Special days with special peeps!

We ended our week with an atypical snow day.  Something you don't see very often in the great city of Austin.  However, before that "day off" (not really a free day as we will all make it up on Feb 17), our staff and students celebrated No Place For Hate Week with a variety of special days.  Thanks to counselor and SEL coordinator Cari Land for getting it all together.  A good week.

Tuesday saw many of us in red and black, a nod to unity even given our individual differences.

Wednesday saw many colors of the rainbow, as a reminder that "all colors are included at school".

Then finally, it was Pink Day on Thursday, a reminder "to bust the stereotype that only girls wear pink".  Loved it!

All of these special dress days served as a great tie-in for the MLK activities in classes this week, with one really standing out for me.  Ms. Zabilka's first grade students developed a pathway to change on the floor, just outside her class door. They listed things they could individually do to change the world for the better.   Great reminder that even our youngest students can think deeply, do care about the world around them, and feel empowered to get things done.  Pretty cool.

Good words

Big Scottie Welcome to newest Creative Learning Specialist Ruthie Fisher.  Ruthie is joining our 2nd grade classes this semester as a drama specialist (first semester was a dance focus), helping integrate the power of theater our second grade language arts and social studies TEKS.  Thanks Ruthie!








Even though tutoring is in full force second semester at grades 1-5 - including a bit of cursive handwriting practice - enrichment opportunities are back as well.  Check out the cool offerings for after school if you have not done so.  Everything from a film club to a robotics club to a math club.  Additionally, we are finishing up our Boosterthon Fun Run fundraiser this week and there have been many positive learning outcomes.

Teachers supporting today's run!

Such as the physical and social/emotional health and wellness messages delivered each day.  Thanks to the Boosterthon Committee chairs Christy Strub and Krista Bergeron, as well as PTA board officer Bergan Casey.  They kept the momentum going and monitored and adjusted as needs arose.  True Champs!  Our parent base works tireless hours, all unpaid, all on behalf of this school, and yep, it does indeed take a village to keep all the balls in the air.  All for kids, all good, and all worth it.

Check out the pics below from today's grade level fun runs.  The energy level was cool, not to mention catching!

 

Though every teacher is a winner in my book, I'm happy to announce our 13-14 Campus Teacher of the Year is Mrs. Pam Kolodziej.  Those of us who have seen her in action as the 5th grade Social Studies teacher are amazed by the all she does, including the special learning events she dreams up and puts in place.  Who can forget last year's Presidential Debates, complete with Secret Service?! And this year's History Project Runway, with the thumping, current music selections playing as our fifth graders strutted down the runway in costume?!  She goes above and beyond in all she does and this peer selected recognition is well deserved.  Congrats Mrs. Kolodziej.    

Finally, as we head into the long weekend, let's take a moment to remember the reason for Monday's holiday.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr's message was one of hope and peace and service, and most importantly, unity around our common spirit.  Next week, our school will have a variety of activities around the celebration of everyone's uniqueness, through our No Place for Hate Week daily events and varied Dr. King remembrances and lessons in our classrooms.  However, those activities are also designed to bring into focus our oneness as people. Our common human spirit.

This coming weekend, my wish for you is to find ways to celebrate Dr. King's message in big or small ways. Celebrate who you are and the gifts you bring to the world, connect with others, be of service to those you love and perhaps even those you may not know so well.  Peace, love, unity, and hope for all.  Certainly good words for our days ahead.

A cold start!

It was a cold start for staff and students as we returned to school post winter break.  Regardless, it's good to be back as there is always much to do in a school second semester.  Nice to see familiar faces and some of the "cool" attire many wore to combat those polar vortex temps.  Check out the headgear below.  Love it!

Gear guaranteed to keep the head toasty warm!

We've been in and out of classes this week and I've got to tell you, the teachers and students have gotten right to it.  Lots of writing and much focus on good math instruction.  Think manipulatives, daily work with multi-step word problems,  and student use of varied strategies during learning.  Our math committee has also been hard at work filming their November parent math presentation.  There are some clips on a couple of team wiki sites already, with a bit of additional filming to go.  You will be able to see and hear K-5 teachers demonstrate invented/alternative strategies to solve problems, as well as model drawing in action.  Our goal is to have these completely posted before the end of January.  Check out the grade level wiki sites on the hipark website if you want to know more.

