Fall in NY

Sorry the blog is a little late.  I've spent the past two days catching up with family and enjoying spending time with my mom.  She is trying to adjust to life in a nursing home but doesn't want to ask for help and spends a good deal of time on the floor.  I can see where I get my stubborn streak from.  Weather was perfect as was the food and it will be hard to leave here this afternoon.

Some reminders for this week...  There is a faculty meeting today - Love and Logic.  Friday is Harvest Festival followed by PLCs.  Some teachers are out that day at Clinical Ed training.  We are in school next Monday and Tuesday of next week is Marvelous Mustang.

Charles is checking gradebooks and will be contacting you if you do not have enough assessments.  Remember it's 4 Formatives for every Summative and 4 Summatives for each trimester.  It may be different for Encore classes.  Conduct should be in your homeroom class.  Make sure you are putting it in the right place.

See you all tomorrow!

Is it Fall yet?

It's this time of year when I start to get tired of the heat.  October and Halloween means cooler weather... at least in some places in the country.  

As I am sure you all read (hint, hint) in Tidbits last week, this coming Friday (Oct. 20) is the day you will send home ONE envelope with each child for their first stewardship donation.  Please talk to them about it and the idea of giving.  Show the students how to fill out the envelope with their time, talent, and treasures.  Just explain it, they should be filling it out with their parents. 

As a reminder, I am leaving early on Friday and will be out Monday, Oct. 23.  Here is a recap of meeting agendas from last week's blog:

Monday, Oct. 16 - Grade level meetings (PreK-1, 2-5, 6-8) - Topics for discussions include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are being determined
• Lunch discipline.  It doesn't look like assistants are recording behavior anywhere.  How is it being communicated to teachers
• Topics as determined by grade level
• Take notes and share minutes with Charles and Linda

Thursday, Oct. 19  - Encore Meeting 12:25 - 1:12 p.m.  (This allows Julianne to join this meeting and the middle school meeting.)  Topics for discussion include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are determined and communicated to homeroom teachers who record the only conduct grade.
• Topics as needed

Monday, Oct. 23 - Love and Logic

I attended a workshop on the CE Tracker program which is what we will be using for master inservice points in the future.  I may have said this already, but I want to be sure everyone got the message.  DO NOT re-apply for a certificate until you have the go ahead from us.  State is revamping their system and your payment will most likely get lost.  The new MIP program is super easy and will reduce paper by about 95%.  Only on the rare occasion when you attend a workshop alone will you need to fill out a form.  Even then, if you get a certificate, no form needed.  I will demonstrate the system at our November faculty meeting.  In the meantime, I will be working with Charles to get all your accounts set up and input all the workshops, etc. we've had since July 1.  We should be all caught up by December. 

The other thing I will be talking about at our November faculty meeting is an update on field trips and what we are required to do.  I will tell you that by the end most schools decided that in-school field trips sounded like a good idea.  In the meantime, if anyone has a field trip coming up before Nov. 13, please be sure that a permission form is completed for all STUDENTS, CHAPERONES, AND TEACHERS.  In other words, anyone going on the trip.  The purpose has to do with medical release portion and if anyone gets hurt.  Be sure you leave a copy of ALL permission slips with Charles before you go on the trip. 

Thank you all for everything you do and have a great week!

Making RenWeb Happen!

This blog is early and I explain why below.  This mostly for teachers this week.  Everyone else, scan through and enjoy your weekend.  

A couple of weeks ago I sent instructions to parents on how they can access information on ParentsWeb.  In tracking handbook acknowledgements, we have discovered that only a few parents have NOT registered on RenWeb.  That's great!!  Except when I look at ParentsWeb there isn't much for them to see except grades.  I was waiting for a faculty meeting to go over how to put stuff up there but September was a mess and October has people coming and going to meetings.  I'm having a hard time finding an opportunity when we are all in the building.  Therefore, I am going to give instructions here.  My blog is going out early this week because my expectation is that by Monday, everyone will have something on ParentsWeb.  I want to see announcements of upcoming events like field trips, project due dates and summative dates.  Soon I want to see an announcement of how you are doing conferences.  I also want to see homework up for next week, even if it's only Monday's homework.  Homework section MUST be up to date everyday.  It is what we promise parents and we must follow through.  Here is the other reason why you MUST put your homework here.  I need one place to see what is being assigned in all classes for homework.  I can't look at planners, white boards, atlas, google classroom, handouts, etc.  Everyone uses a different method to communicate homework.  We need ONE method that everyone is using and parents can count on and I can check to be sure you are following the guidelines in our handbook.  This is not optional.  Here are the instructions (I am able to log in as one of you so you should be able to duplicate these steps.):

HOW TO ADD HOMEWORK

• Start in Classroom and choose a class
• From the drop down menu choose "Lesson Plans"
• Click on a date
• Under "web homework" it says "type something" - that's where you add the homework.  You can also add a link.
• Under "documents" you can upload a worksheet, rubric, etc.

