May 20, 2016

Savor the Sweetness

Take just a minute as you begin a day, or as you sit back to do your read aloud - pause on purpose. Look at those students before you. Really look at them. Gazing back at you are not the children who sat before you in August. They are connected to you. They are independent. They have grown. You have laughed together. You have struggled together. You've shared fun days and challenging days. Everything you've put into the journey has made a difference. It's right in front of you. Look at it. Delight in it. Celebrate it in that minute. 

It''s essential right now, that your focus is on the celebration. It's where you will draw the strength to finish strong.

A teacher told me the other day that she just felt like making fun stuff with kids. Do it! Instead of trying to contain the bubbling building of energy that comes with the approach of summer - use it to end the year building relationships, just as you began it. 

Constraints are essential when energy is high, but do something with the energy...go outside and play a game together. Take a walk around the property. Do a little dance....

Ultimately, don't cheat yourself out of the celebration. You did wonders with your students this year. No one will appreciate that more than you. Take the time to soak in the glory.

A group of first grade students lined up to play
'Bus Stop'...day after day!
I've seen this in other classrooms with other kids.
This Beat performance really influenced kids!

Cheers!

Renaissance Secondary has been approved.

and...

our one and only...

Debra Rabideau....

has been chosen to be the Principal of this new school!

(Wild cheering and clapping!!!)

(speaking to oneself: Oh man, I'm so happy for her! And...so sad for me! What will I do without her?!)

There is much to be discovered, decided and planned for the next steps for Renaissance Secondary. Debbie will be with us, in her current role, through our first semester - and then, we'll just see where things are at. 

Congratulations Debbie!!!

They selected the absolute best!

Hiring Update:

The hiring is complete!

We have hired Mike Hillen for third grade. Mike is currently an experienced Douglas County teacher and wildly excited to join our school.

So to recap:

We have hired Teresa Littrell for our 2/3 Discovery position

Samantha Burns for third grade

Mike Hillen for third grade

Michelle Wright was assigned to Renaissance as our School Psychologist and she will be with us on Tuesday's of each week. Michelle sent me a little note to share with all of you:

Hi,

I am Michelle Wright and I am looking forward to joining the wonderful staff at Renaissance Elementary. I have been working in Douglas County School District for the past four years as a school psychologist at Redstone Elementary. 

Prior to that, I worked as a school psychologist through BOCES and before that I was a bilingual teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District in California. 

I have been married to my husband Steve for 21 years and we have three teenage boys. Ethan (18) and he will be attending UCCS next year, Cam (17) and he will be a senior next year and Matt(14) and he will start high school in the fall. I love spending time reading and traveling and hanging out with my boys. I can't wait to get to know the staff, students, and community of Renaissance Elementary. I also will be working at Castle Rock Elementary for 3 days and one day with pre-schools. My e-mail is mmwright@dcsdk12.org. 

Update on Noreene and Sara:

Noreene has moved to the Parker Life Center of Stonegate. She isn't sure just when she will return home, but hoping that it will be soon. She loves to have visitors. The rehab center address is: 15720 Garden Plaza Dr. Parker, CO. Once she is home, she'll need some assistance with meals, errands, and company!

Sara came through her surgery fine. She's at home and doing physical therapy which she will be doing twice a week all summer. She stopped by the school today so she is definitely up and around. She's being a 'good patient' and following all the instructions. I could tell she was excited to be walking with a knee that works. Yeah Sara!

A Quick Read

A quick and good article about teaching perseverance from Responsive Classroom:

Teaching Perseverance?

Information coming from the district level:

ASSESSMENT DEVELOPMENT TEAMS:

Assessment and System Performance is providing opportunities for teachers to participate in assessment development teams next year.  Teachers will receive a stipend for creating assessments that will be added to the district assessment library. These development teams will meet for a short development cycle (about six weeks) and meet on a Saturday at the beginning and end of the cycle. Click here to see the list of opportunities.

Professional Development New Information and Reminders

Calendar

May 23 - 27th:

Julie Vrattos birthday

Tuesday:

NO MTSS

Deborah out of the building (grandson having surgery)

Wednesday:

The Beat

Sixth Grade Showcase Celebrations 1:30 p.m.

Family Day @ Baskin  Robbins 1 - 6 p.m.

