Monday Morning Musings: A Few Key Ingredients

Principal ponderings...

This weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to make a quick trip to Stowe, Vermont. It was a beautiful drive up and back; the fall foliage and the mountains and hills on both sides of the highway made for an amazing backdrop. On the way home on Saturday, I made a few stops along the way, including a stop for all things apple at the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. But a necessary stop was the Ben and Jerry's Factory. I have been on the tour before so this was just a quick stop to get a waffle cone full of Stephen Colbert's Americone Dream ice cream. After I got my cone, I walked around to the back of the factory since that is my favorite part of the place. (Besides the flavor graveyard...where flopped flavors like Peanut Butter & Jelly and Economic Crunch now rest in peace.) As you can see in the picture above, these giant containers in the back of the factory show the main ingredients...sugar, milk and cream.

Taking this picture, I couldn't help but think about a connection between the Ben and Jerry's not-so-secret ingredients and our school. What if we had the key ingredients to a great education on display in big containers behind our school? What would our three main ingredients be? The first ingredient that jumps into my mind is connection. If we are going to provide a quality education, then our main ingredient, the sugar in our educational ice cream, needs to be connecting with our students, with our families, and with each other. The second important ingredient is engagement. This is certainly one of those edu-buzz words whose meaning sometimes gets lost. What does engagement really mean? There are many layers to it. We want to be encouraging active learning where students are engaged with the process. We want students collaborating during the learning process. We want to be providing options, not only for different product outcomes, but also options for how our students go through the learning process. We want students to be self assessing and self reflecting...another important layer of engagement. Now what would be the final key ingredient? Since cream gets two giant containers, I think we could add curiosity and creativity as our main ingredients. We want our students to be continually asking why, seeking answers, problem solving, asking questions. We also want them to be expressing themselves in a variety of ways. We want them to create and be creative. We want to encourage them to be out-of-the-box thinkers (which means we have to step out of the box ourselves as well!). When you mix curiosity with creativity, you get innovation. We need to be innovative and we need to support and encourage our student innovators.

Instead of three main ingredients, it appears that my quality education recipe actually contains four key ingredients: connection, engagement, curiosity, and creativity. Would your recipe for a quality education have the same key ingredients? While those giant containers at the factory tell us which ingredients are the most important, we know that Ben and Jerry certainly added different ingredient combinations to create amazing flavors such as Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey. It's the same in the school; while we need those key ingredients, there are certainly many different combinations or additions that we provide to our students to give them the best quality education that they deserve. Why is Ben and Jerry's so good? Those key ingredients are the solid foundation. Some combinations are amazing and some don't make the cut, but always there is the core of sugar, milk and cream.

Think about each of your lessons. Think about every activity. Think about every single interaction with your students. Do you have those core key ingredients to start with? Connection, engagement, curiosity, and creativity. If one of those ingredients is missing, what happens? Ben and Jerry might end up making Triple Caramel Chunk, but they always start with sugar, milk and cream. You might add in some different components, but hopefully you have those key ingredients at the core of everything you do.

How will you make sure that the key ingredients are part of all of the teaching and learning in your classroom? What delicious concoctions will you whip up for your students that will keep them coming back for more?!

Image result for quotes about ben and jerry's ice cream

Currently reading:
I was excited to add some more picture books to my collection thanks to the Scholastic book fair. One of my favorite new books is Click, Clack, Quack to School! I love all of these books by Doreen Cronin. And this one will be a great one for me to share...thinking it might need to be my next Facebook Live bedtime story.

Another great new read is called Good Rosie! This book is written by Kate DiCamillo, and you just can't go wrong with Kate. It's actually several little stories within this one book. It's a great read about building friendships as seen through the eyes of three very different dogs.

And the last week I will mention this week is called All Are Welcome. This great rhyming book is filled with colorful pictures of all kinds of people. I love the important message that is the focus of this book; I especially love when the author says "Our strength is our diversity. A shelter from adversity."

Events this week:
Monday - Holden Elem Principals meeting at Mayo @ 7:45, School Council Meeting @ 4:00
Tuesday - Mr. Wilde's Fit Club @ 8:00, Hearing and Vision Screening
Wednesday- Wellness Wednesday! Hearing and Vision Screening
Thursday- Mr. Wilde's Fit Club @ 8:00, Hearing and Vision Screening, Half Day dismissal at 12:20, K-2 parent conferences, 3-5 MCAS PD in the library, paras ELL PD

Great things I noticed last week:

I found 1st graders doing all sorts of reading in different classrooms.
Ms. Hall was teaching 3rd graders how to read rests on their music, practicing vocalizing the notes before they tried it out on their recorders.
2nd graders in Mrs. Cotting's class were using their muscles to spell tricky words and then practice on their magic writing boards.
Loved seeing kids and teachers shopping for books all week at the book fair! I enjoyed being a unicorn for a day although I heard from some students that they wanted me to wear the costume all week!