Updates -- 26 Nov. 2013

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

I hope you're able to spend some of this long weekend in the company of those you love.

Fire Drill
FYI:  Because we will be collecting for the canned food drive on Friday morning, 06 Dec., I've moved the previously scheduled Fire Drill to Monday, 09 Dec. instead.  We'll have our drill at about 9:30 that morning.  Please take note.

Computer Problems
Is your Macbook laptop acting oddly?  Is your iPad performing poorly?  It's probably because you (like me) skipped the important email from Rick Smith that was sent to us (of all times) this past Sunday afternoon.  In it are instructions to restore both of your devices to full functionality.  

Please steel yourself for the prospect of completing this process on your own.  It's not impossible, nor all that daunting in the end.  

The (10-page!) instructions are carefully written, but be aware, depending on your machine, OS, and other variables, your mileage may vary some as you attempt to follow them.  All-in-all they take about 15 minutes to complete.  And it may feel along the way, a little like the instructions aren't working.  Fear not!  In the end, if you stay flexible and open-minded, they're likely to work.  You will find the instructions attached to an email from Rick Smith entitled "IMPORTANT: Internet Access"  or you can download the instructions at the following links:

• Macbook
• iPad

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe
I'm having a great time reading to your classes.  I read chapter 7, A Day With The Beavers, to Mrs. Bianco's class late last week.  It's available online.



I suspect some of you have fallen a few chapters behind showing the videos to your classes, and that that's why lately there's been very little clamoring  to sign up for upcoming chapters.  Nevertheless, I'd sure love to come to read to your class!  The video's aren't that long, about 15 minutes each on-average.  If you're able to get your kids caught up soon, please let me know and we can schedule a time for me to pop into your class to read a chapter.
The previous chapters can be viewed at the following links:

Chapter 1 -- Lucy Looks Into A Wardrobe

Chapter 2 -- What Lucy Found There

Chapter 3 -- Edmund And The Wardrobe

Chapter 4 -- Turkish Delight

Chapter 5 -- Back On This Side Of The Door

Chapter 6 -- Into The Woods

Calendar
Week A

• Monday, 02 Dec.
• Coe @ Admin Council, 1:00-4:00
• Wednesday, 04 Dec.
• PTO meeting in the Library, 6:30-7:30
• Thursday, 05 Dec.
• Science Fair Help Night in the Library, 5:00-6:00
• Friday, 06 Dec.
• Canned Food Drive collection, 9:00

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates -- 22 Nov. 2013

Even stormtroopers love Friday-payday

Hello everyone,

Friday-payday and just two work-days to go 'til the Thanksgiving holiday.

Much to be grateful for!

Dismissal Thanks
Perhaps you haven't noticed, but I feel like we've really got this whole school-dismissal thing pretty much dialed lately.  From most of your perspectives, the 14-17 minutes that it commonly takes us to dismiss the school and load the buses probably seems like it takes a long time, but from ours, up in the front office, this feels like a pretty darn fast rate for moving 600 kids out of the school building and on to the right buses, or into their parents' loving arms, safely and securely.

Couldn't do it without a lot of good help.

I'm grateful to all y'all for supervising the kids in your rooms from 3:20 until we've called the last bus (at about 3:35 lately), and especially to Ballard and Hobson who provide daily supervision of students in the hallways.

I'm also super-thankful for the five-days-a-week hustle and esprit de corps of the whole front-office crew at dismissal time: White, Bianco, LeMoyne, Reasor, Paulsen, Macdonald, Housholder, and Jimenez who work like a well-oiled machine assembling bus lines, loading buses, calling moms to resolve the parent-pickup vs. FACTS vs. bus home question, mellifluously announcing bus numbers, finding missing older sibs and matching them to crying younger sibs, running down and retrieving wanderers across the street, keeping the Puente transfers out of the trees, and gregariously chatting-up the clientele as-needed.

Thanks, afternoon-dismissal crew, for all you do!

Tax Credit
Please remember to keep the Tax Credit campaign in front of your parents.  So much depends on our ability to collect these funds each year.

Some of us have had a pretty good return of Tax Credit contributions to our school by sending this letter to some of our friends, neighbors, and various other Arizona relations.

Click image to download letter as a .doc file

Please consider sending just such a letter to those you know.  Any Arizona tax-payer can contribute their annual Tax Credit contribution to our school; they need not have students who attend here. Click here (or on the image above) to download a .doc copy of the letter that you can modify and send to your heart's content.

Calendar
Week B

• Monday, 25 Nov.
• Eberhard film crew on site, 1:00-3:00
• Wednesday, 27 Nov.
• NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Holiday
• Thursday, 28 Nov.
• NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Holiday
• Friday, 29 Nov.
• NO SCHOOL - Thanksgiving Holiday

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe -- Chapter 6

Mr. Coe says, "Thanks, Mrs. Paulsen's kindergarten, for inviting me in to read!"

Into The Forest 
Chapter 6
The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe 



The videos for chapters 1-5 can be found here.

Updates -- 15 November 2013

Hello everyone,

Happy Friday.  I hope you all have a nice weekend.  You'll probably want to get out your warm winter coat, going to get kinda chilly tomorrow.

Staff Picture "retake"
Walk To School Day thoroughly confounded our opportunity to take a staff picture during Picture Day last month.  Therefore, we will reconvene on Picture Retake Day, which is this coming Wednesday, Nov. 20, at 8:00 in the morning on the risers in the music room to take our 2013-2014 Staff Picture.  Thanks for planning to be there (this picture is of great value to me, personally) and for being there on time.

Tax Credit Season
Below is an exact reprint of what I published this week about Tax Credit contributions on marshallmagnetschool.com and on our school Facebook page.  I hope you'll take the time to read through it and commit it to memory so that you're able to speak knowledgeably to your parents about how important and advantageous it is for them to make a Tax Credit contribution to our school.

As the next few weeks come and go, I'll appreciate everything you can do to continue to keep the message of Tax Credit in front of our parents.  It's essential that we make a deliberate and concerted effort to encourage all of our stakeholders to contribute in this way between now and the conclusion of the semester.

Thanks!

2013 Tax Credit Information

Marshall Magnet School
2013 Governor's Arts Award winner

As you probably already know: No other school in Flagstaff provides the unique learning opportunities that every child, including yours, receives at Marshall Magnet School.  How?  Because of the Tax Credit contributions people like you make to our school each year.

Any Arizona tax-payer may make a Tax Credit contribution to Marshall Magnet School.

If you haven't already done so, we hope you are planning to make your annual Tax Credit contribution to Marshall School before December 31.  The Arizona Public School Tax Credit program provides great advantages both to you and to our school. 

Thus far, this school-year alone, at Marshall Magnet School we've spent over $38,000.00 in Tax Credit contributions on our one-of-a-kind magnet programs and activities including field-trips, Taiko drumming, Suzuki violin, contemporary dance, Lego League, Team MasterMind, and Chess Club, as well as many other Magnet Monday electives, such as digital media, painting, and photography lab.  

Each dime of your contribution has been spent to broaden and enrich the educational learning experiences of  every student at Marshall.  Every kid at Marshall has received benefit from these contributions, and they will continue to, year after year, provided we are to be able to raise these funds in order to sustain our award-winning programs.

As demonstrated by our imaginary tax-payers below (click an image to enlarge it), Arizona's Tax Credit program works to the advantage of most tax-payers.  Whether you're a single parent, a married family filing jointly, or an more mature couple with grown children, Arizona's Tax Credit program enables you to give part of your annual state taxes directly to Marshall Magnet School, rather than to the state Department Of Revenue.

This rare opportunity, to determine exactly how your tax dollars are spent by providing direct support to Marshall School's unique magnet programs, is your chance to directly benefit your child's, and every child's, public school experience at Marshall Magnet School.  Marshall School can and will make that promise to you.  The state of Arizona cannot.

Single Parent	Married with children	Retired couple
Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge	Click to enlarge

Tax Credit contributions directly reduce the Balance Of Tax that you would otherwise owe to the state.  Tax Credit contributions are not deductions, nor are they a kind of exemption.  Tax Credit contributions to Marshall School are a direct dollar-for-dollar credit against the taxes that you must pay.  Your choice in the matter, however, is to take advantage of Arizona's Tax Credit program and contribute these dollars to Marshall Magnet School, or decide that you wold rather give those dollars to the state.

Every single Tax Credit dollar that you contribute to Marshall Magnet School goes directly into sustaining and developing our well-established, unique, and meaningful Arts and Science magnet programs at every grade level. All Marshall students, including your own, benefit from your contribution!

