Mustang Message
September 24, 2018
A Principal's Perspective
Many of you know that I love to read the blog of Krissy Venosdale. She makes me think! I have been pondering her blog about the art of stillness. Sounds wonderful doesn't it? She is a techie teacher for sure! But her blog reminds us to make room in our busy, planned, tech day for students to imagine, create and think. Do we give ourselves that time as well professionally? Take a look at her blog post, The Art of Stillness.
"Just a few years later, or maybe more than I want to admit, the landscape of technology in the classroom has shifted. Those giant desktop computers that I couldn’t see around are now small, mobile laptops. The iPad or tablet fits in hands and allows creation to happen at numerous levels. The movie that previously took days to render now can be easily customized with fancy kid-created music and published in a heartbeat. A quick share. There’s now the ability to capture anything and everything.
Technology is portable. TV is flashier. Everything in our world moves, beeps, jumps, zaps. It’s no wonder that fidget spinners were recently born. Gifs. Videos. Clicks. Rinse. Repeat.
But there’s a new art to it all. The art of stillness. We are living in the time with the GREATEST creative potential on tiny devices in our hands and pockets. But our imagination will always be the very thing that provides the greatest potential. Slowing down, listening, thinking, and dwelling on a thought is an important skill. Iteration of a design takes time, persistence, feedback, and resilience. Clicking and tapping often doesn’t take much thought, it’s often a knee-jerk reaction. A mere fill-in-the-blank exercise. Stillness and wrestling in your mind? It forces you to be uncomfortable with your own thoughts. It also forces you to realize that you may indeed be wrong. That uncomfortableness contains all the ingredients that stoke a creative fire. It’s messier than clicking and tapping. More humbling. Far harder to clean up. But you know what? It’s necessary and far more rewarding. Deeper. There is no undo button.
Did you know the Saturn V rocket that got man to the moon did so on the technological power of a dollar store calculator? Those who made that rocket wrestled with that problem. Tried. Failed. Rose up in resilience. Literally watched unmanned crafts explode on launch pads over and over and over. All along, they practiced the art of stillness. Listening. Reflecting. Thinking. Solving. They were working without the undo button. They only had each other and lots and lots of practice.
Not every lesson will lead us to the moon, but I hope our kids can slow down and experience the stillness of deep thought. There’ll be no pop up or gif to tell them to listen. It will be up to them. Self-reliance in a world in motion. Imagination set into orbit and us along for their journey. Their small steps tomorrow might just be a giant leap for the future. And if we’re not careful, we’ll all be too busy clicking and tapping to discover it." http://krissyvenosdale.com/page/2/
Donna
Morning Duties for the Week
Gym & Morning Assembly (7:20-7:45): J. Rhine
Word of the Week: 9/24 overwhelming; 10/1: occasionally; 10/8: miscellaneous; 10/15: merchandise; 10/22: interruption; 10/29: unrecognizable
Tuesday Book Share: J. Rhine & Jankowski
Gym (7:20-7:45): Neidig
Parent Drop Off Direct Traffic (7:20-7:55): C. Anderson
Parent Drop Off Car Doors (7:20-7:55): Reed & Lindner
Cafeteria (7:20-8:00): Marshall
Bus (7:15 - 7:55 Buses/ Cafeteria after all buses arrive): Prukop
Counselor Schedule: 3rd & 4th - Respect
Librarian: GP M & T; PC W-F
Week at a Glance
Monday: Restorative Practice Site Visit 7:30-11:00; September Birthday Jean Day
Tuesday: 9:00 Lock Down Drill; Social Committee Meeting @ 3:30 in Science Lab
Wednesday:
Thursday: Data Team Group 3 -Goal Setting Meetings (Anderson/Herzog, Lake/Gibbs, Craigen/Simpson, Fraley/Seagraves and Weber/Knight; CSHS Homecoming Court will visit kindergarten 8:30-9:15
Friday: Grade level meetings with Math & Reading Specialists during conference time. Topic: Academic Vocabulary Integration to Support Student Learning - All grade level teachers & SPED in attendance (not just math teachers); CSISD Education Foundation grants due
News & Notes
- Extra Meeting Room: Room 211 (the office across and close to the 3rd grade pod) is open for conferences. The room has a table and chairs ready to go for a meeting.
- Professional Absence: While entering sub request in AESOP for any school or district professional meetings/workshops, please add in the admin notes section what activity you are attending. This helps me when working on the budget.
- Social Committee Overview: Please see link below to review information for the Social Committee. Link provides information such as purpose of the committee, possible celebrations for the year, expense guidelines, dues and grade level reps for this year. Please take time to read.
- Planning Update (How is it Going?) Meeting: Please send a rep for a quick meeting Tuesday, October 2nd, to discuss planning. At this meeting we will discuss future planning opportunities for each team. K and 1st can send one rep while 2nd-4th will need to send two reps: one representing ELA and one for math/science.
- Math & ELA Meetings: September and October Specialists' Meetings will address academic vocabulary and dyslexia training. For these two meetings, all grade level teachers and SPED teachers will need to be in attendance.
Happy Birthday
This Week Birthdays:
Joy Williams, September 27th
Angela Dusek, September 30th
Mustang Yee Haws!
Erin Miller gets her Aggie ring on Friday! Erin is the daughter of Leslie MIller.