Quotes to think about...

Principal ponderings...
Here are my top 5 quotes for the week:

I shared this one with all of you before school started.  Now that we are two months in, I thought it was a good time to revisit it.  How are you doing with making every moment matter, every day?

This is an important one to remember, although it's a much harder one to always adhere to.  Sometimes we have to take a step back and think about whether we are simply filling students' heads with information or are we facilitating their learning by pushing them to solve problems on their own?

I couldn't agree more!  I'm very excited to see the buzz that you all are creating in your classes around reading.  Kids are reading.  Kids are talking about what they are reading.  Kids are recommending books to others.  Kids are writing about what they are reading.  I love it!

Teaching is definitely not easy.  Especially on our hardest days, the days when you feel like nothing seems to go right, you need to remember that when you push your students and yourself, it truly is going to be worth it.  When you are frustrated with the number of F&Ps you need to finish or it seems like half your class didn't seem to understand the math lesson and you have to switch gears and adjust your instruction...remember that all of your hard work is worth it.

I am a big believer that we can always improve.  If I get to a point where I think I can't improve my practice anymore, well then it will probably be time for me to find a new career.  As educators, we should always be thinking about how we can be better than we were the day before.  Certainly when you have a bad teaching day (we all have them), you make sure that the next day is better.  But I would argue that even when you have an amazing teaching day (we all have those as well), stop and think, how can I improve upon what I just did?  Don't our students deserve to have teachers who get better and better every single day?

Currently reading:

I am about halfway through Rump:The True Story of Rumpelstiltskin.  Love the perspective of Rumpelstiltskin...the author gets the reader to care about a character who we normally think is an evil character.  I also read a fabulous picture book to my nieces last week, all about writing a story, called Little Red Writing.  The characters are pencils and there's even a big, bad, Wolf 3000...the evil pencil sharpener!

Events this week:
All this week we will be collecting donations for the Lowell Humane Society.  Boxes will be in the front lobby.
Monday - Hat Day! Kindergarten Discover Fall program
Tuesday - Book Character Day! Kindergarten Discover Fall program, SEPAC Roundtable in cafeteria, 9:30-10:30, Grade 1 Library visit
Wednesday - Crazy Hair Day! Grade 4 Chorus at 2:25 in the gym
Thursday - FloRo Day! Curriculum Half Day, Evernote training for those new to evaluation tool this year, 1:15-3:15 in the library, PLC time for other teams, Liz out of the building at conference
Friday - Sports Day!  Liz out of the building at conference

Great things I noticed last week:

• Staff did a great job with our lockdown scenarios.  It was certainly clear that you all will do whatever it takes to protect our students.  I hope that we never have to utilize the skills we practiced.  I also want to thank those of you who have shared ideas of how to keep improving our safety protocols.
• I had the chance to pop into several of the bus open circle meetings, and I heard some really great conversations led by all of you.  Thank you for hosting these initial meetings; I do feel like it makes a difference in behavior on the bus.  

• A first grader told me that I had someone helping me get some work done in my office...although it appears he drank all my diet coke and then proceeded to take a nap in my chair. ;)
  

Check it out:
I know that many of you reading my blog have said that you are trying to catch up with all of the articles or blog posts or websites that I include in this section.  So I will only post one short link.  If there were some articles that you meant to go back and read more closely...now is a good time! :)
Here is a great video clip of a dad celebrating his son's good news.  I definitely like the message that we need to remember to celebrate little things with our students.  I love that I have been receiving lots of positive learning opportunity forms.  It is so great to see the big smile on a student's face when I tell them I am proud of them and tell them to take the form home and share with mom or dad.
http://kylepace.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/makingtimetocelebrate/