What's In a Name

I came across this powerful quote a few weeks ago and filed it away for the blog. These words hit me like a ton or bricks and caused me to truly reflect. I hope they have the same impact on you. Our school has worked hard to establish a culture of excellence. In short, our school has a great name. We pride ourselves on building positive relationships through consistent communication. We boast about test scores and report card ratings made possible by outside the box thinking bolstered by high expectations for all. I would challenge you to put all that to the side for a moment. When your name is mentioned years from now, what words and phrases will be associated alongside your name? If you are a relationship builder, but you don't stretch students to learn content and perform academically, what will be said? Conversely, if you are an expert in classroom management or content knowledge, but you struggle to build those positive relationships, what will be said? When we feel tired, overworked, and overwhelmed, look past this temporary gloom and consider your larger purpose. You are establishing your name right now. You are improving. You are changing the world one student at a time. Your name is forever linked to our name: Powdersville Elementary School. Embrace the challenges, smile, and know that our best is truly yet to come.

We continue to build our name and reputation through hard work and a determined approach to improve as educators. Whether you have taught for years or you are in year one, never lose the desire to learn; just as we hope for our students!

We honored some special students during our Pride Practice ceremonies last week. Again, we care so much about the academic portion of our school day, and rightly so. However, let's not forget that we are developing the next generation of doctors, lawyers, home makers, and politicians. They will represent us and our name throughout their lives. Don't we want these young people to have purpose, respect, innovation, and determination as they pursue excellence? 

Monday Class Meetings:
A quick reminder that we use Monday mornings during PRIDE Time to hold our OLWEUS class meetings. Many of you have been great to email and share out lesson ideas. Our OLWEUS committee has been tasked with creating a lesson for next week to help kick start Black History Month. This is a great opportunity each week to set a positive tone for the week.

Class Pictures:
Class pictures will be taken in the morning on Tuesday, January 28th. We will call your class to line up and come to the media center. Please use the door opposite the front office  to enter the library. This should be a quick and easy process.

Live PD:
We do have Live PD scheduled for after school on Wednesday, January 29th. You have already signed up for this second session. These sessions will take place in the same location as last week. Presenters will begin at 3:15 P.M. and finish around 4:00 P.M. We are thankful that our very own teachers are willing to lead these sessions.

Talent Show:
The Talent Show is this week! Dress Rehearsal will be Tuesday afternoon from 3:30-5:30 P.M. The actual event is scheduled for Thursday evening from 6:00-8:00 P.M.at the Powdersville High School auditorium.This is always such a well-attended event. Mrs. Fitch is still in need of help to make this event a success so please check with her on Monday. Our teacher performance is sure to be a hit and always sets the tone for the evening. Thanks to everyone for being a part of our Talent Show and supporting our students.

House Meetings:
We will have House meetings on Monday, February 3rd in the afternoon at 1:50 P.M. Isibindi will meet in the courtyard area due to construction. We have not met in a while so please bring the enthusiasm and make sure our students leave excited about learning at PVES! We want to challenge each House to develop their own handshake/high five and present this to students on Friday. Additionally, Mr. Moore and Mrs. Tollison will be coming around to each House to receive a pie in the face from some homeroom teachers as a part of our fundraiser.

Moore's Musings:
Remember that home room teachers now meet on Wednesday afternoons for common planning. This is a great time to share lesson information, make adjustments and discuss any other grade level-related information. PLC Time is spent discussing and providing clarity related to essential standards, creating and preparing common formative assessments, deep diving into data and making plans for intervention and enrichment based on this data. You should walk out with clarity and a plan of action to ensure learning for all students. 4th grade shared students last week based on CFA data and had some positive results. Great job!

Mark Your Calendar (MYC):

• OLWEUS Class Meetings - 1/27
• RTI Team Meeting - 1/27 at 2:35 P.M.
• Class Pictures - 1/28 in Media Center 
• Anderson Baby Shower - 1/28 at 3:15 P.M. in Media Center
• Talent Show Rehearsal - 1/28 from 3:30-5:30 P.M.
• 3rd Grade Revolutionary War Day - 1/29 
• Common Planning - 1/29 from 2:25-3:15 P.M.
• Live PD - 1/29 from 3:15-4:00 P.M. 
• Robotics Club - 1/30 at 3:15 P.M. in STEM Lab 
• PVES Talent Show - 1/30 from 6:00-8:00 P.M. at PVHS Auditorium 
• School Improvement Council Meeting - 1/31 at 7:20 A.M. in Media Center 
• House Meetings - 2/3 at 1:50 P.M.

