Tuesday, May 30

Reworked Yearbook dedication schedule
It was decided that more time was needed, so I took the music portion out of the plan and split things up by school.  I'll work on a modified pep rally schedule for a separate music event. I'll print copies of the schedule below for everyone and put them in your mailboxes. Thanks.

College Now Course Report by district
The College Now rep sent me this report.  We're doing very well compared to the average district. Thanks for the work on these courses.

Business office year end memo
This is the same memo you received last week.


Planner - this week and next

*Remember that the planner is a tab on the master file. 

Fidget spinners - from Patty Parsons (Thanks Patty)
My feelings about fidget spinners....the kids that should be using them aren't, the kids that shouldn't be using them are.  I do not let the kids have them out in my room.  They are not paying attention to me or class, they are paying attention to their spinner.  If a kid doesn't have one, they are staring at the kid who has one.  AND...that syracuse.com article you shared last week about the kid knocking their tooth out and having to get a $4000 root canal....enough said for me.  I'm hoping that the fad will die by September...but for now I am banning them in my room.

Tuesday, May 23

Faculty meetings remainder of the year
Below are the meetings for the remainder of the year (no meeting today). Click on the "meetings" tab in the master.  You might need to scroll down to the latest dates.

"The Spark:" A Blog from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
I've been receiving messages from the blog linked above.  It has some excellent articles that are very well organized. I recommend taking a look and bookmarking it.

Monday, May 22

PD Event in August:
Re-imagining Schools with Will Richardson
Please let me know if you're interested.  Looks like a great event.

Summer PD
Remember to apply for summer PD by clicking on the title.


Praise from Jostens rep for Mike and Brenda
I totally agree with Paul Eadi, our Jostens rep.  Thanks Mike and Brenda!

From Paul:
Dear Mr. Houseknecht:
It is with great professional pride and personal pleasure that I commend Mike and Brenda, your extraordinary yearbook advisers for their outstanding accomplishment of completing a comprehensive history of the year. I know you will join me in congratulating Mike and Brenda for the countless little things that must be accomplished that result in the only complete record of your school year.


Planner - next two weeks
Here is what I have for the next two weeks. Please let me know if anything is missing. 

June 3 Lions Club Roadside cleanup
Would you like to help the Lions Club clean up part of Route 96A?  Meet at the  storage buildings north of Ovid on June 3 between 10:30 and 11.  If any kids need community service hours, this is a great opportunity for that.

Latest BOCES News from Barry Derfel

Click on the title for the latest news. In it, Barry describes the regional priorities for 2017-18.  Always some great info from Barry and his staff.




NYS Mentoring Program
See the message linked in the title.  Let's see if we could get some folks started with this program right here.

Digital Citizenship Lessons

Paul Briggs forwarded this to me. Feel free to check it out:

We know that keeping students engaged in meaningful learning is a top priority for teachers, so we'd like to share a few digital citizenship lessons available to your students at no cost. 

Ignition- Digital Citizenship and Safety, is a 7-lesson digital course in which students navigate topics such as cyber bullying, copyright laws, and internet safety and apply their digital skills in an interactive capstone game. 

​To register for a free teacher account, you can visit www.everfi.com/register and follow this Quick Start Guide.

National Geographic - CENGAGE Learning
Above is the current catalog in case you're interested.

Articles

How Teachers Can Learn from One Another

Alan November – Beyond Technology: The End of the Job and the Beginning of Digital Work

How to Teach Writing like a Bestselling Author


Fidget spinners
Should we ban them, or should we let another fad die a natural death? Somebody is making a ton of money on those things.  Can you imagine how many thousand spinners could fit into one shipping container?  Multiply that by $5 profit per spinner, and you're talking some serious change. Might be a good math problem. If you have an opinion one way or the other, please let me know.

