Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day. – Thornton Wilder
This week in Tiger Nation has definitely been a very busy one! Along with being tired and feeling like things have been very hectic, have come those moments of pure joy and pleasure which keep us going. We are rewarded when we see the smiles and flashes of confidence that come across students' faces when they realize they have discovered their own strategy for regrouping while adding. Or they have decoded a very long unfamiliar word because they knew how to chunk it; or they have made the discovery during exploration time in math that they know 3 equilateral triangles make a trapezoid when using pattern blocks. Or they realize that memorizing a written piece of work can elicit many different emotions from families, teachers and classmates. I imagine this is the same excitement that Galileo felt when he discovered what would later be acknowledged as the three rings of Saturn. Each moment of learning and discovery brings with it a sense of satisfaction and reward which inspires intrinsic motivation for our students.
The question we must ask is, "How are we encouraging that motivation? How are we equipping and empowering our students to make these discoveries and experience this joy for themselves rather than being rooted in our approval?". I see evidence of this everyday here at Upper Tygart. The following is some food for thought about equipping and empowering students and each other to make powerful discoveries through our daily work.
Ed News:
Bullying Prevention Campaign to Empower ParentsTigers On A Roll:
4th Grade teachers visiting Kindergarten and sharing wonderful compliments about how centers were working with technology for our littlest Tigers!Third graders using making words materials to discover the meaning and spelling of new vocabulary in Mrs.Hargett's classroom.
Preschoolers working in their journals responding to a big book read to them by Mrs. Monica. They were drawing and labeling small, medium, and large pumpkins as they grew.
Kindergarteners have been participating in some highly rigorous shared writing activities in both Mrs. Clary's and Mrs. Underwood's classrooms! I know a lot more about bears now that I joined them as they wrote their information article from research they had done during several read alouds. I also very much enjoyed their writing about pumpkins.
If you haven't spent any time enjoying the "Tiger Art Gallery", courtesy of Mrs. Kimbler and our student artists, you really should take a few moments to stop by and enjoy the work our students are creating. Not only are they making wonderful art, but in many cases it is a direct relationship to classroom content that is being studied. Great work!
Tiger Events:
October:23 - 2nd Grade Parties, 12:45 WCHS Choir Concert in gym
24 - K,1,3-5 Parties, Faculty Meeting, October Birthday Dinner @ Smokey Valley
25 - Teacher Planning Day (See email for details)
26 - PD Day @ UTE
November:
31 - Faculty Meeting
1 - Reading Academy K and 1
2 - October Celebration Assembly
Reminders:
- All students should have DEA goals set by now!
- Do/Whats should be occuring regulary in each classroom!
- Please forward me samples of student generated literacy letters from your class.
- You should be actively engaged in reviewing student data and focusing on the 4 questions during PLCs.
- RTI students should have been progress monitored for the first time by now and receiving targeted interventions daily based on the new data.
Worthwhile Websites:
Bullying at PPTS.comTeach Peace Now
Do Something
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It is alarming to learn that students are often bullied because of their appearnce. I thought bullying was typically only boys being involved WRONG! What happened to it is good to be different? How boring the world would be if we all looked the same. .... I feel it comes back to yet another thing we need to teach at school: be good to other people. As teachers we must LISTEN and not just take things lightly.
ReplyDeleteBullying is not gender specific. It can happen to anyone by anyone, adults included. This is just one more thing that we have to have our eyes open for and watch because usually the victim won't tell because they feel they will be bullyied more as a consenquence. I agree with Michelle that we must LISTEN but also WATCH! The best medicine is preventive! We need to be proactive so we won't have to be reactive.
ReplyDelete11 Facts About Bullying-All goes back to the Fred Fractor-Live the Golden Rule. Fact # 11 Schools with easily understood rules of conduct, small class sizes and fair discipline practices report less violence than those without such features.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to learn that 90% of students in grades 4-8 have been bullied and that 1 out of 10 people that have been bullied have quit school. Just tonight on WSAZ news, one of the featured articles was about a child who was rumored to have brought a gun to school because of bullying. I think that the work that Marta and Regina are doing with social groups have been very helpful in this matter. Awareness of the issue and letting the students know that our school has a zero tolerance policy against bullying is a giant step in the right direction.
ReplyDeleteBe Positive and The PeaceMaker found it interesting that 1 in 4 teachers see nothing wrong with bullying and only intervene 4% of the time! We are glad none of those teachers work at UTE. The website also stated that 1 of 10 kids is bullied, that makes us sad. As elementary teachers we need to recognize the signs of bullies and put a stop to it early.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see all the good work in the Tigers On a Roll post. Sandra and I plan to visit other classrooms soon. Mrs. Underwood's students were awesome!
I think we've definitely spread the word this week we will not tolerate bullies! It seems we read more and more stories about young people being bullied and the results are sometimes fatal. I think we will do our best work with eliminating bullies in our school by continuing to spread the message we will not tolerate!
ReplyDeleteI agree with this statement "To stop bullying, we have to start with parents,". All to often children are only repeating words or actions that they hear at home. It is a shame to think how much time is spent on hatred and disrespect which leads to bulling. Life is hard and at best all we can do is make someone else’s life a little easier. To make a child’s day pleasant while they are here with us because we have no idea how horrible life may be at home. To often we find out after the fact. Making sure they are safe and free from bulling in our schools is a major goal!
ReplyDelete