June 24

The SAN Script Wednesday, June 24

a summary of the grade 6 trip – thanks Christie Lake for a wonderful day!

I am struck by how sharing our weakness and difficulties is more nourishing to others than sharing our qualities and successes.
-Jean Vanier

St. Anthony Today

Grade 6 leaving ceremony – 9:00 – 11:00 am

last  weeding Wednesday

Report cards and IEPs go home today

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Our last Super Stars winners for this year FDK 2

JUNE 2015 BOARD & PRINCIPAL’S YEAR-END DUTY CHECKLIST

LOST AND FOUND

Items will be displayed on the table in the hallway. Items not picked up will be donated.

BANK PICK UP

The Credit Union will do their final pick up the last week of school…There is to be no

cash left in the school over the summer. This means ALL cash must be submitted to the

office to deposit to the bank as soon as possible this week.

PONY SERVICE

The Pony should pick up on Friday, but this is never a guarantee as it will be very busy

for them. Consider the last day for pony pick up to be Thursday at 8:30am

O.S.R. FOLDERS

This year’s photo (provided in the fall) is to be placed inside the front cover and dated.

All OSR’s are to be signed and dated with the last date of attendance for each student,

and the last report card on the top of the pile.

French teachers please enter the French hours (card) by the last day of school.

All OSR’s must be in the cabinet by the last day of school.

IF you notice an OSR for a student who has withdrawn please file it in the bottom

archives drawer, alphabetical.

REPORT CARD MAIL OUT

Please submit any undelivered report cards to the office by 9am Friday, so they can be

mailed home.

FIREBOOKS

Please submit your classroom red fire book to the office before the last day of school.

SHREDDING MATERIALS

A Shredding box is now located by the photocopier. Please place all items for shredding

(with a student name on them) NOT recycling, in the box as soon as possible. The pony

van cannot accommodate shredding boxes from every school on the last day, so they

need to go out as soon as they are full.

TECH TUBS/ELECTRONICS

Student iPads and Tech Tubs are to be brought down the last day-Friday. We will be

storing them in the nurse’s room. Please DO NOT block the OSR cabinet, the fax

machine or the boxes of supplies…we will need access to those items before the tech tubs

are picked up next year.

GENERAL YEAR END CLEAN UP OF CLASSROOMS

Your class should be left spotless: all desks cleared (inside and out). Nothing left on

walls, as they are to be dusted and washed. Your bulletin boards can remain intact and

you may wish to have them covered. Store all classroom supplies (tape dispensers,

scissors etc.) in the cupboard. If you have your own carpets or mat…they must be

removed as the Board is not responsible for their cleaning.

Cupboards are to be left in good order. The custodians have a limited amount of time

they can spend in each room, so if you (students) can wash your own shelves this would

be a great help. You cannot leave anything on the floor (i.e. boxes etc.).

Please wash your blackboard and ledges and store your chalk for the summer. See the

note on Tech Tubs. Classroom furniture is moved during the summer months to assist

with cleaning. Please leave a map of how you want your classroom set up for

September.

All Personal Items and Valuables should be taken home or locked away. Please dispose

of all compost and garbage and wash your containers. Turn off all smart boards,

computers, printers, lights and close your blinds.

SUPPLIES FOR NEXT YEAR

Supplies for next year will be stocked in the cabinets the first week of September. As our

budget is decreasing next year we cannot order more items throughout the year, we ask

that when taking supplies, you consider all staff and take only what you NEED i.e. one

class set only.

NEXT YEAR CLASS LISTS

Everyone should have their class list for next year now. Official class lists will be

provided at the Staff Meeting, Thursday Sept 3 and not before. If you need one before,

you may print your class list in PowerTeacher..as long as the student registration has been

input, it will show in PowerTeacher. If it has not been input, I will let you know of any

new reg’s via email so you aren’t surprised.

THE FOLLOWING ITEMS REQUIRE A TEAM EFFORT!

PHOTOCOPIER AREA

Please make sure the laminator is unplugged and the copy room is cleaned up.

GYM EQUIPMENT ROOM

Take an inventory and tidy up.

REFRIGERATORS

Please take all your items home. The fridges should be cleared out and wiped down. The

milk fridge and extra fridge will be unplugged for the summer.

MILK BINS

All Milk bins need to have their labels, class lists etc removed and need to be washed

thoroughly. Please stack them on top of the milk fridge for next year.

KITCHEN

The kitchen should be tidied and picked up. Refrigerators, microwaves, coffeemakers

cleaned and unplugged (do not unplug the staff room fridge). All compost and garbage is

to be removed.

