Week of January 9

Thursday Thoughts  January 9
 

 

 

Two weeks off from work not only gives you time to rest but also gives you time to reflect.  I have a reflection exercise that I do entitled "The Good, the Bad and The Ugly".  This is where I reflect upon events that occurred within a certain time period, a series of decisions that I have made or actions that I took (both proactive and reactive).   The gist of the exercise is that I divide the events, decisions and actions into one of the three categories.  Now you can easily figure what the good and the bad mean, but the ugly is a whole different story.  The items that go in the "ugly" category are those things that I just flat out messed up or situations/decisions where I completely missed the mark.   Although the "good" category makes me feel successful, it is the bad and ugly categories that truly fuel my growth and development as an educator and a leader.   As we bring in the new year, I encourage you to become more reflective on your professional practices and decisions regarding your classroom and students.  Pat yourself on the back for the good and think about the learning opportunities that you can glean from the bad.  As far as the "ugly" just remember that our mistakes are the stepping stones to learning and move forward.  Looking forward to an awesome 2014!!  

 

Staff Spotlight:
This week I would like to shine the spotlight on Joy Kim.  Joy is a new staff member who is serving in a position that prior to this year had not existed at Medlock.  Joy serves as our Bilingual Community Liaison and needless to say she has had to "build the plane as she flies it".  Joy has jumped right into the mix and reached out to not only Korean parents, but has identified the numerous international families that we have at the school.  Our student body is very diverse representing 17 different countries.  Joy holds monthly parent meetings, translates the school newsletter (Korean) and communicates with individual parents.  She can also work with any teacher who may have a need to reach out to a parent or new student who speaks Korean.  Joy was instrumental in making sure that our Korean Exchange Teachers felt welcome.  I truly appreciate what Joy is doing to make sure that all families within our community have an opportunity to actively participate in their child's education.  Thank you Joy!


4C's: Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Critical Thinking Skills

27 Simple Ways To Check For Understanding by Mia MacMeekin

Checking for understanding is the foundation of teaching.
Whether you’re using formative assessment for data to personalize learning within a unit, or more summative data to refine a curriculum map, the ability to quickly and easily check for understanding is a critical part of what you do. (Which was the idea behind our post last March, “10 Assessments You Can Perform In 90 Seconds Or Less.”)
The following infographic Mia MacMeekin offers up 27 additional ways to check for understanding. Some aren’t necessarily quick–”Test what you learned in a new situation”–but there are a dozen or more other ideas that are worth adding to your teacher toolbox, many of which aren’t content-related, but rather cognitively-related (Locate 3 people who agree with your point of view.)
Good stuff.




Technology Tidbits: (If you have websites to share please email me and I will share with all)

Check out the following website:

http://mathsframe.co.uk/
170 interactive math games for students

http://www.sowashco.k12.mn.us/virtualmedia/elementary/science.htm
This site gives you access to a Minnesota school system's resources.  Hundreds of web resources.
I found that some did not open but you will have to play around with them.

News & Notes

Student hardships are available now.  They are due on Feb 17th.

Teachers please be on the look out for a technology survey that I will be sending out within the next few days.