Week 3: September 16th

Mr. Browne's Precept

You are a conductor of light ~ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Shout Outs 

Lindsay- Lindsay's level of leadership, institutional knowledge and support has been so helpful. I am so appreciative of the open and honest communication from the union's viewpoint as well as her ability to know and support our school community through our by-laws and ETWA.

Rose- When I first put out the plan for announcements Rose took a risk and offered some constructive feedback that will improve the outcomes and delivery of the messages resulting in the goal that I wanted. I can't imagine this was easy to do with a new leader. I am appreciative of how she helped me make my practice better. 

Honey-Do List 

• September 20th-23rd- Send home reminder about the family council meeting on Monday evening from 5:45 to 6:45
• September 25th Coaches: Fill in objectives for coach facilitated CLT in October. Moving forward these will be completed on the second Monday of the month prior to implementation (i.e 10/15 for the November sessions)
• September 26th: Use your parent communication to remind families that the first meeting is 5:45-6:45 and there will be childcare and food.
• September 30th: 1st Draft of Action Steps for professional growth and student learning goals
• October 10th: Grade Level Blueprint for Learning objectives completed so Jodi can review

DESE News 

October 2nd DESE Visits 

As you know DESE is coming to visit. I am so excited to show our school off.  Our guests will be here on Wednesday, October 2nd. The observers will be using the CLASS tool when observing district classrooms. I am very familiar with this tool and am confident that we will be rated very highly. Here is a high-level overview of the tool.

MCAS Update

There have been some small changes to the 3rd grade ELA Test Design. This is the link to the document that describes those changes. I think it will be helpful for all to see what the test design looks like because it will help provide context for stamina and expectations for our students. 

Morning Announcement Revamp 

Morning announcements take three! I want to thank everyone for their feedback and incredibly helpful suggestions. Especially Rose who provided several ideas to make "Dr. Jodi's Math" workable.

• We will begin with music again this Monday.  We will be staying with African Drums. Thanks to your feedback I knew students could not really hear the music and I needed to get a Bluetooth speaker. I just have not made it to the store yet. 
• By the end of the day each Monday you will have a sheet with your grade's Dr. Jodi's Math problems for each student. Both the Tuesday and the Thursday problem will be on the sheet. I will still read the problem on each specified day. 
• I will have an envelope hanging outside my door. Students can put their completed work in the envelope. On Thursday afternoon I will choose a strong example of mathematical thinking for each grade level to be displayed on our "Bee"utiful Math Bulletin Board.
• On Friday afternoon I will announce our grade level math stars and have them come to the office to receive their math star badge (a large cardboard star with a piece of tape on it). I want this to be an opportunity to reinforce our students' identities as intellectuals capable of high levels of thinking. 
• The math problems are not intended to be aligned with the curriculum but rather to reflect grade-level standards.  It is an opportunity to see how students approach novel problems using the mathematical knowledge that they already have. It is also an opportunity to reinforce some of the mathematical practice standards. 
• By the end of the day on Monday, you will also have our 3 words of the week. 
• These words will also be added to the bulletin board outside of my office with a definition and picture when applicable. 
• I am going to try and commit to a 9:35 hard start time for announcements. Hopefully, our luck with morning busses will hold. 
• I will also slow down on the pledge. Thank you for that feedback. If Ms. Denise keeps standing by her door and repeating with the kids the timing should be much better. 

One School, One Book 

I am hoping to have a list of titles that I want to use ready for your review next week. I have found some books that look great. Some of which I have seen in your classrooms. I want to avoid titles that you are building an entire unit around but if students hear a book two times as a read-aloud it might not be a bad thing. I will look for your guidance on this. 

Family Council 

Family Movie Night

If your Friday night routine has become a bit stale and you're looking for a way to make it saltier, come have some popcorn with us at Family Movie Night next Friday from 6:30-9:00. Our wonderful family council is looking for volunteers to help with crowd control as we premiere Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse. It is sure to be a fun event. I am really looking forward to it. 

The family council also asking those of you with a Class Dojo, Seesaw or some other type of classroom communication with parents to send out a reminder to your families on Thursday afternoon that movie night will be happening on Friday evening from 6:30-9:00. Thank you in advance. 

Reminder

The family council has asked that we use our classroom communication platforms with families to remind them of the parent council meeting on Monday Evening from 5:45 to 6:45 and that there will be food provided.  

Taco about an Idea

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that our Fabulous Family Council may be hosting a build a taco night in conjunction with our open house on  October 1st. This should be super fun. Look for more information at the beginning of the week. 

Fridge 

I am sure that you are very aware that we need a new fridge upstairs. Unfortunately, we do not have the budget to purchase one. If we are going to replace the fridge then we will have to either find a nice appliance shop to donate and deliver one and take the old one away or somehow raise funds. I checked the rules and we cannot raise the funds ourself because of the student activities conflict but Family Council could possibly as a donation to teachers as long as they are clear about what they are raising the funds for. Please talk with Lindsay or Denise about what you believe is the best way to proceed and we will try to make it happen.

Water Update 

The flavored water is a district-wide problem. The flavor is nothing that will harm anyone and is a byproduct of the process that WB Mason used to sanitize the water coolers. Bill is going to replace all of the coolers that have an off flavor and he is going to rinse and wash the replacements so hopefully, all of our water will taste good on Monday.  If it does not on Monday please stop by and let me know!

Moving of Music Supplies 

We are giving Ms. Melissa some space to store her materials! Ms. Melissa will be moving her materials into the pull-downs in 207. In order to accomplish this, we need to move the plethora of black book bins into the binder closet down in the cafeteria. I am looking for volunteers to gather on Tuesday morning at 8:30 to help accomplish this task quickly and efficiently much like we did the book room. We will move bins downstairs and help Melissa move her things in. 

Accessing Employee Self-Service (ESS) 

Zoraida will be redistributing the fliers with directions for accessing ESS in mailboxes. We will also be using our huddle on October 1st to work together to demonstrate how the system works. 

September 30th Fire Drill 

We will be having a fire drill on Monday at 10:45 am. If it is raining we will have a fire drill on Tuesday at the same time.