The Woodland Brag Blog

12/23/09

Happy Holidays!  I hope you are enjoying your first days of winter break!  We are so lucky at Woodland to have so many diverse backgrounds, cultures, and religions!  At this time of year, I am celebrating our diversity and the wonderful school community we have built together!

In this blog I want to remind you how important it is that you read to and with your children EVERY day and encourage them to read, both silently and out loud.  We know there are 5 cornerstones to a good reader: 

• Phonics - how letters are linked to sounds (phonemes) to form letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns
• Phonemic Awareness - the specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words
• Fluency - fluent readers: recognize words automatically, read aloud effortlessly and with expression, do not have to concentrate on decoding, focus on making connections and comprehension
• Vocabulary - word meanings
• Comprehension - understanding what is read

Fluency is the bridge that makes it all possible.  Once children become fluent readers, they are able to make connections and their comprehension is high.

As I listen to children in all grade levels read during "Read to the Principal" times, it is really clear to me that those children who practice reading at home on a daily basis are by far the strongest readers.

While fluency is the bridge to strong reading skills, in math, fact fluency is the bridge.  When children automatically know their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts they are much more able to solve math problems accurately and in a timely manner.  Knowing the facts, allows children to focus on the problem and the process for solving it, thus math skills are greatly improved.

So, please take time at home, in the car, on vacation, anywhere, to review the basic math facts and build reading fluency with your children.  (As you read with your children, be sure to ask yes/no and open ended questions about what they are reading to build comprehension!) Once these two skills (reading and math fact fluency) are in place, the world of learning will truly open up for every child.

Thanks for all you do to support our work at Woodland and your children!  Together, we will reach our goals of each child meeting or exceeding his/her learning targets in math and reading AND all students will be performing at grade level - which means our achievement gaps will be eliminated!!

Happy New Year!

Linda

December 17, 2009

Good morning!  We have one day left of school for 2009 - AMAZING!  Where has the time gone!!  I am looking forward to seeing many of you tomorrow at our Waffle Breakfast, an annual Woodland tradition!

I have lots of news for this blog entry!

Notes from subs:

"As I have said many times before, Woodland is a wonderful school!"

"As always, Woodland is a wonderful school to come to!  It is always fun to sub here."

"Have me here more often!  What a pleasure to have highly trained ESPs supporting me in the classroom.  You have great staff members, who are always willing to help."

"Everyone at Woodland is very kind!  I hope to be back again, soon!"

"Woodland has great ESPs!  They are wonderful to work with."

Contribute to Community:

Kare 11 and Land O'Lakes are donating $1 for every person who clicks on their website.  Click on this link and on the top right side of the screen, where it says "You Click, We Donate" - click.  It's that easy!  Our area food shelves could really use the support!

Our first, second, and third graders participated in "2009 Operation: Soldiers Phone Home" sponsored by General Mills (thanks to parent Tammy Haag for her invitation to our classrooms to participate).  Each of the students created a card for a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan or Iraq.  General Mills collected enough cards from school children and donations from their employees to send a greeting card and phone card to 2,500 soldiers to call their loved ones during the holidays.  What a wonderful gift!  Thanks to our teachers, parent volunteers, and, especially, our first, second, and third graders! 

PTA Reflections Program:

"Reflections Art Program" is sponsored by the National PTA and a program in which our PTA participates.  This will be our second year of participation in this great program!  The program acknowledges the artistic talents of children and involves a competition at the school, state, and national level.  All Woodland artists will have their entry displayed on January 15th at Woodland.

There are six categories in which to participate:  dance choreography, film production, literature, musical composition, photography, and visual arts.  All entries must be focused on this year's theme, "Beauty Is......".

We have SO many talented children at Woodland!  I am hopeful that many will choose to show our community, state, and nation how talented they are by submitting an entry in one or more categories by January 8, 2010.

Put Friday, January 15th at 6:30 PM on your calendars and plan to attend our second annual Art Exhibit featuring the multi-talented Woodland artists.

Winter break is a good time to work on a submission and it is a great project to keep a child busy during the two weeks of vacation! :)

Please visit the National PTA's website to view entries from last year.  Visit Woodland's website for rules, entry forms, and more information.  Remember that each entry must have a student entry form completed and attached to the work of art.

I hope you will encourage your talented child(ren) to participate!

