Mustang Message
October 25, 2019
A Principal's Perspective
Way back in August, we took the Teach With Your Strengths survey to discover our individual and team strengths that we bring to teaching. In Chapter 2, Why You Are Who You Are, the author compares talents versus strengths. Talents the author describes as those things that are "unique, innate tendencies that allow us to think, feel, and behave in certain ways most of the time." A strength is the combination of natural ability, education, and training.
Think about this. "The best people, no matter what the job, are the ones who have the particular talents for the job. Great teachers, doctors, and aeronautics engineers don't behave identically at work because each of those job roles requires different responses and abilities. But great teachers, doctors, and aeronautics engineers ... are nearly identical in their innate ability to function superbly in their job roles."
If an incredibly effective teacher has more in common with an incredibly effective aeronautics engineer, what are those talents and strengths that a teacher demonstrates to be an effective teacher?
The author believes that "When you teach with talent, knowledge, and skill-when you teach with your strengths- you have what you need to be a remarkable effective educator." How do you as an educator capitalize on your teaching talents and continue to develop your strengths?
Donna
News & Notes
Social Committee: Please see Social Committee Smore below for updated information about the GP Social Committee. Dues for professional staff: $25 and paraprofessional staff: $15.
- The team that has all members paid in full by the end of the day on Monday, October 28th, will receive a Sonic drink on Thursday, October 31st. This will be for all teams with 100% paid.
- Watch D.O.G.S.: Our first Watch D.O.G.S. orientation and pizza night will be on Tuesday night at 6:00. We have about 60-70 dads registered for the night's events!
- KBTX Pledges: We had 17 classrooms recite the pledge for the KBTX cameras. Our students were awesome! They listened and followed the directions, they knew the pledge and could recite it and they used their presentation voice! This kept us ahead of schedule! The cameramen from KBTX were very impressed! KBTX will send me the morning schedule so that we know when the students will be on the air.
National Educators for Restorative Practice, NEDRP, Campus Visit 10/29/19
8:30 -11:30 - Workshop for SELT Team in room 201 (Bairrington, Ballard, Simmons, Samuelson, J. Rhine, Galow, Smith, Nail & Teachers with Student Teachers)
9:30 -11:30 - Classroom Visits (K, 1st & 2nd)
This time needs to be flexible and based on the RP workshop agenda and presentation flow during the day. Once practice time is scheduled, we will go into a classroom. Please note, we will not be able to visit all classrooms during this time. During a classroom visit, one of the SELT members will conduct an RP strategy including two new ones, the 60 Second Relate Break and 90 Second Spark. Classroom teachers do not have to do anything but observe. The SELT team will conduct the student session and model for SELT team.
11:30 -12:30 - Lunch for RP Consultants
12:30 -3:00 - RP Workshop for SELT Team
1:20-2:30 - Classroom Visits (2nd, 3rd & 4th)
Classroom Visit Information: Visits will be determined by the workshop agenda and flow of the presentation. When practice time is required, we will visit a classroom. When we enter the classroom, please let us interrupt and lead one of the six strategies with your students. Two of them will be new to your students and to us as well. The team will observe one SELT member working with your students. This should be no more than 5 minutes! Be kind, we are learning in front of our peers as we practice the strategies with our students. :)
Happy Birthday
This Week Birthdays:
Charla Anderson, October 28th
Carmelita Wright, October 28th
Mustang Yee-Haws
Staff Shout Out: The Texas Association of School Administrators, TASA, held a reception and dinner at the Sterling Event Center in Austin last night. A luncheon and awards ceremony at the Bullock Texas State History Museum was held today. Congratulations to Julie who was honored and recognized with all of the 2019 Texas Teachers of the Year! Pictured below is Julie and TEA Commissioner, Mike Morath, from today's luncheon.