Never on Monday Musing's New Face

Article posted June 23, 2010 at 08:49 PM GMT0 • Reads 91

Hi Folks! I hope everyone is enjoying a relaxing and fun summer. As you know, I have used "Never on Monday Musings" on a weekly basis as a means to share information about school happenings, professional development information, committee work,and my refelctions about teaching. Early last year I got the idea of moving NOMM to a blog. Well,I finally got around to it! Of course you know this already because you are visitng my blog! I look forward to making my first posts later this summer.

Back At It

Article posted September 21, 2010 at 02:01 PM GMT0 • Reads 45

Hey Folks- It is hard to believe that this Thursday is the first day of autumn. The fall is harvest time when we’re finally able to reap the benefits of months of sweat equity in our victory gardens. After preparing the soil and planting in the spring, we spend our summer weeding, watering and pruning in hopes of a bountiful crop. The autumn is a natural time of celebration as we reap the benefits of our labor. Learning certainly follows a similar cyclical path of development and celebration. The beginning of school in the fall is much like the spring planting- A time of thoughtful preparation and anticipation. While the hot summer days spur on new green growth, the long winter provides ample opportunity for student learning and development. With the spring come the hopes and dreams of renewed growth, while at school students are ripe with fulfillment in the many new skills and abilities they’ve learned throughout the school year. Let’s celebrate the autumn harvest and the renewed potential this year holds for our all of our students.



Speaking of celebrating…I was notified today that we were awarded the federal REAP grant for the 2010-2011 school year. Kowabunga! It wasn’t looking very good there for a while, but the feds came through. Now we can go ahead and order the new teacher laptops we discussed last spring. This will allow us to maximize the use of our PolyVision boards and improve our access to multimedia tools.



I am looking forward to Thursday’s Back to School Open House. It is a wonderful opportunity to catch up with parents I’ve not seen all summer, and to meet families new to our school community. I know you will do all you can to help parents feel welcome, and to paint a clear picture of what your classroom is all about. First impressions go a long way!



For the past two years we have worked very hard to develop concise, well defined and scaffolded K-5 power standards in the areas of reading and writing. These are the critical literacy skills that we all agree every student needs to be taught, to know and utilize. We developed related common school-wide assessments to help us make sure every student will make steady progress toward meeting these expectations. Our goal is for all students to leave EKES as strong readers, writers and thinkers. To accomplish this each one of us must do our part in committing to and teaching to these standards. How you choose to teach is the art of the craft- A weaving of your personal style and research based best practices. The key is that we are committed to working together and seeking steady progress and results for all of our students.



Beginning next week Foster Grandparent volunteer Ginny Franzoni will be joining our staff for fifteen hours each week. That’s right our dear friend Ginny will be returning to EKES for an encore performance. She will be here each day for approximately three hours and will be working in the library, tech lab and 3W. I know you will welcome Ginny with open arms.



I hope to see you this Saturday between 1:00 and 3:00 pm at the PTO’s “Explore Your Backyard” Welcome Back Cookout. The gathering provides a nice opportunity to meet and chat with families in an informal and fun setting. There will be games, crafts and tons of food to sample.



Check out the link below to view a great video called "Words." It is an exciting use of multimedia showing how powerful words can be and the variety of meanings they have. Imagine a project like this with your kids.



[LINK]

Blog Away!

Article posted September 24, 2010 at 10:10 PM GMT0 • Reads 54

What I am finding cool about blogging is how easy it is to update your blog with new ideas, reflections and thoughts. This will undoubtedly change how I write Never on Monday Musings. Rather than sitting down once a week to write from a long list of items I want to share with you, I will make multiple postings a week. This already feels more manageable to me. I will be sending out an email with a link to the blog on a weekly basis, but feel free to follow my blog more often if you choose.



