Humanities Campus Visits - Snapshots from Glenhope Elementary

Last week, I got to spend parts of two days visiting classrooms at Glenhope Elementary, home of the Gators. This school is unique in that it houses both Glenhope Elementary students and Aspire Academy students (our GCISD elementary academy for highly gifted students). This blend of classrooms and unique students' needs made for a great couple of days of interesting observations.

At GHES, I saw...

• Good examples of reading and writing workshop including teachers conferring, students writing for wider audiences, and small group reading and writing instruction 
• Students conferring with teachers and peers about revising and editing using some really cool checklists (love the idea of creating a checklist on the iPad and the idea of laminating the checklists, writing with erasable markers, and reusing!) 
• Teachers reading aloud and stopping to discuss connections to recent vocabulary and lessons taught in reading workshop 
• Walls filled with anchor charts that served as a clear "trail of breadcrumbs" of recent classroom lessons (Carrie Lee's anchor chart "clothes line" concept was especially neat!) 
• Word work, word walls, handwriting instruction, and first graders clearly owning the purposeful writing they were doing 
• Students preparing for goal conferences using technology for goal setting and to view archives of the work they've done earlier this year 
• Students using technology as a tool for extending/demonstrating learning (Thinglink) and writing "campfire" stories both individually and collaboratively using Google docs 
• Students reading from their "just right" box of books and students preparing with groups for upcoming literature circles/book clubs (love the pizza box idea, Donna Waters) 
• Students who could speak very knowledgeably about the Cornerstone Tasks they had recently completed and stored in their drive 
• Teachers who have posted the GCISD scope and sequence TEKS organizers to help keep themselves on track and to make the standards very transparent for students to see. 

As I travel from campus to campus to see the various examples of new curriculum implementation, I'm struck by how teachers are putting their own spin on the scope and sequence yet staying within the framework built by last year's curriculum designers. This is exactly what we had hoped to see, and I am confident that students are going to benefit greatly from the common (and uncommon) experiences I'm seeing unfold across our district's classrooms.

GCISD teachers who'd like to see a sampling of the great things I saw at GHES can click on this link. I wish I could take everyone with me to all of these classrooms, but this folder of photos is the next best thing!