"A" week schedule this week!

PD Day - Friday, October 13

Friday's PD will be at Dallas College.  It will be a fun day together!  See the information below for details!

Keynote Speaker - Rocky Rock-T Turner can be heard on the Rickey Smiley Morning Radio Show right here in Dallas. He will be joining us to share some reminders of our potential and our greatness. His book "No Excuses! Get it Done" will be available for purchase if you're interested in obtaining your own copy. (Purchase price is $10.00) 

Your lunch will be provided by Dynamic Support Solutions (DSS) our finance team in thanks and recognition to the school turn-around work everyone has been immersed in and wishes to celebrate with you. 

We will be celebrating and holding our meeting/s for the day at Dallas College-Coppell Center. We will enjoy the beautiful fall weather, get out of our buildings for the day and have some fun activities throughout the day. More details and a full agenda will be shared early next week. 

1. Name of the Building - Dallas College Coppell Center Building A - Room A113

2. Address: - 101 S Royal Lane, Coppell, TX 75019

3. Parking Information: Open parking, make sure you go to the building that says Coppell and NOT the one that says Construction sciences.  Talk to each other about riding together if you don't want to take the drive by yourself!  Need help finding a ride, let me know and I'm happy to help!

Arlington's Value of Water Mini Poster Contest 

Thank you, Ms. Lina, for sharing this information with us!  Read below or click on the title above (link) to see how Pre-K through 4th grade can enter this contest.  If your class is completing this, I can help you scan the completed entries prior to Oct. 14.  This would also be great to display in our hallways!

Arlington students in PreK through 4th grade can compete for a chance to win a variety of fun, water-related prizes and have their artwork featured in City of Arlington buildings by entering the 2022 Value of Water Mini Poster Contest.

The contest is sponsored by Arlington Water Utilities, Arlington Public Library, River Legacy Nature Center, and Tarrant Regional Water District. It opens on Thursday, Sept. 1, and all entries are due by 5 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 14.
Winners of this year’s Value of Water Mini Poster Contest will also win free passes to the upcoming Here Be Dragons: From Lizards to Legends exhibit at the River Legacy Nature Center.

Entering the contest is simple!

Kindergarten through 4th grade students - please use an 8 ½ by 11-inch piece of plain white paper to show us, "Why Water is Important" to you. Whether it’s splashing in a pool, watering a garden, giving your pet a bath or even how wild animals use water. We encourage you to let your creativity out when telling us why water is important!

Pre-kindergarten students - please complete one of the coloring sheets from SaveArlingtonWater.com to enter the contest.

On the back of your entry, a separate piece of paper, or in an email, please include

• Your first name

• Grade

• School you attend

• Your parent’s or guardian’s phone number

• A couple of sentences to answer these questions: 1. What did you draw? 2. Why is water important in your life?

Once you’re finished with your entry, send a scanned copy or photo of your artwork to waterconservation@arlingtontx.gov.

A total of six winners (one each from each grade in pre-k - 4th grade) will be announced on the Arlington Water Utilities Facebook page on Thursday, Oct. 20. October 20 is also the nationwide observance of the Value of Water campaign’s Imagine a Day Without Water.

Imagine a Day Without Water is a nationwide educational campaign that brings together various collaborators to highlight how water is vital, invaluable, and in need of our attention.

To learn more, visit ImagineADayWithoutWater.org.

Each winner, their family and their teacher will also receive an invitation to be recognized in-person at the Arlington City Council meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 1. The water department will also display the winning entries at Arlington City Hall or the Arlington Water Utilities South Service Center until the following October. Posters of winning entries will also be provided to each child’s school for recognition.

Common Sense Media for STEM Fridays

Digital citizenship is extremely important with all our scholars, especially the scholars in grades 3 - 8 who can now take them everywhere!   Please also make sure to be diligent with their usage within your class time.  

To help you prepare students for their first devices, we will start digital citizenship lessons through Common Sense Education (bookmark this site and sign up to utilize it as a teacher).  They've created a collection of lessons with videos and fun activities to introduce (and remind them of) great responsibility. 

The Device Advice Collection contains these lessons for grades K–5:

• Caring for Our Devices

• Why We Pause for People

• Managing Device Distractions

• Our Device Charter 

And if you teach older students, check out our new Digital Well-Being collections for middle school and high school!

This week on STEM Friday, all homeroom classrooms K-8 please do the Our Device Charter lesson, as this lesson goes over norms and expectations and is a great lesson to start with.  These lessons are PERFECT for our STEM Friday time, as you can take a "technology" grade once a week for the STEM block utilizing these lessons.  The lesson plans are scripted, there are slides or videos and sometimes worksheets that coincide with the lesson, and it gives the pacing time for each lesson so you know how to plan!  Please make sure to include which digital citizenship lesson within your lesson plan you will be implementing each Friday.  Start hanging up student work in the hallways you may be completing (if paper copies) of some of their digital citizenship work! You can implement more than one lesson a week, as there are many lessons to choose from! Also sign up on their website to send you emails to your school email, as they weekly send me tips and lessons that can help guide your lesson plan focus in which you won't have to "dig" for what to teach!

