It’s not everyday you GET to be someone who can positively impact the lives of others. Us? Yes, we GET TO DO THIS EVERYDAY!
We Get to hug those sullen-faced children
We Get to VISIT classes everyday/every week
We Get to celebrate WINS, Good News Referrals, and Caught You Doing Something Right
We Get to help students solve problems
We Get to see teachers MOTIVATE kiddos AND motivate teachers ourselves!
We Get to watch children grow, literally in real-time
We Get to collaborate, problem solve and communicate
We Get to high five and knuckle pound all day
We Get to smile and laugh with kids that may not do that at home
We Get to leave school knowing that tomorrow will be another chance to improve the life of SOMEONE
Thank you for everything you DO for our students!! I hope that you have time to enjoy some time off with family and friends. I am going to say it again, I am so lucky to work with such a dedicated group of teachers that will take NO EXCUSES to ensure that our students are successful!! Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year!!
There are so many things we SHOULD do. I know it, you know it...;) Sometimes, it's easier said than done! Take a look at anEASY 10 Things Teachers can Say More Oftenand how easy it can be done!
Did you know that engagement starts with respect? Either way you look at it, EVERYONE is more engaged when they respect the person giving them information. Take a look atTHIS ARTICLE on ways to earn teens respect and keep them engaged!
Want to know how to TALK LESS in your classroom with THESE easy strategies?? Who doesn't want that to happen? Check outTHIS ARTICLE for easy ways to get kids talking more and you talking less!
Please welcome 3 mindfulness coaches who will be on our campuses on Fridays:
Hello! My name is Matthew Santos, I am one of the new mindfulness coaches at Suisun Valley Elementary School. I have a Psychology and Mindfulness Based Stress Research background from UC Santa Barbara and I along with the other wonderful mindfulness coaches will be teaching students and teachers about Social-Emotional learning through neuroscience and mindfulness practices and strategies. In sum, mindfulness is not just breathing exercises, but a way for anyone to check-in and be present with their thoughts and feelings while using that energy towards love and self-care!
Hello! My name is Monica Cortez and I am one of the new mindfulness coaches at Suisun Valley Elementary School. I am FSUSD raised and continued my education at UC Davis where I received my degree in Human Development. In my free time I enjoy reading, journaling, spending time outside in nature, and yoga. I'm currently training to become a certified yoga teacher! Mindfulness has taught me strategies in self care, compassion, emotional and self regulation, focused awareness, and how to appreciate the present moment. I look forward to sharing my love for mindfulness with the Suisun Valley Elementary School community!
Hello, I am Rachel Moses and am looking forward to joining the team at Suisun Valley K-8 School! I attended UC Davis and graduated with a Bachelor's degree in psychology, and I am currently in a graduate program working on my Master's degree. I look forward to sharing my lessons and practice in mindfulness. Mindfulness is a useful concept and tool for everyone to have in order to help improve focus, emotional regulation, stress reduction, manage anxiety, increase overall well-being and foster positive relationships.
As many of you know, I lost my mom when I was 11 years old to cancer. During my birthday I always tend to miss her the most! She was only 41 when she died and since my 41st birthday I feel so lucky to be alive and to be with my family. Instead of getting gifts from my family, this year I asked friends and family to make donations to the Butte County Office of Education or GoFund me accounts for those who lost their homes in Paradise. My mom was an immigrant and taught all four of us the art of giving back to our community. She was a teacher and because we lived in a community of immigrants many of the women would come to her for guidance. Our house was always that house, there was always someone over. I learned so much from my mom in the few years I had with her. The above picture of my mom I keep on my desk by my laptop. It is something I look at multiple times a day! It drives me to be a better mom, sister, friend, wife, and educator. I am constantly thinking how can I grow. In the last 8 years our school has been working hard to build our Agri-Science school. Now our program has been recognized by receiving a Golden Bell, gold ribbon and 3 blue marks on the dashboard last year!! We did this as a TEAM!! No great accomplishment can happen alone. It takes a team, it takes a family. There is a lot that can be said with the strength of numbers.
Focus on Good, no GREAT, First Instruction!
We continue to focus on GOOD, if not GREAT, first instruction. Asking a large number of questions and checking the responses of all students is something all teachers should be doing daily. When we stop talking "AT" students, we get them to reflect on their own learning and process the information at their level. From this, and having ALL students participate in academic conversations determines whether or not the class is ready to move on, needs to work in small group, or you must reteach the concept to the entire class.
How can this be done, you ask?
Structured academic conversation: Put sentence stems on board for each partner
Summarizing and sharing out: whole class, neighbors, or just to teacher
Use Google Survey as a quiz
Use those whiteboards!! Have them complete a quick write question, formative assessment, or an exit ticket! SO EASY!
Use Padlet.com or post it notes to review quickly. Again, SO EASY!
