Thank a teacher

This week we celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week.  As we say thanks to our teachers for all they do - and they do a lot! -  it's important to remember that they above all have a job in which the self-learning never ends.  For real.  Lessons they create are not stagnant documents - they are continuously reviewed, revised, and made better.   Or new ones are created.  Those good teachers we all know are always thinking ahead, as they want the learning maximized and the engagement high.  They care to make it better. It can be an exhausting and demanding profession, but always worth the effort.  Anyone who has ever attended a field trip with a class, subbed in a classroom, volunteered for an in-school activity which involves kids, understands that dynamic and always, always walks away with appreciation for the job at hand.  Me included.

There were many images from our week at Highland Park that show the sheer diversity of activities on campus this week.  Voting for the annual Scottie t-shirt design, the first grade field experience to Sea World, fifth grade play practice for their Greek performances, Fling win excursions, and more.  But the sheer work and energy teachers put into lesson planning and the delivery of those lessons are core to what we do at a school. 

This week, I saw Mrs. Goldsmith's first graders outside practicing for their re-vamped/pumped up! annual Ocean Odyssey performance.  The classes have been working with Creative Action to better

highlight "what was learned" at the upcoming parent event, her class is planning to show all they have learned about sharks (other classes have other animals), and I'm proud that the team jumped in to try something new.  Something which will highlight what their students have been doing the last few weeks.  Cool.









I also saw Mrs. Nudelman's additions to her second year delivery of In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson historical fiction unit.  She kept those amazing, meaningful learning pieces in place for her 2nd graders as last year - still love the This I Believe poetry - but refined the lesson to include additional DBI creative strategies, such as Role on the Wall.  Still very meaningful visual art based on artists of the time, student descriptions, and reflections, but Mrs. Nudelman shared with me that the research students conducted on the life and times of Jackie Robinson in connection with the Role on the Wall activity, made the historical fiction unit that much better and the learning that much deeper.  And yes, if you are wondering, she's thinking ahead to refinements for next year as well..

 

And, finally, I saw Ms. Snell's play today, the culmination to her new Immigration unit of study.  The students performed scenes from A Fair Day's Wages, portraying the early Russian Jewish immigrant experience, what it meant to come to America, their expectations for life in this new land, and their subsequent reality...with a sense of hope triumphant over adversity at the end of the performance.  Students followed up with a visit to the classroom to show their parents the group photo essays they had constructed, based on relevant themes such as housing and discrimination.  One father shared that now, when the topic of immigration is mentioned on the news, his child proudly states, "I know about immigration.  Let me tell you about it."  Pretty powerful learning I'd say.

Thank a teacher.  Hug a teacher.  They surely deserve our praise.