Video of the Week: What's In a Name?

Great Teams

Powdersville Elementary is a great place to work and it is because of the folks who make up our great team. I hope you will take some time to reflect on these "proven principles and practices that make great teams great." I believe if we commit to these principles we will continue to achieve greatness and success for our students and community! 

A look at what is happening around PVES...

Third grade writers work in partners to rehearse their ideas and plans before they write their opinions. 

The third grade writers work in partners to find evidence to support their thoughts and opinions during writing workshop. 

Fifth grade students immersed themselves into some writing expectations for their upcoming unit. They are doing a gallery walk as they explore some mentor text to find how other writers present their claims, reasons, and evidence. 

Students worked in teams on Thriving Thursdays with Nurse Cynthia as she does her Jeopardy review of all the information they have learned so far this year. 

We ended our staff meeting with celebrations in partners. We challenged you to think of one great thing about your day, one great conversation, accomplishment, the thing that made you smile, or the win you are most proud of. Focus on your success and you'll look forward to creating more tomorrow. (Jon Gordon) What a great practice to begin with your team!

End of the Nine Weeks Timeline: The end of the nine weeks is on Tuesday, January 14th. Grades are due January 15th before you leave for the day. Verifications will be printed on January 16th and are due back on January 17th before leaving. Report cards will be printed on January 21st and sent home on January 23rd. Remember to request the white copy to be signed and returned back to school. Conduct comments should be included under the homeroom section for all homeroom teachers. 

Pride Practice Ceremony: Names for our next Pride Practice Ceremony should be submitted to Ms. Kendall using THIS FORM by Wednesday, January 15th. We will celebrate students for being innovative. Certificates for the ceremony must be completed by Friday, January 17th before you leave for the day. Completed certificates are due in our shared folder. Please include both students in the same document for printing purposes. Finally, the actual ceremony will take place on Wednesday, January 22nd in the MP Room. We will call for classes to come down.

4th Grade- 8:15 am

3rd Grade- 9:15 am

5th Grade- 10:15 am

House Points and Celebrations: Monday, January 13th is our final day to count and include all of the second nine week's house points. A winner will be decided at the end of the day (1/13) at 4:30 pm. On Tuesday, January 14th Pride Rock will be painted for the overall second nine weeks winning house. The winning house will enjoy snowcones, music, and lunch outside on Wednesday, January 15th. Teachers, we ask that you have students from the winning house go ahead get their lunches. Then, they can head to the courtyard during their regularly scheduled lunchtime on Wednesday. Teachers can pick them up on your way back from lunch. This is weather permitted.

Professional Development Day: See the graphic below for our agenda for Friday's PD Day for teachers. 

Tollison's Tidings:

• Our revised duty schedule can be found HERE. Remember that homeroom teacher are expected to participate in grade level planning on Wednesdays at 2:45. Please email Mr. Moore or Mrs. Tollison to let us know where these planning sessions will take place.  This is different from your collaborative team time on Thursdays. Please let us know if you have any questions. 
• All teachers and staff are reminded to turn off lights and lamps before you leave for the day. 
• If you missed our staff meeting on Wednesday of last week, be sure you have taken the time to review this presentation. 
• Our "Thank You" luncheon for the second nine weeks will take place on Wednesday, January 15th. We will cover the cafeteria and host a lunch for teachers and staff in the strings room. We hope you enjoy a jeans day and your lunch from Moes!

Mark Your Calendar (MYC):

• 1/13 RTI Meeting @ 2:45
• 1/13 PVES Ambassadors Meeting @ 2:45
• 1/14 Papa Johns Dollars for Dough
• 1/15 Papa Johns Dollars for Dough
• 1/16 Robotics Club @ 2:45
• 1/17 Winter F&P Leveling Due 

Video of the Week: Great teams focus on their vision despite their circumstances. 

Refreshed and Refocused

I hope you and your family enjoyed the break and found opportunities to rest. It is so important that we each find time to refresh ourselves and refocus on our purpose, the all-important "why" behind what we do. We are entering into a crucial phase of our job as educators. A time to "focus again" on the goal we set at the beginning of the year. It is the time of the school year to push forward to our goal of ensuring all students learn at high levels. Make the most of this first week back. Take some time to refocus your class, review expectations, and remind them of the goals you have set for each one of them as learners. Embrace the challenge set before you this week as we welcome one another and our students back. 