HOW TO ADD AN ANNOUNCEMENT

I was going to add a field trip to 5th grade technology to show how it would look to parents, but Gina has already utilized this feature.  Here is what it looks like...

And here is how to do it:

Start in Classroom and choose a class

From the drop down menu choose "Web Items"

From the list choose "Announcements" (please noet that the calendar feature here does not link to our google calendar. Web tests and portfolio are not turned on right now, but they can be.)

Filling in the announcement is self explanatory.

You can add your syllabus and resources here too.  The homework drop button is not for you to add homework.  This is for students to access from their page (see above) to upload their homework.  This is a great feature for students who are away or sick for a number of days.  When you go into homework drop, you can download their work to your computer.  

Here is something else I had RenWeb set up for us, but I did not pursue as there was a lot to learn this year.  It's not working quite like I wanted it to but I can follow up with them if necessary.  There is a behavior function which I have now opened up for teachers.  To get there get there:

• Go to "Students"
• Choose a student
• On the right choose "behavior"
• Choose "add an event"
• You need to manually add 25 merits and save.

My intention was that when you added a demerit it would automatically reduce the merit but that's not happening.  It would have to be done manually.  

Below is what it looks like on the parent/student end.  For now they cannot see this.

This is a great way to document behavior even if we do not open it to parents to view.  Since they can't see conduct until the report card and we have to inform parents when behavior issues arise, this is a good way to communicate.  The merit/demerit portion does not have to be utilized by everyone and can be used by just grades 5-8.  I would like everyone to look at this and we will discuss at a faculty meeting.  

FACULTY MEETING PLANS FOR OCTOBER

We need to do a few things that can't wait any longer.  Because people are attending workshops and taking time off, the only day that everyone is actually is Oct. 23.  Therefore, I'm trying to accommodate everyone and still get everything done.  

Monday, Oct. 9 

• RenWeb discussion for teachers grades 1-8 (Maria, Kdg. teachers, pre-k teachers are at an EC workshop)   This meeting will be to answer any questions you have regarding the info above, talk about using behavior in RenWeb, and hopefully we will know by then how to put in ATL and Conduct grades.  This should not be more than 20 minutes.  Those unable to attend because you are not here, Charles and I will meet with you during a planning period.
• Part 2 will only be for the following teachers: Gina, Kim, Kelly, Katie, Heather.  I have the books that I ordered for writing.  Just a brief discussion to bring Heather and Kim up-to-date on what we discussed and the plan.

Monday, Oct. 16 - Grade level meetings (PreK-1, 2-5, 6-8) - Topics for discussions include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are being determined
• Lunch discipline.  It doesn't look like assistants are recording behavior anywhere.  How is it being communicated to teachers
• Topics as determined by grade level
• Take notes and share minutes with Charles and Linda

Thursday, Oct. 19  - Encore Meeting 12:25 - 1:12 p.m.  (This allows Julianne to join this meeting and the middle school meeting.)  Topics for discussion include:

• How ATL and Conduct grades are determined and communicated to homeroom teachers who record the only conduct grade.
• Topics as needed

Monday, Oct. 23 - Love and Logic (I will be out this day.  Taking a trip to NY this weekend for my mom's 92nd birthday!) 

Friday, Oct. 27 - PLCs for curriculum alignment

• ELA - Gina, Heather, Kim, Sue, Katie, Jenn
• Math in Focus - Susana, Nathan, Krista, Kasey, Kelly G (if you can make it)

Maria, Kelly M, Julianne, Charles will be at a Clinical Ed. training

I will be out on Tuesday 10/10 at a Title I meeting.  I will also be out on Friday at a Admin Meeting.  Have a great weekend!!  

Happy 30th St. Stephen

For those of you who attended Mass yesterday at 11:30, I'm sure you will agree that our Bishop is pretty awesome.  We were very blessed to have him with us yesterday.  He came to the picnic too and mingled with everyone.  Great community building day for all.

Reminders that this week there is no Mass.  Julianne sent out a great idea for what to do during that time.  Thank you Julianne.  Student Council will be selling Pumpkin Pops, and the area Catholic High Schools will be here Friday.  Pictures will not take place on Tuesday, it has been moved to Oct. 17 due to Irma.

I would like to review one aspect of carline that seems to be a confusion, particularly in the younger car line.  It is the responsibility of the person with the bull horn to ask people without a car tag to park and come into the school for a paper "tag".  No other options are acceptable.  Looking at IDs mean nothing unless you are checking Renweb to be sure the person is an authorized driver.  No one but the bull horn person needs to get involved and no child should be put into a car without a tag.

