Teachers Matter

Lots of connections through the use of creative strategies and activities.  Here are a few that caught my eye.
Matter, matter everywhere and it was neat to see the progression of the learning from Kinder to Fifth grade.  Note...

Mrs. Proffer's current Process and Product display highlighting several creative ways to teach three states of matter, ie solid, liquid, and gas. We discussed her unit for some time and I was fascinated by the Pinterest activity she found online.  Using balloons in various bags on student bodies to simulate attributes of these states.  Cool.  This simulation, coupled with the strategy Art Talk, the use of music, and student created models using cereal solidified the learning in a variety of ways, and most importantly, per the teacher, students seemed to "get it".  She followed the learning processes with a paper/pencil assessment and from what I saw, yep, they did indeed "get it".

It was interesting to see how the concept of
matter, ie applying heat to solids for example, was carried over to 3rd grade and Mrs. Absher's P and P display.  Great conversation around this lesson.  She had a truly awesome student created art display, used the strategy of donkey to reinforce vocabulary, and ensured students recorded their observations, as well as reflected on their learning.
 

And finally, I caught a bit of Mrs. Matetich's  5th grade lesson on classifying matter. As last reported, Thomas Edison was going to "visit" the class, but instead Mr. Steve, from the BBC show Deadly 60, was on hand.  Mr. Steve explained to the class that his next assignment would be working around electric eels for an upcoming show and he really wanted to know more about matter and its ability to either conduct or insulate electric energy...something important for him to know I'd imagine.  He was at HP in order to get a bit of help.  How cool is that?  Seriously, a fun way to kick the off the lesson and the hand-on exploration to follow.  Thanks Mr. Steve and Mrs. Matetich too!

Expository Pillar from Empowering Writers

Role play, or rather the use of story, seemed to be in high use this week  everywhere.  Brief hooks to reel those students into the lesson.  Mr. Gay's second grade math class was working on all things word problems before moving on to fact families, with active student participation at the board and at their desks with their own fact family castles - facts not part of the family went to the dungeon!  He was in character as King Gay, even as his lovely assistant Princess Read, moved about the room helping students with clarification.  In fact, it was not a day later that Princess Read had morphed into Sherlock Holmes for a well implemented third grade language arts lesson on expository text features.  She was in full character as students searched for evidence in the book Knights and Castles by The Osbornes, which was an informational book tied to 3rd grade's upcoming Medieval Faire unit of study.  Hats off to all these teachers for jumping in and giving kids that extra something to want to learn more.  Kudos!

Ok, what else did I see around campus this week?  Almost too much to mention, but I saw...

Wonderful student created Pop Art in Mr. Gay's classroom.

Mrs. Dean's World of Books board in the 5th grade hallway.  All about genres...

A repeat appearance by Pepperoni Perone from Pollyanna Theatre as fifth grade students begin to craft their own Greek Mythology plays.

And a question of the day in Mrs. Dean's classroom that just made me smile.









And of course, the annual Parade of Pumpkins is on full display this week, leading up to all thing
HOOT at the end of the month.  Lots of really well crafted pumpkins, with bidding well under way from Day One!

Lee, Ian, and their over the top pumpkin creation!

Lots of good stuff around and yep, it really hits home that good teachers matter.  Not only those beginning ones fresh from stronger every year university teacher prep programs, but our reflective, well practiced veterans too.  Both have chosen teaching as a profession for the long haul (takes time to hone your craft in any profession) and that says something and means something in the classroom.  Thanks to those who have chosen to be teachers.  The work you do does matter.

It Starts Here

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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...

Working through a tableau of an Isosceles triangle

All important lesson reflection

Always emphasizing vocab (ie, Composite Figures) and importance of labels!

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.

Grace and Wisdom

I've had some interesting parent meetings over the last couple of weeks. HP continues to expand parent advisory offerings on campus, dependent upon specific need or interest. For example, our GT Parent-Teacher Advisory has met (took a break last year!) and has many exciting plans in the works. SCORES families continue to come together to support each other, arrange socials for families, and more I hear. And most recently, I met with our latest support group, PODS. Parents of Dyslexic Students. Spearheaded by our reading specialist Kathy Sederholm, along with parents Chesney Szaniszlo and Emily McGinnis, the group has just started meeting with other parents of dyslexic students (or those parents who are simply interested to know more) in order to offer workshop sessions, communicate information on dyslexia attributes and resources, and much more. They even  hosted a parent ed night over the summer, showing the well regarded documentary on dyslexia The Big Picture. In fact, PODS will do the same for our teachers at an upcoming November staff meeeting. Cool.  Getting feedback from parents on how we're doing, making plans together for our kids...that's what it's all about in my book. Thanks ladies.




