Moments

Art teacher Robin Maca's fifth graders were making Advanced Crazy Coil Pots this week.  Ms. Maca, as we know, does a first rate job of ensuring her lessons are scaffolded in order for students to be successful - that's her, seated left, in a typical beginning of lesson spot at the table, with students grouped around ready for the demo.  Students had made simpler coiled pots in 4th grade, were readily able to connect the lesson to the previous year, and worked on furthering their skills through use of zigzags, spirals, pebbles, and other design elements.  Several of these new works were beginning to take shape when I visited, with drying, kiln firing, and a bit of painting still to go.  I especially loved the student intensity and focus on the work.  John even told me he wished he could work with clay everyday...and, who knows, maybe he will in the future.  Thanks as always Ms. Maca, for ensuring the learning is rigorous, relevant, and engaging for our students! 

Amy Martin manning the booth on Wednesday

There were two separate days of Thanksgiving lunches for student families again this year and this well run event (kudos to Lizanne and Mae) saw almost 300 family members in attendance.  I love that so many families turn out for these meals each year.  Cool extra family time. At those same events, our Scottie Brick Road paver sales were well under way outside the cafeteria, with many a special dedication brick sold. Gotta get mine soon...







Lizanne and I were able to get in on a bit of filming action this week as the first PTA Boosterthon fun run gears up.  This new event for our school, tied to healthy initiatives we all support, is coming in January.  After our short get 'em excited clip was filmed, co-chair Christa Staub and Boosterthon rep Justus Murimi took over the filming.  Thanks for including us!

Mrs. Leibick at one of the shows 

The sound effects crew

Fourth grade teacher Laine Leibick is finishing up this year's Communication Unit (tied to the Great Depression topics you have read about in previous blogs) and as I have said before, it's one of my favorite units of study she does throughout the year.  She incorporates so many topics, varied rich texts, projects, and connected ideas and themes that students come away with a first rate inter-disciplinary learning experience.  Always.  And Laine also always reviews the unit lessons and changes it up/keeps it fresh...year after year.  I was able to catch both radio shows, Wing Walker and The Ovaltine Comedy Hour, two concrete culminating activities where students brought it all together.

"Abbott & Costello" with their Who's on First Routine

Another great parent night was had on Wednesday, this time for presentation on Advanced Academics.  Laine Leibick, our GT campus advocate co-chair, gave a very interesting overview of Sandra Kaplan's Habits of the Scholarly Mind, covering such topics as pondering big ideas, setting goals, and bringing necessary tools - still important executive functioning skills all children need. The brief AISD video on asynchronous development was affirming for our work as well. Though these high performing students may be advanced intellectually and do quite well in school, as we also know, these same students may also face challenges in their social, emotional, or physical

proficiency.  It further connected for me when I participated in an ASCD focus group around whole child learning the very next day. How true that we need to address these four areas within our schools, and how true that we should be striving to ensure these important components are in sync.  Creative Classroom, SEL, arts, athletics, and more...so important for our students' development.

Thanks as well to parent sponsors Jeannine Ripp and Alison Guckenberger for a solid overview of all things FPS, as well as our other campus GT Parent-Teacher Advisory committee members for their participation - Lia Nudelman (GT advocate co-chair), Kati Dean, Alyssa Absher, and Shannon Ratcliff.  Always worth our time to meet with parents and give information to better serve our students and families.

A hands-on inferencing activity for parents (and me!)

Finally, as schools everywhere did this week, we took moments out of our Friday to remember the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's death.  A most notably sad day for our nation.  Some of our school activities included Mrs. Koldziej's 5th graders analyzing the Dallas Morning News articles written on 11/23, reviewing JFK's life with the White House website, and creating a collage of JFK quotes.  Fourth graders in Mrs. Finkle's and Mrs. Hunter's classes watched clips of President Kennedy's  inaugural call to service and made connections to the work they sponsor with our CLASS service club.  My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.

Certainly an important component of this man's legacy and a message that still resonates and holds promise today.