A New School Year Is Almost Here

Summer vacation has flown by. I hope everyone has been able to relax and rejuvenate so we can hit the ground running in just 8 short days. As you prepare to return, I would like to offer a quick read that really ties in with our goals of increasing student engagement and building relationships. Please take time to read Cheryl Mizerny's article Reaching Every Student on SmartBlog (click the title).  It is full of great ideas and best practices that Master Teachers use to empower their students to achieve their best.

 As you reflect on the article, please share with your colleagues how you reach every student using  the comments section of the blog. 

I am looking forward to seeing you all again on August 17th and sharing all the things we have been working on over the summer. Together, we have the power to make this Rufino Mendoza Elementary's best year yet!

Mrs. Sanchez 

Gratitude

Welcome back from a well-deserved week of rest, family and celebration!  I hope each of you had the time to rest, rejuvenate and reflect on the successes of the first two six weeks. As I reflected on my year so far, I though of how grateful I am to be here at Mendoza with each of you. I started thinking of the power of gratitude and how important it is to celebrate it every day and not just on Thanksgiving Day as reflected in this quote from Daily Values:

"Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.” Author, Journalist—Melody Beattie

As we move forward into that time of the year we typically refer to as "Crunch Time", I ask that you take time each day to reflect on your successes - no matter how small they may seem - with gratitude. It is with the power of this daily affirmation of gratitude that we will accept those challenges presented to us head on and turn obstacles into opportunities. Each of us has been chosen to be in this place, at time because this is where we are needed to make a difference.

Today I am grateful for the love and acceptance I see in each of you for each of our students. What are you grateful for today?

This week we had learning walks with the Learning Network Specialist. We saw many great practices going on in the classroom. Check out Ms. Mendoza's anchor charts and her students' mission statements:

Ms.Crook has a great rubric for setting expectations during DEAR time:

and a great formative assessment to gauge what students have learned:

Keep up the great work ladies! I cannot wait to see how you tackle our Formative Assessment Challenge. For the week of November 10-14, we will be using the same formative assessment piece as the blog did not get sent out to everyone last week. It is called 3-5-1 Multi-step Summarizer from Snow and Vance; just click the title on the left to open the link in a new window. It looks like this:

Finally, we had a fantastic Veteran's Day performance from our 5th graders! I caught these pictures at our evening performance:

Finally, I wanted to share some interesting research I read in the TEPSA Instructional Leader regarding the effects of poverty on children's brains. Check it our here: http://www.tepsa.org/? InstLeaderHome  It is one of the sample articles this week.

Waiver Day on November 10th promises to be very informative and a great opportunity to collaborate, and catch up, with your peers from other schools. 3-5 will be going over the Literacy re-design about which I am very excited.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Off to a Great Start

It is hard to believe how fast the first six weeks of school have gone by. During my visits to classrooms, I have seen so many wonderful things in place that I had to share!

Fantastic Neighborhood Landmark projects from Ms. Cadena and Mr. Quijano's 3rd graders:

 

Mr. Rufino Mendoza, son of our namesake, and his family generously donated funds to support our football team that was organized by Ms. Cortes-Rangel through the Fort Worth Optimist's Club:

The jerseys look fantastic! We are so proud of all the players - they have heart and never give up no matter how experienced their opponents are. When you see a player in the halls, tell them how proud you are of all their hard work.

I also noticed some fantastic anchor charts in Ms. Mercado's 2nd grade Dual Language class:

Watermelon and Seed chart for small moments writing.

Pie Chart for Author's Purpose and Writing Process Stage Tracker

We have also been focusing on formative assessment during the first six weeks. The Snow and Vance website has so many fantastic resources. Check it out!  To keep things fresh and exciting, I am issuing a formative assessment challenge. Each week, I will feature a formative assessment and challenge our staff to use it at least once during the following week. As we visit classrooms, we will be looking for the assessment and taking pictures to share with the web! The formative assessment for next week's challenge is: the
3-5-1 Multi-step Summarizer from Snow and Vance; just click the title on the left to open the link in a new window. It looks like this:

I can't wait to see it in action in the classrooms!