Curriculum Contemplations
Your One-Stop Shop For Curricular Happenings for September
4 Inspiring Stories of How Great Teachers Changed Someone’s Life
Nobody can inspire us like great teachers can. They seem to come along at just the right moment, at a time when we need them the most. Great teachers show us things about ourselves we can’t see. They see potential in us that others, including ourselves, can’t or won’t. Above all, they give us the courage to find our own way with just enough guidance to show us that the impossible—or what we perceive as impossible—is anything but that.
Click here to read a few short and inspiring stories of how great teachers changed the lives of a few of the most well-known individuals in the world.
ELA ELABORATIONS
Free Online Course: Teaching Foundational Reading Skills.
MOWR Colleagues,
North Carolina State University is offering a free online course: Teaching Foundational Reading Skills. The course is based on the Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade Practice Guide, which was developed by the Florida Center for Reading Research and was published in July 2016 by the U.S. Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse.
The course focuses on best practices in teaching the pillars of early literacy.
We wanted to make you aware of this opportunity for free, high-quality professional development in the teaching of reading.
EL Curriculum Q & A Blog
If you have questions about implementing EL Education Curriculum, there is a new Curriculum Q & A Blog that may just have the answers you need. Every Tuesday, EL Education authors are taking your biggest questions and providing in-depth answers along with resources and links to more on the topics. You may want to keep checking back to see what they will discuss on the blog next. You can find the Curriculum Q & A Blog here.
MATHEMATICAL MUSINGS
Mathematicians Can Be...
One evening, I came across a tweet one evening that made me pause. It was posted by a teacher who is at a building full of students that feel like they don’t belong in society, who are marginalized for one reason or another. They don’t feel accepted, they don’t feel represented, etc. Her description of her students reminded me of our students.
The students come to school hoping to find a place they can belong, and Miss Mastilio thinks for the most part they find that belonging in her school. I hope our students find some belonging on our own campuses.
She was trying to think of any way she could contribute to that environment of accepting, how she could send a message that says YOU BELONG HERE. WE WANT YOU.
This is what she came up with – it’s a small thing in the big scheme of things, but she thinks it will matter. Too often, our students come in with the idea that math is a thing that is already complete. That some old, dead, white dudes made up centuries ago and has stayed the same ever since.
She wanted them to start seeing math through her class as a living, breathing entity that is still being explored, discovered, and created today – in many different ways, by many different people.
Click here to read the full blog post and access the resources.
A Bold Effort to End Algebra Tracking Shows Promise
Four years ago, school district leaders did something counterintuitive in this tech-laden metropolis, where STEM isn't just a buzzword but practically a way of life.
They got rid of accelerated middle-school math classes.
Part of an ambitious project to end the relentless assignment of underserved students into lower-level math, the city now requires all students to take math courses of equal rigor through geometry, in classrooms that are no longer segregated by ability.
That means no "honors" classes. No gifted track. No weighted GPAs until later in high school. No 8th grade Algebra 1.
In terms of curriculum, this is about as controversial as it gets. And that's not just because of its math implications, but because of the parental pushback such a plan is guaranteed to generate.
In effect, by de-tracking math classes, San Francisco has done away with one of the key avenues that the well-connected use to give their children an academic advantage.
Fallout was swift. Parents, concerned about rigor and whether their children would be able to take calculus by senior year, barraged everyone from the district superintendent's office to City Hall with complaints and petitions.
But the district has held firm, and now, preliminary evidence suggests that San Francisco's gamble may be paying dividends for black and Latino students, without hurting students who otherwise would have taken algebra earlier.
But the question still remains: Is that going to be enough to keep the policy in place for years to come?
Click here to read the full article about SFUSD math from Education Week.
THE MATHEMATICIAN WHO WILL MAKE YOU FALL IN LOVE WITH NUMBERS
Su opened his talk with the story of Christopher, an inmate serving a long sentence for armed robbery who had begun to teach himself math from textbooks he had ordered. After seven years in prison, during which he studied algebra, trigonometry, geometry, and calculus, he wrote to Su asking for advice on how to continue his work. After Su told this story, he asked the packed ballroom at the Marriott Marquis, his voice breaking: “When you think of who does mathematics, do you think of Christopher?”
SCIENTIFIC SOLILOQUIES
Agree/Disagree T-Charts: Supporting young students in scientific argumentation and modeling
Illuminating Food Webs
Learning From Failed Experiments: The messy aspects of doing science
COMMUNAL CONVERSATIONS
ELL ESSENTIALS: Myths of Second Language Acquisition
Decide if each of the statements in this document is"true" or "false" and come back next month to see if you are a myth-buster!
TECH TOOLS YOU CAN USE: Bright Arrow
Click to learn more about parent communication through Bright Arrow.
PARENT PARTNERSHIPS: Phoning Home
TEACHER SPOTLIGHT: EL Education Curriculum Consultant Team
This issue, our Teacher Spotlight is a little unique! Rather than one individual, we would like to recognize a handful of Sunnyside teachers that were recommended to join the EL Education Curriculum Consultant Team. EL Education has a strong belief to partner with schools “from the ground up.” As they plan for national expansion of the curriculum, EL Education tapped into the teacher expertise in Sunnyside Unified School District!
TEACHING & LEARNING DEPARTMENT
Tammi Baushka - Literacy Program Specialist
Rebecca Ridge - Literacy Program Specialist
Julia Lindberg - LAD Program Specialist
Kristel Foster - LAD Program Specialist
Maggie Hackett - K-12 Math & Science Director
Frank McCormick - Instructional Technology Coordinator
Email: maggieh@susd12.org
Website: susd12.org
Location: 2238 East Ginter Road, Tucson, AZ, USA
Phone: (520)545-2000
Facebook: facebook.com/SunnysideUSD
Twitter: @SunnysideUSD