The Wolf Tales
Tallwood Elementary School Staff Newsletter
Week of November 16, 2015
Math and Technology Collab Week
Monday,November 16- Polka Dot Day
Tuesday, November 17- Inside Out Day
Wednesday, November 18- Mix Match Day
Thursday, November 19- PIRATE Day
Friday, November 20- Tallwood Spirit and Football Friday, Dr. Spence and Senior Cabinet Learning Walks
A Big Thanks To...
Kudos to Leanna Landry for presenting the use of technology tools at the VB reading conference last Saturday.- DF
Congratulations to Rachel Timmons for being Tagged by the Superintendent! DF
Thank you Sharon Bulger for pulling books and activities to cover content in first grade. You ROCK! First Grade Teachers
Kudos to Karen for all the support. So happy to have the children skype with such a fun writer, Tara Lazar! We are looking forward to your lesson on summarizing next month using one of her books. Discussing testing data is appreciated as well. And word study is awesome, as one of my students shared with the class during a discussion about how technology has changed our school day, “And word study is great, no more cutting and losing words!” Diane Dykes
A BIG THANK YOU TO LARAINE LAROSE FOR ALL THE HELP WITH THE YANKEE CANDLE ORDERS! Vicki Storm
Thank you to Amber Nachman, Diane Dykes and Donna Brennan for volunteering to bring in a goody for the Parent of the Month celebration. Thank you to Vicki Storm and Michelle Klepk for always helping out during the student recognition celebrations. Thank you to Amber Nachman for giving me the contact information for Ms. Wheelchair Virginia who is coming to speak to our fifth grade students on diversity and acceptance. Tammy Schubart
Spiral Multiplication Game
Alternatives to traditional homework
Science file cabinet
Personalized Learning, Where Do I Start?
In a recent blog post, Ben Gilpin provides teachers with some easy ways to get started with personalized learning. These simple steps make the concept a little less threatening and provide a great way to start thinking about personalizing the learning in your room.
1. Pace – Can we all agree that students will not learn at the same pace? Let’s accept this and create layers to our lessons. If a student completes work quickly, we should not punish them with more work. Let’s adjust assignments and allow students to creatively learn new things.
2. Place – Do students all need to be seated at a desk to learn? Flexible learning spaces allow students to stand if they have the fidgets or simply sit on the floor if they work best this way. Expecting all students to sit with their feet flat on the floor at their desk is not realistic.
3. Choice - Are students allowed to make choices in your classroom? I hope so. One of the keys to motivating student learning is through incorporating more choice. This gives students a say in the process and adds relevance to their learning.
4. Prioritize - As educators our goal is to have students LEARN the content, not to "cover" the content. Once we prioritize and narrow our focus we are able to see the real learning in our classrooms.
From Ben Gilpin’s blog, The Colorful Principal
Upcoming Events in November
- No collaboration the week of November 23.
- Adjusted Dismissal Wednesday, November 25
- Schools Closed for Thanksgiving Holidays November 26-27
- Monday, November 30- Begin selection process for 2016 Teacher of the Year