I spent the weekend being inspired at the ASCD Empower18 Conference. I was able to listen to and meet educators and leaders from all over the country and the world. I was able to listen to Jill Biden speak about how the most important thing to her is that she is a teacher. I was able to be moved to tears by Manny Scott, one of the original Freedom Writers, who shared his message about connecting with kids and how it was teachers that helped him not be a statistic. I was able to listen to some amazing principals/education advocates, such as Principal Salome Thomas El who believes that every child deserves to have someone be crazy about him or her. I got chills listening to Baruti Kafele talk. And I was lucky enough to listen in as one of my good friends, Lynn Colon, a principal in Virginia discussed how she works hard to create the Disney experience everyday at her school. I loved hearing a session on design thinking, by Neil Gupta, a district administrator in Ohio, who stressed the importance of taking a humanistic approach when planning for change or problem solving in schools. I also listened to, met and snapped a selfie with Kyle Schwartz. She is the 3rd grade teacher who started the #IWishMyTeacherKnew movement. I also sat through an amazing session where 10 Massachusetts educators did what is called an 'ignite' session. They have 15 slides that are on the screen for 20 seconds each and each person gets basically 5 minutes to tell about something awesome being done in their school. The slides keep advancing and you have to share your information quickly. I think this would be great to try out at a staff meeting! There was so much inspiration and awesomeness this weekend, and I am still processing everything. I plan on writing more about specific topics and will share with all of you.
For now, let me share a few inspiration video clips and quotes to spread the education excitement that I am still feeling after my weekend...
Principal Kafele puts out tons of videos! Check out his website here: http://www.principalkafele.com/
And here is a clip about Kyle Schwartz and her movement of "I wish my teacher knew..."(Excited that she autographed her book for me!):
An important message from Principal Salome Thomas El:
Hopefully this little post has inspired you this morning. Now how will you go pay it forward and inspire the beautiful kids in front of you today?
I was very excited to get two new picture books in the mail this week. The first one is a new book from Peter Reynolds called The Word Collector. I love this book! It's all about Jerome, a kid who loved to collect words.
Such a great message to all at the end of the book...
The other book I received is called Rot: The Cutest in the World by Ben Clanton. This book was recommended to me by a principal friend. It's a funny story about a mutant potato who thinks he could be the cutest in the world.
*Book Fair in the library all week. Classes attend during their library time.
Wednesday - 3rd grade chorus practice @ 2:20, report cards should be completed
Thursday - Specific staff at CALM training, 2nd grade field trip to the Aquarium, Family Literacy Night and PTA Evening Book Fair Event from 6:00-8:00
Friday - Specific staff at CALM training, Report cards online for parents
Great things that I noticed last week:
- The 1st graders did an awesome job at both the school show and the evening concert.
- Check out these 2nd grade penguins that I found in Ms. Hoke and Ms. Johnson's room!
- This 2nd grader was proud of all the facts that she chose to research and write about...all about amphibians. If you look closely at the bottom, you will also see that she recorded her word count! :)
- I helped a kindergarten class try out an online fluency and reading assessment. And then after the assessment I caught a kindergartner reading her book and using her pointer finger to follow along on the page!
- Happened to be coming around the corner and saw this awesome 1st grader helping to create a bulletin board outside of his classroom.
Check it out:
Slightly excited about the book fair this week...especially since besides awesome books, they have some cool shirts, cups, bags, etc.
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