PBIS: PBIS Clubs are back, be sure to set up any plans or get materials you need for reward day
SIP: The SIP team will meet on May 3 for a full day to wrap up school improvement for the year.
SEL: Be sure to check out this month’s newsletter and resources
SRCR: M-STEP Prep has now ended- plans will be discussed for next year
SRCM: Discussion of modifying the monthly calendar to increase student participation
Data Time
We will be having our May data dive toward the end of the month so that we can have all testing finished at that point. Please make your plans for NWEA testing. We are working on providing a sub for everyone so that you can have a day to BAS your room as well, Beth’s team will FAST and progress monitor throughout May.
M-STEP preliminary scores will be issued soon when we have everything in.
3rd and 5th grade march to victory on the M- STEP
SUPPLIES
If you have special requests for supplies, please get them to Cathy by Friday, June 15
KINDERGARTEN ROUNDUP
We are pleased to be bringing back the normal kindergarten round up this spring for all incoming kindergarteners. This year’s event will be on May 2 starting at 6:30 p.m. Parents will attend in the gym, all future Cougars will attend within the 3 different classrooms. Remember that Kindergarten registration is now open at Riley.
This morning I received a question from a reader of my Practical Ed Tech Newsletter. She wanted to know what I would suggest as an alternative to Google Forms and Google Classroom for conducting exit ticket activities in her biology class. I quickly replied with three options that I really like.
The first option that came to my mind was Ziplet. Formative was the second option that I thought of. And the third option was a PowerPoint add-in called ClassPoint. All three of those free tools are demonstrated in this new video.
Learn more about Ziplet, Formative, and ClassPoint in the following blog posts:
I’ve always taught in schools that use a block schedule. The shortest blocks being 80 minutes and the longest ones being 240 minutes! Therefore, I’ve always used some type of timer to keep track of how long students were working on an activity and to keep track of break times between activities. When I first started teaching I did that with an actual egg timer like this one. Later I started using online countdown timer tools. The first one being Online-Stopwatch.com. That’s one of the four convenient classroom timers that I featured in this short video.
In the video above I featured the following four online timer tools:
MSTEP 5th Grade Math, 4th Grade Math, 3rd Grade ELA
April 29
PBIS Reward
ARNO VISION
ARNO ELEMENTARY WILL PROVIDE A SYSTEM OF SUPPORT TO EMPOWER
AND INSPIRE STUDENTS TO BECOME COLLABORATIVE LEARNERS
THAT STRIVE FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Committee Updates
PBIS
The PBIS team continues to fill out required paperwork, analyze current data, and plan for next year as well as purchases.
SRCR
The team is working with the staff on M-STEP work to prep up for the big test next month
SRCM
The math team created a take home calendar of math tasks to be completed at home. It’s optional if you wish to collect them for grades, incentives etc. The hope is to provide additional time and engagement around math skills.
SEL
The team has recently sent out resources and information regarding Women’s History Month, as well as created a bulletin board in the main hall.
SIP
The team covered the survey results and discussed some of that information received. We will talk about next steps with any actionable items from the results.
The moment you have all been waiting for- Spring Break is here!
Data Diving
We had a great data session last week looking at all our at risk students and their current status with progress monitoring. We will meet again in April just ahead of the MTSS meeting. If you brought forth someone to consider for child study, their name will be brought up at that meeting. We will also be looking at those who are receiving service, and whether or not it needs to continue. Depending on staffing, I also hope to make a move with information to start inviting kids to summer school sometime in April.
Check this Out…
Watersheds Contest
As a Wayne County Green School award recipient, Arno Elementary School is one of just 25 Schools eligible to participate in this year’s Adopt a Storm Drain contest!
The Alliance of Downriver Watersheds Schools for Clean Water Adopt a Storm Drain Contest is an easy online contest where youencourage parents, school staff, and community members to pledge to adopt a storm drain near their home. When they take the pledge they assign that pledge to your school.
The schools that get the most pledges will win cash prizes up to $1,500 for class materials and educational projects!
Here are the contest details:
The Alliance for Downriver Watersheds (ADW) is proud to announce the 2nd annual Schools for Clean Water Contest! As a current, or recent, Green School located in the Downriver area, your school is eligible to participate and win!
What is the Schools for Clean Water Contest?
The Schools for Clean Water Contest is a friendly competition to reduce pollution in our local waterways. Like last year, we will focus on keeping yard waste and litter out of storm drains.
How does it work?
Participating schools urge parents, alumni, and faculty to visit www.SchoolsForCleanWater.org between April 4th and April 22nd (Earth Day) to complete a simple online pledge to do their part. When they submit the pledge form, they assign that pledge to your school. At the end of the contest, we tally up the totals and the schools with the most pledges win cash prizes.
Who can pledge?
Anyone 18 and older can take the pledge including, but not limited to: parents, alumni, student’s family members, teachers, school support staff, friends, neighbors, etc…
What do schools win?
Eight schools will win a share of the $5,000 in prize money. The money can be used to pay for educational projects and classroom materials.
First Place – $1,500
Second Place – $1,250
Third Place – $1,000
Wild Card – 5 x $250 (all schools with 50 or more pledges, will be entered into a random drawing for the five wild card prizes)
In 2021, winners used the prize money to help fund programs like an outdoor classroom, a reading garden for special education students, school gardens, and other green initiatives.
Kindergarten Roundup
We are pleased to be bringing back the normal kindergarten round up this spring for all incoming kindergarteners. This year’s event will be on May 2 starting at 6:30 p.m. Parents will attend in the gym, all future Cougars will attend within the 3 different classrooms. Remember that Kindergarten registration is now open at Riley.
The M-STEP Window Opens
M-STEP kicks off on May 4 for 3rd, 4th and 5th grade for all students. Please see the schedule below for testing dates, and remember there will be some prep changes during this time period:
ALL testing starts at 9:15.
April 12 5th Grade Social Studies
April 14 5th Grade Science
April 19 5th Grade ELA
April 26 3rd Grade ELA, 4th Grade Math, and 5th Grade Math
The Allen Park Public School District has established a successful Schools of Choice Program for the past several years and the Board of Education has approved continuation of the program for the 2022-23 school year for Kindergarten through 8th Grade. (Requests for specific elementary schools cannot be guaranteed)
Completed applications will be accepted beginningMonday, March 28 through Sunday, April 17. Absolutely no late applications will be accepted.
A random draw selection will be held on Monday, April 18, 2022. The draw will determine numerical selection for acceptance of candidates. Parents will be contacted with their students’ waitlist number, by email or phone call by April 20, 2022.
We ask that you help us by sharing this information with friends and/or family members who may be interested in having their children become a part of the Allen Park Public Schools Family.
Embed charts from Google Forms – You can now embed the charts automatically generated by Forms into Docs, Slides, and Sites. These charts automatically update as new data is received.
Practice Sets for Google Classroom – you can sign up to beta test the latest feature for Google Classroom which is scheduled for release during the 2022-23 school year.
ChromeOS Flex (beta) – Google opened up beta access to a new version of ChromeOS designed to run on old Mac and PC hardware.
IT Admin Tip: custom admin roles – I recently used the Google Admin Console to create three custom roles to delegate simple Chromebook management tasks. Here’s what they look like.
Google Forms phishing scam – The scammers are back, and this time they’re trying to trick us using Google Forms!
Screen Pal (video where you type) – This is a cool new Chrome extension from Screen-Cast-O’Matic that lets you add a video recording in any text box. It’s like the video version of Mote!
Grammar practice with Slides – I created this Google Slide template for a teacher who needed a new way to help students complete their grammar exercises.
30 ways to use Forms in the Classroom – Each year I update this list of ways educators are using Google Forms for assessments, feedback, grading, and other creative applications.
April fools pranks – Here’s a list of some harmless tech pranks you can play on your students or administrators on April 1.
Last week I wrote about TeacherMade’s new drag-and-drop online activity creation tool. It’s a nice tool for turning documents into online sorting and matching activities for your students. Of course, there are other ways to create online drag-and-drop activities for your students to complete. I’ve written about a handful of them over the last couple of years. Those are highlighted below.
Google Drawings
I’ve created drag-and-drop activities for geography lessons by using Google Drawings. To do that I put a map in Google Drawings then created a bank of labels that students drag onto the map. I share the activity in Google Classroom with the “make a copy for each student” option so that students aren’t affecting each others’ work. Watch this video to see the whole process.Google Jamboard
A couple of years ago a reader named Chuck asked me for suggestions on how to create a virtual philosophical chairs activity. My suggestion was to try using Google Jamboard. The idea is to have students move their avatars around the Jamboard to indicate their positions on a given discussion topic. Here’s a video explanation of how the activity works.Wizer.Me Wizer.me is a tool that I’ve used periodically over the last half-dozen years. In Wizer you can create online worksheet activities that include drag-and-drop activities. This tutorial is a little bit dated now, but it gives you an idea of what’s possible in Wizer.TinyTap
I recently wrote a lengthy post about using TinyTap to create online puzzle games for students. Those puzzles are all solved through the use of drag-and-drop. Watch this video to learn more.TeacherMade
TeacherMade’s latest feature lets you create drag-and-drop activities based on your existing PDFs and Word docs. Read my full post about it here or watch the tutorial video as embedded below.
