The Yuletide Villager
Staff News 9/5/2017
Weekly Schedule
Climb the mountain so you can see the world, not so the world can see you.
All Week:
- Continue BOY mClass testing.
- Finish up iReady Reading and Math
- Robotics Camp after school 2:45-4:45 Mon-Thur
- Formal Observations Round I begins w/Rice
Monday
September 11
Tuesday
September 12
- Boy Scout and Girl Scout Meetings
- Digital Content Instruction Teacher Meeting After School in Media Center @ 2:45
Wednesday
September 13
Thursday
September 14
Friday
September 15
PLC Meetings in the Think Tank
Upcoming Dates:
Stuart Cramer High School on October 27th from 1-3:30pm.
TEACHER OF THE YEAR CHARACTERISTICS
The following information should be of help in guiding your school’s selection of its candidate for the Gaston Co. Schools’ Teacher of the Year (TOY):
A candidate should…
be making significant contributions to the total school program as a teacher leader
be involved in his/her community
be able to address a variety of audiences on local, state, and national issues
demonstrate the knowledge of best classroom practices that meet the needs of all students
not be retiring in the current school year or at the end of the current school year
Nominations
- Please scroll through the complete list before selecting a staff person.
- Any staff can nominate.
- You are doing so anonymously.
- This form will close at the end of the week.
- Please review the characteristics before nominating.
Check out Teresa Thomassen's Blogspot Below
Superintendent Mark Johnson says:
The State Board of Education approved DPI’s state plan to implement the federal Every Student Succeeds Act. This plan represents months of work by DPI staff, and while mostly it is an application for federal funding, it also includes the state’s Theory of Action (pp. 8-13), a concise statement of the innovation we expect for students, including explanations of:
- Adaptive environments, accomplished through flexible practices, authentic assessments, and responsive thinking
- Personalized learning, including the use of digital resources that provide the ability to transfer information freely and quickly
- Empowered educators who actively coordinate their professional learning and tailor their training to their unique career aspirations.
Mark Johnson
North Carolina Superintendent
Renewing Your License in 2018?
If you are renewing your license in 2018, you will want to bookmark Educator Effectiveness’ Online Professional Development website. On the site, North Carolina educators have access to nearly 70 learning modules categorized by credit amount, professional standards, and credit type (including the 2019 required Digital Learning credit). These self-paced courses are free and accessible 24 hours a day.
Flu Shots - Save the Date, October 27th
AdvancEd Accreditation Starts Now
PLC Meetings and Schedules
We will begin our specials this week by adding on media and guidance in addition to art, music and pe. Small groups will be implemented at a later date.
Please be on time to all classes and arrive for pick-up as scheduled.
LRR
An Instructional Read...
Meeting the needs of all students: a first step
His nickname was "seizure boy" -- not a nickname he welcomed or ever wanted. Once, while waiting for the school bus, he collapsed in a seizure and while on the ground, in the dust, the bullies kicked him until a younger neighbor intervened. His teachers weren't much better. Most of them were intolerant, indifferent, or uninterested. He dropped out of high school in the first week of his senior year.
This was my little brother who had epilepsy from the age of four until he was twelve years old. During his school years, he was frequently absent, got in trouble, and was set to the principal's office regularly. He was incessantly bullied, and, as you might imagine, developing a strong dislike for school. When he was 12, a brain surgery stopped the seizures. However, it took many years for him to catch up socially, emotionally, and academically.
In the last few years I've become aware of the impact that my brother's schooling had on me as an educator. I understand why my heart races and my palms perspire and my throat constricts when I see children -- particularly boys -- who are excluded and misunderstood. When I was a kid, there wasn't much I could do to protect my little brother from the cruelty of others. I've been working in schools for two decades, and when I reflect on these years, I see the connection between my brother's experience and my mission to create classrooms and schools where all children feel safe, valued, and understood.
Who Will You Get to Know This Year?
I share this with you because it's connected to my hopes for this school year. I hope that if there's a student in your class who resembles my brother -- a student who is struggling, who is an outcast, who is odd or strange or has some kind of physical, social, or emotional difference -- that you'll reach across that perceived chasm and get to know the person on the other side. I hope that you'll find out who he is and what he loves to do and how you might be able to make his daily life just a little bit easier. I hope that you'll recognize your own fears and apprehension, perhaps fears of the unknown or the "other" or fears of your own limitations to help. And I hope you'll reach out anyway.
We all have these students, these Others, in every class we teach. Sometimes it's obvious who they are (such as the kid who has grand mal seizures on the playground)-- and sometimes we're not even aware of who we've made into the Other.
Meeting the needs of all students starts with honing an awareness of who we make Other -- who we see as fundamentally different from us, who we've closed off our hearts to. For some, those others might be members of a specific ethnic or racial group; they might be recent immigrants who don't speak English, or they might be transgender children or homeless children or extremely high energy boys. Meeting the needs of all students starts with having hard conversations with ourselves about our own biases.
The only way to break down those biases is to fill our brains with more information about those we perceive as Other. As we learn more about just who people really are -- about their complexities and full personhood, our stereotypes will fracture. We will learn that the "out of control boy who won't sit still and is socially awkward" also loves animals and collects change to donate to the animal shelter and will read anything about how to care for dogs.
This year, be honest with yourself. Identify a student (or a group of students) who you've made Other and then invite one of them to lunch. Push yourself to connect, to listen, to see whom he or she really is. Meeting the needs of all students starts with knowing who your students are.
I also encourage you to reflect on who you are coming into this work of teaching children: Who are the groups of students that you're especially dedicated to supporting? Who do you identify with or particularly empathize with? Being aware of this commitment can embolden us and keep us connected to our core values, as well as help us bridge the gaps of difference.
An Epilogue to My Brother's Story
My brother eventually completed his high school graduation requirements, then graduated from college, and became a physician's assistant. He's been very successful given his traumatic childhood -- a success he credits to our remarkable mother who was a fierce lioness of love.
May all children be raised by a lioness and a lion; may all students be taught by a teacher who sees their full humanity.
MES Social Worker - Whitney Hill
MES School Counselor - Eric Otis
McAdenville Elementary School
Email: lrrice@gaston.k12.nc.us
Website: https://www.gaston.k12.nc.us/mcadenville
Location: 275 Wesleyan Drive, McAdenville, NC, United States
Phone: (704)836-9117
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/McAdenvilleElementary/
Twitter: @msprincipalboss