iPad Potpourri

As we near the end of our first full week of school with students, I want to again thank each of you for your hard work and dedication. As I mentioned in our faculty meeting, it says a great deal about our staff that half of you were at school on Sunday preparing for the week. Things will continue to get better as we work through the "newness".

Let's get started with our blog and mention our iPads. Overall, iPad deployment has gone well. We still have some students new to PVES who still need an iPad. We are aware of this issue and are working hard to get one in their hands before the end of the week. Passwords seem to be the major issue currently. Mrs. Fowler, Mrs. Tollison, Mrs. Young and I have the ability to change Google passwords if needed. Please email us if we can assist in any way. Let me suggest to everyone that you spend the next few weeks getting your student iPads organized in a way that suits you. In other words, have students create folders for various apps and drop specific apps in these folders. If all iPads in your room are organized in the same way, this will make them easier to manage. Have students delete apps that are not required so that all apps have a home. Please also spend the next month or so taking time to discuss digital citizenship with your classes. You can access the suggested digital citizenship curriculum by clicking on this link. It is imperative that we spend time talking about our expectations and proper use of these devices. If we do a great job of organizing our iPads and talking up digital citizenship, we will avoid many of the troubles associated with sending iPads home throughout the year. Lastly, Jane Harrison reminded us earlier this year that year two of iPad implementation is about transformation. Let's work together to use our iPads to reach the modification and redefinition stages of the SAMR model! In my interview last year with Mr. Havird, I told him that I expected our faculty to be a leader in this area.

I have to mention duty once again as we get settled in our new routines. Remember that we open doors in the morning promptly at 7:20 A.M. so please be on duty at that time when it is your day. We will start using student patrols next week in the mornings. In the afternoon, we had our best time yet today (Wednesday). Way to go 4th grade! We must continue to encourage our students to actively listen for their numbers and then look for their rides as they walk outside to the sidewalk area. Thank you for spending some class time supporting this. I placed clipboards in the multi-purpose room and cafeteria with a laminated copy of car rider names and numbers. Please assist us by using these documents to find students and get them outside ASAP when their name/number is called. It's a group effort! 

Ms. Tammy Lee continues to visit classrooms to kick off her guidance program. We are thrilled that many of you have already spoken to her about some concerns you have with specific students. She is an excellent resource. 

Mrs. Tollison continues to work hard to get textbooks out to each classroom. We will be checking out textbooks soon. Please let her know if you have any questions regarding textbooks. She also has information concerning logging in to the math textbook online for anyone interested. Speaking of Mrs. Tollison, she is excited to be meeting with math teachers tomorrow (Thursday) in the PD Room during your planning period. 

Mrs. Martin has met with or will be meeting with all teachers of reading to discuss leveling students and some basic information regarding setting up your guided reading classroom. I hope everyone has displayed the "what you are reading" poster outside your classroom. We want to let students know that we are active readers in and out of school! Please use Kelle Martin as a resource to assist you with guided reading in your classroom. 

Mrs. Redmon, Mrs. Freeman, and Mrs. Merritt have worked extremely hard with teachers to establish a working schedule for speech and resource. We appreciate the work they do to assist our students! Mrs. Leftwich has also worked hard to establish a Launch schedule. 

Moore's Musings:

Finally, please know that Mrs. Tollison and I have enjoyed the creative way you have displayed your lesson plans. Please remember that there is no set format for this and you do not have to print out a revised lesson plan. We realize a lesson plan is a working document. With that said, feel free to post your week's plan and mark out, draw arrows, etc if needed. Don't go to all the trouble of printing out a revised copy everyday. We visited 8 classrooms this week and it was wonderful to be able to view the lesson plan and have an idea of what to expect. We are excited to continue visiting classrooms!

Remember:

• Use your Boosterthon, PTSO and state money for your classroom. 
• Tuesday, September 1st - Technology PD with Mrs. Preisig in our PD Room during your planning period.
• No school on Monday, September 7th due to Labor Day. 
• Tuesday, September 8th is International Reading Day. Sign up to have Mrs. Martin, Mrs. Tollison or Mr. Moore read to your classroom. 
• Wednesday, September 9th - All homeroom teachers will meet with Melissa Thomas, our ESOL teacher, to discuss ESOL accommodations, etc. We will meet in the PD Room. 
• We are close to having a date set for Science "techbook" training. I will send that out ASAP. 

