August 26, 2016

With our focus this school year on student Academic Conversations, PODs, tech integration, PBIS, lots of support through Professional Development, and more, we ALL need super heroes to share with, to compare with, to plan with, and to support one another.  Can you name your super hero on campus already?  

We challenge EACH of you to be THAT super hero for at least 5 students. Can you already picture them in your mind?  We can.  

Take a sec to think about a positive chain reaction.  What if all of our #gvmsvikings were greeted with smiles on our faces and hugs?  What if we showed them DAILY what is means to be their HERO?  Every one of our students comes to school daily with a story that we know NOTHING about. Think about the "battles" they are fighting outside of the safe, positive, super awesome school environment. =)  Think about how EXCITED they are to come see YOU each day!!

SUPER HERO SHOUT OUTS!

• Shout out to Dalal for making MAP so easy to follow and use!
• Shout out to English and Math for completing MAP and beginning of the year placement assessments!
• Shout out to our office super staff (Brenda, Michele, Michele, and Susan) and terrific trio (Rosa, Mimi, and Kristy) for handling all issues positively, effectively, and smoothly!
• Shout out to having NO OVERFLOWS and ALL student contacts under 34 in 6th and 170 in 7th and 8th by WEDNESDAY!!  Whoo hooo!
• Shout out to Heather and Dalal for leading our PD and to Sarj, Tom, Kimberly, Aubry, and Barbara for attending!
• Shout out to Dave F., Lorraine, Dalal, and Kristy for working with Aubry to get Chrome Book sharing!
• SUPER shout out to those that have already reached out OR sent up GOOD NEWS REFERRALS, especially to those that have NEVER written them before!! We have already had 68 written so far!!!  Keep them coming!
• What to nominate a fellow SUPER HERO to be recognized at our next faculty meeting?  Click HERE!!  PLEASE!!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

*August 31- Back to School Night 5-7

*September 4- Labor Day

*September 5- 1st Faculty Meeting

August 19, 2016

Welcome To 2016-2017!

Why Super heroes you ask? 

We are so excited for this school year and hope that you are too!  Why are we so focused on super heroes?  We need super heroes in our life for a multitude of reasons: to pick us up when we are down, to give us hope, to deliver justice, and to save us when we are in trouble to name a few. 

This is what we think you strive to do for our students and truly strive to do for each other.  More on that in this article too....

With our focus this school year on student Academic Conversations, PODs, tech integration, PBIS, lots of support through Professional Development, and more, we ALL need super heroes to share with, to compare with, to plan with, and to support one another.  Can you name your super hero on campus already?  

We challenge EACH of you to be THAT super hero for at least 5 students. Can you already picture them in your mind?  We can.  

After some time to relax and rejuvenate we are in an awesome spot to search and reflect on our OWN individual "why" we are at GVMS and why we are in education. There are many reasons that we got into education and many of those are the same reasons we remain in education.

*To witness students to find their inner genius and watch that light bulb moment....

*To help build positive culture in our school...with our students and our staff

*To support teachers in their effort to continue to grow and support students

Without education we can not have our innovators, our designers, our doctors, our lawyers, our presidents, our FUTURE.

We are as passionate as ever about all of our teachers working on thinking out of the box, sharing their learning with each other and empowering our students. We REALLY want to encourage each and every one of you to take risks, make mistakes (especially in technology!) to show you are trying and to push yourself to try something new this year.  Take off on your creative journey as your student's guide and leader. Learn from them!  Ask them for help!  Learn from one another!  Ask them for help!  Don't become complacent. When you find yourself having struggles or fears, reach out and find support. We are an unbelievable team with an amazing amount of knowledge that we have yet to tap into; we must be a united force and a "super hero" for each other AND our students!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!

*August 22- MAP Window opens!

*August 25- Google Training after school!

*August 26- PCT Meeting!

*August 26- Picture Day!

*August 26- Site Council Parent Ballots due!

*August 31- Back to School Night 5-7

*September 4- Labor Day

*September 5- 1st Faculty Meeting

May 27, 2016

Are you considered "today's teacher" Take a look at that check list above and see if you truly are! We are excited for the things to come for next year and take a look at THIS ARTICLE for more ideas and inspiration!

Please remember to:

• Update the learning objective, big idea or focus that you are working on DAILY! Our kids need to know what and why they are learning something and not just because their teacher told them to do it :)
• Write a Good News Referral for a kid who may be that shy, quiet, or silent student but who is always on task!
• Make a positive connection to a student who doesn't always draw your attention!
• Write a positive note to an 8th grader to tell them how proud you are of them!

Mark your calendars!! Here are some dates to remember:
May 27/30 No school

June 1 Promotion Practice DURING 4th period
June 1 Happy Hour at Sticky Rice in Green Valley!

