Friday Focus #7: 10.5.12

“Good teaching is more a giving of right questions than a giving of right answers."

Josef Albers

Levy Signs
There are levy yard signs (and wires) in the office across from the mailboxes in the office.  If you live in the district, please consider placing a sign in your yard!


Faculty Meeting
JUST A REMINDER -- We will have a 20 minute faculty meeting on Wednesday 10/10 @ 7 AM in the lecture hall to go over some of the evaluation documents and procedures.  This will be very informal and maybe informational!  You can find those documents on the staff blog under the tab 'Documents'.


Tech Tuesday
Next week's Tech Tuesday will be VOKI: Voki enables users to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters… animals, monsters, anime etc.  Carol Bader & Chris Sutter will be leading this session in room 118 on Tuesday morning and afternoon.

Also, don't forget that you can request or offer to present a Tech Tuesday topic here or you can see upcoming topics here.   These links can ALWAYS be found under the Tech Tuesday tab at the top of the blog.



Study Tables
Please send Phil an email if you are interested in working study tables or if you have questions. 

FROM LAST WEEK: 

We have secured funding for a limited amount of study tables.  We will begin ASAP... the times will be from 2:30 - 3:00 PM Monday through Thursday and from 7 - 8 PM on Thursday evening.  Study tables will be hosted in the Media Center.  We would ask that teachers in charge keep a sign-in sheet so we can track attendance.  In addition, based on attendance and need, we can add time as we see a need (i.e., we can extend 30 minutes if necessary).  

Kyle Maynard Assembly
On October 9th, we have the distinct privilege of hearing from motivational speaker Kyle Maynard.  This assembly will begin at 8:30 AM and will last for approximately one hour.  For this assembly, we will be placing chairs on the gym floor (like we did for Rachel's Challenge two years ago) so that ALL students and staff can sit.  We would ask that everyone attend this powerful assembly.  The schedule can be found under the 'Schedules' tab at the top of the page (Special Assembly Schedule).


Parent-Teacher Conferences
As a reminder, we DO NOT NEED the hard copy of the parent-teacher conference log sheet -- just log your conferences under the 'PARENT-TEACHER CONFERENCE' tab at the top of the blog.  If you turned in your hard copy and need it back, please let me know.


Calendar of Events
Remember that Calendar Info can be found on the right hand sidebar of the blog... updated regularly...



Happy Birthday
10/10    Connie Opperman
10/11    Jason Andrew
10/12    Kim Koesters

Friday Focus #5: 9.21.12

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." 

John Wooden

What a great week this has been...   you really can feel the excitement in the air -- especially today.  Thanks for helping to make this a special week for our students and our athletic teams.




Building Goals Follow-Up
Please make sure you read the follow-up post from the building goals meetings and complete the survey.  Here is a link to the post and the survey: http://goo.gl/qUkm1
If you are still unable to log into your Celinaschools Google account, please email Sheila Baltzell.



FIP Reminder
Don't forget to complete your FIP module BEFORE Wednesday 9/26.  For help with logging in and finding the module, use the eyes on the right.



Faculty Meeting
We will have a 20 minute faculty meeting on Wednesday 9/26 @ 7 AM in the lecture hall.  This is the 2-hour delay day...  the meeting is separate from the inservice activities.  We will be hearing from Kevin Mast regarding the ALICE training for lock-downs.



Advisory
Please remember to issue passes BEFORE activities that take place during advisory.  Also, please try to help us limit the amount of hall traffic during advisory!



Tech Tuesday
Next week's Tech Tuesday will be 'Remind 101': an easy and free way to remind your students about important classroom activities in a format that suits them!  Come listen to Ashley Lefeld show you how to use the service and what she has used it for in her own classroom.  Room 119 on Tuesday!



Upcoming Assembly
On October 9th, we have the distinct privilege of hearing from motivational speaker Kyle Maynard.  More on the schedule and format, but here is a video to give you a little preview:








Calendar of Events
Remember that Calendar Info can be found on the right hand sidebar of the blog... updated regularly...



Happy Birthday
7/23   Ryan Parrish

Building Goals Follow-up

Thanks again to everyone for participating in Wednesday's Daytime Staff Meetings!  We had great conversations, thought provoking discussions, and even a little fun along the way.  I thoroughly enjoyed what I witnessed on Wednesday in the conference room and I felt proud to be part of such a great group of educators!

As promised, here is some more information on Daniel Pink's work on motivation:

• Amazon page for "Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us": http://goo.gl/2m2Q2

• The longer version of the TED Talk from Daniel Pink:

The biggest topics of conversation throughout the day centered around student ownership of learning, preparing students for life (not just college), and obviously, motivation.

Below is a link to a survey about the Daytime Staff Meeting.  Please take a moment today to fill out the survey and give some feedback.


SURVEY: http://goo.gl/41NCJ (YOU WILL HAVE TO BE LOGGED-IN TO YOUR CELINASCHOOLS GOOGLE ACCOUNT!)

Sheila Baltzell and I just discussed the possibility of starting a book study on Daniel Pink's book if anyone is interested.  Sheila is working on securing some copies of the book.  Professional Development credit will be available and I don't perceive a great number of meetings... the idea would be to get a group of interested teachers to read the book and meet a couple of times to discuss the ideas & concepts.  If you are interested, please email Sheila and Jason. 

Building Goals Meeting Info

As promised, here is some more info about Wednesday's 'Building Goals Meetings':

First and foremost, the goal of this initial meeting is to begin the process of building our goals.  We will not necessarily have specific goals by the end of the meeting.  More than anything, I would like to brainstorm and discuss issues, ideas, and progress.

I have created an agenda for the day and would ask that you review the agenda.  This is a very loose agenda and may be altered prior to Wednesday.  Please do not print the agenda!  The only thing you need to bring is an open mind, ideas, thoughts, and maybe something to take notes on (paper and/or e-device!).

There are three things teachers should do BEFORE Wednesday:

1. If you haven't already, look through our most recent building goals and think about your own professional & individual goals for this year. 
2. Sign-up for your designated period...  I can look at the schedule to know who should be in the meeting, but I would like you to fill in the form below to verify your time (4th period will meet A & B, eat C)!
3. Watch the video below before the meeting.  The video is a talk by Daniel Pink on his book 'Drive' about human motivation.  Our discussion doesn't have to center around the video, but we will use this as a 'springboard' on Wednesday!

Survey


Remember...   we will meet in the front conference room at the beginning of the period.  I will have coffee, water, and refreshments!

CHS Opening Day 2012

For those of you that like to have a paper copy of the agenda: http://goo.gl/hyBJv 

Important info from our Opening Day meeting (this will be updated later as well):

CHS Opening Day Meeting 2012 Agenda

• New Staff Intros

• Special Ed News & Notes

• Guidance News & Notes

• Handbook, Discipline, Attendance & all that fun stuff

• Frosh Orientation
• Teacher intros @ 8:30 AM
• Mini-schedule from 11 - 12 noon


• copy of Frosh Orientation schedule:  http://goo.gl/oJYmC




• Class Meetings: 
• 9th -- Wednesday
• 10th -- Thursday
• 11th -- Friday (last 15 minutes of 5th p.)
• 12th -- 7:45 AM (w/ picture?)




• Open House -- 6:30 - 7:30 PM on Wednesday 8/29
• Schedule: http://goo.gl/wtESz 




• Tech Tuesday: 
• List:  http://goo.gl/jfL14
• Request:  http://goo.gl/oVQ48 

• FIP with Kim & Kelly

• Then, Now, & the Future

Friday Focus #20: 2.10.12

Attendance Policy
Just a quick written reminder of our discussion from Wednesday's faculty meeting.  The only change in our attendance policy is that students going over 7 days of non-medically excused absences will lose credit only for the days missed beyond the 7 instead of completely losing credit for the course.  You can find these unexcused absences in Progressbook.  Donna will be updating these on the 5th & 20th of every month.  Remember... students are to receive zeros for work due or tests/quizzes missed on unexcused days.  Thanks for your help and understanding with this policy update.


Other Faculty Meeting Notes: 

• MTV's Made will be making an episode featuring CHS Junior Elizabeth Hogg.  Filming will start sometime next week. 
• Attendance Policy update (see above)
• St. Marys visit...  feedback was great from visiting teachers.  They appreciated the honest feedback from the staff and students.  Thanks for your help!
• Remember to help monitor hallways in-between classes as much as possible.  This really does help cut down on hallway problems!
• Student cell phone use needs to be appropriate and timely.  Students are not to make phone calls during the school day from their cell phones.  If a student is using the phone inappropriately or fails to follow your instructions to put the phone away, refer them to us as you would any other disciplinary problem.  
• Confidentiality: students should not be retrieving a teacher's mail.  If a student worker needs to make copies for a teacher, send them to the office to speak with the office personnel.  We can ensure that the copy machine is clear of any confidential information before the student uses the machine. 

Scheduling for 2012-2013
We are currently planning for next year's courses right now.  Any new ideas for courses should be discussed with your department chair and/or Jason by the end of next week!  Course Description books will be out soon!


Week in 3 Words

Over the course of the last year, the week in 3 words has been a popular addition to the announcements.  Recently, we had an issue with a couple of somewhat inappropriate inside jokes.  This week's version of the week in 3 words has a very positive message -- that is the overriding concept & intent behind the production.  Thanks to those involved this week.
I am looking for more ways to incorporate themes into the week in 3 words... i.e. feature a department a week to highlight your students, your content area, etc.  Let me know if you have an idea or would like to participate with one of your classes.


HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY...

2/14     June Scott

Upcoming Events

2/13-15  eTech Conference, Columbus, various teachers out of building
2/16   2nd Trimester 'early' grad meeting, 7:30 AM, LH
2/20   No School -- President's Day
2/24   Pep Assembly
2/24   PAY DAY & GRADES UPDATED IN PROGRESSBOOK

CHS Faculty 2011-2012

What a GREAT looking group!

A HUGE thanks to Amy Sutter for setting this picture up and for putting together the final product you see above.  Also, thanks to Megan for snapping the camera and to all of you who participated in the picture.

FREE DONUTS... Staff Meeting Reminder

7 AM Wednesday Morning...

Lecture Hall...

Staff Meeting, Picture, and donuts!