Friday, September 4, 2015

Principal's Message - September 4, 2015



Monte Vista School
The Independent Learning Academy
Principal’s Message
September 4, 2015, 2015


“The object of education is to prepare the young to educate themselves throughout their lives.” - Robert M. Hutchins



Monte Vista School is on Twitter! Become a follower and get all the last minute news, updates, and more!
@DrMVPsimivalley

This message as well as the past messages can be found on the Principal’s Blog:

Good Afternoon and a Happy Friday!  August has come and gone and we have already completed 3 weeks of school.  Soon it will be Autumn and we’ll be enjoying cooler weather along with Fall colors.

Great article in today’s Acorn.  Monte Vista is certainly growing and making its mark in our community.  If you haven’t yet seen the article, here’s the link:

Earlier in the week, I met with Dr Morse from the county to discuss possible CTE programs for Monte Vista.  She relayed to me that there is some funding from the CTE grant for alternate schools and that Monte Vista could jump on the band wagon and develop a couple of pathways.  Two that come to mind are a Robotics/Technical & Art of Engineering as well as an Agriscience pathways.  If you know a retired/semi-retired engineer/computer type of person, let me know and we’ll see if they would like to teach a course!

Also, we still looking for parent volunteers, our Makerspace Lab (w/its new green screen) and a possible ‘gamification’ room could use a volunteer or 2 to help staff it.

Thanks to our volunteer, Elaine Hitchcock our library is now on Mondays from 12noon to 3:00pm and on Wednesdays from 9 to noon on Wednesdays.  If you’re going send a student over, give her a call to let her know that a student(s) are on their way.  Also, all of our students are invited to drop in to read, do research, use the computers and/or get lost in the wonderful world of books.

Besides the Library, here’s a list of the available labs and activities available for our students…please help get the word out!


Subject
Course/Grade Level
Day of the Week
Location
Time
Math
MS Math 6-8
Tuesday
Rm 9
11 – 12noon

Algebra
Wednesday
Rm 9
11 – 12noon

Alg/Geo/Alg2
Monday
Rm 16
11 – 1pm

Alg/Geometry
Tuesday
Rm 16


All Levels (APEX on line learning)
Wednesday
Rm 4
3 – 4:30pm

Algebra
Thursday
Rm 16
10 - 12 noon

Geo/Alg 2/and above
Thursday
Rm 7
2:45 – 4:45pm





English
Eng & Writing 6 -12
Monday
Rm 9
2 – 3pm

Eng & Writing
Thursday
Rm 9
12noon -1pm





Foreign Language
Spanish 1
Tuesday
Rm 4
3:30 – 4:30pm

Spanish 2 & 3
Thursday
Rm 4
3:30 – 4:30pm

French 1
Tuesday
Rm 10
3:30 – 4:30pm

French 2 & 3
Thursday
Rm10
3:30 – 4:30pm





Social Studies
History
Wednesday
Rm 9
11 -12noon





Science
Earth Sci Lab
Monday
Rm 6
12noon – 1pm

Science Lab Help  K-12
Tuesday
Rm 6
12noon – 1pm

Chemistry Lab
Wednesday
Rm 6
12noon – 1pm

Biology Lab
Thursday
Rm 6
12noon – 1pm





Physical Ed
Yoga/Pilates
Monday
MPR
2 – 3pm

Golf
Wednesday
MV Field
7 – 7:45am

Spin
Thursday
YMCA
3:30 – 4:30pm

Skateboarding
Tues & Thur
Skatelab
2 -3:30pm





Elementary Activities
Discovery Day
Wednesday
Rm 8
12:30 – 2pm

Parent Directed
Friday
TBD
9     – 11:00am


Activities and labs to come:
            Floral Design - Monthly
            Gardening Day – Weekly
Gamification – Weekly
MakerSpace – Weekly
4H Meetings - Monthly

Follow Monte Vista on Twitter*, keep smiling and let’s not only all make it a great day but a fantastic 3 day weekend!

Steve  :)


*Yesterday I was facilitating a Twitter 101 Session at edcampLA and a couple of teachers who were new to twitter asked for a Twitter 101 or Twitter for beginners blog post. We didn’t have access to a projector screen in the session so I couldn’t show them any posts during the session, so I promised them I would send them a link. Instead of just sending them to one spot I thought I’d post a bunch of links below that are curated by me since I use Twitter a ton and help run two Twitter Chats. So below are some links, tips and thoughts about Twitter that I will update as often as I can.

