Ending the Year on a Positive Note
The Responsive Classroom had a couple of great ideas that gets our students to those higher levels of thinking and requires a performance task. (Think Common Core!) Here are a couple of great ideas….which you can revise and use with your class!
A few years ago I decided to make sure my class would have time for saying goodbye on the last day of school. To help them prepare, the night before I gave them “thinking homework,” asking them to reflect on what they remembered about the school year and to be ready to share their memories with the class.
Near the end of the next day, I shut the door and posted a "Do Not Disturb" sign on it so we wouldn’t be interrupted. People knew what we were doing must be important—it was the first time during the whole year that I’d closed the classroom door!
For about thirty minutes, we shared our "I remembers,” and I jotted down what the children said, everything from “learning to read” to “singing on stage at the holiday concert.” We hugged, laughed, and cried. Before the children left for the day I gave them copies of everyone’s “I remember” to take home. I have done this every year since. It has become a cherished way to end the year on a positive note.
--Arlene Flye, preK and kindergarten teacher
Old Treasures and Pearson Materials:
All site Treasures, dictionaries, thesaurus, and Pearson materials will be recycled. You have a few options:
OPTION 1: Send ELA books home with students at the end of the year and stamp discard in them
OPTION 2: Remove the cover of the book, stamp as discarded and recycle
OPTION 3: Stamp as discarded, box the textbooks and place in a central location. Notify Kristin and the warehouse will pick up the books for recycling
Observable Fish Moments at SV:
Be There: Thank you TO ALL STAFF for being there for each other and our families and especially our students!!!
Play: Thank you Brandon and 8th graders for an AMAZING field day! So fun!! Thank you to those teachers that promoted Caine's arcade the students had so much fun making the games and playing them.
Choose your attitude:
To actually choose how you respond to life, not just react, you must be intentional. Ask yourself throughout the day, "What is my attitude right now? Is it helping the people who depend on me? Is it helping me to be most effective?" NO EXCUSES!!
Make Their Day: You still have time- make a positive phone call home! Students and parents LOVE this!!
Upcoming dates:
June 5 AR Party
June 6 Staff meeting/social 3:15 at Mangels
June 7 Fire Drill 9:05;
June 8 8th Grade Promotion 10:00 am
June 9 Report cards go home
June 13 and 16 Genentech work days at SV from 9:00-2:00
SAVE THE DATES:
July 31 and August 1: NEU Conference at RHS
August 10: Buy Back Professional development here at SV Ag Lifelab/NGSS standards; wear comfortable shoes, sunscreen, and a hat if you need. We will be going out to the garden
8:30-12:00
12:00-12:30 Lunch
12:30-3:30
August 14: Welcome back. Staff meeting 8:30-12:00 in staff room
August 16: First day of school
August 18: Staff social at our home in Vacaville at 5:00pm. Please bring your family :)
Set up check out appointments through google docs that Kristin will send out