Below, as another example, is a per-grade-level break-down of the costs of our special magnet-school programs during a recent school year, which were paid for entirely by grants, Dodgeball, and your Tax Credit contributions:

Kindergarten
Magnet Programs: Reggio Emilia Art Integration ($11,500), Suzuki Violin 30 min twice/ week ($10,633) and Water in our World Science Program ($600) Total Cost: $22,733.00 

1st Grade
Magnet Programs: Suzuki Violin 30 min twice/ week ($9,417.80) and The Explorers Science Program $1,000.00 Total Cost: $10,417.80 

2nd Grade
Magnet Programs: Suzuki Violin 30 min twice/ week ($10,329.20) and Communities Science Program $6,000.00 Total Cost: $16,329.20 

3rd Grade
Magnet Programs: Professional Dance Instruction 30 min week ($2,362.50) and From the Ground Up Science Program ($4,000.00) Total Cost: $6,362.50 

4th Grade
Magnet Programs: Author in Residence $3,200.00 and Adaptations and Interactions Science Program ($3,100.00), Heritage Garden Project ($1,600.00) Total Cost: $7,900.00 

5th Grade
Magnet Programs: Japanese Taiko Drumming ($6,560.00) and Space Science Program ($1,000) Total Cost: $7,560.00 

4/5 Multiage Art and Science Integration Program (51 students): $3,500.00

Total magnet budget $102,802.50
Total # of students who benefit: 597
Average Cost per Marshall Student: $172.20

Please remember: In order to have it applied to your 2013 tax return, you must make your Tax Credit contribution before December 31, 2013.

Married couples filing jointly may contribute up to $400.00. Single taxpayers may give up to $200.00.  

However, contributions in any amount are always welcomed and appreciated!

You can make a Tax Credit contribution to Marshall School online at any time, in any amount, during the course of the year simply by clicking on the "Donate now!" button below.

Calendar
Week A

• Monday, 18 Nov.
• Canned Food Drive begins
• Tuesday, 19 Nov.
• FAST program in the Gym, 6:00
• Wednesday, 20 Nov.
• Staff Picture in the Music Room, 8:00
• Picture Retake Day in the Fit Kids Room, all day
• Thursday, 21 Nov.
• Faculty Meeting (canceled)

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

Updates - 08 November 2013

Hello everyone,

Happy Trifecta-Friday (Friday, pay-day, three-day weekend, natch)! 

Albert Camus
Until this week, I knew only a little bit about Albert Camus.  I've taken a few philosophy classes over the years, so, had you asked me about him I'd have probably told you I recalled him as a French existentialist philosopher from the early part of the 20th century... turns, out, however, that he's not really an existentialist, nor was he really French. In fact, he's not really even a "philosopher" technically speaking.  

Nope, not really. 

I've got a lot to learn about Albert Camus.

The 100th anniversary of his birth occurred this week, so a lot of the places on the Internet that I frequent were all atwitter about Mr. Camus recently.  I enjoyed the chance to read about him, of his many uncommon ideas, of his pacifism which later transformed into his becoming an active member of the French resistance movement during WWII, of his early death at age 46, and, most remarkably, of his Nobel Prize for literature for which he remains the second youngest recipient ever.  

And then I came across this on one of my very favorite websites, Letters Of Note (click-through at your own risk; this is a great place to lose an hour or two of your day).  Camus grew up poor.  Really, really poor.  And at a time in history when the poor were commonly disregarded and disenfranchised.

Nevertheless, one of his teachers apparently made quite a difference in the life poor, young Albert, for not too long after he received the Nobel Prize "for his important literary production, which with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times," he wrote a note to a man named Louis Germain, who was one of his former instructors.  It read:

19 November 1957

Dear Monsieur Germain,
I let the commotion around me these days subside a bit before speaking to you from the bottom of my heart. I have just been given far too great an honour, one I neither sought nor solicited.

But when I heard the news, my first thought, after my mother, was of you. Without you, without the affectionate hand you extended to the small poor child that I was, without your teaching and example, none of all this would have happened.

I don't make too much of this sort of honour. But at least it gives me the opportunity to tell you what you have been and still are for me, and to assure you that your efforts, your work, and the generous heart you put into it still live in one of your little schoolboys who, despite the years, has never stopped being your grateful pupil. I embrace you with all my heart.

