Awesome 20 Year Celebration!

Thank you so much to everyone that was able to attend the 20 Year Celebration for TCE on Friday!  It was truly a wonderful time to celebrate with current and past educators and all of our families!  Hopefully you got to enjoy a few tunes and some good eats with the food trucks!  

Here is a pic of some of our peeps!  

Also, we couldn't be more excited for Alicia and the wonderful new addition to her family, Libby!  

We will have another pretty busy week, so let's see what is coming up in our events: 

Upcoming Weekly Events

for Sept. 29th-October 3rd

Monday- Educator Goal Setting (Angie's Office)
TCE Football Potluck - Wear jeans and favorite team shirt!
Site-Based Team Meeting - 3:15 (C106)

Tuesday- Educator Goal Setting (Angie's Office)
Brief Meeting- Dr. Waldrip and review for Tech. Showcase Night 3:15 (Library) - Wear jeans and grey TCE shirt!
Technology Showcase Night - 5:30-7:00pm

Wednesday- Faculty Meeting 3:15 (Library)
Kinder, Becky STEM Planning Day (Literacy Library)
                   

Thursday- Educator Goal Setting Meetings (Angie's Office)

1st grade, Laci STEM Planning Day (Literacy Library)

                       

Friday- Texan Town - 7:55am
RTI/PST Meeting (A and B sections unless mixed differently on team) - All Day (C106) - check w/Brett if you have questions

Announcement Weekly Info

Life Principle: Courage

Cowboy Courtesy:   Always be honest.
 
ABC of Etiquette: Do not talk with your mouth full.

Important Reminders and Updates

Child Abuse Training
 Make sure you read the email from Kelly about Child Abuse training and complete those modules by this Tuesday, September 30th!

Technology Showcase Night

Make sure that you have whatever technology tools you need for this evening.  Remember this is a night that we may need to share some equipment, so please borrow what you need from various grade levels and then make sure and get it back to them at the end of the evening!   

Parent Teacher Conferences 

Remember that our parent teacher conferences will be on Friday, October 10th.  2nd-5th grade will be learner-led. Please make sure your learners (2nd-5th) or you (K-1) are prepared to share goals (trying to focus on both academic and social).  We will be talking more at our faculty meeting this week about some strategies and ideas for parent conferences. 

Shout Outs!

• Becky Garrett for all of your help getting our sound equipment set up and for helping with clean up at our event on Friday!  Also, for getting our flash mob up and going! 

• Marnie Cranmer for always willing to lend a hand for any event and for dressing up "Bacon" style for our kiddos!  They all loved to see you!!

• Brett Shelby for all of your help with our event on Friday and for showing off your dancing moves with the kiddos!  Greatness is all I can say!!

• 3rd, 4th and 5th grade teams for the hard work on your assessments days as you not only analyzed, but made plans to truly understand your kiddos and their stories!

• Jennifer Martin, Ashley Minton, Kasey Kemp, Casey Wagner, Kristan Hruby, and Marly Natherson for all of your help during vertical team with sharing info!

•  For everyone using Twitter to help communicate what is going on at TCE!  There have been some incredible posts!  Thank you! 

  Final Quote

As we get ready to start brainstorming and collaborating during our STEM planning days, I thought this quote was appropriate: 

 

 

Flying By. . .

Well, this month certainly feels like it is flying by!  It has been an amazing month so far and I appreciate all of your hard work getting assessments done for all of our kiddos.   I know it has been crazy trying to get all of them in and I appreciate your flexibility with scheduling, etc in order to collect all of this data!

I wanted to send a BIG THANK YOU to Marnie for opening up her house for our TCE Social on Friday.  It was such a fun time with lots of smiles and laughter!  It is so wonderful to continue building relationships with our TCE family.  We will plan on having some more gatherings each month and if you think of an activity that would be fun for our staff, please let me know!  

I am so excited to be back on campus this week, but I wanted you to know that my Apple conference/briefing went great!  The company worked with our group on our current goals with technology and technology integration and helped brainstorm future plans for our district.  The most important thing I walked away with from the conference was feeling that TCE was definitely on the right track with everything technology!  I am so pleased to already see how your educator Google Sites are starting off for the year and how I can see the emphasis on blended and flipped learning opportunities for your learners both inside and outside of the classroom posted and incorporated into your lesson design!

