Cornelius Chronicle: February 2016

Friday, February 26, 2016

The Cornelius Chronicle

February 26, 2016

Anita Archer Gems

I love hearing and seeing all of AA active engagement strategies in your classrooms!

*When teacher speaks motion hands toward self. Wait and give students "think time" before motioning hands toward students for response."

-Merry

Don’t say student’s name and call on them to read, respond, answer (saying another student’s name is a ticket to a virtual vacation for the rest of the class)

Give many Opportunities to Respond

Verbal Responses:

Choral
Partner
Teams
Individual
Show and tell responses

Written Responses:

Writing tasks
Whiteboards
Response cards
Drawing

Action Responses:

Touch
Gestures
Facial expressions
Hand signals
Tap it out

Gomez and Gomez Walk-throughs
The dual language administrators were impressed during our G & G walk-throughs this week. Most of you have all of your components up in your classroom to create a print-rich environment! Nice job! This is what we saw:

Gomez and Gomez Walk Through - DL Classroom Environment:

12/12 classrooms - Items in classroom labeled in both languages - PK-6

12/12 classrooms - Plenty of items clearly labeled in both lang - large print & color coded
12/12 classrooms - Plenty of items labeled at or above grade level
12/12 classrooms - Some items labeled at student eye level

12/12 classrooms - Word walls posted in both languages

12/12 classrooms - Word walls are color-coded & clearly posted (large print)
12/12 classrooms - Word walls are robust with high frequency & student-generated words (60-90 words each)
12/12 classrooms - Word walls are accessible to students & interactive

11/12 classrooms - Student-generated alphabets posted in both languages (PK-6)

11/12 classrooms - SG alphabets equally posted in both languages
11/12 classrooms - SG alphabets are clearly posted (large print) or at student eye level
11/12 classrooms - SG alphabets’ vocabulary at or above grade level

11/12 classrooms - Clear and visible list of assigned Bilingual Pairs

11/12 classrooms - List of assigned bilingual pairs clearly posted
7/12 classrooms - Bilingual pairs posted are color-coded
8/12 classrooms - Pocket chart or other system used to change bilingual pairs based on content-area

12/12 classrooms - Desks or tables arranged to promote interactive/group lessons

12/12 classrooms - Desks/tables used for bilingual pairs/groups (groups of 4….2 pairs)
12/12 classrooms - Desks/tables arranged for face-to-face interaction

12/12 classrooms - Content journals observed and used per G & G model

March 2 - Dr. Seuss Reading Day

This Wednesday we will celebrate Dr. Seuss’s birthday with a Reading Day, in celebration for our students’ hard work in reading this year! We will send home a flyer to let parents know. Students can wear comfortable clothes (sweats, PJs) and do reading activities all day. Math should still happen, but you can focus on word problems. Literacy blocks will still happen. Intervention groups won’t be happening, other than kinder going to Manuel. No ELD on Wednesdays anyway. Invite guest readers into your room! We have invited some fire fighters, police officers, and city leaders to be guest leaders.

March 9 - MOU CIT Day

If you have ideas about how we should use our CIT time on March 9th, please email those ideas to me! MOU means Memorandum of Understanding, which says that on MOU CIT days that staff along with the principal will set the agenda. There are 6 MOU CIT dates this year. The future dates are April 13th, May 11th, and June 1st.

If you have ideas for any of those days, please let me know!

Spirit Week - Mar. 28 - Apr. 1

Monday - Get enough sleep - PJ Day

Tuesday - Wear your thinking cap - Hat Day

Wednesday - Little Einsteins/Genius Day - Crazy hair, dress like a mad scientist, wear glasses

Thursday - Dress for Success - Dress Up Day

Friday - Think about your Future - College Pride Day - wear your college gear!

Building Alarm Reminders

I am very happy to report that we haven’t had many false alarms at CO this year!

Please remember the following when entering the building outside of working hours:

1. Be sure you know how to use your key card, what your code is, and what door you should be entering *hint* only the front door!

2. Always be sure to disarm the building

3. Always write your name on the sign in board or paper by the alarm

4. Do not prop doors open, this is a huge safety issue

5. Always erase or cross your name off the sign in board or paper when you leave

6. Before setting any alarms, be sure you are the last one in the building. Custodial is typically there on weeknights past any outside user (typically until 10:30pm)

7. If you can, let the custodian know you're leaving, this alerts them that they are the last one in the building

8. Before setting any alarms, check to see if anyone has signed in on the board after you

9. Before setting any alarms, be sure you've walked the building and are sure all doors are secure

Reminders:

All IAs and teachers MUST have a signed security form for SBAC testing.
Teachers - please send home a parent conference letter with students who do not have a scheduled parent conference
Parent conferences: Mar. 15 4-8 pm, Mar. 16 4-8 pm, Mar. 17 8 am - 4 pm.
Review PBIS lessons with your class this week!
Please let the after school program teachers take out the first buses when they are on bus duty, so that they can be to the after school program on time!
Teachers - don’t forget to have your TalentEd folders up-to-date by Mon!

Bus Duty: 1st & 3rd grade teachers, and the “regulars”!

Calendar:

3/1 8:00 am Referral Team Meeting

3/1 5:30 pm BSC (Cheryl H., Rosa, Manuel, Janelly, and Angella)

3/1 6:30 pm Parents in Action Parent Club meeting

3/2 All day Celebrate Dr. Seuss’s Birthday with Read-In Day!

3/2 8:00 am CIT - Data Teams: Pre-Assessment Data

3/2 10:15 am Early Learning Hour with Emma (library - ages 3-5 year olds)

3/2 Lunch - Staff Potluck - Potato Bar!

