April 21, 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%

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

Teachers: Having Trouble with Defiant Students?  Have you tried these strategies?

http://www.interventioncentral.org/behavioral-interventions/challenging-students/school-wide-strategies-managing-defiance-non-complianc

Our jobs may get hectic as we try to close out the year strong.   Here are some things to remember about what we may call disrespect or defiant behavior:

ÒSome staff may interpret students’ emotional and social deficits as a lack of respect or manners, but it is more accurate and helpful to understand that the students come to school with a narrower range of appropriate emotional responses than we expect.  The truth is that many children simply don’t have the repertoire of necessary responses. 

 THERE ARE EMOTIONS THAT ARE HARDWIRED AND EMOTIONAL RESPONSES 

THAT ARE TAUGHT.

Hardwired emotions include: Sadness, Joy, Disgust, Anger, Surprise and Fear.  They come from our DNA.

ÒResponses that are taught include: Humility, Forgiveness, Empathy, Optimism, Compassion, Sympathy, Patience, Shame, Cooperation and Gratitude. 

ÒThe proper way to deal with students who have a deficit in emotional response skills is first to understand students’ behavior and then to lay out clear behavioral expectations without sarcasm or resentment.  Understand that children raised in poverty are more likely to display:

ÒActing out behaviors

ÒImpatience and impulsivity

ÒGaps in politeness and social graces

ÒA more limited range of behavioral responses

ÒInappropriate emotional responses

Less empathy for others’ misfortunes

Announcements:

We will have several guests in the building today from central office.  


More Pics to come:

***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. ***

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).

Calendar

4.20
4.21					IC mtg.  Instr. strategies
4.22					Johnson out- AM
4.23					Johnson out; 2nd grade to butterfly farm; 1:30 National Theatre Performance grades 3-5 gym
4.24					School-Wide Assembly Diggerdoo Down Under
4.26
5.1					Canty out meeting
5.4					TRC Window Opens
5.5					Ash out AM
5.8					GSN Module 4 due; PEP checks begin
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; TRC window closes
5.27					EOG ELA
5.28					EOG Math
5.29					EOG Makeups
6.1					EOG Sci 5
6.2					EOG Sci 5
6.3					EOG Makeups
6.4					RTA/EOG Makeups
6.5					EOG/RTA Makeups
6.7
6.8					EOG and RTA Makeups
6.9					EOG and RTA Makeups
6.10					3rd Retest
6.11					RTA and Retest
6.12					Last day for students; RTA and Retest
6.22					Last day for teachers