Why do you teach? Why did you want to work in education?
Those are two questions that are paramount to the work that we do with kids. Hopefully your answers range between
- I wanted to impact children's lives
- I love working with kids
- I knew I could make a difference
- A teacher changed my life
- It fills me
But what if your answer is none of those? What is the answer is something more along the lines of "I need a paycheck" or "It keeps me busy".
That's when we really need to address our priorities. The moment working in education becomes only a paycheck or something to keep us busy is the moment we need to look elsewhere. Why? Because there are MANY jobs to keep food on the table and take up your time.
But when we work with children, we're impacting little lives, that will be felt for years to come. And that is far too important of a task to take lightly. Our children watch our every action, our every word, and our every interaction with others. We have to be careful about who we are choosing to be in front of our children.
We have to find ways to become more patient. Find ways to bring more joy into our day. Find ways to entice, excite, and engage our kiddos. Like any career choice with qualified individuals, we have to daily study our craft and find ways to get better. We have to complain less and look for solutions more.
No where we work is going to be perfect or filled with perfect co-workers. But you know what we CAN do? What we DO have control over? It's.....US. We can control what we choose to put our emotional energy into and how we choose to come at each situation.
So this week I challenge you to find the little things to bring joy back into your life. To find ways to laugh with your students. To study a part of your craft that is lacking and celebrate your work at trying to improve that area. To see struggles as opportunities to be better, for the kids. To complain less, and look for solutions more. Our kids need us! WE are the ones charged with getting them to where they need to be! Let's do this!
Week at a Glance
Monday - Nesloney Coaching Day
ELAR Textbook Meeting 3:30-5:00
Tuesday - Short Coaching Day
UIL Practice - 3:30-4:30
Wednesday - Argueta Coaching Day
Team Leader Meeting - 7am
Garcia Baby Shower - 3:30pm - Library
Thursday - Nesloney Coaching Day
Prayer Time - 7am - Team Planning Room
Friday - First Grade Spelling Bee
Coaching Days
Last week was mine, Short's, and Argueta's first week of assigned coaching days, and wow! It was so great for us to have these assigned days where we weren't interrupted by anything in the office and could just spend the whole day in classrooms. We're learning so much and enjoying our time with all of you!
Starting this week we'll also have "coaching type days" for our counselors! Once we have those days set in stone I'll let you know too. This will be for them to get into classrooms and see more students and even help you with ideas on how to reach some of your most difficult issues.
PLC Meetings this Week
This week is a "Make and Take" week. Kinder, First, and 2nd-5th Math need to bring Greg Coleman stations to make and take with you. Please keep in mind that you need to come PREPARED to this time so that you can work. When you don't come prepared it shows us that this time isn't important to you, and we'll use it for other reasons.
2nd-5th ELAR, get with your teams and decide what you're going to bring to make and take. Again, if you don't come prepared, you won't be given this time for this reason.
Kinder, 1st, and 2nd, you will meet like last week on either Monday, Wednesday, or Friday. When it's your team's time to meet, please SPREAD OUT for Morning Duty. Have two of each of your team members at each spot (Car, Gym, Cafeteria; including the door).
3rd Grade - Cafeteria
4th - Gym
5th - Car
Birthdays
Nov 5 - Halley Palmer
Nov 6 - Nancy Hernandez
Staffing Changes
This week is the beginning of some staffing changes we wanted you to be aware of!
As of Monday...
As you know Ms. Walker has left us to go work for the special education department. We have selected Tyra Johnson (our former Kinder IA) to take her spot. So as you see Ms Johnson in the front office please congratulate her and welcome her to her new spot!
As you also know Ms Martinez (Math Intervention IA) has left to be home with family. We have selected Maura Pavlock (former PPCD IA) to take her position. Maura will begin pulling kids Monday with Ms. Brewer.
Since we've moved Pavlock, we have also moved Marissa Garza (former SPED IA) into PPCD. We are thrilled to watch her continue to grow on this new journey.
We also had Ms. Nelson (Computer Lab IA) leave us last week.
We are currently looking for a Computer Lab IA, Kinder IA, and Special Education IA (with Mr Bradford). If you know anyone interested, please send them my way!
Parent/Teacher Conferences
Last week should have been the wrap up of Family Conferences. Thank you all for making this happen. I know you may think this is a crazy thing for me to ask of you, but it's actually state law that parent/teacher conferences are held in elementary schools in Texas. So thank you for helping us make sure we're in compliance. Please get your notes and sign in sheets to Cindy Puentes (please do not place outside my door).
Book Study
Don't forget to be reading your next two chapter in anticipation of our next discussion at our November faculty meeting. It's always funny to me how much we want to hold children accountable for behavior or completing work, yet many adults don't do the same! Reading this book together, as any book study, is a clear expectation of mine that I want you to make time to complete and come prepared to discuss.
House Points
As some of your students make huge academic gains to earn house points, please let Mr Bradford and Mr Holt know so they can celebrate them on the announcements.
Your students should be setting goals for themselves before EVERY Unit Assessment. This is an expectation of mine.
Positive Phone Calls/Messages Home
It has come to my attention that some may be a little confused on my expectations for positive messages home. Please ensure that weekly you are calling or sending a personal message home to celebrate at least two of your students.
I'm not sure, at the elementary level especially, why we wouldn't all want to be doing something as easy as this, which takes so little time, to celebrate kids and build relationships with families. So please begin that today (if you haven't already), and keep track somewhere of how/when you're doing it. I'll be collecting that information monthly starting at the end of November.
Tell Your Story
This week I interviewed Jr High Teacher Josie Bensko. You can watch below (or listen to on iTunes of SoundCloud).
Blogs/Articles
In Closing...
This week focus on those things that make you smile, make you laugh, give you hope, help you keep stepping forward.
If there's one thing I know about Webb Elementary, it's that there are a lot of people who are passionate about children and are doing incredible work!
Keep up the great work! We've got this!
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