MVE Principal

So Much to Share!

2012-02-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...and since I am so far behind on my blog postings, but I've still been taking photos of our school activities, I thought I would catch you up through photographs!

Enjoy your journey!

Spelling Bee Champs!
1st Place- MaKenna Hardy
2nd Place- Hannah Durney

MaKenna went to the District Spelling Bee
and made it to the Top 30!! Congrats!

Mountain View's Top Spelling Champs in 4th & 5th Grade!

3rd Graders with fantastic art projects!

5th graders in Mr. Hedge's class get up and
move to learn their math skills.
Gracie and her negative number hop!

Negative + Negative-Positive=??

A new MVE grandbaby- Miss (Mrs) Vicki
in the library and her new grandson!

Mrs. Bell holds the baby..She taught his
mommy 21 years ago!!

Our morning video announcements go high tech-
the newscasters are using iPads for their scripts!

Students in Mrs. Ross's class listening intently
as their classmate reads a story to them

Students using iPod technology to practice
reading fluency in Mrs. Ross's class!

Mrs. Ross watching student as he learns
to use the iPod to record his reading

One is the student; the other the teacher...
Both are learning, using technology and loving it!

Mrs. Amend monitoring the guided practice after they've
learned the use of iPods for reading fluency.

Our interpreter learning to use Google Docs from
Shelley Stetler- Instructional Tech guru and our
principal intern this year!

Mr. Hedge uses the Mimio Tablet to
write on the smartboard!

Mr. Hedge using his new MimioTeach!

Thanks again for stopping by my blog of Mountain View's activities!! As you can see, we have a lot going on each day. Come by our school and see for yourself in person!!

Love,

Mrs. Amend

More January fun!

2012-01-21T16:48:00.000-08:00

As I was looking at the photos I took, I found a few more of activities that have happened since our winter break. I want to share those with you as well...

Irv Brown visits our 5th graders

Ms. Campbell's Class takes MAP test

Campbell kids make resolutions
for the New Year!

Monster Stories in the hall- yeah for writing!!

Happy New Year to all!!

Mrs. Amend :)

I'm Baaaaaack!!!!!

2012-01-21T16:31:00.000-08:00

Hi Mountain View Friends and Families!!
It's been 3 long weeks since I've written on here but I promise it wasn't intentional. I've been having issues with my Google accounts and an old blog that I started in the summer (never used) getting confused with this one. I wasn't able to log in to the right blog until someone came to my rescue on Friday and got it all fixed up for me...many thanks to my administrative intern, Shelley Stetler!!

So...what's been happening around our school? SO MUCH!!!

Art Class- TAB

After our Art teacher, Jennifer Schmuldt, helped and coordinate a very successful TAB Conference at our own ESC, our kids are back working and enjoying their time as artists in her class.

The older students are using digital photography, computers and their keen visual skills to photograph 'lines' and then go back to the computer to turn the photos into the most amazing works of art. Here are two of our 'semi-pros' as they make their way around the school looking for ideas for their next assignment!!

And finally...there was some good ole' fashioned cowboy madness going on in Ms. Conwell's class this week as they had a Cowboy Day!! I happened upon these two
cowpokes as I was coming down the hall this week. Aren't
they adorable??

Until next week.... I hope you keep coming back to see the happenings at our school!

Love,
Mrs. Amend :)

Pre-Break Festivities!

2011-12-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

I am very late in posting all of the fun that happened the day before break but as the old adage goes 'it's better late than never'! I definitely wanted to share with you 'oh what fun' we had while it's still quiet around my house.

We started our morning of the 16th with our second annual All School Sing-along. It was another fantastic success with all of the classes packing the gym and cafeteria to listen to the sign choir, bell choir and then join in several group songs with everyone singing together!

Sign Choir signing holiday songs

Bell Choir chiming holiday songs

Whole school watching the choirs

Several of our Merry 5th graders!

My next stop was a visit to our DHH Department where Signing Santa had stopped by to visit the kids! I was able to tell Santa what I wanted (although I have most everything I want or need so it was very hard to do on the spur of the moment!) but I got the most joy out of watching the students tell Santa their wishes. The themes were still many PS3s, XBoxes and puppies... but all the kids wanted James to come back from college to visit them (a former teacher's assistant who worked in their room). Lo and behold, James appeared a short time after Santa left to spend the rest of the day with the kids!!

