TO-KNOW

• WARNING: I’m reminded of the little message that is printed at the bottom of the rear view mirror in your car: “Objects are closer than they appear.” Squeeze everything you can from these last few days of Summer!

• Please join me in thanking Christy VonAllmen for her service to Springmyer Elementary. She has resigned her position as Instructional Assistant  for the upcoming year. I will be posting her position this week. If you know anyone that would be interested in an instructional Assistant Position please have them contact me via email.

• If you have any OLD textbooks in your room that you would like us to sell to Follett. Please let Cyndi and I know.

• THANK YOU! Have you looked around the building? The custodial staff has done an amazing job. It is such a joy to have a committed and professional group of colleagues that see to the proper care and maintenance of this grand old building. If you see any of our custodial friends please join me in thanking them for their dedication and service.

• Our Building Theme this year will be “Learners Welcome.” We will talk a lot more about this in coming weeks.

• We have put together a Document with important dates on it. All of these dates are on the Staff Calendar but we thought it would be nice to have them in one place for your reference. Please take a look and let us know if we missed anything (Link). ***UPDATE*** New dates (esp. PTA Dates) have been added.

Planning Calendar

TO-DO

• MobyMax: I’m interested in learning more about who is planning to use MobyMax this year. Their prices have gone up and I want to make sure I am taking everything into account before making purchasing decisions. Send me an email if you are interested in using MobyMax this year.

• IMPORTANT: Now that the Master Schedule (Link) has started to come together it is time to begin building your classroom schedule. You can begin doing this on the tabs on the Master Schedule Document. When doing this we MUST follow the guidelines developed by the district (Link).

• You should have received an email from Public School Works (Jason Nash) on July First. The email outlines the online trainings that you will need to complete this year (prior to 10/31/2017). Don’t wait till the last moment to get this done.  Set a goal to finish one each week so you aren’t busting them out in late October. If you have questions about Public School Works or need help just let me know.

• I have finished four how many have you finished?

• Talk with your Grade-Level Team, or Department Team, and nominate a representative to serve on the Building’s Advisory Committee. Please have these recommendations to me by August 1st.

• When you are in your room next please let me know if you have a FIRE EVACUATION MAP posted somewhere near the door.

TO-READ

If you are inspired, perplexed, or irritated by the weekly reading I’d love to hear about it! Send me an email or grab me in the hallway. Learning never ends!

• Here is an article entitled “How to Coach for Differentiation” (Link). Let’s face it, this is the HARDEST part of teaching. Whether you are a first year teacher or a 30 year veteran differentiation is the most challenging part of the job.

• Question:

• To you, what is differentiation?

• Take a real close look at “The Big Four.” Where do you stand with these in your classroom?