BULLETIN BOARDS AND POSTERS

All bulletin boards need to be cleaned up (dispose of outdated notices/events). All posters

hanging in the school that are outdated should be removed from the walls.

MAILBOXES

Please empty your mailbox completely.

June 23

The SAN Script – Tuesday, June 23

Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

-Mother Teresa

image1 (3)

St. Anthony today

9:00 am – IPRC

10:50 – singing practice

Table Tennis at end of the day

What is #Edchat?

#Edchat is the weekly Bammy Award winning Twitter conversation that any educator can join to discuss and learn about current teaching trends, how to integrate technology, transform their teaching, and connect with inspiring educators worldwide. We also discuss education policy, education reform and often have leaders worldwide join our conversations, such as Alfie Kohn, Diane Ravitch, and the Finnish Education Leaders.

 

June 21

The SAN Script June 22 – 26

worked for seven hours - right up to 5:00PM - quite an amazing feat!

worked for seven hours – right up to 5:00PM – quite an amazing feat!

This is an excerpt from an article in Brain Pickings – I couldn’t include the whole thing but you can read the rest here.  I encourage you to subscribe to this blog and to read this article – a great way to start the summer and a very good explanation on how you are all able to keep up the incredible effort you do during the year!

How to Be Extraordinary: William James on the Psychology of the Second Wind and How to Release Our Untapped Human Potential

by

“Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake… We are making use of only a small part of our possible mental and physical resources.”

“We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake,” Henry David Thoreau wrote in contemplating what it really means to be awake, adding: “Only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred million to a poetic or divine life.”Those rare individuals are the ones who lift themselves out of ordinary life’s mediocrity and, through the sheer force of their creative and intellectual wakefulness, rise to the level of the extraordinary. They are the people we come to celebrate as luminaries, those whose ideas endure for centuries. But what is this mysterious force that jolts a human being into such wakeful aliveness from which greatness blossoms?

That’s what legendary philosopher and founding father of modern psychologyWilliam James (January 11, 1842–August 26, 1910) addressed half a century after Thoreau’s famous words, in a superb speech he delivered before the American Philosophical Association at Columbia University in December of 1906. It was published in the January 1907 issue of the journal Philosophical Review under the title “The Energies of Men” and was eventually included in the out-of-print 1967 compendium The Writings of William James: A Comprehensive Edition (public library), which remains the finest record of James’s mind to date.

James begins with the curious psychological phenomenon of the “second wind,” familiar to everyone from athletes to artists to entrepreneurs — a perplexity that had captivated his imagination for years:

Everyone knows what it is to start a piece of work, either intellectual or muscular, feeling stale… And everybody knows what it is to “warm up” to his job. The process of warming up gets particularly striking in the phenomenon known as “second wind.” On usual occasions we make a practice of stopping an occupation as soon as we meet the first effective layer (so to call it) of fatigue. We have then walked, played, or worked “enough,” so we desist. That amount of fatigue is an efficacious obstruction on this side of which our usual life is cast. But if an unusual necessity forces us to press onward a surprising thing occurs. The fatigue gets worse up to a certain critical point, when gradually or suddenly it passes away, and we are fresher than before. We have evidently tapped a level of new energy, masked until then by the fatigue-obstacle usually obeyed… In exceptional cases we may find, beyond the very extremity of fatigue-distress, amounts of ease and power that we never dreamed ourselves to own — sources of strength habitually not taxed at all, because habitually we never push through the obstruction, never pass those early critical points.

James reflects on his longtime quest to find a psychological theory of the second wind and examines what carries us over this initial plateau of fatigue, toward ever-greater heights of productivity and excellence:

It is evident that our organism has stored-up reserves of energy that are ordinarily not called upon, but that may be called upon: deeper and deeper strata of combustible or explosible material, discontinuously arranged, but ready for use by anyone who probes so deep, and repairing themselves by rest as well as do the superficial strata. Most of us continue living unnecessarily near our surface.

 

St. Anthony this week

Monday, June 22

report cards back to teachers

work on the second mural continues all this week.  Murals to be put up at the end of the month

mass songs practice in gym 9:20

Paul – meeting 2:00PM at school regarding music program for next year

Hip Hop practice

Tuesday, June 23

Table Tennis after school

Wednesday, June 24

last weeding Wednesday session – need to get enough hose to make it to the Paul Dewar Tree

Grade 6 Leaving Ceremony (AM) – gym

report cards going home

Thursday, June 25

Recycling Day – (black and blue bins open please)

awards ceremony and final slide show

last day of school

Friday 26

PD Day

 The depaving of St. Anthony Catholic

 

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Today we starting on a great journey that will change the face of St. Anthony School.  A group of dedicated volunteers from Ecology Ottawa, teachers, parents and one student worked up to seven hours to cut into tones of pavement and gravel.  We filled an entire dumpster and created a huge pile of gravel too – all of this will be recycled by our contractor whose main job so far has been to cut into the old asphalt so we could pry it up and remove it from the yard.

 

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

 

The project was funded by Green Communities Canada who received funding from RBC .  Evergreen Canada did the design work and Ecology Ottawa administered the entire project.  What a great group of partners.  I am so grateful that there are foundations and corporations that really want to get to work with schools like ours to make a better environment for our kids.  This is how we must do things, look for great community partners who will continue to work with our school to fund depaving, the arts, recreation programming – anything that will make the educational experience richer for our students.

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

We have worked with so many wonderful groups this year – Opera Lyra, Little Horn Theatre, Table Tennis Canada, Evergreen Canada, Young Rembrandts, Learn to Play, Fun 2 Run, MASC, Organic Growers of Ottawa, Big Kid Entertainment, Christie Lake Kids,  the YMCA, Social Rec Connect and Somerset West Community Health Center, and all our political representatives- all these groups and individuals have worked hard to provide a richer environment for our students.  What a great privilege to work in such a wonderful community!

I want to thank all the groups who are working hard to give our kids something special as part of their educational experience.  We really appreciate all you have done and all the time and resources you have poured into our school.  You are part of our community and you are all doing wonderful work.

With help from our partners and new ones to come, we will continue our depaving work at St. Anthony and will continue to dig up the rotting asphalt that retains stormwater and winer melt, creates hazards for our kids and actually contributes to Global Warming.

A great day for our school – thank-you to all the volunteers and foundations that made this possible!

ecology ottawaevergreengreen communitiesRBC Blue Water

 

 

You can read more about what we accomplished together as a community here in this Ottawa Citizen article

June 18

The SAN Script – Thursday, June 18th

Carve your name on hearts, not tombstones. A legacy is etched into the minds of others and the stories they share about you. ~ Shanon L. Alder

pavement

The cutting has started!  The company will be back tonight to complete the work

St. Anthony Today

Grade 6 gone ll day to Christie Lake – returning for 9:30 PM – Paul and Debra gone all day

Recycling Day – (black and blue bins open please)

What are the Best Ways a Teacher can Demonstrate Leadership in the Classroom?

Read more here

demonstrate-leadership-tolisano

Model: A leader in the classroom models the type of behavior and learning they want to see and encourage in their students. They are transparent in their own learning process, they do not hide mistakes or failures, their make their thinking, learning and process visible for others to reconstruct and follow. Leaders model by example  not by ” Do as I say”.

Experience: A leader in the classroom gives students the opportunities to experience the learning. Leaders in the classroom don’t skip steps because it is easier, less time consuming and possibly more convenient. By the same token, leaders are ready to experience and embrace new situations, new skills, new learning opportunities alongside their students. Leaders put themselves in the position of learners and don’t continue to only draw on experiences from another lifetime (when they were young or from a pre-technology world).

Leaders encourage, value,  support and celebrate “sticking your neck out” in order to experience new paths. Share: A leader celebrates, highlights and shares their classroom learning community’s  accomplishments. The leader takes on the responsibility of documenting and strategically amplifying through a variety of venues. This can range from face to face in-school sharing opportunities to district, national or international conferences as well as online social network platforms (Ex. blogs, Twitter, Pinterest, Diigo)

Trust: A leader in the classroom is always working on establishing and strengthening trust as an integral component of that leadership flow. Trust is the component that “lubricates” the movement of the flow.  Leaders always seek and take advantage of opportunities to gain trust but also learn to trust their students.

June 17

The SAN Script – Wednesday, June 17


On April 22, 2015 Chile’s Calbuco Volacno erupted for the first time in four decades. On hand to document the event was Timestorm Films who recount the experience:
“We spent the prior couple of days on the neighboring volcano Osorno (~20km linear distance) shooting timelapses. After an amazing night under the nightsky we took the cable car downwards after a delay caused by repairs. Already late we headed south to catch the ferry on Routa 7 down to Patagonia. After 10 min on the ferry we noticed a massive, almost nuclear looking cloud boiling upwards just where we left a few hours ago.

Frenetically looking for a good outlook we then rushed to the only non-forested place to get a decent view of the show. We quickly put every bit of camera-equipment we could find on the constantly growing mushroom-cloud. We shot timelapses in 8K and 4K with a Pentax 645Z and Canon 6D. On the A7s we shot 4K video to the Shogun. We filled almost all of our memory cards in the prior night so I had to do backups while shooting all this stuff.

This was for sure the most incredible show I’ve ever seen. I think this is a once in a lifetime event and I am so happy that we were able to capture it in all its glory.”

from Twisted Sifter

If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go with others.
-African Proverb

St. Anthony Today

Wednesday Session for the GREEN Club and Mrs. Manzoli

Teresa at OECTA Personnel Committee Meeting

Ryan away – Ellen in

Depaving starts today with the cutting of the asphalt – 4:30 PM

IMG_0058

 

 

 

 

 

 

200 Free Educational Documentaries for Teachers ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning

Looking for some interesting free documentaries to use in your class or probably use for your own professional and intellectual growth? This list from Open Culture has you covered. It features around 200 free documentaries spanning a wide range of topics from history to arts and science. All of these documentaries are provided with a short description about their content together with a link to the page  where you can watch them and read more about the contextual information surrounding the topic they cover. It will take you awhile to sift through the entire list but we are pretty sure you will come out with some good documentaries to share with your class.

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Here are some examples of documentaries that stood out to us from the list. Check out the full list fromthis page.1- Einstein’s Brain – Free – A strange documentary that follows Japanese scholar Kenji Sugimoto’s quest to find Einstein’s brain. (1994)

2- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: Man Of Peace In A Time Of War – Free – Documentary examining the life of MLK Jr. includes rarely seen footage.

3- The Distortion of Sound – Free – A documentary about the decline of sound quality and how technology has changed the way we listen to music. Features numerous musicians. (2014)

4- The Mystery of Picasso – Free – Pablo Picasso’s art emerges in front of our eyes in this remarkable film by the French master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot. (1956)

5- The Story of the Guitar – Free – A three part documentary reveals how the guitar came to “dominate the soundtrack of our lives.” (2008)

6- What is Reality? – Free – Physicists give us a taste of reality in a world where nothing is as it appears. (2011)

7- Why We Fight – Free – A seven part series of WWII propaganda films directed by Frank Capra. (1943)

You can also check this page from Wikipedia where you can find more documentary films about education.
Image source: http://goo.gl/uSnhd

You might also like:
Check Out Today’s Google Doodle
A Great Visual To Help You Integrate Visible Thinking …
Two Handy iPad Apps to Create 3D Drawings and Models
4 Awesome Facebook Templates for your Class
June 16

The SAN Script – Tuesday, June 16

Learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. 
– Isaiah 1:17

People do not choose rebellion; it is forced upon them. Revolution is an act of self-defense.
-C.T. Vivian


prayer of the day

O God, give us the courage to seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, and plead for the widow. May we always be willing to learn to do good. May we always be willing to rebel against the unjust structures of our world. Amen.

 

Students at Alan Shepard Elementary School in Bourbonnais, Illinois wait patiently to have their yearbook signed by Steve “Mr. Steve” Weidner, the school’s long-time custodian. “He pays attention to the kids… he knows who they are,” Principal Shirley Padera said about Weidner. “The kids know if anything happens, Mr. Steve is going to take care of it.” According to Yahoo, Mr. Steve signed all 104 of the second graders’ yearbooks in addition to 200 more from other classes. “He [Mr. Steve] has good relationships with the students,” Principal Padera adds. “Many of our children remain in the building for 5 years because our grade levels are kindergarten through 4th grade. They have many opportunities to interact with Mr. Steve.”

Students at Alan Shepard Elementary School in Bourbonnais, Illinois wait patiently to have their yearbook signed by Steve “Mr. Steve” Weidner, the school’s long-time custodian.
“He pays attention to the kids… he knows who they are,” Principal Shirley Padera said about Weidner. “The kids know if anything happens, Mr. Steve is going to take care of it.”
According to Yahoo, Mr. Steve signed all 104 of the second graders’ yearbooks in addition to 200 more from other classes.
“He [Mr. Steve] has good relationships with the students,” Principal Padera adds. “Many of our children remain in the building for 5 years because our grade levels are kindergarten through 4th grade. They have many opportunities to interact with Mr. Steve.”

St. Anthony Today

Bob away Barry in

Chicken Little Play- Primary Language Class- AM and PM performances

#OCSB East End Track Meet @Terry Fox facility CANCELLED due to rain, today Tuesday June 16, no rain date set.

student profile meeting -10:00 am

Table Tennis – last session

Asphalt cutting starting today at 4:30 PM

44 Diverse Tools To Publish Student Work

From Teachthought

show-what-you-know-fi

44 Diverse Tools To Publish Student Work 

by TeachThought Staff

Educators are often admonished to design work that “leaves the classroom.”

