What's Happening at School?
Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire April Edition
Learning From Each Other
Making up snow days eliminated the time for Wednesday Professional Development which allowed for teacher learning and collaboration. Our teachers continue to learn together this Spring during Professional Learning Communities (PLC). A PLC allows teachers to "assess our effectiveness on the basis of results rather than intentions. Individuals, teams and schools seek relevant data and information and use that information to promote continuous improvement. "(DuFuor, DuFour, 2012) Data Discussions and modeling strategies for each other are another way that teachers collaborate.
Below -- Mrs. Benjamin, GT/RA mentor teacher and a former band director, listened and gave guidance to the GT/RA HS band as they prepared music for contest.
During PLC time Mrs. Benjamin, Mrs. Harris, Mr. Girres, and Mrs. Jacobson are discussing student math work, determining what is mastered, what needs reteaching, and what strategies could be used.
Sixth Grade Technology Literacy
Mr. Todd Hough has been working with the GT sixth grade students on technology skills. Students are practicing their keyboarding, gathering digital information , and preparing a powerpoint about themselves.
Third grade students in Mrs. Benjamin’s room create codes to make Evo the Ozzobot move.
https://youtu.be/jDPYiKN5bjU
Terril Preschoolers Learn about Food Groups
The Terril Preschool class have been exploring the food groups. Mrs. Borchers read a book about Good Food. Students were able to sample proteins and grains. The students then cut out a picture of the food and put it in a graphic organizer to tell if they liked the food or did not like the food.
Mr. Boe teaches the preschool how to swing a bat and run bases.
GT/RA High School Band prepare for contest.
RA 6th Grade Music
Mr. Neilsen directs the 6th grade as they sing"Solfege Symphony" by Christi Cary Miller. "Solfège is an exercise used for sight-reading vocal music in which each scale degree is assigned a coordinating syllable. After some practice and familiarization, the solfège allows a musician to audiate, or mentally hear, the pitches of a piece of music which he or she is seeing for the first time, then sing them aloud. " from https://www.musicnotes.com/now/
Terril Preschool Sing "Puff the Magic Dragon"
GT/RA High School Choir at the Spring Concert
Structured Recess
Mrs. Smith runs a structured recess for students to learn how to get along on the playground in support of the PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions and Support System). Students learn about boundaries, goals, and decision making while playing with classmates.
Comfortable Learning Environments
The classrooms at GT/RA are using flexible seating to improve student engagement. Flexible spaces change the dynamics of teaching and learning. This learning space gives students more control and responsibility that help improve academic engagement. Light, temperature, and air quality are also found to have influence on student engagement. Thank you to our school boards for providing these comfortable learning environments.
https://www.edutopia.org/article/flexible-classrooms-research-scarce-promising
Mrs. Beisell guides 8th grade students through a review of speed and velocity.
GT and RA Kindergarten Students Study Force and Motion
The kindergarten students designed experiments with sliders to observe the motion of the slider. A bumper was introduced to which caused a change in direction of the slider. Students learned that different amounts of force determined the speed and distance that the slider traveled.
4th and 5th Grade Reading Fair
Students in Mrs. Hunefeld's 4th and 5th grade reading groups created posters about a book that they had read independently. Students were to share the title and author, setting, characters, summarize the plot, share the problem and solution, and identify the theme. They were able to share their projects with the other elementary students.
GT/RA Artwork
RA 4th grade State Reports
Kindergarten and First Grade Writing
GT/RA HS Geometry Projects
The Geometry Students made scale model projects to show their understanding of congruent and similar triangles and to prove relationships in geometric figures. They solved problems involving scale drawings of geometric figures, including computing actual lengths and areas from a scale drawing and reproducing at a different scale.
Dash and Dot
GT 2nd grade students have new classmates named Dash and Dot. Students use a program to code, solve problems, and be creative. These robots have personalities and are able to talk through programming. The students are currently designing obstacle courses for Dash and Dot to maneuver through.
RA 4th Grade Play
The 4th grade students in Mrs. Sikora's class presented a play called, "Red Writing Hood" for the elementary students. The plot of the play is that Red Writing Hood rewrites fairy tales to make them end differently. Great Job!