I’ve yet to play Wordle and by the time I do the fad will probably be over. That said, I know a lot of people enjoy the game and are looking for ways to bring it into their classrooms. If that describes you, this blog post is for you.
Flippity.net offers more than two dozen templates for creating all kinds of online activities including a Wordle-style game called WordMaster. You can see a live demo of a WordMaster game right here. The template for creating the game is available here and is very easy to use. All you need to do is enter a list of five-letter words and Flippity will handle the rest. Your game will be assigned its own URL that you can share with your students via Google Classroom, via QR code, via email, or any other means that you typically use to share resources with your students.
ARNO ELEMENTARY WILL PROVIDE A SYSTEM OF SUPPORT TO EMPOWER
AND INSPIRE STUDENTS TO BECOME COLLABORATIVE LEARNERS
THAT STRIVE FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
TITLE I/SIP SURVEYS
It is that time of year… we are in need of your opinion of how things are going at Arno for school improvement planning. Please take a moment and complete this year’s survey which has been revised by the SIP team. Student survey information for grades 3-5 will be given by Carrie Solak during this same time. The survey will stay open until March 9
-Will be adding reading opportunities for students to come read to Young fives
NWEA award ceremony a success
-Seems to motivate students
-Should always do one grade at a time (better attention and control)
-4th and 5th grade have had their extra recess
-3rd grade extra recess to be completed in the future
-ten top students had their movie reward
Vocabulary tests are going
-Necklaces are started
SBA practices will start soon
Edmentum contest going
-Second grade won this month – they decided on a PJ day as the reward
-Discussed Edmentum teacher reports and controls
-competition working well as motivation
PBIS
Data
RESA powerpoint
missed rewards
Budget
February Reward
Organizer: Emilie Talamonti
Date: Friday, March 4, 2022
Reward: School Wide Bingo (via Zoom with Steve)
Missed Flips: 5 or less; non-earners only miss 20 min.; all students can wear PJs
whole class suckers
Monthly Rewards
March: March Madness, Lisa Smalley
Grade levels meet with Sandy
Missed reward students go to different classroom for that time
April: Clubs, Katie Jensen
Smencils
December sales: $801
March sales
Break it into upper and lower
Need to purchase more
District Meeting Update
Tier 2/3 numbers
special education not included
Planning Date for Katie & Lisa – Feb. 28, 2022
approved
PTA Proposal
Cougar Store
books (Follett money)
jump ropes/balls
art kits
mini STEM
mini instruments
mobile kiosk/mobile food cart
Cougar Store
Smencils
FOLLOW UP!
CONTACT office for purchase of:
Smencils
dum dums
Data of cultural switching
Research diversity inclusion presenters/materials
Monthly Themes
Not only ethnicity based but incorporated
FUTURE
Check for Zumba needs to be done ahead of time
Added to monthly to do calendar
SRCM
The math team is currently looking at implementing a monthly home calendar that students would complete and bring back, possibly for an incentive. More info to follow. This would need to become part of our SIP plan
SIP
Looked at activities and goals that will need to be added/adjusted to the main district MICIP plan
SEL
In addition to March is Reading Month, the SEL team is going to be putting together resources to share for Women’s History Month which also takes place in the month of March. This includes:
– Women’s History Month bulletin
– Daily spotlight featuring influential women on morning announcements
– A book display featuring influential women available for check out in the library (checking with Colleen on this)
Data Questions
Thank you all for some very productive data discussions this month, hopefully you are finding Educlimber as a useful tool when you need to reference data or progress monitoring information. Now that we have had discussions on our new data- how will you know if the desired learning is occurring as a result of your instruction and intervention. What will that look like in 3 weeks? 6 weeks? 8 weeks?
This year to celebrate March is Reading Month, our entire
school will be participating in One Book, One School by
reading Flat Stanley’s Worldwide Adventures: The Mount
Rushmore Calamity. Each student will be receiving a copy of
the book. Please pass books and parent flyers out on February
25. We are asking that you follow the pacing guide provided
and read this book aloud to your students throughout the
month of March. Due to COVID guidelines, safety, and
scheduling, March is Reading month will be a little scaled
down this year, but we know that reading will be emphasized
this month in each of your classrooms.
Pacing Guide
February 28-March 4: Chapters 1 & 2
March 7- 11: Chapters 3 & 4
March 14-18: Chapters 5 & 6
March 21-25: Chapter 7
Flat Stanley
Students will be receiving a blank copy of a Flat Stanley
for them to decorate and mail home if they so choose. In class
have students write about where they would like to send Flat
Stanley. We have provided a template for you to use in your
classroom if you want. Please hang your writing in the hallway
during the month of March.
Wear it Wednesdays
Celebrate March is Reading Month by dressing up each Wednesday to match the reading theme.
March 2: Pack your bags! Wear a shirt from you favorite location, vacation, or somewhere you want to go!
March 9: Pawsitively Wild About Reading! Wear animal print!
March 16: Team up for reading! Wear sports apparel.
March 23: We “read” all month! Wear red!
Unplugged Tuesdays
Turn off electronics… and turn on your imagination! Every Tuesday night in
March “unplug” and spend some quality time with your family!
March 1, 8, 15, 22
Final Week: Reading “Spirit” Week
To celebrate the end of March is Reading Month, we will be hosting a
Reading Spirit Week.
March 21: Be a Word! Wear a shirt or hat with words on it, or pin a word
and definition to your shirt.
March 22: Be a Book Character! Come to school dressed as your favorite
book character.
March 23: Wear Red because we “read” all month (Wear it Wednesday)
March 24: Michigan Day! Wear your favorite Michigan themed clothes.
March 25: Read and Relax! Bring in your favorite book and wear your comfiest pajamas.
DEAR
On Tuesdays and Thursdays each classroom will participate in D.E.A.R!
Someone will announce this over the PA. If you are on prep, participate in DEAR at your convenience.
Book Exchange
During the week of March 7-11 students will be participating in a book
exchange on their library day. Flyers have already gone home to parents with information about the Book Exchange.
Penny Wars
Save your spare change to bring to school on the following days: March
2, 7, 9, 14,& 16. Give your pennies to your class and your nickels, dimes,
and quarters to other classes. Pennies add to your classes total, but other
coins count against your total. The class with the highest total wins! All
proceeds will go to future March is Reading Month events!
Bingo for Books!
Bingo for Books is back! Watch for an email about when to send flyers
home for students to sign up for Bingo for Books. Bingo for Books will be
held March 23 in the Arno cafeteria. Dinner will not be provided this year,
but everyone will go home with a snack bag along with the books they
win! Please consider volunteering to help work this amazing event. Sara Bleau sent out a sign-up genius link via email.
Weekly Incentives
Each Friday, to celebrate please pass out the weekly incentives to your students. They will be in your mailbox on Thursday.
March 4: I can’t bear to be without books!! Gummy Bears
Yellowstone National Park’s distance learning program lets you schedule a twenty to forty minute virtual presentation with a Yellowstone Park ranger. Presentations can be scheduled for students to learn about geology of the park, the animals of the park, and the history of the park. Rangers are also available to talk about careers in the National Parks Service and more.
Yellowstone National Park is in the mountain time zone. If mountain time presents a scheduling challenge for you, there are also recordings of ranger’s presentations that are available right here on Yellowstone’s Distance Learning page. Handouts and worksheets to use with the virtual presentations are available here.
My usual recommendation for teachers and students who need webpages read aloud is to use Immersive Reader which is built into Microsoft Edge. But if Edge isn’t available to you then you might want to try the Read Aloud extension for Chrome. The Read Aloud extension does exactly what its name implies, it reads pages aloud.
The Read Aloud extension doesn’t offer nearly as many options as Immersive Reader in Edge offers, but there are a few customizations that you can make to it. You can adjust the speed at which pages are read, the size of the text as it’s displayed when being read aloud, and you can change the size of the text box that is displayed when a page is read aloud.
Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower
and inspire students to become collaborative learners
that strive for academic excellence
January Committee Work
SRCR
Reading Tutors
Cassie-Already tutoring students in her own class
Lindsay and Sara B. showed interest, email sent to confirm 2. Edmentum Reading Club
Katie Jensen-Mon & Tues mornings available
Rachel W- Tues & Thurs mornings available
Emilie- Tues & Thurs mornings available (prefers 1 day per week but can do 2 days)
Megan J, Lindsay, Julie, and Sara B. showed interest, email sent to confirm
Before School Times
Student Time→ 7:45-8:30
Teachers would be paid for 1 hour.