This is partly a push for authenticity. Work that is “real world” will naturally be more engaging to students because it has more chance to have credibility in their eyes, and usefulness in their daily lives. This kind of work has value beyond the current grading period and culminating report card.

But work that is made public has other benefits as well. If someone besides the teacher is actually going to read it, students may be more willing to engage their hearts and minds in their work. This kind of work is also often iterative–done in stages, with drafts, revisions, collaboration, and rethinking. It’s design work, and as design work, it gives students a chance to show what they know. This is one of the gifts of digital and social media, and an idea we’ve approached before with 7 Creative Apps That Allow Students To Show What They Know.

Tony Vincent from learninginhand.com revisited that idea with the following graphic that clarifies another talent of education technology–shared thinking.

Publishing Student Work vs Assessment

In lieu of its perceived art and science, assessment is a murky practice.

Anything a student “does” can be used as a kind of assessment. What the say, write, draw, diagram, create, or otherwise manifest that is then shared with someone else is evidence of thinking. This can be taken as a snapshot–create a video that clarifies the cause-effect relationship of pollution and the water cycle–or something more project-based and done over time, such as a storyboarding, creating, drawing, and publishing a comic book character over a 8 part series that explores the issue of bullying over social media. Either way, because the work is mobile and digital and easily shared, its ripe for both assessment and sharing with authentic audiences in the real world.

When students publish their thinking with their right audience or collaborators at the right time, the tone and purpose of the work are able to shift dramatically. The following tools either allow you to publish student work online (e.g., YouTube, Prezi, wevideo), or create something digital that can then be published in relevant contexts (e.g., Story Me, Book Creator, Puppet Pals HD).

The tools to publish student work are separated into 11 varied categories that run the spectrum of digital publishing, a list that’s nearly as useful as the graphic itself. You can find the list, graphic, and tools below.

11 Categories Of Digital Tools To Publish Student Work

  1. Audio Recordings
  2. Collages
  3. Comic Books
  4. Posters
  5. Slide Presentations
  6. Digital Books
  7. Narrated Slideshows
  8. Movies
  9. Animations
  10. Screencasts
  11. Study Aids

44 Diverse Tools To Publish Student Work – see full article here – 

June 14

The SAN Script – The Week of June 15 – 19

Reg’s Video – thanks for your photos and clips – here is the new and improved version – I will send this off to reg.
Paul

St Anthony's Mural June 2015
The first of our two murals – completed this Friday by Nicole Belanger and Ann Coffey
thebiggreenbook_gravessendak
The Big Green Book: Robert Graves and Maurice Sendak’s Little-Known and Lovely Vintage Children’s Book About the Magic of Reading

by  – Brain Pickings

A subversive celebration of how books transform us.


In 1962, the revered British poet and novelistRobert Graves was sixty-seven, with his greatest works long behind him; Maurice Sendak was an insecure young artist of thirty-four, with Where the Wild Things Are — his greatest work, which would turn him into a household name for generations to come — still a year ahead.

Mere months earlier, Sendak had illustrated Tolstoy, and now he was about to join forces with one of the greatest living authors of his own era: He was tasked with illustrating The Big Green Book (public library), Graves only children’s book — a wondrous and subversive story about the magic of reading.

That the protagonist is named Jack, like Sendak’s beloved brother, would have only added to the felicitous allure of the collaboration.

Little Jack is an orphan living with his aunt and uncle, who are “not very nice to him” because they take him on long walks when he wants to be left alone to play, and with their big old dog — a rather familiar dog — who likes chasing rabbits so much that the family frequently has rabbit pie for dinner.

One day, Jack climbs into the attic to play and discovers a big green book, which turns out to be full of magic spells.

As his eyes grow “bigger and bigger” with wonder, his magical find makes literal Rebecca Solnit’s memorable metaphor for the book as “a heart that only beats in the chest of another.” Jack’s heart magically migrates from his little-boy chest into a little-old-man chest as he transmogrifies into a miniature Merlin-like personage, with a big beard and a tattered robe.

The story is delightfully nonsensical, but in a Lewis Carroll kind of way — nonsense undergirded by existential insight and deep human truth. It’s hard, for instance, not to feel Graves’s wistfulness at the incomprehensibly swift passage of life when he, in his late sixties, writes of little Jack’s magical transmutation:

Soon he found he was not a little boy any more — he was an old man with a long beard.

