As I passed through Chelsea's classroom I saw this music resource sitting out.
It made me smile and happy inside.
Why? Because it's just another way we give students the opportunity to explore their passions and the process of their own personal self-discovery of who they are becoming as people.
It's a sign that we don't live in a box about what instruction could be for elementary students.
Then I found out that Wendy brought this resource in.
Who knew Wendy was a 'metal head'?
Wendy and Haven share a passion for Metallica.
Wendy works in first grade and Haven is in sixth grade...
so how does she know?
Ultimately, this is what makes my heart sing.
A community that knows no boundaries
of sharing, connecting and caring.
Thanks Wendy - you inspire me!
Calendar:
Week of April 20th
* Suggested week to do iReady
Third Grade out on Winter Voyage
Tuesday- RTI meeting 7:30 a.m.
Wednesday- PD - personal choice (plans, student reports)
Thursday- Debbie Out- READ Act meeting
Deborah out - PD session w/select staff
Friday- NO SCHOOL
District Art Show begins
Week of April 27th:
2nd round of PARCC
Library closed
Tuesday: RTI meeting 7:30 a.m.
Wednesday:
PD: 'Think Tank' - all staff/library 1:30
Thursday:
Jill's first grade Voyage
Dates for end of year planning:
Wednesday schedules for the rest of the year:
May 6: TBD (might be a continuation of our 'Think Tank' on the 29th)
May 13th: 3rd Grade Portfolio Showcases
May 20th: 6th Grade Portfolio Review
May 27th: 6th Grade Portfolio Showcases
*Implication for you - if you need a Wednesday afternoon for report cards, it needs to be Wednesday, April 22nd.
Last week of school:
Tuesday evening, June 2nd: 6th Grade Closing Ceremony 6:30-8:00
Wednesday morning: All School Drum Circle - Last day of school
End of Year Report Card for Parents:
** The Leadership Team is working on having more direction for you on what our end of year report card criteria might be. In the meantime, use the template created to mark student growth and achievement and we will communicate with you soon about the personal comments.
Think Tank
Wednesday, April 29th, we are going to gather together as a staff to engage in a philosophical conversation to set our direction for the coming year. In preparation, do some personal thinking about the needs you have professionally and your thoughts about where we need to grow as a school. We have a team attending the DSchool this summer and their mission will be to solve a problem in an innovative way and to bring their ideas and discoveries back to our collective group. It will be important for them to embark in that undertaking knowing our thinking and the direction we want to head. They'll also want to be solving an authentic problem that we identify together. Personally, each of you might be engaging in some professional development over the summer and it would be helpful to each of you to know how your personal work can fit in the vision of the larger vision of the school.
To support you in thinking prior to our Think Tank, I am sharing the thinking of the Leadership Team from our last meeting. To spark our thinking we used some questions to guide our thinking about our professional development and next steps for our school. Reading over them might spark your thinking. You might agree, you might have other ideas, you might be able to build on the ideas. After the Leadership Team engaged in this brainstorm, we agreed that we needed to do this as an entire staff. Below are the notes from our meeting. As you read them over, jot down your thoughts so that we can move easily into our shared inquiry of next steps for our school.
Differentiation
Assessment
Design Thinking
Reading Recovery -shared learning experience
Vertical Alignment
Math approaches = similar structure as RR training
Team Teaching - SPED/Literacy specialists with classroom teacher
New Team Planning - curriculum development
Classroom Management
Love and Logic
4 C’s/21st Century Skills
That new teams won’t need additional time to create new curriculum?
That everyone understands and can backward plan. That we all are integrating? That we teach/assess the 4C’s and 21st Century Skills - okay - maybe we shouldn’t have made this assumption -
Design Thinking - mindset shifts - solving some problems. Differentiation seems to be the big idea - the others fit together -
Design Thinking = RR training=Team Teaching
How integrated it all really is. Maybe we need to think of it that way. That nobody talked about assessment - it’s inherent....
We don’t have anything that is data driven? This is all about teaching to learn - process and strategies
Differentiation, integration, collaboration, problem solving - not looking for a model - we want to figure it out.
Team Teaching / our space/ schedules / sharing students/ more student choice to follow passion learning
Student Data?
That next year will be an exciting platform for us to play and perform. Going beyond the minutia - it’s exciting! It’s transforming. A staff with a growth mindset. Evidence of the necessary paradigm shift.
All of these promote problem solving and strategies
All of these increase student engagement and ownership
We wonder how the increased ownership might impact state assessments/test scores?
* If time, it would be valuable to also have a shared discussion about Rosetta Stone and iReady.
Have a wonderful weekend!
Deborah
