Principal Walder's Tuesday Memo
For the week of February 19
Another Perspective: Play, Passion, and Purpose in Classrooms
In PLC the past few weeks, we have talked about CREATIVITY for both students and teachers at Legacy through some of the questions posed in Kids Deserve It!. We visited about the creativity that PLTW, art, writing, and journaling time bring to students each day. Overwhelmingly, teachers shared that they wanted to be more creative, but felt limited at times for many different reasons. Today, I wanted to share with you a perspective I referenced in some conversations.
During some (not all) of the discussions, I mentioned a book by the author, Tony Wagner, titled The Global Achievement Gap. I wanted to share with you Tony's TED Talk. It is 14 minutes long and well worth every minute. He is practical, to the point and makes a case for some of the practices that we talked about. He suggests that America is made GREAT because of the skills our country cherishes that are difficult to measure: critical thinking and problem-solving, collaboration across networks, initiative, effective oral and written communication, accessing and analyzing information and curiosity. All of these skills are fostered by creativity and challenging students where they are each day.
Please take some time to watch the video below and think about his ideas. Do you agree with him? Does he have reasonable ideas? What do you disagree with?
___________________________________________________________________________
Taken from The Global Achievement Gap's preface:
"The formula of the problem is often more important than the solution." --Albert Einstein
In The Global Achievement Gap, I begin by understanding why today’s students must be taught how to think—all students, not just those labeled as “gifted and talented”—and then I explore some of the essential questions that we must answer if we are to take this goal seriously. What would have to change in order to educate our nation’s students for both analytic and creative thinking? What must teachers do differently to stimulate students’ imaginations? What kinds of tests would we give that might show whether we are making progress towards these ambitious goals? We don’t know the answers to all of the questions yet, but, as Einstein said, we must first “formulate the problem.”
Mrs. Walder's Schedule
Monday:
- No School
Tuesday:
- Mrs. Walder out of office
Wednesday:
- 9:00 - 10:00 Technology Meeting in Mrs. Walder's Office
- Classrooms
Thursday:
- 7:40- 8:05 Book Study Meeting in Mrs. Deibert's Room (Chapters 12-14)
- 9:00- 9:30 JK PLC
- 9:30- 10:15 4th Grade PLC at Mrs. Rhead's Room
- 10:20- 11:05 3rd Grade PLC at Mr. Westhoff's Room
- 12:30- 1:15 2nd Grade PLC in Mrs. Underberg's Room
- 1:20- 2:05 1st PLC in Mrs. Westhoff's Room
- 2:10- 2:55 Kindergarten PLC in Mrs. Snell's Room
Friday:
- 9:00- 10:00 Legacy Budget Meeting with Mrs. Esping
Upcoming Dates for 3rd Quarter Grades:
Schedule for Grades for Third Quarter:
March 18th by 8:00 am -- Grades Due
March 19th -- Reports Cards given back to teachers to double check for accuracy
March 20th -- Report Cards mailed home to parents
Contact Mrs. Walder
Email: Samantha.Walder@k12.sd.us
Website: https://www.teaschools.k12.sd.us/
Location: Tea, SD, USA
Phone: 6058817381
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeaAreaLegacy/