THIS MONTH’S EVENTS
1/4 — WELCOME BACK!! HAPPY 2021!!
Monday Morning Moments 8:00am
1/6 — C3 Club 11:45 am ALL ARE WELCOME!
PBIS Team Meeting 12:30pm
SIP Team Meeting 1:00pm
Community Forum 2:00pm
1/7 — IEP Meeting Day
1/11 — Monday Morning Moments 8:00am
PBIS District Team Meeting (Coaches & Co-Chairs) 3:00pm
1/12 — Grade Level MTSS Meetings on prep
1/13 — C3 Club 11:45 am ALL ARE WELCOME!
Staff Meeting 1:30pm
1/15 — NO SCHOOL PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR STAFF
1/18 — NO SCHOOL MLK DAY
1/20 — C3 Club 11:45 am ALL ARE WELCOME!
Community Forum 2:00pm
1/25 — Monday Morning Moments 8:00am
1/26 — Picture Day (Tentative at this time!)
1/27 — C3 Club 11:45am ALL ARE WELCOME!
BENNIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT
The Bennie School community teaches respect, responsibility, safety, and kindness to develop lifelong learners.
BENNIE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISION STATEMENT
Bennie Elementary School is a collaborative learning community where staff and families encourage students to achieve at their highest potential. Students will approach challenges with perseverance and stamina. Academic, social, and emotional growth will be fostered in a safe, supportive, and positive environment through a multi-tiered system of supports. A professional, driven staff with a passion for learning will model the values of kindness, perseverance, and motivation to develop lifelong learners and flexible problem-solvers who are ready to contribute to a global society. All members of the Bennie Elementary School community are committed to continuous improvement.
WELCOME BACK
It’s a new year! I hope you had a wonderful break, and enjoyed the time together with your family and friends! I hope you are rested and rejuvenated, and ready to take on 2021!
Just a reminder that it is important to remember that not all of our Bobcats may have enjoyed the peace and relaxation that your break hopefully offered to you. Please take the time this week to re-teach expectations, reinforce procedures, and remind your students that you love and care about them and their learning. You are the key piece to the development of our young Bobcats!
WELCOME
As we return to learning in 2021, we extend a warm Bennie Bobcat welcome to these members of our school community:
Welcome Back, Mrs. Siegwald — returning from maternity leave to her 3rd grade classroom!
Welcome, Ms. Girard — co-teaching with Ms. Yesh in Young 5s!
Welcome, Mrs. Hayden — providing Resource Room support to students in 5th grade!
Welcome, Ms. Aly — providing instructional support to students in grades 3-5
UPDATED LINKS
Although the district has made the transition from Zoom Premium to Google Enterprise (with Google Meet), I know that some of you have chosen to continue on Zoom since they have not lifted the time restriction for teachers at this time. Whatever works best for you and your students is good by me, but please make sure that your link in the document below is accurate for the video meeting site you will be using. This is the easiest way for me and our special service providers to get to your meetings if needed. Thank you for your cooperation! https://docs.google.com/document/d/157w031Ukv72pbm47eScJBqRoLdR0i47FyXbnLAfO1R0/edit?usp=sharing
MID-YEAR ASSESSMENTS
Typically at this time of year, we would spend several weeks completing mid-year benchmark assessments, which will help us to determine whether our Tier 1 instruction has been effective for at least 80% of our students, and our additional interventions are helping the Tier 2 and 3 students to make more rapid progress to close the gap toward grade level expectations.
Obviously, things are different, yet we still need to use benchmarks to determine how students are progressing, and what we can do to support them differently as needed. The monthly Grade Level MTSS meetings allow us to check in on students as a team and plan for support.
Please plan to administer a running record to any student for whom you have had a concern or who is working below grade level prior to our next Grade Level MTSS meeting on January 12. For consistency, please use the same resource you used this fall (Raz, etc). Please let me know if you have any questions about this.
NWEA ASSESSMENTS
The Winter NWEA Testing Window is technically open as of Monday. We will put the NWEA administration on hold for right now to determine the plan for in-person learning after January 22. Ideally, we will wait to administer NWEA until students are in person. If this does not look like it will happen soon, we will plan for a remote administration. Stay tuned!
CHOOSE LOVE CURRICULUM
As a reminder, we have committed to using the Choose Love social-emotional learning curriculum in our classrooms again this year. Since Morning Meetings are built into every day’s schedule, this is the perfect time for these lessons. I am sure you have been incorporating the principles of courage, gratitude, forgiveness & compassion into your Morning Meetings/SEL lessons weekly. Students should be able to identify this work as we build a schoolwide movement together.
