Here are the things I loved about my week:
1.
Monday was the Artist’s Tea at Maddie’s
preschool. The highlight for me is always the fact that Teacher Rhonda teaches the
preschoolers to serve drinks and small treats to family members. And it is all
served on glass plates and cups (say, what?!). It’s amazing to watch Maddie ladel hot
chocolate into small GLASS cups and then serve the plate and cocoa without spilling both her dad and me.
It shows me that I step in and do too much for her sometimes – she is far more
capable and independent than I give her credit for.
2.
Wednesday I had time to meet with the amazing
Jennifer Napoleon, Reading Teacher at Oceanlake Elementary, to discuss our Daily 5 PLC. In essence we are leading two
schools through a book study, and providing support
through observation, modeling, co-teaching, and planning yet have limited time to
really talk about what we are doing. Often times, our conversations take place through Facebook posts or text messages. Jennifer has a deep understanding of Daily 5 and coaching teachers through implementation. I learn something new from her every time we meet and consider time with her a bright spot in every day, every week.
3.
Speaking of the PLC, we met on Wednesday
evening. The PLC interactions began as blog responses but I'm seeing and hearing that the format does not work for every PLC participant. We pulled everyone together for our first face-to-face gathering. I am always so impressed with teachers when they pull together on
their own time and that they choose to do so. This is just evidence of what
teachers will do when given a choice about what they want to read and how they want to grow professionally. I wish that we provided more choice for professional development that is embedded into their work day. They are stretched incredibly thin and they still show up.
Anyway, we gave participants time to engage in a
collaborative assessment process that we use in our mentor program giving
participants an opportunity to celebrate what they are doing well with Daily 5,
challenges with Daily 5, identify where they are headed next, and then supports
they need to continue to move forward. I loved hearing and seeing their reflections – I couldn’t help but
feel proud of the teachers for their reflection, their honesty, their
willingness to make themselves vulnerable. I work with amazing, dedicated
educators.
4.
Friday morning was a time for the mentor
team to pull together for a monthly business meeting. Although the mentor
project has been a part of the way we do business in my district for seven
years, the mentor team is relatively new. We begin talking now about specifics
of the January beginning teacher seminar so we aren’t planning at the last
minute (I’ve done it but I cannot function well that way). For the first time
since I joined the team, I feel like we are doing a better job of intentionally
connected the topics of the seminars. Last month, we focused on formative
assessment (and really differentiating it from summative and interim
assessments). Next month, we take what they learned from formative assessment
and apply it to the work we will do with analysis of student work. The seminar
after that will focus on differentiating instruction and will build upon what they do with their analysis of student work. I guess, like new
teachers, now that I’ve survived my beginning mentor years, I’m finally seeing
how the seminars are interrelated or it really could be that we are better
about connecting everything. For me, there’s just satisfaction in knowing that
while we follow general themes in seminar from year to year that the way we are presenting them
this year makes more sense - they're more interconnected and I believe are being facilitated in a way that will push teachers further in their practice.
5.
Today we get our Christmas tree. I know, I
know. Christmas is less than two weeks away. Maddie is at the age now where the
anticipation of the holidays is fun. While we are working on the constant
“wants” and being honest about not getting everything you ask for along with
doing something for others can grow to be exhausting, she “gets” the season.
She is excited about Christmas lights, loves the Elf on the Shelf (we are VERY
low key about it), has had her picture taken with Santa, and wants to be part
of every aspect of Christmas. She has already stated that she wants to be the
one to put the star on the tree because she’s “never been able to before, mom”. She is just shy of 5 and I can't help but be in awe of watching her develop into an amazing, engaging little being. I love being her mom.