And when the aunt and uncle, now fretting over Jack’s disappearance, decide that they must ask “that ragged old man” whether he has seen the little boy anywhere, it’s hard not to feel thrust into the middle of the immutable mystery of personal identity — how is it, really, that you and your childhood self are the same person despite a lifetime of staggering physical and psychological changes? The ragged old man, Graves writes, “was really Jack all the time” — miraculously, so are we. And when the old man answers the uncle’s question, it’s impossible for the heart not to swell with Graves’s wistfulness once more:

A little boy was here only a minute ago… Now he’s disappeared.

The little old man convinces the aunt and uncle to stick around for a game of cards. With the help of his newfound magic, he proceeds to beat them over and over again. They start out playing for just a couple of dollars, but double the stakes each new game, hoping to recover their losses, only to lose again — until they owe the little sorcerer their house, their garden, and even their rabbit-chasing dog. (Three decades later, Sendak would dust off the symbolism of playing cards as a manipulation tool in his darkest children’s book, also starring a protagonist named Jack.)

Just as they’re about to take the little old man to the house, for him to claim his winnings, he performs one last spell — the rabbit being chased by the dog suddenly turns around, punches the dog in the nose, and reverses the chase.

At the house, under the pretext that he is taking a look at his new property, the little old man goes back to the attic and transmogrifies into Jack.

When the little boy joins his aunt and uncle outside, they begin telling him about the mysterious little man who now owned their lives, but Jack points out that there is no such person in sight, convincing them — in one final mind-muddling prank — that they had dreamt it all, making them feel “very silly” for it.

Life returns to normal, except for the dog, whose fresh fear of rabbits endures and ensures that the family is never to have rabbit pie again — a sweet, subtle reminder that although we inevitably return to the real world when the reading experience ends, books always transform us and leave traces of themselves in our real selves, to be carried forward beyond the last page.

Complement the wholly magical The Big Green Book with Sendak’s illustrations for The Nutcracker, the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, Melville’s Pierre, and William Blake’s Songs of Innocence, then revisit his little-known and lovely vintage posters celebrating the joy of reading.

St. Anthony this week

Monday, June 15
CLK/SRC Discussion – Paul – in school 9:00AM

Jennifer Johnson visiting to speak to students re summer program

student profile meeting – 12:15 -1:15

Depave Ottawa meeting at 5:00PM

Tuesday, June 16

student profile meeting – 10:00 – 11:00AM

Chicken Little Play- Primary Language Class- See Schedule Please

Track and Field Meet – Nora, Sandra and paul away

Last day for Table Tennis

Wednesday June 17th

Krista Out @ Board Office All Day

Weeding Wednesday

Paul away Track and Field

Teresa at OECTA Personnel Committee Meeting (PM)

Thursday, June 18th

Grad Six Grad Trip – Debra and Paul away

Friday, June 19

Deadline: All Cash$$ Submitted to Office

Meeting with TD Friends of the Environment 10:00 am Paul out

Deadline: Report cards to the office

Summer Solstice Festival, Grade1-6 AM

Saturday, June 20

Depave Day at St. Anthony – if you plan on coming, could you please sign up here – https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/S272M23

 

 

Jeff Ross talked a lot about tribes in his workshop last week – it is a really interesting concept, here in this TED Talk Seth Godin takes it further – really interesting talk.

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

June 12

The SAN Script Friday, June 12

bbq

 

 

For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?
bell hooks

St. Anthony Today

Work completing on butterfly mural today

Pizza Day!

Assembly today – 2:00 PM

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY KIDS THIS SUMMER?

I often ask myself this same question. While I do work most of June, July and much of August is spent with my two boys, age 6 and 8. If you have boys, then you know that you have to keep them busy and many times plan activities and games in advance. So thinking forward to this summer… I have started curating and preparing a few resources to support those of you that are home with your little darlings too…

1000 Summer Activities

WHAT CAN WE DO WITH THE IPAD?

Many of us have iPads and rather than letting brain drain set in with Angry Birds Transformers, I have compiled a few resources to support you. Don’t get me wrong… I don’t think you have to practice sight words and multiplication tables all summer long either… but choosing times to create something with your child or expose them to critical thinking and coding apps in a 1:1 relaxed setting goes a long way to making the summer a cool experience for both of you:

June 11

The SAN Script – Thursday June 11

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.
Leo Buscaglia

 

2015-05-18_1547

Now – Free Admission!!

