Friday, October 28

Hi folks,
I'm sure you're all happy for the end of the week, as I am. Thanks for all you do for our kids. 


Master file change:
You can now bask in the glory of a rearranged master file. I moved the "links-files" tab to the left, which makes it the first thing you see.  There are directions on how to navigate this large file.  I did this because I've heard that some people weren't sure how to find other things than the schedule.  It's really easy to navigate.  Any problems, let me know.

Adviser training now on video
Go to the Adviser info folder linked above.  Please have any students who are charged with handling money in a class or club watch this video.

Observation notes
We will be meeting soon to divvy up observations.  we hope to get started very soon, so we'll be in touch.


Lolli Pop moments 
A video on leadership that's worth watching.  Thanks Heather.

Tony Collins had it right
Please remind kids that we are the sum of our choices.  Let's drive that message home.

Post Card Pick Me Ups - Sounds like a great idea
This might be a great project for some of our classes.

Dear School Administrator,

My name is Jason Garbarino. I am a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Vermont in the Department of Nursing. Recently, I started a program called Postcard Pick-me-up in an effort to promote small, simple acts of kindness for individuals hospitalized or in a nursing home.

When you have a moment, please visit my website postcardpickmeup.org for all of the details. I am reaching out to every possible School Administrator in the State of New York in hopes that they can encourage students to participate. I believe this project will help educate students into the importance of helping those in need.

Please share my cause with your faculty and via the share links provided on the website.I have also let teachers know that instead of having to pay for postage for every postcard, they can send them in one package. They do not need to all be individually stamped.

Thanks for your consideration! Please contact me with any further questions.

Sincerely,

Jason Garbarino, DNP, RN-BC, CNL
Clinical Assistant Professor, University of Vermont
Department of Nursing
College of Nursing and Health Sciences
106 Carrigan Drive
Burlington, VT. 05405
(802) 656-3053
Jason.Garbarino@uvm.edu


United Way, from John Robertson:

This is the email that John sent the other day. Thanks to John for working with this:

Just a reminder that donation forms can be placed in my mailbox.  If you are receiving this message, did not get a donation form and would like one, please let me know.  If you did get a form in your mailbox and do not need it please return it to my mailbox so somebody else can use it.  Thank you to those of you who have already done this.

  FYI:  First-time donors who make a gift of $25 or more and donors who increase their payroll deduction by $1/pay period or more will be entered into a drawing to receive a gift card (ranging from $20-$50) from the following businesses:

Cafe XIX

Ciccino's Pizzeria & Restaurant

Dunkin' Donuts

Parker's Grille

Tops Markets

Gift card or not, your donations stay local.  Thanks again for your time.  Please let me know if you have questions, need a donation form, etc.

Tuesday, October 25

Tony Collins Notes for Wednesday  

Here are some notes for the Tony Collins presentations on Wednesday:

• 3rd period - Middle School.  Please have your students in the auditorium no later than 9:10 so we can get started by 9:15. 
• 4th period - High School. Please have your students in the auditorium by 9:52 so we can get started by 9:55. 
• If you have a class during that time, please sit with your students. 
• The Scott Fitch presentation is being rescheduled for sometime in November. 

Adviser meeting today in the aud

Remember that students can attend today.  For those that are not present, they will need to watch the video of the training.

Athletics Notes from Cathy Flanders:  

 We have several middle school athletes who wish to "try-out" for a JV or Varsity sport.  New York State has a process called the Athletic Placement Process that we must follow to determine if a student is invited to try out for a level of competition above their grade level.  The first part in that process is a determination if a student is socially, emotionally, academically, behaviorally and athletically above his/her age level peers.  If a parent contacts you regarding their child please do not give them any feedback or opinions.    Respond with, "I am referring you directly to Cathy Flanders or Heather Mott who oversee this process."

 Once a student is referred to us we will contact teachers, staff and administrators for a confidential assessment. Please let me or Heather know if you have any questions. Thank you!

