October is always a very busy month at HP. HOOT is just around the corner - check out some of the folks I caught just yesterday working away on
The Yellow Brick Road in honor of our HOOT theme this year. Caring parents and excited kids, including the one little guy with that wonderful chocolate face.
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| Helping...with a side of chocolate |
Of course, a school is all about teaching and learning, and I continue to be privileged to see good things in action, and most importantly, engage with others in reflective conversations. I value this dialogue above all else I do. Here is a snapshot of the latest instruction I caught in action...
Coach Haynes, teaching his basketball skills lesson with third grade students - he stands 6 feet, 8 inches tall and those kids truly are in awe. Students were practicing the requisite BB skills, including the Triple Threat stance, dribbling, and ball toss, with even those reluctant athletes seeming to have fun. I love our PE program, with those wonderful
snap to attention getters (teacher -
freeze! students -
freeze! eyes on me!), as well as their ever-rotating crop of parent helpers each and every day. The coolest part is the
Power Point kids do for these extra special volunteers, with all kids turning, pointing, giving a special whoop, to each volunteer as a way to say thank you for coming to class today. The energy in our PE classes is something to see y'all...you really should sign up to volunteer if you have not done so. Thanks Coach.
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| The Dialogue |
Lots of writing happening everywhere as well. Most of our grade 1-5 LA teachers have attended an
Empowering Writers workshop at this point, so it's really cool to see them take the program and adapt it to fit their classes. Taking the time to add the pedagogy to the framework, especially through the use of those more familiar DBI creative strategies. Love it! Though I caught a great end to Ms. Brunello's
Scientific Spelling lesson and her use of
The Dialogue (making words from letter sounds,including some blends), she was also just beginning to introduce concept of story sequencing through the concept of first, next, and last. All through authentic text and the use of some cool body movements to simulate animal movements and sounds. Cool.
Over in Katie Ferguson's class, the students were also working with sequencing and summarizing through the use of a very engaging children's book
Why Cowboys Sleep With Their Boots On - lots of great vocabulary emphasis through sounds and movement and student dramatic retell of the story plot. Her lesson even came with a lasso, with teacher ably demonstrating how a too small lasso
simply can't wrangle that Longhorn effectively...then showing this small lasso with a charted written summary that simply did not hit the important points. Great visual artifact to build understanding! Loved the too large lasso (ie, too detailed written summary),the just right lasso (ie, just enough written information), before students began to practice this skill with the teacher back at their desks. Ms. Ferguson also used some materials from
Empowering Writers (the first, next, last cards are a a big hit at first grade I hear!), but I'm really glad to see individual teacher creative implementation as well. In her class and others.
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| Extra large lasso = too much summary detail! |
Ms. Duquette's 4th graders are also writing, writing these days. Her students are working on narrative writing, have also been using
Empowering Writers materials as a framework, as well as incorporating authentic text so students can see and hear how real authors use varied beginnings to hook their readers into the story. Using a variety of text, emphasizing how writers will sometimes begin a story with a question or a thought or a sound as a way to grab the reader's attention, her students were able to hear these important writer's tools come alive. Very engaging carpet activity and I can't wait to see how these students progress as writers over the year.
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| Ms. Duquette demonstrating the sound strategy |
Much in the way of creative teaching in language arts, but I'm seeing these instructional components in math as well. Fourth grade teacher Tiffany Perkins was very creatively reviewing estimation and decimal numbers by having her students move through a
Constellation activity (each student assigned a number,then given a prompt such as " Find a person that has a number that will round to one whole"),
Vote With Their Feet activity (students given a quick prompt such as "Decimals are important to calculating money" and finding the agree, mostly agree, or disagree space in the room), to constructing pictorial small white board representations of their assigned numbers in as many ways as they could do, to actual real life application in pairs when given $100 to buy certain items marked in the room - concrete practice of estimation, ie rounding up or down to ensure that each pair did not overspend. A well designed lesson from one of our newest teachers. Kudos for jumping in with both feet!