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Have a wonderful winter break!  Thanks for all you do to support Woodland and help our children gain the confidence, courage, and competence to achieve their dreams, contribute to community, and engage in a lifetime of learning!

Happy New Year!  See you in 2010!

Linda

12/2/09

Happy mid-week!  It's hard to believe it's already December!

Here's some news from Woodland:

• Mrs. Hodsdon was awarded the LITE 102.9 radio station's "Apple for Teachers Award".  Mrs. Hodsdon was nominated by a parent who wanted to acknowledge her for sharing observations about the parent's son.  This information led to a diagnosis of diabetes and early intervention which was critical to her son's health.
• Note from a sub:  "You have a wonderful staff and student body!"
• Mrs. Sue Myslicki has been hired as our office ESP. She will be covering a leave of absence for Mrs. Barbara Miller.
• Our sixth graders performed fabulously in their musical, "We Built This City".  Mrs. Bordonaro and Mrs. Jannsen did a fabulous job showcasing the many talents of this group of children.
• Next week our choir goes to area nursing homes to entertain the residents.
• Mrs. Kristan Bidwell is working as our volunteer coordinator during Mrs. Cory Mehnert's absence.  She will be here through winter break.
• Our food and clothing drive is in full swing!  Please send food for the Food Shelf, a service project sponsored by Student Council, and clothing for children in Liberia, a district service project.
• A huge thank you to Nahili and Hayat Abdullahi.  These sisters gave up a Saturday to gather food donations from customers at Festival Foods.  They brought in BOXES of food and that was only a portion of what was collected;they also made a sizable donation to CEAP!  It was an amazing act of service!
• No school on Friday!  Teachers have the day to finalize grades and mark report cards.  Believe me, they will be busy!

That's all for now!  I am constantly impressed with the great things happening at Woodland. Children truly are developing the confidence, courage, and competence to achieve their dreams, contribute to community, and engage in a lifetime of learning.

Linda

11/25/09

Hello!  What a great day we had today!  The kids worked in groups to create soft and cuddly blankets for Gillette Children's Hospital.  They worked hard and put a lot of love into each blanket.  It was amazing to go room to room and watch the team work all focused on creating a gift for another child.  Many thanks to the volunteers who made this such a great experience for all!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!

Linda

11/18/09

Good afternoon!  I just have to share!  Project Copernicus is off to a great start!  Our fifth graders have been using laptops from home and school to support and enhance their learning and that of peers for the past three weeks; our sixth graders started the project this week.  I have attached two pictures of the kids huddled together to work on a project.  Thus far, projects have included:  creating spreadsheets to support learning and answer problems; webquests; practicing analogies for Word Masters online; researching information, taking notes, and developing PowerPoints to showcase learning.

All of our fifth and sixth grade classrooms are participating in Project Copernicus; which makes us the only school in the Osseo Area School District to implement the project in two full grade levels.  Approximately 12% of the children are currently bringing laptops from home, and each classroom has three netbooks and other computers, so, with collaboration, all children can have access to the technology.

Mrs. Brown presented our implementation of the project to the School Board last night, and, of course, they, too, were very impressed.  Click here to go to Mrs. Brown's blog post regarding Project Copernicus.
 

 
 

Impressive!  Great things are happening at Woodland!

Have a great day!

Linda

11/5/09

Good morning!  I have a lot to share today!

First, I am very excited to tell you that this morning our licensed staff met for an hour in their PLCs (Professional Learning Communities).  As I walked through the building I saw teams of teachers (classroom, ELL, special education, and support) reviewing student achievement data, talking about strategies to address learning needs, planning for leveled reading and math, and consistently focused on implementing best practices to insure student achievement growth.  Some teams were working with district "consultants" to learn about best practices or develop strategies for instruction.  It was SO impressive!  Woodland teachers are working VERY hard to do whatever it takes to meet the needs of the children! 

Woodland is one of four schools in Minnesota to receive the "Family-Friendly School Award"!  Yay!  Parents were invited to nominate schools based on parent involvement, family friendly events, a school climate that is inviting, and communication that keeps families informed.  It is an honor to receive this award!  We can all take credit - it truly does take a "village to educate a child".

Our Behavior Task Force has been working hard to review and revise our building behavior plan.  One change that has been implemented is that all children will now participate in the Eagle Celebration.  In the past, those receiving a white slip attended the assembly in the gym and then went to required study hall.  Effective yesterday, all children are invited to participate in the Eagle Celebrations.  The purpose of the celebration is to bring our school community together and celebrate the great choices our students are making (95%+ of our students don't have behavior issues resulting in a white slip).

