JMQ Flash
February 1 - 5, 2016
The Weekly Scoop
Good Things
Jr. Science Fair Winners
Congratulations to Whitney on the birth of a new baby girl!
The Week Ahead
- Practice lock-down drill in your classes this week!
- Wednesday is the 100th day of school!
- UIL Awards Assembly is in the gym for Grades 1-5 at 1:50 p.m. on Friday!
Professional Development
Unconditional Love
I think our response must be to teach and model kindness every moment of every day with all children, but particularly with those children who walk to a different beat. Bullying can result when children do not know how to be kind to those who are unique. Kindness may not be taught in the home, so it is all the more important we teach and model it in our school.
When I taught on my former campus, there was a weekly character trait award given to a student in each classroom and to one teacher in the school. I got the award for "uniqueness" more than once. I must admit that I was not thrilled the first time I received this award because I didn't really want to be different from others; I wanted to blend. The more confidence I gained in myself, though, I began to feel very special when I got the award for uniqueness again in subsequent years. There is a great picture book, Unique Monique, that you might want to read to your classrooms. There is one copy in our library. It is a great read-aloud with many possibilities for discussion about uniqueness and many opportunities for children to respond to writing prompts about their own uniqueness.
When a child like Jake is a member of your classroom community, how will you ensure that he is treated with kindness and fairness? How do you celebrate uniqueness in your classroom? These are thoughts and discussions we need to have now so that we will be ready to embrace and educate every child who is entrusted to our care.
Math Resources
- TEKS Resource System - TEKS Resource System and the Enhanced TEKS Clarification should be your first resource! The specificity of what should be taught and how it should be taught is there.
- There's a plethora of online resources. Preferably choose those from Texas so you are teaching TEKS the way they will be tested. Donna Boucher's Math Corner is one such reputable source. She has a search engine on her home page so you can quickly see if she has a resource you need. There are also freebies you can download!
- Region 7 webinars and workshops can be invaluable, plus you meet other teachers who will share with you.
- If you find a valuable resource, please share it with me so I might share it with others! The worst thing we can do is bury our heads in the sand and not search for the answers we need to build our own capacity. Within our own building we can draw from one another's strengths to build capacity. We are a team of learners, and we are "happening." We are moving in the right direction. It takes effort, but when we work together we can more easily transform our instructional delivery from teacher-centered to student-centered. We have lots of data now to drive our instruction, so let's use it to fill gaps and move achievement higher for all students.