6/7-6/11

Happy Last Week of School!

As I was sitting here thinking about writing my last Monday memo blog for this year I started thinking about what I know for sure about our school. What I know for sure is that project based learning and student driven technology has taken hold. I applaud all of you in your efforts to integrate technology and project based learning into your students' day.

Here are a few of the many examples that I have seen this past week:

• 2nd grade Sue's room: students working on their power points with some students acting as peer coaches. Sue taking digital pictures of students for their projects. Sue said something to me like every classroom should have a mobile lab every day. I also know that she was able to do this work with her students because she was willing to take a leap out of her comfort zone and had the support of both Clary and Adam. Their classroom student presentations were very impressive.

• 3rd grade: their approach to their presentations was a blended project approach. One part technology and one part poster board. Their students were so proud to display their work.

• 4th grade: As I did observations in 4th grade I saw three classrooms all working on the same project but using different technology formats for the product (glogster, powerpoint and movie maker). When I asked the students how they ended up working on the project in a certain format they told me the teachers gave them a choice. Wow! powerful stuff letting the students have a voice in their learning. I love it.

I could go on to list many more examples of the wonderful ways we are teaching and reaching our students every day but this blog would go on forever. Thank you for being the best faculty ever!

Here is our week:

Monday:

• Kindergarten trip-blueberry farm

Tuesday:

• 12:15-1:15 4th grade 20th century project showcase

Wednesday-Friday:

• 12:15 early release (there was a phone home but please keep reminding your families)

Friday:

• EOY luncheon 1:30pm-see Debbie's email

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• Moving timeline: 6/10 boxes arrive, early release days to be used for packing and purging, 6/16-6/18 packing and purging days.

• 6/14-6/15 post planning

• 6/16-6/18 paid moving days

Celebrations:

• Hurray for us for having such a great year!!!!

• Happy Birthday to: Amanda A (6/10), Jill Ozog (6/20), Michele Krank (6/23), Ritzy (7/1) and Kelly Dolan (7/15)!!!!!

Celebrate Summer - Sun drenched days and starlit nights...

It has been a joy to work with you this year,

Amy

6/1-6/4

Hi Everyone,

Here is what is going on this week:

Tuesday:

• 9:00am peek across the creek

Wednesday:

• EOY celebration at Ritzy's house 1:30pm-???

• Chorus trip to Chuck E. Cheese 1:00-4:00pm
  

• Senior's last day on campus!!!

Friday:

• graduation congratulations class of 2010!!!

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 6/9-6/11 Early Release days (12:15pm) - Please continue to spread the word!

• kindergarten field trip to blueberry farm

Celebrations:

• Congratulations to Michael on a wonderful concert!!!

• Happy Birthday to: Adam Escue 5/31 and Eric Lemstrom 6/1 (11th grade LA) !!!!

"I used to think that cyberspace was fifty years away. What I thought was fifty years away, was only ten years away. And what I thought was ten years away... it was already here.

I just wasn't aware of it yet."

Bruce Sterling

See you in your rooms,

Amy

4/24-4/28

Hi Everyone,

Here is what is going on this week:

Wednesday:

• Elementary Lead team meets 1:15

• 3:00pm K-12 faculty meeting
  

Thursday:

• 6:00pm 3rd grade/Chorus concert

Friday:

• 4th grade to space camp

• Data due to Marisa
  

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 5/31 Memorial day (no school)

• 6/1 kindergarten field trip to blueberry farm

Celebrations:

• Congratulations to Kathy on a wonderful spring arts festival!!!

• Happy Birthday to: Cary Kirby 5/24, Diana Joyce (school psych) and Ginny Busch 5/27!!!!

"I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself."

Oprah Winfrey

See you in your rooms,

Amy

4/17-4/21

Hi Everyone,

Here is what is going on this week:

Tuesday: 

• 5th grade 20th century project presentations

• SAC 5:30pm-get your grade level info to Macy
  

Wednesday: 

• Learning Community Meeting 1:15-4:30pm. Plan it forward topics: revisiting and realigning our K-5 Home reading program, Kagan structures aligning what structures will be taught at each grade level, looking over the schedule to decide if we need changes based on the learning community model.

Thursday:

• 4-7pm Spring Arts festival-don't forget to preview the show with your class after lunch.

• Kindergarten open house 5-6pm

Friday:

• R-Evolution instrumental Music Ensemble Class production 7:00pm in the PAC-free and very very fun!!!!

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 5/22 Prom at the Best Western 39th/I-75

• 5/27 chorus concert

• 5/28-5/29 4th grade to space camp

• 5/28 CBM data due to Marisa

Celebrations:

• Happy Birthday to: Officer Blair 5/20 and Jackie Sirmopuolos 5/21 (7th grade civics)!!!!

• Congratulations to all three first grade teachers on their fantastico Mexican restaurants!!!!

"The world is like a mirror you see? 

Smile and your friends smile back."

Japanese Zen saying

See you in your rooms,

Amy

4/10-4/14

Z to A countdown is on!

Hi Everyone,

Here is what is going on this week:

Monday:

• CBM/FAIR testing continues

Tuesday: 

• Dolan Mexican Restaurant.

• PKYPTO 5:30pm
  

Wednesday: 

• Learning Community Meeting 1:15-4:30pm.

Thursday:

• Pavlik Mexican restaurant

• Band Concert

Friday:

• 3rd grade trip to Epcot 

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• Formal Observations: we will have a sign up this Wednesday at our learning community meeting.

• Calling all fun loving teachers: we need a team or group to volunteer to do the K-8 talent show-more details at Learning community this week.

• 5/18 5th grade 20th century projects during the day/SAC 5:30pm

• 5/20 Spring Arts and kindergarten open house

• 5/21 Instrumental music ensemble's  rock, bluegrass, blues and girl's punk band end of the year concert-come and see a free totally student developed and run performance in the PAC at 7:00pm.

Celebrations:

• Happy Birthday to: Brian LaPlant 5/13 (6th grade world cultures)

• Congratulations to Teddi B on her new baby!

• Great Job Ms. Johnson's class on their Mexican restaurant!!! 
  

"Just do it"

Nike slogan

See you in your rooms,

Amy

4/3-4/7

Hi Everyone,

Here is what is going on this week:

Monday:

• CBM/FAIR testing begins

Tuesday-Friday: 

• 5th grade trip to Washington D.C.

Wednesday: 

• Class Lists-we will work on our class lists for the 2010-11 year.

Thursday:

• Johnson Mexican restaurant

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 5/11 PKYPTO 

• 5/13 Band Concert

Celebrations:

• Happy Birthday to: Dianne Skye 5/4 (HS Art) and Sandhya Keskar 5/8 
  

"Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; 

Courage is also what it

takes to sit down and listen."  

Winston Churchill

See you in your rooms,

Amy

4/26-4/30

What I love most about the family picnic-community

Hi Everyone,

I hope that you had a fabulous weekend and are ready for another great week!

Here is what is going on this week:

Monday:

• Walkmania during specials. 

Wednesday:

Moving, Moving, moving-this is our day to discuss classroom/learning community moving for next year. Please come to our meeting with the following things: 

• an open mind

• an understanding that we will be moving. 
  

•  an understanding that we will be making decisions based on our new model of learning not on what makes us as adults feel comfortable. 
  

•  An understanding that we are working to shatter our old paradigms of teaching and learning in order to move ourselves into the 21st century learning community model.
  

• Nancy Dana will also join our meeting to start collecting input for the new director search
  

Friday:

• 2nd grade trip to the Jax zoo

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 5/3 FAIR testing/ CBM window starts 

• 5/3 AP tests start for secondary

• 5/4 5th grade trip to Washington DC

Celebrations:

• Thanks to everyone that helped make RIA on 4/22 a success!!!

• Happy Birthday to: Amy Murphy 4/25 (8th grade LA) and Fran 4/28!!!
  

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, 

but by the moments that take our breath away." 

Author unknown

See you in your rooms,

Amy

April 19-April 23

Hello Wonderful Elementary Faculty!

Here is our week:

* All week the book fair is here! Help support 4th grade with their fundraiser for their trip to space camp!*

Tuesday:

• 1st grade field trip to El Toro

• 5:30pm SAC

Wednesday:

• Second Step training-all faculty members including special area teachers need to attend this training.

• Nancy Dana will also join or meeting to start collecting input for the new director search

Thursday:

• RIA

Friday:

• Report cards go home

Saturday:

• Curtains and musical comedy opens in our PAC. If you have not seen a PKY performance before I encourage you to go it will knock your socks off.

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 4/26 Walkmania 

• 4/30 Second grade to the JAX Zoo

Celebrations:

• Happy Birthday to: Annie 4/21, Brian Moody 4/22 and Carolyn Harrell (MS Language Arts) 4/24!!

"If you want your life to be more rewarding, 

you have to change the way you think."

Oprah Winfrey

See you in your rooms,

Amy

April 12-April 16

Hi Everyone,

I hope that you all had a nice Spring Break and that you had some time to "play." I am excited to hear about your Spring Break adventures.

Here is our week:

Monday:

• Teacher work day-I am over at Sante Fe community college for a tour with some of the PKY faculty.

Tuesday:

• Elementary Lead team meeting 3-4:30pm in Cary Kirby's room

• 5:30pm PKYPTO

Wednesday:

• Kagan 3-4:30pm

Friday:

• Blood Drive on campus

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 4/20 SAC 5:30pm

• 4/21 Plan it forward meeting-Ritzy will train us in the second step program

• 4/22 Elementary RIA

• 4/23 Report cards go home

Celebrations:

• Happy Birthday to: Kim Brown 4/12 , Melanie Heflin and Neila Hudson 4/17!

"Memories of our lives, of our works and our deeds will continue in others."

Rosa Parks

See you in your rooms,

Amy

March 29-April 2

Hi Everyone,

I want to start the memo this week with family picnic information to make sure that we all are on the same page.

Here are things to know:

• Please make sure if you have families with older siblings that plan to come to the picnic that the family calls Mrs. Preston in attendance by Wednesday. It gets tricky having lots of secondary students out of class to join us and we try really hard each year to create a master list by grade level to help know who is suppose to be out of class.

• Please be "on duty" during the picnic and help monitor student behavior. There is not to be any recess equipment out (footballs etc.) and students are not allowed to run around playing tag etc. If we all pitch in and remind the students(and their families) not to run around it will help keep everyone safe.

• Sign out: Please have a designated place for your students to sign out with you. They should know where to go to sign out. I know that most of you have them sign out as they leave to eat with their parents which works very well. Please help our new folks figure out a system.

• The playground will be locked during the picnic.

• Finally, if this is your first picnic or your 15th this is what PKY is all about!

Here is the rest of our week:

Wednesday:

• Creek School

• Math adoption conversation continues

Thursday:

• Creek School

Friday:

• Pavlik's class digital story telling showcase in the community classroom from 10:30-11:30am.

• Family picnic 12-1

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• Spring Break April 5-9

• Teacher Workday 4/12

Celebrations:

• Happy Birthday to: Sue Ireland 4/1 (HS counselor), Rob Cox and Julie Johnson 4/2, Marion 4/3, Coach Lou 4/4 (Football and HS PE), and Shirley Ann 4/7!!!!!

"Let Passion drive your profession."

From the Oprah List

See you in your rooms,

Amy

3/22-3/26

Hello Elementary Faculty,

Testing is over and we have two weeks to maintain our academic focus until Spring Break. We can do it!

Here is our week:

Tuesday:

• Kindergarten to IFAS fisheries

Wednesday:

• no meetings today!!!

Thursday:

• Inquiry Science Research in action day. We are hosting visitors from the Florida School for the deaf and blind with the visit focus being inquiry science.

• Everyday Math rep 3:00-4:30pm

Friday:

• K-1 CBM data due to Marisa

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• Good News we still have a Fossil Pit to use for our inquiry based Science lessons. If you need to use the "pit" please contact Renee Andrews (randrews@pky.ufl.edu) to reserve it.

• 4/2 Elementary Family picnic 12:00pm-1:00pm -Learning community leaders please make sure that folks new to our faculty know about this event. We will also discuss it at out 3/31 faculty meeting.

Celebrations:

• Thank you to Kelly Dolan for administering the Stanford 10 test to Angie's class!

• Thank you Ritzy for all of the things you did to help with testing!

• Happy Birthday to: Linda Preston 3/26!!!

"Our greatest wealth is having choices."

Think about it-What opportunities do we provide for our students to have choices in their learning every day?

See you in your rooms,

Amy

3/15-3/19

Hello Elementary Faculty,

FCAT Schedule Changes that are still in effect until the end of this week:

• FCAT lunch and special schedule
  

o  4^th grade switches with 1^st grade for specials for the two weeks Monday 3/8-Friday 3/19

o  5^th grade will eat lunch in the classroom for the three days that there is an overlap in their testing time and lunch time.

o  March 11^th 4^th grade will do lunch in the classroom

o  P.E. will be on the covered court or in the gym

o  Wait for the all clear to go out for recess

o  Art will be in the classroom unless Kathy lets you know differently

Here is our week:

Monday:

• Testing continues please remember to be quiet in the halls and outside of the lunchroom. No recess until the "all clear" signal.

Tuesday:

• LC  team leader meeting 3:00pm Angie's room

• SAC 5:30pm
  

Wednesday:

• Learning Community Work 1:15 -4:30pm-focus on envision math program 

Coming Soon/Announcements:

• 3/24 ***meeting change*** we will meet on Thursday 3/25 from 3-4:30pm to see the everyday math program presentation. The rep was not available on 3/24. The good news is we have a Wednesday afternoon with no meeting. The trade off is that we will have a Thursday meeting instead.

• 3/25 Elementary Research in Action

Celebrations:

• Happy Birthday to: Sandra Villanueva 3/15, Ellen Greenstein 3/17, and Michael Roberts 3/20!!!!!!!

"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams."

Dana Torres

 who at 41 and the mother of a very young child came within 1/100th of a second of wining a gold medal at the Olympic games.

See you in your rooms,

Amy