My final photojournalist visit on Friday was a stop in Mrs. Stuut's 3rd grade classroom for a Winter Writer's Celebration. The students had written stories that they had published through to a final product that they wanted to share publicly so they invited their families to celebrate their accomplishments. The stories were amazing and included, "The Day Mrs. Stuut Didn't Show up for School" (forgive me if that isn't quite right) and other very creative titles.

After a rousing song at 2:30 we sent the students home for a 2 week (plus one day!) winter break. But we were in for another treat on Saturday morning when our Mountain View Bell Choir performed outside of Nordstrom at FlatIron Crossing Mall. They were fantastic (as usual) and drew a crowd to cheer them on. Hooray for our students and their community appearance!!

This concludes my whirlwind, pre-break update from Mountain View! I plan to keep you posted as we slide into the new year with snow still on the ground and many, many activities happening daily that I'd love to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by!
Love,
Mrs. Amend

Smart and Strong!

2011-12-11T05:09:00.000-08:00

Mountain View can brag about so many things and among them are our Gifted and Talented and Physical Education programs.

We are lucky to have a retired 5th grade teacher, Russ Skillings, come for a week each month and do a pull-out program with our G/T students. Mr. Skillings loves to really push the students in their thinking by doing projects such as fingerprint identification, poetry analysis and now learning about acids and bases.

As I was cruising through the hallways this week, I happened upon a fifth grader with a test tube in her hand and a big smile on her face. Inside of the test tube was some green goo and she was heading to the bathroom to wash it out. I asked her what she was learning about and suddenly her eyes lit up and she started talking really fast about acids and bases and orange juice and....well, let's just say I knew I would never remember all of it. I asked her if she would write it down for me so I could put it on my blog this weekend and here is the note I found on my desk a little bit later:

Mrs. Amend-
We were learning (in G.T.) how acids and bases react. When they react, they make a bubbly mess. The acid we tried was vinegar and the base we tried was baking powder. Hannah G.T.

And here is her photo:

Our SMART!

On Thursday we had a fine display of STRENGTH when our third, fourth and fifth graders put on their tumbling show! Mr. Lobato, our PE teacher, spends about 2 months on gymnastics each year and as a culminating event the students in the intermediate grades put on the show. Here are a few photos from the afternoon show!

And now we are off to our last week before the winter break! I know there will be many more great learning experiences and activities going on and I look forward to sharing them with you. Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Love,

Mrs. Amend

Author Skype

2011-12-08T04:37:00.000-08:00

Good morning!
Many of our teachers like to get students 'hooked' on reading by studying one author and all of the books that he/she has written. The teacher will check out or bring in all of that author's books and 'immerse' (literally 'surround') the children with every story the author and/or illustrator has ever written and/or drawn in order to show and help them understand the 'voice' of the author. The teacher also does this to teach the children the writing process and what authors go through in order to write a 'story' or book.

Sometimes the class will write a letter to the author asking questions about being an author and how they came up with the ideas to write a book or story. If they are really lucky, the author will write back. As the internet has evolved, when a teacher had the author's email address, he/she was able to email them and the kids were very excited to watch for 'You've Got Mail' from their favorite author.

Todd Parr- Author
Skyping in MVE Library

This week Mrs. Dougherty's class upped the ante when they had a 'virtual author's visit' from Todd Parr, the author of many, many children's books and one their class been studying for quite a few weeks. He came to visit them by Skype...yes, through the computer! Mrs. Dougherty had become Todd's Facebook friend (professionally speaking, of course!) and through conversations about writing and the author's study they were doing, they decided it would be possible for him to visit Mountain View's second grade students on Skype. Mrs. Dougherty had to get many things ready in order for this to happen but finally, this week, it all came together and he visited our library!

He talked to the students about how he gets his ideas for books, how long it takes to write them and draw the pictures (he actually draws the pictures first and then writes the stories), and finally, how long it takes for the books to come out to our schools (over a year!!).

The students had prepared questions ahead of time to ask him and some had written and illustrated pages to share with him. At the end he even read us one of his books. It was an amazing 30 minute adventure between Broomfield and Berkeley, CA and one that our Mountain View students were able to enjoy thanks to the amazing teachers we have here!

2nd graders Skyping with Todd Parr

Many thanks to Mrs. Dougherty for her hard work dreaming this up and making it a reality and to Mr. Ardito for helping her make it come true!!

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

Love,

Mrs. Amend

Thanksgiving Week

2011-11-25T11:17:00.000-08:00

Greetings Parents and friends!
I hope you are all stuffed and happy after a great holiday (or at least a great day off) yesterday! I was able to enjoy a day spent with my husband, grandson and both of my children in town. It was perfect!

Before starting our five day break I had a great time with your children and visiting classrooms as I did a few teacher observations and walk-throughs. Here are some of the amazing things I saw:

Mrs. Casini using her Mimio Board to draw!

In Mrs. Cascini's class she was teaching a lesson to her students on writing. The first step before writing sentences is learning how to draw pictures with details. Earlier in the week the students went to an assembly with Angelynne, the Deaf Dog. Because they all had a shared experience together, Mrs. Cascini talked to them about what they saw in the gym and all of the details right down to the color of the mats in the gym entry, etc. She was trying to get them to remember as many details as possible so when she started to draw her picture on the Mimio Board, she could model exactly what she wanted them to do. After she drew her picture on the board (which takes a lot of talent!) the students went back to their seats and started their own drawings. After drawing in their journals, the next step will be that some will be labeling their drawings; others will start by writing sentences. It really all depends on the level of readiness of the student. Each teacher differentiates instruction for every child so they get what level of instruction is needed.

Ms. Glover reading a story

On my way through the classrooms I stopped for a minute to listen to Mrs. Glover sign and read a story to her students too. As you can see, they were all very engrossed in the story. If you could have heard how animated she was, you would have been too!

Let's have lunch!

As I walked down the hallway I came across a daily ritual that happens at Mountain View...the dragging of the lunch tubs! Everyday, starting at 10:45, the student helpers from each class take their turn pushing and pulling the lunch tubs down the hall in order to make sure the students with cold lunch have their food!

Turkey or Jerky?

Meanwhile back in the teacher's lounge, Mr. Ardito had organized our annual Thanksgiving luncheon for the staff. And this year, Mrs. Nelson brought us a new and fun idea-Turkey or Jerky! Each lunch period we had a drawing for one or the other...all names of teachers were put in one bucket and slips with 'turkey' or 'jerky' were in a second bucket. The first name drawn was the winner and a slip from the second bucket either said, "turkey" or "jerky". (The turkey was actually a cornish game hen :)).

Mr. Ardito's Annual
Staff Thanksgiving Lunch

In the library one of our wonderful parent volunteers helped students from Mrs. Jankowski's class check out library books. I also caught a few of the students relaxing before heading back to their classrooms. And if you haven't heard our exciting news, Mrs. Gibney is returning to our school after the winter break! We are so excited!!

Checking out books

Lounging in the library!

Preschooler using MimioBoard to sequence
Little Red Riding Hood (and Mrs. Goberis)

My final stop was an observation of Mrs. Goberis teaching the preschoolers how to sequence the story "Little Red Riding Hood" using her Mimio Board. It was so amazing to watch 3-5 year olds as they moved the pictures of the story into columns marked 'Beginning', 'Middle', or 'End'. As they did this, Mrs. Goberis talked (and signed) over and over all about the story of Red Riding Hood, using the language of beginning, middle and end; what comes first and last; and helped the students understand these concepts as readers and writers. When we talked about her lesson prior to my observation, one of the things we discussed was how our preschool is so academically focused, which is great for our students as they prepare for school and kindergarten in the future. It really does give them a head start on the skills they need to be successful. I also loved watching them fearlessly use the technology in their classroom at such a young age. They truly are digital natives!

Mrs. Maestas and her son, Tristan

And as a last little sign off to all of you.... here is a wonderful mother and son moment occurring in the kiva. Mrs. Maestas is giving her son, Tristan, a nice, big hug as he walks by her to class. I love that our staff members trust their own children to Mountain View and know that they will get a great education. It speaks a lot when they know their colleagues are going to deliver a socially and academically high quality curriculum and experience for their child!!

Wow! That was a lot! I'm sorry to make it so long but it's a week's worth stuffed into one post (one turkey??). I hope you had an awesome week and I'll see you again next week when I happily post more of the great things going on around our school!

Love,
Mrs. Amend

The Big and the Small

2011-11-17T19:01:00.000-08:00

I was out several days this week but not before experiencing both ends of the spectrum at Mountain View. One of the many reasons I love serving all of you is that we have the joys of preschool as well as fifth grade in our building. That means kids who are 3 years old and kids as old as 11 sometimes! Can you imagine the fun that can happen when we have 650 kids (and about 90 adults) who are either between those ages or ACT between those ages??

