Our mission (purpose) is to educate our students so that they may become highly successful in life. Everything we do must take our purpose into consideration. Think about the times you are asked to do certain tasks and as a professional the first question you often have is, "what's the purpose of this?". If you aren't asking that question, you should be! If we are doing things that we cannot explain to our community, then we need to examine the purpose of those things. Even things we have done that were very successful in the past, may have no purpose now. Things change and evolve and we must change and evolve with the advances in our world and the conditions of our families. I came across this quote today and although it is about the game of soccer, it transfers to life.
“I am not a perfectionist, but I like to feel that things are done well. More important than that, I feel an endless need to learn, to improve, to evolve, not only to please the coach and the fans, but also to feel satisfied with myself. It is my conviction that here are no limits to learning, and that it can never stop, no matter what our age.”
― Cristiano Ronaldo
EDUCATION NEWS - PINTEREST
Pinterest For Teachers
If you haven't started using the internet to help you find engaging PURPOSEFUL activities for your students, you are missing out on the most powerful tool available to teachers in history! Our jobs are becoming increasingly challenging, and therefore require us to plan and prep with a different PURPOSE (college and career readiness) than ever before. The link above has the top 25 educational technology Pinterest pages. Choose one or two that seem the most appealing to you and explore them. One of the goals we, as a learning community designated as a goal for improvement was student use of technology. We wnat students creating with technology. This begins with you! Are you creating things to share with your students? Are you planning for them to use and create with technology?
EDUCATION RESEARCH - HOMEWORK
The War on Homework
Should we or should we not give homework? This is an age old debate among educators and researchers. There are definitely benefits to giving homework, provided that it is PURPOSEFUL. What kind of homework are you assigning your students? Are we following our SBDM policy on time limits that are developmentally appropriate according to age? When you consider the word PURPOSEFUL, does it mean that it is appropriate for all students, or does student A need a different homework than student B? How can we make sure students are getting the benefits of the homework? I'm sure we don't have all the answers, but I'd like to hear your thoughtful responses on this issue and how you are making sure homework is PURPOSEFUL for ALL of your students.
TIGERS ON A ROLL - READING WITH A PURPOSE (Why do you read? Do your students know why they are reading other than you telling them to?) Readers always need a PURPOSE for reading.
Balanced Literacy Approach
The above link gives the details of the PURPOSE for creating a balanced literacy approach in our classrooms. Please view it carefully. Below are examples of fabulous things we are doing at UTE to support our literacy learners.
Christie Tackett: Diving For Artifacts - Purposeful reading in SS.
Third Grade: Harget and Varney - Daily 5 Reading Student Calendar Purpose for Reading
Our Colleagues at Heritage - Purposeful Vocabulary Before Reading Activites
Important October Events:
8&10: PLC progress monitoring discussion
8 - Budget Committee Mtg.
9 - Angie's Buds and Blooms, Earthquake and Fire Drills
10 - Lead Team Mtg, Faculty Mtg.
11 - Report Cards Go Home with All Students, 2nd & 3rd Reading Academy
12 - Lockdown, Service Team Mtg.,
15 - SBDM, Board of Ed. Mtg.
15th-17th - Room Reading Extravaganza Competitions
17 - Lead Team Mtg., Faculty Mtg (Professional Growth Study Teams Meet), Classroom Rdg. Winners due to office
18 - Rdg Extravaganza School Judging, 4th & 5th Rdg. Academy, McTeacher Night
22 - Smiling Schools Dental Program
19 - Rdg. Extravaganza/ PTO Baskets/ Family Movie Night
24 - Fall/Halloween Parties, Faculty Meeting
25 - No School Tchr. Planning Day
26 - No School Mandatory PD
Pinterest is a overwhelming site of information. I looked at a smartboard site that had songs we are using and a few more to check out. The balanced literacy approach revealed things that we are doing through different strategies, reading and writing everyday, libraries filled with different genres, and meeting the needs of our students. It is reassuring to me that we are working toward a balanced approach to literacy.
ReplyDeleteI looked at the cool cat teacher site on pinterest. Some of the links on there are tings we are already using (sight word songs from youtube). I think that the smartboards have helped us use technology more. Michelle and I are constantly looking for songs, activities, or games to go along with our lessons. We are trying to have a multiple number of activiites to make sure we are reaching all learning styles. As far as homework, I feel here it is purposeful. What ever we send home is directly related to what we are doing in class and is something that all students can do. I think parents can make it even more purposeful by discussing it with the students. When an adult acts interested or concerned about what the child is doing it will seem more important to the child
ReplyDeleteI honestly start reading the blog on Sunday. I get lost in the links and can't stop looking. I really enjoyed the Pinterest for Teachers. I found several technology links that led to activities that I plan on using in my classroom. One link I saw was one that I have been using this year . It was the "Random Name Generator". This is so much easier than pulling out name sticks when you have several groups. Mrs. Justice and I were talking about when we started teaching, we had to make any activities that we needed to enhance our lessons. Technology has made it so much easier to find lessons and activities that keep children actively engaged..
ReplyDeleteShawn, You never cease to amase me, keeping our minds actively engaged so that we do not stray from our purpose. Even in our private potty time. LOVE IT!!!
ReplyDeleteAt my grade level, my students are really interested in using the internet,computer programs such as powerpoint ,email,and blogs. I try to incorporate the use of these with my content. My students are creating powerpoint presentations on what we are studying in Social Studies. Sometimes they know more than me about these programs. I think that we must have more access to use it more often. I'm waiting on my ipads and laptops! (lol) In math, smartboards are used often by Karen.
ReplyDeleteConcerning homework, Fifth grade gives homework only when we feel it's necessary to reinforce skills or practice something that a student is struggling to master. We don't believe in "busywork" and feel it is our jobs to keep them busy with purposeful work at school. Sometimes homework helps when students have trouble retaining and need to "use" a skill more often.
Fifth Grade Teachers
Lol you are right Jackie Jo - we are always actively engaged no matter our task here at UT. I am a big Pinterest pinner - my pins are nearing the 3,000 mark. I may need a Pinterest intervention soon. Seriously, I used Pinterest in the classroom. I've found tons of games, apps, YouTube videos, etc. to use as resources for my lessons. I looked at Melissa Alonzo Dillard's technology board from the link Shawn gave us. I pinned several of her links to my own Smartboard, You Tube, and Math boards. I found some useful stuff. Another one of the links, Kathy Schrock as been a favorite of mine for some time. I've searched her web page for years for resources. Another pinner I would like to recommend is Heather Renz. Her resources are awesome! She is a former Disney teacher of the year
ReplyDeleteSince the meaning this summer where they spoke so much about "rigor" and making lessons more meaningful to students, we've tried very hard to plan our lessons based on the thoughts of meaningful lessons for students' real-life. This is sometimes hard to do, especially when you just honestly can't think of a real-life situation in which they'll be using a certain skill (because it is the bases for other skills beyond what 2nd graders can realize)....but we're really working on that.
ReplyDeleteOver the summer we found lots of great stuff on Pinterest, and we love looking to pinterest to find new, cute ideas that the students really love. We also used "Teacher's Pay Teachers" a great deal this summer. If you haven't looked at that, there's some awesome stuff!
Cym and Keri
Working primarily in the 4th and 5th grades, I have seen many wonderful uses for Pinterest this year. Leigh is the Pinterest Queen, lol. I wasn't a Pinterest user until Leigh got me started on it over the summer. I have used it for some special education resources as well as for materials in all my collaborative classes.
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