What one risk did you take this week?

It was one week ago that Dave Burgess, the pirate, joined us for what many of you would said was the best professional development you have ever had.  With that being said, I don't want us to fall in the trap of having someone come in, get us all fired up, and then we don't do anything with what we learned.  I have begun to really think about being purposeful with our next student assembly in March.  The focus will be on digital citizenship and how to make our students more aware of the good and the bad that comes from being connected.  If you have any ideas to share, please let me know.  Now comes the important question- What one risk did you take this week?  Was it a new activity to start class?  Was it a new mid-lessson interruption?  Was it decorating your class to set the scene for the lesson, or the day?  Please take a moment to fill in this Google form so that we can share our risks for the week.  As Brian would say, "We are our best resource."

Calendar
Monday, February 29th      CPR/First Aid training all day for me
                                              School Board meeting 7:30PM
Wednesday, March 2nd      Jay out all day (I'm over 50 and I need to see a doctor.)
Thursday, March 3rd          PTO meeting 2:30PM
                                              7th/8th grade conferences
Friday, March 4th               Shadow a Student Day (I'm shadowing a student all day.  See the link for more information.  Any interested students can sign up at lunch all week.)
                                             Trivia Night 6PM (Anybody going to join me?)
Here is the sign up for classroom support.  Limited spots on Tuesday and Thursday only.

Tweets, blogs, and quotes
"Live daringly, boldly, fearlessly.  Taste the relish to be found in competition--in having put forth the best within you."- Henry Kaiser, industrialist
Why I'm still tweeting (from www.teachingquality.org)
"If you don't value your time, neither will others.  Stop giving away your time and talents.  Value what you know, and start charging for it."- Kim Garst, entrepreneur
"Desire is the starting point of all achievement."- Napoleon Hill, writer
"My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I'm right."- Ashleigh Brilliant, writer and cartoonist
"The thing about a hero is even when it doesn't look like there's a light at the end of the tunnel, he's going to keep digging, he's going to keep trying to do right and make up for what's gone before, just because that's who he is."- Joss Whedon, screenwriter and director
"The distance between insanity and genius is measured only by success."- Bruce Feirstein, screenwriter
"How easy it is to judge rightly after one sees what evil comes from judging wrongly."- Elizabeth Gaskell, writer
Ir's Oscar week (current events hook)! (from www.edutopia.org)
Definitely not one of your teacher goals.  Time should fly for kids if they're engaged.  (See below- from @teachergoals)

Runners Like Us (a post about my running streak from @brooksrunning)
"We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand."- Randy Pausch, computer scientist and writer
@mertonint on Twitter
#mertonint on Twitter
Merton Intermediate School Facebook page
Family smore for 2.26.16

Great things I saw this week- (pictures at #mertonint on Twitter)
World Read Aloud Dress Up Day- lots of great costumes!
The Great Wall of Health
Using dominoes for scatterplots in math
Videos used to send home a point in workshop
Preparing for Jump Rope for Heart
Videos used to reteach rules for positive and negative numbers

Looking for images?
I got a letter from a friend of mine about a link for over 11,000 copyright-free digital images.  Ever looking for just the right image to use for a presentation or as a bell ringer.  You just might find one here.

How cool would this be?
As many of you know, I'm a member of a voxer group called #principalsinaction.  One of the principals, Lindsy Stumpenhorst (lmstump) created this video called #whyiteach.  I think it would be awesome if we could put together one for our school.  Who wants to join me?  If you do, you can use this template (found near the end of the pdf) to create your own story bubble.  Take a picture with it and email it to me.  I'll take it from there and put it into a video.  Please get them to me by next Friday so that I have some time to put the video together by the end of the quarter.

I hope that you all enjoy the weekend.  The weather looks good so take a walk with a friend or your family, wash your car, or hit some golf balls.  Whatever you do this weekend, relax and refresh for next week.
Jay