BARBER BULLETIN
Creating Joyful Leaders and Learners Week of March 19-23
Teachers, Don't Forget the Joy (an excerpt from Education Week)
I am currently planning our 20th highschool reunion (I know, crazy, right?) and I found my classmates and I finding great JOY in our former teachers as we invited them to the event. Then, I came across this article. This article seemed timely to share with all of you! I hope you find JOY in our students and your classrooms at Pontiac each day!
As another school year moves into high gear, I would like to offer a few thoughts.
Not long ago, the room where classmates and I met for our 50th high school reunion buzzed with all the conversations you'd expect: children, grandchildren, retirement, travels, and where we lived. But there was also another equally important conversation—about our teachers and why we remembered them. "She told me I was a writer," one former classmate said. "I loved math because of him." "I wish he'd only lived a little longer; I had so hoped to tell him of the impact he had on my life." "I became a teacher because of her." I wondered as I listened and shared similar musings what my former students might say about me when they think of our time together. Would joy come to their minds?
Shortly after the reunion, a group of colleagues gathered in my den to spend a day with a noted literacy expert. We talked of all the rich research we have to help our students grow smarter as readers, writers, and thinkers. We talked of programs and the promises they make, and what they can't and don't deliver. We lamented the squeeze on educational funding. And we pondered the role that poverty and the absence of books in homes plays in children's lives. As I sat with some of the smartest and most dedicated educators I know, I couldn't help but sense that we had overlooked something in our discussion.
And then suddenly it hit me as I was sitting there, learning among my friends and colleagues. It was joy. A simple, three-letter word we take for granted. Struck by its simplicity, I wondered if joy is what we've been missing in the recent conversations about education that we've been having as a country.
Amid the cacophony of school reformers, teacher-evaluation discussions, and test scores, have we simply overlooked it? I thought about the teachers my classmates and I talked about at our reunion and those teachers I've been fortunate enough to have in my own educational journey. Yes, there it was, right in the midst of those memories: joy. Before you dismiss this as the overly sentimental journey of an aging educator, allow me to continue.
In my own classroom and later as a district leader, I often stayed late, preparing for meetings with colleagues because I knew the joy we'd find in studying together. In those evening hours, I could feel the presence of other educators across the country. I felt a joyful connectedness to them. In graduate school, I wrote out of a sense of joy when I recorded my thoughts—every word mattered to me. I experienced joy when I spoke with others following a conference I attended several weeks ago. I knew joy when a colleague asked me to write the foreword of her new book. I took delight in reading and then writing about it. I found joy with colleagues when we sat around my dining table dreaming about what committed educators do when they connect their minds, hearts, and actions. And I feel uncontainable joy when I step into a classroom and learn alongside teachers and kids.
The dictionary defines joy as "a feeling of great pleasure and happiness." Let's start a joy revolution. Isn't it possible to feel joy and still care about student test performance, teacher-evaluation instruments, and the demands of our curricula? I believe it is. Joy isn't about a carefree life. It is about a deep-felt sense of wonder, of expectation, of delight, of engagement.
In A Place Called School, John Goodlad asks why joy is missing from some of our schools. I wonder if our students would list joy if they were to describe their schools and classrooms? Learning is enjoyable and joy-filled. I think of inspirational moments when I've been inside the classrooms of great teachers.
So for the remainder of this school year, let's take time to reflect on the difference joy could make. Let's consider classrooms where everyone is both teacher and learner. Let's dream of places where expertness and smartness grow out of inquiry and talk and wonder. Let's find energy and hope. Let's express joy and name it what it is: a feeling of great pleasure and happiness.
THANK YOU, PONTIAC PTO
Your grade level is welcome to provide an additional field study to your students this Spring, courtesy of PTO! Please get these scheduled at least two weeks prior to our state testing in May.
Our PTO has done a great job of building community support and engaging our families!
We had over 150 families join us for the Daddy Daughter PTO dance!
We had almost 120 participants at our Mother Son PTO bowling event!
PTO is also purchasing the contents that have been recommended for us to include in each classroom Grab n Go kit in the event of an emergency that requires leaving campus for an evacuation.
Please show your support to our PTO during the upcoming MARBLE SLAB fundraiser! Thank you for encouraging your students and parents to participate in this fundraiser.
REMINDER: Fireflies Reading Incentive
Teachers,
Please remind your students to write down their books on the base sheet and turn them in to Mrs. Hering!
Once they submit their base sheet, they will get the form to receive their free ticket for the game! They must complete the form and mail the ticket form! Mrs. Hering can assist them with mailing the form if that would be helpful to them.
Keep motivating them to read so we can pack out the Fireflies stadium with Pontiac Parrots!
Ticket order forms must be received by April 9th so the deadline is approaching quickly!
INFORMATION FROM OUR DISTRICT TEST COORDINATOR
Some of the assessment data needed for the growth calculations will be will be loaded into EVAAS. Unfortunately, this means that teachers will be receiving an email from EVAAS referencing roster verification.
Richland Two is not participating in roster verification. Please ignore the email from EVAAS.
A LOOK AT OUR WEEK AHEAD
Jeans are certainly permissible if you are participating in the spirit days!
Monday:
3:30pm Lighthouse Team meeting
Tuesday:
ALERT Field study to US Whitewater Center
Wednesday:
K.Barber off campus at Key Leaders meeting
2pm End of Racism day - suggested activities were sent by J.Whitney
3:30pm AVID site team meeting
Wild About Tech Wednesday with Cheryl Turner during planning
Thursday:
3pm-4pm Coke and Conversation with admin
6pm AVID Spring Parent Night
Friday:
Grade Level Turnaround Student Due