Training and spreading the good word to all of our stakeholders is important to us.  And it's important to me.  In the spirit of furthering understanding of all things creative learning/arts integration, we are hosting a parent workshop on Friday, January 24, 8:00-10:00, HP cafeteria.  UT's Drama for Schools staff Katie Dawson, Sarah Coleman, and Lara Dossett will provide the why behind the what, while demonstrating DBI strategies currently being used in our classrooms; they also will provide attendees with some very concrete strategies parents can use at home to help support learning.  Cool.  Promises to be hands-on, engaging, and something you really won't want to miss. Bring a friend and hope to see you there. 

Finally, big shout out to Sally Hunter, fourth grade teacher and truly a social studies guru if ever there was one. She recently completed an application with the Gilder Lehrman Institute on behalf of Highland Park and we just received word that it was accepted.  What does that mean for our school? Sally tells me that "Highland Park is an official Affiliate School of The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History.  Our teachers now have access to exclusive professional development opportunities, web chats with historians, and over 60,000 primary source documents representing more than 500 years of American history.  Very exciting old stuff!  The Social Studies vertical team will help interested H.P. teachers set up there own accounts on the Affiliate School Program Site.  For a glimpse at what Gilder Lehrman has to offer, check out http://www.gilderlehrman.org/".  Big thanks to Sally for continued advocacy of high quality teacher and student learning.

Welcome Back Scotties to Second Semester!

Enjoy Your Winter Break

Busy week leading up to winter break.  This last week is always a bit harried, with much anticipation for the holiday season to begin by students, staff, and parents.  Enjoy the rest, your time away from school - don't forget to read! - and see everyone back in January.

Scottie Runners in action!

Marathon Kids National Program Administrator William Dyson stopped by one morning with his team. They helped the Scottie Runner's Club with their end of semester certificate awards and then stuck around for a bit to see Coach DeLine's and Coach Haynes' PE programming.  A good morning and thanks for the visit!  Supporting health and wellness is always cool.

As you can also see, Highland Park is gearing up for our January Boosterthon Fun Run activities.  Banners are up in the halls and information has gone home to parents.  This is our first year to participate and thanks to our PTA for organizing this event on behalf of our students.   

In addition to the Dibels MOY assessments, the grade 3-5 MOY teacher data day meetings, and the all important class winter parties, it was another December Medieval Fair.  Third graders make stained glass bottles, conduct research and write reports based on medieval times and topics, and celebrate with a performance for parents.  Cool dress, cool recitations, and cool dancing this year especially.  Thanks all for another nice culminating event to your unit of study on community.

Anderson with his stained glass creation

King Robenhorst

The procession into the performance

Looking Outward

We looked outward this week on campus, thinking globally in many of our activities during the day and after school. 

Our International Potluck saw a huge turnout this year.  Special thanks to committee members Debbie, Hope, Sheena, and Christine on a nice annual evening that showcases and celebrates diversity.  Families typically bring dishes to share that are reminiscent of their own heritage, so it was a nice sampling of foods from around the world.   

Additionally, we paired our fine arts showcase with this evening and I think it went off very well.  Ms. Maca and Ms. Levine, resident art teachers, had worked diligently to display student created Picasso cubism art, clay owls, stained glass windows, and Picasso style self-portraits and guitars.  Way cool.  Music teacher Mr. Briones showed a video montage of dances from varied cultures while we ate, then AGC dance teacher Holly Schmidt introduced Mrs. Nudelman's second graders as they performed Tango Escenario.  These students were a big hit with the crowd and it is with much gratitude to Holly, Spanish teacher George Ayres, and Lia Nudelman for pulling this highlight of dance at second grade together for all of us to enjoy.


And of course, our own Scottie Singers, as always, brought it home.  Four selections were performed, celebrating diversity through songs such as Music Alone Shall Live, Bashana Haba-ah, and Oye.  The selection of Siyahamba was a very fitting and poignant selection as it is a traditional South African folksong.  Prior to singing the song, fifth grader Noah read a dedication to the South African people as they mourn the death of former President Nelson Mandela.  Well done Scottie Singers.

 

Varied teachers around the building also made note of Nelson Mandela's passing this week.  One way they honored his life and legacy was through viewing and discussion of  Dr. Maya Angelou's reading of her tribute poem His Day is Done.  It provided a rich framework for follow up class discussion. 

Africa was also a topic of discussion in Mrs. Read's language arts class this week.  Her students are involved in a pen pal program with students in Malawi and I hear there are many classrooms in

AISD also involved in this project - we have four teachers participating in this pen pal program. When I stopped in her room as her students were writing their whole group letter to their new Malawian friend Lighton, it was interesting to note that the new pen pal enjoyed many of the same things as American students enjoy - think rap music, computer games, and football.  And had the same dreams and hopes for his future.  I think that was an ah-ha moment for our kids.  As Mrs. Read and I shared, "people are people everywhere."  I hope they keep this connection going.