Cheeto, new class pet

Caught some creative classroom in action this week as well.  Ms. Zabilka's first graders were extremely motivated by her lesson on the writing process, ie sequencing ideas. Students were actively discussing and writing "how-to" papers, with Ms. Zabilka pulling out those wonderful DBI strategies to solidify the learning (role play of how to properly brush your teeth being one!) and build excitement for crafting their individual how-to's. Her use of the DBI strategy artifact was a super cool tie in to this final step in their writing. The class received a "special delivery", ie package, going through a mini-DAR strategy to critically think about content and why the box was delivered to their class. When finally opened, we all met the new class pet (see above), brainstorming commenced, and students started a discussion on the writing task, "How to Care for Our Class Pet". Before I left, they were also in the throes of thinking about a name for this pet - I hearCheeto was the clear front runner. Fun, motivating, and you better believe these students were eager to write.

The Constellation activity!

Ms. Davidson's Kinders were also busy, busy with all things scientific process this week. She started the lesson through the use of the DBI strategy Constellations. Students had varied pictures of apples around their necks, the teacher gave prompting questions related to  pictures that matched certain criteria given (ie, "Find a person with a picture showing the apple core."), then these Kinders were off and at it. Grouping themselves together by common attributes.  Great way to get them thinking classification!  Her lesson then followed with making predictions, hands on experiments, and recording results, making conclusions with a float/sink experiment involving apples and other edible items.  Students thinking, talking, doing. 

Some final thoughts on grace and wisdom. It's been one of those weeks where self reflection and reflection with others seemed to be my norm. Meeting with teachers, problem solving reflections at team meetings, simple impromptu visits with people.... I'm always lifted by these conversations and truly amazed by the level of reflection teachers put into their own practice.  You know, hearing their thought processes on questions such as "How do you think the lesson went?  What would you do differently next time you implement this lesson?  What ideas can we think of to take it to the next level...or not?"  Teachers are typically their own toughest critics and I always exit these type of interactions  thinking about how much our teachers do care to give it their all, do their best for kids, and to look ahead to the next time.  It is with this type of grace and wisdom most of us hope to have when we too confront those next times.  Grace and wisdom for us all...me included.

Teacher art connections and more

Many of our enhancement programs began on campus within the last two weeks, with everyone now beginning to move into the rhythm of all things schedule.  I was able to visit Mrs. Guenther's classroom one day when dance teacher Holly Schmidt had students giving their movement interpretations of science vocabulary (think inquiry, scientist, etcetera), before she began nailing down specific vocab definitions.  Those students were very excited about participating and motivation to learn was high...one more way to present the information! This semester, Holly will be with us one day per week in second grade, with a theatre teacher then taking over second semester.  These ladies work among several schools within our McCallum vertical school and it's been a great addition at the elementary campuses.  The ultimate goal is to give students exposure, appreciation, and understanding of dance and theatre TEKS, while also (most importantly at our level) enhancing understanding in gen ed content areas.  Thanks AISD and welcome Holly!

On the same day, I also visited our just up and running parent led Future Problem Solvers program.  As you know Alison Guckenberger and Jeannine Ripp took over the program this year, attended FPS summer training with our own Laine Leibick, and have now begun to offer this enrichment opportunity to our identified GT students in grades 2-5.  A very, very involved 16 step problem solving model.  I caught the tail end of a broad topic discussion around the theme Social Isolation and was impressed with what I heard.  Fifth grade student groups were sharing out their recommendations for social isolation concerns (in a futuristic model) and I heard everything from "inventing socks that would give the wearer a compliment every 10 steps taken, with additional aromatherapy added in" to "transportable hospital beds so patients would not feel lonely."  What was really cool however was the brainstorming model being followed, with specific use of piggybacking as one brainstorm component.  Specifically, when the hospital idea was shared, the next student group said they were inspired and then piggybacked their idea of sending holograms of patients to events, celebrations, school, family time...in order to combat the loneliness.  It really got us all thinking however, when one student asked, "But as a hologram, wouldn't you still feel lonely at those things?"  Which, of course, brought up a whole other line of questioning on why human touch is still important now and in the future.  Very rich discussion and yep, I'm very grateful we have folks to lead this program as volunteers for our campus.  

