“Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” -Voltaire

Life is NOT a shipwreck, but it definitely presents challenges. Sometimes, when it is too hard to concentrate, when the students aren’t as focused as you’d like them to be, when a lesson doesn’t go as planned, or when the work piles up and time slips away, it can be difficult to find our singing voice. When we have “these days” it is important that we take time to celebrate the successes in our school. It doesn’t mean we ignore the problems, but we can certainly use “the positives” to energize our efforts to address the challenges.

Challenge for this Week: Pick at least 1 positive thing that has happened in your classroom or at school and email it to a colleague or two. Encourage them to add to the list and pass it along. Like a chain-letter (without the associated misfortune) it will be good to hear the singing…even if we aren’t in lifeboats!

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 29th
Happy Birthday Stefanie Widmaier 🙂
***Are the MUGS still making their way around?

Tuesday, September 30th

Wednesday, October 1st
Happy Birthday Sarah Sicher 🙂
1st Grade Field Trip to Safety Town
*Common Plan Time

Thursday, October 2nd
Multiage Field Trip to Safety Town
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm

Friday, October 3rd
Fall Picture Day (*Donna will email schedule in Kennedy conference)
5 by Friday! 🙂

(10/04) Project Heart Well – Sign up at the link below! There is still time to register. Check-in is at 8:00am & the run/walk begins at 9:00am. The event starts & finishes at Kennedy School. We look forward to seeing you there, as it is a great opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to community involvement. Please sign up to participate or volunteer. Please join us as we show our children that working together, we can all make a difference!   www.projectheartwell.com
(10/04) Happy Birthday Patricia Shastri 🙂

(10/05) Happy Birthday Barbara Brzozowska 🙂

**To the Teachers Already Tired

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 22nd
*If you were ‘mugged’ on Friday, don’t forget to fill your mug with more goodies & pass it along to surprise another colleague*

Tuesday, September 23rd
PreK & PATS Field Trip to Brookfield Zoo
Faculty Meeting @ 2:50pm
Happy Birthday Amanda Peterson 🙂

Wednesday, September 24th
Happy Birthday Brittney Taylor 🙂
Happy Birthday Lorena Esqueda 🙂

Thursday, September 25th
Happy Birthday Marta Ocon 🙂 

Friday, September 26th
Spirit Assembly @ 9:00am
(Wear your Kubbie spirit wear or blue/white)

Articles Worth Checking Out:
Google Forms Now Customizable
Halloween Read-Alouds

While there are a number of practices that work together to create a strong classroom management foundation, there are a few fundamental basics. Teacher preparation and organization, engaging lessons, building relationships, well-established routines and procedures for the students, and brain breaks or other related movement instructional strategies.

According to Robert Marzano, classroom organization is 1 of the 11 factors that influence student achievement. By being organized and prepared, teachers maximize instructional time, minimize the frequency of behavior problems and chaos, and create a safe and positive classroom environment.

*See some organization tips I found on Pinterest & wanted to pass along…..

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 15th
Cycle 1 Assessments

Tuesday, September 16th
Happy Birthday Jody 🙂  (Orange Bus)

Wednesday, September 17th
Technology Common Plan
Board of Education Meeting @ 7:00pm

Thursday, September 18th
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm

Friday, September 19th
5 by Friday 🙂
Happy Birthday Roger 🙂 
Reading Room Plan Day

(09/20) Happy Birthday Michelle McMorrow 🙂
(09/21) Happy Birthday Bridget Elliott 🙂

*Reminder to Non-Tenured Teachers: Please schedule your 1st Observation, if you haven’t done so already! 

Articles Worth Reading
Supporting Readers During Workshops: The First Few Weeks

Looking In the Mirror

Freezing Bars/Rows in Google Spreadsheets

Google Doc Tip: Find the Revision History

Just like Krissy Venosdale recently said, “Our schools should be places where greatness is discovered, uncovered, sought after & celebrated. Every child should find their greatness during their time with us. It’s far beyond any score & far more meaningful than a grade. It’s the kind of thing that changes the world.”

Uncover greatness this week! 

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, September 8th
Scholastic Book Fair (all week through Thursday night)
Interventions Begin (Morning & During the Day Interventions)
New Teacher Meeting @ 2:45pm
BPAC Ice Cream Social @ 3:15pm-4:30pm

Tuesday, September 9th
Faculty Meeting (*Agenda will be emailed)

Wednesday, September 10th
1/2 Day of School (AM PreK dismisses at 10:30am, K-3 dismisses at 10:55am)
*Agenda for 1/2 day In-Service will be emailed

Thursday, September 11th
Curriculum Night 6:00pm-7:30pm
Happy Birthday Beatriz Diaz 🙂

Friday, September 12th
5 by Friday!

