Week of December 19

Thursday Thoughts December 19

 

 One more day! Can you believe it!  I think now is when the panic sets in if you have not started any shopping.  Thank goodness for the concept of gift cards!! 

 

One last organization that I would like to bring to your attention is one that I have volunteered with for the past two years.  The organization is called The Covenant House and it is a short term shelter for youth ages 18-21 who are in immediate need of lodging.  I volunteer there one Saturday per month by preparing a dinner (with my small group) and serving it.  There are definitely a lot of unique young people there who all have a story that will soften the hardest heart.  Many of the youth have aged out of the foster care system, or were living on the street.  Some have families have put them out because of addiction or their alternative lifestyles.  Whatever the case may be, their circumstances  bring them to this facility.  You will never meet a more mannerable and appreciative group of young people.  Of course each month there are a new group of kids so it is very difficult to form any sort of bond with the kids.  The organization takes food donations (money of course) and currently has a Christmas wish list online.  Most of the items are what we would consider basic necessities.  Please check out the website: http://www.covenanthousega.org/

 

It is my most sincere wish that you enjoy the next few weeks and spend it doing exactly what you want to do.  I hope that you will have a safe and prosperous new year.  I thank you for what you do for our students and school community everyday.  Being a part of the Medlock Family is a choice and I thank you for for choosing to be here.  See you next year!!!

Staff Spotlight:
This week I would like to shine the spotlight on Lindsay Padgett.  Lindsay made the choice to come to Medlock from Gwinnett County.  She has been a Special Needs Pre K teacher for several years.  Spend a few minutes in her classroom and you will see why she is so beloved by her students and parents alike.  She has patience beyond measure.  I get so tickled in the mornings at carpool when her students pull up and she is there to greet them.  You should hear the squeals of delight.  Now  imagine working with three year olds daily, several of whom are non verbal.  She and Jaya work with the children to learn basic skills that we take for granted, one being potty training.  Lindsay has steadily increased her class size and will have at least eleven students after the break.  I have not once heard her complain about the class size, the tantrums, the biting (okay maybe she did mention the biting) or the workload that comes with managing IEP goals and objectives for this growing group of little ones.  Lindsay thank you for being a part of the Medlock family.  We appreciate all that you do for our youngest Mustangs!



Thats all folks!!!!!

 

 

Week of December 12

Thursday Thoughts December 12

 Have you ever heard of The Drake House?   It is a temporary shelter for homeless women and children in the North Fulton area.  In 2014, the Drake House will celebrate it's ten year anniversary.  It is actually named after Mary Drake, the woman who helped establish North Fulton Charities.  This housing facility serves approximately 40-50 families per year and each family can stay from 90-120 days.  Programs and life skills classes are provided to the mothers during their stay.  One of the unique things about this organization is that they run two consignment boutiques where all funds benefit the Drake House.  The boutiques, called The Drake Closet, sell new and gently used clothing and jewelry and is completely operated by volunteers.  The stores are located in Roswell (next to the Teaching Museum) and Alpharetta (near the Milton Center).  Below please find the link for the Drake House where you can learn even more information about this facility and the stores.  As you are out and about finishing (or starting)  your shopping, please consider visiting these stores.  Your patronage will definitely benefit a worthy cause.   http://www.thedrakehouse.org/tdh/

Staff Spotlight:
This week I would like to shine the spotlight on Nancy Trenker.  Nancy is not only a key to the success of our Media Center, but we also rely heavily on her for the clinic.  Nancy puts her heart into everything she does for Medlock.  She is in charge of our school inventory (which is not an easy task) and makes sure that our furniture and equipment are accounted for and in the proper place.  Nancy also assists Poonam with computer updates and other technical needs as requested.  I often think about the roles that we all play and how we are interdependent.  Many thanks to you Nancy.  We depend on you.

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

15 Ways Art Can Increase Innovation in Your Science Class  by Erin Macpherson

 

Imagine walking into a science classroom and seeing…paintbrushes? And easels? It may seem strange to those of us who grew up memorizing the periodic table and rolling marbles down inclines, but as the STEM to STEAM movement picks up pace, more and more science teachers are integrating art into their science lessons. Interestingly, the use of art as part of a science curriculum is something that has been done in places like Italy and China for centuries. Mrs. Heather Wallace, a science teacher who has studied in China, told us that she "learned early on that creativity leads to innovation and innovation leads to success in the sciences. Art and science may seem like different disciplines, but when you look at them closely, you see that they are beautifully intertwined."
So how can science teachers integrate art into their every-day curriculum? It takes some work and some ingenuity, but with a little effort, you can give your students a leg up in science by teaching them to think creatively. To get started, here are a few of our favorite creative teaching ideas that integrate the two disciplines.

For Elementary School:
Get your recycling unit going in your Earth science class by making these adorable recycled bottle animals out of recycled materials.
Go on a nature walk and then have your kids recreate the trees they see using paint chips and bark.
Show your kids a basic chemical reaction by making salt watercolor paintings.
Turn your kids into elementary urban planners and let your future engineers plan out their own city and then make a beautiful map to demonstrate what they learned.
Grow your own crystals in class and turn them into crystal rainbows.

For Middle School:
Make magnetic paintings and visually demonstrate to your students how magnetic forces work.
Use marbles and paints to teach students about inclines in your physical science class.
Use baking soda and vinegar to make fizzy color art. Make sure to snap pictures because these masterpieces won't last.
Visualize energy with these fun artistic renderings that use rubber bands, gems, and googly eyes.
Make thaumatropes, images that shift back and forth so quickly that they appear as one. This is a great way to demonstrate changing processes—the exploding of a volcano, the hatching of an egg, or a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis.

For High School:
Make these gorgeous Six Corner Art pictures and get your students thinking about the physical properties of lines, angles, and inclines.
Have your biology students recreate the parts of a cell or the parts of the brain using toothpicks, paint, and other craft supplies.
Study chemical reactions using glow sticks or glow paint.
Bring some action into your physics class with pendulum paintings. Watch out! This one could get messy!
Make spiky crystals by creating a chemical reaction with Epsom salts and hot water.

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

Check out the following website:

http://powermylearning.org
A free site (although you have to sign up) that gives you access to thousands of activities.  You can sort through the activities by standard.  Although there are sites for all subjects and grades k-12, the sites for Math and ELA match the common core standards K-8.  I signed up and found myself exploring for over an hour.  I did not even scratch the surface.

News & Notes

A multitude of electronic resources are available to you as educators through the Atlanta-Fulton County Public Library's eCampus program.  As a FCS employee, you are eligible for a free library account.  You can also take online courses for PLU Credit through the eCampus program.  For more information, please read page 13 of the December 10th PL Post.  The library account is also a great way to check out books to load onto your iPad for a two week period.

Week of December 5

Thursday Thoughts December 5

 Yesterday I had the opportunity to join the 21 other NELC principals at North Fulton Community Charities for our holiday party.  No we didn't actually have the party at NFCC but we served in a volunteer capacity for a couple of hours and then had a potluck lunch back at the Milton Center.  Yes...I brought the soda.  Now this is a new experience for principals, as we are accustomed to grand luncheons at various venues throughout the county.  I can tell you that it was one of the best holiday parties I have ever attended.  We were all assigned different tasks and we worked up a sweat.  My job (with three other principals and Amy Booms) was to sift through donation bags and sort the items into the appropriate bins.  There was plenty of camaraderie, laughter and just plain old fun. 

 

 The NFCC volunteer coordinator shared some facts about the services that they provide to the families in Johns Creek, Alpharetta, Milton and Roswell that truly surprised me.  For example, last year NFCC gave over 1.2 million dollars in rent and utility assistance.  For Thanksgiving this year they gave away turkeys, groceries and gift cards to nearly 800 families in need.  I was so proud that Medlock Bridge donated over 900 pounds to the organization.  For the month of December, I will highlight a few other organizations in the blog that do great work to assist those in need.  If you have a chance, please read all about the work that the NFCC does at http://nfcchelp.org/.   In additon, I have provided a link below to the pictures of the principals hard at work yesterday.  Here at Medlock we have a great opportunity to assist a few of our own students this season.  Thank you in advance for participating in our gift card campaign.   It will mean the world to the recipients.

 

  https://www.dropbox.com/sh/45nqeo89ldvijai/tIBxts-Cva 

 

 

 

Staff Spotlight:
This week I would like to shine the spotlight on Traci Fleck.  Traci has a passion for teaching and a huge heart for her students.  She serves as an advocate for her students' needs and rarely takes no for an answer.  Traci seeks opportunities for professional growth and I am excited to announce that she is days away from graduating from Georgia State.  She works closely with her students' parents and goes above and beyond when it comes to communication.  Traci thank you for doing what it takes to educate and inspire your students.

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

5 Hallmarks of a Creative Project

Structure student projects to demand creativity
 

By Melinda Kolk

 

Why is it that we definitely know a creative project when we see it, but we are hesitant to assess creativity, fearing that it is too squishy or subjective?

Creative projects are the tangible products of creative behavior and creative thinking. If we want students to produce creative works, we need to structure student work so that the outcome is a natural result of these behaviors.

A project is creative when it:

1. Asks, or attempts to answer, the right kind of questions

A project that answers a question with an obvious right answer doesn’t leave much room for creative thinking. Create is at the very top of Bloom’s taxonomy. A project’s questions should prompt students to: integrate, design, invent, compose, organize, plan, propose, and of course, create.
We are probably all familiar with the concept of essential questions, questions “that pose dilemmas, subvert obvious or canonical truths, or force incongruities upon our attention.” (Bruner, 1996). Even if the project doesn’t drive to an essential question, it should be framed by a question that is open-ended, eliminating the expectation that the project requirements can be fulfilled by a specific answer or type of answer.

Read more about Bloom’s and creative project work here.

Most importantly, questions must be meaningful. Questions that can be answered with factual information are useful, but not meaningful. Such questions may be part of gathering foundational knowledge, but the crux of student work should address questions that connect students to the world beyond the classroom. That doesn’t mean that students have to have free rein to do whatever they want, but they do need to feel that their work is recognized and has an impact.

2. Requires collaboration or cooperation

There is no shortage of research that shows that creativity does not thrive in competition. While individual work can certainly be creative, team work leads to more creativity for more students.

Collaborating exposes us to different perspectives and leads to more diverse and varied ideas, especially when the group is heterogeneous. If group norms are such that all ideas are welcome and debate is free and respectful, ideas cross-pollinate and produce better and more original thinking.

Even if a project is more cooperative than collaborative and students work to make an individual contribution to a larger whole-class project, try to work in opportunities for students to collaborate on brainstorming, planning, and evaluating. These activities expose individuals to a more diverse range of ideas and perspectives, allowing them to incorporate those concepts into their personal work.

3. Doesn’t need the student’s name on it

That’s right. If you can’t tell the difference between students’ work, the project didn’t leave enough room for students to invest themselves. No worksheet is creative. Projects that are creative are as unique as the students that create them.

In a student-created version of Judi Barrett’s Things That are Most in the World, there is an amazing range of content, intonation, and style. Although the student names appear at the bottom of each page, I’m certain that neither the teacher nor the parents needed to see them to identify each student’s work.

Creative work is deeply original, making it also deeply personal. If students can’t see themselves in their work, why would they want do it? In her research on creativity, and in exploring other research on creativity, Teresa Amabile found that intrinsic motivation is conducive to creativity and extrinsic motivation is almost always detrimental. Be sure to give students “voice and choice” so they can appropriate the task to their interests and skills to make the work more interesting and satisfying.

4. Includes original art or design

Remember your students’ first PowerPoint? When they spent what felt like a week designing the title page and finding just the right font, Word Art. or animation? Most kids get over that by their fifth project. Do they stop because they are truly getting better at the process or because we have crushed their creativity? If we keep outlining requirements (on page 1, include x and y) or scaffolding projects through research worksheets, creative projects quickly turn boring, and we end up watching variations of the same PowerPoint presentation 24 times.

If you ask a room full of Kindergartners who can draw a frog, you will see lots of raised hands. Ask that same question in middle school and you probably won’t get one… unless you have an “accomplished” artist in the class.

Why is this? Since most of us aren’t great at drawing, our original artwork isn’t likely to garnish praise and admiration. As we get older, we are less and less likely to try drawing something new for fear that our art will be labeled “not good.” We are conditioned over the years to take fewer and fewer risks.

But creativity requires risk taking, as Sir Ken Robinson explains, “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything original.” Asking all students to draw their own work creates a culture of risk taking. If everyone has to do it, everyone is in the struggle together. Just be sure to follow it up with a celebration of effort and risk taking… do not just focus on the quality of their drawings.

If you aren’t ready for this step or don’t want to take the time necessary for original illustration, ban the use of clip art or make require justification for any clip art used in a project. You could also require students to edit the clip art or synthesize multiple pieces of clip art into a new design. Stop using templates, or at the very least, require students to make changes to the templates.

5. Transfers energy and demonstrates passion

In addition to new inventions and products of value, creativity brings joy to our world. Creative projects often make us smile, whether we are in the audience or in the creator’s seat. We work hard on creative projects because they are meaningful and important to us.

Creative projects portray the fun and energy that went into them and transfer this energy from the creator to the viewer. In the same way a passionate presenter inspires us and connects us to content in a way no lukewarm presenter can, you can easily tell when students have connected with the content and approached it in ways that reflect their passions and interests.

The hard work of creativity

Making creativity a requirement for your learning projects isn’t just about fun. When we take a creative approach, our students are free to try new things and explore passions.

But creativity isn’t easy, it’s the result of hard work!

Hard work building adequate content knowledge to be capable of transformative ideas and products.

Hard work creating original infographics to display data in more revealing ways.

Hard work drawing and designing original artwork to model our ideas or connect with our audience.

Hard work looking at ideas from multiple perspectives, especially those that contradict our own.

Hard work doing thinking that isn’t just remembering, but is connecting, synthesizing, and transforming.

Hard work imagining what could be instead of using or thinking about what already is.

Hard work bringing the novel into existence and getting others to value what is new and different.

It’s time to get down to some hard work!

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

Check out the following websites:

http://interactivesites.weebly.com/science.html-
This site is a great resource to locate additional interactive sites for all subjects

http://www.uen.org/3-6interactives/science.shtml
Science resources provided by the state of Utah

News & Notes

If you have a high school senior or know someone who does, please note the following:

The North Fulton Council of PTAs (NFCPTA) has posted the 2014 Sally FitzGerald Scholarship application online please visit the website at http://www.nfcpta.com/?page_id=696

The Sally FitzGerald Scholarship is open to all seniors graduating from a North Fulton County High School. This scholarship targets students who exhibit characteristics in volunteerism, extra-curricular activities, academic excellence, and essay writing. The deadline for this scholarship application is March 19th, 2014. The scholarship application package must be mailed and have a postmark no later than this date to be considered.