November 25

Room of the week --- Dave Zeitz!


Dave does some great group activities in his social studies classroom. In the class pictured here, students are working together on various documents in Google Classroom.  The students discussed the documents and developed answers based on their reading and discussion.  Good job Mr. Z!

Be The One postcards
in the office


Get your postcards and help out with the Be The One movement for next week.  Cindy showed me a few that people have done, and they are great!  Thanks to Cindy for organizing this.



Do you have your emergency plan folder?

A couple of teachers contacted me to say they didn't have folders in their room, so I added a section to my Navigate Prepared file linked here.  Please get into the file and let me know if you don't have one.  Aides/assts, don't worry about that unless it's an office that you work out of. 


Speaker reminder - December 3
Please remember that our guest speaker will be doing two assemblies next week on December 3rd.  I will send out a separate message about the plan.


Podcast: Future Skills for Fact-Checking Online Fakes

This podcast will give you a great overview to teach kids about fact checking in today's world.







Product showcase - Troxell

I just received some info on STEM related products from a company by the name of Troxell.  I saved their info into a new products folder in the Staff Share drive.  Feel free to take a look. 
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Gym Lobby Arrangement

We now have a glass case near the aud entrance that will be devoted to band memorabilia. The Music Boosters have ordered a matching case for theater and choral items.  Because of the new location of the glass case (pictured),



I have moved a few tables that were in that area.  All of the high round tables are arranged in front of the wall mounted cases.  We can move a table in front of the gym door for athletic contests, but let's keep that area free of tables for the regular daily activities.  Thanks for your help in keeping that area looking great.
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Click on the pictures to get a better view.
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FERPA Review
It's good for every staff member to have a basic understanding of FERPA.  If you're not sure of how to deal with a particular situation, ask me.  If I don't know, I'll help you research, and we'll come up with the best way to approach any FERPA related issue.

Parents' Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act: Rights Regarding Children’s Education Records

Student education records are official and confidential documents protected by one of the nation's strongest privacy protection laws, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA, also known as the Buckley Amendment, defines education records as all records that schools or education agencies maintain about students.

FERPA Defines an Education Record
Education records include a range of information about a student that is maintained in schools in any recorded way, such as handwriting, print, computer media, video or audio tape, film, microfilm, and microfiche. Examples are:
  • Date and place of birth, parent(s) and/or guardian addresses, and where parents can be contacted in emergencies
  • Grades, test scores, courses taken, academic specializations and activities, and official letters regarding a student's status in school
  • Special education records
  • Disciplinary records
  • Medical and health records that the school creates or collects and maintains
  • Documentation of attendance, schools attended, courses taken, awards conferred, and degrees earned
  • Personal information such as a student's identification code, social security number,picture, or other information that would make it easy to identify or locate a student.

November 18

Thanks to Heather for organizing the athletes' bowling night!
Lots of fun for a great cause!  I saw lots of smiles on Friday night.

Nice note from BOCES principal
I received this note from Kevin Casler on Friday:

Good afternoon Tim,

I felt it was important to take a minute and tell you what great kids you have at South Seneca. I walked your CTE students over to the cafeteria on Wednesday when they arrived here on campus. The South Seneca students expressed authentic gratitude to the cafeteria staff for the lunch and the service. Your students cleaned up after themselves, smiled, and left the cafeteria in better shape than when they arrived.

We can often get bogged down in all the day to day things we do, I wanted to share this positive experience with you.

Have a great weekend,

Kevin


School Related Professionals Day is Tuesday, November 19!

Thanks for all you do!

Faculty meeting on Tuesday
I will email specifics soon.

Project Produce
Bring Science and Social Studies Lessons to Life Using Your Local Grocery Store

Objective:  Students will learn about plants’ growth needs and classifications by investigating how various foods are grown, imported and ultimately sold in their local grocery store. Through this lesson plan, students will gain a better understanding of the produce we eat.


DCMO Ordering is open

The Online Shopping Cart Program was opened up last night for use. This program is for the collection of requisitions for the 2020/2021 school year.

 Log in information should be in each staff members mailbox. Please let us know if a staff member needs assistance.

The Online Requisition Site will be up and running until January 31, 2020.

The site will close on January 31, 2020.  This date is bound by Bid Award Dates and cannot extend the timeline this year.

The DCMO sign in link is on the master.





Article: College test prep scams are happening

If you have kids in high school, please read, or you might want to share this.

November 4


Room of the week


Robin Parzych

Robin is a wiz on her Promethean.  Her walls are nicely decorated, and her students have a part in keeping things looking great.  Thanks Robin!
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Suicide Prevention Center of NYS

The organization linked above has some great resources.  I also put their link on the Mental Health Links page of this blog.





Parent-Teacher Conferences

Please remember to use the single parent-teacher conference file that is linked from the master.  There is a tab for each team in the file. Thanks.
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December 3rd plans shaping up

Our speaker on December 3rd is Molly Kennedy, a motivational speaker who specializes in resilience for students.

The high school assembly will be from 8 to 9, so we'll miss most of period 1 and all of 2 to 4.  I believe it will be a worthwhile assembly that will touch on social-emotional topics.

Click here for the tentative middle school schedule for that day.


















Anti-vaping show coming on December 18
Cindy Brewer found a great looking program four our kids, and I was able to get it for December 18.  It will not be on the same letter rotation, so that's a plus.  I'll share info soon. We will be running a pep rally schedule, so we won't be missing any classes.

BEDS


Sue Kuck will be here on Monday, November 25th to help anyone who needs it for finishing off the BEDS reporting.  She will be in the library from 1 until sometime after school.  She's a wiz at this stuff, so your time with her should be very quick if you end up needing the help.