Hearts, Love and Valentines!

I hope you all are enjoying this beautiful weekend weather!  I have moved our Spuds of Love luncheon to Friday, so we could celebrate you more toward Valentine's Day!  Let's do a jeans day tomorrow to kick off this busy, fun week!  
 
Upcoming Weekly Events

February 9th-13th, 2015

Monday-  Jeans Day!
Educator Mid-Year Goal Meetings
Site-Based Committee Meeting 3:15 - C106

Tuesday- Visitors from Highland Park ISD Tour (Transformation in Action-highlighting Technology Integration - Blended and Flipped Learning) - Several educators, principals, etc.   Will let you know exact time tomorrow!
Angie Out (All Day on the visits)    
 
Wednesday-  Staff/Class Pictures Individual
Educator Mid-Year Goal Meetings Vertical Meeting 3:15
Engineering Extravaganza Night 6:00-7:30pm (Jeans/Sweats with a TCE shirt)

Thursday-Educator Mid-Year Goal Meetings
   
Friday-  Texan Town
Educator Mid-Year Goal Meetings
Spuds of Love Luncheon (hosted by office)
Valentine's Day Parties

Announcement Weekly Info  

Life Principle: Courtesy

Cowboy Courtesy: If you are asked a question in conversation, you should respond.

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

Important Reminders and Updates

Engineering Extravaganza

 Here is what I have so far from our Google Doc!  Please make sure you have gone in and put where your station will be!  I would like to keep all stations downstairs if possible. 

TCE Engineering Extravaganza Stations

Big Ideas with littleBits (lead by Mrs. Coffee and Mrs. Brown)

Are you interested in circuits and electronics?  If so come explore with littleBits electronic modules.  Learn about each of the different modules in our new workshop sets and how they easily snap together to create different features.   After learning about the different modules in a hands-on way, you will have the opportunity to use the modules to create different projects.  

Tower of Terror :A110(lead by Mrs. McKinney and Mrs. Kennington)

Are you ready to build a tower of cups to terrifying heights? If so, come explore your architectural side to see how tall you can build your structure.

Snap Circuits - Library (lead by Mrs. Montgomery and Ms. McGraw) Calling all engineers!  Have you ever wondered what makes the lights turn on or the ceiling fan move?  Come try your hand at making circuits and find out! 

Marble Mazes - C105 (Miss Martin, Miss Kemp) Come amaze us with your magnificent maze manufacturing!  You will get the chance to use a variety of materials to create a unique maze of your own and put them to the test. 

Straw Tower Challenge:  C114 (Mrs. Hruby, Miss Rohani, Miss Jordan)  Have you ever thought straws were just for drinking?  Come slurp up some fun with us as you design the tallest tower that can hold a tennis ball for 60 seconds.

Paper Chair Challenge B 110(lead by Mrs. Wagner and Ms. Garnier) Can you create a chair that can hold a stuffed animal using only paper and tape?  Join us to see the different ways to complete this challenge.

Straw Boat Challenge (lead by Mrs. Parker  and Ms. Seifert) Can you make a boat that can hold 25 pennies without sinking?  If so, join us to see who can save their pennies!

Little Einsteins A106 (lead by Mrs. Torti and Mrs. Vincenzo) Even the youngest TCE Texans are ‘Einsteins’ when it comes to engineering!  Come and explore different ways and tools that you can use to engineer our future!

Tower Builders B104 (lead by Mrs. Sork and Mrs. Bowman)

Are you up for a challenge?   Can you design a standing tower with the greatest height using only two supplies? If your answer is yes, the Tower Builders is the choice for you!

Keva Block Challenge: A 103 (lead by Mrs. McShan and Miss Rice)

Come explore with our NEW Keva blocks.  You will be challenged with different building tasks to see how far and tall you can go with your Keva blocks.

Toothpick Challenge: B103 (facilitated by Mrs. Judd and Mrs. Yates)
Can you see yourself as the architect of the Golden Gate Bridge?  The Tower of London?  Maybe the pyramids in Giza?  Now, imagine a tower, bridge, or pyramid made only from toothpicks!  Can you design and build it?  Come try the Toothpick Challenges to find out if your design might impact our world! 

Creative Construction: Library (facilitated by Mrs. Wilson and Mrs. Hansen) Calling all builders!  This is your opportunity to design and build creative structures using our new Joinks and Arx kits.  All you need to bring is your imagination!

Jack’ Beanstalk Engineering Challenge: Room A-104  (facilitated by Mrs. Brehm & Ms. Peccarelli) Use your “Imagination” and come help Jack design the tallest free-standing beanstalk.  Test your design to see if it can hold the most weight without collapsing.

Artistic Engineers: Room A-101  (facilitated by Mrs. Garza & Coach Martin) Do you want to engineer a sculpture? Come design and build a freestanding sculpture using recycled art materials. Combine your artistic abilities with your engineering skills and see what you can create!

Soundscape/Sound Mixer: Computer Lab (Mrs. Garrett)  How do you build a soundscape? Use virtual blocks to edit the sounds of animals, wind, water, and humans. Then, use a virtual mixer to adjust the volume and location of each of your sounds - very cool! You're a sound engineer!

3...2...1...PUFF! Cafeteria (facilitated by Mrs. Burks & Miss Tonemah)  Come design and launch your own rocket.  Learn about nose cones and fins to help create a stable and accurate rocket.  Let’s see who can blast their rocket the farthest!

Keva Block Challenge 3-5 (Miss Natherson & Miss Taylor)

Let’s explore with our NEW Keva blocks.  Challenge yourself to accomplish different building tasks and see how far and tall you can go!

TCE Transformation in Action Tour

Our tour group this week will be the last one for a while.  Going to hold off on scheduling any more tours until later this April or May.  Please remember that the group this week will be looking for how we have transformed our learning by incorporating technology into our learning!  Lori Vincenzo and Marly Natherson will be with me in McKinney ISD seeing learning at two elementary campuses this day.  Brett will be in charge of showing our visitors around!

If you could please make sure you highlight technology during this visit that might showcase assessment, choice in learning or differentiation through flexibility in learning. (these are the kinds of things the group will be looking for on their tour!) Thank you again for always making our guests feel welcome and for all you do in planning for lessons each day!

February Birthdays

 Estrella Primera - 2nd

Ashlin Bowman- 10th

Cathy Wilson- 14th

Heather Judd- 16th

Jennifer Martin - 23rd

Delaine Jordan - 27th

Shout Outs!

Shout out to everyone at TCE for making our TCE tours such a success for both districts!  They were blown away and I appreciate you sharing your expertise in teaching and lesson design with others!

Kelly Spears and Mary Kennington for leading us into our next lens for looking at responsive teaching strategies!  We appreciate the time and energy you put into preparing the info shared!

Lisa Hansen and Kelly Spears for getting TELPAS training completed and the work behind the scenes in preparing for it all to happen!

All of our campus for implementing relationship and behavior strategies to help our whole campus be successful  for our learners!

 
Engineer of the Week

Please remember that Brett or I will cover a morning/afternoon or lunch/recess duty for you during the week!  Just email us to let us know what might work out!  Also, you may leave early one day once your kiddos are dismissed!

This week we are celebrating: Kasey Kemp

Final Quote

I enjoyed this quote today as I feel I sometimes forget how wonderful life can be to just let go and live in the moment. . .