Balance

Balance. Such a powerful word with multiple meanings. In this week's blog, I encourage you to find balance and/or be the balance. Let's take a look at a few definitions for the word. For our purposes, balance is defined as mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behavior and judgment (noun) and to arrange, adjust, or proportion the parts symmetrically (verb). Life is busy and the profession you have chosen doesn't exactly lend itself to allowing for balance. Let's face it, with family dynamics, job responsibilities and numerous other factors, we find ourselves sorely lacking the one thing we really need. Balance. Through my 16 years plus of working in public education, I believe you have to carefully consider your (in)ability to find balance. Be purposeful in carving out time for the things that matter most. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Perhaps it might mean late nights or early mornings, but there is time in the day to take care of most of the crucial elements of your day. And, if not, we hope and pray for a better tomorrow. Be steady and stay focused on the prize. We tend to weigh all of these factors based on their impact upon our lives. However, let us not forget the impact we have on the lives of others. Most importantly, let us remember this in regard to our students. That's right. We also have the ability to balance out the lives of others. Whether it be a friendly letter to a colleague, building a relationship with a hard-to-reach student, or simply finding the time just to do the right thing...we act as an imperfect balance in an imperfect world. Together, as we strive toward this balance in our lives, I believe we take another step closer to realizing God's perfect plan.

Part of finding balance, is to try each and everyday to be your best while accepting with a smile the days we fall short. There is so much next level best happening at #PVES. Take a step back and be encouraged!

3rd grade wrapped up their unit on Native Americans in South Carolina with some help from Mrs. Hughes in STEM lab. Students created wattle and daub and longhouse structures!

Staying in 3rd grade for a moment, we find that third grade students celebrated the end of their first unit of study in ELA by brainstorming their favorite strategies for reading book like gold before going on a golden scavenger hunt

In 4th grade, students "broke out" to celebrate the end of their unit of study in ELA. Students also whittled soap like the main character in The Tiger Rising. 

 

In 5th grade, parents and students enjoyed a ninja math breakfast and solved math word problems together. If that wasn't enough, decimal tic-tac-toe was in order! 

A huge "shout out" to Coach Thompson for leading our dance party for our top fundraising class in each grade level. We had a blast!

Our Skate Night's are the talk of the town. Literally. Apparently, all schools in our district and around are area are jealous of the participation we receive. We enjoyed our October Skate Night!

On a very serious note, we had great discussion during our ALiCE training. We take the safety of our students seriously, and I was impressed with the focus from our group on Wednesday. Thanks to Mrs. Heath for helping to lead our session. 

OLWEUS:

We will hold our next round of OLWEUS class meetings on Monday, October 22nd during PRIDE Time. This week, we are focusing on Lesson 4: We Will Try to Include Students Who Are Left Out. You can find a ton of great information, including the lesson plan for this week, in our shared folder. Thanks to Brenna Horn for sharing these scenario cards so students can act out situations. Remember, grade levels should be planning lessons and areas of focus for class meetings when these first 6 lessons are completed. Make them interactive and compelling. And make them applicable for students through meaningful discussion. 

Red Ribbon Week:

We celebrate Red Ribbon Week as we encourage our students to say "no" to drugs and be drug-free. You are certainly welcome to participate in our daily themes and are allowed to wear blue jeans when needed if so. See our daily themes below:

Monday: “Follow Your Dreams-Don’t Do Drugs
Wear Pajamas to school!

Tuesday: “Real Heroes Don’t Do Drugs”
Dress up like your favorite hero! (no masks)

Wednesday: “Put a Cap on Drugs”
Wear your favorite hat! (Make-up picture day)

Thursday: “Team Up Against Drugs”
Wear your favorite team shirt!

Friday: “Our House Says No to Drugs”
Wear your house t-shirt or house color!