St. Anthony Today

Recycling Day – (black and blue bins open please)

10:30 – visit from LT Discussion of computer needs (Paul) here

4:30 Family BBQ starts Magician John Pert will be performing at 5:00PM

all attractions provided by Partytime Inflatables

3 Thing You Can Do This Summer to Be a Better Teacher in the Fall

—First Day of Summer,” Paul Bica, Flickr Creative Commons

As the school year winds down, effective teachers everywhere are reflecting on their experiences and translating them into a plan for another successful school year ahead. It doesn’t matter what grade or subjects you teach, how long you’ve been teaching, or where—there are three universal things that all educators can to do be a better teacher in the fall.

1. Practice Mindfulness

The word mindful itself can create a nice sense of inner calm. When a person is mindful, he or she is present in the moment, fully aware, and accepting of his thoughts, surroundings, and situation as a part of the natural process of experiencing life.

Mindful people are observant and responsive—not reactive. Instead of judging people or situations, they accept them. This state of awareness holds special value for teachers. It keeps us taking care of ourselves despite our busy schedules and long list of responsibilities.

In addition, mindfulness can make us better teachers. Just think about the last time you experienced stress at any point—for any reason—in the midst of your school day. How did you handle it? Hopefully the results were positive. But if stress isn’t handled well, it can adversely affect lessons, relationships, and even our personal energy level.

Mindfulness is a surefire way to become aware of our emotions but also to take charge and use them in ways that result in positive relationships with ourselves and our students, colleagues, parents, and family members.

Here are a few things you can do to learn more and begin applying mindful practices:

• Pick up Teach, Breathe, Learn by Meena Srinivasan and gain a personal perspective with ideas for practical applications to include mindfulness in daily practice.

• Check out an interview with Meena Srinivasan at Edutopia.

• Journal! Summer is a great time to start (or maybe just pick up where you left off). As you write down your reflections, you may find that organizing your writing will help you work toward a clear, organized mind. Also, consider the value in making journaling a daily or weekly practice with your students. In addition to strengthening their writing or drawing skills, the outcome of expressing their thoughts and emotions will deepen their relationship to themselves as learners.

• Connect with nature. Make time for a walk or a visit to the park every so often. There’s nothing like the great outdoors in summertime (bring your journal, too!).

• Practice mindful techniques that will become second nature by the time the new school year arrives. These techniques will help you keep yourself in check throughout all the inevitably wonderful and stressful moments.

• Incorporate breathing techniques. Your thoughts, paired with mindful breathing, are effective focusing tools to ensure clear, responsive thinking that leads to successful actions.

• As you get into the swing of mindful breathing, check out this article and video demonstration to capture three breathing techniques that boost daily performance.

2. Read, Reflect, Plan

Kick back and read for a balance of personal and professional reasons. Some reading should be for pleasure. Other reading should have a direct impact on your professional goals for the upcoming year. Make sure to connect how these readings will apply to your vision.

• Map out your school year with a month-by-month instructional plan. Framing your monthly goals will help you to launch an organized year of learning and teaching.

• Identify the resources you will need and make a list so you can begin to gather what you need over the summer. Create your must-use website lists, books, articles, and visit your local teacher store to see what items might support your instructional plans.

• Create a strategy notebook that includes strategies you can turn to when you need to differentiate, scaffold, and guide students to personally connect to learning in meaningful ways. Gather strategies that you can apply for proactive lesson plans—and also those that you can use for spontaneous decisions during instruction. Check out CAST for ideas to meet the needs of all learners in your classroom.

3. Connect, Collaborate, Listen, and Share!

Effective teaching is a social, collaborative, teamwork-focused process. Summer is the perfect time to create or expand your professional learning network (PLN). Connecting with colleagues from your school, district, and community is powerful—but don’t stop there! Here are some ideas to spark you into action:

• Join Twitter and participate in chats that spark your interest and expertise. There is a chat topic for everyone. And if you don’t see a topic that you would like, create it! That’s how #coteachat began. I wanted to connect with other co-teachers to discuss everything co-teaching—and voila! #coteachat was launched. Twitter is a year-round, any day, any time form of professional development—it’s ready whenever you are!

• Create or participate in a book club that can provide you with a balance of professional and personal genres and topics.

• Learn two new technology-based tools you can apply next year. Check out Education World for some ideas or Teach Thought for more tech applications and setting your tech goals now.

• Connect with family, friends, and yourself—make time to just be!

The journey of becoming a better version of our teacher self is all about finding balance, joy, and opportunities to learn and collaborate. It’s an ongoing process that creates a spirited commitment that will no doubt guide our students to deepen their own relationship to learning—and isn’t that what it’s all about?

June 10

The SAN Script Wednesday, June 10th

Thoughts on time – something we just don’t have enough of!
Time is how you spend your love.

-Zadie Smith

prayer of the day

Lord, may we use our time effectively and wisely, but, above all, lovingly. Amen.