Here is feedback from students and what they would like to see in their classroom. Out of the mouths of babes and, yes, one of those students is a Dragon. CLICK HERE TO HEAR OUR STUDENT VOICES
Any of you that have had the chance to read John Hattie and his High Impact Strategies for Teachers, you know that he focuses on student achievement and the high impact teachers have on students' learning. I recently went to a training and reviewed the 6 areas that contribute to learning (student, home, school, curriculum, teacher, and learning approaches) as well as his updated list of 150 effects of visible learning. Take a look HERE at the 252 influences of related to student achievement. Any guess on what the most influential one is? Yep. Teacher efficacy. Read it. It's worth your time.
CA Dashboard is live!! Check out where SV stands in regards to ELA scores, Math scores, Suspensions, and Attendance. Take a minute to really look at our data. What is it telling us? What area should we be focusing in on? Do we need to refocus our overall goals?
We will be reviewing this data, more in depth, at our staff meeting on January 8, when we return from break. This will be guiding our focus for the remaining part of the school year!
Observable Fish Moments at SV:
Be There: Thank you Mindi for hosting our social this Friday. Thank you Sunshine committee for providing the food and setting up.
Play: Please make sure you fill out at least one good news referral a week.
Choose your attitude:Be kind. Be kind. Be kind. Be kind.
We, as educators, can be that one person in a child’s life that can make a difference. Watch the video below: Brings tears to my eyes every time!!
Why Teaching Kindness in Schools Is Essential to Reduce BullyingOCTOBER 17, 2014
Phrases like "random acts of kindness" and "pay it forward" have become popular terms in modern society. It seems that we just can't get enough of those addictive, feel-good emotions -- and with good reason. Scientific studies prove that kindness has many physical, emotional, and mental health benefits. And children need a healthy dose of the warm-and-fuzzies to thrive as healthy, happy, well-rounded individuals.
Patty O'Grady, PhD, an expert in neuroscience, emotional learning, and positive psychology, specializes in education. She reports: Kindness changes the brain by the experience of kindness. Children and adolescents do not learn kindness by only thinking about it and talking about it. Kindness is best learned by feeling it so that they can reproduce it. A great number of benefits have been reported to support teaching kindness in schools, best summed up by the following.
Happy, Caring Children
The good feelings that we experience when being kind are produced by endorphins. They activate areas of the brain that are associated with pleasure, social connection, and trust. These feelings of joyfulness are proven to be contagious and encourage more kind behavior (also known asaltruism) by the giver and recipient.
Increased Peer Acceptance
Research on the subject has determined that kindness increases our ability to form meaningful connections with others. Kind, happy children enjoy greater peer acceptance because they are well liked. Better-than-average mental health is reported in classrooms that practice more inclusive behavior due to an even distribution of popularity.
Greater Sense of Belonging and Improved Self-Esteem
Studies show that people experience a "helper's high" when they do a good deed. This rush of endorphins creates a lasting sense of pride, wellbeing, and an enriched sense of belonging. It's reported that even small acts of kindness heighten our sense of wellbeing, increase energy, and give a wonderful feeling of optimism and self worth.
Improved Health and Less Stress
Being kind can trigger a release of the hormone oxytocin, which has a number of physical and mental health benefits. Oxytocin can significantly increase a person's level of happiness and reduce stress levels. It also protects the heart by lowering blood pressure and reducing free radicals and inflammation, which incidentally speed up the aging process.
Increased Feelings of Gratitude
When children are part of projects that help others less fortunate than themselves, it provides them with a real sense of perspective. Helping someone else makes them appreciate the good things in their own lives.
Better Concentration and Improved Results
Kindness is a key ingredient that helps children feel good about themselves as it increases serotonin levels. This important chemical affects learning, memory, mood, sleep, health, and digestion. Having a positive outlook enables greater attention spans and more creative thinking to produce better results at school.
Reduced Depression Dr. Wayne Dyer, an internationally-renowned author and speaker, says that an act of kindness triggers an increase in serotonin, a natural chemical responsible for improving mood. This boost in happiness occurs not only in both the giver and receiver of kindness, but also in anyone who witnesses it.This makes kindness a powerful, natural antidepressant. (PDF, 14KB)
Less Bullying
Shanetia Clark and Barbara Marinak are Penn State Harrisburg faculty researchers. They say, "Unlike previous generations, today's adolescents are victimizing each other at alarming rates." They argue that adolescent bullying and violence can be confronted with in-school programs that integrate "kindness -- the antithesis of victimization."
Many traditional anti-bullying programs focus on the negative actions that cause anxiety in children. When kindness and compassion are taught instead, it fosters the positive behavior that's expected. Promoting its psychological opposite is key in reducing bullying to create warm and inclusive school environments.
