Thursday, December 21st

Thanks for the creative expressions with your GBH construction projects.  The feedback I received was full of Joy.

Click the logo below to  open the google doc with feedback from our Crew Learning Walk on December 14th.  

Wednesday, December 20th

Faculty/Community Crew today

• @ 3:30 meet with your faculty crew
• Currin in room 13
• Parrish in room 11
• Davis in room 9
• Woody in mobile 34
• Coles in mobile 36
• @ 4:00 bring you FC product and appetite to the media center

Thanks to the PTA for the Lunch recognition.  

Let's make these two days AWESOME for our students.  Transitions can be challenging and we need to focus our efforts to model empathy and compassion.  

Monday, December 18, 2017

My apologies for not having the blog up this morning.  I was working to get coverage for our "out of the classroom" teachers as we had a couple cancellations for the afternoon leaving us pulling assistants and specialist. 

Stay tuned for tomorrow.....

Friday, December 15th

1/2 day planning sessions start today and continue through Tuesday.  PLEASE be here as we have exhausted subs to cover the sessions:  

• Friday we have 4 subs covered & 1 unfilled
• Monday we have 7 subs covered & 1 unfilled
• Tuesday we have 6 subs covered & 0 unfilled

I really enjoyed the Crew Learning Walks!

Thanks for supporting the Science Fair.  Winners will be reveled on the morning announcements.

Please have a representative from each grade level send an e-mail to me with details of the December 21st Crew celebration.

Enjoy the weekend!

Thursday, December 14, 2017

The holiday musical will be held tonight in the gym/auditorium at 6:45.  Please come and enjoy Fa La La Land put on by our 4th and 5th grade performers.

The performance will repeat Friday morning for the entire student body.  Today would be a great day to review the HoCs related to being a great audience.  

If possible, sit on the floor with your students.  Our location makes a difference. 

Learning Walk schedule for today:

• 9:00-9:15- Learning Walk #1 & #2 Framing- Room 13
• 9:20-9:50- Crew Learning Walk- 5th grade (30 min)
• 10:00-10:30- Crew Learning Walk (4th grade)
• 10:35- 10:55- Learning Walk #1 & #2 Debrief- Room 13
• 11:20-11:35- Learning Walk #3 Framing- Room 13
• 11:40-12:10- Crew Learning Walk #3 (3rd grade)
• 12:15- 12:30 Crew Learning Walk #3 Debrief

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Half of the 4th grade is on a field trip today.  Enjoy!

BELLT meeting today at 3:30

Tuesday, Dec 12, 2017

Fifth grade rehearsals from 10:40-11:25 today, Wednesday and Thursday

Fourth grade rehearsal from 12:15-1:10 Wednesday and Thursday

Please come and support our 4th and 5th graders (as well as Mr. Dorsett) Thursday night at 6:45 for their performance of Fa La La Land.
     
     4th and 5th grade teachers ~ plan to assist by arriving before 6:15 to greet and supervise

Whole school performance will be Friday 

from 8:30-9:10

Later this week:

• Thursday is Science Fair
• Friday at 9:30 is another Magnet tour

Monday December 11th

Enjoy the small token of our appreciation in the Be.cafe today as we kick off the final nine days before the Winter Break.

We are on a Two hour delay. Below are some systemic reminders;

• Students will report to class at 9:50
• Breakfast will be served 
• Lunch is on the regular schedule
• Specials start with Period 4 
• Employees are expected to arrive on time for work

Jerry Yale is here today to provide Tech PD.  

Looking ahead we have the evening musical performance on Thursday.  Dee Duncan will also be here Thursday to gather data with some Crew Learning Walks.  Friday, we gather to enjoy the the musical performance at 8:45. 

Enjoy the week!

Friday, December 8th

When it snows, playing in snow is normal.  YET throwing snow is not acceptable in a school setting.  Do not hesitate to explore in the snow with your kids, but be sure to TEACH the acceptable school norms that deal the our HOC.

Thursday, December 7th

Congratulations to our 2018 Teacher of the Year - Brandi Brown!

Please encourage your families to shop at Bookmarks on Friday!  10% of ALL sales come back to our school that day.  Bookmarks is located at 634 West Fourth street in downtown Winston-Salem.

"Your curriculum companion" book club sign up is HERE  Please complete this before the weekend so we can distribute the texts.

As the semester comes to a close, we are conducting the 1^st quarter assessment of ArtistCorps. Quarterly surveys are a requirement of the AmeriCorps/ArtistCorps grant.

Please forward this message to all the teachers who have an ArtistCorps member(s) serving in their classroom.

The survey can be accessed at the link below. Please submit responses by Friday, December 15, 2017 so results can be included in our 1^st quarter reporting.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PJ29YPY

If you have any questions, please contact Rebecca Nussbaum.

Thanks for your feedback!

Wednesday, December 6th

• Magnet tour today @ 9:30
• Community Crew tonight at 3:30 in the media center
• Additional TOY nominations are in the office

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

December calendar:

    In order to ensure our December calendar is all-inclusive and will inform all parties involved, we need your help!  If you are going on a field trip, having an event (during the day or in the evening), etc. PLEASE contact Sarah by this Friday (Dec 8th).  A master calendar will be created and shared with the staff.
     Talk to your colleagues (those that may not read the BLOG) and make sure we have everyone's info. 

• Holiday/Winter celebrations will be on December 21st from 1:00-2:30.  Each Grade level will collaborate to celebrate by crew.  We will employ the ERD lunch schedule so everyone will be finished with Lunch by 12:45.  More on this at our Community Crew on Wednesday.