You have the lessons from the binder from last year, as well as access to the lessons built to be used in the remote learning environment. https://chooselovemovement.org/access-programs/
CELEBRATING THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF DR. KING
This year, students will not be in session on Monday, January 18, in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Please plan to take some time throughout this month to explore his impact on our lives. Please let me know if you need any resources that I can provide for you.
Much can be learned from leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The leadership lessons he gave the world are as important today as they were during Dr. King’s life. Click here now to download this poster in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
THANK YOU SCHOOL BOARD
We are grateful to have the support of a wonderful School Board here in Allen Park. They have taken on the responsibility of making many decisions, while keeping the best interests of our students always at top of mind. Please join me in thanking our Allen Park School Board for their dedicated service.
UPDATED COVID SCREENING
At this time, we will continue with remote learning until at least January 22, which is the end of the semester at the secondary level. Please see below for the updated screening tool from Wayne County Health Department. The Clear to Go app reflects these updates. Please be sure you are answering the questions from the app any time prior to entering the building.
SCHOOL PICTURE DAY
Cross your fingers that this Picture Day will be able to proceed as planned! Please stay tuned for more information, and share with parents! School pictures are for students who will be in-person and on the Virtual Learning track.
Inter-State Studio has resources on their website, including these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ).
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PTA UPDATE
Our PTA continues to be an awesome resource for our Bennie staff, students, and families. Please become a member online. You can sign up for a 20/21 Bennie PTA Membership by following this link: https://bennie.memberhub.store
WINTER BREAK READING CHALLENGE
This was a strange year (understatement) for the Winter Break Reading Challenge. I focused on unplugging and did not send out reminders for photos. If you or your students have photos to share, I will happily collect them! Encourage families to email photos, and you can email or text if you’d like.
We are not collecting the actual “mugs” if students chose to print them at home. They can proudly display them somewhere for their family!
FAMILY PHOTOS
Well, last year’s family photo frame never quite got finished. Something came up this spring and derailed my plans . . .
Please plan to share a family photo with me for the “Wall of Fame” in the next few weeks! I am hoping to have ALL of our staff members’ families represented this year — that means you, support staff! You may email, text, or give me a printed copy of your family photo for the “Wall of Fame” frames!
FINDING YOUR WORD
Are you ready to find your WORD for 2021?
Take our fun WORD-Finder quiz! Answer 10 questions to help you find your WORD for 2021!
Need some more help finding your WORD?
Check out our WORD-Finding guide with questions and steps to take to find your WORD.
| WORD Guide |
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| Set Your Intentions |
REFLECT
My accomplishments in 2020 were…
My lessons I learned were…
What I am grateful for in 2020…
What did I have to let go of in 2020…
How have I grown in 2020…
RELEASE
What did I not accomplish that I set out to…
What setbacks did I have in 2020
Who disappointed me in 2020
RENEW AND CREATE
(Act as if this has already come into existence)In 2021, I am celebrating that I…
In 2021, I have learned and grown in…
In 2021, I feel…
In 2021, I am grateful for…
In 2021, I’ve let go of…
What is your WORD for 2021?
Take the time to reflect, release, renew, and set your intention. Let 2021 be the year you manifest your desires. Enjoy the process ✍️”
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GOOGLE MEET TUTORIALS & OTHER TECH IDEAS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Click here to listen to these updates!
- Google Sites gets custom fonts – Font people, rejoice! You can pick your favorite font in Google Sites!
- Google Vault update – If you are an IT admin in charge of Google Vault, things might look a bit different the next time you sign in. The old interface will remain available for three months.
- Cheaters can’t outsmart Google! – Originality reports can now detect letter swaps designed to fool plagiarism checkers. Sorry, students!
- Improved comment / suggestion modes for Docs – You may have noticed some new icons in Google Docs which make it easier to add a comment or suggestion.
- Improved “people” directory in the Gmail side panel – Look for a new “people” option in the side panel next to Keep, Tasks, and Calendar. The new feature will display profile information from your contact list.
- Computer Science Week – December 7-14 is Computer Science week, an annual opportunity to introduce your students to coding. Code.org has lots of fun, free ways to add a bit of coding to your virtual or in-person classroom.
- Get creative with Chromebooks – it’s nice to see an official marketing piece from Google promoting the creative potential of ChromeOS. As a bonus, Chromebook users can get some NEW (free) perks!
- Five Jamboard templates – Add something new to your virtual lessons between now and Christmas break! These five templates work for all ages and subject areas!
- Funkify – every wonder what it’s like to have a learning disability? This website will temporarily give you that experience.
- Sowash family Christmas tradition – each year I prepare a breakout activity for my five kids to complete on Christmas morning. Here’s the back story on how this tradition started!
Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for links, ideas, and updates all month long!
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If your virtual lessons are starting to feel a bit stale, try implementing one of these simple ideas for engaging your students virtually through Google Meet or Zoom!
