Falling into Line

Greetings Parents and Community Members: We are back to another full week of school with lots of exciting happenings around the building! One of my favorite things that took place last week was our grade level check-ins that happened across the school in grades k-5. Our admin team took the time to meet with ALL of our students in order to reinforce our Essential Agreements and conduct a check-in with students to see how the first month of school has gone. I love this time because we are able to focus in on individual grade levels in a small, quiet environment as we continue to speak about what it means to be kind, accepting and well-behaved no matter where you are, what building you are in, or what school bus you ride. There are always times when children do not follow our behavior expectations, but understand that we are here to TEACH and MODEL what is expected of a Morris Brandon student as our children often learn lifetime behaviors during the early years of education. This involves support from not just our admin team but also our counselor, who infuses Social Emotional Learning into positive behavior expectations. We also took this time to begin hyping up our HIVE colors! All students and all teachers should now be associated with a color. Our first HIVE rallies will be coming soon and points are already being awarded. Parents, please help us by continuing to reinforce the behaviors that you want to see from your children each and every day they are here with us!

Some other exciting events that took place this week:

• More “chalk-talk” taking place within Ms. Harron’s and Ms. Cramer’s 5th grade Wit and Wisdom unit. Instead of students traditionally shouting out answers, they quietly approached the board to record their answers and ask clarifying questions to the prompt “Why do people tell stories?”
• Ms. Ingram’s Media Center was ALIVE as students began introducing their new “Book Buddies.” Be on the lookout for myself and Mr. Hutson’s new book talk coming soon!
• Our Gifted teachers continued to rock and roll as they worked collaboratively with our younger students during an introduction to base ten in math. They are always finding ways to help extend our students’ knowledge and critical thinking.
• Madame Darlis’s 3rd grade French students practiced writing and illustrating sentences about what her students enjoy about school.
• Ms. Lander’s 5th grade students used rubrics to evaluate fake websites during her media center block, an important skill in today’s world.
• Our new teachers and admin attended a two-day phonics training generously funded by our Foundation and YOUR donations.

• 

  We celebrated “Falcons Thursday” with our whole staff joining in wearing their favorite Falcons gear (better luck next time!). We also wore our college colors on Friday! See pic of what I returned to work to (Hint: I’m a South Carolina fan).

With each passing week comes new opportunities for growth, collaboration and connectedness. We will continue to strive toward reaching all of our students, not just cognitively but socially and emotionally as well. My goal is to also give our amazing teachers what they need to be successful. To that end, I will continue to spotlight great activities and dynamic teaching that is seen each and every day through the halls and classrooms of Brandon.

Until next time!
j