October...... wow, its here already

Week of October 3-7, 2011

This Week:
Monday 10/3:
Admin meeting-845am
Kid Talks Bassett- 2:20

Leadership- 3:45

Tuesday 10/4

8th grade Roswell walking tour/filed trip (Mike M and Susan with 8th grade)

Kid Talks 2:20 Logan/Schultz, Melton/Adkins, Vorick/Pardee

Wednesday 10/5

Lisa Out until 1:30 on 8th grade Roswell walking tour

Grade level meeting- 2:20

Thursday 10/6

Content area meetings (Science and Math)- 2:20

Friday 10/7

Hi all;

I wanted to apologize for not keeping my blog up these last few weeks. I have been traveling home and catching up on laundry, driving my daughter around and even attempting to keep my head above water to catch up on my hundreds of emails, put me a bit behind on this communication tool for you. As I get more savvy, I want to add a few links and resources to the page.

I would like to hear from you as we celebrate each other and even our students. I am planning on parking myself in the 6th grade area starting next week to have my face a bit more visible for you and the students. I feel as if my office would be more beneficial down in your hallway therefore I am creating a "make shift area" in Linda's classroom (Thanks Linda M) and even sometimes in the rotunda. I have cafe duty from 11:30-12:30 each day, many meetings and other obligations as they come up, but for most mornings my goal is to be present in our hall.

Next week I would also like to talk with you about how I can be more of a support in helping students get their work completed that they still owe you. I knwo this is very time consuming on your part adn still.... no work is produced. Please think about how I might be able to support either your team or the whole grade level. I know we have students filling out pink slips but when opportunities of getting the work completed expire where do we go next??? what do we have in place for the chronic offenders??? I have a few ideas myself but want you to think also. The bottom line is we want and need the work completed in order for you to see if that student understands the standard/element you taught them and then what will you do with that info (reteach or extend if needed). If you do not have the work, that idea is no longer viable for you as the teacher and really for the student.

Many of you are already thinking out of the box with reassessing and reteaching. Please share with us any ideas either on this blog on on the server you are using and how it is working for you. Its a challenge with our schedule this year but most of you are managing it well. lets talk briefly at our GL meeting out some of our successes and a few challenges.

Hats off to you... not a day goes by that I do not enjoy talking with you, watching you in action with your kids and I truly feel blessed to be with this great group of 6th grade teachers. You all ROCK!

Lisa G

Celebrations:

• thank you for your many thoughts and prayers as my family went through the difficult time this past week. it is never easy losing a family member and my grandmother was a dear member to loose. At 90 she lived a wonderful fun filled life. I could only hope some day I can see the ripe age of 90......



• wonderful breakfast club last Friday. it is always nice to break bread with a super fantastic group of people.



• ???? please send me any other celebrations throughout the week... fun happenings, success stories of one another or your students milestones, kudos to one another.

Have a GR8 week..... :0

Monday August 29, 2011

This week:
Monday- Math checkpoints for 6th grade
Curriculum Night 6:45. PTA providing food at 530
Tuesday- Kid talks begin
Lisa out to a testing meeting until 1:00
Wednesday- RELA-On line checkpoints begins
Grade level meetings
Thursday- Lisa out
Content meetings
Friday- Lisa out
Enjoy the long weekend!! See you Tuesday

Celebrations:
-Thank you to a wonderful second week of school!
-Thank you to Emily and Mike for setting up our "Breakfast Club" if you have not contributed your 2$ please do so ASAP.
-Thank you Mike for the idea of team folders on the server to place your logs into for me. Much easier!
- Ok, so 7th grade was first for the fire drill... All my fault :) we will be first next time. 2nd place is great too! thansk for your help with everything as we tried the new system. I think we can get a bit closer together which will make it easier for me to check you all off.
-Do you have anyone to thank or you want to throw a "shout out" to??? email me for next weeks BLOG, I'd love to celebrate the great things you all see that I might not!
Let's celebrate each other!

Announcements/Reminders:
1. As you know, paper/pencil checkpoints for Math begins Monday and On line testing has been moved back a few days due to the delay in data being uploaded into Achievement Series.

2. In the event that you might need to leave early or coem in late, please make sure you sign out/ in with the front office AND
starting this week, please sign out/in on the clipboard at my office. This way in case I need someone to cover a class in the future I can tap into anyone on the list as needed. I will remind you. Thank you in advance for following this process.

3. Team logs and even content logs should now be posted on the 6th grade server. I will be printing them off to bring to Kid talks. This way Tina can access them also.

4. Kid talks begin Tuesday please refer to your schedule Tina sent out last Weds. Once I get on a routine, I will be adding these into our blog as a reminder.

5. Sub folders are due soon.... please drop them off in my office or in my mailbox.

6.Curriculum Night is a wonderful opportunity for you to establish a working relationship with students' parents. Please remind them (if you get stuck with a chatty parent) it is not a conference time and they can set up a conference at a later date. Do not forget to discuss our 6th grade discipline plan along with sharing a sample of the slip we are using. Try to make a special effort to meet and really greet the parents of your students that are already on your radar. If after curriculum night you need to make aware of anything please do so. I am very interested in making that relationship with parents a successful one too. I will do what I can to support you in anyway with parents. I will be popping in throughout the night to say hello.

