Wildcat Weekly
March 18, 2019
Exhibition
Many of you know I take a lot of pictures, some of which I actually use. The other day I was scrolling through my phone and I found about 90% of my pictures are from school activities. As I sifted through the photos I was not surprised, but it reminded me that we have done a lot this year! There were some photos of daily life at school, but the vast majority were pictures of kids doing meaningful things. It was obvious that we have found value in our kids communicating and sharing their learning in creative ways, and this past week’s spirit assembly was a perfect example. I appreciate the amount of work that goes into putting on an assembly and though we might not think about it as an exhibition of learning, our leadership kids would probably argue that they were learning in ways that were meaningful to them. The problem solving, creativity, collaboration and communication of their ideas came together in the most public of venues - 700+ of their friends, peers and teachers! We all benefitted from their hard work which resulted in a well orchestrated Exhibiton of learning. Kudos to Julie Pete and her kids, this was impressive and I’m proud of the opportunities we provide for kids at LaCreole!
This past weekend we had our kids serve as ambassadors for an Innovate Dallas event at Dallas Retirement Village. The purpose of the morning’s activities was to highlight the kinds of things that are going on in our schools with the ultimate goal of bringing our community and schools closer to working together in mutually benefical ways and providing our kids with opportunities to learn in real authentic ways. Much like our last STEAM Night, we put the kids at the forefront and gave them the responsibility to lead in demonstrating and explaining their learning. The kids took their roles as leaders seriously and as a result our community got to see just how capable they are and perhaps are beginning to see some possibilities. This was a great event, we have great kids and to watch them work with the residents of DRV and community in attendance shined a light on the great work you all do with kids! I appreciate Ken, Amy, Jacob and Michele for their extra work this weekend. Our Ambassadors for the event were Terin Natividad, Wyatt Reed, Audrey Duncan, Joerg Shambaugh, Kaitlyn Jones, Zoey Floodman, Cadence Kumnick, Dakota Lee, Julia Nelson, Emma Irwin, Stryder Morrison, Addie Cornthwaite, Luc Peffley, Quinn Peffley, Colin Conley, Kaharra Wilcoxen, Kyla Smith and Jamie Ames. Thanks to the teachers that allowed the kids to meet with me and to have time to practice this past week. If you see them congratulate them on a job well done!
I have been able to see our kids in different roles lately and I think we can take our work to a whole new level as it applies to creating opportunities for sharing their learning. If we can answer the question of what our goals for kids are from the tasks we ask them to do, then the rest is easy! Here’s why:
- They can tell us the problems they had to solve and how they overcame them or not.
- They can tell us the work that came from working as a member of a team or relying on others, how they overcame that or not.
- They can tell us how they had to communicate their ideas, where they found success, where they struggled.
- And, they most certainly can demonstrate their creativity through either exhibiting a product or in explaining their work and ideas.
So here is my proposal. Though it might not be on too many people’s radar right now, we are having an Exhibition Night on May 30th. I would like this (May 30th) to take the place of our originally planned Open House and Exhibition Night on April 12th, which is falling in odd place on the calendar this year. I would prefer to NOT to hold this Open House and put more of our focus on a end of the semester Exhibition Night for all content areas in which we put our kids in the role of leader.
I don’t believe we are at a point to have all kids just yet. But I propose we think about a project or two that might allow us to test some different modes of exhibition to give us some information for future planning. So please be thinking of those things that might be great for Exhibition. Maybe it’s a group of kids who just completed a project that was amazing, maybe it’s an upcoming project that might be done differently to provide opportunity for an exhibition, I am not sure, but this is where I need everybody’s creativity.
I would love to know your thoughts and as always I would love to brainstorm with you if you need. This can be an exciting event and trust me, once you’ve seen it, you can’t unsee it!
Food For Thought
Coming Up On Our Calendar
This Week
3/20 - Conferences - Super Day
3/21 - Conferences - Super Day
3/22 - No School
Enjoy your Spring Break!
Conferences - Super Days This Week
Friday will be a non-work day for those staff that has worked their time during the super day.
Coming Up In PLC
March PLC Schedule
3/18 - Content Area PLCs
*3:00 - SBAC Administration training. Science, ELA, and Math staff along with a handful of EA's.
3/25 - Spring Break Y'all!