January 6, 2014

Happy New Year! And Welcome Back! I hope you enjoyed your winter break in every way that is meaningful to you.  Even though January 6th is a snow day, I am updating the Network Blog to stay in the habit.

So, will Tuesday be
a. another snow day?  b. a records/PD day?  c. the 1st day of 2nd semester in full swing?

As of right now, we'll have to wait and see.

UPDATE: As of noon on 1/6/14, Tuesday, 1/7, will be a snow day.  We will begin second semester on 1/8.

• The building will be opened until 3:30pm tomorrow, and you are welcomed to work in your classrooms (bring your children if necessary).
• Dr. Miller extended the grading window, per her earlier e-mail.
• Please use the main entrances (as Dr. Riss asked).  
• I will be there for at least half of the day if there is anything with which I might be helpful.

Whatever you choose, please be safe and warm.

Attendance
Of all the New Year's Resolutions you may (may not) make, please resolve to take attendance every class period every day.  We improved and then the week before break . . . and then, our improvement didn't show up the week before break.  Taking attendance is a small and important detail.

January's Thinking Strategy
Determining importance is our thinking strategy for this month.  Proficient readers and thinkers are able to distinguish main ideas and important details from those that might be subordinate.  Think our curricular conversations about what's essential versus just what's interesting to know.  Click here for the Think Mark, mini lesson, and Reader's Toolkit.

The Multiple Choice Question Above
When you read my multiple choice question above, you may have noticed some ways that I could have written it better.  For example,

• Using at least four alternatives,
• Using capital letters rather than lower case ones,
• Listing alternatives on separate lines, and
• Of course, making sure the correct answer is listed (unfortunately, at this time, I do not know the correct response).

[As the district moves to re-write its curricula, it follows that assessments will may need to be revised/re-written/made new as well.  Many of you are already involved in this.  Therefore, I think this is a good time to review best practices for writing assessments.  Click here to see some reminders from a previous blog post.]

Further Updates
I may update this post between now and when we return to Hixson depending on what I learn about next week, so please be sure to review this post again when you return to your classroom.