After School Times
Student Time→ 3:30-4:15pm
Teachers would be paid for 1 hour.
Our school goal is 30 minutes per week.
NWEA Goals
Second Grade-Not this year. Revisit next year.
Updated strategies list for goals
Steve is meeting with grades 3-5 “partially proficient” projected students and those who received the sloth for rushing.
SEL
The SEL committee met to discuss Black History Month:
Black History Month bulletin of inspirational black individuals is up in the hallway
Daily announcements will contain spotlight biographies as they did in previous years
Confirm with Colleen that the library will have a section of black authors/characters available to teachers and students
Discussed future plans of possibly doing a cumulative project and updating the biographies for announcements
Keep an eye out on your email with updates from the SEL team
SIP
The SIP team completed a revision of parent, student, and staff surveys to be sent out in February for planning purposes.
Data Reflections
When reflecting on all of your new data…
What strategies will we implement for those students who lack the foundation necessary to be successful on the new material being presented?
What short-term intervention should occur?
What short-term, flexible grouping is needed for targeted learning to occur?
FYI-Culvers Calendars
Culver’s calendars for PBIS- A 2022 calendar that is filled with valuable coupons for Culver’s delicious food! The cost is $3 and $2 of that will go the building Positive Behavior Support program. If you are interested in purchasing one, please send in $3 in a labeled envelope with your child’s name on it. Thank you for your support!
STUDENT GOALS
3-5- please remember to review and revise student goals with them to set their path for the next next trimester. Ongoing feedback,in addition to a high effect size, is a critical part of maintaining and reaching their goal. I will be once again sitting down with all partially proficient students, as well as those who were ID as rushing, and checking in throughout as part of the process.
The dates are below, please send any student with their goals who landed in the partially proficient zone (NWEA predictor), and/or rushed through their test as indicated by NWEA. Please start the time frame with sending 2 students down- then as one comes back, send the next. The goal is to have another sit down, other than their teacher, to help them focus more on the importance of making their goals and how they can attain them.
3rd grade- Feb. 1 9:-10:00
4th Grade- Feb. 1 10:15-11:15
5th Grade- Feb. 1 1:00-2:00
NWEA Assembly Celebration
Monday, February 7th, 2022
NWEA Goal Assembly
1 grade level at a time in the gym.
Location: Gym
Time:
3rd Grade: 10-10:30am
4th Grade: 9:30-10am
5th Grade: 9:00-9:30am
Reward is given to students who reach their individual growth goal or the 50th percentile rit score for the Winter using the NWEA 2020 Norms. The reward is a certificate, charm, and an extra recess with Mr. Zielinski.
3rd graders who met their individual growth goal OR scored a 194 or higher on the Reading NWEA. (Winter Score of 200 or higher projects a passing MSTEP score)
4th graders who met their individual growth goal OR scored a 203 or higher on the Reading NWEA. (Winter Score of 207 or higher projects a passing MSTEP score)
5th graders who met their individual growth goal OR scored a 209 or higher on the Reading NWEA. (Winter Score of 212 or higher projects a passing MSTEP score)
Top Ten in each grade level. The ten highest scoring students in each grade level will earn the Top Ten reward. The reward is a movie with Mr. Zielinski.
Teachers-Don’t forget to bring your certificates (Steve will give them to us to fill out) and charms.
Students should wear their M-STEP necklaces to the assembly.
The Monday night group coaching call is a great place for teachers to ask questions about the science of reading in general and BFR specifically, get feedback about their implementation of the program and check on their own skill development. The calls are every Monday through May from 8-9pm. People can jump on ‘late’ or leave ‘early.’ Breakout rooms are often an option for 1:1 coaching as well.
Kristin Dwyer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Monday Night Group Coaching Calls
Time: Jan 10, 2022 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Every week on Mon, until May 16, 2022, 19 occurrence(s)
Jan 10, 2022 08:00 PM
Jan 17, 2022 08:00 PM
Jan 24, 2022 08:00 PM
Jan 31, 2022 08:00 PM
Feb 7, 2022 08:00 PM
Feb 14, 2022 08:00 PM
Feb 21, 2022 08:00 PM
Feb 28, 2022 08:00 PM
Mar 7, 2022 08:00 PM
Mar 14, 2022 08:00 PM
Mar 21, 2022 08:00 PM
Mar 28, 2022 08:00 PM
Apr 4, 2022 08:00 PM
Apr 11, 2022 08:00 PM
Apr 18, 2022 08:00 PM
Apr 25, 2022 08:00 PM
May 2, 2022 08:00 PM
May 9, 2022 08:00 PM
May 16, 2022 08:00 PM
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Black History Month is an annual celebration of the achievements by African Americans and a time for recognizing their central role in U.S. history. It is also the best opportunity for Arno Elementary students to have a more diverse look at the world and the history of our country, and confront important issues like racism and inequity.
How to complete your SEL responsibilities:
Review this month’s SEL newsletter on Black History.
Incorporate learning about 1 famous African American in history/important vocabulary word DAILY (see included slides – copy and paste into your own documents) by playing video
Looking for more information/details about historic African Americans? (Perhaps grades 3-5?) Check out the Slides Black History Person-a-Day – attached below!
Review the important vocabulary included in the BHM slides, be thoughtful about classroom discussion, see included resources for help
Choose books from the booklist to use in your daily or weekly instruction – check out the Black History Book Bin in the library!
Friendly Reminders:
It takes COURAGE to talk about things like racism, equity and justice, remind students that it is okay to feel uncomfortable or uncertain
Remember the four SEL themes as we transition back to in person learning: courage, gratitude, forgiveness and compassion
SEL can be integrated within your day. It does not have to be an additional activity.
Booklist and Books are available within the library for check out. Many of the books are also available on Youtube.
ReadWorks– The nonprofit ReadWorks creates free high-impact instructional materials and tools that are designed for immediate use within classrooms. Check out their Black History Month resources. Mr.Donn.Org-Resources for Martin Luther King Jr Day: Grades 3-High School – Includes resource links for background information, bulletin board ideas, worksheets and printables, a selection of lesson plans ranging from 3 grade through 12th, and mini units for 3 and 4th grade.
The Smithsonian: Black History Month – Each year, the Smithsonian honors Black History Month with a calendar full of events. Explore a selection of resources and activities relating to African Americans.
American History Explorer: Our Story – This site from the Smithsonian provides numerous activities and resources that can be searched by grade level or by historical ERA.
National Museum of African American History– The National Museum of African American History and Culture is a place where all Americans can learn about the richness and diversity of the African American experience. It has numerous resources for use by teachers in the classroom.
eThemes: Black History – These sites are about Black History Month. Learn about the contributions of African Americans in different fields. Includes quizzes, an interactive timeline, and other activities. There are links to eThemes Resources on the Negro baseball league, famous African Americans, the Emancipation Proclamation, the slave trade, and the Missouri Compromise. Some of these sites require a subscription.
The History Channel: Black History Month – Explore an interactive timeline of milestones throughout slavery and the civil rights movement. Try the History games too.
Teaching History.org – This comprehensive list of resources comes from the National Clearinghouse on History Education. The resources are organized by grade span.
The MLK Jr National Memorial – It has a great video of what the monument looks like and a history of the man, memorial, and movement,.
The Biography Channel: Black History – Take a crash course in black history. Check out the interactive timeline and test your knowledge in the games.
Teaching Hard History: American Slavery – Not sure how to support students in learning about our painful past and how it affects our present? This new initiative from Teaching Tolerance offers guidance educators and provides some very important guiding principles for teaching about slavery.
Teaching Tolerance– This includes a great article with links to the best MLK resources/lessons from Teaching Tolerance. They emphasize wanting to help classroom teachers teach “beyond the simplified story and help your students learn about this civil rights leader’s life and legacy.”
The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History– This website provides an overview of the Museum’s education and public programs, information on how to plan a visit, online teaching and learning materials, virtual tours of traveling exhibitions, online catalogs of the library and historical collections, and a calendar of exhibition schedules and educational programs.
Zinn Education Project- The empowering potential of studying history is often lost in a textbook-driven trivial pursuit of names and dates. We believe that through taking a more engaging and more honest look at the past, we can help equip students — and all of us — with the analytical tools to make sense of and improve the world. Their website offers free, downloadable lessons and articles organized by theme, time period, and grade level.
This lesson overall is most appropriate for middle/high school BUT there are some awesome activities under the “activities” and “extension” headings that can absolutely be used in elementary.
This article offers insight on how to have meaningful conversations about civil rights movements like Dr. King’s with first graders!
Not specific lessons, but some strategies for how to incorporate MLK-related learning across all grade levels
This post with videos included highlights some of MLK’s other speeches, including one he gave at Grosse Pointe High School in 1968
Last Friday I published a video about all of the things that can be done in Google Workspace when you have the Mote Chrome extension installed. The latest of those things is the ability to record audio and embed it directly into your Google Documents. When you do this you’re able to play the audio without having to exit the document. This is a huge improvement over simply including a link to a hosted audio file in your doucment then having to listen to it in a separate browser window.