*Check out our Kennedy School Curriculum Night Pinterest Board & pin your ideas to the shared board.

“Schools are not buildings, curriculums, and machines. Schools are relationships and interactions among people.”

I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing and enjoyable weekend with friends and family. Here’s our 4-day week at a glance:

Monday, September 1st NO SCHOOL: Labor Day Happy Birthday Rosa Andreuccetti 🙂 Tuesday, September 2nd Wednesday, September 3rd Thursday, September 4th SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm Friday, September 5th 5 by Friday! The start of the school year is the best time to begin building positive relationships with our families, too! I encourage you to meet our goal of 5 positive contacts by Friday over the next few weeks (phone calls, post cards, notes home, etc). Let’s remember our goal for the 2014-2015 school year….to make sure that 100% of our parents experience communication/contact with their child’s teacher prior to the November conferences (Below are the results from the November 2013 parent/teacher conferences)

“What makes a good school has very little to do with how rich or poor the students are, or the type of curriculum that’s taught. It has very little to do with the special programs, expansive playing fields, snappy uniforms, or whether the school is wired to the Internet. What makes a good school, whether it’s public or private, religious or nonreligious, charter or non-charter, is a feeling. A feeling shared by the entire staff that their particular school is special. The feeling that their school really belongs to them.” (Manna, 1999).

At Kennedy School, each member of our team has a distinctive character that cares deeply about each and every one of our Kennedy Kubbies. Your unique attributes and talents contribute to the feeling people get when they enter this building. As a result, our children will remember you long after they leave Kennedy.

Have a great week!

Thank you for opening up your classrooms to our Kennedy Kubbies and setting the tone for a culture of caring. It’s wonderful to observe classrooms where teachers and students care about learning, about each other, and care about our community. Remember, the first weeks of school set the tone for the entire year. If our students leave school feeling excited about themselves as learners & about you as their teacher, then you’re doing something right! Always remember that our students will meet ANY expectation we set for them, as long as we are firm, fair and consistent with these expectations and build relationships with our students so that they will want to meet them. The best way to accomplish this positive relationship-building with our students is simply caring deeply about them as learners and as little people–and taking the time to get to know them, in addition to showing them just how much you care.

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, August 25th
MAP Testing Begins (in both faculty lounge & art studio)–Beginning today, K-3 art will be in classrooms (on a cart) *click for schedule
**Please review both Code Red & Evacuation Drills with your class!!!!
New Teacher Meeting @ 2:45pm (Room 100)

Tuesday, August 26th
Code Red Drill (to take place unannounced sometime during the day)
Faculty Meeting @ 2:50pm in cafeteria
Mentor Meeting @ 3:45pm

Wednesday, August 27th
Common Plan Time

Thursday, August 28th
Evacuation Drill to North Park @ 9:00am

Friday, August 29th
Happy Birthday Audrey Tillack 🙂
Reading Room Plan Day
Schedules & Split Lists Due to the Office by the end of the day!

(09/01) No School: Labor Day
(09/01) Happy Birthday Rosa Andreuccetti 🙂

What a great first week (technically 4 days) at Kennedy School! As expected, there were a few tears, but the smiles and giggles outweighed the few. I appreciate everyone’s help and extra care during these first few days. Thank you to ALL staff for going the extra mile to help get our year off to a great start! 🙂

As we prepare for our first full week with the students, I hope you will take a few quiet moments to put aside lesson planning, forget about our never-ending “to do list” and consider our purpose (as a school, and as individual educators). When we walk in on Monday morning, please remember that you are a difference maker! The small gestures you make to welcome students and show an interest in their lives will have an impact. Tis year, you have opportunities to build confidence that never existed, develop connections that have never been present, and generate hope with your students. Our classrooms at Kennedy are filled with individuals with a variety of needs, and it’s up to US to make sure they thrive! The only way for that to happen is to build a connection with each and every student. When we truly know them all as individuals, we can understand them as learners.

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, August 18th
1st Day of Pre School
Fall Benchmarking Begins (Aimsweb)

Tuesday, August 19th

Wednesday, August 20th
Board of Education Meeting @ 7:00pm

Thursday, August 21st
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm

Friday, August 22nd
5 by Friday! Make 5 positive connections with families by Friday!
*Try out the positive postcards in the office 🙂

(08/23) Kennedy & Washington ABC Pool Party 7:00pm

Articles Worth Reading

What Students Remember Most About Teachers

Shine Together

The Power of a Positive Educator

From Krissy Venosdale’s post on We Are Teachers:

“This post is about you. That’s right, you and your teaching and the difference you make. It’s not something that we like to talk about. Teachers are humble and hardworking, and behind the scenes we do whatever it takes to support our kids. But you make a difference. Every single day. On the good days, the hard days and the days that feel like some kind of crazy chaos, you make a difference.