Maurice Elias, Professor at Rutgers University Psychology Department, is also an advocate for kindness. He says:
As a citizen, grandparent, father, and professional, it is clear to me that the mission of schools must include teaching kindness. Without it, communities, families, schools, and classrooms become places of incivility where lasting learning is unlikely to take place . . . [W]e need to be prepared to teach kindness, because it can be delayed due to maltreatment early in life. It can be smothered under the weight of poverty, and it can be derailed by victimization later in life . . . Kindness can be taught, and it is a defining aspect of civilized human life. It belongs in every home, school, neighborhood, and society. It's become clear that education must encompass more than just academics, and that matters of the heart must be taken seriously and nurtured as a matter of priority. How do you teach kindness?
Thank you Amy for creating a great experience for our 6th-8th graders. The 6th-8th grade students have an exciting opportunity to work with Rhyan Ramirez. He is a bay area motivational speaker. He will be working with our middle school students on team building, leadership, and motivational activities within the class day. His workshop is called ‘Unique and Unrepeatable’. His website is: https://rhyanramirez.com/. Please feel free to visit the website.
Staff Social will be on Friday, Dec. 14th at Mindi’s home at 5:00. We hope to see you there :)
Observable Fish Moments at SV:
Be There: Thank you Kristin, Heather H., and Denise for helping out yesterday!!
Play: HAVE fun and try something new :)
Choose your attitude:Be kind.
Make Their Day: Thank you for working as a team to make after school duty easier for everyone!!
As I walked through classrooms this past month it was very nice to see whole group instruction taking place and then the teacher taking a group and providing intervention to those students who needed it. During our academic conferences we have targeted our students who need to make growth. This targeted instruction has to take place in ALL K-8 classes during ELA and Math. Please make sure your lesson plans reflect what you will be doing for that core group. These students are not performing at grade level and they still need to be exposed to grade level text AND be taught at the level they are currently at. What are you doing as the classroom teacher to make sure you are providing Tier 2 support at their independent level? It is the only way the student will make growth. If the teacher continues to only provide instruction at the grade level that gap will continue to get wider.
Quality Core Instruction
It is difficult to overemphasize the importance of providing students with strong, effective core instruction at any grade level. Without sufficient initial instruction, the percentage of students in need of intervention support will likely be larger than the capacity of the schools to respond adequately. It has become increasingly clear to us in our work with schools that building intervention programs without maximizing the effectiveness of core instruction results in overtaxed intervention providers and severely diluted intervention programs that have little hope of providing the intensity of instruction required to adequately support struggling students.
Core Components of RtI for Literacy Instruction
Instead of only having an intervention-focused approach to meeting students’ needs, effective programming focuses on prevention, begins with the intensification of core instruction. Core instructional planning must address both students’ academic needs as well as their social-emotional needs in order to provide true access to core instruction. High quality academic instruction will not be enough if students are so disengaged that they fail to receive the instruction due to excessive absenteeism and/or behavior problems. Thus, effective instruction will include strategies that keep students engaged, such as beginning lessons by priming background knowledge; providing students with a choice of assignments, texts, and topics; providing opportunities for peer collaboration; and supporting students in setting reasonable yet ambitious goals and providing progress-monitoring feedback to them as they strive to achieve those goals.
The HourofCode is "a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code" and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, an innovator." Coding is the process of writing a program to make the computer do something. Everything that is done on a computer, like websites, games, applications, word processing, videos, and photos, has been coded to do its specific feature. The process of coding may seem daunting, but learning the basics can be quite easy.
Every year we participate in HourofCode during Computer Science Week - December 3-7. This short video explains a variety of ways to get your students involved in HourofCode.
Lunch with the Principal is on Monday, Dec. 3. Please send one student to have lunch with me.
Congratulations to our teacher of the year, Janice Whan. TOTY board meeting will be on February 7th at 6:00pm
Staff Social will be on Friday, Dec. 14th at Mindi’s home at 5:00. We hope to see you there :)
Observable Fish Moments at SV:
Be There: Make sure you take part in our hour of code next week. Thank you Mr. Passama for being flexible and taking your classroom to the staff room as they repair your room. Thank you Mr. Pringle for planning a college tour of CAL for our 8th graders. Thank you sunshine committee for planning monthly socials and secret santa. Thank you Mrs. Gabbart for writing report cards and holding conferences for your students while Mr. Madonna is out.
Play: Mr. Kimble thanks for organizing a fun game of frisbee with the teachers this morning. Nice job Jennifer and Kami!! #winning!!
Choose your attitude:Be kind.
Make Their Day: Thank you Sarah, Patty, Christina and Ariel for staying late last night for Literacy Night. The parents REALLY appreciated your guidance on how to help their child with reading and writing!!! ROCK STARS!!!
I am thankful for a wonderful school community, loving family, friends, and that we are all healthy. This holiday season we are thinking of others and sending as much financial support that we can to help families. During my birthday I know many of you know I like to do acts of kindness. This year there will be 47. I started early and I know it will not replace what people have lost, I do hope it helps.
These are really great DOK resources for ALL SUBJECT AREAS for your use! Great info to share after looking at our October data.
Take a look at these for Academic Conversations, including one specifically for math:
