Pow Wow Principals Press

A #momsasprincipals colleague of mine shared this with me this week. I was explaining our Relay for Life fundraiser, and she stated on Voxer, "you have to share this blog with your staff to tie it all together." I can't tell you how much I depend on my professional learning network to have the opportunity to share ideas, steal best practices, and sometimes vent about the hardships we face in Florida. If nothing else, I hope you have found your "people" that lift you up as an educator, spare a shoulder when you need it, and share their stories of success with you. I feel it's what "makes us or breaks us."

Here is the link to the article https://www.weareteachers.com/five-superpowers-every-teacher-has/ -but I've also pasted it in for you.

Written by Love, Teach teaches English at a Title I middle school and writes about it at http://www.loveteachblog.com.

Hello. Am I the only one who feels like a total failure of a teacher right now? I’m running on approximately zero motivation, which means today I:

• Was late to a last-minute meeting because in the two hours I’d already been at school it never even crossed my mind to check my email. Oops.
• Allowed about twenty non-educational tangents to take place while I was teaching
• Responded to a fellow teacher’s invitation to write an education travel grant for us with, “Sure! Can I go to the moon by myself forever?”

In bleak times like these at the tail end of DEVOLSON (the Dark, Evil Vortex of Late September, October, and November), it’s important to remember the really great things that teaching has done for me. The relationships with my students, of course. The knowledge that I have a meaningful impact on the future. And a little list I like to call:

Five Teaching Superpowers

1) Bat-like Sense of Hearing The old cliché is so true. I HEAR EVERYTHING. And I don’t mean being able to hear the kid with a naturally loud voice over everyone else; I mean being able to hear a student mutter something under his breath on the opposite side of the room during a fire drill. It is uncanny.

2) Mastery of Time When forty hours of our weeks are lived out according to a strict bell schedule, it’s only normal for teachers to develop a superhuman understanding of time. Fellow teachers, here’s a challenge for you. Start a timer, then leave it and go do something under an hour (fold laundry, give the dog a bath, eat two servings of Pop-Tarts, whatever). Estimate how long it took you, then check your timer. I’ll bet you weren’t more than a couple of minutes off in your estimation. I’ve only been teaching for five years, but the accuracy of my internal timer totally freaks me out on a regular basis.

3) Titanium bladders I guess this is more of a super fact than it is a superpower, but the point I’m trying to make is that the bladders of teachers are not involuntary muscles like they are for other people*. Teachers tell their bladders what to do, and sometimes that message is, “Sorry, buddy. You’ve got another hour and a half until my conference period, so you’re just going to have to hold it.”

4) Bionic Lie Detection Sensors I remember having this conversation with a veteran teacher during after school duty my first year.
“I can’t believe it,” I said. “Five of my students had distant relatives pass away last night. What are the odds of that?”
The veteran teacher gave me a small smile. “Let me guess,” she said. “You had a project due today?”
My mouth dropped open, both from how easily I realized I’d been duped and how effortlessly she’d detected it.
(Note: with great lie-detecting power comes great responsibility. Being able to smell deception from a mile away doesn’t mean you should take every opportunity to call kids on it—sometimes it’s a good opportunity to reflect on your teaching, and other times, even the best lie detectors can be wrong.)

5) Superhuman Fearlessness TEACHERS FEAR NOTHING.Okay, maybe not nothing. Grading deadlines are always terrifying, as well as the idea of February 14th falling on a Friday. But other than that, there is very little that can shake a teacher.
We give improv performances for 40 hours a week for the world’s toughest critics. We get sassed. We get crayons thrown at our head. We’ve heard every insult known to man. Kids barf in our hands. OUR HANDS!
And yet every day, three and a half million of us march up to the front lines. (Fearlessness? Or insanity? I wonder sometimes.)

What teaching superpower would you add?

*Can’t be sure, but I estimate that 100% of urologists disagree with me.