Watch this short video to learn how to use Mote to record and embed audio into Google Docs. By the way, Mote calls these “hypermotes.”
Applications for Education
I can see this being a useful tool for students who are learning a new language to record themselves and then get some feedback from you. For example, you might write a short monologue in Spanish for studnets to read aloud and record. That recording could then be made and inserted into a Google Document that they share with you so that you can listen to their pronunciation.
How to use Mote in Google FormsWatch this short video about using Mote in Gmail to learn how to record and send a voice note. The video also shows how recipients can play your voice notes even if they don’t have Mote installed in their web browsers.
Arno Facebook
“LIKE” us to see lots of great updates and photos from school! Thank you for promoting this social media platform as a positive way to share the good news and great things happening at Arno!
Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower
and inspire students to become collaborative learners
that strive for academic excellence
In case you missed Arno’s Musical Holiday Card…
Thanks to Mr. Cross and Mr. Burke for all of their hard work in producing this wonderful video!
Committee Updates:
SRCR
The Arno StudentRecoveryCommittee met this morning for our monthly session. One of the topics we discussed was how the use of Edmentum is going. K-2 teachers have expressed concerns about the difficulty of Edmentum for the younger grades. They feel it is not user friendly for their students. Because it causes so much frustration, some are not using it.
Jeanine Haskin talked about a program that is by the same Edmentum company called Reading Eggs. There seems to also be a version called Reading Express for the older students.
Since the company is the same as Edmentum, is it possible to switch some classrooms to the Reading Eggs or Reading Eggspress as a pilot? Our discussion on this included the lack of usage in second-kindergarten and the hopes that this program would be a better fit for the little ones.
SRCM:
Today the SRMC met and it’s hard to believe that this meeting was even better than last! So many of you missed out on what is now being said to be the greatest committee meeting of all time!!!
After everything settled down, we finally got to work to create a staff survey that will be sent out after break. This survey contains information regarding different math programs used in class as well as tutoring information. More information will follow once we return from break. Make sure you RSVP for our next meeting (Jan. 26th) soon before spots are filled up.
SIP:
The SIP team made tremendous progress on the new Title diagnostic tool. This tool is longer required to be turned into the state, but rather to have on hand in the case of an audit. Most of this doc was completed, with other parts in progress. We need to wait on MICIP for the district to input info.
PBIS:
Cougar Store Volunteer (Emilie and Megan)
Month of January
Will deliver all necessary supplies to your room prior
Prizes
forms
Process
Form sent out on Wednesday
Make sure form is accepting responses
Form re-sent out on Thursday, if needed
Fill orders as they come in
Stop taking responses
Fill out Cougar Cash winners document
Place orders in teachers’ mailboxes
Announce winners on Friday morning
**M-STEP Programming Commences in January
**Instructional Rounds are coming soon. All grades will be taking part throughout January and Febraury
**Walkthroughs will be wrapping up during our first week back
Assessment Schedule
As we return on Jan. 3, the assessment window for NWEA is open upon return. The upcoming schedule to follow for January:
Jan. 4-14 NWEA Reading and Math
Jan. 17-21 FAST administered
Jan. 4-31 BAS below grade level based on NWEA 2-5 (K-1 hold off on this for now until a final decision is made regarding the administration of the BAS in K-1). I will see if I am able to provide some sub support for this.
**Data Day will take place on Jan. 18 & Feb. 10 (Schedule coming closer to the date)
STUDENT GOALS
3-5- please remember to review and revise student goals with them to set their path for the next next trimester. Ongoing feedback,in addition to a high effect size, is a critical part of maintaining and reaching their goal. I will be once again sitting down with all partially proficient students, as well as those who were ID as rushing, and checking in throughout as part of the process.
The dates are below, please send any student with their goals who landed in the partially proficient zone (NWEA predictor), and/or rushed through their test as indicated by NWEA. Please start the time frame with sending 2 students down- then as one comes back, send the next. The goal is to have another sit down, other than their teacher, to help them focus more on the importance of making their goals and how they can attain them.
3rd grade- Feb. 1 9:-10:00
4th Grade- Feb. 1 10:15-11:15
5th Grade- Feb. 1 1:00-2:00
NWEA Assembly Info
Thursday, February 3rd, 2022
NWEA Goal Assembly
1 grade level at a time in the gym.
Location: Gym
Time:
3rd Grade: 1:40-2:10 pm
4th Grade: 1:00-1:30pm
5th Grade: 2:20-2:50pm
Reward is given to students who reach their individual growth goal or the 50th percentile rit score for the Winter using the NWEA 2020 Norms. The reward is a certificate, charm, and an extra recess with Mr. Zielinski.
3rd graders who met their individual growth goal OR scored a 194 or higher on the Reading NWEA. (Winter Score of 200 or higher projects a passing MSTEP score)
4th graders who met their individual growth goal OR scored a 203 or higher on the Reading NWEA. (Winter Score of 207 or higher projects a passing MSTEP score)
5th graders who met their individual growth goal OR scored a 209 or higher on the Reading NWEA. (Winter Score of 212 or higher projects a passing MSTEP score)
Top Ten in each grade level. The ten highest scoring students in each grade level will earn the Top Ten reward. The reward is a movie with Mr. Zielinski.
Teachers-Don’t forget to bring your certificates (Steve will give them to us to fill out) and charms.
Students should wear their M-STEP necklaces to the assembly.
ALICE Drill
This month we will be conducting our second ALICE drill of the year. During this drill, classes will be practicing HIDE OUT/KEEP OUT where students will find numerous places in the room to hide (not in one big group) and you will assist in showing the class how the door could be barricaded from an intruder if needed. This May we will be practicing GET OUT where the whole school will mock evacuate to our rendezvous point at the Presbyterian church on Park.
BOARD APPRECIATION
A big THANK YOU to our Allen Park Board of Education members during School Board Appreciation Month. We are honored to have such a supportive Board of Education who keep the arts and education alive in Allen Park!
MLK Resources
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Fliphunt
A fliphunt is a type of activity, designed by Kathi Kersznowski, that creates a scavenger hunt using the Flipgrid app. It is a fun way of having your students get out of their seats, participate in the learning, and demonstrate their understanding and application.
Use this fliphunt to learn more about Martin Luther King Jr. and celebrate what he stood for. For each response, use the Task Title hashtag as the title of your video. For each task, students have up to 90 seconds to share your response.
An Engaging Digital Breakout
Digital breakouts are an interactive way for students to explore any number of topics. The process involves using knowledge and reasoning to solve a series of clues that “unlock” digital locks, just as you might with a physical breakout box.
With this MLK-themed breakout, students can learn about Dr. King’s family and early life, his influences, and the achievements he gained over the course of his celebrated career. Give it a try yourself. You can find ourMLK Breakout here.
Primary Lesson Plans from Scholastic
Explore Scholastic’s How Do You Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This page has several real teachers sharing their favorite ways to honor the life and legacy of the civil rights leader. Geared for first, second, and third-grade students, the page includes craft projects, reading suggestions, posters and printables, and suggestions from other educators.
Free Printable Resources
Old-school printables are still valuable, and the internet provides endless opportunities to develop, share, and find handouts, worksheets, and other printables you may find useful in the classroom. Check out studenthandouts.com for free printable activities: biographic outline, crossword puzzle, geography map, word search, and more for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
MLK Videos
Looking for videos to show to your class? Check out these listed below.
The Life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by 88 brains
Ziplet is a service for gathering feedback from your students in a variety of ways. The simplest way is to create an exit ticket by using one of the dozens of pre-written questions provided by Ziplet. Back in July I published a video about how to use Ziplet. Since then it has been updated to no longer require students to have accounts to respond to exit ticket questions. Now your students can simply enter an exit ticket code that you give to them before they answer the question.
What Ziplet offers that is somewhat unique is the option to respond directly to individual students even when they are responding to a group survey. The purpose of that feature is to make it easy to ask follow-up questions or to give encouragement to students based on their responses to a question posed to the whole group.
Applications for Education Ziplet fits in a gap between tools like Kahoot and Google Classroom. For that reason it could be a good tool for engaging students in discussions about assignments, course topics, or the general feeling of the class. Ziplet does offer a Google Classroom integration as well as an Office 365 integration.
Storyvoice
Great resource to hear live author read alouds from Scholastic- Thanks Rachel!
Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower
and inspire students to become collaborative learners
that strive for academic excellence
It’s been some year! We have all been through so many emotions this year as a staff, yet I can see the hope in everyone’s eyes for a better tomorrow- and I can see everyone giving it their all to achieve that place of hope. It will take time to get there, but we have each other to turn to for support and words of encouragement. I hope your holiday season is full of wonderful memories- and recharge to meet all of the amazing things that will happen in 2022!
