Head U Gator News
March 8, 2015
Welcome back!
I hope you had a restful and relaxing Spring Break. Mine was very busy, but we accomplished our goals and I'm very thankful for that. Tomorrow will be the start of the last nine weeks of school...is that even possible?! Remember that the spring often is a time when we are quick to lose patience because we are tired and weary, but your students need you now more than ever. When you want to snap, remember that you are a VIP in each child's life, and a snap or cross word from you that doesn't seem at all important could ruin a child's day (or worse). Breathe deeply and remember that they will remember the love we showed and the care we give them far longer than any content we can ever teach.
Great approach to meeting standards!
Lynette Hollinger showed her students the TEKS that they needed to learn for science and asked them how they would like to go about learning them. The students responded with more depth and understanding than she thought possible, and the result was learning with ownership. I imagine that you might be saying, "but those are gifted students" but I firmly believe it is possible to use this approach with other students who are not gifted, especially in the upper grades. I'd challenge you to give it a try - maybe when starting a social studies or science unit. You might be surprised!
Gatorville
I need some feedback from you. Possibly because my week was incredibly hectic, I am worried about trying to start a new round of Gatorville on Friday. I am thinking that it might be better to have a final class of the last round on Friday, and take this week to get information gathered and ready for the students to make selections, then start a new round on Friday the 27th. Please let me know what you think as soon as possible. We can get it done, but another week would give me time to solicit some more parents who might sign up.
Bullying
If you have a child or parent report bullying, please be sure that you alert Marnie right away. There is a district approved process that we are required to follow for each report of bullying. Please don't brush it off, or try to determine on your own. Send them to Marnie and we will take it from there. Often we learn that bullying is not happening, but there are issues that parents need to be aware of. Infrequently, we will confirm that the issue rises to the level of bullying and then we have to be prepared to determine consequences.
Another display of student goals
Lynette's class
And another....
Kindergarten
And another...
Leigh's class
And another!
These are fourth grader reading results. Thanks to all who have found creative ways to display student growth. I understand first graders have already visited their data wall to move their gators, with much resulting excitement! Several more gators "made it to the swamp" indicating they had met the IStation benchmark for a year's growth already.
Have a great week....
- Tomorrow Heidi will be holding RTI meetings. We had Data PLCs on the calendar for Thursday, but that will now be the day of Open House so we will cancel those meetings for this month.
- Tuesday is GTU at 3:00. I believe we are still on the first round of classes, but I'm so confused by all our snow days that I don't know that for sure!
- Jeanette will be out tomorrow. I'll be gone Wednesday.