This week's planner:

meeting	Tuesday, October 25, 2016	2:30 PM	Adviser meeting - auditorium
School board	Wednesday, October 26, 2016	7:00 PM	Board Meeting - Ovid
assembly	Wednesday, October 26, 2016	9:15 AM	Tony Collins - Middle School assembly
assembly	Wednesday, October 26, 2016	9:54 AM	Tony Collins - High School assembly
nurse	Wednesday, October 26, 2016		Physicals
trip	Thursday, October 27, 2016	8:00 AM	Grade 7/8 leadership summit in Waterloo
nurse	Thursday, October 27, 2016		Physicals
club	Saturday, October 29, 2016	9 am - 10 am	Yorkers Club Community Passport Day 12-1 in the library

Interesting ASCD Opportunities

Webinar - Lesson Imaging in Math and Science
Teaching in the STEM fields has recently shifted focus toward less direct instruction and more toward inquiry and investigative approaches. While moving to inquiry lessons sounds desirable, planning for exploratory units is difficult. It is much easier to plan a lecture than it is to create an investigation that relies on the diverse interpretations and solution methods of students.

Spotlight on Project-Based STEM Education
This generation of K-12 STEM students is the first to be born in the midst of the information age—and they expect their teachers to be connected and education to be relevant. Learn how you can teach your students crucial concepts and make them better citizens through project-based learning (PBL).

Latest ASCD Smartbrief


Kahn Academy Diplomas:
I've seen a lot of kids using Kahn Academy in our school.  Please see the idea from Sal Kahn, founder of Kahn Academy. 

We’re entering a competition called 100&Change for a $100 million MacArthur Foundation grant to help solve a critical problem of our time. Millions of people lack the skills and credentials to participate in the global economy. To address this, our long-term goal is to develop internationally-recognized diplomas that provide direct access to economic and educational opportunities. We also plan to create free content and tools to help people earn the diplomas. We’re excited about this vision and want to share it with you.

Watch our video proposal 

If we win the MacArthur Foundation grant, we’ll be able to accelerate the development of the diplomas, content, and tools. We want to connect people to real economic opportunity and unlock human potential for generations to come. Please share our video if you think this idea could change the world!

Articles and State Memos

NYSED News and Notes 
ELA and Math Learning Standards Public Comment Open Through November 14

School Newspaper Anyone?

We have an approved club for running a school newspaper.  I would like this to be something where most articles are being written by students. If you would be interested in this stipend position, please let me know. 

Thursday, October 20

Hi folks,
I will be out of the building on Thursday and Friday. I'll be checking my email. 
You can also call my cell at 607-793-7846. 

Friday's Middle School Conference:
Friday's sessions start at 7:30 am and go until 3:30 pm (see finalized agenda here). 
I would really like to see a bunch of us go to the following presentation:

• Implementing the NYS Essential Elements To Increase Student Achievement.  
• Ravo Root, the superintendent of Fillmore Central School, is the former principal at Pioneer Middle School in Arcade.  I've known Ravo for quite some time.  He's a very knowledgeable leader, and Pioneer Middle School is highly regarded for their quality programs.

I will allow you to flex your schedule one way or the other. You can go early and leave before the last (2:30-3:30) session (or vice versa), or stay for the whole shindig. Whatever you decide, I'm sure you'll do your best to learn valuable skills.

Please try to carpool where possible.  If anyone would like to use a school van, please get with Lance.

Map for Watkins Glen HS

** If you haven't registered through My Learning Plan, please do so.  This will not register you for the conference, but it will get your hours in the system for record keeping purposes. 
 

Friday's HS PD:
Please check the PD schedule.  If you have any questions, please let me know.  Please communicate with me on individual projects you will be working on in addition to scheduled things.



BEDS

From Kevin Webster, Oct. 18: The application is open and running.  Teachers should start by going to https://eservices.nysed.gov/taa/  Also, please let them know they must select a 'building' location.

The 'Professional Development' box will say 'no' on all teachers.  That information still need to be uploaded from 'My Learning Plan'.

Board presentation
I'm looking for a innovative and brave soul to present at our next Board meeting in Ovid next week.  If you have something innovative that you'd like to share, please let me know.

Tony Collins October 26:
Brooke Habberfield has been able to get Tony Collins here next week the 26th, which is a B day.  He will give a 30 minute presentation for MS'ers during 3rd period, and the plan is to have HS'ers 4th period.  I know it's fairly short notice, but Tony is a popular speaker with a great message.  Instead of running some sort of hour delay schedule, I think it would work better to cut the 3/4 block in half for that day.  If anyone has a major issue with that, please let me know.

Here is Tony's website:  http://www.tonycollinsfoundation.com


Scott Fitch presentation:
I am rescheduling the Scott Fitch presentation to sometime in November. I'll keep you posted.

