School Fund Raising

Target is running a fundraising opportunity for schools, if you have a Facebook account, you may have seen it, called Give With Target. The school will earn $25 for the first 25 votes, and then will receive $1 more for each additional vote. If you do not have a Facebook account, you can also go to www.givewith.target.com to place your vote (although I’m beginning to question if you need a Facebook, Twitter or Google+ acct.). We can vote once a week, I believe the contest will go until the $5 million they are donating is gone. Please encourage your parents to vote (Facebook, Twitter or Google+). I will be sending out a note as well to all of the PFA members who signed up and gave us email addresses. I’ve attached a flyer if you send your newsletter electronically. Thank you! Christine Chatham PFA President

Friday Speeches

Sign Ups: You can post your date on Edmodo or

 on the class sign up sheet. 

The Friday Speech is based on your personal interests.  You choose your own topic.  Your topics will all be extremely varied- no two alike.  Some ideas for speeches are:  sports, travel, music, hobbies, and other subjects you are interested in or feel you know a lot about.  You must check with Mrs. Hoffman before signing up for a specific topic.

Assignment Parts:

1.      Prezi Presentation:  A presentation must be included in your talk.  It must be in addition to your speech, not repeating everything that you are saying.  Attractive design and attention-getting details are important.  Use at least 5 pictures or clips within your presentation that connect to the subject.  The scanner, digital camera, and clips from the computers are available.  The Prezi must be saved to a flash drive for the speech.

2.      Outline:  The outline must be turned in before the speech.  It must be typed from the computer.  (See example page)

3.      Speech:  Practice your speech so that it can be given comfortably without outline or notes.  You will give your speech from 2:15-2:45 on Fridays.  The speech itself should be approximately 15-20 minutes.

4.      Treat:  A treat may be provided for the class.  You may want to theme the treat.  (i.e.  speech on China and a treat of fortune cookies!) *Please be mindful of students with nut allergies.

What is a Prezi? Check it out...

www.prezi.com

And the 2013-2014 First Quarter Winners Are...

Congratulations to the winners, I look forward to working with all
of you and seeing you grow as leaders. 

President: Peter
Vice President: Riley G.
Secretary: Ashton
Time/Peace Keeper: J.J. 

Also, well done to all of those to ran for office. It takes a lot of guts to work that hard, put your time and energy into campaigning. You may not have won the position, but you have won at challenging yourself. The effort you put into this election will pay off and you are better for doing it! So congratulations to you too. 

We are starting the year off with Class Council elections. There will be 5 offices held: President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer and Time/Peace Keeper. The purpose of Class Council is to review and maintain fidelity to our classroom norms and school-wide Whale Behaviors. As issues arise in class and on the playground we will address these as needed during Class Council. We will also review the team points. Students are in 8 groups of 3-4 students. These teams earn points for following our class norms and Whale Behaviors. Weekly during Class Council meetings the Treasurer will announce the winner from the previous week and that team will get to choose a reward. The entire class is also working toward larger rewards and the status of those points will also be reviewed by the Treasurer weekly. The Secretary will take notes and review the previous week's minutes. They will also post the minutes on this blog :-)   The Time/Peace keeper will keep the council on time and moving through the agenda, as well has work to support students in conflict during meeting times using positive strategies for problem solving. The President will lead the class council meetings, create the agenda along with the Vice President, and support the needs and desires of the class. They will also have final say during times of a tie when making decisions. The Vice President will support the president in leading the meetings, they will stand in as President in their absence, and will also help support the needs and desires of the class. All council members must maintain high academic grades and conduct themselves in an appropriate manner at all times.

There will be 4 terms throughout the year, one per academic quarter. Elections will be held at the start of each new quarter. Elections will consist of campaigning and electronic voting on Edmodo.

Campaigning Rules:
1. Fairness is of high importance. We do not want families with more or less resources to be at an advantage or disadvantage. Student work only please.
2. Students may make up to 8 posters for the class. No bigger than legal paper or large construction paper. If typed no graphics just text.
3.Students will present a 1 minute speech as to why they are the best candidate for the job.
4. Students must use one visual aid- poster, power point slide (just one), banner etc. to aid their speech.
5. Students will vote on Edmodo after the speeches to see the results of the election. The results of the election will be posted on the blog.

That Thursday the new Class Council members will take office.

Edmodo

Thank you for all your patience with me getting students set up on Edmodo. This is going to be an amazing educational tool for the students. We will use Edmodo in class and occasionally at home. 

I know there was confusion about log in information, but we have successfully logged every students in. If you would like to change the settings so you do not get "e-mail bombed" when we are active on Edmodo here are directions on how to do that. 

1. Once the student is logged in, in the top right corner click the "Me" Account drop down button

2. On the left hand side go to "Email & Text Updates"

4. I suggest only checking the "Alerts" Notes" and "Direct Messages" options and leaving the rest blank. A student/parent does not need to see the other options unless you'd like to. But this may result in you getting MANY emails as students reply during an activity. 

5. Click "Save Updates" at the bottom 

If you'd like to be able to have your own log in to see what your child's activity is, here are the directions for using the Parent Code. I will send these home early next week with your child 8/19 or 8/20. 

1. Visit www.edmodo.com and select the “I'm a Parent” button, just below the student and teacher sign up buttons.
2. Fill out the registration form with the unique parent code, the relationship with the child and a valid email address.
3. Select the “Sign Up” button to complete the sign up process.

Note: Once the parent has created the Parent Account, the parent is automatically observing any Group that the child is part of in his/her Account. A Parent Account allows you to see a limited view of your child's activity. Any Group the child adds in the future will be added to the Parent Account as well.

Welcome Back to School

Welcome Students and Parents to 2013-2014 Whitehead SWAS!  I'm so excited to be here with you all. I can't wait to jump in and start learning. 

If you ever need to reach me just call the school 626-5200 or e-mail choffman@washoeschools.net