MY TWO BIGGEST TIPS ON GETTING PEOPLE TO FOLLOW YOU BACK ON TWITTER ARE:

1. Make sure you have a picture of you in your profile, fill out your bio, and use a header image that gives people a little glimpse of who you are or what you like. Passion is contagious so showing people what you are passionate about in your bio helps find like-minded people.


And here are few other examples:

Twitter Headers

Chris Long loves kettle bells, Eric Saibel Loves Travel and Adventure, Sean Ziebarth loves biking and his blue bug, and Alice Keeler loves her kids so much she will hold them in her arms while she is presenting and still rock it.

Lastly, please tweet out six pictures as soon as possible. I can tell what you are like very quickly just by looking at the picture share part of your Twitter account. I make the majority of my “follow” decisions by looking at your photo shares and by seeing if you are interacting with me.

You can see by Sean Ziebarth’s shares on the left he likes people, silliness, taking pictures of his friend Greg eating four donuts and music. You can see that Jodie Morgenson, on the right, LOVES being silly and is a positive person. As I said in my blog post on taking better photos, you can quickly see into a person’s soul when you see how they look at the world.

There are lots of Twitter accounts, even teacher accounts, that I consider SPAM accounts. SPAM accounts are those that just share relentlessly without actually interacting with other Twitter users. Worse yet are those that will only share things that they have done or are a part of. Don’t be like that.

No one worth their salt cares how many people follow you on Twitter. Heck anyone can buy fake Twitter followers. If you want more followers provide value that people appreciate. Point out other’s victories. Post other people’s blog posts. Find useful tools and resources and share them. Interact. That’s the most important part, remember it’s called SOCIAL media. Be sociable, have fun, be a good friend, not a good network.

WOLF

LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Please, please, don’t lock your Twitter account (keep it private) unless you are on the run from the mafia, and then maybe you just shouldn’t be on Twitter.

TWITTER BASICS:

Great Tip by Alice Keeler on how to get a group of people to sign up for Twitter while bypassing all the sign-up steps.

Twitter 101 article by Jeff Dunn on Edudemic

One question I hear from Twitter newbies is how do you follow conversations in Twitter. When you click on a Tweet, if people have replied to the Tweet you will see the entire conversation thread. I going to post a few other observations under the next picture.

Twitter Thread 2

When you click on a Tweet you will see that it has its own shareable url that you can share, link to in a blog post or presentation or do tasks with it.
There are three circles at the bottom of a Tweet. If you click on it…
You can share a Tweet via email, Mute the user without unfollowing them (sneaky) or report a Spammer or inappropriate tweet.
Here is the conversation thread
By putting Twitter handles in your tweet your message will not only show up in the reader of the people that you follow, but the people whose Twitter handles you put in the message will see your message in a special area called “Notifications.”
Here is where you click to see your Notifications. If there are tweets in here, people really want you to see what you Tweeted. When I’m busy sometimes I will only look at my Notifications.

TWITTER CHATS:

How To Survive And Thrive In A Twitter Chat.

A list of educational Twitter chats by day, hour, and subject.

TWITTER IN THE CLASSROOM:

Using Twitter Chats In The Classroom Or As An Assessment Tool.

WHO TO FOLLOW ON TWITTER:

If you go to the lists section of my Twitter account you can see that I keep a curated list of people to follow on Twitter by subject taught, grade level, and their role in education. It’s a great list, seriously.

Alice Keeler’s List of Teachers by Subject Area on Twitter.

 UPDATE 2/18/2015:

I had a friend ask me “What do you do on Twitter, how do you use it daily?”

That’s a good question:

Here are a few things you should try on Twitter either once a day or once a week.

Share a picture of your classroom.
Share a picture of some student work.
Share a picture of a process or tradition you have in your class, give a short explanation.
Share a quote or song that is guiding you lately.
Ask a question to a subject area hashtag like #engchat or #tweatre
Ask a question of a teacher you don’t know.
Share a link to a resource, website or video that worked in class.
Share a link to a Google doc or Google Presentation that you used in class.
Share when a student says something awesome.
Share when a co-worker says or does something nice or awesome.
I’ll think of more, but hopefully that gives you something to do on Twitter besides sharing pictures of your food and talking about famous people.

The shortlink to this blog post is: bit.ly/twitter101forteachers

Sean Ziebarth and I did a training/presentation for the College Board on using Twitter as a Professional Development tool/strategy. Here is our presentation on using Twitter as a Professional Development tool.  Or you can use this shortlink to the presentation: bit.ly/twitterpdpresentation



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