We will touch base more this year with some of what I gathered at Apple.  The two big ideas that we have already been looking into at TCE are creating and assessing using iBooks Author and looking at how we might use iTunes University. 

Click below for info on iBooks Author
https://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

Click below for info on iTunes University
https://www.apple.com/education/ipad/itunes-u/

Upcoming Weekly Events 

for Sept.22nd-26th

Book Fair All Week

Monday-  5th grade Assessment Planning Day (Literacy Library)
3rd, 4th and 5th grade teams Meet briefly 3:15 (Marly's room)
Team Leader Meeting 3:35 C106 

Tuesday-  Angie Admin Mtg. Morning
4th grade Assessment Planning Day  (Literacy Library)
Growing Young Educators Program for 1st and 2nd Year TCE Educators (Brett will let you know where and when)

Wednesday- 3rd grade Assessment Planning Day (Lit. Library)
Vertical Team Meeting 3:15 LA/SS Jennifer M.'s room M/S Kasey K's room
***Educator Goals must be entered into Appraise 
                   

Thursday- Educator Goal Setting Meetings

Science Facilitator-David Noel meet briefly w/Science teachers (during conference) 

                       

Friday- Special Friend's Day (All Day) 
"TCE Tailgate" Celebrating 20 Years 5:00-7:30pm

Announcement Weekly Info

Life Principle:  Resiliency

Cowboy Courtesy:  Learn from your mistakes and move on.
 
ABC of Etiquette:  Do not chew with your mouth open.

Important Reminders and Updates

Child Abuse Training
 Make sure you read the email from Kelly about Child Abuse training and complete those modules by Tuesday, September 30th! 

Digital Literacy Course  
Please make sure that you are staying on track with finishing this course up soon and making sure to touch base with Brad or Alicia if you need any support!

Educator Goal Setting 
Remember that your goals need to be entered into Appraise by Wednesday, September 24th.  Brett and I will have a letter for you this week that shows who your evaluator will be this year as well as the windows for observations.  If you would like to discuss your goals before entering it or if you have any questions at all, please let us know and we would be happy to visit with you! 

CISD Education Foundation
 Our wonderful CISD Education Foundation is once again selling t-shirts this year to help support our learners and educators!  Marnie will be collecting the funds for the shirts.  Also, we are doing a promotion again this year for the shirt!  If you purchase a CISD Education Foundation Red and Black Backer shirt, you may have 6 jeans passes!!  That's right folks 6 jeans day passes!  These can be used during the months of September and October!  

IMPORTANT:  I found out from Ed. Foundation that they are selling them for $10 instead of $15 for educators!! 
 

Special Friend's Day and TCE Tailgate
 Please remember that we will have many visitors in the building on Friday.  Make sure that your visitors have tags from the office and that you may want to make sure you have any valuables put away such as your purse, etc.  Here is the schedule for the day.  

Kindergarten: 8:30 am - 9:30am
First Grade: 9:30am – 10:30am
Second Grade: 10:30am – 11:30am
Third Grade: 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Fourth Grade: 12:30pm -1:30pm
Fifth Grade: 11:30am – 12:30pm

 Remember that it is an expectation for everyone to come out for at least an hour to our event on Friday evening.  This is one of those events that helps our parents and community to see all of our TCE staff and get the chance to visit and have fun together!  Please touch base with me if you have a conflict with this evening. 
 

Technology Showcase Night 
Sorry I wasn't able to get the sign-up sheet up last week!  Will have it up tomorrow!  Also, please be thinking of which learners can help you by presenting your info.  I will put some ideas up on the board as well of possible presentations/learning for sessions!

 Birthdays 

Alicia 2^nd

Sue 5^th

Cindy 27th

Shout Outs!

• Specials team for throwing an amazing shower for Alicia and soon to be here Libby!

• Linda Cook, Kelly Spears and Brett Shelby for holding the fort down while I was out at the conference!

• Alicia for getting our Therapy Dogs all set up and ready to be there for our kiddos this year!