New BOCES School Improvement Newsletter
Some great stuff in this week's newsletter.


December Music Notes:

Please DO NOT plan any field trips or any rewards trips/activities (Falcon Flyers) that will ruin my only (2) opportunities to have a full band in the auditorium before the concerts for MS and HS on December 12-15

Since Kyla and I have overlapping schedules with band and chorus ensembles it is so much more difficult to plan moving into the auditorium and coordinating dress rehearsals.  Way more difficult than last year when we had no over laps with ensembles and the mater schedule.  So the success depends on help moving any major filed trips or activates that take large amount of Sr. High Kids from school during those dates.

I appreciate your help in keeping these dates as free as possible and working with other staff to understand out concerns to avoid trips or reward activities December 12-15

Monday, October 17

Great Ideas - Share 'Em
Have a great idea you'd like to share with others.  Please send it to me and I'll post it in our
Great Ideas folder.  For example, check out what Patty Parsons is doing with Google Classroom.

PD pretty much set for Friday
Check on the link to see where we have you.  Any problems, let me or Missy know.  One note on the sessions with Justin from BOCES:  He has made an on-line class that will take you through everything related to Google Drive (docs, sheets, etc.) and Classroom.  He can show you how to get into the class and/or help you with other things.

Latest Memo from NYS Commissioner
Subject: Public Comment Period for United States Department of Education’s (USDE) Negotiated Rulemaking related to the supplement, not supplant requirement within the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

Video worth watching
Please click on the video link above from the Gates Foundation.  There are some good resources for educators on the Gates site, so please check it out after you watch the video. You can also sign up for their newsletter.


Newsletters:

Office of Special Education News and Notes – August 2016



Articles

Social-emotional learning sets stage for school success

Why The Art of Speaking Should Be Taught Alongside Math and Literacy

School Leaders' Guide: 45 Ways to Support Struggling Readers


United Way reminder from John Robertson:
Hello all,
  Once again I am the South Seneca MS/HS point person for the United Way's 2017 campaign for donations.  I will be placing donation forms in mailboxes.  I was given a limited number of forms. Please let me know if I miss you and I will get more.  Anybody who would like to donate can return their form to me between now and November 1st.  I am happy to say that last year we donated $623!  It would be great to increase that number this year.   In the interest of saving paper and avoiding clutter, here are some examples of what our donations have done in Seneca County:
-  200,000 meals were provided to those in need
-  $1.4 million in tax credits and refunds were secured for free to our community members who were connected to the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program
-  250 children received books of their own to read or have family members read to them.
  Please consider donating to the United Way. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Sincerely,
John Robertson

Friday, October 14

October 14 -- I hope you all have a great weekend!

Student Access to the Portal
Several teachers have asked me about making the portal available to students, and I've been able to work this out.  Steve Andrews from CNYRIC took our student names, emails, and student numbers.  He will add temporary passwords whenever I want him to.  Let's do this grade by grade.  We would need to have students go into the system and change the temporary passwords, which last about 7 days.  Team members, please discuss this and let me know.

Adviser Training 10/25
Please invite your class and club officers.  The live training would be best, and kids could get the 3:00 bus if they ride.

4 Whitepapers that I just downloaded
I have yet to review these. Feel free to use these personally or with teams/departments:

• Shifting the Culture of Mathematics in Your District
• The Shift to Digital Education: 4 Hallmarks of Digital Learning Success
• Using Multiple Measures to Redefine Success
• A Roadmap to Improved Writing As A Key to Success

Observations
Missy and I will be reviewing observations soon.  There's a good chance that we will both observe most teachers and split up the announced / unannounced observations. 

Inmates of Willard
I saw this on my Facebook feed yesterday. Some good local history notes. 

Four weeks left to apply for Prudential Spirit of Community Awards!


MS conference program for October 21
If this isn't live yet, check again in a few days:



Articles:

Five Education Strategies to Reach the "Touchscreen" Generation

The new 3 Rs—respect, responsibility, and relationships

Tuesday, October 11

Planner for this week below. Please let me know if I'm missing anything.

assembly	Tuesday, October 11, 2016	8:45 AM	Red Cross training for 9th and 10th
assembly	Wednesday, October 12, 2016	8:45 AM	Red Cross training for 11th and 12th
Marking periods	Wednesday, October 12, 2016		5 week grade due by 8 am
School board	Wednesday, October 12, 2016	7:00 PM	Board Meeting - Interlaken
Marking periods	Friday, October 14, 2016		Five week reports mailed

Get me some stories for the HS News site:
Got something cool to share?  Please send the info to me.  I'm working on getting the HS News blog to become an electronic school newspaper run by an adviser. I'll keep you up to date. 

