Great staff development day on Monday! We started the morning with our GT update hours training for grade K-5 teachers. Laine Leibick focused on various types of research/tools and focused quite a bit of time on the Texas Performance Standard Project. This site provides a wonderful tool for teachers to access grade level enrichment projects/ideas and all teachers left with homework to complete before our next training after winter break- access the TPSP site and peruse the projects that potentially tie into an existing unit of study, create a list of resources for one project, and develop a timeline for one project with the goal of implementation late this year. Mrs. Leibick also mentioned Sandra Kaplan's Habits of a Scholar and used a cool DBI strategy to facilitate groups creating tableaux around one assigned attribute of scholarliness. My group created a tableaux on the attribute of "curiosity" and not only was it fun to do with staff, it also helped develop deeper understanding of what it means to be intellectually curious. Great training.
The morning's work dovetailed nicely when teachers (now including special area folks) travelled to Maplewood for our continued DBI training. Creative Action provided the staff development, we did a variety of activities separated by grade level pairings, and all were related directly to the TEKS across various content areas. I saw the second/third grade group work with Frank on creating tableaux to explain perpendicular lines and a pattern movement game (Who Started the Motion) to teach our K-1 students about patterns. Pretty cool to see our Mrs. Olson lead first out of the chute and yep, very hard to catch that she was indeed the "leader". End of day teams competed to see who could first develop an A-Z list of DBI attributes - artsy, original, motivating, quality, understanding, voice, yearing to learn to name a few - and it was a great wrap-up to all we'd done. Thanks Creative Action and Mindpop as always.
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| Mr.s Olson, Mystery Pattern Leader! |
Coach DeLine implemented a truly engaging DBI lesson I was able to catch this week, The Showdown at the Bone K Corral. Nothing new for him, but I was impressed with his Sheriff Lazy Bones character, the student "skit", Deputy Bill (aka Bill Russo), and how it all aligned with the study of the human bones, academic vocabulary, and movement, movement, movement that measured a variety of skills students are to master. Fun, meaningful, engaging, and most importantly - they got it!
Finally, it was all things International Week! Debbie Esterak has worked tirelessly on this along with several other parents, there was a well attended potluck on Tuesday evening, followed by today's cultural assemblies and booth tours. Kids and adults were able to see several performances showcased from around the world (I caught the Irish dancers) and everyone always enjoys the annual event. Here are some pics highlighting cultures around the world...
