A very important reminder to everyone: PJ and popcorn day this coming Friday! In addition to your PJ’s, you are welcome to bring a stuffed animal to cuddle! Mrs. Reagan
COMMUNITY ED ACTIVITIES
GEORGETOWN PARENTS:
I am sending home two flyers today in regards to Community Ed activites. There are size restrictions on these classes so this is why I am sending them out today instead of Friday with the Friday Facts FTO.
One flyer is in regards to Lego classes, the other for Hudsonville Choir.
Have a good afternoon,
Mrs. Nurenberg
Kideo: Parent Approved YouTube for Kids!
The internet is here to stay, which means that we (parents & teachers) must learn about it—the pros and cons so that we can serve as models and teachers for our children.
While working on my blog and “twittering” this weekend, I stumbled upon a great site for parents and children called, KIDEO PLAYER. This was created by a parent who wanted to wade through all the YouTube features to find all and showcase all the kid/family appropriate features. This is a new site that was launched by MADE WITH COMPUTERS, http://www.madewithcomputers.com, a cool site created by a cool guy named Tom and his partners from POKE.
Blog Spotlight
As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite Sunday afternoon activities involves reading through our school blogs and then highlighting the work being done by our incredibly skilled staff members. The teachers in this building are progressive and focused at all times on how to improve their instruction so that they can improve student learning–no matter what it takes. Their plates are full…and their hearts are huge.
In addition, they happen to work with me, a tech geek principal who understands the future of paperless communication, and the need to create blogs, wiki’s and classroom/personal learning networks. They are very patient with me…willingly take baby steps with me toward this goal. And they do this IN ADDITION to everything else!
For these reasons, I feel it is imperative that I celebrate their work on blogging and encourage you to visit our blogs. Please leave comments…and we will do our best to get back to you!
This week, I would like to celebrate our specialist blogs. We are very lucky to have teachers within our building who have additional training in cognitive impairments, speech/language, and learning challenges. Because these teacher’s roles range from servicing students within the classrooms (inclusion) as well as pulling out (focused instruction in a separate classroom), their blogs are a work in progress. Each teacher is sorting out how to best support parents–with resources and information about student learning.
Mrs. Sinke, Resource Room: Learning Disabilities
Mrs. Reifschneider (Mrs. R), Resource Room, Learning Disabilities
Mrs. Rebecca Kok (Miss Becky), CI Room: Cognitive Disability
Mrs. Speidel/Mrs. Karel, Speech & Language Pathologists
Mrs. Murphy/Mrs. VanderPloeg: ECSE: Early Childhood Special Education
And the winners are…
Mrs. Boeve, Samantha and Grace!
I would like to congratulate the winners of our Valentine’s Day scavenger hunt contest! A huge shout out to Mrs. Boeve, a parent and paraprofessional in our building, was the very first parent to take the challenge on. She responded with a perfect 100% less than 12 hours after I posted the challenge. Go, Mrs. Boeve!
Our first non-blogging student to complete the blog was Samantha, in Mrs. Veldman’s first grade classroom. With assistance from her mom, Samantha visited every student blog and found all the letters to the word “valentine”. Great work, Samantha! You and I will have lunch together later this week. I will stop by your classroom so that you can pick the day and location–and of course, we will get permission from your parents as well.
And…a drumroll please, our first student blogger to complete the hunt is Grace, a 5th graders and awesome blogger! Grace commented that it took her a long time to find all the hidden letters, but she stuck with the task. Excellent work, Grace! I will stop by your classroom later this week to schedule our lunch as well.
If you still want to take on the challenge, it is open to anyone. No more lunches being offered up for this contest, however. Saving those for the next incentive I dream up! Mrs. Reagan
We have something to say…
JUST WRITE!
During the week of May 4, we will be celebrating ALL Georgetown writers…grades PK-5. Since our opening in September 2006, we have been focused on creating a community of readers and writers. Throughout the school year, we hold mini-celebrations of our work in reading (Reading Counts sponsored by the PTC) and classroom writing celebration (small moments to honor the hard work and successes throughout the year).
Our “We have something to say, JUST WRITE!” celebration brings together all that we have learned about reading and writing as a partnership in learning. Each student will have a favorite piece of writing posted in the hallway, and in addition, we will be publishing our work online through lulu.com. Many other special events will be held, including a visit by Shirley Neitzel, the author of many books, including THE JACKET I WEAR IN THE SNOW.
To help you learn more about the author and the books she has written, we have devoted a page to her, found in the tabs at the top of our blog.
Mark your calendars for the week of May 4-8! Details will be coming!
Weekly Events, 2/16/09
We are headed into our 23rd week of school! Teachers spent last Friday (2/13/09) working on collecting assessment data for report cards. You will receive information home this week regarding your appointment for parent/teacher conferences, the first week of March.
Make note that we will be having ALL SCHOOL PJ DAY on Friday of this week…along with Popcorn Day! Also, it is a TTH K DAY on Friday.
Have a great week! Mrs. Reagan
Mon 2/16 Day 1
President’s Day
1:15 Marimbamania Assembly:Grades 1,2,3 and 2:15 Grades 4,5, K, PK, Mrs. Huizenga and Mr. Bowen
Tues 2/17 Day 2
Music Therapy: ECSE, CI in MPR 1:30-3:00 pm
Visitors from England (Teachers/Principals observing our math instruction), 1-3:30 pm
Ciao Bella Night
Wed 2/18 Day 3
Thurs 2/19 Day 1
Blog Training for Students @ 4 pm (Computer Lab)
PTC Meeting 7 pm
Fri 2/20 Day 2
ALL SCHOOL PJ DAY!
Popcorn Day
TTH K
Volunteers Needed!
We are in need of parents who would be willing to make very simple math games for some fun and focused math instruction this spring. The work can be done at home and involves the cutting of cards and assembling these into ziplock baggies.
If you are interested, please contact Rachel Stadt, one of our first grade teachers. Her email: rstadt@hudsonville.k12.mi.us Her phone number: 797-9797 x22106
Family Blog Leader!
Michele DeWinter, a parent and paraprofessional in our building, has taken on the leadership task of matching coordinating our blog/penpal project. Michele will match Georgetown families with Raey Guang (Pingtung, Taiwain) families and encourage communication between the two.
The communication will take place via email and traditional mail, with Michele also sharing updates on our Family Blogpal site. I am very excited to have Michele take this project on for our school and Raey Guang. I wil make sure that I link her updates with this blog (our main school blog site) as well as with the Blogpals site (our site for communication between teachers/students).
Dan Hoover, Our Favorite Eagle Scout!
Dan Hoover is a student at Hudsonville High School. He contacted me in the early winter inquiring about the possibility of completing a service project for our school. This project would count toward his work toward becoming an Eagle Scout. Dan and I discussed several options and landed on the need for student mailboxes. Many of our teachers use cardboard shoe storage boxes–and these do not last more than two years. Dan measured the cardboard boxes and left with a plan to create sturdy wood mailboxes for two of our classrooms.
We were pleasantly surprised when Dan arrived at the beginning of this month with well crafted, sturdy and attractive mailboxes for two classrooms. Mrs. Woodring and Ms. Burmeister were the lucky recipients!
Thank you so much, Dan–for your time, work and talents. We wish you luck as an Eagle Scout!
