March 3, 2015

Welcome to the Speas Global Elementary Blog!

All staff members, let's make sure we are teaching, reteaching, and teaching again the procedures in the common areas (Hallway, Cafeteria, Bathrooms, Playground, Bus).  We should be giving out lots of Bee's for students demonstrating the basic expectations.  It is a good idea to review the procedures before you leave one area to travel to another area.  

Our Mission: It is the mission of Speas Elementary School to provide its students with the tools necessary to successfully meet the challenges they will face in a diverse world.

Goals:

To increase English Language Arts achievement by 10%
To increase Mathematics achievement by 10%
To increase Science Achievement by 10%

picture by C. Cardona

Check out this graphic about global education.  The things above water are just the tip of the iceberg.   Try to go deeper in your instruction and touch some of the issues below the surface.

ISS
Specialists will begin holding ISS in their respective areas on their assigned days.  The schedule is below.  Teachers, specialists may be contacting you for work for students assigned to ISS.  Please get them work as soon as possible.   

Day	Teacher	Location
A	Arora	Room 213
B	Bowen	Music
C	King	Art
D	Childers/McMasters	Media/CL
E	Lindquist	Gym

Announcements:

Tonight from 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM we are having our book character night.   All staff is invited to join in the fun.

***For all technology issues, please follow these steps in order to submit a SchoolDude ticket. Mr. McMasters will receive this ticket and be able to work on resolving the issue as quickly as possible. Tickets take priority so please enter a ticket for the technology issue that you have. If you have any questions on how to do this, please see Mr. McMasters. Thank you!

To submit a ticket…on either the WSFCS homepage or the Speas homepage, click on “User Options” in the top right of the screen --> “SCHOOL DUDE requests --> Click “IT request” tab --> fill out request and click submit. ***

The Art's Council Campaign is now open.   Please donate.  Ash is giving out a jeans coupon to anyone who donates $20 or more.  The link for donating is below:

http://5934.thankyou4caring.org/Winston-Salem-Forsyth-County-Schools-Arts-Council-Campaign

We have a Speas Symbaloo page.

http://www.symbaloo.com/home/mix/13eOcMEZPT#

email: djjohnson@wsfcs.k12.nc.us
pass: speasbees2014

Please email us with your favorite educator sites so we can create a huge selection of online resources.  

All staff members, let's make sure we are teaching, reteaching, and teaching again the procedures in the common areas (Hallway, Cafeteria, Bathrooms, Playground, Bus).  We should be giving out lots of Bee's for students demonstrating the basic expectations.  It is a good idea to review the procedures before you leave one area to travel to another area.  

SMOD Tickets (dress code violations) are located in the workroom.  Please keep the bottom portion for your own records as a way to keep track of the number of violations.  The continuum is as follows:

1st offense: verbal warning, and letter will be sent home to be signed.  Parent or guardian notified of violation
2nd offense: Teacher notifies parent or guardian and student is removed from class until proper SMOD is delivered.

(Teachers, we all should be enforcing this, it will only work if we all enforce it).

It is Dr. Seuss week.  His birthday is 3/2.  Here are some fun pins for your consideration.

https://www.pinterest.com/sweney/dr-seuss-week/

In honor of the good doctor, here are few pearls from his works:

I will be adding more quotes this week.  If you don't see your favorite, email it to me so I can post it.

