Nuts/Bolts - Week of 10/3/16

GIVE 6 RISE Cards Daily
Remind students about Color Run Daily! - Team Total Summary

Monday 10/3 - Homeroom/TRTV Schedule: Please use this Google Slide to present the lesson. The lesson/presentation will also always be available via the Master OR TRMS Calendar Event.

Tuesday 10/4 - Mike & Brian @ OCDE for PBIS Tier 3 Training; Dana is Admin Designee from 8am-1pm; Progress Report Grades DUE by 12pm.

Wednesday 10/5 - PLC Horizontal Teams: 1st 30min (suggestion) teams meet by 1st period grade level to review 10/10 PBIS Lesson; 2nd 30min meet by Horizontal Teams to review concerns about struggling students, common strategies, etc.

Saturday 10/8 - Placentia Heritage Parade; Join me on the parade route just north of Kraemer on the median to cheer on our band; light drinks / food provided! RSVP Via Calendar Invite for head count.

9/28 District Initiative PLC: Agenda/Minutes - Action Items Highlighted in Yellow
Admin Referral - bit.ly/TRadminref        

Color Run Standings!

Shout Out! - Club Advisors + Borgese + Schneider

We all wanted to express our gratitude to club advisors for dedicating their time and energy pro bono to get our students connected. This includes: 

• Athletic Club - Brian Shay, Marita Buckley
• WE Club - Paola Hellwig
• JUMP Club - Mary Chapluk
• Robotics Club - Cari Briggs
• Sign Language Club - Shirleen St. Claire
• Buddies Club - Bob Lexin
• The Message - Dana LaRue / Vanessa Amorin

Also, a big Shout Out to Suzanne Borgese who has now hosted 3 math study sessions for ALL students in her classroom before school. She's had a full class each time, evidence that kids really benefit from this support before major tests/quizzes. Great job! 

Finally, we appreciate the investment Sandi is making in the health / wellness of staff by organizing an after school fitness group. Thank you! 

Tech Tip: Video/Audio Download + Cutters

Many times we find video or audio that we want only a "snipit" of. Thankfully, there's some great tools that will let us grab just what we want! 

YoutubeinMP4 - Paste the Youtube URL and it will download an MP4 video.

Youtube-mp3 - Paste the Youtube URL and grab just the audio from the video (great for grabbing music).

YouTube Cutter - You past the URL then select the section you want. The website spits out a new URL that takes you right to the segment of the video you want. 

MP3 Cutter - You have to upload the audio to chop.  Example:   

MUST WATCH: Rosie King - How Autism Freed Me to Be Myself

Get your own valid XHTML YouTube embed code

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 9/26/16

GIVE 6! - Don't forget to seek out opportunities each and every period to reward students for behaviors that meet or exceed our expectations with RISE Cards. 

Progress Reports - 9/30 marks the end of the grading period for 1st Qtr. Progress Reports. Deadline for submission is Tuesday, Oct. 4th.
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Monday 9/26 - Double PM Assembly Schedule - Color Run Kickoff!
   - ASB's sole fundraiser for the year. Please promote it heavily during 1st period for the 
     chance to win a cookie party and have bragging rights all year long!
   - Every Monday is "College Shirt" Monday! Bring it! 
Tuesday 9/27 - 9am Lockdown/Fire DRILL
   - Please take attendance on Aeries quickly. At 9am an alarm or announcement will sound 
     instructing you to lock doors, turn off lights, shut blinds, and have students away from 
     windows and quiet. Once doors have been checked, we will then ask for all staff and 
     students to assemble on the MS Field for student accountability. We anticipate the drill 
     lasting 10-15min.
Wednesday 9/28 - PLC District Initiative, Room 33A
  - Tom Craik will be visiting to review some information. We will also review the plan for 
    Monday Homeroom Schedule / Lessons which will officially start on 10/3.
Friday 9/30 - TRTV Schedule

Shout Out! - ALL STAFF!

On behalf of administration, we wanted to thank everyone for all the preparation that went into getting ready for Back to School Night. From Jalinda preparing the invites; Ish, Dennis, Alfonso, and Ramiro making our campus shine; Cynde organizing ASB volunteers; to every teacher preparing a professional presentation of the amazing programs we offer...we were genuinely impressed and proud to be members of this fantastic team! Well done! 