June 2 8th grade promotion/minimum day

June 3 Teacher workday
June 24 Last day office is open for teachers

August 9 WEB Day

August 11 Staff Retreat- Technology, Google EVERYTHING, DOK/SAMR model, 
TEAM BUILDING!
August 31 Back to School Night
September 14 College and Career Night at GVMS!

October 25, 26, 27 Challenge Days for 7th and 8th graders
December 7 Career Day at GVMS!

Have you checked out our Fish Moments?

BE THERE: Thanks to TRACY for agreeing to sub for Lacey for part of next year too! Thanks to ROSA and MIMI for taking on the schedule of promotion and "lock down" for promotion!

PLAY: GET A SHIRT!!! Thank you to ELIZABETH for the Secret Pal organization and celebration on Wednesday! Thank you to SUE, GIGI, SANDY, DUSTIN, TAMIA, JOSIAH, POZZESI, SARJ, CHRISTEN, JACY, SANDRA, KRISTY, TOM, PAULA, LORRAINE and HEATHER for having FUN on the 8th grade trip!! :)
THANK YOU to Heather, Sue, Allison, Cristina, Joe, Susan, Michele, Candy, and Christen for writing Good News Referrals to at least one colleague! We challenge ALL STAFF to write something NICE and POSITIVE to a peer! C'mon and let's encourage one another for something! Put a smile on someone's face!

MAKE THEIR DAY: Thanks SUSAN, MICHELE, MICHELE, and KAREN CANDY for taking care of promotion tickets! Thanks to KRISTY, ROCHELLE, and KEN for writing Good News Referrals for ALL OF GREEN TEAM for their sportsmanship! WE HAVE OVER 300 GOOD NEWS REFERRALS WRITTEN IN MAY FOR STAFF AND STUDENTS!!!! SO AWESOME!!

CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: LET'S STAY POSITIVE PEEPS! KEEP ON SMILING! 

May 20, 2016

As we move to close the school year (and keep our sanity), we must reflect to grow. We also must do the same with our students. How do you do this, you ask? I am so glad you asked :) Check out THIS ARTICLE about ways to make reflection on the school year empowering for ALL students and super powerful for you as a professional who is always learning!

When we walk into classrooms, we love to hear the great questions that students ask to clarify their learning. Wish you knew how to train them on ways to ask more effective and meaningful questions? HERE are 5 easy ways to get students to ask better questions!

Please remember to:

• Update the learning objective, big idea or focus that you are working on DAILY! Our kids need to know what and why they are learning something and not just because their teacher told them to do it :)
• Write a Good News Referral for a kid who may be that shy, quiet, or silent student but who is always on task!
• Make a positive connection to a student who doesn't always draw your attention!
• Say thank you to a PTC Board member for an AWESOME week! The thank you cards are in the mail room. Please sign each one!!

Mark your calendars!! Here are some dates to remember:

May 21 Great America Band Trip

May 24 Rally Schedule for yearbook distribution

May 26 8th grade trip to Allan Witt (List of those attending coming ASAP!)
May 26th 6-7:30 8th grade dance

May 27/30 No school
June 1 Promotion Practice DURING 4th period

June 2 8th grade promotion/minimum day

June 3 Teacher workday

June 4 End of year party/Candy's retirement celebration at Carol's house

August 9 WEB Day

August 11 Staff Retreat- Technology, Google EVERYTHING, TEAM BUILDING!

October 25, 26, 27 Challenge Days for 7th and 8th graders

Have you checked out our Fish Moments?

BE THERE: Thanks to TRACY for agreeing to sub for Lacey for part of next year too!

PLAY: GET A SHIRT!!! Also, thanks to those that already RSVP'd for the end of the year party! Going to be fun!!
THANK YOU to Heather, Sue, Allison, Cristina, Joe, Susan, Michele, Candy, and Christen for writing Good News Referrals to at least one colleague! We challenge ALL STAFF to write something NICE and POSITIVE to a peer! C'mon and let's encourage one another for something! Put a smile on someone's face!

MAKE THEIR DAY: Thanks to DAN for another great performance with our talented kiddos! Thanks to SARJ and SHAWNA for a fabulous breakfast!

CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: LET'S STAY POSITIVE PEEPS! KEEP ON SMILING! 

May 13, 2016

Happy GVMS Teacher Appreciation WEEK!

We know that GVMS is celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week May 16-20 (and you DON'T want to miss the luncheon on May 20th!) AND we wanted you to know we are thinking of you! Please watch this video AGAIN!...Always makes my heart melt!!

There will be treats in your mailbox each day from us! Hope you all enjoy!