Want to learn more about how teachers are using blogs in the classrooms? Brenda (Me wife) found a site that provides a collection of blogs across a variety of grade levels. Check out the link below:



[LINK]

Community Events

Article posted September 29, 2010 at 01:41 PM GMT0 • Reads 42

I wanted to pass on a big thank you to the teaching staff for a great Parent Open House last Thursday. The mood of the evening was very positive, and many parents that I spoke to took the time to mention how impressed they were with the quality of teaching taking place in the building. Kudos to all of you! Last Saturday’s PTO Cookout was also a great success. Building a strong and caring community is such an important part of our work. I think the Open House and Cookout both served this purpose extremely well. Special thanks to all of you who took time out of your busy weekend to attend the Cookout.



You'll notice in the upper left hand corner of my blog an area where I can post links to other blogs and websites. I've added three so far and will be adding many more over time. I hope you will take time to check them out.

Parent Conferences are Coming!

Article posted October 14, 2010 at 01:29 PM GMT0 • Reads 450

I’m thinking it was a good decision for us to put off sharing the fall writing rubric with parents at the October conferences. It makes sense to have more time to get to know students as writers and to share this information at the end of the first trimester. Of course, the challenge this poses is parents will have to interpret the rubric on their own. To address this, Amy took time to redesign the rubric to make it more readable and parent friendly. She’ll be meeting with grade level teams over the next week to share the new form and to get your opinion about which form best suits our needs.



As we discussed at out last Thursday AM-PD meeting, please share the following information with parents at the October 20 and 27 conferences:



1. Review progress report including fall DRA/BRI info.

2. 3-way goal setting – Student goals, parent goals and teacher goals

3. Review a blank copy of the writing rubric form so parents will expect it with the report card. Hopefully by the conferences we’ll have a clear idea which form we will be using.



Things in the works…



Deb is going to be organizing a critical friends group this year. Critical Friends is a professional group for staff that supports discussion and collaboration with colleagues regarding student and classroom dilemmas. Meetings will be monthly. We’d love to have you participate. Look for details after conference time.



How we go about teaching spelling is still very much unsettled in the building. I have asked Amy to host a variety of forums to explore best practices and to keep the conversation moving on this critical topic. Look for details about upcoming book and article discussion groups coming up after conference time.



Attached is an interesting article forwarded to me by Tony Baldasaro (No, I will never forget his last name.). The article is written by Will Richardson and challenges our notions of what it means to be literate in the 21st century.



[ [LINK] ][LINK]

What Does Inquiry Look Like in Science?

Article posted October 14, 2010 at 09:44 PM GMT0 • Reads 53

I was snooping around You Tube and stumbled across the video below. I think it does a nice job of modeling what inquiry can look like in a primary classroom. If you find an article or video you think reflects best practice in science inquiry, I encourage you to share it with the staff.



[LINK]

Sir Ken Robinson

Article posted October 18, 2010 at 01:52 PM GMT0 • Reads 54

Sir Ken Robinson is at it again with a wonderful presentation on shifting the education paradigm. The video is very much worth your time to watch. What implications does this video pose on how we teach at EKES?



[LINK]

The Power of Time

Article posted October 19, 2010 at 11:09 PM GMT0 • Reads 64

Never feel like you have enough time. How are today's kids using their time and how does it impact their learning? Check out this Philip Zimbardo video for a very interesting perspective about time and its cultutal implications.



[LINK]

Details on Nov. 12 Science PD

Article posted October 27, 2010 at 04:29 PM GMT0 • Reads 50

Hey Folks- Below is a detailed description of our workshop with Jeff Winokur on November 12. It looks like it will be a great day! Best, Jim



Initial Draft of science professional development day at E. Kingston Elementary

November 12, 2010



9:00

1. A report of what I (Jeff) have observed so far. Big ideas:

Lots of good life science, though it might be better coordinated conceptually

People use homemade guides/kits

Everyone has strengths/weaknesses

Understandably, individuals have favorite topics



9:30

2. Big picture of the project—which issues will be addressed and why (getting to power standards)



9:45 (with break built in)

3. Inquiry

We’ll do something with simple circuits even though some folks may know a lot about the science—there are many fun options (such as liquids or tops) but because of the story line, the classroom video I have, and that I’ll be basing this on one of the kit-based programs (this can show people how thorough and engaging some materials are) we can use this experience to apply to the classroom pretty much directly.



