Friday, January 10, 2014

What new thing did you learn today?

One of our family routines at the dinner table is to share our "Highs" and "Lows" of the day.  In addition to that (and naming Harry Potter characters:), I used to ask my daughters "What did you do today at school?".  The answer was often, "Nothing much" or "I don't remember".  Sound familiar??  After several attempts at getting better responses, I finally worked it into a new question..."What new thing did you learn today?".  "Nothing" wasn't allowed as an answer:).  I usually started by sharing something I heard on NPR or saw on the news. Sometimes they come up with something from math or science class, sometimes it's something they saw on TV, or something they heard on the playground (those can be interesting conversations).  What really was important to me is that they actually take a moment each day to reflect and think, "What did I learn today?".

It's something I often think about on the ride home from work and many times my new learning comes from a conversation I may have had with a parent, a teacher, or a student.  It might be something as simple as learning that someone had a sleepover for the weekend or something more impacting like the loss of a family member or a pet.  Learning comes from listening to people's stories.  As educators, we get to hear lots of stories.  We also have the opportunity to remind students the way to learning is by listening to other's stories and to pose the question, "What new thing did you learn today?".


INTERESTING LINK

Below is the link to a site called "Wordless News".  It's something I recently heard on NPR about an artist who does art projects based on the news headline of the day.  Unlike many editorial cartoons, there is no political agenda or slant to the pictures, but are simply for the sake of art.  I thought you might enjoy their creativity.

http://wordlessnews.com/


NEXT WEEK AT A GLANCE

Monday, January 13:

Tuesday, January 14: 8:00 am Staff Meeting

Wednesday, January 15: 8:15 am Achievement Team with Parents (Sherry Lynn-1st grade)
                                      4:00-5:15 After-School Science

Thursday, January 16: 8:05 PBS Committee Meeting
                                  Jon and Debbie to Johnson all day for School Improvement Meeting

Friday, January 17: 8:00-10:00 Principal Advisory Committee at Central Office
                              PTA Popcorn Sale during second recess

TEACHER OBSERVATIONS

Don't forget to schedule a "full-length" observation sometime this month.  If some would prefer to wait until next month for the formal observation due to the assessments and screeners that need to be completed this month, please let me know and I will do a mini-observation this month and a formal observartion next month for you.  I know squeezing everything in can be tough!

YAY FOR PTA!!! The PTA has agreed to partner with us to purchase the next level kit for the Leveled Literacy Intervention.  This research-based program will be used to assist more targeted students and also provide us with a progress monitoring system to track student growth! 

PEARLS OF WISDOM


“The problem with winter sports is that - follow me closely here - they generally take place in winter.” – Dave Barry
“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” – Albert Camus
“Now is the winter of our discontent.” – William Shakespeare






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