The Gator Tales
The weekly staff newsletter for Glenwood Elementary School
Week of February 19
February 20- Gifted Testing for referred students 2-5
February 20- Begin 4th grade fire safety
February 21- Sweets and Treats (3rd,Guidance,Library, ITS,TST)
February 23- Report Cards Issued
Important upcoming dates and events
February 26- Pirate Day!
February 28- Grades due for progress reports
March 2- Citizen of the Month
March 2- Progress Reports go home
March 20- Spring Pictures
March 21- Sweets and Treats
March 27 and 28- Donuts with Moms
March 29- End 3rd Grading Period
March 30- Staff Day- Grades Due
Grateful Gators!
A BIG thanks to Jason Hinson and the PE staff for coordinating the Underground Railroad. This is such an important part of our history, and our students are going to really enjoy learning about it.
DF
Kudos to Pam Jones, Mrs. Haws, Deb Jones, & Mrs. Storm for stepping in when I needed someone! It truly takes a village & Glenwood is a fantastic one to have.
Alexa Ambrose
Kudos to Mrs. Habib, Mr. Loch, Mrs. Soccio, and Mrs. Kechter for expanding the Underground Railroad lesson into their classes!
Kudos to the PE staff for their help with putting together ideas to make the Underground Railroad possible for our students. Special thanks to Mrs. Lewis, Mr. Carlton, Mrs. Myers, and Mr. Clark for coming in on a Sunday to help set-up!
Jason Hinson
To Molly Loch and Caroline Altman for being so flexible and helping kids with projects that are beyond my area of expertise.
Barbara Kimpan
Kudos to Debra Jones for always keeping my schedule straight.
To the Glenwood Cafeteria Staff you guys are awesome love your positive attitude.
Vickie Storm
Kudos to Mrs. Loch and Mr. Hinson and his team for contributing greatly to our celebration of Black History month and Famous Americans. Glenwood is truly blessed to have such dedicated teachers!
Anonymous
Kudos to Sandra Kechter for working tirelessly to get our library packed up and ready for our big makeover into an AMAZING LLC!!!
Tammie Soccio
Kudos to Molly Loch for being so helpful in creating my kindness tree, you’re amazing!
Allison Webster for being so wonderful and creating a visual aid for one of our Pre-K babies! Tammie Soccio for all of her help getting PBIS off the ground! We appreciate you jumping in to help us! Tara and I want to thank ALL of our Glenwood family members for the BEST WEEK EVER! We felt so loved and appreciated all week. We have no words to express how grateful we feel to work with such thoughtful, amazing and wonderful people! We were truly princesses for the week! XOXO
Kudos to Jen Malit, John McFarland and Tony Trovato for all of your tech support, patience and ideas! Your knowledge and support made such a difference in the counseling world this week!
Christine Repa
Thank you to MaryKay for jumping into action when our passwords expired!
Theresa Rywalt
Kudos to third grade for their beautiful (and purposeful) array cities!! Love it!
Nancy Fanning-Munson
Kayla for sharing all your tech ideas, it keeps me motivated!
Slinde- for always listening and helping with advice with parents.
Tara- taking your time to meet with students during lunch time to get to know them, they loved it!
Amanda Agreste
Thanks MaryKay for always having the answer/solution/reply within minutes! Whether it’s report cards or testing, you’ve got it solved and with a smile – we all appreciate you. Thank you to the artistically talented Molly Loch for making the fantastic pirate ship for the SCA coat drive! It looks awesome!
Jennifer Malit
Kudos to Mr. French for having our ID badges updated to open the building doors! Kudos to Kassie Gmiter, the office staff, and Caitlyn Chandler for going above and beyond for one of my students. Kudos to Sandra Kechter for rescuing books for first grade teachers during the packing of the LLC, sharing her talents, and for donating one of her beautiful wreaths to the Moving Forward, Reaching Back nonprofit organization. Kudos to Dina Dreistadt, Theresa Rywalt, and Diane Dykes for always sharing former student "WOWS" with me. Kudos to Caitlyn Chandler, Kelli Medina, Mara VanAlstine, and Jason Hinson for donating baby items for the Alpha Delta Kappa Baby Shower for indigent mothers at Chesapeake General Hospital. Kudos to Kayla vanWerkhoven for being my technology hero!
Paula Gee
Kudos to Caitlyn Chandler for coming to my rescue Tuesday afternoon. Thanks for jumping in right before dismissal. I truly appreciate it!
Danica Petko
Thank you to The Glenwood Staff for giving me such a warm welcome. You ALL have made me feel at home. Thank you Carol Karpovich for all the awesome goodies. You are so sweet!
Pam Jones
Kudos to Kenya and Cheryl for your support of the SRT process. Your compassion for students is evident and your patience for scheduling/rescheduling meetings is always appreciated. Kudos to the PBIS Leadership team for all of your hard work. The implementation of the Gator Great recognition program has excited our students. A special thanks to Tara and Tina for pulling together the final elements (tickets, announcements, buckets...) needed for implementation.
Jennifer Haws
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Sandra King . Feb 24
Tammy Moore . Feb 24
Debra Jones . Feb 24
Melinda Bussovano . Feb 28
Jennifer Santiago . Feb 29
Personalized Learning Vs Personalization of Learning
Every time I work with a school district, I hope that they learn from me because I learn from them. Recently, in Del Mar Schools, Laura Spencer shared their idea of “personalization” of learning. Before she started speaking, I was skeptical because I have seen the idea of “personalized” learning happening in many schools where a student jumped on a computer and based on the information they share, the technology creates a pathway for that student. Although the technology is impressive, it doesn’t mean that it is good. Seeing a student completely zone out in front of a screen and letting the computer lead the learning is not where I hope education is moving.
Laura presented the idea of “personalization of learning,” meaning more in how does the teacher understand the student, build on their interests, and create learning opportunities for the student. I can get behind this idea.
The personalization of learning creates the opportunity for more depth and authenticity, whereas “personalized learning” seems to be more about knowing the “stuff”.
I wrote the post, “Five Questions to Ask You Students To Start the School Year“, and these are the questions I suggested:
What are the qualities that you look for in a teacher?
What are you passionate about?
What is the one BIG question you have for this year?
What are your strengths and how can we utilize them?
What does success at the end of the year look like?
The point of the post was for learning to be personalized, not for “personalized learning”.
Let’s just remember that in “personalization” is the word “person.” Technology is powerful and creates opportunities that I couldn’t even imagine as a student, and we would be crazy not to embrace and build upon what is in front of us. But if it dehumanizes our schools, then we have forgotten that we are not only there to develop learners, but people as well.
Don’t forget the person in the word “personalized.”
George Couros