Goals

• Provide a common experience on which to (continue to) build a shared understanding of what inquiry means:

-This is more than hands-on, and more than open-ended exploration.

-Builds content and skills which must be articulated

• Introduce the idea of conceptual understanding

• Introduce the role of conceptual story line

• Make direct application to the classroom



It will be abbreviated but the inquiry experience will include:



An introductory discussion

Recording in notebooks

A sequence of hands-on experiences

A making meaning discussion/mystery boxes



12:00 LUNCH



12:45

4. Discussion of the inquiry experience:



Keep in mind the components of the morning (not just the activities). What did each contribute to your learning (or not)?

-Discussion

-Recording (notebooks, prediction sheets)

-The hands-on experience

-Formulating a claim based on evidence

-Teacher questions

-Formative assessment



What did you notice about the balance between teacher guidance and “student” responsibility?



Look at conceptual story line—where are these learning experiences situated within the planned flow of this unit. Are there units in which you have the beginning of a story line?



5.Classroom video

Look for students engaged in inquiry (again not just hands-on)?



This can look like other areas of the curriculum (let’s think about how and where it is the same, how and where it is different)

Coordinated approach to skills of inquiry



4. Reflections on the day

What will you take away?

What will you need more help in?

Who’s interested to test out a guide?

Diane Ravitch Pulls a 180

Article posted October 28, 2010 at 05:01 PM GMT0 • Reads 61

Checkout this audio of Diane Ravitch I found on the Future of Education website. In the 90's, Diane was a member of the first Bush Adm.'s and a strong advocate of the comprehensive national standardized testing movement that eventually became No Child Left Behind. Having now seen the questionable impact NCLB has had on schools, students and learning Diane has pulled a 180. Defintitely worth a listen.



[Link][LINK]

EKES School Board Making Good Things happen

Article posted November 3, 2010 at 10:34 PM GMT0 • Reads 136

Hey Folks- Good news! Paula’s Mom has been released from the hospital and is doing well. Paula should be back in NH this weekend and returning to work on Monday. Yeah! We miss you Miss P!



We had a very successful School Board meeting last Monday night:

• I submitted the first draft of the 2011-12 budget to the Board and its coming in at a very respectful 1.9% increase. This includes kitchen start-up costs that get paid back through revenue. When you subtract the kitchen start-up, the budget is closer to a 1.5% increase. You are probably wondering how I submitted the budget without teachers having completed their classroom budgets. With the change over to trimester conferences and the NECAP testing eating up the month of October, I opted to simply plug in last year’s figures and we’ll start the teacher budget process with Paula’s return.

• The Board approved two expenditures that I am very excited about. They approved the purchase of 20 netbooks and a new cart, and they provided matching funds to purchase a new stage curtain and back drop. Thank you EKES School Board!

• Below is my Principal’s Report for the Month of November:







EKES School Board Meeting

Principal’s Report

November 1, 2010





School Happenings-

Last Friday, October 29 EKES hosted its annual Halloween parade. The kids brought their costumes to school and paraded about for the enjoyment of parents and staff alike.



Teachers just completed the mid-first trimester conferences. The purpose of the conference was to review student progress and to share student, teacher and parent goals for the year. Feedback from teachers and parents has been very positive in regard to the switch-over to the trimester format.