Please make sure that you have the most up-to-date information on the Bus or Car Pick up tag for each child. Please write the route # on both sides of the tag so that it can be easily seen by all adults and safety patrols. If the tag has fallen off, please contact the front office staff for a new tag.

We have had two instances where students have entered on to the wrong bus and two instances where a student went on the boys and girls club bus and has only been a car rider.

These situations are scary for all the staff and families involved and we need to make sure we are doing everything possible to ensure it does not happen again.

If you have car duty or bus duty, please make sure you are checking tags. If a student is in your group that is not typically there, please let administration know or contact their teacher so we can look into it prior to allowing the student to enter the bus. We have to make sure that safety is first at all times.

Thank you for everything you do!!!

Below is our Random Acts of Kindness Baseball Challenge. If you work your way through the bases and hit at least one "Homerun" please write you name on the challenge (it can be found in your mailbox on purple paper) and submit it to Ms. Moree or Ms. Emerson. We will pick one lucky winner NEXT friday for a target gift card. Let the GOOD VIBES roll!!!

Please don't forget to SHARE your story on Twitter and Facebook. Our parents are giving feedback and they are loving the VBE is becoming an Open House every day with our positive energy.

Great job Little Indians!

iReady

Congratulations to Ms. Blidgen and Ms. Kincus on your classes having 100% of their 45min. or more instructional usage last week on their math iReady. Treats for your class are coming your way.

Earth Day

Earth Day is on April 22nd. Tweet out your awesome Earth Day Activities!

Math FSA Testing

As we begin our math testing season please watch the following video with your students. Testing Miss Malarkey is a great read aloud that inserts humor into test anxiety for both students and teachers. A must watch and share with the class!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLy8uf8ZugQ

The Roster Verification Tool for Spring 2017 is open.

Section 1012.34(1)(a), Florida Statutes, requires districts to “provide instructional personnel the opportunity to review their class rosters for accuracy and to correct any mistakes.” To assist districts in complying with this provision of statute, the Florida Department of Education has created an online Roster Verification Tool (RVT) to allow districts, schools, and teachers to review class rosters. Through the tool, changes to rosters can be made and approved as needed. The attached guide provides you with the steps necessary for completing the process of verifying your class rosters as of February 10, 2017. This process is designed to verify the students enrolled in a class assigned to a teacher, by period, for that one specific day, February 10, 2017. Any changes that have occurred to a teacher’s roster since that time should not be made through this tool.

Teachers may not remove students from their rosters because of attendance issues.

This process is what will be used to tie the students to teachers for the purpose of calculating a teacher’s student performance score.

Teachers need to complete the RVT by April 14th. The tool can be accessed at http://app3.fldoe.org/RosterVerification.

Your username and password are your email address. For example:

Username: first.last@indianriverschools.org

Password: first.last@indianriverschools.org

When you are prompted to enter your previous password, enter your email address again.

Be sure to select Survey 3 when logging in.

We recognized 175 students with PERFECT ATTENDANCE 3rd Quarter! The faculty meeting protocol feedback stated that you wanted us to continue with student and staff incentives to keep the positive vibes flowing. :)

Also- we were "SODA-lighted" and H2--OH so happy with our 14 teachers who also shared in the Perfect Attendance love!!

Great job Little Indians!

Just a reminder- please make sure you are submitting attendance each and every day. Attendance can be called upon and we are required to ensure it is accurate and up to date. Thank you!!!

Don't forget- there are opportunities to earn Wampum with the VBE VIBES sheets that were given out at the Faculty Meeting!!! Let's keep the good vibes rolling!

Totals for this week Super Hero Contest (as of Thursday morning)

Moree- $3.45

Emerson- $36.42

Riddick- $7.81

Lee- $17.80

Teachers and staff and also participate! Checks can be made out to American Cancer Society. Who will wear the Super Hero costume?

‪ http://leadvibes.blogspot.com/2017/04/how-far-weve-come.html?m=1‬

In case you haven't been following along- I've been sharing our story along the way by blogging about our journeys