May 3, 2012

May 3, 2012

Extraordinary Teachers

I've enjoyed the opportunity to have meaningful conversations during end of the year evaluation conferences with many of you and looking forward to those yet to come. Making this process meaningful is important to me and I am very open to your feedback for how this process can be further improved. As I looked  at the CITE indicators in preparation for evaluating our teaching I have been doing some reading. I've been reading the book Extraordinary Teachers  where this quote appears:

"When I was an undergraduate, I once confided to a favorite professor that I was interested in becoming a teacher. He immediately responded, "And if you lose your passion for it, make a change. Promise?" I promised."

I was going to steal the 'great myths' theme from the book for my Friday Flash focus but was so struck by the list of characteristics possessed by extraordinary teachers, and in particular by the number of references to "passion" as a must-have for effective teaching. All educators who are serious about their profession have examined the research around the characteristics of effective teachers. The author of this book identified more than 300 different traits that distinguish excellent teachers and condensed these into six key characteristics. I want to share those with you, so I'm starting with the first: Passion.

Passion - the term conjures up many meanings to us, but as it applies to successful teachers, I prefer the definition " boundless enthusiasm". While we all excel at different things, have different expertise areas, all extraordinary teachers possess and exhibit enthusiasm - both for subject matter and for students.

This is right from the text:

#1 Extraordinary teachers have great passion for their work.

Teachers are passionate about their subject matter, their students, learning and teaching. They feel responsible, even obligated, to help all students. They want to share the thrill of discovery with their students. They wear the title of "teacher" with pride; finding their work exciting and meaningful is the chief driving force that motivates them to succeed.

Sound like you? I bet it does!

I'll share a few more of the characteristics from my reading next week!

Calendar

Week of May 7 - 11th:

Tuesday, 7th:

* RTI meeting 7:15 a.m.

Wednesday, 8th: (Whew...what a day!)

* Parent Orientation 8:00 a.m.

* All School Meeting hosted by Ms. Kathy's Crew

*  3rd Grade Portfolio Showcases 1:45 p.m.

* Band, Orchestra, Choir Performance 6:30 p.m.

Week of May 14 - 18th:

* Week of Book Fair

Tuesday, 15th:

* RTI meeting 7:15 a.m.

Wednesday, 16th:

* Page to Stage 10:00 -11:00 am in gym

* Professional Development: A look to next year

Thursday, 17th:

* 6th grade Portfolio Review 5:30 - 7:00 p.m.

Love and Logic 
Teacher-isms:


Always turn sideways when talking with an angry student. 
You become less threatening, you're a smaller target,
and you can run away faster!


A quality teacher-student relationship
means more than the combined power
of all teaching and discipline
techniques known to mankind.

Featured Folks

authored by Kristin Brotherton

My mother once told me that I should keep a journal of comments that I hear from kids at school...she was a wise woman! I missed keeping a journal the first nineteen years that I worked in school health. However, I have accumulated a few sticky notes from the past 6 years at Renaissance!

A common complaint is headache: one boy took it to the next level: "I have a headache...I think there is a brainstorm in my head!"

When a student tells me they are ill, I may ask them if anyone in their family has been ill recently, such as the case of the boy with a stomach ache: his reply, "well, my mom threw up in the car on the way home from the Bronco game last night!"  Or a student that felt sick the previous night, did they tell their parent? One reply to that question, "I knocked on my parents bedroom door, but they were busy!"  A boy dropped by the clinic and said, "I thought I should tell you that my poop is green today!" TMI sometimes, but it is wonderful to have the privilege of being the "nurse" at REMS. I look forward to next school lyear as our first class of kindees will be 6th graders! A kindee once commented: "I'm afraid of college, do they have a playground there?!"  By the time our kindees graduate from Renaissance, they are prepared for life beyond, playground or not!

I graduated from Hinkley HS in Aurora. Married my high school sweetheart, Lynn Brotherton.  We we married April 1, 1967 during spring break of his sophomore year of college.  Our first daughter was born on Lynn's last day of student teaching.  Labor began that morning after he left for school, but I did not think it was okay to call the school, so I waited till 3pm when school was over to make "the" call! Our second daughter, Kari, was born his first year of teaching. After our daughters were in school, I went back to college and earned by BSN in nursing at Marymount College in Kansas in 1984.  My experience as a nurse prior to school nursing include hospital; community health (Teen Moms); and I also taught childbirth classes for 5 years.  I have worked in high school, middle school and elementary.  Before coming to REMS, I was the school nurse in Avondale, AZ for 7 years.  Poverty, language, immigration issues, head lice, transient population, gang influence and lack of medical care were some of the challenges in a school of 700 K-8 students!

