The Weekly Armadillo
Monday, May 15, 2017
"The Best School in Town"
Vision
To create an exceptional learning environment that produces remarkable students who are prepared to be successful and equipped to compete in a global society.
Mission
To prepare all students to achieve the highest standard of intellectual, physical and social growth.
W. T. White Feeder Mission
We will cultivate a premier learning community to foster globally responsive citizens.
Therefore, we are committed to:
Providing access to an equitable and high quality education
Promoting citizens who contribute to the common good
Supporting our students academically, socially, and emotionally
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
.
Wilt or Grow
There is no such thing as status quo.
You either wilt or grow.
Read and grow from the information below.
Reflection Item
In the excerpt below, the author asks us to really think about our own education and the impact it's had on our success as adults. He states, "the truth is, many highly successful people gain success without remembering large amounts of material they learned in school," and asks us to recall what parts of our education were critical to our success as adults and what we wish we had been taught. He suggests that "if we really want to prepare students for life beyond school, we could begin by asking ourselves what pieces of our own education we are using now as adults." In this 4 part series, he makes predictions that I believe have important implications for our practice.
My take on the article, school should not only be about learning TEKS. It must also be about teaching students the skills they will need to become productive and responsible adults.
Excerpt I: Four Predictions for Students' Tomorrows by Erik Palmer
Educational Leadership
March 2016 | Volume 73 | Number 6
Learning for Life Pages 18-22
To make students' futures better, we need to consider what skills they will need—and teach them.
If we really want to prepare students for life beyond school, we could begin by asking ourselves what pieces of our own education we are using now as adults. That is an edgy question, and many teachers will take offense if anyone suggests that, in spite of their personal, deep love of haiku/Shakespeare/geodes/the Articles of Confederation/cosine, most adults have never needed deep knowledge of any of those to succeed.
The relevant, long-lasting lessons from our own education will likely be relevant and long-lasting for our current students. But the world our students graduate into will not look exactly like the world of 2016. We want to prepare students for their futures, which leads us to make predictions. This is a tricky business and not one with which educators have had a lot of success. I remember learning to make computer punch cards because it was the skill of the future. I was also taught BASIC programming because that would be the key to getting jobs. There was a "Golly, kids, look at the new-fangled gadgets!" mentality behind these efforts, which, unfortunately, still exists.
When we are asked to think of the future, our minds go to hovering cars, 4D printers, teleportation, and knowledge chips implanted into the brain. I don't want to make guesses about the likelihood of these technologies coming to fruition. I can't tell you what the classroom of the future will look like or whether there will even be classrooms. I'm not going to bet one way or the other on the maker movement or flipped instruction or coding or anything else. But I will make four bold predictions.
Prediction 1. There will still be an Internet.
It will still be possible to pick up a device, ask a question, and get several million results in less than one second. Although I may not be going out on a limb here, the implications of this prediction are profound. Students will need to be able to make sense of the massive amounts of information they will find. These are just a few of the skills an Internet-literate student needs:
- An understanding of what the Internet is. "I found it on the Internet" is not an accurate statement. You found it on a computer connected to the World Wide Web.
- Ways to formulate queries. Typing "childhood obesity" into a search engine is not the best way to discover what health problems are associated with being overweight. Students need to know about Boolean searches, adding prefixes such as SITE and FILETYPE, and more. For example, "site:.edu childhood obesity" will yield search results from educational sites only and eliminate the massive amount of results from .com sites and others.
- An awareness of various types of search engines. Google is not the only option. Specialized search engines can be much more fruitful. Kidrex is excellent for young students; Google Scholar only retrieves information from research articles, professional journals, university websites, and other scholarly resources.
- An awareness of how search engine results are ranked. Teach students that being at the top of the list does not mean a result is the best source and that results are rigged to be most pleasing to your tastes.
- An understanding of domain types. Teach the meanings of .com, .gov, .guru, .hr, and .org.
- Tools to evaluate the people behind the website. Teach students how to find the credentials of content creators and evaluate their expertise.
- An ability to analyze a website's purpose. Teach students ways to discover whether the site is designed to inform, amuse, persuade, or sell.
- An awareness of bias. How is www.foxnews.com different from www.huffingtonpost.com? Teach students to look for slanted information.
These skills will continue to be important for evaluating the information the Internet provides, yet many teachers still send students online to research without direct instruction in these skills. The problems of information overload will get worse, and many students are leaving school without the critical-thinking skills needed to make sense of this information tsunami.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Hey! Look us over, we are the BEST!!
Nathan Adams Armadillos always beat the rest.
We're spectacular people with wonderful spirit
Who never let you down!
Nathan Adams, best in town!
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day!
Happy Mother's Day!
Thanks to all of you for showing out the Armadillo way!
Kudos to Mrs. Bricker for setting up an awesome mother’s day activity for our 5th graders.
Kudos to everyone for a fun Field Day.
Kudos to Mrs. Alvarez for always taking the initiative to lead our class, so proud of you!!!
Kudos to Ms. Bennett for always keeping our team informed. You have been a fabulous GLL!
Kudos to the Specials team for organizing a fun field day!
Kudos to the specials & Special Ed teams for pitching in to host the May taco hall party for the staff.
Kudos to the Specials Team for organizing Field day.
Kudos to all of the staff for a great Field Day on Friday. Field Day was a success because the entire staff pitched in to help.
Kudos to Ms. Sowards, Mr. Mason, and Mrs. Ma for their help to organize field day.
Kudos to the TA's and Mrs. Rhoads that helped to work the event stations.
Kudos to all specials teachers for planning an executing and the most amazing Field Day Nathan Adams has seen in years! The kids loved it and the actual competition was refreshing and exciting.
Kudos to all TA's for their awesome coverage this week between testing and trainings.
Kudos to Mrs. Johnson and all teachers for a smooth testing week.
Kudos to Mrs. James for stepping in to help with a behavior issue. BLESS YOU!
Kudos to every mother in our Nathan Adams family. Your job is not an easy one, but such an important one. We are grateful for each of you.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
5/15 Job-a-like WT White Feeder (various locations)
5/16 Class Roster Meetings during planning time (Pink and Blue Sheets)
5/16 Parent University (8:30-10:00 with Ms. Morales)
5/16 LPAC - Mandatory End-of-Year meeting
5/18 WT White Goes to College (Seniors visit elementary schools 10:00-2:00)
5/18 Spirit Night (PTA) @ Chuck-e-cheese
5/20 Luna - DISD Job Fair @ Conrad 7:30-12:00
5/23 Coffee with the Principal (8:15-9:00 in library)
5/25 1st Grade Invention Fair (all invited 3:30-4:00)
5/26 4th grade trip to Austin
5/26 2nd Grade Awards Ceremony 9:00
5/26 1st Grade Awards Ceremony 1:00
5/29 NO SCHOOL - Memorial Day Holiday
5/30 4th Grade Awards Ceremony 9:00
5/31 3rd Grade Awards Ceremony 9:00
5/31 5th Grade Awards Ceremony 1:00
6/1 Last Day for Students - EARLY RELEASE @ 11:55
6/1 Kindergarten Awards Ceremony 8:30
6/1 Prekindergarten Promotion Ceremony 9:45
6/2 Last Day for Teachers
6/5 Summer School Begins (our students will go to Gooch Elem)
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Created by Adrian Luna, Principal
Nathan Adams Elementary School
Dallas Independent School District
Email: aluna@dallasisd.org
Website: www.dallasisd.org/nathanadams
Location: 12600 Welch Road, Dallas, TX 75244
Phone: 972-794-2600