Now for the announcements…pencils ready

For each one of these, I have included a little “thinking out loud” in terms of making some decisions about what each item means to you and what to do about it. Some will find this “old hat.” Others will undoubtedly pick up a few ideas.

1. Just a reminder to have students get books off of the floor and put chairs on top of desks in preparation for our custodians cleaning your room. (To handle this, I would jot a note in my plan book for whatever time of the day your room is cleaned. After a week or so, that will become habit, and you won’t need the reminder anymore.)

2. Instructional Money-The deadline for requisitions for instructional money is August 31. (If you have already spent it all, don’t bother writing anything. If you don’t need anything and would like the money to roll in the fund to buy laminating film and bulletin board paper, you don’t need to write anything. If you do need to make purchases, I would add this to your to-do list right now while you are thinking about it.)

3. Physical education—Sure, we would love to have a PE teacher, and we look at the "supervised recess" that we have as a negative aspect of our school. In the most recent issue of District Administration magazine, the subject of recess is addressed. Arguments in favor of recess include this by Dolly Lambdin, president of the National Association for Sport and Physical Education, states that, "Time for recess may enhance overall learning in the classroom…In a well-designed recess period, children learn how to cooperate, compete constructively, assume leader/follower roles and resolve conflicts. Play is an essential element of a children's social development. (Probably not a to-do here, just info. If somebody has been giving you a hard time about not having a structured program, this might be a “two-minute rule” opportunity. You can highlight a few lines from this announcement, copy (Ctrl-C), open a new e-mail message, paste (Ctrl-V), and send a “See, I told you so” message to somebody in less than minute.)

4. School Choice—The paperwork I have received shows 5 students who will be transferring to Graham as a result of the school choice option. I have e-mailed names of these students to the teachers involved. (This is just information)

Calendar Items:

1. I have moved the entry for the PDP being due from Sept. 1 to Oct. 5 (so you can fix that on your own calendar right now while you are thinking about it). The August 17 post talks about the reason for doing that if you needed to scroll down and review it.

2. Denise Malone will be our Lightspan professional development person this year. She will be with us several days over the next few months. Her first visit is August 31. If at all possible, please work into your day some use of the Lightspan and let me highlight in your lesson plan what you are doing and about what time of day that would be. In this first visit, I would like for her to be able to tour the school, see classes in actions, talk with me, and really gain a feel for our school. (For me, this would be a note in the plan book on August 31 and a notation wherever it is that you jot down rough ideas about plans for upcoming weeks before you really finalize things in your plan book.)
   
3. PTO OPen House begins at 6:30 on Tuesday. As the letter to the parents in your Tuesday folder discussed, the Book Fair open at 5:30. As always, following the meeting, we will go to classrooms for visitation. The evening will conclude with a Lightspan Orientation for those who have not attended one (or for those who would like to attend a second one).