Thursday:

Retirement celebration for Josie and Kristin in the cafeteria at 4:00

Friday:

Sixth Grade to St. Mary's Glacier

May 30 - June 3rd:

Monday:

No School - Memorial Day

Tuesday:

NO MTSS

Sixth Grade Closing Circle 6:00 - 7:30 p.m. (appreciated if all staff is present, if possible)

Wednesday:

Last day of school with students

All School Drum Circle (details to come)

(No report cards will be released until Friday, and no student class assignments will be sent until Thursday afternoon. Nothing will be going home with students on the last day of school.)

Wednesday Afternoon:

Grade levels will exchange information (you can connect with one another to arrange this)

3:30 Acknowledgment circle for Suzie and Melani

Thursday:

Teacher work day - moving folks if necessary

A check out list will be provided (I'll email that to you Monday)

Report Cards released by teachers

Emails sent to parents with class assignments

End of year staff celebration at Deborah's 4:00 until whenever

* All staff welcome even if you are not working on Thursday

* Snack foods provided

53 Gordon Drive

Castle Rock 

(very close to school)

Have a wonderful weekend!!

Deborah

“Almost lost you," he thought, surprised to find himself blinking back tears. "Been through too much, me and you. We're going to finish this thing together.” 
― Brom, The Child Thief

“The fairies, as their custom, clapped their hands with delight over their cleverness, and they were so madly in love with the little house that they could not bear to think they had finished it.” 
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

May 6, 2016

Celebrating the final weeks!

Sixth Graders serenading the office! They had all mastered the chords and strumming
and sounded great all playing together!
AND...they were all wearing nothing but smiles and exuding joy!

A Reading Recovery student reads his book to the class!

Look at these hallways!

Thanks for guiding your students and having high standards

that demonstrate the value we hold on how our environment

leaves impressions on our visitors and on one another!

Thank you!!

Ta-Dah!

Bravo Chelsea!

Calendar:

May 9 - 13th:
Tuesday: MTSS 7:30 a.m.
Board Meeting for Renaissance Secondary School 6:00 a.m.
Wednesday: 
PD: Student-led conferences


May 16-20th:
Tuesday: MTSS 7:30 a.m.
Wednesday:
* Third Grade Showcase Celebrations
Thursday:
OLE community meeting 6 - 7 p.m.

Team Effort

This afternoon, two boys in fourth grade deliberately left the building from the boys bathroom. They were missed immediately and the hunt was on. I want to thank everyone who supported locating the boys, who I found walking the sidewalk in the neighborhood off of Woodlands. In spite of our best procedures to keep this from happening, if a student wants to exit the building, it can be done. The police were called. Parents were called and numerous staff stepped up to support locating the boys. Everything at the building level was handled calmly and with expertise. It's always a good reminder of why our procedures are so critical and allow us to know immediately if a student is missing. Thanks for your diligence every day to adhering to our protocols for safety. 

Hiring Update:

This afternoon, Teresa Littrell, accepted the 2/3 Discovery teaching position. Teresa is a teacher in Douglas County and brings a wealth of experience, expertise, passion and sunshine to our Crew. 

We have a third grade teaching position yet to fill. It is my sincerest hope to find the right candidate within the next few weeks so I can formally share information with our community.

Hard to believe that a week ago I was shoveling over a foot of snow! 

How wonderful that spring weather is with us.

Have a great weekend!

Deborah

April 22,2016

The 'Gift' of this time of year...

I know that everyone is feeling the pressure of too little time and so much to do by the end of the year. However... this can also be a pocket of time when you have a unique opportunity as a teacher.

You are in the home stretch. You know now where kids are in their achievement and growth and the impact you can make with them this year, draws to an end.

What about those ideas you had sketched out earlier in the year but just didn't get around to doing? What if there was something you were curious about and have really wanted to try, but it didn't quite 'fit in'. I wonder....

Do it! 

Precisely at this time of year is a good time to try something out and just 'sample' how it goes. Is there a resource, a method, an idea, a digital tool that you just want to play around with to test it a bit? No pressure to measure or hold kids to mastery of any kind. Just play. Sometimes, it just the right thing for you as a teacher to have a bit of fun and enjoy the experience with no particular outcome in mind. 

Celebrating all the wonderful things going on...

Demonstration AND personalized feedback!

A student in Lauren's room highly engaged in creating during their Learning Expedition

Here is the rubric the students collaborated on that is guiding their work.

Bethany supporting students who are creating

Brooks finding a way to increase ownership of recycling!

Lulu the artist

Guess who's talking about books!