A glimpse into the amazing things happening at PVES...

Our strings students performed before Christmas break. It is always so impressive to see how far these students come, in such a short time of being introduced to these instruments. We are so proud of them and their hard work! Mr. Velasco is amazing and we are blessed to have him investing so much of his talents into our students in order to create a love for music. 

Speaking of love for music, Mrs. Fitch conducted three different performances before Christmas break. Our fourth and fifth grade chorus performed at the high school and are pictured above. We also enjoyed hearing them perform for our students and staff before the break. It was a blast to be a part of the third grade musical this year. Our third graders worked so hard and did an amazing job on the big stage. 

Our Powdersville Pride Postal Service has started. Students were trained by Ms. Fowler and mail has already been delivered to classrooms. Thank you to everyone for helping get this fantastic program up and going again. We look forward to hearing all the wonderful ways you are incorporating it into your classrooms. 

Powdersville High School sent some of their band members to play Christmas carols for our students on the last day before the break. It was very fun for our students and staff members to hear such joyful music as they entered the school. What a wonderful way to celebrate the community we get to be a part of in Powdersville!

Ms. Ceballos and Mrs. Heath finished up their Lucy Calkin's second writing unit with a fun celebration. Students enjoyed sharing their books with one another by the fire with hot chocolate and cookies. 

Third grade students celebrated the end of their nonfiction reading unit with a little nonfiction text feature surgery. We are so proud of our little surgeons and their teachers. 

Fourth graders participated in Multiplication and Division Ninja Warrior challenges. Students had to complete problems and check in with the teacher for an obstacle challenge. It is amazing to see our teachers focused on making learning fun and engaging for our students. 

Let's keep these incredible things happening as we jump into the weeks to come. PVES is a special place with people who are focused on excellence and ensuring that all students learn at high levels and have fun doing it! 

Construction Begins: The construction company has already set up fencing for the upcoming construction projects around our campus. The back parking lot will be an issue. We now have about 14 spaces left in the back. We need to leave room for buses to get through so no one should park along the curb. Depending on when you usually arrive at work, you will want to park in the overflow parking lot at the front of the building as we expect the few spots in the back to fill up quickly. Another issue will be our recess space. We will need to move to a scheduled rotation for the playground space and blacktop area. This will involve classes being on an A/B schedule each week. Please see the added column to our recess schedule for more information. When we start on Jan. 6th we will be on "A week" for the rotation. 

Wednesday All-Staff Meeting: We will have an all-staff meeting on Wednesday in the Media Center at 3:15. Your attendance is important as we discuss upcoming construction and the impact on our school moving forward. You do not need to bring materials or technology. 

Talent Show: Our annual talent show will be on January 30th from 6-8pm. Auditions will be taking place this week (3rd grade on Tuesday, 4th grade on Wednesday, 5th grade on Thursday) in the music room. Mrs. Fitch will be sending out more information and some ways you can help out in the coming weeks. Don't forget talented teachers are needed for our opening number! 

End of the Nine Weeks Timeline: The end of the nine weeks is on January 14th. Grades are due January 15th before you leave for the day. Verifications will be printed on January 16th and are due back on January 17th before leaving. Report cards will be printed on January 21st and sent home on January 23rd. Remember to request the white copy to be signed and returned back to school. Conduct comments should be included under the homeroom section for all homeroom teachers. 

Tollison's Tidings: 

• Please take the time to review and share our January "In the Know" newsletter that can be found HERE.
• Remember we are using SmartFind Express for our absences. We set up this contact on your phone during a staff meeting. If you need to put in an absence you can do this by phone or using this website: https://andersonsd1.eschoolsolutions.com/logOnInitAction.do. You must use this exact website as it is assigned to Anderson One. Your ID is your four-digit employee ID number. Your password is a six-digit number you created (most likely a date). Please be sure to email requests for absences prior to putting them in the system. Last minute absences need to be put into the system as soon as possible. This will be especially important as we approach the flu and cold season. 

Mark Your Calendar (MYC):

• No Good News Club 1/7
• Progress Report Folders 1/8
• PVES Spirit Day 1/10- Wear House Attire
• RTI Team Meeting 1/13
• End of the Second Nine Weeks 1/14
• House Points Due 1/14 at 3:30
• House Celebrations 1/15
• Fourth Grade LAUNCH Field Trip to GA 1/16
• PD Day at PVES 1/17 (More information to come)  
• MLK Day- No School 1/20/19