Parent-Teacher Conferences

Its that time of year again!  Time to meet with parents and talk about their child! Our school decided to split the two nights of conferences (last Thursday and this coming Tuesday). I have one night under my belt...and it went real well!  Conferences use to be a very nervous night for me.  I have become more and more relaxed!  Now I run into the time management piece...I want to talk to long and go over the 15 minutes that is scheduled.  I was wondering what others to do to keep on track when it comes to time?   How do you start your conference?   Would love to hear how others run their conference!  

Digital Citizenship

With technology being all around us and in the hands of our children, we need to teach them about internet safety and what it means to be a digital citizen.  Today, in our third grade classrooms (there are four sections), we did just that.  We rotated the students through each classroom providing the students with four lessons on what it means to be a digital citizen.  Our lessons came from a great site that I was introduced too this summer during one of my classes.  It is called Common Sense Media! There is lots of good information on the site.  Our lessons came under the education tab where you can find the digital citizenship heading and then under scope and sequence.  Here you will find appropriate lessons for the different grade levels.  The lessons that we choose to teach for today were:

Digital Citizenship Pledge:  Students work together to outline common expectations in order to build a strong digital citizenship community. Each member of the class signs a We the Digital Citizens Pledge.

Rings of Responsibility: Students explore what it means to be responsible to and respectful of their offline and online communities as a way to learn how to be good digital citizens.

The Power of Words: Students consider that they may get online messages from other kids that can make them feel angry, hurt, sad, or fearful. Students identify actions that will make them Upstanders in the face of cyberbullying.

Picture Perfect: Students learn how photos can be altered digitally. They will consider the creative upsides of photo alteration, as well as its power to distort our perceptions of beauty and health.  

Looking at how the day went...The students enjoyed the change, moving from teacher to teacher.  It was also a great way to introduce them to four different lessons in one day!  We plan to do it again!

Quote from another

If you’re the smartest person in the room, then you're in the wrong room.  

I was reading a fellow principal of mine, Kari Yates, blog that posted this quote.  At first I was confused by it but after reading what she had to say made a lot of sense.  Click here to read her post.  

What she had to say, made me think of all of us that are partaking in our master's class.  We are better ourselves, by continuous learning. We are being challenged to do better.  The St. Mary's program has provided us with opportunities to interact with fellow learners who continue to push us and make us think, to help us learn something new.  We are on the road to always wanting more!  What a journey we have been on!  

I wanted to share this will you all to say "Way To GO!"