Resources and Strategies for Behavior and Classroom Management

It is already getting to be the time of year when our kiddos are feeling more comfortable in the classroom and you may be thinking about needing some additional strategies to help with transitions, positive reinforcements, etc.  I have found a few resources online and some on Pinterest that might be useful.   We will also be making sure that our Texan Tickets are ready to go this week for our K-2 to shop with in the General Store and our 3rd-5th grade to use for coupons from the General Store.  (more info to come on this)

From those of us who have been in education for a while and to those of you who might be brand new to teaching, everyone can always benefit by looking for various ways to help all of our learners be successful!  This includes ways to help with transitions, classroom learning environment, school environment and especially those learners who may struggle finding appropriate outlets for their energy, frustrations, etc.  

Think about. . .

• Using music for transitions with learners for lining up, cleaning up, transitioning to stations, etc.

• Using hand signals for things like going to the restroom, water, etc.

• Using call backs to gain attention

• Using timers to help with keeping on pace and for those learners who struggle with time and getting things accomplished

• Having Brain Breaks where your kiddos can get up and move or regain focus

• Increasing the amount of positive comments/notes used in the classroom for learners

• Having clear expectations for learners when working independently, with partners or in groups

Click below to see action ideas for cup!

http://aturntolearn.blogspot.com/2012/08/action-cup.html

 

Gem Jar - This is a classroom management idea to reward whole class behavior. Have a cut out of a jar taped to the board. There are also a bunch of magnetic gems. When the class WOW's me, add a gem to the class jar. When other classes compliment our behavior in the hallway, the cafeteria, or sadd a gem. When the class fills the whole jar, they vote on their class reward. Pajama Day, Sit where you like at Lunch, etc. 

 Final Quote

Feeling Like Fall!

 I hope everyone is LOVING this fabulous fall weather!  Hopefully it will stick around, because it makes me ready to start cooking up some yummy soups and pumpkin treats!  

I wanted to let you know that I will be out three days this week, as I have been invited to attend a conference in California with a few other district members.  It is in Cupertino and we are going to be working with Apple and iTunes University, etc.  Hoping to come away with some great ideas for future possibilities with our learning at TCE!  I will be out on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, but will have access to email and texts.  Brett is also going to be out this week on Tuesday and Wednesday due to two administrator trainings.  (nothing like having both administrators off campus!)  As you know, we try to avoid this if at all possible and our wonderful Linda Cook as well as our glorious Kelly Spears will be your go to people for any needs on these two days!

Since Brett and I will both be out this week on Wednesday, we are cancelling our Vertical meeting and moving it to next week!

Upcoming Weekly Events 

for Sept. 15th-19th

Monday- Fire Drill and Lock Down Drill @ 8:15
                    Celebrate Alicia and Baby Libby @ 3:15

Tuesday- Angie Out and Brett Out

Wednesday- Angie Out and Brett Out
                           No Vertical Meeting 
                   

Thursday- Angie Out

Friday- Therapy Dogs Library

Announcement Weekly Info

Life Principle:  Curiosity

Cowboy Courtesy:  Make eye contact.

ABC of Etiquette:  Do not smack your lips or chew noisily.

Important Reminders and Updates

Child Abuse Training  

 Make sure you read the email from Kelly about Child Abuse training and complete those modules by Tuesday, September 30th!

Digital Literacy Course 

Please make sure that you are staying on track with finishing this course up soon and making sure to touch base with Brad or Alicia if you need any support! 

Educator Goal Setting

Remember that your goals need to be entered into Appraise by Wednesday, September 24th.  Brett and I will have a letter for you this week that shows who your evaluator will be this year as well as the windows for observations.  If you would like to discuss your goals before entering it or if you have any questions at all, please let us know and we would be happy to visit with you! 

CISD Education Foundation

 Our wonderful CISD Education Foundation is once again selling t-shirts this year to help support our learners and educators!  Please see the following flyer for info about purchasing a shirt.  Marnie will be collecting the funds for the shirts.  Also, we are doing a promotion again this year for the shirt!  If you purchase a CISD Education Foundation Red and Black Backer shirt, you may have 6 jeans passes!!  That's right folks 6 jeans day passes!  These can be used during the months of September and October!  

So, if you bring in money tomorrow, you could use that as one of your days! 

Technology Showcase Night

 Please be thinking of how you can help to participate this year with our evening for our parents and which of your kiddos might be good to help work with you.  Remember that the purpose of this evening is to show how we are using technology tools and technology integration in our learning!  This is also a great time for us to do this as our Write A Check donations are being gathered for possible funding with the CISD Matching Funds.  

