“Be positive with people and you’ll get positive results.”
(Blanchard, Lacinak, Tompkins, Ballard, & Blanchard, 2002) 

November is officially upon us as we are surrounded by beautiful warm colors & cooler weather. I hope you had a refreshing, relaxing weekend and are ready for the week ahead.

As parent-teacher conferences are upon us, I wanted to share a blog post (an oldie but a goodie) with some tips to keep in mind. Parent-Teacher Conferences offer teachers and parents the opportunity to see, celebrate and support each child. Conferences have provided me with some of my most rewarding moments in teaching. Just as we appreciate praise for our efforts, parents appreciate praise for their efforts & their child’s progress. Our school calendar sets aside days for parent-teacher conferences each year; however, I believe great teachers like all of you at Kennedy know that parent-teacher conferences are held throughout the entire school year. A great te3acher keeps the student, the team, and the parents informed at all times!

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, November 3rd
Buddy Committee Meeting @ 2:45pm
Celebrations Committee Meeting @ 2:50pm

Tuesday, November 4th
Institute Day: No School for Students
Click here for Agenda (K-3 classroom teachers)
*SPED, Reading Room & PreK: Your team leaders will email your agenda to your grade level conference.

Wednesday, November 5th
SMART Demo @ 2:30pm in cafeteria (all K-3 classroom teachers)

Thursday, November 6th
1st Grade & Multiage Field Trip to Museum of Science & Industry
Veterans Visiting 2nd & 3rd Grade Classrooms
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm
Mentor Meeting @ 3:45pm

Friday, November 7th
Reading Room Plan Day
5 by Friday! 🙂 Keep making those positive connections with families!

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, October 27th
Cycle 2 Assessments
Flu Shot Clinic @ Washington School (3-4pm)

Tuesday, October 28th

Wednesday, October 29th
TAPS
*If you are bringing up a student, please be sure your paperwork is COMPLETE in Google Docs by tomorrow so team members can look at the documents ahead of time, in an effort to bring intervention ideas to the TAPS meeting!

Thursday, October 30th
SLT @ 3:00pm
Carnival 6:00pm-7:30pm

Friday, October 31st
Halloween Parties & Parades
*See Kennedy Conference for email with Halloween Info
Trimester 1 Ends

**Reminder for Tenured Teachers*
Tenure teacher professional growth meetings completed before November 1st.
ALL tenured teachers must complete a Professional Growth Plan.  

Check out some Halloween Ideas below. Click on the picture to link up to it’s resource page:
        
 

**Tons of fun classroom Halloween activities from Kleinspiration!

Are you ready for Monday?

“Every Monday morning, when the alarm goes off, we have a choice. We can go, “Ugh…here we go again.” Or, we can see it as an opportunity. Afterall, every Monday could be seen as just the beginning. This could be the week we start something big. So…..are you ready for Monday, or should I say….is Monday ready for you?”

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, October 20th
Red Ribbon Week
PATS Field Trip to Cosley Zoo

Tuesday, October 21st
PreK Workshops
Kindergarten Field Trip to Didier Farm
Faculty Meeting @ 2:50pm

Wednesday, October 22nd
WEAR RED to show you are drug free
MYON Training @ 2:00pm-3:00pm (Cafeteria)

Thursday, October 23rd
Happy Birthday Ashley Lindeman 🙂

Friday, October 24th
HIP Ornaments due (please put them in black bag w/a KENNEDY SCHOOL SIGN. Drop off in conference room by the end of the day)
Spirit Assembly ~ wear Kubbie gear or blue/white!

I don’t think anyone knows the meaning of the phrase “Only so many minutes in a day!” better than someone in education.  There is always something waiting for us. Meetings. Papers. Calls to make. Email to answer. Things to file. Things to look up. Lessons to plan. Committees. Grad classes. Tech tools to figure out. Family. Commitments. PD.   There may be days when we are stretched to the limit, feeling more like some human version of Stretch Armstrong with our arms pulled in different directions, about to break off.   But, at the end of the day, it’s true.  The things that matter?  We make time for them.   Those people that say,  ”Oh, I don’t have time for that…”  Is this an insinuation that some of us just have more time than others?   Time is not something we just ‘have,’ it’s something we make.  It’s something we make when things matter to us. Children matter to us. Remember….what you do each and everyday at Kennedy School is in the best interest of the children we serve.

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, October 13th
NO SCHOOL: Columbus Day

Tuesday, October 14th
PATS Field Trip to Cosley Zoo

Wednesday, October 15th
Medical Exclusion Day
Happy Birthday Rose Karas 🙂
Board of Education Meeting @ 7:00pm

Thursday, October 16th
PreK Field Trip to Johansen Farm
Happy Birthday Rosa Worwa 🙂
Earthquake Drill @ 10:16am (Drop, Cover, Hold On) <–click for more info
SLT Meeting @ 3:00pm

Friday, October 17th
Reading Room Plan Day
2nd Grade Field Trip to Goebbert’s

(10/18) ABC Craft Fair & Fall Festival

(10/19) Happy Birthday Eva Popowska

School? It’s about the kids. Society loves to simplify our jobs. Make it about facts and kids knowing stuff. Make it about graphs and charts that display our school’s weak points. But what aren’t people seeing? The kids.

The kids whose parents no longer live in the home. The kids who get one meal a day, their school lunch. The kids who cry at night because they are the adult in the house. The kids who have amazing potential buried in trying to help raise a younger sibling or who have big struggles caused by the fact that they are caring for themselves. The kids whose parents have a terrible drug problem and are headed to prison. The kids who haven’t lived more than six months in the same place since they were born. The kids who don’t know what Santa visits are like. The ones who don’t have a Crockpot with warm meals filling their house when they hop off the bus.

Every teacher knows a student whose story would break your heart.

A story that would stop you in your tracks.

A story that would remind you what education is about. Education? It’s about the kids.

The charts & graphs in the paper are just numbers. Teachers? We impact lives.
Thank you for all that you do to make an impact on our Kennedy Kubbies each and everyday! They are blessed to have you in their lives. 🙂

Here’s our week at a glance:

Monday, October 6th
Happy Birthday Anna Gabrielle 🙂 *green bus*
Bring Your Parent to School Day: 9-10am and 1-2pm
Flu Shot Clinic 2:45pm-3:45pm (Faculty Lounge)
Fire Safety Visits <—click to view schedule
Dentist Visits (in the conference room)

Tuesday, October 7th
Happy Birthday Nicole Novak 🙂
Fire Safety Visits
Multiage/1st Grade Field Trip to Goebbert’s
Dentist Visits (in the conference room)
Faculty Meeting @ 2:50pm
Mentor Meeting @ 3:45pm

Wednesday, October 8th
Fire Safety Visits
Dentist Visits (in the conference room)

Thursday, October 9th
3rd Grade Field Trip to Goebbert’s

Friday, October 10th
Pre School Screening

*I pinned some neat Fire Safety activities from Pinterest, if you’d like to take a look.

“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!