I have had some of my own personal challenges, but nothing that a great family and friends and a few margaritas couldn't overcome!

Besides having a margarita now and then, I enjoy 4 grandchildren: 8 year old twins (Madelynn and Maverick) that live in Centennial, and Jack (8) and his little brother, Hank (3) that live in Wichita.

I'm currently taking a conversational French class in hope of going to France again or maybe even Montreal! I love being outdoors. I enjoy traveling, walking my dog Lucy, hiking and bicycling.  Renaissance is my favorite of all schools I've experienced because we are a community of loving and caring folks!

Finally, a few descriptive quotes: "my ear is sizzling"; "my arm hurts outrageously!"; and "I feel like my eye is going to throw up!"

I love my job!

Updates:

May Challenges

* This is the time of year that subs are an ultimate challenge. Please try to get a sub well in advance and make sure it fills.

* CRITICAL that expectations, procedures and routines are tight, consistent, enforced, and closely monitored. Spring arrives and there is just something about this time of year that teases us into a more relaxed approach, we diverge from routines and find ways to be outside and play...and we should...but not at school!
We can all speak to the reasons and we can all speak to how bushed we feel at the end of the day! So...rather than focus on the reasons, lets think about what our response should be to doing things differently to get different results. Perhaps students need some structure and support they haven't needed until now? Do students need seating assignments? Do you need to implement some procedures you haven't needed until now? Do we need to find a time to talk with students about how things are going and enlist their help and ideas for finishing the year strong? Are we setting goals at the beginning of the day and debriefing how it went at the end of the day? Are there some routines that we use (like Morning Meeting) where we could focus on this? Does this impact the way or the frequency of our communication with parents? Ask yourself: What would Harry Wong do? (hope you're smiling here...)
 I should collect the data (but I would be too depressed) on the rise of discipline incidents that occur the last few weeks of school. I think each of us could talk about our own experiences this week...let's do something about it. This time of year does call on us to be responsive to the changes in the climate. Responsive, proactive and not reactive.  It does us no good at all to talk about how the kids are 'checking out'. It does call on us to think about what that means we need to do to be responsive to the changes and design ways to scaffold those needs. Not sure what you are thinking about the implications to your Crew, but spend a few minutes reflecting on this. We want to finish our year with joy in our hearts and skipping to our cars!

Halogen Goals for 12-13

It has been such a pleasure to have conversations with many of you about your progress this year and looking forward to those yet to come. If we've visited, we've talked about drafting goals for next year and I'll explain this to those of you who I have not yet met with. I just want to jot down the steps for doing the draft work surrounding goals for next year. 
Steps:
* Write draft goal for next year

* Identify how you will measure your results (start with developing your own assessment for your goal)

* The development of your assessment will provide the intentional targets for your goal

* Identify the standard(s) your goal lives in.

****I will talk more about this with you on Wednesday afternoon, May 18th and can also work with you individually so this excites you rather than stresses you! (Really!)

Talking with someone to get clear on a goal and how to develop the plan is very helpful for ANYONE!

Spirit Week

Week of May 14th:

Danae, Rhyan, Baleigh, Rachel and Audrey (6th graders in Michelle/Lonnie/s crew) approached Ms. Diana and enlisted her guidance to lead a spirit week. 
These students REALLY want to do this.

The girls will be announcing Spirit Week at the ASM on May 9th.

Here is the schedule:

Monday, May 14th:  Twin Day (you and a friend dress alike)

Tuesday, May 15th: Crazy sock and shoe day

Wednesday, May 16th: Crazy hair day

Thursday, May 17th: Sports and hobby day (dress in your favorite sports team attire or hobby)

Friday, May 18th: Hat day

I will leave it up to the discretion of each of you to determine your level of participation and the parameters for how you want kids to be involved. Maybe they wear it to school through Morning Meeting and then put it away if you feel it will be too much of a distraction.

Peek Into the Life of our School:

We got a visit from Linda, the Crayola Rep,
to visit with Pam, fourth graders and see our school. 

Linda (Crayola rep) takes pictures of 4th grade art.
The kids were really proud!

Neil teaching math with sidewalk chalk!

Fourth graders prepare for field work to
the Sand Dunes

Parent car caravan to the Sand Dunes

First Grade Voyage to Castlewood Canyon
Outdoor Rock Climbing!

Cody and Brian (Educo) facilitated the learning
experiences for first graders during their voyage.
So cool!

Laurie, parent volunteer and
Portfolio Panel recruiter extraordinaire!
Who could say 'no' to Laurie?
The panels are complete!

Have a great weekend!

Deborah

Me with my grandchildren.
A very special time in my life.

Hadley Grace...thanks for indulging me!
10 days old.