Calendar

3.2	3	D	X		Book Fair Week Begins
3.3	4	E	X		Ash out AM, Book Character Night Media Center 5:00-6:30
3.4	5	A	Y		Kinder. Field Trip
3.5	6	B	Y
3.6	1	C	Y		Ash out AM
3.7					Happy Birthday Faragher!!!!!!
3.8
3.9	2	D	Y
3.10	3	E	Y		Class Picture Day
3.11	4	A	Y
3.12	5	B	X		Ash out AM; Chik-fil-A Spirit Night
3.13	6	C	X		Access Testing window closes
3.14
3.16					Spring Picture Day
3.17					Canty Out-Meeting
3.18
3.19					Evan w/ Teachers; Happy Birthday Pfitzner!!!!!!!; Yoforia Spirit Night
3.20
3.23					Quarter Testing Begins Happy Birthday Smith!!!!!!!
3.24
3.25					Johnson out AM
3.26
3.27					Johnson out; Quarter Testing Ends Happy Birthday Ferguson!!!!!!!
3.29					Happy Birthday Mitchell!!!!!!!!
4.7					Ash out AM
4.8					Evan mtg w/grade levels
4.9					Quarterly Awards
4.10					1st Grade Dan Nicholas Park 8:30-2:00
4.13					Canty out-training
4.14					Report Cards go home
4.16					Happy Birthday Hooker;Ash out AM; Yoforia Spirit Night
4.17					Kids Night In Movie Night
4.21					IC mtg.  Instr. strategies
4.22					Johnson out- AM
4.23					Johnson out
4.26
5.1					Canty out meeting
5.5					Ash out AM
5.14					Ash out AM; Papa Murphy’s Spirit Night
5.7					4th Grade Heritage Theater, New Winston Museum
5.20					Johnson out AM
5.22					1st Grade NC  Zoo 8:00-2:00 PM; Yoforia Movie Night; Ready EOG window opens
6.5					Ready EOG window closes
6.7					Water Day

This Day in World History

March 3

1791		Congress passes a resolution authorizing the U.S. Mint; legislation creating the mint will be passed on Apr. 2, 1792.
1803		The first impeachment trial of a U.S. Judge, John Pickering, begins.
1817		The first commercial steamboat route from Louisville to New Orleans is opened.
1845		Florida becomes the 27th U.S. state.
1857		Under pretexts, Britain and France declare war on China.
1861		The serfs of Russia are emancipated by Alexander II as part of a program of westernization.
1863		President Abraham Lincoln signs the conscription act compelling U.S. citizens to report for duty in the Civil War or pay $300.00.
1877		Rutherford B. Hays, the republican governor of Ohio is elected president, his election confirmed by an electoral commission after disputed election the previous November.
1878		Russia and the Ottomans sign the treaty of Stenafano, granting independence to Serbia.
1905		The Russian Czar agrees to create an elected assembly.
1918		The Soviets and Germany sign a peace treaty at Brest-Litovsk depriving the Soviets of White Russia.
1919		Boeing flies the first U.S. international airmail from Vancouver, British Columbia to Seattle, Washington.
1923		The first issue of Time magazine is published. It's editor, Henry R. Luce, is just out of Yale.
1931		President Herbert Hoover signs a bill that makes Francis Scott Key's "Star Spangled Banner," the national anthem.
1939		In Bombay, Gandhi begins a fast to protest the state's autocratic rule.
1940		A Nazi air raid kills 108 on a British liner in the English Channel.
1941		Moscow denounces the Axis rule in Bulgaria.
1942		The RAF raids the industrial suburbs of Paris.
1945		Finland declares war on the Axis.
1952		The U.S. Supreme Court upholds New York's Feinberg Law banning Communist teachers in the United States.
1969		Sirhan Sirhan testifies in a court in Los Angeles that he killed Robert Kennedy.
1973		Japan discloses its first defense plan since World War II.
1999		Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky appears on national television to explain her affair with President Bill Clinton.
Born on March 3
1831		George M. Pullman, inventor of the railway sleeping car.
1847		Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the first telephone as well as other devices.
1873		William Green, President of the American Federation of Labor.
1895		Matthew Ridgway, U.S. Army leader in World War II and Korea.
1911		Jean Harlow, (Hell's Angels, Dinner at Eight).
1916		Robert Whitehead, Broadway producer (Bus Stop, A Man for All Seasons).
1918		Arthur Kornberg, Nobel Prize-winning biochemist.
1920		Robert Searle, cartoonist.
1926		James Merrill, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet (Divine Comedies).
1927		Nicolas Freeling, crime writer.