During my walk with Tammy on Tuesday, I realized how VERY different the feedback form needs to be. It is SO much more focused on students and how they respond to the teacher and are engaged. We will be spending time during the retreat to review this more in depth. One of the things that we noticed is that we are struggling to get past a DOK level 1 or 2. In a simple way (by getting students to compare what they are working on or studying to other cultures, other historical times, or how life would be different, etc) bumps their learning from Level 1 to at least a 2 and most likely a 3.

We really do strive to teach kindness in school. Are we all effective at doing so? Take a look at THIS ARTICLE about 8 reasons why kindness should be taught in schools and what the fantastic results are!

Mark your calendars!! Here are some dates to remember:

May 16-May 20 Teacher Appreciation Week

May 19 Honor Society Trip
May 19 Spring Concert

May 20 Sport O Rama/Teacher Appreciation Lunch
May 21 Great America Band Trip
May 24 Rally Schedule for yearbook distribution

May 26 8th grade trip to Allan Witt/8th grade dance

May 27/30 No school

June 2 8th grade promotion/minimum day

June 3 Teacher workday

June 4 End of year party at Carol's house

August 9 WEB Day

August 11 Staff Retreat- Technology, Google EVERYTHING, Illuminate, TEAM BUILDING!

October 25, 26, 27 Challenge Days for 7th and 8th graders

Have you checked out our Fish Moments?

BE THERE: Thanks to ALL TEACHERS who let kids stay longer in their classrooms and also helped with testing and more! SUPER appreciate it! Thank you to JASON, SUE, ROSA, MIMI, AIDA, and WENDY for helping with testing during the Thursday morning chaos!

PLAY: GET A SHIRT!!! Also, thanks to those that already RSVP'd for the end of the year party! Going to be fun!!

MAKE THEIR DAY: Thanks to DAN for a fantastic performance on Wednesday with our guitar players and to JOSIAH for attending too!
CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: LET'S STAY POSITIVE PEEPS! KEEP ON SMILING! 

May 6, 2016

Happy Day of the Teacher!

We know that GVMS is celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week May 16-20 (and you DON'T want to miss the luncheon on May 20th!) AND we wanted you to know we are thinking of you! Please watch this video...Always makes my heart melt!!

Deep breath. Deep breath. We are ALMOST done. We are, I promise. Keep it going people, you can do this :)

Thank you for the rich and engaging conversation regarding the academic conversations and the DOK Levels. We are working to change our half sheet of feedback to make them more meaningful! Here is the email from Dalal (thank you!) on how she has rich conversations between partners:

1. Whole class responds to a question on the whiteboard (also ask them to jot down a piece of evidence or justification)

2. Partner A: Turns to partner and reads whiteboard response.

3. Partner B: I agree/disagree with __ because the text says __. (Or the distributive property says __, or the third law of motion says __ or the passage said __ or the video said __).

4. Partner A: I would also add ____. (or "that makes me think of ___." Or "By contrast, the other side might say__." Or "Another example would be ___." Or "The text also says __.")

More examples are attached to our emails!

Since we are STRUGGLING with getting away from worksheets on our campus (HINT HINT) please check out these EASY ideas HERE for turning a worksheet into a collaborative, critical thinking activity including "Cut Apart", "Everybody Knows", "Lines of Communication", "My Mistake", and "Pair Rotation". It's a very SIMPLE way to get AWAY from the boring, simple worksheets!

What does a modern educator look like? I am glad you asked... THIS ARTICLE describes the photo in more detail to include thoughts and practices such as seeing yourself as a "co-learner", allowing yourself to fail, feeling secure to ask colleagues for help, embracing change and more. We are getting there GVMS!

Want to help your neighbor?  Pass these links along to your friends and family to get support for the various projects!  In fact, check out these project from Mrs. Nitto HERE , Mrs. Love HERE, Ms. Toll's HERE, Mrs. DeVries HERE, and Mr. McNamara's HERE, Mrs. Bates HERE !  PASS THESE ON!!!

Mark your calendars!! Here are some dates to remember:

April 25-May 13 SBAC
May 11 Guitar Night
May 15-24 Classified Employee Week

May 16-May 20 Teacher Appreciation Week

May 19 Spring Concert

May 20 Sport O Rama/Teacher Appreciation Lunch
May 24 Rally Schedule for yearbook distribution

May 26 8th grade trip to Allan Witt/8th grade dance

May 27/30 No school

June 2 8th grade promotion/minimum day

June 3 Teacher workday

June 4 End of year party at Carol's house

August 9 WEB Day

August 11 Staff Retreat- Technology, Google EVERYTHING, Illuminate, TEAM BUILDING!

October 25, 26, 27 Challenge Days for 7th and 8th graders

Have you checked out our Fish Moments?