That conversation you have with your student on the way to the cafeteria, talking with him about his dog? He’ll remember that. The way you slip a few dollars into her lunch account so she can have a hot lunch today? She doesn’t even know you do it, but she feels loved.

The excitement you show when the experiment works out and the liquid bubbles over means they all get excited too. And when that experiment doesn’t work out? They’re looking to you to see how you handle it. You show them that mistakes are what learning is about, and they learn that it’s OK.

Sharing your hobbies, your passions and your goals with your students shows them that you are a learner too. Your example ignites their passions and fires up their desire to find their own hobbies and goals.

The time you took to know each of your students on an individual level, to celebrate their growths, and to remind each and every one in some way that they are a part of your classroom? It matters so much to them all.

Your honesty when you don’t know the answer, or your desire to learn more about their questions? It’s all making a difference. A difference that you may not see for many years, or even ever know in a tangible way. But it’s there. Day by day, moment by moment. One connection at a time, teachers make the world a better place.

Day by day, moment by moment, it’s so easy for this to get lost. Lost in a stack of papers. Lost in a series of conversations about strategies and objectives. Lost in the roller-coaster downhill slope of the end of the school year. But it’s there. Connect with your kids and you’ll be reminded. The best reminder of all. You make a difference.”

Here’s our last week at a glance for the 2013-2014 school year:

Monday, May 26th
No School: Memorial Day

Tuesday, May 27th
2nd Grade & Multiage Bowling Field Trip
1st Grade Class Building @ 2:30pm (Room 100)

Wednesday, May 28th
1st Grade & 103/107 Buddies with 6th Grade (@ Lincoln)
Retirement Celebration @ 4pm

Thursday, May 29th
PreK Class Building @ 9:30am
Last Day of School (1st-3rd Grade) Full Day (Students dismiss at 2:20pm)

Friday, May 30th
Happy Birthday Tanya Disheva 🙂

End of The Year Ideas for Students (click below)

What a beautiful 3-day weekend! I hope you’re enjoying the weather and that you are creating happy memories!

Life sure gets crazy….especially this time of the year!

Remember to STOP. Take a deep breath. Enjoy a break.

And returning to the madness of the end-of-the-year…..you’ll have a whole new outlook.

It’s crazy to think the end of the 2013-2014 school year is right around the corner! With that comes many invitations to focus on management issues and end of the year activities than to focus on quality teaching and learning. Please remember to finish strong! These last 10 days can be full of learning opportunities and quality experiences for our Kennedy Kubbies. Rick Wormeli says it best,

“Don’t waste the last few weeks of school on fluff and babysitting experiences. It’s not only boring to students, it’s unethical. Choose a day very soon to begin planning for one of the highlights of the year: the experiences of those last few weeks”. 

Let’s make a commitment to finish the year as strong as we started & not hit the cruise control button. Our Kubbies deserve better. Students will feed off our attitude & if we expect the best from them, then we must give them the best of us! 🙂

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, May 19th
1st Grade Picnic
Kindergarten Field Trip to Morton Arboretum
3rd Grade Visits Washington School
Meeting for K-3 certified staff @ 3:30pm (cafeteria)

Tuesday, May 20th
End of Year Buddy Event
Kindergarten Graduation Practices
3rd Grade Class Building @ 2:30pm (Room 205)

Wednesday, May 21st
3rd Grade Dinosar Fair/Young Authors <—click for sign-up link
Kindergarten Graduation Practices
Multiage Class Building @ 1:40pm (Room 103)
Board of Education Meeting @ 7:00pm

Thursday, May 22nd
PreK Celebrations!
9am: Rms 112 & 133AM
10:15am: Rms 13 & 135 AM
1pm: Rms 112 & 133PM
2:15pm: Rm 134 & 135PM
Kindergarten Graduation Practices
Kindergarten Picnic
2nd Grade Class Building @ 2:30pm (Room 115)

Friday, May 23rd
Kindergarten Graduation!
9am: Rms 130, 131, 132
11am: Rms 127, 128, 129
3rd Grade Picnic
DARE Graduation @ 2:00pm (Washington School)

(05/26) NO SCHOOL: Memorial Day

**8 Things You Didn’t Know You Could Do with Google Drive

***iPad Keyboard Tips