Winner Winner!

The winning team of our scavenger hunt is the team of:

Kelley Golden

Brenna Wilkie
Audrey Jennings 
Brian Velasco
Randy Thompson

Congrats!!!

Mrs. Burns/Mrs. Hildebrand:

We are sad to report that Mrs. Burns will be resigning effective September 24th so she can move to Tennessee with her family. We are so appreciate of her hard work at PVES through the years. Dawn, don't forget to stay in touch. We wish your family all the best! Valarie Hildebrand will take on the full time role of Academic Assistance teacher and we are glad to have her here with us Monday-Friday starting in late September.

I will leave you with a quote that seems appropriate given iPads and new schedules and responsibilities. 

"The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."
~Gloria Steinem

Oh, and Friday is a blue jean day. Great job this week, everyone!

Mr. Moore

First Edition

Welcome to the first edition of the Powdersville Progress. As I mentioned in our faculty meeting, this is one of the major ways in which we hope to communicate weekly to our faculty and staff. Please get in the habit of reading the blog when shared with you, by Thursday each week, so you can be kept up-to-date.

Take a moment to add your word for the year to our padlet wall. I know we added our words to answer garden, but padlet seemed like a great choice so you could tell us the "why" behind the word you chose.

First of all, a very special "thank you" to everyone. Your ability to handle anything thrown your way and do what is best for our students, all 604 of them, is simply amazing. You are all to be commended for our positive start to the school year. I would like to again welcome all of our new friends to the Powdersville family. We hope you feel welcome and already a part of us! As I was standing out in the car line Wednesday morning, I watched as our non-homeroom teachers were once again greeting our students and helping to direct parents. Thanks to those individuals who just jumped in and made things work!

Speaking of the car line, duty seems to be going well. We have abandoned our original plan in the morning and will be opening up our overflow lot to parents. We are working on organizing some patrols to help us in the morning. Our main goal to to safely unload as many students out of as many cars as possible at a time. In the afternoon, it is imperative that our students are seated quietly and know their car rider numbers. Please also encourage your students to pay attention once they get outside on the sidewalk and carefully follow the directions of the adults on duty. Things will improve in the morning and afternoon if we follow the plan of action and get better at our "duty" each day.

As most of you now know, we have postponed iPad deployment for all grade levels until Wednesday, August 26th. Between now and then, we need your help in communicating to parents of all third grade students and/or new students to PVES that iTunes accounts must be set up. Apple emails have been sent several times and we also provided what the username (email) and password (district password) should be when setting up the account. If they have questions, point them in the direction of Mrs. Fowler who will be working with Mrs. Preisig and the office staff to assist parents. Remember, our 4th and 5th grade students who were here last year already have an account created.

Finally, thank you for your patience we you learn our new schedule. Make sure to adhere to the lunch and recess times given for your class. We know the cafeteria is packed and we have asked about adding another table or two. Also, don't let the addition of new content scare you. You are great at being a teacher. Period. A teacher of any subject. Work together and add your individual touch to your lessons. Let the standards guide you and don't be afraid to fail! Mrs. Tollison and I are so proud of you all.

Moore's Musings:
Don't forget that WTLP will be provided on Mondays only and will set the tone for our week at PVES. Mrs. Thomas and Ms. Jordan have some great ideas in store for us! Every other day, you are expected to say the Pledge of Allegiance, recite our school pledge, and provide a moment of silence.

Remember...

• Faculty meeting on Tuesday, August 25th to discuss iPad deployment. 
• Boy Scouts will here on Tuesday, August 25th at 1:45 to speak to our boys in the MP Room. 
• Math teachers meet with Mrs. Tollison during planning in PD Room on Thursday, August 27th.
• Technology PD with Mrs. Preisig will be during planning on Tuesday, September 1st. 
• ALiCE update/training during faculty meeting on Tuesday, September 8th.
• Guidance update and "training" with Ms. Lee during our faculty meeting on Tuesday, September 22nd. 
• Always check the shared calendar as many dates have been added of which you will want to be aware. 

And for reading this blog until the end...

And, more importantly, because you are the most dedicated faculty and staff in the world...

Friday, August 21st is a blue jean day. If you have your plans together for next week, you are free to leave at 3:05 P.M. Sorry to those of you on Friday duty as I am sure we will still be in the car line, but you can leave as soon as that is finished. :0)

Love you all!

Mr. Moore