Check the meeting schedule for Tuesday the 11th:
Remember, there's a meeting tab on the master schedule file.

• Math dept - meets with Missy
• Industrial Arts - meets with Tim
• Health/PE - meets with Cathy Flanders

Adviser meeting Tuesday Oct. 25
A financial expert will be in the building to speak with advisers.  The presentation concerns the proper handling of class and club funds. This is a mandatory meeting which will take place in the aud at 2:30 sharp.

Middle School Conference Draft of Events for Oct. 21
See this file for the workshops that will take place on Friday, October 21.

IST/RTI Flowchart 2016-1017

This file is now in staff share / IST-RTI.

Weatherbug Experiential STEM Program  
Looks interesting!  Click here for the Weatherbug site.  Let me know if it looks good to you.  We can try to bring their stuff here.

From WeatherBug:
We are ready to bring you the WeatherBug Experience. We recently developed K-12 lessons and activities that will advance your school initiatives including meeting various standards.  In addition, you will become the WeatherBug Hub for the community.

Interested in joining? I can setup a brief consultation at your convenience. Let's talk soon and make it happen! This generation of students needs it to happen.

Mark Hyer  Director of Education Sales
O: 301-250-4123
mhyer@weatherbug.com
WeatherBug Schools Program

A story from a WeatherBug School
"I don't really have story, but I can tell you how it has affected some of my "overlooked" students. I choose 2 students each week to look up the weather daily by using the weather bug site. They prepare a weather report to give during announcements each day. I choose the students that sometimes get overlooked.  They are not athletic, in advance classes etc... Being allowed to do the weather report each day during announcements makes them feel special. Teachers and students are listening to them. Teachers and students will also ask these kids in the hall, lunch and other places "Hey, what is the weather going to be like today (or tomorrow?") It gives them recognition that they may not get otherwise. They feel important. I choose a select number of students and we rotate weekly. Sometimes we need to look beyond academics and teach our students that YES, you are important. YES, You can do important things and YES, you are needed. Everyone has something to offer. That is why I choose the students that the are "different, quite and overlooked. Lets give them a moment to "shine" and feel wanted, needed and to know they can contribute to their school and classmates information that everyone needs.

National Bullying Prevention Month

October is National Bullying Prevention Month, and NYSUT and its national affiliates — the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association — have made available an
array of online resources to raise awareness about this important issue and to provide valuable tools for educators, students and parents. 

Articles:

Does the classroom of the future look more like a coffee shop?

Unlocking the Power of Inquiry Based Learning

What Germany Can Teach the U.S. About Vocational Education

Almost all education research takes place in the US — but Finland is using it better

 

 

Thursday, October 6

Building notes:
From Todd: For any needed cleaner requests please contact Justin Rosa for any of your needs. Justin is the evening coordinator and will see your needs are taken care of. 

Credit confusion demystified:
Please click here for my attempt at explaining the minimum credit load of 5.5.  There has been some confusion on this.  I'm hoping this clears it up.  If it doesn't for you, please see me. 

New procedure file - misbehavior for a sub:
As time allows, I'm trying to complete clear procedures for various situations.  Misbehavior for a substitute is near and dear to my heart (not that I ever misbehaved for a sub!), so please check it out.  Please make your students aware of this and let them know that you expect good behavior.  Penalties will be strong. Substitutes now have a copy of this document in their sub folders.  This file is in staff share / rules-procedures-handbooks / procedures.  This file is also linked from the staff handbook.  I'm trying to clean up the handbook whenever I get time. You can get to various parts of this big file by clicking on some parts of the table of contents.

Faculty meeting files:
Did you miss a faculty meeting or just want to see them all?  
Look here:  staff share / meetings

Monday, October 3

Thanks to Felicia Woodard, Lisa Chalifoux and all advisers/helpers
for a great Homecoming week.

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!