We continued looking outward - though not as global - when The Paramount Theatre Story Wranglers held their first semester showcase on Friday.  Round II will be in the spring.  I think y'all know I love this group of energetic, creative, positive actors and writers as they inspire our kids with a love of writing that is wonderful to see in action.  Students work on creative writing pieces (think fun and a bit wacky from those uninhibited 3rd grade minds!), then the Story Wranglers put it all together, performing the stories for students and parents.  This year, our students came up with stories about everything from Cinnabuns, creation tales such as How the Elephant Got his Trunk, a music awards show, and much more.  Students are given free reign to be as creative as possible.  Hopefully, as these young writers introduce themselves before each of their stories are performed and jointly state "and this is our story", they begin to see themselves as honest to goodness writers.  That confidence boost is priceless.

Finally, I share with you the finalists in the student designed SEL peace area chart contest.  Counselor and SEL committee chair Cari Land facilitated the contest as a way to further involve kids in our work around social emotional learning initiatives on campus.  We are an SEL campus and vertical team, and today, as I write this on the one year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy, it really underscores the need for all of us to value this work above all else we do.  Schools are places that address so much more than academics. Thanks to Cari, the students who created the designs below as enhancement to our SEL work, and to the staff, students, and community of Highland Park for your continued commitment to whole child learning.  SEL, creative learning/arts integration, courageous conversations...all important components to who we are as Scotties and as people in this world.  Hearts out to the Newtown community today.

 

Zoe's design

Marisol's design 

Asia's design

You know it's December...

You know it's December when you see Science Fair tri-boards set up all over the cafeteria and main hallway.  This traditional, first week of December event again saw many first-rate K-5 projects, with my take-away being that we have some very curious, capable, and thoughtful young scientists.  I especially loved the interest in current event topics  - think NFL players and concussions, the debate around fracking, the state of the bee population, and more.  I was also impressed by the additional research several of them did, going the extra mile to interview an expert in the field, such as a UT professor. That shows a real interest to know more.

All are winners in my book and I believe we had almost 100% attendance at the 5th grade presentation to parents Thursday evening. Big kudos also to our wonderful McCallum AP science students who came through for us once again on a cold Friday morning...late school start and all.  Their help with the 4th and 5th grade oral defense portion of this 3 day event is a very meaningful and valuable experience for our students. Certainly not an easy task, but also a real confidence booster that they can show (as well explain) what they know! Love it!

Science Fair committee's Juli, Megan, Tina, and Lynne (Eve too!)

One of my favs! 5th grade Science teacher Mrs. Matetich

McCallum HS advanced science students at an oral defense table

...and another fine group of MAC students!

5th grade students explaining their projects to parents Thursday evening

Max with a very timely project

So true...thanks Bella!

Yes, it is The Nose!

Most of our Science Fair Winners and Special Award recipients

I saw some other wonderful things this week.  Not least of which was Kinder teacher Lauren Farmer's lesson on fairy tales.  She incorporated very creative DBI strategies throughout, using tools such as artifact, DAR, and Exploding Atom.  It was great to see all pieces come together in her lesson around The Three Little Pigs, but what was really cool is that those kinders understood Fairy Tale characteristics (think magic, happenings in threes, etcetera), and that they were making text to text connections with the tales previously read, inferencing, sequencing, and finding adjectives in their center work.  They were headed later that day to a field experience related to fairy tales, so loved that connection as well.  Connected, rigorous, not to mention creative and engaging. 

Voting with their feet on Fairy Tale characteristics

Julie Danehy, Green Gate Farms, and The Sustainable Food Center held a mini farmer's market for our second graders one day.  Students sampled kale chips, left with recipes, and yes, are continuing on the path with all things healthy eating.  When I polled Ms. Marques' students on like or dislike of those same kale chips, most gave me a big thumbs up (loved the salty taste from what I could gather).  Sustainable, local, fresh food.  Cool.

Finally, it was a really nice morning on Tuesday, traveling with fourth grade teacher Laine Leibick to the Bob Bullock Museum for Dr. Carstarphen's State of the District Address.  Well done video compilation of district happenings and I was thrilled Laine was personally recognized for her lifetime contributions by our superintendent - along with many other deserving veteran employees from around AISD.  That was cool.  Have to say I was proud as punch to sit beside her while she stood and was thanked for all she has done and continues to do for kids.  Highland Park certainly thanks you as well.