IMG_20150609_133449474

 

St. Anthony Today

Paul away all day – CLL

Weeding Wednesday

Work on the Butterfly mural continues today

Top 12 Summer Tips for Top Teachers

During summer days, if you’re a top teacher, you’ll take time to improve your best asset — you. If somehow it’s not clear why that’s so important, look at it this way: when financial times are tight, our schools can improve the bottom line in four ways, three which aren’t beneficial for us as teachers.

  1. They can cut teachers and staff.
  2. They can cut benefits.
  3. They can lower quality.
  4. We teachers can become more productive and better at our jobs.

The best choice for our students, schools, and us is #4 — becoming better teachers. But how? We’re so tired!

Here are 12 tips that I use to level up every summer.

1. Rework the Worst to Be the Best

Based on student feedback, rework your least engaging lessons to make them the most exciting lessons the next year. Create costumes or comb thrift shops, make room decorations, and spend time inventing powerful learning experiences. Top teachers never settle.

2. Prepare Platforms

Reevaluate online platforms and learn what you could be doing. Revisit your favorite sites to see what new features they’ve added. You can’t paint your room every year, but you can apply a new theme to your Ning and give the class wiki a facelift!

3. Record and Prepare Your Digital Persona

Many teachers use videos to enhance instruction. Using Sophia and Office Mix for PowerPoint, I am recording the screencasts for the first few weeks of school. Sometimes I even grab my iPhone and record a message for my students in an odd place like on top of a zip line platform or after rafting a river. These personal connections help enhance our relationship.

4. Learn and Share

Read, watch videos, and share what you’ve learned. A powerful network of educators is emerging on Goodreads. You can read friends’ book recommendations and create a personal book challenge. (If you read on Kindle and link your Amazon account to Goodreads, it tracks your progress automatically.) You can write book reviews, tweet, or blog what you’ve learned. The discipline of writing book reviews will help you remember. Plus, educators who care share.

5. Connect with Colleagues

Educators can be so inspiring. Take time to read blogs and learn best practices. The summer is a perfect time to join Twitter chats or listen to educational Internet radio.

6. Revitalize Your Physical Health

Your health impacts your mood and your ability to perform at peak levels. (See my post 12 Choices to Step Back from Burnout for more on this.) In the summer, I run or walk first thing in the morning, drink lots of green tea, and catch up on rest. What is your plan?

7. Disconnect Completely

Be a human being, not a human doing. Experience life — don’t just take pictures of others doing it. Be unafraid to go where cellular signals do not break the underbrush. When you disconnect, you’ll return with renewed energy that comes from reestablishing relationships. You’ll think more clearly after having your thought patterns uninterrupted by tweets, beats, and the bleats of an always-on society.

8. Embrace Change

Some people are afraid of change. Others don’t want to change because it makes them feel dumb. Here’s the thing — the longer you wait to change, the dumber you will feel. Intentionally push yourself out of your comfort zone. Go new places. Do new things. Buy a new outfit. Wear your hair in a new way. Try a new tool.

9. Tinker

Do you remember those summer days long ago? Your parents asked you what you did, and you answered, “I just messed around.” Well, you can still take time to mess around. I’m tinkering with ClassDojo and learning everything I can about the Maker movement and 3D printers. I’m tinkering with apps and a new Chromebook. Summer is the time to tinker.

10. Laugh (a Lot)

Laughter is good for you. In the car, look up jokes and read them to your fellow travelers. Eventually you’ll find one that has you howling with happy tears in mobile reverie.

11. Set Goals and Remember Who You Are

Set goals or revise those you’ve already written. Where do you want to be next summer, next year, or in five years? Take time to update your goals and review them daily.

12. Be Prepared to Hit a Home Run on the First Day: Be “The Babe”

If you’re watching baseball this summer, there’s nothing more exhilarating than when a hitter slams a home run on the first at bat. Then, if he does it another time, everyone is even more wowed and amazed. Here are just a few resources to get you thinking this summer about making that strong start in the first few days of school:

As for me, I will be prepared to be the Babe — a Babe Ruth of teachers, that is. I’m going to slug a jaw-dropping, mind-bending home run. I’m going to work to impress my parents with the first supply list sent home. You get one chance to create a first impression. The rest of your year will benefit if you can come out of the dugout with your Louisville slugger in hand, ready to slam it home.

Happy Summer!

So have an awesome, funny, happy, sensational, disconnected, connected blast of a summer, my friends. Come back better than ever, because you will make the difference in your school this next year. Be epic. Be awesome. Be the kind of teacher our world needs today.

Level up your learning, and your students will, too!