7. Rox and I talked about Connectiosn dismissal, students are loud, running and not following your directions as they head to Connection classes. She will be sharing with you how we need to have some supervison on the hallways as they walk to connections. The logistics of this will be decided shortly.

8. My travels this week. My grandmother is not doing very well since they took her off her chemo treatments a few weeks ago. She is 90 years old and my daughter and I will be traveling to PA on Weds to visit and spend some much needed time with her while she is still coherent. A very tough visit for us but with that said I will still have access to email so please keep me in the loop as I am not here. I will a miss a few meetings so if you can send me any of your logs that would help me to stay in touch. Please see Michelle or Mike if you need assistance.

Have a great week and enjoy!!
Lisa G

Monday, August 22, 2011
Here is to WEEK 2 of our new school year!!

This week:
Monday- Leadership at 3:45
Tuesday- Kid talks start... more details later.
Weds- Grade level meeting 2:20
Thursday- content area meetings
Friday- are we having breakfast this week or next?

A BIG Thank you!!!

• Congratulations on a wonderful first week of school and



• A successful fire drill. We were the first to all be in line and accounted for. Way to go!!
  



• Lockers and hallways are looking fabulous.




• Thank you to many of you as you helped Shawn Mathews as she was welcomed to your 6th grade family. We are still looking for a M/S special education teacher if you knwo of anyone, please let me know.




• Glad Jaclyn is back and feels better, thank you for many of you that stepped up and helped her and her class. You are truly a remarkable group
  

FYI........

• Lets try very hard this week to get all students into HR for announcements even if they have to hold items in the hallways and return after to finish. It is important for students to hear the announcements each day.




• Many of you have asked about calling me if you are going to be out, here is my cell number (770-313-6644). You can call be the night before (before 10:30 pm) or in the morning from 5:30- 7:30 am. Yes, you can text me. If texting becomes a problem or I need to speak to you, I will let you know. One thing I do ask is that you let me know if you called CASE and if you have a sub or not when you call or text me. Please also let me know each day you will be out.




• Team logs are to be in my mailbox or emailed to me by 4Pm on Fridays. This week is an exception, last weeks need to be by Tuesday 4pm.




• Kid talks will begin on Tuesday, I will get more of an idea from Susan today. I do believe the gist for us to meet an talk about any students who are struggling academically, behaviorally or other concerns. I need to see if this is per grade or per team. More to come. A few of you have already sent me some names of students I need to informally meet with and I will do so early this week.




• Checkpoints will begin the week of Aug 29. Reading and ELA will be combined in one test and will be given on line in ELA class. Math will be paper and pencil in MAth calss. More details to come also.




• Just to let you know, I will be coming around this week to spend time in classrooms, just to see how thing are run in your classes..... nothing formal, just a visit to get to know you as a teacher.
  

Have a Great Week... if I can help you in any way, please let me know.

Lisa

Monday August 15.....first day of school

Hi all... and welcome back!


Wow, summer is over and the kids are back! Can you believe it??? Yea!

I really like to communicate with you on a regular basis and keep you in the know. Keeping up with an email weekly with a whole bunch of info can be tricky so a BLOG is a great way to have all our information in one central area.

This way if you forget something or need to refresh your memory (which for me is often), you can just go to the blog and scroll up and down instead of trying to remember what email I sent and when....It will all be right there.
Hope you enjoy and you can become a follower, make a comment and even send me an email to let me know what I can add next for the group. I will add other blogs to check out, great websites, picture of our activities and whatever seems to be a need for us to be productive.
Please feel free to give me your input on how this works for you. I will send out a weekly link for you probably Friday or over the weekend for the week ahead.

Go get 'em.... 6th grade team, you all rock.......make this a great day.

Lisa :)

The format will be similar to the following:
My week: 8/15-19
M- 3:45 Leadership
T-
W- Grade level meeting
TH- 6th grade assembly
F- Fire Drill
Jeans day.... wear a spirit shirt

IN THE KNOW..........
- Discipline Plan: thank you for working through the discipline plan please know if I can help in the way of speaking to a student for you before we head into the "discipline slips", just email me or stop me in the hallway. I will be more than happy to speak to a child to hopefully eliminate a potential issue later on.

- Leadership Minutes: I know that this process is a different one than before but please make sure you read the leadership minutes, Ms. Opferman sent out last week. I know Roxanne went over the action items but reading them will be your responsibility. if you have any questions regarding any items, please see Roxanne or Lisa.

A big THANK YOU!!
-Pannek, Mclaren, Melton and Bassett to organize, explain and lead us through the mini camp. Please tell them thank you when you get a chance.
-6th grade team... for hosting a wonderful lunch, thanks for the invite and the warm welcome to me these past few weeks.
-Link, Brooke and the student ambassadors who helped at open house and will help this first week.

UPCOMING EVENTS.....
- Curriculum night

*** sorry if I mispelled any names :(