Magnet Minutes
Kenwood Leadership Academy Magnet School
October 2018
Magnet by Design
Every fall, Magnet Schools of America hosts a Fall Technical Conference. The purpose of the conference is to gather together to continually improve in the design of our magnet schools and the broader system, or school district. Two phrases have stuck with me: "Magnet by Name" and "Magnet by Design." "Magnet by Name" refers to a school calling itself a magnet school and identifying a theme, but only offering learning around that theme in a surface level way. "Magnet by Design" refers to schools that by design, or structure, are built to deliver on the pillars of magnet schools and offers theme-based teaching and learning, embedded into all areas. We have a lot of systems in place that provide us opportunities to be "magnet by design." Our collaborative planning, LEAD Time units of study, goal-setting, student and adult action teams are a few of the ways that KLA is "magnet by design." I look forward to exploring this idea of "by design" with you this year as we continually refine our structures!
Women Leaders Who Lunch
7 Habits Family Learning Series
McGrath Emerging Leaders
Family & Community Partnerships
The November survey form will be sent to you as soon as I lock in a date for they boys' Leader Lunch.
October & November Community Partner Dates:
October 18- Emerging Leaders
October 19- Visitors from an Iowa Falls Leader In Me School (2 adults, 12:30-2:00)
October 23- Women Leaders Who Lunch
October 24- Women Leaders Who Lunch
October 25- Leaders Who Lunch (boys)
November 20-Women Leaders Who Lunch
November 27- Women Leaders Who Lunch
Magnet Schools of America Merit Award
We are in the process of writing an application for an MSA Merit Award.
The Merit Awards recognizes member magnet schools/programs that demonstrate an exemplary commitment to academic standards, curriculum innovation, desegregation/diversity efforts, specialized teaching staffs and parent and community involvement. As a magnet school beginning year 3, we are eligible to apply as a "New & Emerging Magnet School." On a deeper level, Kenwood Leadership Academy is able to apply because we have amazing educators rallying behind a collaborative mission: To see, inspire, and empower the lifelong learner and leader in all of us. YOU, WE, US! Your collective work in creating a leadership magnet school by design is why we have seen the growth, ownership and empowerment in our learning community and ultimately why we have a chance to receive this recognition.
Click on the button below to read more about the Merit process and specific guidelines.
Innovative Curriculum and Professional Development
Below are some examples of learning experiences this year:
Kindergarten- Coding: We are algorithm builders that speak and think like coders. We are using high tech and "unplugged" coding games to understand building algorithms to get a job done. Habit 2 and Habit 6 are embedded as we create a plan and learn to pair program.
1st Grade- We used the ProBot to help students visualize balancing the equal sign. Students learned to make predictions, program the ProBot, and show their thinking.
2nd Grade- We used the ProBot to provide a hands-on learning experience to access math standards in a different way. The ProBot helped students visualize how arrays can help our brain organize numbers in different ways and we can create two number sentences from an array. Project Lead the Way will start in November!
3rd Grade- Last year, we learned that there are many connections between the NGSS standards addressed in Project Lead the Way and informational text that 3rd graders read in ELA. 3rd grade teachers will do the majority of the facilitation of Project Lead the Way: Animal Adaptations this year.
4th Grade- Project Lead the Way will start in November. We will learn about computer systems, and our own learning machine (brain). There are great connections with our current LEAD Time Unit of Study: Growth Mindset as well as real world applications.
5th Grade- We are authors, bloggers, and owners of our very own website! We are exploring ways to curate learning over time and categorize our blog entries to make sifting through a body of evidence manageable. Students are given a topic, or a constraint, and then have ownership over the specific content in each blog post. In our next posts, we will be looking at leadership quotes and agreeing or disagreeing, giving specific reasoning.
I will leave you with a quote at the end of each Magnet Minutes. This resonated with me after our time together exploring courage, vulnerability, and growth mindset!
About Us
Email: jschulte@cr.k12.ia.us
Website: http://kenwood.cr.k12.ia.us/
Location: 3700 East Avenue Northeast, Cedar Rapids, IA, United States
Phone: (319)558-2273
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KenwoodCR/
Twitter: @KLAMagnet