HOWL
Where our purpose is learning & making connections
March 12, 2020
"It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." Albert Einstein
Connecting with Each Other
CONNECTING WITH OUR LEARNING
As we learn more about the collaborative process together, we can use a process for identifying essential learning outcomes.
This is the video we will be watching at our upcoming in service if you would like to preview it ahead of time.
We will have 4 short readings about joy on Friday: Community, Gratitude, Play, and Sense of Wonder
This link shares results of staff surveys for your reference
We are looking for a team of teachers that would like to use the feedback from last week's survey to create a student code of conduct or clear expectations for our school. Please let Lance, Lisa or Vicki know if you would like to be part of the team.
We support our student's through learning expectations each week with Teach To's
Connecting with Our Future
Our Purpose
Our school goal: “During the 2019-2020 school year, Washington Middle School will connect with others, connect to our own learning and connect to our future. Our connectedness will be measured by smiles, celebrations, feedback and learning targets.”
Time to Master Our Process
Autonomy
This week we would like to celebrate the 6th grade ELA content team. Mimi Munch, Jacque Bartow and Chloe Cigler have been working with the autonomy of a professional collaborative team focused on student learning with new partners and a new building.
Here are some highlights:
All three team members have worked in the elementary schools until this year. They are happy to have the common time to work together as a team and have used it to focus on the ELA content.
Beyond that, this team has committed to sharing resources such as :
Learning targets
Individual lessons
Books
Students
In particular, this team has supported each other with grade level book clubs that have broken past the limitations of the house system.
For the recent book clubs, they divided the books by text band and gave students the choice of which book in their text band they would like to read. As a result, there was less work for each teacher and students visited teachers outside of their house during book club time.
The shared responsibility made it easier for the team to share the results of common formative assessments and introduce the concept of self assessment to the students.
The team is also enthusiastic about having our reading teachers be part of the team. They have been a good source for things such as advice, resources and tips from the curriculum for working with striving readers who are yet below the grade level benchmarks.
This team is also working on growth targets for next year.
They have discovered a need to update some of the articles from the curriculum
They are at work pairing the big ideas and success criteria with the essential skills for 6th grade ELA
They are making pacing adjustments based on student learning outcomes.
Thank you for joining together to celebrate the work that Mimi, Jacque and Chloe have done to make 6th grade ELA a truly middle school learning experience.
Washington Middle School
Email: delsmanl@mpsd.k12.wi.us
Website: https://washington.manitowocpublicschools.org/
Location: 2101 Division Street, Manitowoc, WI, USA
Phone: 920.663.9570
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WashingtonMiddleSchool