I stopped by preschool in time to catch Mrs. Goberis teaching the story of Little Red Riding Hood. I'm sure she would have done a great job no matter what she was wearing, but the red 'riding' hood she had on added so much more to her lesson and all the students just LOVED it!

Mrs. Goberis (Red Riding Hood) and her preschoolers!

Ms. Cascini's class getting excited to write!

In Mrs. Cascini's Kindergarten through second grade class, they were synching up their hearing aids before they started their writing lesson. And guess what they are learning about too?? Little Red Riding Hood! One of her students was so excited that's all she could say over and over...

Ms. Cascini making sure
everyone is ready for writing!

5th graders writing prefixes & suffixes

My last stop was watching a wonderful lesson in Ms. Tutela's fifth grade classroom. She created a SmartBoard lesson on prefixes and suffixes that the students enjoyed (as did I!) and were all engaged in the whole time! I never thought that kids could have a good time learning about those things, but she showed all of us that it was possible. It is amazing what you can teach to kids when you make it interactive and they get to participate in their own learning. There is nothing like great teaching to remind me that I have the best job in the world!

Ms. Tutela & student using SmartBoard
for prefix/suffix lesson

I hope you've enjoyed this glimpse inside of our school this week. Come over and see for yourself when you have a few minutes... we would love to have you!

Have a great weekend-
T

Wednesday, Friday!

2011-11-10T05:00:00.000-08:00

I guess if we started the week with "Monday, Monday" I will end it with "Wednesday, Friday" since yesterday (a Wednesday) was actually a Friday for our students. Because today is a teacher training/work day and tomorrow is Veteran's Day, our students have a 4 day weekend. I know they all hate missing school, right? Before we head into the weekend, I thought I would give you a little glimpse into our day yesterday.

Wednesdays are always a challenge at Mountain View and probably at any of District 12's elementary schools. As professionals we appreciate the time the district has given us for professional development after school; however this creates a shortened day in which a lot of learning and teaching needs to happen. We have such amazing teachers and if they could they would add extra hours in the day in order to teach your children.

I was able to spend a few minutes in several classrooms and I also did a longer observation in a 1st grade classroom (see photo below). In 20 minutes time I saw the teacher explicitly teaching spelling, handwriting, vocabulary, grammar structure and use, and begin her Read Aloud lesson with the students. Sprinkled throughout all of this were some of the best classroom management strategies I've ever observed as well as continual differentiation for students. The students were at times writing or speaking; talking with a friend before answering; working in triads to complete a task; acting things out using props (to explain vocabulary, no less!). She also used visuals as well as having the students use her SmartBoard technology so they had 'hands-on' experiences too. I was most impressed with how hard the students were working and how fully engaged they were the entire time. It was a joy for me to observe!

Students acting out vocabulary words

After school, once all the students were safely home with parents, it was time for the teachers to become the students. Our professional development this year is focused on the writing process and how to become better teachers of writing. Our Leadership Team is doing the facilitation of the training but it's really a series of DVDs and work sessions by Regie Routman, a well-known author, researcher, and teacher of reading and writing in the professional world. She did much of her research and work in District 12 and many of her DVDs feature teachers and principals that we know! Below you will see some of our staff hard at work filling their heads with great knowledge :-)

Always fully attentive...never having fun!

Today we will continue our work by looking at data in preparation for Data Day on Dec. 2 (it's still a school day for kids). We will also have computer training and teachers will be working on report cards which are coming home next Friday.

Listening to the benefits of immersing students in
types of books and pieces of writing before asking
them to write the same kind

Until next week, have a great weekend and Happy Veteran's Day!

Love,
Mrs. Amend :)

Monday, Monday...

2011-11-07T20:38:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday Mountain View family!
We are off and running to a very short week at our school. It was another awesome day around the place with lots of learning going on. I had a chance to see some kids in Mrs. Hasselfeldt's room using math blocks to practice division, meet with Mr. Valdez about his exciting plan to start using standards-based grading for math, listen to Mr. Lane sing and play instruments with the kids in the music room, and as you can see in the photo below, stop by the library to check up on 3 girls using our iPads to practice their math skills!

Using iPad technology to practice math in the library!

After school our Technology Committee, with representatives from each grade level, met to discuss our current plan and timelines for implementation. If you'd like to see our Tech Plan for 11-12, please visit our school website (where you came from to visit my blog) at www.mountain.adams12.org

Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Mrs. Amend :)

A Wild and Crazy Week!

