Meat & Potatoes
October 31 - November 4
Up & Coming Events
Wednesday - AVID College Shirt Day, Yoga Club
Friday - End of 2nd 6 Weeks
What about the good kids?
I'll be honest, as I was reading this email I was initially irritated. I felt like the parent approached this in a very negative way and was more attacking than inquiring. However, in an effort to be less defensive, I took the time to read it again and to think about it from the young student's perspective. The last thing I wanted to do was respond in haste while I was frustrated.
And, you know what? I can tell you that students such as this one definitely slip through the cracks and our more troublesome students do tend to draw our attention more. Please read my response before you draw any of your own conclusions because we do have some things planned to honor these students.
In closing, I would like to challenge everyone to find a way each day to acknowledge or praise at least one student that tends to go unnoticed for doing the right thing.
An email from a parent...
Are there no names on the wall to recognize these students?
I hope Oakwood does not forget these excellent students.
I hope Oakwood appreciates and honors well-behaving, hard-working students as her.
And she also mentioned that the school seem to focus on the "bad kids" too much or that it gives too much attention to them. It bothers me to hear this from her, and she is very angry about that. If that is the case, that brings more praise to the bad kids at Oakwood instead.
Please make sure that students like her are not feeling this way.
What effort or recognition is the school making to make these good students feel appreciated as well? Why did the Pride Award and Honor Roll disappear?
My response...
Thank you for your email and for bringing _____ concerns to our attention. I will do my best to answer all of your questions, but please don't hesitate to let me know if there is anything you would like to know more about.
As for recognizing students that made the honor roll, this year we decided that instead of just giving them a pencil and 2 claps from their peers that we would do something different. Each 6 weeks we will take a group picture of all students that make the honor roll per grade level. This picture is then shared through our social media sites and then put on a continuous loop on our monitors in the hallway. We will do this each 6 weeks and these pictures will remain on the monitors for the entire year. In addition, this is not yet known to the students, but for any student that makes the All "A" Honor Roll for the entire first semester, they will receive an "All A Wildcat" (front) Hard Work, Pays Off (back) t-shirt. We will also do something at the end of the year to recognize our students that are consistently putting forth the effort to make the honor roll.
As for our PRIDE Awards, we will still be having them, but we will only be doing them once per semester. We will honor the students that receive the award and take their picture as well to be displayed on the monitors and distributed through social media. It is our hope that the PRIDE Award will mean more to the students and that more deserving students will receive them if we do this once a semester instead of each 6 weeks. Last year, we felt like the prestige of receiving the award was diminished by the large volume of awards that were awarded.
We have certainly not forgotten about any of our students and have several things in place to honor them for their great achievements.
Thank you again for your email.
Literacy
I came across some great quotes about vocabulary instruction in a few Education Weekly articles and wanted to share. I hope they make you think about your vocabulary instruction reflectively.
Which one do you connect with most? Which one validates what you are using in your classroom? Which one makes you reconsider something you are doing? What vocabulary lesson could be inspired by one of these quotes?
Attendance Incentive
Highlighting Mistakes: A Grading Strategy
It's quite interesting! Talk about working in an environment where we value mistakes as we learn in a zone of challenge/stretch. Wow!
And what a great model of consulting with students about their learning. Please take the time to watch the short video below.
Salyer's Math Talk
Our focus on teaching mathematics needs to go beyond teaching concepts and academic vocabulary. Changing our students' (and their parents') perceptions about mathematics is just as important. Although this is a large task, we need to talk to kids about mathematics and the development of concepts. Part of our job as teachers (and parents) is to encourage hard work and persistence while maintaining high standards. I invite you to read the following article that encourages us to no longer accept the notion that people are not good at math.
http://www.businessinsider.com/being-good-at-math-is-not-about-natural-ability-2013-11
If you teach mathematics in College Station you have heard of Jo Boaler, professor at Stanford University; either way I recommend watching this video about mathematics learning. Think of ways you can help your students and their parents reset the way they think about mathematics.
AVID
Counselor's Corner
We are now planning for the holiday season. Just like last year, we will take nominations from you for students you think might appreciate presents and this might be the only gifts they receive. Please click here to nominate a student. Various Oakwood families will purchase a "want" and a "need" for the student. In addition, we plan to provide food from the Brazos Valley Food Bank and toiletry items donated throughout the year. The deadline for nominating a student is November 11. Thank you for your help with this project.
SPED
Rocco's corner
We cannot ever, under any circumstances, send substitute teachers' aids back to the front office from classrooms where they are expected to provide support to students. This is not a matter of teacher discretion, it is a matter of compliance with either 504, ESL or SPED mandates.