Quick Friday Notes

First off, thank you for all the feedback from you Christmas movie "experts" out there. It's great to get a dialogue going. 

Maggie has been rehearsing for the "Home for the Holidays" show at Columbia College for the last several weeks. Shows started last night and we have five more through Sunday. It's fun and all, but really cutting into my movie time.

Couple of notes...

Listening devices
We have ordered a set of headphones to go with a laptop lab. Thank you, Angie! When those are in, I'll get them prepped and organized so using them will be as easy as possible. Also, I do have earbuds in the media center. I would prefer to give them out to 1:1 classrooms so they can be used for as long a period of time as possible. But if you are in a pinch, let me know. 

Bookroom materials
I got a huge influx of new book sets over my book fair holiday. I'm starting to get those catalogued and into circulation. 

AIMS Web on iPads
I have received word that students can do AIMS Web on the iPads. It was supposed to have been pushed automatically to all students but if it's not on there now, it can be downloaded from Self Service. They said it can be done on all large iPads. 

Have a great weekend! 

Early Holiday Special

I'm keeping this short and totally unrelated to school. Because you've earned it! In case you didn't know, I'm a fairly big fan of Christmas movies. And if you didn't know, you have to start watching early to get them all in before New Year's Day. So I'm sharing my two most important documents with you today...

Matt's Fairly Comprehensive List of Christmas Movies - a spreadsheet of movies with descriptions and a cocoa rating (1 cocoa = awful, 5 cocoas = spectacular). I'm still adding 2018 movies. Please tweet at me with your own assessments, but be prepared to be served with a "Matt was right, and I was wrong" button if your take is flawed or misguided. 

Matt's Christmas Bingo 2.0 - 8 unique cards to play with your family and friends. New improved from the 2016 version. 

Have an awesome Thanksgiving break!!

Book Fair Special!

I can't believe it's this time of year already! After a series of phone calls and emails, I spent this week trying to get caught up on my first book fair. So I wanted to make sure everyone is in the loop. Here are the known details in an exciting calendar format...

November 7-9 classes - Students will be viewing the riveting promo video and then checking out like normal. 

November 9th - Book fair arrives. I'll keep it closed up and "out of the way" until after school. No changes to the regular library routine. 

November 12th - Set up the book fair in the library. I'll have some helpers here to get everything in place during the day. No changes to regular library time.

November 12th after school - Come to the Teacher Preview Extravaganza! Look around and pick out books you would like for your Teacher Buckets! Woo hoo!

November 12-15 classes - Students will be filling out wishlists. We'll be keeping these wishlists organized and at school to help parents and grandparents shop for their kids. I realize there will be conferences before some kids have the opportunity to make a wishlist, but that's just how life goes sometimes.

November 13 - Book Fair open from 3:30 to 7:00

November 14 - Book Fair open from 3:30 to 5:00

November 15 - Book Fair open from 3:30 to 8:00

November 19 - I am looking at this day for any straggling students to come in and make purchases. I figure they've had a week for their parents to come to conferences and make purchases, so there shouldn't be a high demand. I'll give you details on how I want kids sent to the media center when I figure it out! 

November 20 - Grandparent's Day Sale. This should be fun. The book fair will be open starting at 12:30 for grandparents. I believe the programming starts at 1:40 so they'll have some time to shop. They can also come back in after the program. We'll have all wishlists here so they can grab the list and spend lots of money that otherwise would have been spend on Bingo. We'll stay open until 4:00.

In other news:

• The wonderful Kendra should be sending out a volunteer form via Parentlink tonight calling for help. 
• Because we're so awesome, everyone will be getting a $5 gift card to use.
• I'm doing the math now so I don't have specifics, but you will be getting some amount of credit to spend. If you were used to getting a huge payout at the old school, you might be disappointed. More mouths to feed this year!

I hope that's about as clear as can be. If you have awesome ideas to share, I'd be glad to hear them. But I can't promise that I'll use them this time around! 

Have a great weekend!