It’s Time to get Merry!
Take a Look at the Menu
Please be sure and take advantage of the many supports Beth has to offer, including a read aloud section by the copy machine area- which is really a ready made lesson for anyone using it. This is a great example of using district resources in the evaluation rubric.
Committees
Student Recovery Reading
MSTEP Prep-We will be doing the program we have used in the past.
Grades 3-5: This includes weekly vocabulary quizzes, mstep practice homework, NWEA assembly in January & May, charms/necklaces, SBA practice in the classroom, and Readworks.
Grades 2-5: All students use Edmentum Reading at least 30 minutes each week.
Rachel is getting the papers ready. Intervention aides are staying after school to make copies.
Extra Book at Home Check Out Program
Teachers would prefer service instead of aides checking out books on Fridays.
We will send out a Google Doc asking teachers who would like a 4th or 5th grade student helper to check out books and who would like to do it themselves.
Student Recovery Math
The Student Recovery Team for Math met:
– Identify 2nd-5th students who based on their Fall RIT scores on NWEA, would not be proficient on the M-STEP.
– Each teacher received their class list and see which students have been identified. We also included the Winter Cut Score.
PBIS
Meeting summary:
November Reward
Organizer: Megan Schultz
Date: Friday, December 3, 2021
Reward: PJs and a movie
Missed Flips: 5 or less; non-earners only miss 20 min.; all students can wear PJs
Monthly Rewards
December’s reward
board games
Confirm Cristina is Zumba in February
Send follow up email
February
Coordinator
Emilie
Clubs?
Yes!
2 grade levels
Y5-1
2-3
4-5
6 clubs offered at each level (teacher discretion)
Culver’s Calendars
Parent/Teacher conferences
Need volunteer
Sell for $3; profit of $2
100 free sundae coupons available–Santa Cash
Smencils
Sell at Parent/Teacher conferences
Date prior to Winter Break
Cougar Store
Mystery items
SIP
Reviewed the diversity classroom library forms submitted
Made plans to start the Title I Diagnostic on Dec. 14
Data Reflection
As you reflect on your data plan and analysis… What strategies will you implement for those students who lack the foundation necessary to be successful on the new material you will present. What short term intervention should occur? What short term flexible grouping is needed for targeted learning to occur?
WarmingTree
In the spirit of sharing holiday warmth, we will be collecting new, warm outerwear like hats, gloves, mittens, and scarves to share on our warming tree located in the main hallway. Please consider donating to help out less fortunate children by December 16. Thank you for your help
District-wideHoliday Toy Box Drive- With a Twist
It’s hard to believe that Christmas is around the corner and that we will be hosting a district-wide Holiday Toy Box Drive with a twist. Much like last year, this year’s Toy Box Drive will look a little different than years past. We will be securing the names of Allen Park Families in need and reaching out to them to see how we can help. As in the past, we will be asking individuals, teams, community businesses, etc. to adopt a child or family. WE WILL NOT BE COLLECTING ANY GENTLY USED ITEMS. It will be a drive through pick up, allowing everyone to be as safe as possible.
Boxes will be placed in school buildings but all donations must be to the high school by December 3. We ask that you fill the boxes with non-perishable food items rather than toys..
PictureRetake
Picture retake day is Dec. 2. For those students who would like to get their picture retaken and bought a package, they MUST bring their package down to the cameras for an even exchange.
When it comes to creative writing assignments, the hardest step for many students is coming up with things to write about. Fortunately, there are many good tools and websites that teachers can use to generate writing prompts for students. Likewise, there are lots of good websites that offer creative writing prompts for students. Here are some of my favorite tools for creating story starters and favorite sites for finding story starters.
Create Story Starters in Google Sheets Flippity offers a random name picker Google Sheets template. While it was designed to randomly select a student’s name from a list, you could list story prompts instead of names in the sheet and have it display a random story prompt every time the picker is shuffled. Here’s a video about how it works.
Flippity MadLibs is another Google Sheets template that can be used to create story prompts. As the name implies, it can be used to create MadLibs-style fill-in-the-blank stories. Watch the following video to see how it works.
Writing Sparks Writing Sparks offers timed writing prompts to share with your elementary school students. Students can respond to the prompts by writing on paper, in a word processing document like MS Word, or by writing on the Writing Sparks website. The Writing Sparks website provides students with templates to complete as they respond to each writing prompt.
Scholastic Story Starters Scholastic Story Starters is a great tool that students will enjoy using to create short, creative fiction stories. Scholastic Story Starters offers four story themes; fantasy, adventure, sci-fi, and scrambler. To create a story on Story Starters a students picks a theme, enter his or her name, chooses his or her grade, and spins the big wheels of prompts. The student can spin the wheels until he or she finds a prompt he or she likes. After the prompt is selected the student can write his or her story using the letter, postcard, notebook, or newspaper format provided by Scholastic Story Starters. When the story is finished it can be printed.
Make Beliefs Comix
the Make Beliefs Comix journaling ebooks filled with ideas for students to write about. Many of those ebooks are excellent for social emotional learning activities as well as creative writing activities. All of the ebooks are available as fillable PDFs that your students can download and share with you when they’re done writing. Watch this short video to learn how to use the free ebooks from Make Beliefs Comix. (Disclosure: Make Beliefs Comix is an advertiser on this blog).
WriteReader
WriteReader is a good tool for elementary school students to use to write multimedia stories. WriteReader has two distinguishing features that I always point out to new users. First, it provides space for teachers to give feedback to students directly under every word that they write. Second, WriteReader has a huge library of images, including some from popular programs like Sesame Street, that can be used for writing prompts. WriteReader does have a Google Classroom integration that makes it easy to get your students started creating picture-based stories. A series of WriteReader tutorials is available here.
Each year, Norad tracks Santa by using four high-tech tracking systems: radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets. This site allows kids to watch as Santa is tracked while he delivers all of his presents. On Christmas Eve (but not before), students can click here to track his flight live in Google Earth.
EdTech Ideas:Norad Tracks Santa is a great site to learn about geography and places around the world. Students could chart the stops in Google Maps, calculate distances and speed required to make all of the stops possible, write a creative story about his adventure, compare and contrast Santa’s trips in the past using population data . . . I could go on forever!
Each year, Norad tracks Santa by using four high-tech tracking systems: radar, satellites, Santa Cams and fighter jets. This site allows kids to watch as Santa is tracked while he delivers all of his presents. On Christmas Eve (but not before), students can click here to track his flight live in Google Earth.
EdTech Ideas:Norad Tracks Santa is a great site to learn about geography and places around the world. Students could chart the stops in Google Maps, calculate distances and speed required to make all of the stops possible, write a creative story about his adventure, compare and contrast Santa’s trips in the past using population data . . . I could go on forever!
Google Maps Antarctica allows you to take a walk around parts of the white continent. A very small portion of Antarctica has been covered (for obvious reasons), but the views are amazing! With Google’s typical subtle humor, the normal yellow street view man in street view Antarctica is replaced by a penguin.
EdTech Ideas: I realize it’s not “Christmassy” and Santa lives at the North Pole, not the South; but there’s some great images here not to be missed. Students could write stories about what life would be like if Santa lived in Antarctica. They could pinpoint where his home would be and find a suitable area for a landing strip.
Wishing all of our Arno Families a Wonderful Thanksgiving!
ARNO VISION
ARNO ELEMENTARY WILL PROVIDE A SYSTEM OF SUPPORT TO EMPOWER
AND INSPIRE STUDENTS TO BECOME COLLABORATIVE LEARNERS
THAT STRIVE FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
Committee News
Student Recovery Committee – Reading Meeting
Phonics – 3rd-5th have added phonics to their weekly lessons
Extra Benchmark Unit quizzes – grade level is too difficult- third grade is using second grade- need to get fourth grade a copy of third grade so it will be more manageable (short passages, easier vocabulary, etc…)
Reading tutors – we have two signed up but have not started yet.
Individual goals – up and running in third grade
PBIS
Tier 2/3- Mentors-K-2nd as mentees-5th as mentors
Kids’ Hope
Data piece gap
begin in October to gather with 1st reward
Culver’s calendars
Sold for $3
Parent/Teacher conferences? virtual?
Oct reward
Organizer: Colleen
Date: Thursday, October 28
Reward: Hat Day!
Missed Flips: 6 or less
Trainings
Survey
Kendra email
Check PBIS district dates
Kindness Day
Saturday, November 13
Dr. Griffin read aloud
Megan J–Broadcast
Kindness shirts–encourage ahead of time
Act of Kindness Rainbow
Each grade level has a color
Email Metzger regarding things stick to the walls
Colleen kindness book list
30 titles
Designated area in library
Lisa game during gym
Steve–marquee
Classroom Ideas
Kindness Bingo
Acrostic poems
Ideas and simple ways sent home
“Kindness Cash” (no new sheet)
Towards Staff
potluck lunch
shoutouts
Towards Students
Kindness notes
Sidewalk message
Student Recovery Math
-Analyzed the Achievement Status and Growth Summary Report on NWEA for grades 2-5.