Albert Camus

I include Camus' letter here as a reminder of the difference you make each day in the lives of young people, some of whom are just as poor and potentially otherwise just as disregarded and disenfranchised as he might have been, were it not for the role you play in their lives.

Yours is important work.  Don't forget.

Calendar
Week B

• Monday, 11 Nov.
• NO SCHOOL - Veterans' Day
• Tuesday, 12 Nov.
• Science Council, 4:00 in the Science Lab
• Site Council, 5:00 in the Library
• Wednesday, 13 Nov.
• Coe @ Elementary Admin., 7:30-10:30
• Coe @ Beyond Textbooks presentation, 2:00-4:30
• Thursday, 14 Nov.
• Exploration Stations! 6:00-8:00

Please acknowledge that you read this post.

PARCC PD: Follow-on

What are our first impressions?

All of the responses to the survey we took after previewing a variety of Smarter Balanced sample tests on Friday are available online.  I've included a few highlights below.

We all seem to agree that we are, to one degree or another, not yet fully prepared to assess our students with the PARCC test.

Among our chief concerns is how well we will be able to prepare our students to use the technology, particularly the mobile devices, which will be necessary to successfully be assessed via PARCC.

We also seem to be almost universally worried about how we're going to balance this concern with the need to teach the Common Core State Standards which will be necessary to prepare our students for the content on PARCC.

What other concerns do we have?

Below are a few other items you expressed concerns about:

• The test itself is very difficult to maneuver.
• Students who don't have technology at home will not do as well.
• The non-multiple choice items.
• How or what answers will be excepted?
• Teaching to the test multi-step problems present too many ways to miss.
• The academic vocabulary is going to be very difficult.
• The test is not developmentally appropriate.
• Difficulty for students with fine motor limitations to effectively take the test on the iPad.
• What are the expectations for how clear written responses are written?
• What are counted as acceptable answers?

How will we modify our approach to instruction?

Below are a few solutions and new approaches you provided on the survey.  I hope, as you select some to implement, they serve to alleviate a few of your concerns:

• I will teach using fewer multiple guess assessments. 
• Change majority of assessments from one answer to multiple possible answers. 
• This will also take much longer to grade.
• We are going to practice, practice and train there technology thinking. 
• Adapt and implement the common core standards with our curriculum maps. 
• Better prepare students to explain their thinking and use questioning strategies.
• Use Ipads integrating technology.
• Teach more pointedly. 
• Technology.
• Discovering a way to teach the students how to answer on the iPad in the manner in which is required for this test. 
• More multi-step problems. 
• Requiring students to not only compute but to explain and manipulate. 
• I will formally instruct my student using this sample test so that they know how to access the required technology. 
• Will use iPads more in everyday class work 
• Integrating technology 
• I will try to find more critical thinking tasks/apps/activities for students to practice with on iPads. 
• Practice that requires more problem solving with more complicated steps. 
• Shift happens in both ELA and Math. 
• We need to align our lessons to be high-level lessons with critical thinking. 
• Show your work more Higher level of expectations 
• I plan to use the materials I have to teach the students in a way that they will be asked to solve problems on a test. 
• Obviously the students will need more access to the iPad so they can practice navigating, word processing, etc. 
• More performance-type tasks giving students the opportunity to apply their learning in various settings 

How will we make the shift?

During our post-sample-test whole-group discussion, it became clear that we must increase the rigor of our lessons by providing opportunities for students to:

• become strategic thinkers and better at reasoning (Level 3 of Webb’s DOK)
• extend their thinking (Level 4 of Webb’s DOK)

How do we do this?

