Celebrate all of your hard work!

Chalk for positive messages can be found in the HUB. Please use and return so we can all write positive messages!

This week is a great time to reflect on all of your hard work and the hard work of your students this year. You have put so much into your students' success this year. You have planned and problem solved with your PLTs and support personnel and parents to bring about the best outcomes for them. You should feel nothing but pure pride in all you have done. Engaging our students in this kind of positive reflection can actually improve their performance. 

Here is a link to a blog that talks about the power of positive thinking and how we can get students to reflect on the positive before the test. 

Have a fantastic and relaxing long weekend!

https://blog.innerdrive.co.uk/what-to-think-about-before-an-exam

Third graders read about the importance of water conservation

 

Celebrating the hardest working group of IAs and lunch coverage around!

First graders practice and perform plays for one another!

Kindergarteners say goodbye😢

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day! I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating with their moms or being celebrated as a mom. I echo Steve's sentiments in thanking Coach Williams and Coach Gursslin for another well planned, fun GHE Field Day!

Thank you Trish Gehrett for this beautiful gesture in honor or her mom.

As we enter this time of change, in the coming week, we will be calling upon some of you to be very flexible, perhaps more so then you have ever been. I wanted to offer this article about changing grade levels. Notice the link within it regarding teachers' favorite things about their respective grade levels.

https://applesandbananaseducation.com/how-to-switch-grade-levels-and-keep-your-sanity/

Thank you again for all of your hard work and dedication to your students!

Rocking the Red for Ed!

Thank you all for your efforts to support education at the state level.  This is leadership in the profession and I am grateful that wonderful teachers like yourself are willing to make signs and march and rally for all students in NC.
I am continuously proud of how cheerful and warm and nurturing you are to your students despite the fact that you are overworked and underpaid. You continue to find joy in your interactions with students and it shows. Rising above is what we do as educators. We keep fighting the good fight as advocates for education, without letting conditions diminish what we do in the classroom. Remember that whatever the politics of the day, what you do every day adds so much value to a child and to the world. Remember the student who brings you a bouquet of dandelions on the playground; the one who asks where babies come from at circle time; the one you couldn't get to write a sentence that now writes essays; the shy one who would not answer a question in class and had trouble making friends, that you now can't get to stop talking.  These are our artifacts.

Congratulations to Ms. McMahon for earning her Master in Reading at ECU! Thanks to the wonders of streaming technology, her students got to see her graduate. We are all so proud of her!!

Practicing skills in Sideline Soccer in the Gym!

 One of our parents who is certified yoga instructor for kids leads Ms. K. Wilson's class in moves connected to geometry!

Reminder:

Please read all of Tara's email regarding end of the year! Please note that Tuesday May 7th is now a staff meeting. CAs are invited, but not required. 

Spring is Here!

Flowers are in bloom, the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, students are getting squirrely, and the pollen is making our heads as stuffed as a Thanksgiving turkey! This time of year is definitely a mixed bag. However, this is also a time when it is easy to become anxious about end of year assessments. Stressing over EOGs (or K-2 End of year assessments) and inundating students with practice tests has not been shown to yield great returns. What it does usually increase is disillusionment with school, majors, and minors, and that is just how it affects the adults.😆
I am in no way suggesting that you should not review areas that may need to be reviewed with your students. However, there are fun ways to review that do not include huge packets of practice passages.

After a few quick searches online, I found this site with some fun ideas, easily adaptable to other grade level curriculums.

http://www.fifthinthemiddle.com/2018/05/tic-tac-booyah.html

https://www.smore.com/2xe51-eog-review-ideas

I am sure there are so many more!! Please consider these ideas and save some trees!

Also please trust how much you have done all year to help your students grow. You have built relationships to assure that students would learn from you and you have done your best to be sure that they get the scaffolding or the advancement that meets their needs. Have faith that you do not need to "cram".

Busy times in Kindergarten:
Ms. McMahon's Piggy Play
Community Helper Day!

Teachers who Dare!

As I have been visiting classrooms, I am seeing so many examples of great "I can" statements and of teachers referencing those as a part of the learning. Thank you for all of your great work on that!

I have also seen so many of you step out of your comfort zones, trying new protocols or new arrangements in your rooms. I hope you know how much I admire and support that. It is a hard thing to do to try something that you are not used to, but it is the only way to see if it works, and it can pay off big time.
This year you all dared to play with your kids all day. Half the school took a field trip together this week to see a dress rehearsal. Some of you have used mindfulness techniques with your students. These are all experiences that your students will never forget.
Reminders: 

 Spring Break is right around the corner. Physical preparations: Please throw away any food in your classroom. So we do not return to rodents. Please close up all windows and doors after you are out of course.😆 I hope you will spend time with your family and friends and take a well- deserved break that week. Thank you for all you do every day!

Mrs. Buckley leads her class through a Flood Drill

Ms. Sprague helps her students transition from recess to math with some deep breathing and chimes!

This is what is sounds like when 30 5th graders have a text- based discussion! Thanks Ms. Perez for taking that risk!