Looking for some fun?
Peg shared this with me last week - worth checking out:  www.gofingerlakes.org


Bike MS needs volunteers

I received this last week:

The MS Society is hosting our Bike MS event in Geneva at Hobart William Smith College on July 8/9 and we are in GREAT need of volunteers to help make this day a success. This event is a very meaningful fundraiser for us across the county, and I’d love to have a good turnout in Geneva this year. We expect over 100 cyclist, and we even have a 100 mile ride.

We have a variety of roles each day from 5:30am-5pm. Of course they wouldn’t have to stay that entire time,  but even a few hours is super helpful. Free t-shirts are involved  too. J

If anyone is interested, please let me know!

Melanie Greenstein

Senior Community Engagement Specialist

National Multiple Sclerosis Society

Upstate New York Chapter

1000 Elmwood Ave., Ste. 900

Rochester, New York 14620

Tel: 585-271-0801 ext. 70345

Email: Melanie.greenstein@nmss.org 

Friday, May 12

Poverty simulation May 25
I received this from Carrie Smalser. Carrie is a health care navigator for the Cayuga Seneca Community Action Agency.   Please let me know if you're interested. The May 24 event in Auburn is pretty full, but they could use participants for May 25, which is in Waterloo.

Walk a mile in the shoes of those facing poverty...
Join us for a free poverty simulation!
It is difficult for those of us who have enough to truly understand the situations that families living in poverty experience every day – the decisions they have to make and the fears and frustrations they feel. The Community Action Poverty Simulation provides participants with the opportunity to assume the role of a low-income family member living on a limited budget. The experience is divided into four 15-minute sessions, each of which represents one week in which you must provide for your family and maintain your home.

As one participant commented, "This poverty simulation dramatically demonstrates how much time and energy many families have to give just to survive from day to day. It quickly dispels the myth that people would do fine if they would only go out and get a job!"

What are fidget spinners? 
I had no idea what these were until I saw a few spinning in kids' hands.  Proponents of these things say that they help with stress relief. Maybe a mind wandering aid?


Our extended day program will be running from 12-3 M-F in the month of July.  We intend to run Personal Fitness, Tutoring, Internships and STEM. We will need people to run the personal fitness, tutoring (certified teachers) and internship coordinator. If you are interested, please email me. Please email me even if you are only available or interested in working one of the days of the week.
Melissa Butler
Assistant Principal 6-12
South Seneca
(607) 869-9636 ext. 3112
mbutler@southseneca.org

Planner - next 2 weeks:
Please let me know if I'm missing something.

School Report Card
Our school report card has been updated. A nice little increase in grad rate is showing from 2015 to 2016.
Link for the whole report
Link for the grad rate page

Big move for the Lodi Library
On Saturday, May 13th the Lodi Library is planning to move all the books from the Seneca St. building to the Main St. building. If you know of anyone who wants to help with a book brigade we can use 100-200 people from noon to 3 pm at the libraries. This is THE BIG MOVE. Please call the library for more info.

Win "Raz" for your whole school
Feel free to take a look at the product linked in the title.  Has anyone ever tried this?

Looking for some tech PD?
Try a NYSCATE workshop.

Tuesday, May 2

Final Exams for the HS Testing Schedule?
Have a final exam scheduled? Please let me know the date and time and I'll include it on the same sheet as our Regents schedule.  It will be posted on the website.

Health Fair Notes
Anne Guinan will be sending notes about next week's health fair by Wednesday the 3rd. 

Meeting Schedule
I changed May and June meeting dates. May 9 wasn't great because of parent meetings. Please check the meeting tabs on the master file. If anyone has a conflict for next week, no problem; just let me know. Thanks.

Cleaning concerns?
From Todd Reynolds:  Any staff that has an issue with any maintenance or cleaning concern is more then welcome to E-mail me anytime so I can address it quickly.
*Remember to use the maintenance work order system, which is available from the main staff link on the website.

May 9 Notes
Missy will be scheduling a couple of meetings.  If anyone in these meetings has a conflict because of a parent teacher conference, please let us know.  Thanks.

Please check the website calendar

Anything needed that I might have missed? Please let me know and I'll add it. 




Seabreeze
Could this be considered for any future class trips?