🥇 1. Game time
 Connect 4 is a game you can play in 10 minutes or less. |
One thing that I have learned about teaching remotely is to never start on time.
Start your virtual class by challenging your students to a classic game of connect 4, Battleship, or Scrabble.
These games acts as a sponge activity to account for late students.
These activities also give you time to set up breakout rooms and prepare your poll questions.
Make a copy of these templates to get started:
Suggestion: Winner gets to pick the losers Meet background.
2. Student of the Meet
Every summer, my wife and I institute “kid of the day” for our 5 kids.
The kid of the day gets to choose the activity for the day, make family choices (like what movie to watch) and gets to stay up 30 min. past bedtime to hang out with mom and dad.
You can modify our family tradition to become “student of the meet.”
The student of the meet can:
- Help you run the morning meeting
- Pick the virtual background everyone has to use for the session.
- Share something they are proud of
- Select the review game
- Choose who they want in their breakout group.
Tip: Use your cell phone to access the random student selector in Google Classroom to keep track of who you have called on. It requires zero effort on your part and it works wonderfully!
3. Put a hand up…
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Google Meet has a new “hand raise” feature that you can use to play “put a hand up!”
Note: this is a variation of a popular TikTok meme “put a finger down” which your students will probably recognize, instantly making you the cool teacher for the day.
To play, you need a list of yes / no questions to ask your students.
- Put a hand up if you have ever made a TikTok video.
- Put a hand up if you think that peanut M&Ms are better than plain.
- Put a hand up if you have ever looked at a cell under a microscope.
- Put a hand up if you have ever watched a movie based off of a Shakespeare play.
Students answer “yes” by using the hand-raise feature of Google Meet (this feature is available in all versions of Google Meet and works well on iPads and mobile devices).
These non-threatening questions help students access prior knowledge and give you a natural introduction to your lesson for the day.
4. Jam with your Class
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Jamboard is a fun (and crazy) collaborative space for doodling and brainstorming.
Whole class Jamboard activities can be fun if you carefully design your activity to make sure things don’t get out of hand.
At this time, Jamboard doesn’t offer revision history or the ability to lock things on the screen, so whole-group activities need to be simple and well organize.
You can now upload a custom background to a Jamboard frame!
Two of my favorite whole-class activities are Sticky graph and Brain Dump.
I designed a few more Jamboard activities (with templates) that you can check out here!
5. Learning Pictionary
Jamboard is cool, but it isn’t designed for independent work.
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Whiteboard.fi is a free whiteboard tool that gives every student their own, individual space to sketch, draw, and doodle, and it works great with Google Meet or Zoom!
Asking your students to draw and doodle engages both the left and right sides of their brain.
Call out a math problem, spelling word, or a learning objective, and give students 30 seconds to create a doodle.
World Language teachers can use whiteboard.fi to have students illustrate a story as they listen.
Whiteboard.fi will show you everyone’s drawing and can showcase an example to the rest of the class if you wish.
Didn’t find the right idea? There’s more!
I wrote a blog posts with 10 different ideas for teaching with Google Meet. If you need more ideas, check out this post!
Merry Christmas and happy new year!
See you in 2021!
Regards,
John R. Sowash
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You Asked, We Listened! As we approach a new year with new learning communities, we’re making Flipgrid simpler and more powerful. Starting December 21, you can add Google Classroom rosters to your Flipgrid discussions, making student access easier than ever! Looking for other ways to empower your learners? Here are a few more community‑driven updates:
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Mic Only mode
Flipgrid Shorts camera updates
Nametag cover images
COOL OPPORTUNITY
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GREAT ADVICE
Pandemic diaries: Why journaling now is the best time to start or restart
David G. Allan is the editorial director for CNN Travel, Style, Science and Wellness. This essay is part of a column called The Wisdom Project, to which you can subscribe here.
(CNN)You are living in an extraordinary time. So much is happening in the world, in your country, in your life. Making sense of it, processing, coping and even harnessing it to your benefit is important work. And writing in a personal journal is one of the most enjoyable, creative, simple and productive ways to accomplish those things.
Why you should write in a journal now
Free therapy
OK, but what else do I get?
- Has become a positive and enjoyable habit/compulsion
- Serves as a release and a harmless way to vent
- Is calming and gives me a much-needed opportunity to be creative
- Helps me work out personal and professional problems and dilemmas
- Gives me a reliable record of facts and details I often use later for writing or other reference
- Captures moments that I think will give me joy later in life when I revisit them
- Is comforting to think of it as an archive of our family life, and my children’s lives, that they will have after I’m gone
Getting started
Pick the canvas that’s right for you
Hardware
Don’t miss another Wisdom Project column by subscribing here.
It’s a great year to be a Bennie Bobcat!
