North Side News
Week of January 28th - February 1st, 2019
"The Greatest Danger To Our Future Is APATHY." -Jane Goodall-
How do we combat apathy?
The article starts out by sharing all of the normal everyday problems in American education - the one we hear about often. It then turns to the silent, never discussed problem within our schools, student apathy! This article discusses the frustrations behind teachers and staff caring more about student grades, work completion, learning and success within the academics. Sound familiar?
The article continues on to share how we as educators try to fix this through selling education - yes, through entertaining students and making learning fun and engaging. This includes going out of our comfort zones, being animated by dancing, making songs or poems and singing them and so much more just to keep student attention! At this point, you are probably shaking your head yes as you are reading this!
Unfortunately, our students now EXPECT entertainment in their learning or they simply won't participate because it is boring or they don't really like the topic of discussion. Students see education as a product and we are the sales person. They decide whether they are buying or not!
Well, how do we get students mentality back to seeing education as a privilege? How do we teach them to be self-motivated?
This article explains that there are two things that need to happen for students to become self-motivated: 1. self-motivation needs to become an education buzzword for students and parents. We must make it an education focus and priority in our everyday classroom experience. 2. We need to help students build strategies to take responsibility for their learning.
Sound easy??? I am sure you are thinking...how? Tell me how!
The article author, Laura Hanby Hudgens, suggests to start small. Have the students start with one class or subject and a goal to pass that class with ____%. Help them come up with strategies to help achieve this goal. As they experience success in this one subject or class, this will help to build intrinsic motivation within them! Once they start building this, they will start setting more goals for other subjects and classes.
Will this work? You never know until you try! Students could pick their favorite subject or you could decide a class goal together. Create a visual of the goal and strategies for the student(s). How can you measure the success along the way? How can you celebrate the success so they continue to stay motivated? How can you get their parents involved with this goal? How can I help and support you and them?
Now the ball is in your court, do you feel this article has some great ideas? Do you think this is a waste of time? Only you can decide what you believe and how you wish to move forward.
If you are interested in reading this full article from The Washington Post, you can find it at this link: https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/op-ed/article81668307.html.
Second Grade
Making character puppets
Using the 4 C's
January 28th - February 1st:
PD: KIT Modules
10 a.m. - STATEWIDE READINESS TEST, grades 3-5
3 p.m. - ACR - E.L. (Tina, Stephanie, Donna)
3 p.m. - RTI Update - J.W. (Jordyn, Cory, Amanda H., Amanda W.)
Tuesday, January 29th:
12 p.m. - RTI - M.D. (Amanda H., Stephanie, Amanda W., Cory)
12:50 p.m. - RTI Update - L.H. (Jessica, Amanda W., Laura P., Cory, Stephanie, Anita, Jen)
1:45 p.m. - RTI - K.H. (Amanda W., Keeley, Stephanie, Cory)
3:15 p.m. - CC - B.B. (Stephanie, Laura P., Amanda H., Amanda W.)
Wednesday, January 30th:
12 p.m. - Meeting (Stephanie, Deaneen)
1:30 p.m. - Staffing - J.V. (Stephanie, Laura P., Matt S., Kathryn P.)
2 p.m. - CC - J.V. (Stephanie, Laura P., Matt S., Kathryn P.)
3 p.m. - RTI - D.K. (Cory, Anita, Jen, Dawn, Laura P., Stephanie, Amanda H.)
Thursday, January 31st:
3 p.m. - RTI Update - K.S. (Angie, Stephanie, Cory, Anita, Jen, Amanda W.)
Friday, February 1st:
12:30 p.m. - Meeting (Stephanie, Deaneen, Becca)
3 p.m. - CPI Team Meeting
Kindergarten Makerspace Activity
Learning about seasons, winter - BRRRRR.......
PTO Treat this week!
Get your students collaborating and discussing in math - "Would You Rather"
The DOE's INspirEDmath newsletter shared a few great resource sites for ideas to build strong mathematical discussions among your students with real world experiences! One of the sites is: http://www.wouldyourathermath.com/. Students have to decide their answer using math concepts and skills and justify their answer.
Another site to check into is: https://www.yummymath.com/. It supplies you with more real world math activities.
See below for examples of both:
Valentine problem on wouldyourathermath.com
Student directions to go with the heart candy problem
Problem from yummymath.com
February 4th - 8th:
PD: Trauma-Informed Classrooms
3 p.m. - ACR - M.S. (Keeley, Laura P., Stephanie)
Tuesday, February 5th:
Mindy Hoffar - with us all day
3 p.m. - ENEA Meeting
3 p.m. - Student Council Meeting
3 p.m. - Safety Team Meeting
Wednesday, February 6th:
7:30 a.m. - ACR - K.M. (Laura P., Stephanie, Cherri)
3 p.m. - RTI - L.J. (Stephanie, Cory, Anita, Jen, Angie)
Thursday, February 7th:
7:30 a.m. - Speech CC - K.B. (Jen, Cory, Kelly K.)
3 p.m. - RTI Update - M.W. (Andrea, Stephanie, Cory, Amanda H., Amanda W.)
Friday, February 8th:
7:30 a.m. - Counselor Meeting (Cory)
1:45 p.m. - RTI Updates - L.W. and J.D. (Amanda W., Anita, Jen, Erin, Stephanie, Cory)
3 p.m. - RTI Update - D.J. (Keeley, Anita, Jen, Stephanie, Cory, Amanda W.)
GALLERY WALK - Thursday, February 14th
Our school board, superintendent and asst. superintendent will likely be visiting our school from 3-4 p.m. on the 14th to see our students accomplishments! They were all very excited and impressed with our shift to the gallery walk versus academic awards.
I will get a student gallery walk schedule together soon so students may visit each other's rooms.