 Since we are planning on having the movie in the gym, we are hoping to have even more parent participation.  So, this means we may need more sessions than usual.  I will have a sign up on the board by the elevator for this week, so be thinking about how your team might have two teachers present on one topic and the other half of your team present something different.  This also includes any specials/ists teachers as well, or you can also sign up to help in the gym! 

 Birthdays 

Alicia 2^nd

Sue 5^th

Cindy 27th

Shout Outs!

•   K-5 teachers getting MAP assessments going with your kiddos!

•  Kelly Spears, Kim Becker, Lisa Hansen, Alicia Montgomery, KaTrina Brown and Mary Kennington for helping with MAP assessments!

 Final Quote

Ready to Smile!

We have officially made it past the first week of early release and our short week for Labor Day!  Now we are ready to really get going for this school year! 

I cannot say enough about how impressed I was with all of the TCE Curriculum Night presentations your prepared!  Each of you did such an amazing job sharing the information and I am always so proud of how you are all helping the parents get to understand all their child will be learning during the year!  I appreciate the extra time you all put into making the evening successful! 

Looking ahead to this week, here are some things to remember:

Upcoming Weekly Events 

for Sept. 8th-12th

Monday- Picture Day!  Bring your smiles!
                    Kelly Spears- meeting with teams to review MAP

Tuesday- Have a Terrific Tuesday!

Wednesday- Faculty Meeting 3:15-5:00pm (our meetings this year will most likely end sooner than this, but please block off this time just to make sure)
                                 MAP Assessments Begin 

Thursday-Have a Tremendously Fun Thursday!

Friday- Have a Fabulous Friday! 

Announcement Weekly Info

Life Principle:  Problem Solving

Cowboy Courtesy:  Be a problem solver. 

ABC of Etiquette:  Do not lick your fingers. There is a napkin for the purpose of cleaning your fingers.  
 

Important Reminders and Updates 

Picture Day Schedule 

Child Abuse Training  

 Make sure you read the email from Kelly about Child Abuse training and complete those modules by September 30th!

Digital Literacy Course 

Please make sure that you are staying on track with finishing this course up soon and making sure to touch base with Brad or Alicia if you need any support! 

PTO Reimbursements and Grants

Remember to bring your receipts for the PTO reimbursement and turn into the PTO box.  If you have questions, please check with Marnie!  If you have an idea for a PTO grant this year, please see me this week, so we can get those turned in to PTO as soon as possible!

Shout Out Board 

Make sure and fill out a shout out for anyone who might have given you a hand or that you wanted to thank for anything!  We will read this at our faculty meeting this week!

Educator Goal Setting

Brett and I will be talking about goal setting at our faculty meeting this week.  Please make sure and bring any of the CISD educator evaluation papers that we used with you during our training at the beginning of the year.  We will have some time for brainstorming to think about goals.  We will also be sending out calendar invites for your individual goal setting meetings that will happen this month.     

Showering the Lounge with Love

 Thank you to everyone that has brought in their items so far!  Please make sure that you have dropped off the item from your list with Brett, so we can help to replenish our needs this year in the lounge!  Thank you for your donations!  

 Birthdays and Shout Outs!

• Please make sure you have emailed or touched base with Marnie to share your birthday!  I don't have everyone down and want to make sure everyone gets celebrated!

• If you didn't get a chance to wish Sue Kane and Alicia Montgomery a Happy Birthday make sure you do so!  

• Shout out to Kim Becker for getting our literacy library all up to date and ready to go!  It is totally organized and we will take a look at it during faculty meeting this week! 

• Shout out to Alicia Montgomery, Brad Cook and Patcee Becerra!  They are working as quickly as possible to get all of our technology equipment out to you and ready to go! 

• Shout out to Brett for getting our Safety Patrol kiddos ready to go for this week and thank you to our 5th grade teachers for providing support!

 Resources and Ideas

Don't forget to check out epals!!  Classroom teachers you may want to start thinking about ways in which you and your learners can communicate on a more global level this year.  A great resource would be to look at epals.  This is a site that connects your classroom to other classrooms around the world and your learners can collaborate and communicate with one another about their learning.

Click here to go to epals

 

 Final Quote

Fun Pics and Learning in Action!