3/2 1-4 pm Elementary Principals (Angella)

3/4 8:00 am 3rd Grade Cougar Team (TRC)

3/4 4:00 pm First Friday - Equity Happy Hour at Primetime!

Looking ahead:

3/11 End of 2nd Trimester - No School!

3/15 4-8 pm Parent Conferences

3/16 4-8 pm Parent Conferences

3/17 8 am - 4 pm Parent Conferences

3/17-3/18 No School!

3/21-325 Spring Break!

Friday, February 19, 2016

The Cornelius Chronicle

February 19, 2016

Anita Archer Gems

All of the lessons that I’ve observed this week, including just walking by in the hallway, have included AA active engagement strategies! Awesome! Keep up the great work! Here are some gems that I received from teachers after the training last week! If you haven’t sent me your take-aways from Anita yet, please send it!

One gem I picked up from Anita Archer is cloze reading with the whole class. A simple way to keep kids engaged!

-Leah

The biggest take-away from the AA training for me is to encourage students to be responsible for each other, especially in their pairs. I will have partners check that they're on the right page when we're reading. I will have pairs check handwriting and the appearance of their writing, underlining what needs to be changed. I think this will work so well to improve the overall appearance and accuracy of their writing.

-Cheryl H.

Already have used a lot!

Some:

incorporating word relatives in content

created my own hand signals to extend how I get students to transition

more use of cloze in all areas of instruction, not just reading

-Linda

Technology and Tamales Night

We had a good turnout for our Technology and Tamales Night - about 50 families were represented! Thanks to all of the 3rd and 4th grade teachers, along with Mr. Ramos, Mrs. Timm and Mr. Loeza for manning booths and activities! Thanks to Diego and Lourdes R. for providing child care! Big thanks to the Sonrise Church for providing and serving tamales, rice, and chips & salsa! Lots of cool technology activities happening in our classrooms!

Changes to Intervention Schedules

One of my favorite things about our staff is everyone’s willingness to make changes mid-stream towards providing our students with EXCELLENCE! After looking at our 100% meeting data and students who are still struggling, we are making some major changes in interventions starting on Tuesday! For 3rd and 4th grade, we are providing SPANISH interventions instead of English interventions! Also, Lawson will be pushing into 3rd and 4th grade English literacy instead of providing a replacement core. She will also now be housed in Irma’s office in the main office, as Maroha has some changes to her schedule too and needs more space!

That leads me to our next change...Maroha will be teaching native English literacy for kinder and 1st grades starting on Tuesday. This will allow Manuel the time to provide interventions for our K-1 students who are struggling. Please see changes to the IA schedule because I’m moving some IAs around to provide more support for Maroha, since she will have 2 grade levels. Also, Maroha will be running a fine motor skills group for kinder from 2:15-2:30 daily starting on Tuesday.

Due to these changes, there will be no interventions or literacy groups on Monday (other than SPED), so that our specialists will have time to plan for their new assignments. There WILL be ELD on Monday for all grade levels during the normal time!

Gomez and Gomez Walk-throughs
Just a reminder that the dual language administrators will be coming in for G & G walk-throughs this week. Most of you have all of your components up in your classroom to create a print-rich environment! Nice job! This is what we will be looking for:

Student-generated alphabets in both languages (you should be on SGA #2 by now)
Word walls in both languages
Classroom labels in both languages
Student journals - we will be pulling student journals to see when the last entry was written - are they being used on a regular basis?
Bilingual pairs lists posted and being practiced in the classroom

Adelante Chicas Fundraiser

To continue our Adelante Chicas after school program through the end of May, we will be doing a joint fundraiser with them. We will be raffling off an iPad and a Chromebook on March 16th. At the Tech Night, we introduced the raffle. Next week, we will be sending home a flyer and a raffle ticket with each student. Students can buy as many tickets as they want ($5 each) and we will have extras in the office. Without this fundraiser, the Chicas program would be ending at the end of February! Please turn in all tickets and money into the office. Thanks!

Reminders:

All IAs and teachers MUST have a signed security form for SBAC testing. I put one in your box if you WON’T be proctoring students. You need to sign that and return it to me, so that it won’t be a security breach if you walk into a room where testing is happening. All regular volunteers need to sign the form too. I have plenty of forms, so let me know if there are any volunteers who need to sign it. Thanks!
Teachers - please remember to turn off your projectors and Elmos when you aren’t in the classroom. Those projector bulbs are almost as expensive as the projectors themselves. As I’ve wandered the halls lately, I’ve noticed a lot of projectors are on when there are no students in the room and no one is using them.
Students shouldn’t be wandering the halls at lunch time. If a student needs to return to their classroom, they should have a pass from the teacher. If a student forgets their coat, they need to be escorted by a staff member.
Parents can sign up for parent conferences on the yellow poster in the cafeteria. We will pull those down at the end of next week and send home notes with parents who haven’t signed up yet!

Bus Duty: 2nd & 4th grade teachers, and the “regulars”!

Calendar:

2/22 8:00 am PBiS Team Meeting

2/22 10:30 am February Fire Drill

2/24 Leah’s Birthday!

2/24 8:00 am CIT: Data Teams - Post-Assessment Data

2/24 8:45 am Staff Meeting (all certified and classified staff in the TRC)

2/24 12-4 pm Elementary Principals (Angella)

2/25 Alejandra’s Birthday!

2/25 8 am - 12 pm Admin Meeting (Angella)

2/26 8 am 2nd Grade Cougar Team Meeting