out the Flocabulary link! I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the class while reinforcing 2nd grade vocabulary through this highly engaged link. I encourage teachers to view the site and reinforce vocabulary and content objectives. This would be a great resource for front-loading vocabulary for our SPED and ESOL.

- Mr. Erickson observed classrooms and wanted me to share a "thank you" for being so welcoming. Thanks to Mrs. Rivers, Ms. Erney and Ms. Mucica.

- Bridgett Brookbank, Admin. Coordinator for Language Arts, visited 3rd grade classrooms this week. One of our focus for the school year is focusing on the Language Arts block and ensuring that students are given great Tier I reading instruction, working through Reading & Writing Workshop and given time to actually read. We are asking her expertise to assist in the implementation of a consistent Language Arts block, K-5.

Students as Learners: 

- 2nd grade students in Ms. Erney's class were working through Guided Math/Math Workshop. Students were observed having critical content conversations with a peer or in a small group and were 100% engaged in their leveled centers. Student levels ranged from single digit addition to 20 to double digit by double digit addition while working with Ms. Erney.

- The morning message in Mrs. Rivers' class was both exciting and engaging. Students completed a cloze morning message, on the Epson board, and were chosen using a 'Wheel of Fortune' wheel! I hoped for my name to be on the wheel so that I could participate in placing the vocabulary into the message.  

Important Dates: 

- November 22nd: FLE for 4th & 5th Grades

- November 23rd-25th: NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Holiday 
- November 24th: Happy Thanksgiving 

My Current Reading:



I truly appreciate your attention to the needs of our students!
~ Antoinette 

Week 11: November 11, 2016

Well...Happy Pre-Friday! 

Today, it is our privilege to say “thank you” to all of America’s veterans, to let them know that we appreciate them for their service and honor them for their sacrifices. The price of freedom is high. We cannot afford to forget those willing to pay it. Today, we celebrate America’s veterans for keeping this Nation “the land of the free and the home of the brave.” 

Housekeeping: 

- We have a flipped staff meeting on Tuesday so please view at your earliest convenience.  

Highlights of the Week: 

- It is pretty hard to reflect on a week where we were only here for 2 days of instruction! 
- November is 'Family Involvement in Education Month' and of the 25 teachers who submitted their number of Parent/Teacher Conference held - 75% of our parents attended. A great amount of conferences were scheduled for the latter part of this week resulting in 88% of our parents attending conferences! That's awesome involvement and increased opportunities to foster home/school relationships. 

Students as Learners: 

- Students provided amazing feedback on Class Meetings during the Admin. Assemblies on Wednesday. 

	+ - What do you like?	D - What would you add?
4TH	·         Working together ·         Learning why things are important ·         Reaching goals ·         How to use time wisely ·         Earn prizes and rewards ·         My voice is heard ·         Ways to make things better	Ø  Wish we can talk about feelings more Ø  Talk about controlling gossip Ø  More about how to be kind Ø  Talk more about ways to help and solve problems
3RD	·         Sharing ideas ·         Get to know things ·         Take Turns ·         Talk about problems & solutions ·         Get to know classmates better ·         Sitting together in a circle	Ø  More technology Ø  Active conversations Ø  Give eye contact to who is speaking Ø  Sharing something new
K
1ST	·         Listening to the teacher ·         Talking about behavior and being nice ·         Learn how to care for community	Ø  Have snack Ø  Talk more about sharing Ø  Tell us to be super kind
2ND	·         Announcements – someone earns a prize ·         Talk about goals ·         Happiness ·         Share a positive with a friend	Ø  Focus on things that are not bad all the time Ø  Need positive meetings
5TH	·         We each have goals ·         No one changes their card ·         Learn about new material ·         Learn areas of growth and what to work on ·         Kindness ·         It’s not on a day when we have Strings	Ø  More fun activities Ø  Use or review subjects prior to SOL preparation Ø  Review characteristics of good behavior Ø  Review items from the SCA Meetings with the class Ø  Report on the weekly progress of class instead just after a test Ø  Talk about the morning to start the day Ø  Talk more about ‘Good’ versus ‘Improvements’

Important Dates: 

- November 14th: Elementary Level Meeting - McDonald out in a.m. (Ms. Otterblad will be present)

- November 15th: Flipped Staff Meeting
                             OneDrive Training @ 8:20 a.m. in Computer Lab  
                             Leadership Meeting @ 4:00 p.m. 
- November 16th: Lincoln Financial in the Teacher's Lounge                                                                        OneDrive Training @ 4:00 p.m. in Computer Lab  

- November 17th: Report Cards Go Home

                             Awards Ceremony: K-2 @ 9:30-10:30 a.m. 
                             Awards Ceremony: 3-5 @ 2:00-3:00 p.m.  
- November 21st: Wear Jeans 
- November 22nd: Wear Jeans
- November 23rd-25th: Thanksgiving Break - School will be closed 

My Current Reading:

A big "THANK YOU" to the loved ones who've served in our country's military! Thank you to the wives or husbands of those who've served. Your sacrifice is not in vain! 