Lastly, when I was at the picnic, a 2nd or 3rd grader came to me with an "issue".  It didn't even pertain to her anymore as she was sticking up for students younger than her.  She said that students give their ice cream money to the teachers and the teachers forget to bring it to the lunchroom and the kids go without ice cream.  Her mom said she puts the ice cream money in her lunch box now to avoid the problem.  That's actually a good idea.  If you run into this issue, I would suggest the child just leave the money in their lunch box.

Have a marvelous week!!

Week of Caring

Thank you to Student Council for a very Spirited week and to everyone for making Grandparent's Day a success.  Everyone certainly looked like they were having a great time and how awesome was Mass with everyone in our new church!

Monday begins our Week of Caring.  Be sure you have read Tidbits and know what is happening.  You should be encouraging your students to participate in the food and school supply drives happening this week.  The week ends with Marvelous Mustang and Jean Day.  Please be sure to go over the Jean Day rules with your students.  Sunday is our parish picnic.  I am asking that everyone try their best to come to the 11:30 a.m. Sunday Mass Oct. 1.  Bishop Parks will be there to help celebrate the church's 30th Anniversary.  Our Parish Picnic is right after that on the Parish property.  Bouncy Houses and Burgers for all!!  Remember to wear a St. Stephen t-shirt - school or parish.

October 7 we will start a new tradition.  Any student attending Mass on the second Sunday of the month (or the Saturday vigil Mass the day before) in their school uniform, will receive a holy card from the presiding priest.  It will be up to the child to get it directly from the priest after Mass.  If the child comes to school the next school day (in this case, Monday, Oct. 9) and shows their holy card to their teacher, they may have free dress that day.  One hour in uniform for a full day of free dress sounds like a good deal.  I will talk on the morning show and in the classrooms next week about this.  Also, there is no Mass the week of Oct. 2.

Have a great week!

Get your Spirit on!

Welcome to Spirit Week! ..... and hopefully the Book Fair.  We are expecting it to arrive on Tuesday and will have Donuts with Dad on Wednesday and Thursday if all goes according to plan.  Irma is the Hurricane that just keeps on giving.  During Spirit Week, everyone is welcome to join in with dressing up and showing their spirit.  I will not be participating in Wacky Wednesday as I am hosting a Hillsborough County Principal's meeting in the FLC that morning.  Somehow it just doesn't seem appropriate for me to show up in my PJs and fuzzy slippers.  Remember to check Tidbits to see what is happening this week.  I've been getting some of your plans for Grandparents' Day and it looks like it will be a good day for all.  Be sure to send you plans to me by tomorrow.  Grandparents will be able to sign out their grandchildren starting at 11:30 to take them to the Kona Ice Truck.  We will have a sign-out roster in your rooms.  This will only be necessary until 12 noon.  Be sure that the person taking the child has a "Grandparent" sticker on.  

Students should be back on track with turning in work this week and by Friday everyone should be up-to-date.  We are almost half-way through the Trimester and you should be contacting parents if a child has a D or F in your class.  Also contact them if ATL or Conduct is falling below a 3.  Do not let there be any surprises on the report card.  At our next faculty meeting we will go over RenWeb and where and how to put things there.  As in the past, parents should have access to major assignments, rubrics, due dates, test dates, etc. beyond the Student Planner.  The more information you can provide, the fewer emails you will get. 

Marvelous Mustang is next week.  Christine is in charge and you will need to be ready to get names to her this week.  Remember that this year we are focusing on students who are "Making It Happen!"  Also, once you have chosen a student, it is your responsibility (not the homeroom teacher) to invite parents to school that day for the Mustang Breakfast.  

Final reminder - no Mass on Wednesday.  Mass on Friday.  For everyone's sanity and safety, students will sit with their class and will return to their class with the teacher.  Grandparents can sit near by and walk back with you or drive over after Mass.  Grandparents will need to sign in at the front entrance or in the Breezeway.  Homeroom parents are responsible for arranging breakfast treats.  Like last year, I am asking that everyone park in the FLC parking lot on Wednesday to leave more room for Grandparents in the school parking lot.  Thank you!!  

Does anybody really know what code it is?

I was thinking what to say about the gate code and I recalled a song from 1969 by Chicago.  Replace code with the word time and you have the song.  Here is my advice for tomorrow since I really don't know.  Follow these steps:

1.  Enter the code you always used
2.  Try 5013 (if you have trouble remembering that code - it's 50 states and 13 colonies)
3.  Try 5050 (I discovered that the issue on Friday was that only the center column was working - the code had not been changed.)
4.  Go home....  Just kidding - enter by a different door.

Band classes begin on Thursday.  I will get a schedule to you as soon as I have one.  Have a great week!

Who knows what song this comes from.... Does anybody remember laughter?