Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Today is day 2 on the specials calendar.
NO STAFF MEETING TODAY
SES tutoring today and Wednesday. New room assignments will be sent this morning. Due to the overwhelming demand, we have to add a couple of rooms.
3-5 teachers come to the computer lab after school to learn about World Book on-line.
Two tech workshops have been rescheduled until after Christmas break, Movie Maker and Audacity. Dates to be announced.
Skill of the week-Literary elements Strategy of the week-Note Taking
Hospitality committee-Wednesday at 7:30 in media center. Holiday celebration plans to be discussed and also monthly refreshments.
I have looked at ways to revise the ESL schedule based on my comments a few weeks ago. Copies were sent via email yesterday. The revised schedule needs to begin November 30. I will be working to address major challenges in the meantime.
Please check Kendra and Kim's blog for the latest curriculum updates. They will be posting this information in lieu of sharing a staff meeting. Please note any deadlines mentioned.

Skill of the week-Literary Elements-What could that mean? I know many of you are teaching this very broad topic well, but I did want to share a few things that you may find helpful.
Author's purpose, plot, point of view, conflict and resolution are just a few of the concepts that are covered by teaching students to reference fiction and non-fiction text. The skills calendar gives some of these topics in detail as well. The WSFCS Elementary Language Arts Handbook gives lessons and questioning techniques. The handbook is a humongous pdf file. I will cut and paste a document that highlights these concepts. To reach the entire handbook go to WSFCS homepage>departments>Instructional services>English/Language Arts homepage>Eng/Lang. Arts resources>Eng/Lang Arts Handbook. I know this is a long string, but the resources are worth it.