Week at a Glance:
Monday, January 20th - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, No School
Tuesday, January 21st - Faculty Birthday Treat, Practicum Student Training 3:15 at Canyon Elementary
Wednesday, January 22nd - Student Teacher Mentor Meeting (5th grade team) 9:30 at BYU
Thursday, January 23rd - BYU Cougar Built Assembly 10:30, Math Learning Walk, Faculty Meeting 3:10
Friday, January 24th - Jeans Day, Hundred’s Day for K, 1, 2, School Community Council Meeting 11:30
Important Information:
We have literacy collaboration coming up so please put these dates on your calendar and prep plans for a sub. Thanks!
Monday, January 27th
8:45-10:15am - 1st Grade
10:15-11:45am - 3rd Grade
12:30-2:15pm - Kindergarten
Monday, February 3rd
8:45-10:15am - 2nd Grade
10:15-11:45 - 5th Grade
12:30-2:15pm - 4th Grade
Rules & Procedures Reminder:
Lunchroom behavior has improved this week. Thank you for talking with your students about that and setting higher expectations for their behavior.
Tip of the Week: Right is Right
Affirming mediocrity is calling an answer right when it’s actually not that good. Seems silly but we do this all the time because we want to be encouraging or are in a hurry. Or we just don’t think we’re going to get a better answer. Rounding up is when we step in to add the salient details ourselves and then attribute them to the student who answered. As in:
Teacher: Kiley, what is the relationship like between the Capulets and the Montagues?
Kiley: The don’t like each other.
Teacher: Right. As Kiley said, they don’t like each other and have been feuding for generations.
Kiley, of course, said none of those things. The teacher here did all the real work but told Kiley she had!
One of the keys to being comfortable pushing students to try harder and add to their answers is in the set-up. How you ask the question can often prepare students for the normalcy of improvement. It can communicate the idea that the first answer is rarely sufficient.
So for example if I say: “How is Jonas changing in this chapter?” or “What’s important to notice about asexual reproduction?” I set students up to see themselves as right or wrong. So asking a follow up may seem to them–and me as a teacher–like a negative judgment.
But if I ask questions that I know will be challenging and require refinement over time, “Who can get us started in talking about how Jonas changing in this chapter?” or “Start us off observing some of the key aspects of asexual reproduction?” I imply in the way I ask my question that I am likely to ask students to improve and develop the first response, pretty much no matter what answer I get.
I can now say, “Thank you. Let’s keep developing that.” And have that seem entirely normal. I can communicate from that outset that for hard questions, the first answer is rarely sufficient.
Shout Outs:
Thank you to all of you who are so willing to take on additional responsibilities in the form of high school helpers, student teachers, and practicum students. East Meadows is great because of all of you! Thank you for sharing your goodness with up-and-coming educators.
January Birthdays:
4th Lance Jensen
9th Wendi Barton
16th Stephanie Carr
26th Shannon Bunce
30th Jacie Roberts
30th Erin Brandon