May 19th, 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:

cont.

There are cognitive lags caused by the effects of poverty.  They most certainly can be overcome.

Kids raised in poverty need more than just content.  They need capacity. Simply trying to stuff more curriculum into their brains backfires and makes students feel overmatched or bored.  Rather, dramatic results come when you upgrade students brains’ operating system

Students’ School Operating System must haves:

ÒThe ability and motivation to defer gratification and make a sustained effort to meet long-term goals

ÒAuditory, visual and tactile processing skills

ÒAttentional skills that enable the student to engage, focus and disengage as needed

ÒShort-term and working memory capacity

ÒSequencing skills

ÒA champion’s mind-set and confidence

These skills form the foundation for school success and can give students the capacity to override the adverse risk factors of poverty.  These are not simple study skills; they enable students to focus on, capture, process, evaluate, prioritize, manipulate, and apply or present information in a meaningful way.  Without improving students’ brains’ capacity to process incoming data, student achievement will stagnate.  

Announcements:

Test training today.

***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

5.19	4	B	Y		TEST TRAINING--12:45 (4th grade)
5.20	5	C	Y		Johnson out AM
5.21	6	D	X		Skating Trip
5.22	1	E	X		1st Grade NC  Zoo 8:00-2:00 PM; Ready EOG window opens; TRC window closes; all classroom displays to be taken down for EOG; Skating Trip
5.25	2	A	X
5.26	3	B	X
5.27					EOG ELA
5.28					EOG Math; 3,4,5 teachers stay afterschool for bubble party
5.29					EOG Makeups
6.1					EOG Sci 5
6.2					EOG Sci 5
6.3					EOG Makeups
6.4					RTA/EOG Makeups; 3rd grade teachers afterschool for bubble party
6.5
6.8
6.9
6.10					3rd grade teachers stay after to edit answer sheets
6.11
6.12

Holidays Around the World

Tuesday

May 19

Commemoration of Atatürk, Youth and Sports Day

Turkey

Today in World History

715		St. Gregory II begins his reign as Catholic Pope.
1535		French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail for North America.
1536		Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII's second wife, is beheaded on Tower Green.
1568		Defeated by the Protestants, Mary, Queen of Scots, flees to England where Queen Elizabeth imprisons her.
1588		The Spanish Armada sets sail from Lisbon, Spain.
1608		The Protestant states form the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.
1635		Cardinal Richelieu of France intervenes in the great conflict in Europe by declaring war on the Hapsburgs in Spain.
1643		The French army defeats a Spanish army at Rocroi, France.
1780		Near total darkness descends on New England at noon. No explanation is found.
1856		Senator Charles Sumner speaks out against slavery.
1858		A pro-slavery band led by Charles Hameton executes unarmed Free State men near Marais des Cygnes on the Kansas-Missouri border.
1863		Union General Ulysses S. Grant's first attack on Vicksburg is repulsed.
1864		The Union and Confederate armies launch their last attacks against each other at Spotsylvania, Virginia.
1921		Congress sharply curbs immigration, setting a national quota system.
1935		The National Football League adopts an annual college draft to begin in 1936.
1964		U.S. diplomats find at least 40 microphones planted in the American embassy in Moscow.
1967		U.S. planes bomb Hanoi for the first time.
Born on May 19
1762		Johann Gottlieb Fichte, German philosopher.
1879		Lady Nancy Astor (Nancy Witcher Langhorne), the first woman to sit in the British House of Commons.
1890		Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen That Thanh), Vietnamese nationalist and political leader.
1895		Johns Hopkins, merchant and philanthropist.
1925		Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), African-American activist.
1934		James Lehrer, broadcast journalist.
1941		Jane Brody, food and health writer.
1941		Nora Ephron, screenwriter and director.