Tech Tip - Grammarly

I had to plan a training for administrators this summer and stumbled across this Chrome add-on / extension. It instantly proof-reads your emails / facebook posts / etc. and checks for basic spelling and grammar errors, giving you the option to correct it on the spot. 

I've found it exceptionally useful and also think it might be a good one to have students add to their PYLUSD accounts. 

Here's a link to add it: http://gram.ly/rJWb

How Teachers Can Help 'Quiet Kids' Tap Their Superpowers

Nuts & Bolts - Week of 9/19/16

Teacher/Student Microphones - I recommend using these whenever possible as it really does provide the best auditory access to students for them to hear you and each other during share outs. Need a new one or rechargeable batteries, let me know?

PYLUSD Good News Report - Travis PBIS Kickoff was featured! 

PBIS Update - We are planning to "roll out" the Monday morning homeroom schedule starting on October 3rd. Standby for details! 

Need Technology? - Book it! Room 45, CB Carts B (Rm31), C (Rm59), D (Rm42), F (SciStorage), G (Rm60), H (Rm34)! Hopefully, there's one close by for easy access! 

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Monday 9/19 - College Shirts! We're encouraging staff and students to wear college shirts every Monday to support our AVID Goal of promoting College/Career readiness. 

Tuesday 9/20 - Back to School Night - If you need anything fixed, cleaned, etc. to make your room shine let Ish know ASAP! Dinner provided around 4pm -- Stefano's -- by admin! 

Wednesday 9/21 - Structured PD: Please fill out this FORM ASAP with your primary interest. 

Friday 9/23 - TRMS Marching Band @ YLHS. Come support our band and embarass some old students in the stands!  7pm @ Shapell Stadium (YLHS)  Mustangs VS. EDHS - Post game fun???

Shout Outs! - Rebecca, Jessica, & Paola

Before school even started this year, Rebecca Dominguez ran the 1st ever "band camp" in coordination with YLHS. She had a good turn out and her students are already ahead of where they were last year as they prepare to represent Travis at the Placentia Heritage Day Parade and Disney. Thanks for dedicating extra time towards your amazing program! 

Also before school started, Jessica Schlenz ran Encore Camp for her new group. Not only was she here before school, but now she's here 2 days after school per week for 4 hours, plus zero period rehearsals. It takes a significant amount of time, energy, and talent to get this group performing at the level they do each and every year! Nicely done!

Paola Hellwig was running live morning announcements the 2nd day of school! This is an amazing feat because of the amount of training involved to get her students to run this for us. We are the ONLY middle school in the district that has a program like this! Fantastic work Paola!  

Tech Tip - Genius Scan

Want to transform / automatically save handouts, etc. into PDFs from your phone into Google Drive? Genius scan will give you this "power". After you scan your doc, it will allow you to crop, enhance it for readability, and then give you the option to add to your Google Drive. Pretty Slick!  

iOS
Android

What Americans Keep Ignoring About Finland's School Success

I came across this ARTICLE on my Facebook feed. It's a really interesting take on the societal cause/effect of student success in Finland. Also, it explores the Finnish perception of teachers. In Finland, teachers are treated with prestige and must have a master's degree to pursue the profession. "The Scandinavian country is an education superpower because it values equality (in society) more than excellence." 

How can lessons from this argument affect your current classroom? We are all charged to teach students to drive positive changes in our society. Teaching perspective, engaging students in collaborative discussions, and ensuring they are able to communicate their opinions are key components of our instructional approach for a transformed society that values equality! 

Nuts/Bolts - Week of 9/12/16

Illuminate - You are now able to access your current student's scores SBA Scores in Illuminate. Make sure you set your roster date to "9/8/16" in the control panel before you pull reports. 

Step Up To Writing Online Resources: https://www.stepuptowriting.com/login.jsp
Username: sutw4trms  -- Password: sutw4trms
Click "Tools" -> "Writing in the Content Areas" -> Select your Content Area to see list of tools
Next, click "Bookshelf" to access the full teacher edition of "Step Up to Writing - 4th edition"

PBIS 
Monday Homeroom Schedule Start Date TBD - Our curriculum just arrived. PBIS Team will be meeting Wednesday to review it and begin planning a roll out. AVID team is also meeting Tuesday to help plan what homeroom will look like. Thanks for your patience as we carefully coordinate a well planned roll out.
RISE Cards - GIVE 6: Try to handout 1 per period promoting our positive expectations. 
Admin Referral: Bookmark this link for submitting an electronic referral:  http://bit.ly/TRadminref

Wednesday 9/14 PLC = Vertical

Looking Ahead: Back to School Night 9/20, 5:45-7:30pm

• If you have any outstanding work you need done in your room, please let Ish and Sharon know ASAP (lights, ceiling tiles, etc.)