Teacher of the Year Nomination protocol

• at community Crew we will start in a circle
• nominations will be read to the staff
• by the nominator
• OR by a proxy
• OR by an administrator - turn it in before crew
• nomination form will be delivered to the teacher
• the name goes on the board
• after the nominations are complete, we will read the list of nominees
• we will then take 2 minutes to silently reflect on our choice
• ballots are distributed and completed
• votes are counted by Nelva and Laurie
• Teacher of the Year announced!!!

In January we will replicate this process to nominate and select the Brunson Classified Employee of the Year.

Monday, December 4th

Here is today's schedule for Dee

7:30 - Circle up with admin Crew
7:45 - Dee & Jeff will walk the building to greet the staff
8:20 - Announcements

8:30 - Learning Walk Framing in Room #13

• Participants - Sarah H, Jeff F, Sue M, Kathy W, Dee D,
• Module walk
• @ 8:45 with fifth grade
• @ 9:10 with third grade
• @ 10:10 Debrief
• Finish at 10:40

10:50 - EL Work Plan crosswalk with NC STAR  indicators in Room #13

12:30 - Mid year review planning

2:00 - PLT with 5th grade

3:30 - town hall meeting for staff who want to ask questions about anything EL

4:30 Closing circle

Tuesday's Blog will have further details on TOY nomination. We are looking forward to an inspiring afternoon at Wednesday's community crew.

Friday, Dec 1st

I want to highlight one example of what it means to be crew as an educator at Brunson.  

• Kelsey was in a parent conference for most of her lunch. I left the meeting to get her kids from the cafe, yet I could not find them! I was late and another class was at their table.  I looked down the hall and only saw Mrs Jordan and her class at the restroom.  I started to get nervous, so I looked back in the cafe to be sure I did not miss them....still no class.  How was I going to explain to Kelsey that I lost her entire class?  I walked down toward Michelle and THERE THEY WERE, blending in with her class, completely under her care and supervision.  

This is CREW and it happens all day in every location.  Staff members stepping up to support each other. 

"There is more in us than we know.  If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less." 

"We are crew, not passengers, and strengthened by consequential acts of service to others."
-Kurt Hahn-

Thursday, November 30th

From community crew yesterday

• ELA planning time

BELLT has elected to allot funding for ELA planning time. Substitutes will cover classes for 3 ½ hours of planning. 7:45-11:15 OR 11:45-3:15

We selected times to minimize writing of plans. (Lunch, specials, recess where possible)

• Dec 15th: 2nd/5th
• Dec 18th: K/3rd
• Dec 19th: 1st/ 4th 

Dismissal Plan Shift

Please submit the plan for each staging area ASAP so we can review.  The plan needs to be Community based and the crew must stay intact for safe student travel to the bus.   

Looking ahead to Monday, please welcome back Dee Duncan.  We will be doing an extended learning walk to observe implementation of the ELA Module.  

• 8:30 5th grade
• 9:10 3rd grade
• 10:10 2nd grade
• 10:30 4th grade
• 11:45 Kindergarten
• 12:00 First grade

We also received the shipment of 

"Your Curriculum Companion."  We will outline book club membership at Community Crew on Wednesday December 6th.

Wednesday, Nov 29, 2017

Wednesday, Nov 29, 2017

• Faculty Crew from 3:30-4:10 
• Locations determined by the crew facilitator
• Community Crew from 4:15-4:30 
• in the media center

Tuesday, November 28th

In the Tuesday Packet, there is an invitation for our Family Crew Movie night on Friday, December 1st.  This is an outstanding opportunity to connect with your families and build relational trust.  Stacy is leading the charge on the technology and Sarah will be the master of ceremonies.  Please come out and promote CREW.

Holiday Parties! 

I am asking for all of us to create grade level crew celebrations for the afternoon of December 21st.  I envision 

• 5th grade in the media center
• 4th grade in the gym
• 3rd grade upstairs
• 2nd grade in Gulledge & Alva
• 1st grade in Parrish & Hollomon
• Kinder in Hailstock & Gutierrez

We have many options to develop an event that will amplify the Joy of Crew.  Let's aim for 1:00 until dismissal. We can run the ERD lunch schedule to get everyone through the cafe before 1pm.  More details will be shared on Wednesday so start the conversation with your Crew.

Monday, November 27th

Welcome back from an outstanding Thanksgiving Holiday!  Keep your focus on Student achievement across all three dimensions.  We have the responsibility to model a strong work ethic and value time as a resource toward growth and development.

At the end of Wednesday's Faculty Crew we will meet in the Media center for the presentation of our improved dismissal plan.  Thanks for the feedback and support for our students as we strive to build community through literacy, while being safe and efficient.  

Tuesday, November 21st

Enjoy your holiday break!  We have faculty crew on Wednesday the 29th and ask for each of you to read this article from the La Times on Gratitude

Jack went home yesterday afternoon!!!!

Thanks so much for your love and support.  I am blessed to have such a great CREW!   

Sarah

Monday, November 20th

A two day week can be an opportunity to "coast."  I encourage each of you to model our habits of character and be your best until the last kid leaves on Tuesday afternoon.  

NPR has a cool project I wanted to share.  This Thanksgiving, Try StoryCorps' Oral History Project

Friday, November 17, 2017

From technology (due to viruses):
Please log off all workstations but leave them powered on.  Leave them at the login screen and turn the monitors off. This includes all lab and classroom machines.