We also finished another round of DBI training on Friday at UT's Drama For Schools Department. Trainers Sarah, Lara,and Megan ably took our grade 3-5 math and science teachers, as well as our Social Skills department teachers, through a review of lesson strategies before demonstrating an entire math lesson arc on
area. It was powerful to see small strategies come alive through the use of story (Lara stepping into the role of a
Cut a Rug employee visiting the "class" in order to get ideas for use of spaces back at Facebook headquarters - imagine that!), tableau (varied shapes formed through gestures only), and more, before moving to concrete small group application and presentations of ideas. Real life application through designing spaces, making connections to varied concepts, identifying needs based on the area of these spaces, and real time teacher lesson planning added in before we left. Teachers took what they were already doing in their classes (ask Mrs.Finkle sometime about her former
job as a maker of chocolate bon-bons!), and built in some additional ways to heighten student understanding, heighten engagement, and help our students build creative connections to life in and outside of school. Can't wait to see them all in action, especially Mrs. Matetich's Thomas Edison come to life on Monday. Way cool y'all. One more Intensive Training to go this fall and I'm very excited to have a few parents join us for this last full day training. Building understanding for the work we do...
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| Working through a tableau of an Isosceles triangle |
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| All important lesson reflection |
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| Always emphasizing vocab (ie, Composite Figures) and importance of labels! |
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Finally, I have to share an article I just finished reading. Check out the October 7 Time magazine article The Class of 2025 by Jon Meacham. You better believe I was interested in what it had to say. I encourage you to read the article in its entirety as it is mainly focused on post-secondary education and beyond, but the last paragraph (see below) summed up why I feel our work with the Creative Classroom initiative is so important. Though elementary schools are the foundational level of the learning that will take place over the course of a student's life, the article serves as a good reminder (at least as I see it) that a well rounded education for all kids should remain the goal - and that it starts here. Beyond reading,writing, and arithmetic.
"What is heartening to those who believe in the value of a passing acquaintance with Homer and the Declaration of Independence and Jane Austen and Toni Morrison as well as basic scientific literacy is that there is little argument over the human and economic utility of a mind trained to make connections between seemingly disparate elements of reality. The college graduate who can think creatively is going to stand the greatest chance of not only doing well but doing some good too. As long as the liberal-arts tradition remains a foundation of the curriculum in even the most elective of collegiate systems, there is hope that graduates will be able to discuss the Gettysburg Address - in a job interview at Google."
Couldn't agree more.
Coach Haynes, teaching his basketball skills lesson with third grade students - he stands 6 feet, 8 inches tall and those kids truly are in awe. Students were practicing the requisite BB skills, including the Triple Threat stance, dribbling, and ball toss, with even those reluctant athletes seeming to have fun. I love our PE program, with those wonderful snap to attention getters (teacher - freeze! students - freeze! eyes on me!), as well as their ever-rotating crop of parent helpers each and every day. The coolest part is the Power Point kids do for these extra special volunteers, with all kids turning, pointing, giving a special whoop, to each volunteer as a way to say thank you for coming to class today. The energy in our PE classes is something to see y'all...you really should sign up to volunteer if you have not done so. Thanks Coach.
Much in the way of creative teaching in language arts, but I'm seeing these instructional components in math as well. Fourth grade teacher Tiffany Perkins was very creatively reviewing estimation and decimal numbers by having her students move through a Constellation activity (each student assigned a number,then given a prompt such as " Find a person that has a number that will round to one whole"), Vote With Their Feet activity (students given a quick prompt such as "Decimals are important to calculating money" and finding the agree, mostly agree, or disagree space in the room), to constructing pictorial small white board representations of their assigned numbers in as many ways as they could do, to actual real life application in pairs when given $100 to buy certain items marked in the room - concrete practice of estimation, ie rounding up or down to ensure that each pair did not overspend. A well designed lesson from one of our newest teachers. Kudos for jumping in with both feet!
We also finished another round of DBI training on Friday at UT's Drama For Schools Department. Trainers Sarah, Lara,and Megan ably took our grade 3-5 math and science teachers, as well as our Social Skills department teachers, through a review of lesson strategies before demonstrating an entire math lesson arc on area. It was powerful to see small strategies come alive through the use of story (Lara stepping into the role of a Cut a Rug employee visiting the "class" in order to get ideas for use of spaces back at Facebook headquarters - imagine that!), tableau (varied shapes formed through gestures only), and more, before moving to concrete small group application and presentations of ideas. Real life application through designing spaces, making connections to varied concepts, identifying needs based on the area of these spaces, and real time teacher lesson planning added in before we left. Teachers took what they were already doing in their classes (ask Mrs.Finkle sometime about her former job as a maker of chocolate bon-bons!), and built in some additional ways to heighten student understanding, heighten engagement, and help our students build creative connections to life in and outside of school. Can't wait to see them all in action, especially Mrs. Matetich's Thomas Edison come to life on Monday. Way cool y'all. One more Intensive Training to go this fall and I'm very excited to have a few parents join us for this last full day training. Building understanding for the work we do...