At the end of this blog is an update about Woodland entering the Norton Cyber Safe Challenge!  Thanks to all who have entered the contest!  If you are one of the 9 parents mentioned below, please go back in and make sure your entry is complete!

Great things continue to happen at Woodland!

Have a terrific weekend!

Linda

Here is the email from Norton:

We are excited about your school’s entering the Norton Cyber Safe Challenge, but wanted to bring an important issue to your attention.  Our systems are showing us that 9 of the parents from your school have not fully completed the set up and installation of the product, which means your school’s actual count would be that much higher should they complete the process – schools don’t get credit for the subscription until the “Norton Safety Minder” is installed.  There are still almost 2 weeks left of the contest and this amount could make all the difference!

The step that these parents haven’t completed is the installation of the “Norton Safety Minder,” (step 7 below).   We suggest you send out a communication to all the parents at your school reminding them that they need to complete step 7 in order to complete registration.  Unfortunately, due to privacy policies we can’t specifically tell you which parents are affected.  In order to check to see if installation has been completed, parents simply need log onto their account.  If the little black and yellow dog print is in the system tray, all is good.  If it isn’t, parents need to go to step 7 where they left off and click the button to download the Norton Safety Minder.    I’d be happy to jump on the phone with you to walk you through the process.

 Basic Instructions:

1G  Go to onlinefamily.norton.com

2.       Hit the green “get started” button

3.       Fill in the blanks (you can walk them through what to fill in)

4.       MOST IMPORTANT – enter the promo code xx-xx-xxxx

5.       Click the grey “set up account” button on bottom of page

6.       Enter the info about you and your kids

7.       VERY IMPORTANT– click on the “safety minder” button at bottom of page.  Until you do this, you aren’t officially registered.  The Safety Minder sits in the system tray (bottom right hand corner of your computer and looks like a dog paw)  of your child’s computer and watches over them so you know what they are doing.  It’s also a good idea to have separate Windows accounts for each member of your family if you share one computer.  This way your adult info is kept separate from your kid’s.  This also allows the OF.N product to know how much time each individual child spends online so that you can monitor that.

 

 

Th

 

 

 

10/28/09

Hello!  Conferences have just ended and I want to thank all of you for attending and supporting your child(ren).  I am confident that by working together with the teachers each child will reach their target growth goal for reading and math.

A huge thank you goes to our teachers who have worked hard to prepare for conferences.  Our goal was to present each parent/guardian with an accurate picture of how their child is performing academically and socially and to build a partnership to support the child.  Our teachers have worked so hard this year to assess student achievement, review all the data possible, and then use that data to inform their teaching and work with students.  Teachers, licensed support staff, and ESPs have worked very hard to develop interventions that meet the learning needs of EVERY child.  There is rarely a night that I drive by Woodland and don't see several cars still in the parking lot.  That is because the teachers are working collaboratively and passionately to implement strategies that are research based best practices and have the best chance of reaching all students.  We are SO lucky to have such a talented, professional, and dedicated staff at Woodland!

A huge thank you again this year to Bryan Boesen and Craig Wietzel, the owners of the Noble Mobil service and gas station across the street from Woodland.  They have generously donated $750 to Woodland through the Exxon Mobil Corporation's "Educational Alliance" program to support math and science in schools.  The funds will be used to support our Fastt Math program which builds math fact fluency and is a program in which all first through sixth graders participate.  We are seeing very positive results from student participation in this program.

Here is an invitation to attend a fundraiser coordinated by a student from our school district:

My name is Juhee Kwon, and I currently attend Maple Grove Senior High as a senior. This autumn, for my Girl Scout Gold Award, I will be organizing a classical music concert called the Notes for their Notebooks on Friday, November 20th from 7 to 9pm at the Maple Grove Senior High Auditorium, promoting education and awareness about child soldiers in Africa.

I would like to extend an invitation to you and others who may be interested to the night of music featuring Minnesota Orchestra's Helen Chang and Aaron Janse, along with vocalist Steve Staruch and the Pipidae Woodwind Trio. Tickets are $15 for adult & $10 for students and may be purchased on our website or by email requests to notesfortheirnotebooks@gmail.com. The night offers a great enrichment opportunity to explore not only music, but also a humanitarian world crisis such as the child soldier situation in Africa. The concert aims to support this cause by donating children's books and supplies to Schools for Salone, a child soldier rehabilitation school in Sierra Leone.