Second graders in Dana's Crew
had a museum exhibit showing off their expertise from reading non-fiction.
Don't you just love that he even has an outfit to go with his exhibit!

Students from Jen's Crew were a captive audience as Evan explained what he had learned. All these kids had great visual displays to accompany their learning.

Fourth graders dressed for success...
and field work to the Colorado State Capitol

Check out who is seated in the Supreme Court Chambers!

"4th graders have been working on a high-quality visual representation as an end product for the Colorado History expedition. This product was part of a study of boom and bust trends in Colorado's history. Students discovered that the current Colorado flag is experiencing a boom right now. They figured that it would probably bust soon, so they created new Colorado flags to reflect their learning about Colorado history. During the study, they learned that the current Colorado flag was adopted by the state senate. So, they decided that they should present their ideas to a Colorado Senator. Last Friday, we had the chance to travel to the Colorado State Capitol to present four of our flags (these were voted on by our crews) to Senator Chris Holbert. Luca, Kelby, Viola, and Logan all did an amazing job presenting our ideas in a professional manner, while seated in the Supreme Court Chambers. This fieldwork gave students the opportunity to discover more about the world around them and gave them a chance to be active citizens - to try to make a change. "

Calendar

April 25 - 29th:
Kenny's Crew Winter Voyage
Climbing Week

Tuesday:
* RTI/MTSS 7:30 a.m.
Suzi's Crew Field Work

Wednesday:
* PD: Collaborative Planning/Building Leadership Team Meeting
5:30 Parent Course on Anxiety offered by Allison

Thursday:
Lisa's Crew to CRCC

Friday:
Billie's Crew Field Work

May 2 - 6th:
* Benefits Open Enrollment

Tuesday:
RTI/MTSS 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday:
9:00 a.m. Musical Theater Performance
1:30 p.m. PD: QRI assessment training
5:30 Parent Course on Anxiety offered by Allison

Thursday:
Deborah out - PK-12 Admin. Mtg.

Friday:
Second Grade Field Work - Cheyenne Mtn. Zoo
6- 8 p.m. Musical Theater Performance
Saturday:
6-8 p.m. Musical Theater Performance

Inviting you to take a stroll -

Be sure to spend a few minutes popping into rooms.

The documentation panels, student work, and displays that are everywhere in the building are such a celebration! It's an important time of the year to soak up all the great things that have been built to this point. Take a few minutes during a plan time, lunch or break to see all the high quality student work, talk with teachers and kids and hear the stories, and shout "Ta Dah" together!!!

Closing Thought - 

Chelsea shared some words of wisdom with me this week that she's applying and has found helpful.

We all share a common trait. We all strive for excellence in all we do. As a result, we are often our own worst critics and we tend to judge ourselves very harshly. 

Her words of wisdom:

Judge and be judged.

Or...change that messaging to ourselves to be:

Learn and help learn

Enjoy your three day weekend!!!

Deborah

April 8, 2016

 And....we're back!

Is it just me, but after a week of being back, does break seem like a distant memory? Isn't it almost surreal how we slide back in and time just flies? Hopefully, by today, your feet are back on the ground, your groove is back, and you're walkin' on sunshine!!

Leadership Team Meeting Outcomes:

On Monday, (can it really be of this week?!) the Leadership Team met. Decisions were made for the remaining Professional Development days this year (see details below).

It was also decided that for next year, we would return to the three rotations for Integrated Arts (Art, Performing Arts, PE). The creation of the Sustainability course was to support being innovative with our scheduling, which in the end, didn't make the difference in planning time we had hoped to accomplish. There is no doubt that Brooks knocked it out of the park on creating this learning experience for our kids K-6!!! We also acknowledged, that the success we've had with the course, is due to Brooks! We weren't certain that this would be an easy position to easily slide a new teacher into. Brooks will be teaching fifth grade next year, alongside Billie :) (Let's keep all these staffing announcements/decisions confidential within house for the time being.)

Just before we returned from break I got an email 'inviting' our school to apply to be a host site for a school visit from Ed Leadership, who will be having a national conference in Denver September 28-30th. Ed Leader asked DCSD to showcase some of the great work in schools. This "great work" should be providing opportunities  to showcase the integration of the 4C's and World Class Learning.

Our district, which has roughly 80 schools, selected 8 schools with the opportunity to apply to be a hosting school. Renaissance was one of the 8 schools selected! (Woot! Woot!) However, the application was due today! We had three days to put ideas together and turn them into a brochure/requirements for the application. The Leadership Team decided we should throw our hat in the ring and wait to see what happens.

