October Oasis

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

Anne of Green Gables

I read an article on Twitter recently by Frank Buck who wrote about the "Oasis of October."  He spoke about how October was one of his favorite months as a teacher and administrator because school routines were in place, the beginning of the school year events were complete, and there was a good stretch of learning time before the holiday interruptions of November and December.  He said, "if I wanted to launch something new, re-tool something old, or do some course correction, October was my best shot at making it happen."

What is going well for you?  For Cooper?  What still needs to change?  How can we help and support you?  In our oasis of October, we plan to get into classrooms, reinforce behavior expectations, continue to embed Leader in Me into all we do, and promote Cooper to increase parent communication.  Remember, if you want something you've never had, you must be willing to do something you've never done.

"Adventure may hurt you but monotony will kill you."  Author Unknown

"Break the monotony.  Do something strange and extravagant."  Emerson

Walking on Susie's Track

Big Rocks:

Camp is almost here!  Thank you to Robin, Pam, Julie, and Bill for all of their help with organization, fundraisers, meds, health care plans, and scholarships.  A big thank you to all of the 6th grade teachers for all of their help and support.  We have experienced some issues with chaperone availability and coverage overnight for the second group but we think we are getting there.  Student camp meetings will take place this Tuesday and a chaperone meeting will be held Wednesday night.  

F & P scores are due in Illuminate on Friday, October, 9th.  There is still a lot of questions and concerns over F & P.  We will be placing a memo in your boxes from the district regarding consistency and administration.  Here's the low down.

• Teachers will alternate F/NF for each assessment.  We know a lot of teachers disagree with this.  Fountas and Pinnell state in their FAQ that "The fiction and nonfiction are equivalent measures."
• There will be consistent use of comprehension questions and utilization of the protocol beyond the running record in order to move a student to the next level.
• You MUST use the Benchmark Criteria for Levels L-Z grid on page 51 of the Curriculum Companion and page 40 of the F & P Systems 2.  If a child reads a level T and scores a 97% on accuracy, but a 6 on comprehension then it is too hard and you must test down a level.  If a child reads a level X and scores 99% accuracy and 7 on comprehension, you must test at the higher level.
• You MUST test until you find the correct instructional level.  The curriculum companion states, "Teachers will continue assessing until they identify a placement level for each student.  In the past, teacher assessment of student progress stopped when a student met grade level expectations.  This is no longer the case."  This often means that you are testing 2-3 times for each student.  LPS knows that the use of F & P as the evaluation tool has conflicted with the administration of the diagnostic.  Please remember that knowing your child's true reading level helps you as the educator ensure the best learning for that child.  
• We know that this is time consuming.  We would like to offer Pod Read-Ins on Wednesday morning to allow just a little bit longer for testing.  Kristi and Sarah and any other teachers who would like to join will be in the cafe on Wednesday morning.  Your students may bring books, magazines, and blankets to the cafe.  If you have a special during that time, please feel free to switch with another teacher but please switch so that we don't have more than 8 classes in the cafe at a time.  We do still need to check with Jeff if this is cutting it too close so just a heads up!
• Pod A: Wise, Bubar, Mark, Krekeler, Lietz, Erickson, Backiel, Redmond 8:50-9:30
• Pod B: Licata, Estes, Yost, Stackpoole, Kimball, Webster, Kopacko, Mansour           9:35-10:15
• Pod C: Santi, deCarli, Cohan, Spence, Martin, Daraskavich, McGlinch 10:20-11:00

Thank you to Bill for hosting the first staff meeting in a classroom!  We really appreciated it Bill!  This weeks staff meeting will be held in the library.  We will be meeting in curricular teams to go over the School Improvement Plan strategies and activities for you curricular area.  We are hoping to have collaboration time within curricular teams and also grade level teams on a more regular basis than in the past.

The Fire Drill this week will be held during passing time.  Please review with your students what is the protocol for a fire drill that may occur during passing time or lunch time.

The PTA Fall Festival is October 23 this year.  It was a lot of fun last year.  PTA would love if you would consider signing up for Pie in the Face.  I know.  I cringe just thinking about it but I probably will sign up for the kids.  Ahhh!  Believe me I did advocate for a dunk tank!  Do it for the kids people! :)  http://www.signupgenius.com/go/5080d4daca82aa75-pieintheface

Calendar for the Week of October 5:

Monday: Fire Drill 9:35

               Student Lighthouse 11:35

               Verizon Mobile Learning Academy 5:00

Tuesday: Camp Meetings Group 1 10/12-10/14 -9:00-9:30

                Group 2 10/14-10/16-1:30-2:00

               Lighthouse Meeting 3:45-4:45

Wednesday: Camp Chaperone Meeting 6:30 pm

Thursday: Staff Meeting in Library 8:00

                  

Friday: LEAD time Walk-a-thon Kick Off (Exact Times TBA)

             Illuminate F & P Due