Gator Run Friday Focus - September 9, 2016

Please understand that Mrs. Brown, Ms. Felton and I understand how overwhelmed everyone can be.  While we are not in each of your positions, we know that every year brings new challenges.  Please remember that our doors are always open and we would love the opportunity to help you problem solve.  I would like to take this opportunity to clarify a few things:

• Social media use is certainly not mandatory.  You know that I highly encourage promoting what you are doing in your classrooms via social media but I would never say that you have to do it (and I believe that most of you know this).  Let me state this - I will not judge you by whether you use it or not.  The choice is yours.
• My desire to have everyone Tweet using the same hashtag was based on my vision to increase the learning throughout our school.  It appears that this is not having the desired effect.  Therefore I am discontinuing promoting use of #GRE1617 for a weekly raffle.  I hope that some of you will choose to promote what you are doing in your classrooms via this hashtag but I will no longer recognize those who do.  Perhaps this is something that we can revisit in the future. 
• Learning Goals and Performance Scales are a District initiative that we are implementing because they are beneficial to both students are teachers.  There is value in having teachers delve into the standards they are teaching and for students to know what they are learning and how they are progressing toward understanding.  
• Textbook use is allowed.  I have stated before that textbooks are a resource but should not be our primary source of instruction.  If you only follow the textbook you are not covering the specific standards required by your grade level.  However, if we walk into your room and your students are using textbooks, no one will be upset with you.  We might ask questions but this is only because we want to ensure that we are exploring every possible avenue to reach our students.  
• I stated my belief about homework last week so I will not repeat myself here.  What I will say is that you are allowed to give homework.  Just be conscious of how much you are giving each night.  Let's stop with the idea that "we have to get our students ready for middle school."  That is nonsense.  Just because their lives are going to be miserable in middle school with the amount of homework doesn't mean that we have to start making them miserable now.  I know that a lot of you agree with me on limiting homework but for those of you who don't, please ensure that your homework is meaningful and will not take students an exorbitant amount of time to complete.  Assigning a Ten Marks lesson, reading, math practice, responding to a post on Canvas, or a lesson via Achieve 3000 are all good options for this.  If you want a specific policy, please make sure that what you assign should take no more than 30 minutes a day.  
• For those of you who might be overwhelmed with the amount of new technology this year, I understand.  But you have to know that Outlook and Canvas are District-wide.  Ten Marks and Achieve 3000 are new to our school but they were both obtained for free and are amazing tools for our students.  
• I will say this about feeling overwhelmed - if you aren't planning together as a team, please consider doing so to ease the load.  And by together, I mean everyone contributing.  This will not guarantee eliminating this feeling but will ensure that you are trying every possible avenue to do so.  We are lucky at Gator Run to have so many amazing educators who are willing to share and work with each other.  Take advantage of this.  
• Finally, no one is 'getting in trouble'.  We are all learning and working to provide our students with the best education possible.  

Next Week at a Glance:

• Our Fall Book Fair continues until next Wednesday.
• Our kickoff ESOL Parent Meeting will be next Wednesday at 6:30 in the cafeteria.  
• Next Thursday is an Early Release Day.  I'm sure that our boys and girls are looking forward to meeting with their Book Buddies and participating in our STEM activities.  
• I'm excited for our first Teachers Training Teachers professional development next Thursday afternoon.  Details on participation will come soon from Ms. Felton.
• Updated Interim Reports are due to your Assistant Principal by next Friday.

Website of the Week: BCPS Literacy Guide  This is Broward's Literacy Guide and contains so much information about reaching all of our students for reading.

Quote of the Week: This was being shared on social media yesterday.  If you haven't seen it, it's worth a look.  It's from a principal in Singapore to parents.