Lots of great teaching happening all over campus (I get it, I'm biased!), but specifically want to give props to Ms. Collins in 4th grade and her recent science inquiry lesson.  Student groups were reading short biographies on scientists (famous and not so famous), discussing and listing details in the scientific process through the steps their selected scientist actually used.  They also were just beginning to cross reference the historical perspective/personal anecdotes of the time each scientist lived (What was happening at the time of the discovery or invention to make important breakthroughs a reality? How did the time period and all that went with it impact each of these historical figures and the decisions they made?).  Big questions which gave both teacher and principal pie in the sky discussion points on where kids could take this lesson.  Love the connection between so many disciplines.  Thanks Ms. Collins.

And Sally Hunter's What Do I Value Display.  The display has been up for awhile and I've missed  showing it the last couple postings, but Sally tells me, "The activity actually evolved from a lesson I do every year about what 'value' really means - not monetary value, but those priceless things like family, etc.  The decision to do their 'What Do I Value?' work on black paper came from one of my favorite childhood poetry books, Hailstones and Halibut Bones, by Mary O'Neill.  The quote comes from her poem about the color black - we shared the poem in class because diamonds and other jewels had come up under items with monetary value."    Great way to get kids thinking and sorting through who they are as people...plus one terrific visual arts tool to boot!

 








Two last things to share this week.  We were thrilled to hear that our own PE teacher Jim DeLine was selected by UT's The School of Public Health as a 2013 Catch Champion.  Coach, as you know, is a champion of all things family fitness and he is "being recognized for his untiring dedication to create healthy environments for the children in Texas."  I hear Coach is one of six Catch Champions across the state and will be recognized formally in December. We are, of course, Scottie Proud of this special recognition. 

Finally, late Wednesday afternoon, all teachers (yep, all) traveled with Ms. McDaniel and me to UT's The Blanton Museum for a bit of training and fall celebration of the arts.  We are in our Year III of the work around Any Given Child, and as this year's PD is focused on visual arts teaching strategies, this was a perfect venue to not only learn more, but also a great venue to celebrate the work we do.  Blanton Education Director Ray Williams, along with Amethyst Beaver, gave us a wonderful tour of the fascinating Life Like exhibit, along with some time on our own to explore the spaces.  Our goal was for teachers to walk away with not only personal appreciation for what art can be (there was some debate about that - love it!), but also gave teachers a couple more tools to use with students.  Either at school or a future museum field experience.  By deepening our own understanding we are better able to deepen students' understanding as well.  Pretty simple. Thanks so much for the hospitality and yes, if you haven't heard, The Blanton, as of this year, is now FREE to all teachers with a school ID.  One more cool way to connect those working closest with students to the work we know is working. 

Thanks HP Teachers and The Blanton! 

My bucket runneth over

It's great that we've been seeing so many  creative classroom strategies in use already this year...and

A DBI strategy tied to the 4 types of sentences

that our very first Product and Process display is up...with a second teacher's display not far behind.  Thanks to Mrs. Pappert for being first up! and I encourage you to stop by to check out the highlighted creative strategy under her "process" section. Not only her display, but other displays as they go up between now and spring break.  Remember, this year, we are asking for each teacher to include at least two strategies within their displayed lesson and our hope is that you will begin to see the deeper and more powerful learning strategies in a full lesson arc; additionally we are encouraging each teacher to host one Parent Visiting Day at some point this year (many already have this activity in place) as an additional way for students to explain their processes behind their products.  Cool things everywhere and really glad to see our latest professional development learning being used with students right away (see below).  Made my week to say the least.

Other examples of creative strategies from around the building include...

Ms. Maca's art class

A story quilt tied to a remembered moment...