Shout Out! - Dana Worden

Working behind the scenes since March 2016, Dana has been integral in helping design this year's master schedule. She has worked feverishly to get students scheduled and classes balanced. This is no simple task as she carefully weighs the interests of students and staff with integrity. 

She also offered multiple opportunities for students to challenge test in Math and collaboratively developed a plan for our co-taught classes with Suzanne. 

Our collective hat is off to her on a job superbly done. She deserves a big high five next time you see her! 

How to Become and Remain a Transformational Teacher

I think this blogger summed up some great ideas for educators interested in staying on their "A" game. Here's his POST on Edutopia. Definitely worth a quick read. How many of these tips are you currently following, or are worth pursuing?

• Constantly Share Best Practices
• Find a Trusted Mentor
• Commit to Classroom Observations (in other teacher's classrooms)
• Change Things Up
• Model the Usefulness of What You Teach
• Caring Beyond What You Teach

Tech Tip: Google Keep - Notes, Checklists, Organization!

I've been using the Gmail "Task" list and accompanying cell phone app "Go Task" for 3 years to keep track of work "to dos", personal "to dos", and my personal grocery list. It's great because it syncs across devices. 

However, I'm "converting" to a newer tool called "Google Keep". This is an amazing tool that syncs across devices allowing you to create notes, checklists, etc. all with color coding, images, tagging, etc. You can set reminders by date/time and even have it message you when you arrive at a location. Big brother style?

There's some great applications for teaching students how to organize themselves inside and outside the classroom. I snagged this from one of my favorite EdTech Bloggers Alice Keeler:

7 Features of Google Keep for You To Teach With

Nuts & Bolts - Week of 9/5/16

This week: Supervision Team B

9/7 - PLC: Vertical Teams

PBIS:
- RISE Cards: Every staff member should have received a healthy stack of these on Thursday. GIVE 6 DAILY (1 per period). When you reward a student with one, circle the letter for the behavior they demonstrated, and write their name on it. Please keep these secured in your desk along with hall passes, library passes, etc. 1st TRTV drawing 9/16. RISE Store Opening Date TBD.

- 1st Period Student Planner Check = Thursday 9/8; Students without TR planners will be given a cardstock version of this year's "PRIDE Card". 

- Electronic Admin Referral (Bookmark this link)

Technology
How to Reserve a Chromebook Cart
Troubleshooting 101

Shout Out! - PBIS Team

Many thanks go to our fantastic PBIS Team (Cynde Riley, Brian Shay, Vanessa Amorin, Laura Moody, and Marita Buckley) for planning an amazing 2nd Annual PBIS Kickoff Day. The team took staff and student feedback from last year's event and created an even more amazing day for our students. We appreciate all that staff did to make this day a HUGE success! 

Tech Tip: Google Forms Quiz

The new Google Forms allows you to build quizzes with correct and incorrect answers for multiple choice, checkboxes, or drop-down questions. There's no messy extension or add-on needed. Results can be sent via email to students. Great tool for formative or summative assessment. We just used this for the PBIS Student Survey and got great results! Also shows teachers: 

• Frequently missed questions
• Graphs marked with correct answers
• Average, median, and range of scores

Google's instructions

When Kids Have Structure for Thinking, Better Learning Emerges

This article from KQED's "Mind Shift" series reviews teaching strategies coming out of Harvard's "ProjectZero". It reiterates the importance of teaching students how to think with specific suggestions for integrating these learning habits into the classroom. Specifically:

1. Pick one of the thinking routines Project Zero has designed and use it over and over in a variety of contexts.

2. Start asking students to be more metacognitive by building in reflection time about thinking. Ask students to think about the lesson and identify the kinds of thinking they used throughout. That not only builds vocabulary around thinking, but it often gives kids confidence to name specific thinking strategies they used.

PZ Thinking Routines from Sue Borchardt on Vimeo.