BE THERE: Thanks to ALL TEACHERS who let kids stay longer in their classrooms and also helped with testing and more! SUPER appreciate it! Thanks to DUSTIN, CAROL, ALEX, POZZESI, KRISTY, KEN, ROCHELLE, SANDY, ELIZABETH, MIMI, ROSA, CARLA, KIMBERLY, and DAVE F. for coaching and organizing Sport O Rama! Thanks to SUE, DAN, and TOM for being our refs!

PLAY: Tell me what the GVMS stands for on the back to get yours...and no, it's not just Green Valley Middle School silly!! :); We still have some up for grabs!! C'MON!!!!

MAKE THEIR DAY: Thanks to DALAL for all of the screen shots and more for testing! Thanks to CRISTINA, MIMI, ROSA, LIZ, AIDA, LYNN, JULIE, ELIZABETH, CHRISTINE, and OFFICER JOE for searching for our new friend on Wednesday!

CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: LET'S STAY POSITIVE PEEPS! KEEP ON SMILING! 

April 29, 2016

Here is our plan for next week and CAASPP testing, so PLEASE make sure that you know where to send your students if they need extra time:

We will be taking ALL the "spill overs" in the library next week unless you want to or are willing to keep them or have them test on the next assigned day. We will be borrowing Dave's chrome books for ELA as we did with Kristin's for Math. If we have WAY too many students, we will move into a classroom to continue. Thank you for your help!

Please continue to help us by sending students to other classrooms to work or for a time out. If they are officially class suspended, please send them as usual. We are really trying to support SBAC testing and the back office is getting WAY too crowded!

This graphic can be really hard to see and the article is much better. Click HERE to read about 15 differences between a teacher-centered and student-centered classroom. Our goal is to have EVERY classroom at GVMS be and stay a STUDENT-CENTERED CLASSROOM!!! Check out the article to see the list!

I know this is ANOTHER article but I loved it....Do we think our grading system is fair? Is it working for ALL of our students? Check out THIS ARTICLE for a QUICK read on zeros, the ten point scale and more. It's definitely something to think about ;)

What does a modern educator look like? I am glad you asked... THIS ARTICLE describes the photo in more detail to include thoughts and practices such as seeing yourself as a "co-learner", allowing yourself to fail, feeling secure to ask colleagues for help, embracing change and more. We are getting there GVMS!

Yes, it can be a little scary. Yes, it can be a little nerve wracking. Yes, it can be a little uncomfortable. And yet, we DO need to OPEN OUR DOORS! Why do we, as teachers, need to watch others in action? Because we LEARN so much! Check out THIS AWESOME ARTICLE on the reasons why: to see the successes, the failures, the learning experiences and more! This is happening more and more on our site and we could NOT be more excited!!

Mark your calendars!! Here are some dates to remember:

April 25-May 13 SBAC
April 29 No School :)

April 30 Spring Fling

May 11 Guitar Night

May 16-May 20 Teacher Appreciation Week

May 19 Spring Concert

May 20 Sport O Rama/Teacher Appreciation Lunch

May 26 8th grade trip to Allan Witt/8th grade dance

May 27/30 No school

June 2 8th grade promotion/minimum day

June 3 Teacher workday

June 4 End of year party at Carol's house

August 9 WEB Day

August 11 Staff Retreat- Technology, Google EVERYTHING, Illuminate, TEAM BUILDING!

October 25, 26, 27 Challenge Days for 7th and 8th graders

Have you checked out our Fish Moments?

BE THERE: Thanks to ALL TEACHERS who let kids stay and also helped with testing and more! SUPER appreciate it! Thank you to WENDY and SUE for covering for Sarj!

PLAY: Tell me what the GVMS stands for on the back to get yours...and no, it's not just Green Valley Middle School silly!! :); We still have some up for grabs!!

MAKE THEIR DAY: Have someone to nominate for ROCK STAR TEACHER? Email Kristen ASAP or click HERE!  
Thanks to TAMIA for taking an IEP on Monday that wasn't even hers, making sure the parents were taken care of, and covering Dawn's testing group!
Thanks to LYNN, JOE, DAN P., KEVIN, SARJ, ELIZABETH, POZZESI, LORRAINE, DON, CRISTINA, JULIE, SHAWNA, KIMBERLY, KRISTY, TOM, HEATHER, GIGI, SUE, ALLISON, CAROL, DAVE M., DALAL, KEN, CHRISTEN, TAMIA, PRISCI, and LACEY/TRACY for already completing the Student of the Month for the last month for MOST IMPROVED! We have so many to choose from and that's AWESOME!  PLEASE pick one ASAP if you have not done so! The link is HERE!
Thanks to all SECRET PALS that are still making other people's day! PS- Mine is a ROCK STAR and I totally appreciate her/him!! :) 
Thanks to RIC for all his double duty that he has been doing to ensure we are clean and covered!

CHOOSE YOUR ATTITUDE: LET'S STAY POSITIVE PEEPS! KEEP ON SMILING!