Friday, September 25

Today is day 4 on the specials calendar.

School spirit day

Monday will be picture day. A schedule has been provided.

Please welcome Ms. Tammy Martin to Gibson. She will work with our custodial staff to keep our building beautiful. She works in the evenings to replace Mr. Alex Johnson.
Mr. Ken Leak is our SES coordinator and Title 1 parent coordinator. He will work closely to supervise SES providers and make sure things run smoothly.
The Title 1 parent meeting had a great turnout. Next week, a student-parent compact will be sent home with each child. For each child that returned the forms signed, they will get a den dollar. Just turn in your signed forms to Ken with your name so we can know who will get the den dollars.
October 1, next Thursday, will be our annual Curriculum night. That is a night grade levels share information with parents about curriculum for the upcoming quarter or year. Long range plans, grading information, activities are all things to be discussed. Most effective in giving a uniform message is when grade levels meet with parents as a team. Some teachers meet in classrooms as well. Either is acceptable as long as as a grade level, parents get a consistent message on what to expect this year. I expect all certified staff to participate even if you are not a homeroom teacher. Staff need to stay the entire time even though your main presentation time may be earlier or later. Kindergarten through second grade is from 6-7 and third through fifth is from 7-8. (I am typing from home and don't have the exact time in front of me-if I am wrong, I will correct it during the next post.)
We will have to have a brief meeting to discuss United Way giving. Date to be announced.
I will let staff know about coverage for Wednesday staff the basketball game early next week. If a homeroom teacher works with a full time assistant-that pretty much is a bet. I will ask other staff to help supervise students either through splitting classes or reassigning folks temporarily. I will let everyone know Monday.
PBS corner-Final staff basketball game raffle drawing Friday. Two more raffles will be held in October. More info later.

Thursday, September 24
Today is day 3 on the specials calendar.
Fifth grade planning day
Title 1 annual meeting-tonight at 6:00
Any staff member paying hospitality dues by September 30 will get their name entered into a drawing for a prize and you know Barbara Rominger gets great door prizes.
Here's a request that everyone should take very seriously: Please do not cut through the media center during instruction time. During instruction time, the media center is a classroom and which of us would want someone walking through the classroom while we are teaching? Along the same lines, if you do go in the media center during instruction time, please be as quiet as possible if you are at the computers or reading or whatever you are doing. Students are easily distracted.
There will be a container set up in the lobby for students that want to make a donation for Mr. Gibson. Hopefully our families will respond favorably but anything will be welcomed.
PBS corner-We have started shopping again at the Grizzly Den. Students are really trying hard to follow Gibson pride. We are continuing to focus on cafeteria behavior. We will show the cafeteria portion of the video at different times during lunch. The PBS committee will also look at ways we can have students start lunch more calmly.
Phone call for the classroom disruption forms are not mandatory for level one forms. Just send home and most times you should get it back signed. If no signature, contacting parents is optional. Teachers should try to document some form of contact with parents for a level two form. (signature or phone call). Parents will always be contacted if a child receives a D1, but prior contact always helps in getting home and school on the "same page."

Wednesday, September 23
Today is day 2 on the specials calendar.
Fourth grade planning day
WS Little symphony for fourth and fifth grade at 10:15
Any donations for Mr. Funderburk should be given to Mrs. Sawyer. If you would like to donate sick leave, see her as well.
Mrs. Scott has started a blog at http://kscott-curriculumcorner.blogspot.com for the latest curriculum updates.
To better streamline the field trip process, I am asking all future field trips be submitted online directly to me for approval instead of either Mrs. Snipes or Mr. Johnson. Once your field trip is approved, I will forward it to the proper administrator to secure buses. You do not need to resubmit any field trip info given to them. Just from this point forward.
PBS corner-
The PBS committee met to discuss questions, provide clarification and make any direction needed at this time. Things are going well for the most part. Here are a few things we would ask staff to address:
The Cafeteria is an area that needs renewed focus. Students understand but are not consistently following the posted expectations. Teacher behavior is the biggest factor to impact student behavior. For the next two weeks, we want to highlight and focus on cafeteria behavior. We will make sure the cafeteria portion of the PBS video is shown despite the problems we are having with the broadcast camera. We will announce what channel to turn to after the morning announcements on Wednesday to re-broadcast that part of the video. We are asking teachers to review and reteach cafeteria rules using the PBS handbook. We will make sure the cafeteria monitor correctly applies PBS philosophy and monitors student behavior. Teachers if you are eating in the cafeteria and not having duty free lunch, I expect you to monitor and help students self-monitor voice volume. Remember this rule of thumb: If you are standing (in line for any reason), voice volume 0, if you are sitting (at table), voice volume 1.
Teachers with classes that continue to have difficulty adjusting their behavior may be asked to provide more direct supervision during lunch.
Tables for Voice Volume 0 (silent lunch), guests, and overflow will be labeled soon so that no one will be confused about where to go.
Tomorrow's blog will contain clarification for using the classroom discipline form to contact parents.