-The team also looked at the Michigan MAP Growth Linking Study that shows the correlation between NWEA and MSTEP. We will be using these two reports to help identify those students who need additional interventions in math.
-We talked about using Freckle Math for grades 2-3 and Khan Mappers for grades 4-5 as additional interventions for those students.
Data Meetings Coming…
We will have our next round of Data Meetings on Nov.9. Since we will not have another round of NWEA to look at, please bring relevant data that supports your journey to your student growth goal/professional growth goal to discuss, as well as updates on any students you are concerned about.
–Data is the story of your classroom and our school- Does your classroom story have you on a path to your goals this year? Student goals?- if not what kinds of strategies, resources, engaging activities, modes of presentation, lessons, and coaching can help the learning taking place in the classroom? Please let me know what kind of support I can provide to further your success!
Guided Reading Resource
Directions: Give students a “Talkmark” card during the discussion portion of guided reading or book clubs to scaffold students who need help participating in discussions.
Arno will be once again doing the Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough fundraiser starting Nov. 8 to help supplement the many requests we get from staff during the school year such as assessment programs, research-based activities, special project supplies, literacy materials, tech, etc. The last fundraiser helped us purchase many extra classroom supply requests, Super Cougar pizza lunch supplies, and professional development for teachers.
The PTA has been a tremendous resource for our building with all they have given, however, the many teacher requests received throughout the school year to give our students the very best experiences create a need to seek additional support. Therefore, we have partnered with this company to offer you a choice of items should you choose to purchase any, that would support providing more resources for our teachers. The large envelope coming home on Nov. 8 and will contain all of the information needed (and there is an online order method).
Fundraiser Timeline
November 8 – November 19 Fundraiser Sale
November 23All money and orders due (online payment option available)
Game Truck Prize for qualifying sales: TBD
**Turnover time is about 2-3 weeks, we will contact everyone when the items will be in (before Christmas)
From the District
Dear AP School Community,
We recognize that this has been a difficult couple years for families, with reduced work hours or income, illness and the rising cost of food, gas and other monthly bills. Things may be tight and support may be needed.
With Thanksgiving around the corner, we are sharing the website below, “Julie’s list,” which includes many resources and supports for families in need. Thank you to the AP Social Work Team for providing this information.
Picture retake day is Dec. 2. For those students who would like to get their picture retaken and bought a package, they MUST bring their package down to the cameras for an even exchange.
Read by Grade Three
Arno 3rd grade parents, please take a look at the flyer below for an informational meeting Nov. 4 about the reading law and what to expect this year. This meeting will be via Zoom:
Back in July I published a series of videos and blog posts detailing what you need to know to get started using Google Classroom, Drive, Docs, Slides, and Forms in your classroom (those are linked below). Of course, Google had to make some updates to Google Forms right at the start of the new school year and in doing so added some more functionality to Google Forms while also moving the location of some settings menus. That’s why I recorded a new overview of Google Forms quiz settings.
This is an excerpt from this week’s Practical Ed Tech Newsletter. The newsletter is sent every Sunday evening (Eastern Time) and it includes my tip of the week and summary of the week’s most popular posts from Free Technology for Teachers. You can sign up for the newsletter right here.
Whether an exit ticket is conducted with digital tools or on scraps of paper (a strategy I abandoned years ago because I always seemed to misplaced a paper or two), strategy is the same. I try to ask questions that aren’t “yes/ no” but can still be answered by all students in just a minute or two. To that end, here’s a list of general purpose exit ticket questions that I developed and have used at various times in my career.1. What’s a new-to-you word or term you heard today?
2. What’s one thing you’d change about today’s lesson?
3. How did today’s lesson make you feel?
4. How well do you think you’d do if we had a quiz next week?
5. How would you describe today’s lesson to a classmate who was absent?
6. What was your favorite part of today’s lesson?
7. What surprised you about today’s class?
8. What’s something you wish was different in class?
9. What’s one question you’d put on a quiz about today’s lesson?
10. How would you help a classmate who didn’t understand today’s lesson?
11. What’s one thing you’d like to learn more about?
12. What was the easiest part of today’s class?
13. How did today’s lesson fit with the one before it?
14. What do you think the next lesson will be about?
Great Resource from Teach Like a Champion– Engaging students with The Hook – the short introductory moment that captures what’s interesting and engaging about the material and puts it out front.
Tutoring
Remember we have hours to create tutoring opportunities. Please see me if you are interested now that we have data to help out rostering. High impact tutoring criteria below:
Math Tutoring Criteria
Limited Group Sizes (No more than 5 at a time) ● K-2 students should have 30 minute sessions ● 3-5 students should have 45 minute sessions ● Tutoring will be primarily hands-on based learning ● No computer programs should be used (Khan, Edmentum, etc…)
Focus instruction on the essential priority skills (Highlighted in green in the Wayne Resa document that was emailed to you)
Identify students using summative/formative assessments as well as teacher recommendations ● Students should generally be your Tier 2 kids (Bubble students that need an extra push to be on grade level)
Literacy H.I.T (high impact tutoring)
After school enrichment program that uses literature and coordinating activities to enhance vocabulary and reading skills. Each tutoring session should include a read aloud, vocabulary and comprehension activities. Extending the learning into crafts or drawing that use the read aloud as a base, are encouraged.
We are suggesting the following:
-2 times a week
-Tuesday & Thursday or Monday & Wednesday
Starts September 27 and ends November 19 (eight weeks)
-3:30-4:30 (students leave at 4:15)
-10 students per group
-goal is to have two second grade groups and two third grade groups. If enough teachers sign up, add a fourth grade group.
-First grade will be added on October 18 for a five week session. Possibility of moving some kids around to create a “book buddie” type atmosphere, if possible.
We are open to non-certified staff teaching the classes if we can’t get certified.
Literacy Website
Mrs. Wesley, our Literacy Coach at Arno, has created a blog that contains great information and resources for families in the area of literacy . Please check it out and take advantage of all the great information.
Jan Richardson: How to Use Asking Questions to Increase Comprehension
“Questioning is a critical comprehension strategy that helps readers construct and extend meaning. It is one of the most powerful strategies students can learn, and one of the easiest for you to teach.” Jan Richardson, pg. 209, The Next Step in Guided Reading
Step 1: Turning Facts Into Questions
Green Cards – Teaching students how to answer a question that is answered, ‘right there’.
Students make two columns in their notebooks, one for “Facts”, one for “Questions.
Ask students to read the text, write a fact from story, paragraph, or article in Column 1.
Turn the fact into a question in Column 2.
After reading, close books/text and take turns asking questions and calling on others in group/class to answer.
If no one can answer, students can look back for the answer in the text.
Step 2: Ask Green Questions (Literal)
Green Question Cards – Students must know Step 1 before doing Step 2.
Students make two columns in their notebooks, one for “Question” , one for “Answer”.
Students read, stop and write a green question, Column 1, that is answered in the text.
Students close their books and write the answer to the question in, Column 2.
Share and discussion- students take turns answering with books closed. Only if no one can answer, allow them to look back in the text, or to confirm
Step 3: Ask Red Questions (Inferential) Interpretive Level
Red Question Cards – Answers are not found in the text
As students read, they ask (and write down) questions that begin with Red Card words, I wonder why.., How could…, Why would…., What if….What would happen if….
Guide students to ask questions that could be answered using background knowledge and information in the text. Model for them.
When sharing, encourage students to think of more than one logical answer.
After a few days/rounds of practice of writing just the red questions, require them to write answers in their notebooks. Encourage divergent thinking and different answers.
Step 4: Ask Yellow Questions (Complex)
Yellow Question Cards – Readers use different parts of the text to ask and answer questions
Questions include, cause/effect, compare/contrast and idea-to-examples.
Students are proficient at green and red questions before doing yellow questions.
Teacher models, students practice. (Review cause/effect pgs. 225-227)
Step 5: Combine Questions
Students must know how to ask at least two kinds of questions to combine questions/strategies.
Ask Green and Red Questions:
Students make two columns in their notebooks.
As they read, they must think of a green question for column 1 and red for column 2.
Early/fast finishers make more questions for the group.
During sharing, students share one question.
Before the group answers, students decide if it’s a green or red question.
Question-Answer & Connection or Prediction
Three column framework
Students write a question (red, yellow, green) in Column 1, answers in Column 2 and a prediction in Column 3.
At the Evaluative Level in Fiction or Non-Fiction, students think of a question that asks for an opinion or a judgment. (Why do you think? Do you agree (disagree) that…? Do you think it was right for …?)
Picture day is fast approaching- October 7. Below is the information you will need to do online ordering. As was the procedure last year, students may remove their mask for the picture if they are comfortable and then put it back on after the picture.