~ Antoinette 

Week 10: November 4, 2016

Itttt'sssss Ffffffffffrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiddddddddddddaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyy!!!!

Housekeeping: 

- Sign In/Sign Out Procedures: I thank you all for embracing the new procedures. 

- Time and Leave: If leave will occur in the same pay period, please complete leave on one leave slip. For example: If you are taking Personal Leave on 11.15.16 and Professional Leave on 11.16.16, you can place both dates on one (1) leave slip. Just mark the dates in the appropriate sections. 

- Be sure to sign up for times to get students into the computer lab to obtain their passwords and to access Office365. Please do so on Wednesday. There is a county deadline for this to be completed, sign up as soon as possible. This expectation is attached to Standard 6: Professionalism.

- I will be hosting three (3) OneDrive Training; 11.10.16 @ 4:00 p.m., 11.15.16 @ 8:20 a.m. and 11.16.16 @ 4:00 p.m. I look forward to seeing you there! You must only attend one but if you would like, you can attend multiple sessions.

Highlights of the Week: 

- The kids were so beautiful and handsome for picture day! Ms. Marshall was the MVP on Thursday! She was like Flo Jo going from one room to the other ensuring that all students have money for pictures. I so appreciate your laser-like focus & attention! 

- Accuracy, focus and productive are words used to describe the Panther PAWS Committee Meeting. Mrs. Rivers, your leadership is appreciated! 

- Congratulations to Ms. Fernandez! She is replacing Ms. Kemick as our new Alphabest EEC Teacher in the afternoons. 

- Mrs. Moller gave "shout outs" to the 3rd & 5th Grade Teams for signing up and getting their students to the computer lab to go through the password change and login for Office 365. She particularly praised Ms. Brown for her infectious praise of and enthusiasm for her students' technological literacy. Oh Yeah! 

- A revelation was shared at our Technology Meeting this week: Our students (grades PK-5) have only known a life of smart phones and touch screens, technology is what they know. I believe that this reality supports the lessening of worksheets. Thank you Mrs. Moller and Mrs. Nicely for bringing that to the table! We must not "begin to expose" them to technology but embrace, foster and enhance their knowledge of it! 

- I've met with PNC Bank to share my interest in having a student run bank! They are willing to partner with us and I will be holding meeting #2 on the 14th. If you would like to know more about my experience with student run banks, the positives about this  and my vision for Bel Air with financial literacy and planning, please stop past. I will need assistance with the bank...if interested come to the meeting. 

- "Thank You" to our 1st and 2nd Grade Teams for the admirable level of attention an efficiency as we created our 1/2 combination class! Thank you Ms. Erney for planting the seed for this possibility back in July, "If we have too many...I would love to have a combo class again!"

Students as Learners: 

-  Kindergarten students working throughout their Guided Reading and centers with high engagement! Ms. Williams' class were writing about their Monday evening. A lot of students chose to write about Halloween. Kids were using beginning sounds to write so their faces lit up when an adult could read their writing and make connections to their pictures. Way to go! Ms. Terezon, Mrs. Findley and Mrs. Malik worked on differentiated activities: identifying letter sounds, using magnetic words to spell out the sounds and writing out the sounds! Great job Kindergarten! 

- What an amazing buzz heard throughout Ms. Roop's 5th grade classroom! Students were in Book Club groups arranged throughout the classroom. Students excitedly shared story elements, predictions, main idea and made connections to previous readings. Ms. Roop was truly a facilitator of their learning. A group of males were highly interested and shared rich conversation about their Book Club literature! Impressive! 

Important Dates: 

- November 7th: Parent/Teacher Conferences - NO School for Students 
                           Principal Induction #2 - Mrs. McDonald out in the a.m. 
                           FBA Training - Mrs. Quattrone out in the a.m. 
                           TEAM Meetings - Mrs. McDonald out at 3:00 p.m. 

- November 8th: Election Day - NO School for Students and Staff
- November 9th: 3rd Grade begin CogAT Testing 
                           Admin Assemblies during Encore rotations
                           PAWS Store (be sure to sign up a time)
                           Advisory Council @ 5:00 p.m. 
                           PTA Meeting @ 6:00 p.m. 
- November 10th: Principal Articulation Meeting @ 8:00-12:00 p.m. 
                           3rd Grade CogAT Testing
                           Popcorn Parties
                           OneDrive Training @ 4:00 p.m. in the Computer Lab
                           Parent STRINGS Night @ 6:00 p.m.
- November 11th: Veteran's Day Holiday - NO School for Students and Staff
                              Report Cards submitted by 3:00 p.m. export 

Video Reflection:

Contrary to what we may want to believe...if we have a growth mindset, with effort, we can train our brain to get smarter! Go figure! Standard VII: Student Academic Progress!

https://youtu.be/ElVUqv0v1EE?list=PLnah-hqu5MaQY5t2GjBAwt9E7iJFYPsOA

At Bel Air we deserve consistency! Reflect on this week and what's been consistent for you! Enjoy!

~ Antoinette