Additionally, on Thursday, I participated in a day long District Advisory Council (DAC) retreat. District admin, several AISD Board of Trustees, and current DAC members from all parts of AISD were in attendance to discuss ideas related to the work of the district. Really honest conversations happening at my table and afternoon break-out group and truly, I came away thinking how many people we have in Austin who care about our district kids, teachers, and families. It's never easy being off campus, but I am glad I participated as a stakeholder...important that we all do in some capacity. I always come away from these type of things with different perspectives to reflect upon and a renewed sense of energy for the work I do.
That said, in between the above off campus activities and most certainly sad news from one of our AISD high schools, our students and teachers rolled along.
An art appreciation night at Roll On Sushi, one of our school's Partners In Ed. Thanks bunches 'cause we had delicious food, it was a packed house with good conversation, and best of all, first rate student created art was displayed on the walls. You can still check out these pieces through January, so I hope you stop by to see our art and McCallum HS student art as well. Big thank you to Roll On Sushi, our student artists, and art teachers Robin Maca and Andrea Levine.
Many more Process and Product displays goin' up and good conversations around these creations continue. I really enjoyed talking with first grade teacher Mrs. Goldsmith this week about her Nocturnal Animals unit, especially her statement that "I was honest on my reflection about how I felt when I started." She was hesitant to try the DAR activity around art by artist/poet Douglas Florian, but jumped on board with the help of our Any Given Child coach Sloan McLain (thank you!); it was cool to hear her enthusiasm for using visual arts in a different way than she has before. Strategies included the DAR around Florian's artwork, expository text readings, poetry, music, movement, finishing with student created art and poetry based on all they had learned. Thanks Mrs. Goldsmith for keepin' it real with me and thanks for the Big Thumbs Up on the creative strategies you used to enhance motivation, engagement, and learning.
I also visited Mrs. Dean's fifth grade classroom. Students are in the throes of writing Greek mythology plays, with small groups reading different cultural myths to further their understanding of these traditional stories (such as the African tale How the Animals Came and the Chinese tale The Archer and the Suns). They also were using their Summary Graphic Organizers to get thoughts on paper, then finishing with a group tableau to give the audience (other students in the class) information on the story read by each group. It was especially cool that students were able to tell me and show me all things annotation on the myths they were reading and to see her array of posted learning tools to help support their understanding. I was able to catch the model tableau based on the Greek mythological character Dionysus and also saw a practice run in the breezeway by the group who read the South American myth How the Stars Came. Both groups nailed it! |
| A dolphin, per chance? |
All things HOOT happening this week as well. As you can see, the HOOT t-shirts are out in full force this week (I wore mine today!) and anticipation is in the air.
Finally, I leave you with a picture of my office mate for the morning. His name is Tucker, he is first grade teacher Ms. Brunello's newest puppy addition to her family, and he was just what the doctor ordered on a busy Friday. Tucker and I made the rounds in several classrooms, many oohs and aahs from kids and adults alike, and I have to say, a stress buster if ever there was one. Hope he visits again. Tucker definitely topped off my week!
