The week brought many good things post HOOT (including the All City Choral Music Festival on Tuesday!) and, as always, we are busy with all things teaching and learning...with some fun too!Student Council sponsored Twin Day once again. Teachers and students got into the act and had a fun time with this unique celebration. I always look forward to seeing what they come up with in order to show their "twinness".
Thanks bunches to Howard Martin, AISD tech guru, for coming to campus last Monday for a bit of training on Google docs and IPad apps. We had several HP teachers in attendance, as well as a small contingent from Lee Elementary. Thanks Howard, love that cool bandana and the humor you brought to the afternoon...you rock!
A couple more P & P boards went up this week, both in 3rd grade and both related to Science. Mr.
mixture was a liquid or a solid. I hear Gavin thought it was really a "hybrid" and that there was much oobleck making at home later that evening. Fun culminating activity, with a bit of DBI thrown in as well ( the strategy called Donkey). Check it out!Up the hallway, Mrs. Gates' students did some fun things with landforms, explored the world of 3-D art and use of DBI to solidify vocabulary, and had fun in the process. Mrs. Gates tells me the
students really had to think about where their landforms would fit naturally on their maps (think plateau, mountain..). I liked seeing their visual images for the vocab and how they used their creativity to ensure the attributes were correctly done. Good job third graders!
In the meantime, 3rd grade teacher Alyssa Absher hosted a Parent Visiting Day all around picture books, story element bags, spider research, and some very creative pumpkins tied to their chosen books. Fun and timely unit of study and those students in her LA class were super excited to share with all visitors that day. Students love talking about the details of their work with others when given the chance, a good skill that will serve them well in future grades and beyond. Keep those opportunities to share in place! Love it!
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| Can you guess the book? |
Mr. Purkiss, our campus Social Behavior Skills teacher, was caught implementing some DBI strategies with a student one day as well. He jumped in with two engaging activities - artifact bag and narrative pantomime, both related to a story about ants. I applaud this valued member of our special ed team for planning a very motivating academic lesson, while also always focusing on the emotional/social health for his students. These teaching strategies support both. Appreciate you!
Finally, we wrapped up our last DBI Intensive Training Day for all HP teachers on Friday. A great experience, with our last 11 teachers receiving training around the power of story and a more in-depth use of DBI strategies. What was really cool about the day was the participation of three of our parent volunteers (they head up the campus Fluency Center and FPS programs) and the take aways they had from this experience. They shared that what they saw in action (and briefly participated in at the beginning) was critical thinking, teachers engaged and glad to be there, and how motivating and powerful this work can be with our students. Our plan is to do a shortened version of this training with parents at large during early second semester (planning it now), with strategies shown for furthering understanding of what happens in a classroom, but also empowering our parents with similar strategies to use at home. Way cool. Thanks Katie, Sarah, Lara and the whole team at UT's Drama for Schools. I learned something new every time I attended these full day trainings and most importantly, teachers are using what they learn with kids.
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| Use of "machine" to make The Paperbag Princess dragon |
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| Our very own Mrs. Hunter was a facilitator for the day! |
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| Thanks to our parents who attended! |