Picture Day for Arno Elementary is scheduled for Thursday, October 7, 2021 and this Picture Day event’s Order Code is 60204TF.
The Arno Halloween Parade is back on Oct. 29 at 10:00! Our route will take us out of the 5th grade doors that morning, making a loop on the inside perimeter of the playground. It is a district PD day with an 11:30 dismissal that morning.
Walk to School Day Coming Up
Walk to School Day (W2SD) is an international event celebrated each year in October. This annual event began in 1997 by the Partnership for a Walkable America, to encourage walkable communities and has grown to an international event that takes place in over 40 countries worldwide. In Michigan, over 90,000 students across 304 schools participated in W2SD events at their local schools last year. Walk to School Day encourages healthy habits, heightens awareness of traffic safety, draws attention to environmental concerns around schools, and is a great way to build local momentum for a Safe Routes to School initiative.
W2SD 2021 officially takes place on October 6.
Thanks to all Arno staff participating in walk to school on Oct. 6:
Thank you again Mr. Peace for helping us build a positive, safe learning environment at Arno!
Additional Constitution Day Resources
Mrs. Byrne does a great job with Constitution Day at Arno- but if you would like to keep it going in your room, here are some digital resources:
This Friday is Constitution Day in the United States. According to federal law all schools that receive federal funding have to teach some type of lesson about the Constitution on this day. C-SPAN, DocsTeach, and the National Constitution Center all offer either lesson plans or resources for building your own Constitution Day lesson plans.
Constitution Day Lesson Plans from C-SPAN Classroom
C-SPAN Classroom offers free lesson plans and Bell Ringers (discussion prompts) that were either designed for Constitution Day or can be used to meet the requirements of Constitution Day. All of the lesson plans incorporate short video clips addressing topics like enumerated and implied powers of Congress, interpretation of the Constitution, and checks and balances. You can find all of the lesson plans and additional resources in this Google Doc.Constitution Hall Pass
The National Constitution Center offers an online program called the Constitution Hall Pass. The Constitution Hall Pass is a series of videos mostly featuring scholars discussing elements of the Constitution and issues relating to it. There are also a few “discussion starter” videos that are intended to get students thinking about how the Constitution can have a direct impact on their lives. I know from experience that this Freedom of Expression video and accompanying questions will get high school students talking.
Interactive Constitution
The Constitution Center’s website features the U.S. Constitution divided into easily searchable sections. From the main page you can select and jump to a specific article or amendment. What I really like about the site is that you can choose an issue like privacy, civil rights, or health care and see how those issues are connected to the Constitution.
DocsTeach DocsTeach is a National Archives website that all middle school and high school U.S. History teachers should have in their bookmarks. DocsTeach lets you build online activities based upon curated collections of primary source documents. DocsTeach also provides some pre-made activities that you can give to your students. DocsTeach has twenty pre-made Constitution Day activities that you can use today. An additional 166 documents and artifacts about the Constitution can be found through a quick search on DocsTeach.
TED-Ed Lessons
TED-Ed offers a bunch of lessons that are appropriate for Constitution Day. Those lessons are linked below.
Arno Elementary will provide a system of support to empower
and inspire students to become collaborative learners
that strive for academic excellence
Welcome Back Arno Staff!
The Arno Staff 2021-22
Young fives
Jeanine Haskin
Kindergarten
Cassie Harrison
Kindergarten
Nickie Roller
Kindergarten
Cristina Mercer
First Grade
Julie Martinchick
First Grade
Barb Pushman
First Grade
Dawn Watson
Second Grade
Nicole Amonette
Second Grade
Alexandra Cervantes
Second Grade
Megan Schultz
Third Grade
Sarah Kalis
Third Grade
Renee Guyot
Third Grade
Rachel Warneck
Fourth Grade
Megan Johnson
Fourth Grade
Emilie Talamonti
Fourth Grade
Brian Trionfi
Fifth Grade
Ciara Zuke
Fifth Grade
Lindsay Garza
Fifth Grade
Erin Higgins
Cross Categorical Classroom
Katie Jensen
ECP Program
Sara Bleau
Life Skills
Stella Boyer
Media Lit Arno/Bennie
Colleen Byrne
Media Tech Arno/Bennie
Carrie Solak
Art Arno/Bennie
Elisabeth Cunningham
Art Arno/Lindemann
Rachel Trapani
Speech-Language Pathologist
Andrea Alvarez
Vocal Music
Open
Instrumental/Vocal Music
Jeff Skebo
Physical Education Arno/Bennie
Lisa Smalley
Social Work Arno
School Psychologist
Sandy Bennett T W Th
Deb Green M F
Resource Room
Michele Sbonek
ECP Speech
Taylor Cuddy
Reading Coach/Title I
Beth Wesley
ESL
Jennifer VanMael
Upcoming PD Preview
We will be kicking off our PD in the media center and then move to committee activities, PLC time, and finally a staff meeting in the afternoon to wrap it all up. A grab and go breakfast will be served, along with a pizza lunch provided at the building-
Building Committees this year:
-SEL
-PBIS
Student Recovery Reading (former Instructional)
Student Recovery Math (former MTSS)
SIP/MICIP
Meet the Teacher
Be sure to mark Sept. 2 on your calendar for our Meet the Teacher night. This will be an opportunity for families to come to Arno, open house style, and meet their child’s teacher, get information about grade level curriculum, classroom policies, and important classroom information. Fast Facts:
This year’s Meet the Teacher Night will be an Open House on September 2 from 6:30-7:30pm.
Masks are required for all students and family members attending Meet the Teacher Night.
Students are encouraged to attend Meet the Teacher Night with their family.
Meet the Teacher attendance will be staggered to encourage social distancing Please arrive and depart promptly according to the schedule below.
Families will be divided into two groups by alphabet with 20 minute sessions (6:30-6:50 and 7:00-7:20)
Last Names A-M — 6:30-6:50pm
Last Names N-Z — 7:00-7:20pm
If the family has multiple last names, please follow the schedule for your oldest child’s last name
Evals
To get started this year, please complete:
One Professional Growth Goal
One Student Growth Goal
Self- Assessment
All of these items are due on Oct. 1, we will discuss more at the staff meeting
High Impact Tutoring
Please take a moment to review this research on the impact of tutoring done well. If you are interested in tutoring this year, we will be talking more about the design about on Sept. 2
All students will attend in-person instruction Monday through Friday from 8:30am – 3:30pm.
PREP SCHEDULES & LUNCH SCHEDULES
We are asking for everyone’s cooperation in being on time to your scheduled prep and lunch.
Breakfast and Lunch Counts will be taken each morning, and breakfast will continue to be bagged and sent home with students daily.
Please see the attachment for your specific lunch and prep schedules, which will be returning to schedules closer to pre-COVID times.
5th Grade Band will take place in the Music Room one morning a week prior to the first scheduled prep time. Your specific day and time will be communicated by Jeff Skebo.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Families will complete the COVID-19 Screening Tool for Families every day prior to sending children to school. If you answer “YES” to one or more questions, you MUST keep your child home from school that day and consult your primary care provider.
Suspected or confirmed COVID-19 cases must be reported immediately to the school office.
Please make sure attendance is posted daily by 9:00am.
All staff will be required to wear masks at all times in the school building unless eating or drinking or in your “own space” with no students present.
All students in all grades will be required to wear masks at all times in the school building unless eating or drinking.
We will have extra masks available if needed.
Cleaning supplies will be provided by the district and refilled as needed.
Current spacing between desks in classrooms ranges from 18” to 36”. Please make every effort to provide 3 feet of distancing between students to avoid quarantine where possible.
Teachers should meet with students daily in small groups. This may occur at guided reading tables or on the carpet, using social distancing mitigation strategies as best you can.
Teachers will maintain a Google Classroom from the beginning of the year, and engage students in the GC so they are familiar with this platform.
Every day, Chromebooks and chargers will go back and forth from home to school.
Students will need headphones or earbuds daily. Students may bring these back and forth with Chromebooks daily, or keep a set at school and a set at home.
Please re-send your supply lists to families. Indicate any items that may not be needed immediately. Please avoid adding items to the supply list at this point if at all possible.
Individual water bottles are recommended.
All grades will administer the NWEA to students in person by October 1. Please determine your NWEA testing dates and communicate this schedule to your families.
A replacement screener for DIBELS will also be administered (FastBridge). Stay tuned for more information.
VISITORS
At this time, limited visitors will be allowed in the building. Prior to the visitor’s arrival, please clear this with the main office.
Meetings may be held by video chat or in person, depending on the nature of the meeting and comfort of the participants. In-person meetings will require mitigation strategies and social distancing.
ARRIVAL PROCEDURES
Families will complete the COVID-19 Screening Tool for Families provided by the district every day prior to sending children to school. Arrival time is 8:30am at assigned entry doors.