Today is day 1 on the specials calendar.
Third grade planning day
PBS meeting after school
Classified staff meeting after school.
WS Little symphony-tomorrow at 10:15 for 4th and 5th grades.

Mr. Julian Gibson, our school namesake was honored as a WXII Triad Flight of Honor veteran. WXII is accepting donations in order to send WWII veterans to Washington DC. Mr. Gibson has been to the memorial but some teachers mentioned what a great idea it would be if our students gave donations and we gave whatever we collected in his honor. We would run the campaign about a week. I would like to send something home on tomorrow. We would run the drive from Wednesday to Wednesday. Let me know your thoughts either by commenting to the blog or emailing. A link showing his story was sent via email yesterday. If you don't think the students would grasp the full story , maybe the younger ones, show his face on the computer. If nothing else, showing the students his face would let the students know he is a real person.
Along the same lines, Mr. Gibson is at home battling a staph infection. If any class wants to make get well cards, we could get them to him. A card from a child will lift anyone's spirit.
The Staff basketball game will be next Wednesday. I anticipate the game will run from 1:00-2 or 2:30, depending on the stamina of the players and cheerleaders. Let's hope we can go 15 minutes :-). I would like the names of all staff members planning to participate so coverage can be arranged. It would meaning combining classes and using assistants. There should be a plan in place by the end of day on Monday. Just place your name on the wiki under administrative news.

PBS corner-
The PBS committee will be meeting to discuss some recent concerns and questions about consistent implementation. We hope to provide some clarity very soon.

Today is day 6 on the specials calendar.
Third-Fifth grade teachers will have NCWISE electronic grade book training today after school.
No Classified staff meeting today due to a scheduling conflict. The meeting will be tomorrow, Tuesday September 22 after school.
Congratulations to Mrs. Gumbs for starting the 5thsyracuseorange.blogspot.com for her class ! it's great, check it out.
Please include the following events in this week's schedule and your newsletters: The WS Little symphony will perform for fourth and fifth graders on Wednesday, September 23 at 10:15.
The annual Title 1 parent meeting will be Thursday, September 24 from 6-7:30. Parents will get an opportunity to learn about Title 1 services, what it means to be in school improvement and SES services. SES providers will be on hand as well to describe their services. Staff is not required to attend but are certainly invited.
PLC's will start next week. Everyone involved has received a schedule of PLC meetings. In preparation for our first meeting, I am asking staff to read the following pages in the book, "Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work": pages 14-17, 22-24 and 68-72. These excerpts are all parts of the first three chapters of the book. Feel free the read the entire chapters if you like. It's very interesting reading. Specialists and support staff have received the book and will be participating in PLC's as well. First we are going to get the grade level PLC's up and running. Mr. Johnson and Mrs. Hufstader have agreed to receive additional training on implementing a PLC and they will share at a later time.
PBS corner-Students who bought lunch with an administrator will eat with the administrator of their choice this week. Teachers, a key component of PBS is good communication with parents. Remember when a child receives a classroom discipline form for a level one or level two behavior, a phone call home is part of what we have agreed to as a staff. The call doesn't have to be made immediately or if necessary an assistant could cover your class while you make the call. When a child is sent to the office for a level three behavior because a level 2 behavior has been done two or more times, the administrator will look for documentation of the phone call before action is taken. This is not the case for behaviors that immediate office referral (fighting, assault on school personnel, etc-just check the PBS manual.)