2011-11-06T19:40:00.000-08:00

Last week marked the ending of our ButterBraid sales. As you might know from your child, or the many signs around the school, the students had a goal to raise $10,000 for new technology for the school. There were many prizes for the top sellers from each grade level, individuals and as a class, and we were proud of the students/classes who worked hard to contribute to reaching our school goal. However there was also an incentive that I believe motivated the students in another way...I promised them if they reached their goal, I would wear a clown suit with balloons tied to my bottom and skate around the school for a day! Well, I'm pretty sure that incentive helped tremendously with sales as we easily bypassed our goal of $10K and last I heard, we earned around $12,000 to put towards the purchase of new computers for our technology lab! This will be so amazing as our students tackle the NETS Standards (National Educational Technology Standards) in the future/upcoming year(s) ahead of us. I am thrilled by the possibilities of what we can do with technology integrated into our curriculum and what we can learn from our children who are not afraid to use it to show what they know.

Many thanks to all of you who supported PTO and the ButterBraids sale and to Bridget Abila, mom of the Abila kids, who coordinated our fundraising journey. You ROCK!!
Love,
Mrs. Amend :)

A Snowy Day at MVE

2011-11-02T04:55:00.000-07:00

Many of you are waking up to a snowy windowsill...I would venture to guess you all are! The kids are probably still asleep but I'm betting they did the snow dance before they went to bed (I saw many teachers doing it before they left for home last night). There are many factors that go into an official 'snow day' so I thought I might explain them to you. I know I seems like an easy decision to keep the kids in school, especially when the forecast says that the sun might peek out later in the day. However many times it has to do with the safety of the transportation of students on buses and in cars during the early morning hours.

Here is what typically happens:
1. Transportation has bus drivers out really early (3 am or so) to check on the conditions of the roads.
2. They consult with the Superintendent, who also consults with the area weather forecasts and current conditions.
3. The Superintendent also sometimes checks with area school Superintendents to see what their response is, although weather conditions in Colorado can vary tremendously from even neighborhood to neighborhood.
4. The Superintendent again checks on road conditions for the Denver metro area roads. This is not only for bus safety but because the employees have to be able to get to work safely.
5. The Superintendent makes the final determination whether or not schools are in session.

Hopefully this will give you a little inside glimpse of how the decision is made. Obviously the safety of the students, staff and parents who bring the kids to school is always the most important reason for cancelling school. (Want to know a secret? Most teachers and staff would rather have school than try to figure out how to fit in making up all of the curriculum and plans they missed in the already 'too-full' schedule!)

Have a great and safe snowy day...stay inside if you can and if you can't, be safe! As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to call me or come by the office. I'd love to see you!

2011-11-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

Madison- So pretty!!

It was an awesome Halloween day at Mountain View! As promised, I've posted some photos from the parade this afternoon. In the next few days I will also post photos from the Halloween Sing-along. Hopefully you were able to join us but even if you weren't, you will now be able to see what you missed!
Love,
Mrs. Amend :)

Mrs. Bell- 2nd Grade

Mrs. Maestas- 2nd grade

Annette-Head Custodian
The Bubble Wrapper!

"Ruff" Ryder Anderson
(Mrs. Anderson's Son!)

Where's Waldo???

An Egyptian 2nd Grader

3rd Grade Pals! :)

Peace and love!!

Scary adorable!!

There were so many pictures...and I loaded many more but I'm new at this blogging and only these came up. I'll try to add more a few at a time but in the meantime, thanks to all of you who came to join us. We had a great time!!

Happy Halloween and Welcome!

2011-10-31T05:11:00.000-07:00

Good morning Mountain View families and friends! And Happy Halloween to those of you who celebrate today! It will be an exciting day at our school today. I am one of those people who grew up enjoying the holiday of Halloween. I will always remember the fun surrounding dressing up in our costumes and the parties and parades that were part of the fun. While we will have lots of fun today, I know our teachers will also integrate lots of learning into the fun in many ways. Just last night Mrs. Bell was on the hunt for ghost marshmallows for her math lesson today on division.
I welcome all of you to my new blog and I hope you will check back often to see what I have added. I plan to show you all of the great learning and activities that happen each and every day at our school. We have so much going on inside our walls and we'd love to give you a glimpse inside! Welcome aboard!! (Check back later for Halloween photos too!) Love, Mrs. Amend!