Staff will need to complete the requirement on the Clear to Go app
Students should not be dropped off prior to 8:20am Upon arrival, if there is a line forming, students should wait on the painted paw prints.
Arrival beyond 8:45am will be considered tardy and students must be buzzed in through the front doors of the school.
LUNCH PROCEDURES
All students will eat lunch in the cafeteria.
Lunches will be provided through the Food Service Department free of charge through this school year.
Students may still bring lunches from home if desired.
Whenever weather permits, students will have outdoor recess. Masks may be removed during outdoor recess.
During inclement weather, recess will be held indoors. Students must wear masks during indoor recess.
SPECIAL CLASSES
All special classes (Art, Music, Phys Ed, Media Lit & Media Tech) will be held in special’s classrooms.
Please consider the following for specials:
Phys Ed classes will be outside whenever possible, weather permitting. Phys Ed classes require students to wear tennis shoes and comfortable clothing.
Media Tech classes will likely require headphones and Chromebooks.
Art classes may utilize some shared materials. Students should sanitize upon return to class.
DISMISSAL PROCEDURES
Dismissal time is 3:30pm at assigned dismissal doors.
There will also be a short presentation from our Title I coordinator and reading coach, Beth Wesley, at 6:15-6:25 in the media center
PBIS
PBIS Beginning of the Year Stations and Follow-Up Activities
Thursday, September 9, 2021
There will be 10 minutes spent at each station which includes the discussion and travel time between stations. You will rotate in sequential order.
Start Times and Station
8:45a–Trionfi (1), Talamonti (2), Johnson (3), Pushman (4), Watson (5)
11:55a–Jensen (1), Haskin (2), Harrison (3), DiCarlo (4), Stanley (5)
**Presenters, please note that the 11:55a rotation are all littles. Please shorten your presentation to short attention spans, highlighting the big ideas. Thank you for making this accommodation!**
Office Expectations
Staff: Kim Dowd or Cathy Anderson
Location: outside of office for space
Assembly and Bullying Expectations
Staff:NEED STAFF
Location: gym or outside
Bus Expectations
Staff:Steve Zielinski
Location: bus located in parking area
Cafeteria Expectations
Staff:Lunchroom Staff (2)
Location: Cafeteria
Hallway Expectations
Staff:Michele Sbonek
Location: hallway outside of Media Center/Computer Lab
Follow-Up Activities
~Posters for the hallway
~Individual positive messages
~Write about it in your journal
~Review classroom matrix and expectations
~Draw a picture of when you were kind/somebody was kind to you
This year, the district calendar reflects 7 days of teacher PD. Those half-day PD dates feature no school in the afternoon, 11:30 dismissal. The dates for this school year are as follows:
For those employees required to complete SafeSchools Training, the system should be open soon to complete for the 2021-2022 school year. The modules need to be completed by October 31. Please email me if you have any issues.
All material orders have arrived and have been delivered to your grade level. If you feel as though you are missing something that was ordered, please let Cathy know.
On Wednesday morning I published a long list of tools that students can use to create mind maps, concept maps, and flowcharts. What I didn’t include in that blog post was a description of the differences between the those three things. I also didn’t outline the benefits of mind mapping that students can experience. The purposes of this post are to explain the difference between mind maps and concept maps as well as list some benefits of having students complete mind mapping activities. Mind Maps versus Concept Maps
The process of creating a digital mind map begins with one key word or term placed in the center of the screen. Often, the central key word or term is represented by an image or icon. From that central word or term students add lines to connect to other words, terms, or ideas that they associate with the central word or term. Images and icons can be used to represent the associated words and terms. Students may use multiple font and line colors and sizes to indicate relationships or similarities between the words and terms in their mind maps. Finally, other than having a central word or term from which all ideas emanate, a mind map does not need to be arranged in a hierarchical manner nor should it be used as an assessment tool.
While concept maps and mind maps have similarities there are noteworthy differences. First, a concept map often has a hierarchical structure that is used to show the connections and segments of a large concept. Second, when an hierarchical structure is used for a concept map it is possible for there to be incorrect connections created. For example, a student creating a concept map about the seasons of the year would be incorrect to place “leaves change color” as a branch of “winter” instead of as a branch of “autumn.”
Five Benefits of Conducting Mind Mapping Activities
When students create mind maps then share them with their teachers, teachers can gain some insight into how students currently view the connections between the parts of a given topic.
There are some studies indicating that when students create mind maps from scratch rather than working from a template provided by their teachers, recall and test scores improve.
A couple of weeks ago I shared directions for an icebreaker activity that can be done in Jamboard or Google Drawings. Jamboard and Google Drawings have a lot of similarities. There are some differences between the two that can make one better than the other depending upon the use case. Here are five ways to think about using Google Drawings in your online or in-person classroom this fall.
Create Labeling Activities
Google Drawings lets you import images that you can then draw on top of. One of the ways that I’ve used this in the past is to create a map labeling activity. To do that just open a new Google Drawing and then use the integrated image search to find a map. Once you’ve selected a map you can use the drawing tools to mark on it. Here’s a demonstration of how the whol process works including distribution through Google Classroom.
Virtual Icebreakers
I shared this idea a few weeks ago, but it’s worth repeating for those who missed it. The idea is to have students virtually place themselves anywhere in the world through the use of Google Drawings. To do this students first need to find a picture of themselves and remove the background from it. Photoscissors makes it quick and easy to remove the background then download a new background-free image. Once they have a picture of themselves then students open Google Drawings where they insert a picture of place that they want to visit or revisit. Finally, they then insert their profile picture over the background image in Google Drawings. Those steps might sound complicated, but they’re not. In this short video I show the whole process.
Create Flowcharts
Google Drawings is an excellent tool for creating flowcharts. You can make your own and distribute them to your students via Google Classroom or have them make their own flowcharts to demonstrate an understanding of a process. This video shows you how to create a flowchart with Google Drawings and then distribute it to your students via Google Classroom.
Make a Digital Turkey
Last fall I received an email from a reader who was looking for some ideas on how do a digital version of the classic Thanksgiving Thankfulness Turkey project in which students add feathers to a drawing of turkey and each feather has something they’re thankful for written on it. My suggestion for creating a digital version of the Thankful Turkey was to use a combination of Pixabay and Google Drawings. I made this short video to illustrate how that process would work.
Please be sure that you have been added to my Remind account for any emergency contact needed. Please enter 81010 and text this message @arnostaff to join our Remind group
GROUPME
Please remember to make sure I either have your cell phone number, or an updated cell phone number to enter you into Groupme. This is the service I can use in an emergency that will allow staff to communicate back and forth should it be necessary (different capabilities than Remind)
We will meet in the conf room on June 10 to discuss classlists:
12:30-12:45 Jensen
12:45-1:05 Kindergarten
1:10-1:30 1st grade
1:35-1:55 2nd grade
2:00-2:20 3rd grade
2:25-2:45 4th grade
We made it!
It’s hard to believe, with all the challenges we have been through, the varying modes, and the pandemic- we have arrived at the end of the year. It certainly goes without saying that our hope is driving the 21-22 school year-that the pandemic will be on its way out, the year will start normal, and we can start to rebuild our programs.
Evaluations
Final eval meeting will take place on June 9 all day via Zoom. If your time is in the morning, please place the students on asynchronous until we are finished. Schedule is below:
Topic: Eval meetings
Time: Jun 9, 2021 09:30 AM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Wow, it’s summertime already; what a year we have had! We are looking for people that are interested and learning more about being a PTA board member. All positions will be open for the 2022-2023 school year, as all current board members will be stepping down from our positions. If you’re interested in learning more about any of the positions, please let us know. We are more than happy to give any information. Email us at arnopta@gmail.com.
The PTA is having an end of the school year Arno Spirit Wear sale. All T-shirts only $5 and all hoodies only $10! Limited designs and quantities left. Grab yours before they sell out.
We will host a fundraiser on the last day of school, Friday, June 11th. Sno Biz Delight will be at Bocabella Memorial Park on Regina from 11:30pm – 1:30pm. We have limited the flavors to blue raspberry, strawberry and orange to keep the line down. Cups are $3 each.
Optional Summer PD Opportunity
As you may know, we are a partner district with Concordia University Ann Arbor. They are hosting PD opportunities on various topics throughout the summer if you are interested- they are usually good sessions!
Adam will out with information soon on Chromebook collection that will take place the final week of school. As soon as we get details, we will get info out to parents.
PBIS Stations
Stations will be returning for the fall. Stay tuned for a date and schedule once we have definitive plans from the district.
END OF YEAR CHECKLIST
Please be sure to check out with me or Cathy with your checklist verified completed
If you have special requests for supplies, please get them to Cathy by Friday, June 14
NO BACKPACKS PLEASE…
Please note that students may continue to carry backpacks through Tuesday, June 8. They will no longer be allowed for the next 2 half days leading up to the last day.