Monday, Feb. 22

RTIm tutorial - Please watch:
I just got a program called Camtasia Studio that allows me to make some tutorial videos.  My first attempt is a short tutorial on entering a student note into RTIm Direct.  This will be a great way to get basic info (not the full IST referral) into the program.  I'm hoping this gets us all on the right track for getting info into one central location.  Please watch the tutorial by clicking this link.   I believe this will reduce some confusion on where to enter info in an efficient way. 

Faculty meetings tomorrow:

Let's do something a little different tomorrow.
Tech committee meeting - Rob H's room.  Open to anyone, not just committee members

Various department meetings (6-12 science, ELA, SS, etc.)
   Math:  meet in Mike P's room
   Science: meet in Chad's room
   ELA & reading - meet in Kim D's room
   SS - meet in Heather's room
   LOTE - Karen's room
   Tech - John G's room
   Art - Fran's room
   PE - one of your offices
  Talk about sharing of info, curriculum, what admin can do to help, etc.  Share notes with Tim

Please make sure at least one person from each department goes to the tech committee meeting.  Rob will be discussing things like email for students and other topics. If your whole group wants to go, that's fine.

Special ed - meeting with Sue and Stacey (Sue setting up location)

Did I miss anyone?

Please enter where you will be on this survey link. 


Free ASCD Webinar on Using Discussion to Inspire Writing

BRAVE THE SHAVE with Nick Lane!  Fundraiser for childhood cancer.

Last call for HS newsletter stuff:  This is going to press on Tuesday.  Please get me any info you'd like to share.

A Go Fund Me page was set up by Jennifer Cook-Oberbeck, one of our parents whose house was recently nearly destroyed in a fire:  https://www.gofundme.com/amxuj8p4 

Wednesday, Feb. 17

Purchasing Reminder from Naomi:
Purchasing will be cut off effective March 15th. There are several departments with pre-planned purchases like music that purchase until the end of the year. Those purchases will be honored. Naomi will pre-order the DCMO supply purchases so that staff can receive these before June 15th. In addition, all BOCES purchases are cut off unless you have received prior approval. This includes Arts & Ed.

Conference registration reminder:

When you enter a workshop in MLP, all relevant materials like registration forms, brochures, etc must be scanned into MLP as it states. If the scans are not available to the business office, Sue Albro spends a lot of time trying to retrieve this info from staff in order to register or pay registrations. Some staff may not be trained on this process, so if you need help, please let me know.

BOCES Bulletin Feb. 16   Some great looking opportunities this week.

Transition from No Child Left Behind to the Every Student Succeeds Act:
Please see the linked memo here from Assistant Commissioner Ira Schwartz regarding the orderly transition from No Child Left Behind to the Every Student Succeeds Act. 

Office of Assessment February "E-Blast"

ASCD MyTeachSource:    Feature on interactive learning


Tutor Pace - SAT and ACT practice:
The email below says that this is free, which is nice.  If someone tries this, please let me know if it's a sampling of questions.  I haven't logged into this yet.

My name is Karen Trijullo and I work for Tutor Pace, Inc. My Company recently launched a new diagnostic tool that covers both SAT and ACT tests for students to practice for SAT and ACT tests before appearing for their exam. It’s a most comprehensive and powerful tool to find out students strengths and weaknesses which actually help teachers and students to know where the students are struggling.  It’s FREE forever for students and teachers.

I have included the diagnostic tool link below which covers both SAT and ACT practice tests.   http://www.tutorpace.com/practice-tests


From: Seneca Community Players Publicity
Note: I can't find the email address for this person.  I'm thinking that Tina or Chad might know her. 
Date: 02/15/2016 01:24PM
Subject: Seneca Community Players

Hello!
I am a board member with the Seneca Community Players, a community theatre group that serves Seneca County and the surrounding area.  We have planned a big fundraising event for May 13th where we will be auctioning off all the roles for our musical production of Willy Wonka.  We are targeting 5th graders and up.  Anyone can secure any role, if they are the highest bidder.  But, the reason I am contacting you is that we will be having a press release party on Thursday, April 21st and Peter Ostrum (the original Charlie in the Willy Wonka movie) has agreed to come and help us promote our fundraising event.  I would love to get the 4 Seneca County Schools to incorporate a way that 1 or 2 students could possibly "Win A Golden Ticket" and ask Peter a question during our Q & A portion of the event.  Whether it is a random drawing that the students with positive behavior can win if you do PBIS in the schools or maybe a short essay contest or however you would like to run it.
I am also emailing the superintendents of the other 3 districts.  Please let me know if this is something you would consider doing and if you have any other ideas.
Thank You!
Susie Cornett
Auction Theatre Chairperson

Wednesday, Feb. 10

Anyone interested in flexing your schedule?
I could really use some help in the morning as students come in the building.  We need a permanent presence out there in case of any problems.  I try to be out there along with Cathy and Missy, but sometimes we are not in for various meetings and such.  If anyone would be interested in arriving at 7:15, I would work an arrangement with you with that as your duty, and allow you to leave earlier with the exception of faculty meeting days.  Please let me know if you're interested if it might work with your schedule. 

Keeping Up With Labs:
I forwarded Ann's message to everyone yesterday concerning labs and keeping on kids to get caught up.  PLEASE check the restrictions list on a regular basis, especially if you monitor a learning lab. Thanks.

BOCES News February 9:
There are some nice opportunities in this week's news. 

Extending the Digital Reach
I received a link to this report I thought you might find interesting. Click the title.

Master Schedule:
I just made new sheets for each day.  Those particular sheets are organized by name.  This should help people get to things easier.

Jared Campbell May 2nd:
Jared will be returning for a performance for both schools on May 2nd, the day we return from break. More details to come.  I'll probably run the 1 hour delay schedule.

BOCES Weekly Bulletin from last week.

BOCES Dignity Act Newsletter

Monday, Feb. 1

Links file
I've started a links file that will hopefully hold a bunch of valuable links as time passes.  If you would like to help with building this into a valuable file, please let me know and I'll give you edit rights.

Free books from Ayn Rand Institute       Click on the title for this opportunity.

New and improved library schedule:
The library schedule is in the staff share / schedules folder.  You can take a look at available times and let Jody Gale know if you'd like a spot reserved. Click the title to see the file. Thanks.

Turning off P board during homeroom is recommended:
Are you putting announcements up on your Promethean boards? The reason I ask is this:  While in a recent meeting, a student mentioned that each morning teachers take attendance while their P-boards are up and running. The point being that every student can see icons listed next to student's names indicating whether they are IEP or 504 students or even special alerts. This student pointed out that this is no one else's business and that she felt uncomfortable about it.

Because of this, I think it's a good idea to keep your board off or freeze it until attendance is done.  I know that I asked you to have the announcements on the screen, but with announcements now being read, we should keep the attendance records off the screen.  If I'm missing anything with this, please let me know.
* Note on Promethean boards: The remotes have "Blank" and "Freeze" buttons that allow teachers to freeze or mute the screen.

Some good looking PD opportunities:

Corwin Webinars:
I just got a flyer about Corwin's free Monday webinars.  Check them out here along with other opportunities.

ASCD "myteachsource"
ASCD PD products are know to be of high quality.  If anyone would like to check out this product, please do and let me know what you think.

FREE WEBINARS with Educator and Author, Eric Sheninger
If you would like info on how to record any of these opportunities toward your 175 hour requirement, please speak with me.


Here's a fun Youtube clip, especially for you math and science teachers.