Gator Run Friday Focus - October 24, 2014

• The 2nd quarter begins on Monday! 
• Our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders will be taking the BAFS next week. 
• My Sub-Cadre of Principals and our Director, Mark Narkier, will be here for a meeting next Wednesday morning.  We plan to visit primary classrooms during our walkthroughs.  
• Team Collaboration is scheduled for Wednesday.
• We have another Family Night at the Carolina Ale House next Wednesday from 5:00 - 8:30 PM.  I hope to see you out there!

What You Might Have Missed on Twitter Recently:
Watch this!  This is a great talk about what a difference having a growth mindset can do for learning: Mindset

Here are some pictures from the awesome learning experiences taking place within GRE:

Mrs. Sherwood led her class on a gallery walk to discover word meaning using context clues.  They also watched a cool video from Flocabulary and reviewed different strategies to discover the meaning of unknown words.  

Ms. Izquierdo's class presented their Genius Hour findings.  I learned a lot about why some people seem to get bit by mosquitoes more than others.  

Mrs. Duitz's class used Norman Rockwell paintings to make inferences and provide evidence.  It was amazing to see 2nd graders use the facial and body expressions of the characters in the paintings as evidence. 

I had the wonderful opportunity to read to Ms. Clabby's class on Read for the Record Day.  Please invite me to your class!

Ms. King's students prepared for a debate on if video games should be considered a sport.  There was a lot of good conversation amongst the students and some spot-on reasoning!

I found this great article about keeping parents informed about education.  This is a must read! Educating Parents About Education

Quote of the Week - "We should change the name of our school to Gator Fun Elementary because we have so much fun here." - my youngest on our drive to school this week.  I know that this year has been tough and I am going to do my best to find ways to try to alleviate some of the pressure as we go forward.  Let's all remember that our students' perception of this school year is so important.  How will they remember this year?  I truly appreciate all that you do to make each day memorable for our students.