Living the Mission
Field Work
There are amazing things going on daily for our kids, and I was fortunate to be asked to 'shuttle' students to a real live recording studio and then to a destination for photography. Kim, Hanni, Tyler, Chelsea and Pam collaborated to design a powerful Learning Expedition and then collaborate on the summative performance assessment (a documentary) and it will be shown at our local high school.
I just had to include one of the videos I took on Wednesday. My eyes were misty as I watched Chelsea do the 'real thing' and watched our students perform, over and over again, as the reality of what real life for recording music is really like. I watched them start out strong - jazzed about what they were doing. I watched the fatigue set in. I watched them draw on their resiliency and stamina to draw forth their best over and over. I chuckled to listen to the comments they had: "Urgh...we almost had it!" "Oh, I could hear it when we lost it." "What? Again?"
This is just one example of things going on - but important to be reminded, collectively, that we really do make our mission come to life.
Growing and Learning
I have immensely enjoyed our summative conferences - and looking forward to those yet to come. Initially, I thought that shortening them seemed efficient. Wrong. These conferences are so meaningful to me. I am so inspired by each of you - your personal reflections and what has been on your minds and in your heart. I learn so much and get so excited about you as learners.
Could I ask that you make a comment on this post - to share with one another some of the books, blogs, on-line opportunities, that have been especially powerful for you this year and in the near future? There's all kinds of potential for tapping into what others are doing - maybe even joining them? Rather than momentum slowing down, it is ramping up, and you are all sharing what learning you are looking forward to doing this summer!
Conferences abound this summer. Chelsea shared that EL will have a 'Slice of a Learning Expedition' here in Denver this summer! Since we are out of the network, we can't register now, but we can be ready to jump when it opens up to out of network attendees. Let me know if you are interested! (I haven't been able to find the dates on their website.)
Here's an opportunity in our school district June 6, 7, 8 & 9th: Ron Berger from EL is offering several keynotes, as is A.J. Juliani.
Summer PD opportunitiesNeed to register for the event in InspireEd and then when you are 'in' after registering, then you can register for individual courses. You are still PGI eligible during this time. PGI window goes through the end of June. Re-licensure credit included.
Bravo Martha!
With the exceptions of a few make ups - we are through the PARCC assessment! Martha did an amazing job of organizing, facilitating and attending to precision! We all know so well that the 'behind the scenes' is full of a million details. I know Martha got very little sleep as she rehearsed all the details, of each day, as she lay in bed at night. She carried a huge responsibility, with some heavy consequences for our school. Not a surprise at all that she was so incredible at this - especially for the first time! Thank you, Martha!
Calendar:
(Can you believe there are only two more weeks in April?!)
Week of April 17th- 21st:
CMAS testing
Tuesday:
* No MTSS meeting
* REA and SAC meeting 4:30
Wednesday:
* Site visit from Erica Mason (assessment office)
* PD: Writing ALP's - current and newly identified
Friday:
No School
Week of April 24th - 28th:
School-wide Writing Assessment must be administered if you haven't already - and scored by Wednesday.
Absolute last few days to complete your CITE 6 data entry and submit.
Monday:
* 6th grade fieldwork
Tuesday:
* MTSS meeting 7:30 a.m.
Wednesday:
*T he Beat
* PD: Dialogue around Writing Assessment results
Thursday:
Absolute last day to finalize your CITE 6 data and email me that you are finished. I must be done myself by midnight.
* Deborah out of the building to admin meeting
* Kathy's Crew out on field work
Have a wonderful weekend!
Deborah
So I go through spells where I am reading/learning about different topics. I am currently on a math and "children need to play" kick - as many of you who follow me on Facebook know. :) Books I am currently reading include (yes, I am reading 4 at once - just rotating through them each a chapter at a time): Becoming the Math Teacher You Wish You'd Had, Beyond Answers, Connecting Arithmetic to Algebra and Sharing Books, Talking Science. I highly recommend Becoming the Math Teacher book and it applies to all grade levels. I am not far enough into the others to recommend them yet but I do really like them so far. I attended two conferences online this weekend, too. One was a math conference called ShadowCon which is a conference that is held around the NCTM conference. They had 4 inspiring speakers who each spoke for 10 minutes on topics like Students Who Hide in Math Class, The Heart of a Mathematician, Math and Play, and Becoming a Math Anthropologist. These same speakers will offer online classes on these same topics in September. I hope to take them -- I think the classes in September are free but I am not sure. Here is the link to the rough video of their 10 minute talks: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1BRKjEnyZApxw. I also dipped into an EdCollabGathering conference that was on literacy. It was great, too. Here is the link for that if you want to browse through the sessions and see if there are any you want to watch/listen to: https://gathering.theeducatorcollaborative.com/. I could go on and on and on but I will stop here for now.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jill!
ReplyDeleteWOW, this could be a really long post, but I will just focus on a few!
ReplyDeleteSeesaw offered a couple of webinars this spring, which have been really helpful: Thinking, solving, making and sharing. I have also been reading Ben Kallick's Habits of Mind. I am tracking down a copy of Peer Feedback in the Classroom: Empowering Students to Be the Experts by Starr Sackstein, a practice in which I would like to improve.
I use edweb for online Webinars. I have found several topics of interest and find it easy to navigate. I also subscribe to ASCD and find their articles very thought provoking and they often spark ideas and implementation strategies. I have not taken any of their online PD, but am interested in exploring that resource. http://www.ascd.org/professional-development/pd-online.aspx. I have watched the "Enticing Hard to Move Writers"-Ruth Ayers from the site Jill mentioned above. It is important to be reminded and thoughtful about the list of 7 leaps and helpful to explore the moves to assist with the leaps (http://www.discoverplaybuild.com/).
I am currently looking at some resources to explore and to learn about OpenEd: https://www.youtube.com/user/OpenEdIo and YouthSpark: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/philanthropies/youthspark
There are so many resources available and things in which I want to dig deeper, but I need more hours in the day! :-)
There sure are so many resources and options for learning out there! Please continue to share with others - even just emailing something you run across out to the staff! Sometimes we have to explore and learn in 'bite size' pieces, and emailing colleagues gives them the chance to do just that!
ReplyDeleteIt's wonderful to know that you are a resource we can all go to when we are searching for a nugget that is just right for us at the time.
Let me know when you are jazzed about something you are learning about! I love those teaching and learning conversations!
One more thing...to any of you! If you hear of a book and would like to have it - let me know and we'll be sure to get it for you! If you run across a webinar that isn't free - come to me! Don't let money or access to a resource ever slow you down!
ReplyDelete