Work in progress- reflection

On Sunday, I read a blog post from Pernille Ripp entitled "We Are All A Work in Progress".  If you have a moment, it is well worth the time.  To summarize what she wrote, all of us must realize that there will never be a perfect lesson, perfect class, perfect communication- you get the idea.  As I visit classes, I know that I can do a much better job of providing timely feedback or having conversations with students about their learning or sharing out the great things I see you all doing with our kids.  I tweak something here and there but I must understand that it will never be perfect.  What I can be, however, is reflective.  I try to start out with what I did well and then think about how I can do one other thing just a little better.  Remember to celebrate the good things.  There are a lot of them every day.  So pick just one thing to work on at a time.  Otherwise, from my experience, you never get better at anything.

Great things I saw this week...

• Despite the challenges of a week anticipating the Color Run, the kids, and you, were all so engaged!
• Your flexibility and "go with the flow" attitude about the Boosterthon was amazing!
• Students working together in Homework Club to better understand math problems.
• Teachers working together to come up with plans to help students be more successful, either with interventions or with extension activities.
• Mary's pure excitement and interest for Sphero Club.
• Watching conferring in LA and RtI and listening to the conversations about what kids are reading or writing.
• Kids really enjoying our new playground.  It was well worth the wait!
• The attitude and behavior of our kids during the Boosterthon huddles.  The Boosterthon team keeps telling me how polite and respectful our kids are, but you already knew that.
• This!

Calendar
Monday, October 24th

• School Board meeting 7:30PM

Wednesday, October 26th

• Time for Jay to make more phone calls.  Everyone please send a student to the office for a great phone call home.  One per teacher, please!

Thursday, October 27th

• PD day
• Jay in DC

Friday, October 28th

• Enjoy the day off!

Monday, October 31st

• Jay in DC

Tuesday, November 1st

• Network Photography here at 9:00 to take pictures for our new website.  Please contact me with any suggestions for pictures.

Tweets, quotes, and blogs

(I made with Google drawings)

(from Ted Huff on Voxer)

@mertonint on Twitter
#mertonint on Twitter
Merton Intermediate School Facebook page
Family smore for 10.21.16.

Although next week is a short week, it's still three great days for learning.  Keep the students engaged and they will reward you with great behavior and great results.  Our SIP team has been working on a vision in anticipation of setting our school-wide goals for Literacy and Math.  Talk to your grade level representatives to learn more.  Here's what we've been thinking about.

Striving for personal excellence.

It's short, memorable, and impactful.  As many of the SIP team members said, it's t-shirt worthy.  Let us know what you think.

May you have an awesome weekend!

Be the one!

Jay

Take care of the kids.  Take care of each other.  Take care of yourself.