Curriculum-

Science Professional Development Update

Jeff Winokur, our science curriculum consultant has completed his initial interview and program review with the staff. He will be sharing the results of his study at our November 12 in-service day. He’ll also be conducting an extensive workshop focused on science inquiry. A detailed description of the day can be found on my blog: [LINK]



Technology PD

Twice a month on select Thursday mornings, the teachers will meet from 8:00 to 9:00 am to collaborate on professional development projects. This year, the vast majority of our AM-PD meetings will focus on technology. Teachers are presently using the time to enhance their web presence or to create lessons in EZTeach, the software used with our interactive whiteboards.



Communication- Teacher Web Presence

I have requested that all teachers update their classroom web presence by December 1, 2010. This will include a weekly update highlighting classroom learning and events, and where appropriate homework postings. You will be able to access teacher websites and blogs on the school’s website found at:

[LINK]



Community Service- Trick or Treat for UNICEF

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Trick or Treat for UNICEF, a United Nations fundraiser designed to support needy children in under developed parts of the world. For the past seven years, EKES has raised over $500 per year to support this important program. It is vitally important that our children recognize just how fortunate they are and learn the value of sharing resources with others in need.



NECAP Testing-

Students in grades three through five have completed the fall NECAP testing! Results of the testing will be made available in February/March.



Holiday Concerts-

Last year I made the decision to move the holiday (December) concert to the winter months of January and February. The primary reason for the change is our school has become too large for a single K-5 concert. I felt two concerts during this busy time of year to be problematic. After the winter concerts were over, I sought feedback from the community. The staff was very positive about the change, but feedback from families was mixed. To get a more accurate sense of the community, I developed an online survey and posted it on our school website. The results were interesting: Out of thirty respondents, 70% chose as their first choice the winter concert format. This result made my decision relatively easy. We have scheduled a K-3 concert on Thursday, January 13 and are organizing a 4/5 concert that will include a musical artist in residence for February. Mrs. Leavitt and I are planning a voluntary holiday sing-along in December to support the holiday spirit in our school.



Five-Year Computer Purchasing Plan

The school’s Technology Committee met recently to evaluate the school’s present and future technology needs. Attached is a spreadsheet outlining our proposed five year purchasing plan. Included in the plan is a proposal to establish a second cart of netbooks this school year. Our present set of 20 netbooks is in constant demand limiting our capacity to integrate technology across grades K-3. I would like to propose that the School Board use the Sargent Fund to purchase of up to 20 netbooks at a cost not to exceed $10,000.



Partnership Advisory Council

I am continuing to post advertisements in the EKES Weekly Newsletter to recruit participants in PAC. To date, I have found four people interested in serving on the committee. My goal will be to hold our initial organizing meeting on Thursday, November 18 right after school. Any help you can provide drumming up interest is greatly appreciated.



2011-12 Budget- first Draft

Laura Nelson, Nathan Lunney and I have worked to bring forward our first draft of the 2011-12 budget for the November Board meeting. The budget will be made available for your first viewing at the meeting. This will allow us to make any needed last minute adjustments. The budget draft we present to you will be coming in under a 2% increase over this year’s budget.



Personnel

Paula Rolfs, our school secretary was out of school all last week and will in all likelihood be out this week due to the hospitalization of her mother. Paula’s contract allows her five sick days per year. Considering she used her sick days for the year last week, I am requesting that the Board offer Paula a one time extension of up to five sick days to accommodate this week. We are all hopeful her mother will be released from the hospital and Paula will return to work by Monday November 8.



Voting

As you know, tomorrow is the federal mid-term election and we are expecting a good turnout. I do not see the need for a police officer to be on hand for the day. We will be having our students eat lunch in their classrooms and be asking all students to use the upper end bathrooms.





Respectfully submitted,



Jim Eaves

Principal

A Couple of Things

Article posted November 22, 2010 at 10:20 PM GMT0 • Reads 75

Wow! I didn't realize so much time has passed since my last post. There are a couple things I want to share with you. First is a link to a blog article that I really liked. The blog belongs to Joe Bower a 6th grade teacher in Alberta Canada. He shares the findings of a research publication from the Alberta Teacher Association that talks about how to use technology to support powerful learning practices for students. Here is the link: [LINK]



Second, you will find in a soon to be released email a copy of the power point that Jeff Winukor shared with us on November 12 (I can't attach files to this blog.). Jeff has inspired me to do a little reading on my own about inquiry. I will share with you anything decent that I come across. Jeff is in the process of formulating the next step of our PD work. Once he has a plan in the works I will share it with you!

Where do we go in our study of Science inquiry from here?

Article posted November 23, 2010 at 05:55 PM GMT0 • Reads 65

Below is the next step Jeff Winokur is recommending for our science curriculum work. From my perspective this looks like a great plan for diving write into constructive change.



Next steps:

A. CONTENT: Work on a school-wide physical science strand—begin to put the concepts down on paper and think about when and how they link to one another. The purposes include

• to put inquiry-based curriculum materials in place at each grade level

• to begin to articulate the experiences students will have as they move through the grades

• to clearly identify the concepts students are expected to encounter



This would mean that most grades would try out a kit based on the school’s curriculum, such as:

K: Balls and Ramps (Insights) or Rainbows, Color, Light (Science Companion)

1: Solids, Liquids, Gases (Science Companion or FOSS or STC)

2: Magnets (Science companion) or Balance and Motion (FOSS)

3: Lifting Heavy Things (Insights) or Designing Structures (Science Tracks)

4: Electric Circuits (Insights or STC)

5: Changes of State (Insights) or Mixtures and Solutions (FOSS)



Big ideas from the above suggestions:

K. Force and motion or Light (energy at a very basic level)

1. Properties of Matter

2. Force or force and motion

3. Simple machines make work easier or forces/technology. Some about energy

5. Matter and how it relates to energy or matter and chemistry



Physical science concepts based on preliminary suggestions from teachers

grade Topic/kit BIG IDEA and concepts

K Balls and ramps (Insights)











or

Rainbows, color, light (Science Companion) MATTER

Physical properties and characteristics of solids (balls)

Relationship between properties of objects and motion

Relationship between physical properties of objects and their behavior on inclines



LIGHT ENERGY

Light, shadow, reflection, color

1 Solids and liquids (STC or FOSS) MATTER

Properties of matter

Properties of solids (density, shape, etc.)

Properties of liquids (thickness, density, etc.)

2 Magnets (Science Companion)







or

Balance and motion (FOSS) FORCE

Force of magnetism

Magnets stick to some materials

Magnets can attract or repel each other



MOTION AND FORCE

Balance and stability and relationship with gravity

Spinning/rotational motion and relationship with gravity

3 Lifting heavy things (simple machines: levers, pulleys, inclined planes)

(Insights)

or

Designing structures (Tracks) ENERGY/TOOLS

Simple machines are tools that make work easier

Tradeoff between amount of effort and time or distance over which it is applied



FORCES: stability, balance

4 Circuits and Pathways (Insights or STC) ELECTRICAL ENERGY

Simple circuits

Complex circuits

Insulators/conductors

5 Changes of State (Insights)







or

Mixtures and solutions (FOSS) RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN MATTER AND ENERGY

Matter takes up space and has mass

States of matter

States change when matter is heated or cooled



MATTER/CHEMISTRY

Mixtures of solids and liquids

solutions



Where big ideas come in and out of the K-5 experience

MATTER

K (properties of balls/ramps), 1 (properties of solids and liquids), 5 (solids, liquids, gas, change of state)



FORCE AND MOTION

K (balls/ramps), 2 (magnets or gravity/balance and motion), 3 (distance and direction heavy things can be moved)



ENERGY

K (light), 3 (as work), 4 (electrical), 5 (as catalyst for change of sate)



You can’t do everything, but Sound Energy is something that a number of places have materials for and it does not appear (or at least hasn’t in my conversations) in this sequence



B. PEDAGOGY: Begin work with individuals on classroom implementation with attention to:

• Being inquiry-based

• Using notebooks or some other organized recording strategy

• Constructing story lines for non-physical science topics







Suggested Timeline:

December—late January

Identify units and areas of teaching focus



Late January—late April/early May

Teachers try units out with support from Jeff



Late June

Institute to focus on content and inquiry teaching strategies

200 Years and 200 Countries

Article posted December 21, 2010 at 01:40 PM GMT0 • Reads 63

I ran across a spectacular video the other day that demonstrates the progress that has made in the last 200 years to bring health and prosperity to all corners of the world. Education has clearly played a huge role in the graphics represented in the video. If you have been feeling a little down about the politics surrounding the state of public education, public health, and the growing wealth divide, check out the issue from the long view- It will lift your spirits some.



[LINK]

Getting Motivated for 2011

Article posted December 30, 2010 at 05:07 PM GMT0 • Reads 59

This has been a much needed and wonderful holiday break! I have been able to spend lots of time with family and friends and have eaten enough holiday fare to hold me through two winters. Of course, always looming in the backdrop is the fact that school will start up again with the new year. I have to make sure the school building is clean and ready to go- Thank you Wayne and Mike! I have to catch up on my own work load- I think vacations really exist so administrators can finish all of the reports they should have written months ago. Most importantly, I need to find renewed energy and motivation for what is clearly the most academically productive time of the year- The winter months.



Certainly the break has helped to renew my energy level, but with a belly full of bonbons and all that blood rushing to my stomach, it can be tough to feel motivated to return to school. Fortunately the break also provides time for quiet reflection. Attached is a video that helped me to restoke my fires for returning to school. I hope you will take a couple of minutes to watch the video and reflect what what motivates you to do what you do for children. Happy New Years to you and yours!



[LINK]

A Couple of Things for the middle of January

Article posted January 17, 2011 at 07:26 PM GMT0 • Reads 438

The opening of the January 10 School Board meeting began with the 2011-12 Budget Hearing. While only a small number of community members were in attendance, the hearing lasted more than an hour. These are challenging fiscal times and members in the audience wanted to make sure that the School Board had done its due diligence to bring forward a responsible budget. To date the budget stands at a 1.58% increase over last year with a third of that increase in annual start-up costs for the Lunch Program. Of course the Lunch Program is in the black every year and repays the start up costs in revenue to the school. The actual proposed increase to last year's budget is right around 1%. The way Senate Bill 2 voting works in NH is if the proposed budget is not approved by the voters on election day, then the school will need to operate on a limited default budget. What is interesting this year is the fact that the default budget is $1,700 higher than the proposed budget. The bottom line is the EKES per student tuition costs are the lowest in SAU 16 and this budget will continue to support that. For details about the rest of the meeting checkout the link below to the EK School Board's link on the SAU 16 website:

[LINK]



Our next Thursday morning PD session for teachers will be held January 27 at 8:00 am. We will be working with the special education team and tutors to:

1. Review eligibility for gr.K-3 literacy tutoring services

2. Better define what constitutes eligibility for math tutoring services for gr. 1-5.



With regard to our science PD work, we have run into a bit of a snafu with the ordering of physical science materials. It turns out that because the Sargent Fund was a gift to the town of EK, given specifically to the elementary school, the NH Attorney General's Office has stated that the SAU may not have any hand in the accounting of these funds. Since the SAU provides all of our accounting support, I am not about to spend any further money from the fund until this is cleared up. I would prefer to stay out of prison thank you. I'm sure the SAU business office will get this squared away soon, but until then we are on hold with the science order :(



On antother science note Jeff Winokur will be at EKES on Friday, February 11 to begin visitng classrooms and coaching teachers in the implementation of inquiry based science. I'll be coming around to talk with teachers about scheduling.



Finally, I stumbled across a well made video that details concerns surrounding teacher merit pay as it relates to student performance on standardized tests. The video is definitely worth your time.

[LINK]



Enjoy! Jim