Betsy's Bits
December 6, 2014
In Case You Missed It
We had around 100 students stay for after school tutoring on Thursday this week. It was awesome seeing small groups of students throughout the building receiving help in the areas they are struggling from the experts! We were also able to provide a quiet place to those which needed to make up assignments, do redos, and complete incomplete work. Thank you to everyone for making this possible. We will be doing this again this Thursday.
Our SLMS Spelling Bee went well this year. A big thank you to all the ELA teachers for starting this process in your classrooms. We will keep our fingers crossed and support Jordan, Isabella, and Jamie as they go onto the county bee in February. Hopefully, one of these Stallion spellers can represent us in the National Scripps Spelling Bee in May!
Ellen Duncan and Reagan Courliss stopped by this week. They both report that things are going very well at home. Ellen says that she could not ask for Quincey to be doing any better. She is one proud mama! Reagan reports that her family had a quiet and enjoyable Thanksgiving. Both ladies have marked our Christmas gathering on their calendars are going to try to come. :)
Lesson Plan Template
There is a feature that reminds me of Google Docs because you can collaborate on and share lesson plans with others once you are set up. Courtney will be demonstrating at February's UnMeeting (January is on sexting and bullying), but wanted to give those of you that like exploring and learning independently, time to do so.
Remember: The Admin Team is looking for AVID strategies in your weekly lesson plans. How are you teaching students to be organized, inquiry/question, read and write for meaning/learning, and collaborate??? The key is TEACHING and providing necessary scaffolding for the students you are teaching. Lesson plans are also a great way to share with us how you differentiate, because as you know, sometimes it is not evident when we are walking through.
Another point to ponder: Daily agenda(things happening that day in the classroom) and EQ/I can statements - helps to guide the student to know what to expect and serve as a reminder to the teacher. The lesson plan should be a document that another teacher or substitiute could pick up and know what to do - page numbers, titles, possibe questions, teaching points, etc- if you were out. It shows your purposeful planning, reflection, and connections from one lesson to the next. There may be arrows, sticky notes, x's, etc. It shows what you did yesterday, last week, and where you are heading. You should be planning weekly - not daily. There is a difference...think about it.
Coming Up:
Tuesday: Science Department meeting, LCS Board of Ed Meeting @ 5:00
Thursday: Basketball away game @ Dunn, After school tutoring until 4:00
Friday: Southern Lee HS visits for Curriculum Fair 9-11:30 8th grade hall