We made it!

What a long week. Hats off the kindergarten for pulling through! Lots of energy in that wing. I'm out of energy after getting through all 3-5 classrooms for iPad deployment. Thank you teachers for all your support in that process! 

My "to do" list is currently 23 items long. I swear I've marked some items off the list, but it's not shrinking as fast as I'd like. I promise I'll get to everything... 

Success Ready planning
I jotted notes at our back to school meetings about Success Ready communication. I would love to chat with you about digital options for communication. It looked like they didn't have a preference for how it was communicated and I'm really good at working with very broad parameters. So let me know and we can talk about efficient ways to make that happen! 

Team Planning
So I was a failure at getting to team meetings. Like the "Good Egg", I can see where I went wrong. But now that I've gotten through iPad deployment, I'm good to go for next week. That didn't stop many of you from emailing me things you need. I have everything on my list and will be working through it ASAP.

What Matt can do for you
Now that I'm done with iPads, I'm in good shape for getting into your classrooms more. I wanted to share our menu of fun items with you again. Read through it and if something strikes you as interesting, let me know and we'll figure something out. Anything we have can be tied to your learning standards. 

Pineapple board
Don't forget about the Pineapple Board in the teacher's lounge. I added some activities for next week. Stop by to see what's happening. And please add your own activities. It's fun to share! 

#CREteach (#CRfamily)
Just one more week until the end of August and the first #CREteach award of the year. I love seeing all of your tweets throughout the day. You are doing a great job of telling our story. I have a list of Cedar Ridge teachers on Twitter. If I've missed anyone, let me know.

Have A Great Weekend!

Welcome back info

Howdy! For those new to Cedar Ridge, this blog is my avenue for sending out updates concerning media center programming. I promise to only send out group emails in "emergency" situations during the week. This blog is linked from the media center web page. I'm sure many of you will want to mark it as a favorite so you can access it daily!

Tech Work Orders
Our tech director has instructed us to put in work orders for every technology related issue and let our building tech handle them. Our tech, Carl, has six other schools. You can do the math. Her intention is great because it will enable me to work in classrooms more. But I'm not going to leave you hanging while you wait for Carl to show up. So here's the plan:

1. Something breaks/doesn't work
2. Report the issue using one of two ways
1. You can contact me like you normally do. I'll worry about the work order part. At the least, I'll assign it to me and resolve it so I can rack up high scores. 
2. You can put in a work order yourself through the portal. There's a folder called "Helpspot". I can train you how to use it if you want to go that route
3. Someone comes to fix it. If it's critical, I'll come ASAP. You have enough to worry about without having to worry about when the technician will arrive

Checkouts

We are open for business tomorrow! Kids need reading materials. So I'm planning on you coming this week unless you tell me otherwise. Then my feelings will be hurt. 

Checkouts are not release time for you. I'm not sure where else you'd want to be anyway. Grab a seat on the couch, call up a few friends to join you, and enjoy the show. We'll start with reading around the space after checking out and move into stations in a while.

Please send your returned library books in the morning. With another school in our space, this is really important so we can get everything checked in before your students arrive.

Students who have missing materials from last year will be allowed to check out one book to keep at school in the classroom. 

Book a Day Board

I found teachers to be a bit unreliable last year in reporting their reading to add to our board. So I'm going a different route. See the link below to submit your books. This applies to students as well. For grades 3-5, you can have students add the link to their homescreen of the iPad and submit their books directly. I have a QR code they can use from the board itself. For grades K-2, when you finish a read aloud in class you can submit it as a group. Or have students submit their reading from your computer or iPad. I think it will be fun. 

Book a Day Link

Team Meetings

I'm looking forward to listening in at your grade level planning times. I'll start attending next week. 

Maker stuff

Look for these blog posts for ideas you might want to try. I'll also bring ideas to your meetings. Room 305 is a mess, but we hope to have it straightened out soon. I have already scheduled some scavenger hunts with Kindergarten and Breakouts with 3rd. Be thinking of things we did last year (bookmarks, buttons, crafts, challenges, etc) that you want to do again. And there will be more stuff to come. 

That's probably enough for now. Who am I kidding? Only four of you made it this far. If you are one of those people, see me for a surprise. After 1:00. I'm hungry.