Paper Tutoring - Grades 3-8

If you did not complete this last week, do the Paper "Scavenger Hunt" with your scholars (for a grade!).  This week focus on the appropriate way to use the Paper tutoring platform.  Show them what a tutoring conversation should look like.  It sounds silly to do with them, but learning how to communicate online in an appropriate way is an important skill to learn!  Create a "Paper" bulletin board in the hallway (one for both 3rd grade classes, one for 4th/5th grades, and one for 6th - 8th grades) where each week you are printing out great examples of tutoring conversations, posting final writing pieces after they had help with the Writing Center, and display top Math or Reading Mission users.  The more great work from using the Paper platform that scholars see, the more they will use it!  I guarantee their learning will progress as well!  Want to win a weekly prize from me?  Be one of the teachers who are using the platform with their scholars the most and putting scholar work using Paper on your bulletin boards and I'll reward you with a prize---yes, weekly starting this week!  I can't wait to reward you for your work in helping to utilize Paper with your scholars!  

Exciting news:  Newsela Social Studies is now available!

We now have full access to Newsela Social Studies, a digital platform with over 15,000 articles, covering 20+ genres of content instructional content! Newsela Social Studies will be available to students through their Clever accounts.  You can assign articles/assignments based upon reading levels, grade levels, or TEKs.  

Here is a collection of resources to help you and your scholars make the most of this crucial back-to-school period:

• Getting Setup Communication Kit: A guide on how to create your classroom accounts and set up classes using our Getting Setup Communication Kit.

• September 2023 Content Calendar: This calendar can be used to foster weekly Newsela usage by providing classroom-ready content for each day of the month that is relevant and engaging.

• Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month Text Set: Celebrate diversity and culture this September with our Latinx and Hispanic Heritage Month Text Set. It's designed to inspire meaningful discussions about the contributions and experiences of Latinx and Hispanic communities throughout history and today. This collection can be an excellent resource for ELA, Social Studies, and more.

• Tip of the Month: Teachers and students love our Newsela Scavenger Hunt. This unique Newsela lesson is tailor-made to spark excitement in learning among your students. 

This is a great tool we have purchased this year to help support our Social Studies TEKs.  Start looking through the platform and using it during your Social Studies blocks. If you need any help in navigating the site, just let me know!

Lesson Plans and Weekly Newsletters

Where to put them:  2023-2024 Teacher Resources drive within the STEM folder.  

Please make sure to upload your lesson plans & newsletters to the correct folder and on time.  If you need help, please let me know!

*Make sure to add Common Sense Media lessons to your lesson plans each week, Paper lessons/expectations, and NewsELA Social Studies lessons!

Family Fun Event - October 26

Our next Family Fun Event will be on October 26.  The PTO has helped plan the theme for this month's event:  Family Game Night - SuperHero Theme!  Please sign up on this form if you will be attending this event.  If possible, I'd like as many teachers who can to attend this one, as one of the "games" that scholars will have the opportunity to do is pay to "Pie A Teacher" for $5.00.  That will take place in the gym at a designated time, but games will be in your classrooms.  I know it will be a fun Family Fun Event time!

Morning Procedures

Continue to revisit all procedures, especially morning procedures.  Please also continue to be visible in the hallway outside of your door in the morning.  Shout out to Mr. Cravey for stopping each of his scholars in the hall outside his door in the morning last week with intentional "Good Mornings" and conversations!  😀

Red Ribbon Week - Oct 23-27

Red Ribbon Week is the last full week in October.  More information to come regarding Career Day on Tuesday, Oct 24.  It will be a fun-filled themed week!

To-Do Items

Things to do this week:

• Place your lesson plans & newsletters in the correct google drive folder 

• Sign up for Oct. 26 Family Fun Game Night in the link above

• Continue to focus on beginning of day routines with your scholars (greeting scholars in the hall outside your room and morning work procedures)

• Plan your digital citizenship lesson for Friday through the Common Sense Education website

• Paper bulletin board creations (one for both 3rd grade classes, one for 4th & 5th grade classes, and one for 6th - 8th grade classes)

Oct 12 Vinten off campus - Region 10

Oct 13 No school for scholars - staff professional development day - location - Dallas College - Coppell location

Oct 23-27 Red Ribbon Week

Oct 24 Career Day - more info to come

Oct 25 Vinten off campus - Strategic Planning at the District Office

Oct 26 Birthday Thursday for October Birthdays

Oct 26 Family Fun Event - Game Night!

Oct 27 End of 2nd 6 week period

Oct 30 Vinten off campus - Region 10

Nov 6-10 Student-Led Conference Week

Nov 20-24 No school for staff and scholars - Thanksgiving Break

Nov 27 No school for scholars - staff professional development day