 

Have a terrific weekend!

 

Linda

10/20/09

I meant to include in my last blog information from PTA regarding an internet safety contest through Norton.  Families can register for this internet protection for their children by going to  https://onlinefamily.norton.com/familysafety/ 

Please enter "Woodland Elementary" under school name.

Promotion Code:  PR-MN-23-9412

10/20/09

It is amazing to think that we are already over half way through October and we are having a terrific school year!  Here are some of the AMAZING highlights:

• All staff have taken the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and we have begun to analyze strategies to build our intercultural competency.
  

• Two "Diversity Listening Sessions" were held with parents to gather information about our work and learn what we can focus on to build a more inclusive community and eliminate the achievement gaps.

• Leveled Reading has changed to be an hour each day.  During this time the kids move to reading classes that are at their instructional level.  All groups are working hard to ensure that each student meets or exceeds their growth target in reading this school year.

• Team Time started yesterday!  This year Team Time has a math focus.  Team Time allows those kids needing additional instructional support to receive it while the kids who understand the concepts being taught in math receive instruction to build deeper understanding or enrich their thinking/learning.  In math, as in reading, we are working hard to make sure learning targets are met or exceeded.  Both Team Time and Leveled Reading allow us to address those kids needing additional time and support to learn a standard/concept and those kids who already know it.

• Project Copernicus is up and running soon!  This program allows students to bring their own computing devices to school to use as a collaborative learning tool.  We are one of three schools in our school district to be involved in this program, and, I am proud to tell you, that we are the only school in which two entire grade levels (fifth and sixth) are participating.  We have just received 27 beautiful pink netbooks (HP Minis) that will be distributed, three per classroom, to supplement the program.  Project Copernicus is managed by Mrs. Rojanne Brown.  Click here to view her blog and learn more about this fabulous pilot program sponsored by our school district.

I could go on and on about the great things happening at Woodland!  I have visited classrooms each week and I am continually impressed with the focus on learning in each classroom, the positive rapport between the adults and students, and the high level of engagement the students have in their learning.  I can't tell you how lucky I am to work with such a high quality group of professionals - licensed and non-licensed!

Conferences began this morning and will continue tonight and into next week.  We are looking forward to sharing your child's progress with you and developing a partnership that is focused on making sure he/she reaches the projected learning growth in both reading and math this year.  Wouldn't it be great to have EVERY student achieving at or above grade level by the end of the year!  I know that, together, we can eliminate achievement gaps and ensure that all students reach those growth targets.

Have a great rest of your week!  Thanks for all you do to support Woodland!

Linda

9/17/09

Happy Mid-September!  It is so great to be back!  The first weeks have gone so smoothly and the staff and students are very engaged in teaching and learning.  Plus, recess has been fabulous with our wonderful fall weather!

I'd like to start this blog by telling you a little bit about myself!  I am thrilled to be married to my husband, Bob, who is the principal at Osseo Senior High!  Together we share five fabulous children and two grand children.  The two oldest are both married and live in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; which is where our two grandchildren live (who are 4 and 2). The three youngest live in Minneapolis and are single.  All five are adults and either working or in college.  Bob and I love to golf; we can often be seen at Edinburgh, USA.  We also enjoy traveling throughout the world.  This past summer we were in China with a delegation of 400 American educators.  This is my 31st year in education, my 27th in the Osseo Area School District, and my 19thas an elementary school principal.  I'm old!  But I am very lucky to lovethis district, my work, and the people with whom I work!

If you received the Sunday Star/Tribune, and still have it, please look at the flier that was in the Sunday, September 13th Rainbow Foods advertisement and cut out the "Campbell's 100 Bonus Points" certificate and send it to school.  These certificates could add up to a lot of points for Woodland; which allows us to receive free school supplies. It's amazing what we've been able to do with the points from this collection!  Many thanks to Connie Maier, our parent volunteer, who coordinates the Campbell's soup label collection!

Remember, we also collect General Mills' Box Tops for Education, Tyson "Project A+" labels, Kemps milk caps, and used inkjet cartridges.  All funds or points from these collections are used to support our students.

That's it for today!  Have a fabulous weekend!

Linda