Cougar Claps
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Kale, Mrs. Wood and Mrs. Jouanet for applying to be an ELA Common Core Lab Classroom!
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Hodges, Mrs. King, Mrs. Gaiters, Mrs. Resch and Mrs. Brewer for doing such an outstanding job of supporting one another to complete an IEP meeting this week.
Cougar Claps for everyone for doing such a wonderful job on the first day of the CRCT! We had very few interruptions and no serious incidents!!
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Ingram for getting all of our 2nd grade CRCT tests copied and sorted!
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Resch, Mrs. Harper, and Mrs. Brown for organizing our Autism Awareness bake sale and awareness campaign this month. It has been wonderful.
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Young for helping bring Autism awareness to our first grade students.
Cougar Claps for Mr. McCracken for helping out during testing.
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Dorsey, Mrs. Groeneveld and Mrs. Cobb for delivering all of our CRCT tests!
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Evans for going above and beyond to help out with a kindergarten screening!
Cougar Claps for Mrs. Howell for always being so positive in the morning and making sure our students come in from the bus port with a smile on their face.
What's Happening
Upcoming LFS Training
Just a reminder that we will have an LFS training the week of May 7th. Please see the schedule below.
Important ELA Common Core Information
If your school is interested in beginning to write common core units, I have attached the unit
template that the DOE is using for their units on the ELA blog at www.diannadenton.com.
Additional guidance will be provided from the district at the Common Core Summit.
We will be using the curriculum maps created by the state. This is the link...
https://www.georgiastandards.org/Common-Core/Pages/ELA-K-5.aspx
Curriculum maps can be located under each grade level drop down menu.
Social Studies and the Common Core
Will there be new Social Studies Common Core standards?The Social Studies common state standards are still in development and are still several years away from implementation. There is a coalition working on developing standards but our GPS will continue to be taught for the foreseeable future.
So, nothing will change in Social Studies? I wouldn’t say that. The ELA common core includes:
• a new emphasis on reading and writing informational text,
• deeper historical and other content literacy (including extensive vocabulary development),
• research skills,
• rich and authentic performance tasks,
• enhancement of students’ ability to read and analyze primary source documents,
• sophisticated use and citation of multiple resources,
• interpreting various perspectives in text and arguing a position on critical issues.
All of these mesh beautifully with how social studies should be taught. We believe that ALL teachers will have to consciously teach social studies and much more rigorously than in the past.
De-stress for the CRCT with IntelleBoost
To help students focus, be organized, and de-stress a free program (cross-lateral and quick energy movements 2-3 min.) can be shown on your interactive boards. IntelleBoost is offering free accounts through the end of the school year for Cobb Schools (nothing to purchase) Teachers can visit this link to register or extend their membership.
http://www.intelleboost.com/cobb.html
Teaching Literacy
Please take a few minutes to view this compelling video on the need to make instructional shifts in teaching literacy. These shifts become a moral imperative of getting better outcomes for students as
measured by National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). This video will place perspective on our responsibility to implement Common Core Standards with fidelity.
http://usny.nysed.gov/rttt/resources/bringing-the-common-core-to-life-download.html
After viewing this video, take some time to go back and look at the College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards and the 6-12 Litearcy through Science, Social Studies and Technical Standards whether you teach at this level or not. It may initially look like this document is not for K-5 educators, but review them anyway. You will see that this is not true. These standards can be found at the
following link:
http://www.corestandards.org/assets/CCSSI_ELA%20Standards.pdf
Nominations for TOTY are DUE FRIDAY!!!
Clean Air Campaign Education Week
Teachers please "talk up" our Clean Air Campaign Education Week. It will be the week of April 23rd. We will have announcements everyday from our student council on the importance of car pooling and not idling in the school parking lot.
We will have Car Pool or Ride the Bus To School Week April 30 - May 4th where we will be encouraging students to car pool or ride the bus. Again, please "talk up" with your students.
Student Teachers for Fall 2012
Are you interested in hosting a Student Teacher in Fall 2012? If so, please let me know.
Sack Lunches on Last Two Days of School....
Please plan for sack lunches on those last two days of school. We will need to have sack lunches and eat in the classroom because of planned 5th grade activities. We will send out specific times for you to come by and pick up your lunch on that day. Our modified Specials schedule will be the following for those last two days:
1st – 8:00 – 8:30, K – 8:30 – 9:00, 4th – 9:05 – 9:35, 5th – 9:35 – 10:05, 3rd – 10:10 – 10:40, 2nd – 10:40 – 11:10
One more thing, on the last day of school, 5th grade will be on the back field from 11 till 12.
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