Four of the eight schools have submitted a proposal. Renaissance is one of those four.  Ed Leader will then look at the proposals and make selections on the schools that will be included. Jeffco is also submitting applications.

Whether they pick Renaissance for a host school or not...To have been selected from 80 schools, worthy to showcase the learning experiences we create...well that deserves a great big 'ole, 'Ta-Dah"!!!!

Here's the brochure we submitted to Ed Leadership.
I held off publishing Friday Flash until today, because I wanted to share this brochure with all of you and we weren't quite finished creating it.

* A huge shout-out to Melissa and her talents to put together the brochure!!!

Professional Development Plan:

* As always, attendance is optional based on your need

April 6: Planning/White Bus Licensing Course

April 13: Planning/White Bus Driving Test

April 20: Tips and Tricks: Sharing (Showcase Celebrations, Student Led Conferences, CITE 6, EPR)

April 27: Collaborative Planning/Building Leadership Team Meeitng

May 4: QRI training 

May 11: Time for Student Led Conferences

May 18: 3rd Grade Showcase Celebrations

May 25: 6th Grade Showcase Celebrations

June 1: Last day of school - Reflection/Celebration

Feedback from Ted's Visit:

Ted Knight, assistant superintendent, did make it to Renaissance on Wednesday for his walk-through visit. We were able to make it to all classrooms - some of you weren't 'home' when we dropped by. It was a very casual visit, and Ted was just soaking it up rather than analyzing and evaluating. Sigh...

He didn't have any specific feedback for individuals - rather just tuned into the culture and was so satisfied and pleased. He shared that there are two schools in the district that are the first places he takes visitors - Renaissance being one of them.

Not related to his visit - but emailed to me:

From Ted Knight:

Letter to teachers about EPR

From Climbing to Archery....

Way cool Doug!

Talk about specific, personalized, actionable feedback!!

Reader's Workshop...

 Reader's Workshop - Exploring Non-fiction.
These second grade boys were each so engrossed in hearing what others were sharing.

New Resource if you are interested...

Students learn more—and with more joy—when offered intriguing lessons that connect with their lives and interests while challenging them to stretch and grow. Light the spark of learning in your students by building the six characteristics of engaging academics into your lessons. Click here to continue reading!

This article is an excerpt from our new book, The Joyful Classroom and we purchased a few copies!

Calendar:

April 11 - 15:

*Lisa's Crew Out on Winter Voyage

*Summative Evaluations all week

Monday:

* Discovery Classrooms to Ameri-Towne

Tuesday:

*MTSS 7:30 a.m.

Wednesday:

PD: Collaborative Planning/Bus Driving Practicum

Thursday:

Deborah out of the building Elementary Admin. Mtg.

April 18 - 22:

* Michelle's Crew Out on Winter Voyage - facilitated by Mr. Kenny

* CMAS Testing

* Summative Evaluations all week

Tuesday:

*MTSS 7:30 a.m.

* SAC?REA meetings 5:30 library

Wednesday:

PD: Tips and Tricks:

Sharing of how the process with Showcase Presentations are going.

Student-led Conferences tips and ideas

CITE 6 data entry support/

EPR 

Friday:

No School

Whew...another long one!

Welcome back !

Have a great weekend!

Deborah

March 18, 2016

Oh, frabjorus day! Callooh! Callay!

Spring Break is here!

Yes, HERE!

And all the brithy doves did gyre and gimble

Such a wonderful day.

Nothing like starting off a blog post as we are headed off for some much needed R&R, with the plans for our first day back, but I know many of you are planners!

What's the plan for Monday, April 4th?

Review evacuation plan at 9:00 a.m. - see everyone in the library

Get your head back into the game....consider this a self-reflection time which can also activate your mind for where you left off before break. Here's what I'd like you to do (consider it a menu) from 9:30 until 11:00 ish:
* Complete your Summative Self-Evaluation
* Spend 30-60 minutes updating your CITE evidence
* Import your class roster to your EPR and share with teachers

(If you don't want to spend a chunk of Monday morning doing this, and you want to allocate a bit of time over break doing it, then the time is yours on Monday.)


Leadership Team Meeting at 2:30 p.m.

EPR's

I hope to hit the submit button on our EPR template today or Saturday. You should ten be able to access your EPR and input your class roster. Be sure to share with Pam, Doug, Chelsea, Brooks, Elisha and Josie.

Some of you may want to work on this over break -so just letting you know.

CITE Evidence Suggestions: 

For those who want the jump on this.

We all need to add a few new pieces to refresh what we did in the fall/winter. 

You don't need to try to add evidence for every single element.

Ideas:
What's different between now and what you were doing at the beginning of the year?
A 2nd/3rd Backward Plan to show consistency.
Professional Development you've applied in your classroom (the protocols we were learning on Wednesdays, the Lucy Calkins Writing/Reading, Math Review, word work, book clubs, - consider explaining the impact the implementation has had on your learners
Winter Voyages
Field Work
Integration of learning outcomes you've collaborated on with other colleagues,
Coaching Cycles,
attach a couple of your blog posts you've sent to parents,
Assessments you are using now that you weren't before
Photos showing student work at the beginning of the year and a photo of what they can do now,
DRA's showing growth
Writing sampleswith brief description
Student products/Summative Assessments
Examples of how you have guided students through conflict and repairing relationships
Screen shots of emails showing communication with parents
Explanations of committees, participation, coaching, leadership
Photo of anchor charts and what they mean to the learning
Documentation panels that tell a story (with a brief description)
Explanation of work you have done with the support of the Assessment office PLC
Providing feedback to students
Instruction to coach students with Critique Protocols

*That's a long sample list! Pick a few that you feel demonstrate your growth. Even if they are still rough, you are trying and that shows risk taking and implementing new learning.

(Write brief descriptions about the impact of what you have done. Think of using words like, 'as a result, students have increased...'; 'the impact of this is...', 'student engagement is high because...' Consider including what you have discovered; will try next; change; next steps, etc.

Field Work...

Michelle's Crew doing what real people do!

Work at the coffee shop!

Mary Beth's Crew:

Time with their preschool buddies (their service work). It was their turn to plan the morning. They have been working on dinosaurs so Mary Beth's Crew supported them in creating dinosaurs with playdough and habitats. Creating took a lot of collaboration! Looks like Mary Beth's Crew is learning what it means to teach!

More Field Work...

If you can't go to the field, you bring it to the library!

First Grade was discovering - live and in person about birds of prey and so much more.

You know, the Eagle is an impressive bird, but when you see it live and up close - 
that experience stays with you forever. 

During the presentation, the facilitators used raw rabbit meat and explained it's role in providing these birds with the food they need. Brooks seized on the opportunity to solve a challenge we have here at school with our ever growing bunny population. He had the kids vote on whether we should offer up our bunnies to this cause. How responsive and clever!  Ask him how it went. :)

*We can thank Dana and Jen for the snow...they had outdoor fieldwork planned for Friday. What a good idea on the last day before a break, right?! Somehow scheduling outdoor fieldwork when the weather is wonderful, always calls Colorado weather to turn upside down! Sorry ladies!

Congratulations Kim!

Battle of the Book Warriors

Need a book recommendation for the break?

Check out the books that these kids read  for Battle of the Books, Kim says they're all excellent!

The Mighty Miss Malone (Christopher Paul Curtis) 

Kensukes' Kingdom (Michael Morpurgo)

A Dog Called Kitty (Bill Wallace)

Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (Kate DiCamillo) 

Night of the Twisters (Ivy Ruckman)

The One and Only Ivan (Katherine Applegate) 

The Music of Dolphins (Karen Hesse) 

Dear Mr. Henshaw (Beveryly Cleary)

How to Eat Fried Worms (Thomas Rockwell) 

The Bears on Hemlock Mountain (Alice Dalgliesh)

Gifted Identification Process:

Follow up just in case you are confused with the packet of forms. 

The form teachers need to fill out:

The Gifted Education Referral- 

Looks like this: 

The Rating Form:

Looks like this-

Questionnaire:

What if you gave this to all your kids?

Especially at the beginning of the year, or give it now and pass it on to next year teacher...or, students could write a letter to next year's teaching team introducing themselves and include the questionnaire? Maybe this questionnaire form can support students in their work for their Showcase of Learning?

Parent Letter: Tweaking this a bit

This process is new for us and we are learning how. For this first initial go-around, we are going to wait to send the parent letter, until the end. So, you will turn in the completed pieces and the committee will review them. If it looks likely that the student will be identified, then we will send the parent letter. Make sense?

Much longer post than I intended...

always so much information to communicate 

AND

so, so much to celebrate!!!

Have the best break!!

See you all far too soon!

Deborah