...and a Faith Ringgold book from Ms. Perkins' students

Symbol making discussion

Additionally, it was nice to see Sally Hunter back in action this week as she hosted some special visitors to her class.  I hear her guests left impressed with what they saw and heard (as was I when I popped in briefly), and we can't thank her enough for keeping the creativity and critical thinking alive and well in her classroom.   










Can't tell you what a warm vibe we had the night Lamar Principal George Llewellyn presented at our first PTA meeting this week.  We had many HP parents in attendance to hear about his programs and initiatives...just keeps growing by leaps and bounds y'all.  Fine Arts offerings and strong academics aligned to McCallum HS (not to mention the alignment efforts to the feeder elementary schools) is spot on!  In fact, I had a moment in the presentation where it just struck me how far we've all come since the Any Given Child efforts began.  Of course, AGC is only one reason why Lamar is a rockin' middle school...big kudos to the efforts of all those folks (most especially G.L.!), including staff, parents, students, district and community partners...everyone who showed what is possible when a community comes together around a common vision.  Makes me very proud to be a part of this school community with all of you.  Thanks Principal Llewellyn for another great presentation.   Student presentations up next!

SGT's Diana Wheeler

President Ratcliff

Of course, that same evening, PTA president Shannon Ratcliff got us going with a great overview of yearly initiatives - lots of cool things on the horizon - and Diana Wheeler announced the news that

our school and the Scottie Green Team have received one of 41 Green Ribbon School Awards.  Wow!  Their efforts around all things recycling, especially the pumpkin recycling I hear, were noticed and yep, appreciated.  I'm sure more info is to come from this team, but it's cool our school is making efforts to be green!


Finally, big thanks to Mrs. Golliher's students who "filled my bucket" one day when I was down in third grade visiting classrooms.  Her students were brainstorming a list of good things to say and do in order to fill someone's bucket, after having read  the children's book Have You Filled a Bucket Today? So when I popped in, it was my turn to receive a bucket of compliments as they practiced their bucket filling skills.  I left the class on such a high...everything from my hair to my shoes were complimented.  Not to mention the best bucket fillers of all.  Those kudos for the things you do for someone and the type of person you are or try to be.  Such things as "I think you are nice" and "I thank you for helping us at our school".  Filling buckets makes you feel good (imagine how students feel when their buckets are filled!) and really emphasizes how much we all need our buckets filled every day.  Thanks Mrs. Golliher's class for not only filling my bucket, but giving me a reminder that I need to do the same for others.  Because of you, my bucket truly runneth over.

Moving into September

It was an incredibly busy week at Highland Park.  Seriously.  Meetings, meetings, then added more meetings based on the previous meeting outcomes.  I think we've all had those kind of weeks, all productive, all good, with lots and lots of planning happening.  I'm continually amazed how committed teachers and staff are to doing the right thing and giving their all.  I know we are very fortunate to have such great folks who work with students each and every day.  Here and everywhere in AISD. 

Adding to our current staff line-up are two new people who have joined our ranks.  First is Sam Lockley, our newest custodian.  Sam has been a custodian in AISD for over 15 years, hails originally from Richmond, VA, with Middlesex HS being his alma mater.  He is a proud grandfather and also tells me that not only is he an avid cyclist - 20 miles every weekend - but is also a certified professional pool player!  He is a member of a professional team in Round Rock and has even played in Las Vegas.  Pretty cool.








We are also pleased that Markeshia Dunston has joined us to round out our After School Childcare staff.  Markeshia tells
me she "grew up in Stephenville, TX where I attended and graduated from Stephenville High School.  I attended Stephen F. Austin State University.  While attending, I was a track and field athlete and competed in the shot-put, hammer throw and discus.  I majored in psychology and sociology...for the past 3 years I worked in mortgage.  Since moving to the great city of Austin only 2 months ago, I decided to pursue a career in education.  Outside of work I love spending time with my family, friends, and dog as well as attending sporting events and good eateries." Glad you are here Markeshia.


Finally, just know that we continue on with our curriculum refinement work, PTA board is rocking and rolling as always - HOOT is a 'comin - and we are in active planning and implementation mode for our continued arts integration/creative classroom professional development days.  Plus finishing up the all important teacher observational pre-conferences and visiting classrooms.  Lots happening, but all good days as we move into September.