End of 9 Weeks Procedures:

It is certainly hard to believe, but the school year is officially 1/4 complete as of Tuesday, October 23rd. I am sending out this Smore newsletter to parents this week in regard to report cards, etc. Please feel free to send via SeeSaw. End-of-term important dates/info are below:

• Grades due in computer by 8:00 A.M. on 10/24
• Grade verifications printed on 10/24. Make any changes necessary so that grade on verification matches what is in grade book. 
• Do not forget to include behavior/conduct comments in homeroom section for each student.
• Any/all comments should be well thought out and accurately reflect the student's progress. 
• Grades will be stored at 8:00 A.M. on 10/25 and Patty will work on printing report cards to have them in your box at some point Thursday or Friday. 
• Report cards should be sent home on 10/30. Parents should sign the plain white copy and return to school. File these away when received. 

Live PD:

In an effort to help us stay focused on being our "next level" best and finding balance, Live PD sessions have ended for the time being. We are very excited to work on vertical teaming when we resume Live PD sessions. Thanks!

"Thank You" Lunch for Teachers/Staff:

We are excited to provide lunch for teachers/staff on Wednesday during our regular lunch period. Moe's is catering for us and this was a favorite last year. On Wednesday, simply direct your students to the cafeteria and we will take care of them from there. You report to the Strings room and enjoy lunch (and some peace and quiet). Thank you for all that you do in providing a "next level" education for our students. 

Friday Is a Busy One:

Friday, October 26th is a busy day! We will have our first ever "Pride Practice" ceremonies in the morning (5th - 8:15 A.M., 3rd - 9:15 A.M., and 4th - 10:15 A.M.). We will call classes to the MP Room when we are ready for you. For those of you familiar with the structure of our EAFK knighting ceremony, things will run very similar to that. We will welcome everyone and make some opening remarks before calling teachers to the podium to read their prepared statements for each student. The students, after hearing his/her name called, will come to the stage to receive a medal and their certificate from Mr. Moore and Mrs. Tollison. Parents will be allowed to stick around a few minutes after the ceremony for pictures. If you have not already, please drop your completed certificate in this shared folder so we can print them all by Friday. 

On Friday, we will also have our first of two ALiCE active intruder drills. You can find ALiCE materials such as the presentation used in our meeting and the suggested presentation to use with your students in this shared folder. It is critical that you spend time this week discussing safety and security with students.Stress the importance of being quiet and listening carefully to instructions on the intercom or given by adults. After the drill, please plan on taking some quality time to "debrief" with students. What went right? What would we improve on? This is a valuable part of the process! Please let us know if you have any questions. 

Moore's Musings:

I have noticed an increase in issues on the playground related to soccer and football as well as some rough play in general. Please discuss with students that our expectation is to play with great sportsmanship at all times. If you feel like this is not being taken seriously, please feel free to take away these opportunities for a period of time to get the point across. Please utilize the three benches on the playground to ensure maximum coverage in terms of supervision. Thanks to those of you who take time to engage students during this time and walk around to support our behavior expectations on the playground. While on this topic, the same can be said of other areas (restroom, hallway, and cafeteria). Do you expect our students to follow our routines, procedures and rules? Do you take the time to reinforce these and have conversations with students who do not follow them? It certainly takes a collective effort. 

After the day on Tuesday, we will determine our first 9 weeks winner in terms of House points! 

Mark Your Calendar (MYC):

• End of 1st 9 Weeks - 10/23
• Sandra Goff for selected math teachers - 10/23
• Thank You Lunch for Staff - 10/24 - Strings Room
• Fall Make-Up Pictures - 10/24
• Progress Report Folders - 10/24
• Grades Due by 8 AM - 10/24
• Verifications - 10/24
• Leadership Team Meeting - 10/24 at 3:15 P.M.
• Grades Stored, Report Cards Printed - 10/25
• Pride Practice Ceremonies - 10/26
• ALiCE Intruder Drill - 10/26
• Fall Treat Bags Sent Home End of Day - 10/26

Videos of the Week: