There were many noteworthy things to share that I'll spotlight below, but I also wanted to celebrate a couple of unique opportunities I had at the school.
Breakout EDU is a new movement across the district that was initiated by Suzanne Barker, one of our instructional coaches. At GES yesterday, fourth graders got to participate in this exercise which tested their problem solving skills, teamwork, and determination. While I was in the Learning Commons snapping pictures of this experience, I truly don't think a single student noticed my presence. So focused were they on the task at hand! I love it when kids are working so hard and having so much fun that they have no idea they're actually learning lots as well!
Another unique aspect of my visit was that yesterday was one of the VALOR visit days in GCISD. While I was visiting Ms. Hickerson's room, she was also being observed by her VALOR colleagues from some of GCISD's middle schools. If I was accurately reading the minds of the observers, I think it'd be safe to say they were impressed by how rigorous conversations could be at the elementary level and the kind of skill it takes to manage a classrooom of eager 3rd graders with lots of energy! It's exciting to see how VALOR continues to transform GCISD's educational practices and build in vertical alignment in ways to help to strengthen our system.
In addition to these unexpected opportunities, I saw many, many examples of teachers implementing our new GCISD Humanities curriculum. A few of these were:
- Writer's notebooks that have become an integral part of student's workshop experiences. These were decorated with personal artifacts, organized according to topic, and contained lots of examples of written drafts and skill lessons that will certainly strengthen students' writing.
- Teachers conducting mini-lessons on key reading skills AND students clearly applying these skills in the independent reading they subsequently did. I saw many students with "eyes on text" as Lucy Calkins refers to it.
- During one of these mini-lessons in 2nd grade, I loved hearing students spontaneously discuss the traits they liked most in books written by Kevin Henkes. One student also declared that "When Mr. Henkes wrote ____, he was most definitely writing to entertain us!" Clearly, author's purpose has been a recent part of this classroom's dialog.
- Thinking Maps were alive and well at GES. The maps were displayed in many of the rooms, and one student declared during a lesson that when "we do a double bubble map to compare two books, we're also making a text to text connection." Well, yes, young lady, we ARE doing that! :)
- Yoga mats! In one second grade classroom, the teacher not only invited students to read around the room in a comfortable location, but she also kept a collection of yoga mats in the corner that students could use to designate their own comfy reading space during their work.
- Anchor charts galore! It was very clear by looking at the walls that students had participated in creating anchor charts with their teachers and they were still being used. This was evident because either the anchor charts were hanging low enough for students to see and refer to and/or they were well organized in an area of the room used for frequent reference.
- Small group work was clearly an integral part of many teachers' classrooms. It was exciting to see students receiving their "just right" level of skill instruction at tables with their teachers.
For a glimpse into the pictures I snapped during this week's visit, GCISD teachers can click on this link and see the pics from a variety of GES classrooms. Again, I'm so grateful that teachers have been so inviting as these visits have been taking place. Getting to see our new curriculum in action has been a treat like no other!
Suzanne
No comments:
Post a Comment