During our post-test discussion, we brainstormed together a number of other great solutions and new approaches to teaching and learning in more PARCC-like ways:

• This website is a treasure chest of Close Reading Materials as well as a wealth of other reading materials. It is FREE: Reading Works (Kristin)
• Provide opportunities for students to do a “Cold” read or a “Cold” write. (Joy)
• Use leveled reading materials. There is a free trial you can sign up for: Reading A-to-Z The RTI room has a subscription for this school year. (Thompson, McFall, Pavich)
• Provide a framework for writing opinions and arguments. “This or That” strategy (Stefanie); 
• Debate using science articles from Science A-to-Z (Bobby)
• Use Close Read Strategies for your grade level Enrich and Extend RTI groups. (Fisher/Kohl, Ballard, Kasch)
• Use highlighters to analyze text. (Koenig)
• Use 4sight constructed responses as a teaching opportunity. (Grant)
• Use the Socrative app to make quizzes that can require a written response using the iPad . This is just one great application for this app. (Price & Grant)
• Use the math problem-solving template to teach students how to solve and explain a multi-step math problem. (Kasch, Ballard, Fisher, Kohl)
• Use the student notebook from the Social Studies materials to provide writing opportunities that are linked to SS content. (Shaw)
• Use current science/weather events for real world problem solving. (Janelle)
• Provide project based learning experiences that allow students to be creative thinkers and problem solvers. (Janelle: Science lab; Weather Station: Coe)
• Collaborate and co-teach an integrated unit with a specials teacher. ( Sheila, Ellen , and Jan)
• Provide Jan with the academic vocabulary you are learning and she will integrate it into PE!

If you would like more information about these materials, strategies, and units, please contact the person(s) listed or ask Jessica and Joy.

Updates -- -01 November 2013

Hello everyone,

Is it really already November first?   

Next week looks to be on the quiet side... that's always kind of nice.  

Plus, there's a three-day weekend on the horizon, too.  

TLTWATW
Please let me know if you'd like me to read to your class.  All the previous chapters are available on Youtube.

• Chapter 1 -- Lucy Looks Into A Wardrobe
• Chapter 2 -- What Lucy Found There
• Chapter 3 -- Edmund And The Wardrobe
• Chapter 4 -- Turkish Delight

Tier 1 PBS
Please remember to use the Blue Ticket PBS program to encourage all of our students to behave in safe, responsible, and respectful ways in our common spaces.  We've seen a bit of a dip in the number of tickets in the boxes of late.  Nevertheless, please remember: this program has demonstrated its ability to be of great value to our whole community.  It's essential that we continue to implement it every day.

Should you run out, new Blue Tickets are always available in the workroom.  Help yourself.  Our goal continues to be that we all hand out tickets to students we recognize doing the right things at a rate of 2-3 tickets per day.

Morning Math
Please remember to dedicate the time period from 8:45-9:15 to Morning Math time.  This is not a request, it is an expectation.  Please use this time to review previously taught concepts, to work on problem solving exercises, or to begin to introduce new topics.  Rocket Math, Envision Problem Of The Day, etc. are all suitable activities during this time.

Professional Expectations
Please remember, our work day at Marshall begins no later than 8:15 for all teaching faculty.  Likewise, morning duty begins at 8:15 each day as well.  If you are going to arrive at work later than 8:15 due to unforeseen circumstances, please call the office to let us know [928 773 4030].  If you are going to miss your duty due to an absence, please arrange to trade with a professional cohort; do not have your sub perform your duty.

Bike To School Day

It's still a ways off, but that doesn't diminish the fact that a lot of us true-believer-types are unwilling to accept Marshall being the runner-up for anything!  Most especially Bike To School Day!  So a bunch of folks are working real hard to foment a really-good-plan that will bring the BTSD trophy back to Marshall to stay in May of 2014.  

Thanks to the efforts of PTO president Kinkade, one of the early additions to Marshall's 2014 Bike To School Day initiative is the Alpine Pedaler.  The Pedaler's flagship, "The Crab" will be joining us on the morning of Bike To School Day this year to lead the "parade" of bikes from Wheeler Park to the school!  

Kids are too small to ride on the Pedaler's machine, but it fits most grown-ups perfectly.  There are six seats available.  We're hopeful to fill them with Marshall teachers and parents.  Stay tuned to the Blue Note as Bike To School Day approaches for updates and your opportunity to volunteer to ride The Crab.

Best of all: the Alpine Pedaler folks have agreed to provide two pub crawl seats for our Bike To School Day raffle, too!  Sweet!

Calendar
Week A

• Monday, 04 Nov.
• Coe @ Admin Council, 1:00-4:00
• Tuesday, 05 Nov.
• FAST meeting in the Gym, 6:00
• Wednesday, 06 Nov.
• PTO in the Library, 6:30
• Monday, 11 Nov.
• NO SCHOOL - Veterans Day

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