These lighthouses are so beautiful!!! Thank you Mrs. Driggers!

Finding supporting evidence for the author's point

Ms. Patterson's morning meeting

2nd grade "I can" statements

Ms. Jessica's students show what they see in Spring!

Focus

I hope you are taking time to  enjoy this beautiful weather! That is one of the ways we take care of ourselves! There are lots of studies that show that simply being outside can lead to health benefits, not the least of which is an improved mood. We all need that with Spring Break coming later this year.😎 Shout out and endorsement for Mrs. Critcher and the Walking Club!

But I digress...
This week's post is about focus. Sometimes it can seem like there is so much coming at us. At principal's meeting this week, district leadership shared their renewed emphasis on coherence and focus on the Core. All of the things that we have discussed this year, fit there. When we talk about unpacking standards and creating standards aligned assessments (or using those already created) first, that is Core. (School Improvement Goal: Teams create units aligned to standards) As we get better at delivering the best Core instruction for all students, we can eliminate the need for as many students to progress to Tier 2 and Tier 3. (School Improvement Goal: Sharing student's progress and what they can do at home to help with that)


Please know that we will continue to focus and deepen our knowledge and efficacy around this work.

So glad to see Mrs. Downend is still doing great things!
#ONCEAFALCONALWAYSAFALCON!

Ms. Peg works with some of our littlest Falcons!

5th Grade EL

Ms. Henderson's class create anchor charts. This gets uploaded on Seesaw for parents!

Students in Ms. Perry's class enjoy the Mouse and the Motorcycle!

More Assessment and MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS!

As we are working to use assessment in a way that increases the effectiveness for all students, consider including them in the process. Sometimes students can come up with great questions as well. It is interesting to see what questions the students would anticipate being able to answer or what tasks they would anticipate being able to complete when they have mastered a standard. This is a great way to make sure they understand what they are about to learn!
Please remember that there is a Google Classroom assignment for PLTs shared by Tara in email on Friday.

Ms. Cossa shares an assessment

MUSIC IN OUR SCHOOLS VIDEO:   https://youtu.be/t2WGeP1Jqeo

Ms. Parker quiets the crowds for Music in Our schools

Ms. Brees's students assess each other's work

Uh Oh I think we had a lucky little visitor!

Ms. Zimmerman's students explore how different things affect the distance their cars travel

Reminders: 

*Report Cards go home April 5th. Please have them printed by April 3rd. Please be thoughtful about report card comments. Ask yourself if a parent can really understand where their student needs help and how to help them.

Carnival is Friday from 5:00-8:00 Kids and families would love to see you there!

 

The Power of Assessment

Thank you for your engagement on Friday around the topic of assessment. Your parking lot questions were insightful and constructive and we will continue to work through and improve upon this topic as a staff.
Some of the questions asked that we didn't necessarily address in Friday's meeting

What does a level 4 look like? (We will continue to share examples of these so that we can all become more able to create them.


How do we find balance between assessment and teaching? This is likely to be an ongoing process for us all. I think we can assess in a smarter way that can assess standards in less time and we will continue to work together on this.

How do you determine a 2 or a 3 if it is borderline? Could a follow up opportunity be given?
This is a discussion to have with your team before you give the assessment and before you teach the lessons. Determine this when you take the assessment before the planning of the unit.

We will continue addressing these parking lot questions moving forward. A reminder of our plans moving forward.

An interesting article on this topic...
https://catlintucker.com/2019/02/ask-yourself-why-am-i-grading-this/

Read Across GHE!!!

Happy March!

Thank you for all of your hard work at what is sometimes a tough time of the year. This time of the year can also be our most productive. We now know our students well. We know what they need and in most cases how to meet those needs. We continue to work on providing interventions to students who need them, but we can also focus energies on continuing to build the best of CORE instruction.

Remember that all CORE begins with the standards (unpacked and understood). What implications does this have for planning? Planning should always begin with desired outcomes. The assessment will provide the roadmap. Begin by looking with your PLT at the end of unit assessment and list the things students will need to know or be able to do to be successful on it.  This should be the first step in your planning of the unit. We will talk more about how to plan with the end in mind at Friday's Early Release. In the meantime here is a link to an article that talks about this process also known as Understanding by Design (UBD)

https://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/siteASCD/publications/UbD_WhitePaper0312.pdf

 Hats are very serious business at GHE! Thanks for participating!

Thank you for these creative doors in celebration of Read Across America!

Reminders:
Monday - "Reading Don't sweat it!" (Wear your worout/ exercise clothes!)
Tuesday - Leadership Meeting 8:00 am Media Center Cozy Couch Potato Day
Wednesday- Wacky Tacky Wednesday (Wear wacky-tacky clothes)
Thursday- Seussical Thursday (Dress like your Favorite Dr. Seuss character)
Friday- Early Release GHE Rockstar Readers Day (Wear GHE gear to show off your GHE pride!)
PTA will provide lunch starting at 1:45 in the Media Center.