TEACH On-line system now available for educator registration

Red Cross training - changes to assembly dates:
The Red Cross trainers can only make it a few days, so I combined some grades.  We'll do 9/10 on the 11th of October and 11/12 on the 12th.  Students will go to the aud during 2nd period on those days.

Tuesday, October 11, 2016	8:45 AM	Red Cross training for 9th and 10th
Wednesday, October 12, 2016	8:45 AM	Red Cross training for 11th and 12th

Planner for this week  If I'm missing something, please let me know.

trip	Wednesday, October 5, 2016	8:30 AM	ACE field trip to Cornell
music	Friday, October 7, 2016	4:00 PM	MS band Reading session at Ovid School 4-6pm
Marking periods	Friday, October 7, 2016		End of 1st five weeks (23 days)

Fire drills - keep 'em quiet:
We only have to have 8 fire drills during the whole year because of some changes to state regulations.  Please make sure that students are SILENT while leaving the building and until the all clear is given.

Parking lot and general driving safety:
Please let me know of any kid that is driving in an unsafe manner. Having an accident from carelessness is one of my biggest fears. Adults - let's all drive slowly and carefully too.  Please don't drive around the back of the bus garage to get around the buses, since we're not supposed to drive behind it. I'll try to stop parents from doing so. Thanks.

Grade 6-12 pictures:
Thanks to Brenda Register and Peg Vogel for helping me get all student pics into this folder - Classes 6-12.
Don't know a kid? Test your memorization skills by trying to remember a whole class.  We're missing some pics, but we'll get them in there. This folder is located in staff share / pictures. Thanks ladies!


Putting grades in?
Some middle school teachers asked if they could put comments in for the first five weeks. I reluctantly said yes, but just for the first five weeks of the year. If you don't have a lot of grades yet, please put some sort of comment in to let parents know how kids are doing. We should have a decent amount of grades in for many classes, depending of course on the class. Let's make sure that we're putting all grades for viewing in the portal.  If parents contact me about not being able to see grades for a particular class, I will direct them to the teacher. Remember that Enrichment classes are ungraded, but comments on effort and understanding are highly encouraged! Thanks.

SchoolTool on the way:
On Friday, we had our first meeting with CNYRIC officials concerning the transition from SIS to SchoolTool.  We will be up and running by July 1 of next year.

Great story of forgiveness:
Every once in a while, I hear a great StoryCorps piece from NPR, and this is one of them.  This is a story of forgiveness that has to do with the Amish shooting in PA ten years ago.  I love the message because it can teach us if forgiveness can happen for such a tragedy, it can happen for all the little mishaps in our lives.   If you'd like to hear the story, click here and then click on the blue circle as in the picture. There are some great life lessons for kids in stories such as this.

Business office reminder:

Just a reminder that any receipts submitted for lunch or even any purchases must be itemized.

For as you know, we cannot pay sales tax. So if a lunch receipt is only the total charged the claims auditor at the CBO may deduct 8% off the bill.

Community event from the folks at Seneca County: 
Please see this flyer for an event at Waterloo HS on October 26.
Community conversation on underage drinking. Featuring: Tony Collins, Former NFL Football Player. Tony will share his personal struggle with addiction and recovery followed by a parent to parent testimonial and community roundtable discussion.


PD

October 21 for HS teachers
Missy and I are not done choosing activities for HS teachers for this date.  Please give me some ideas if you have something special in mind.  I want to make everyone's PD worth the while for every one of you!  Thanks.

Middle School conference:

• Don't register through the middle school assn. website.  We'll take care of it with a group list.
• I will be inputting the event into My Learning Plan.  Once I have it up and running as a PD event, you can go in and sign up. This is for our internal use and your PD hours. I'll let you know when that's done.
• Shared teachers:  I'd like everyone to go to this event this year, so I'm signing you up.  There are some valuable workshops this year, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it (and the short drive).

Thursday pre-conference sessions.  I'd like to see at least some SS folks attend the pre-conference sessions on Thursday.  See the list of pre-conferences just below here, and let me know if you'd like to attend.

• Literacy
• Sweethearts and Heroes
• Digital learning
• STEM
• There is also a pre-conference banquet on Thursday evening.

If you have any concerns, please let me know.  I'll send the list of names in a day or so as a check.

Click here for the summary.

TST BOCES Model Schools Fall Offerings


Articles
Attention, Students: Put Your Laptops Away   
Typing notes with a laptop might not be best. Thanks to Cindy Brewer for sharing.