Advancing the Vision 8-27-18

My favorite task I have given myself each week is to go through all the pics and videos I have taken throughout the week of your classrooms and decide on some awesomeness I would like to highlight for our blog.  It was SO HARD to pick out what to highlight this week because I had so much to choose from!  It is ON here at Paint Lick!!

Week two...and we are in full on learning mode.

Check out Ms. Lewis hitting the writing hard with her students.  Clear learning target posted and already teaching students how to attack a prompt.  She truly begins with the end in mind.  She teaches her students EXACTLY what to expect from their summative end of the year assessment early on, teaches with rigorous expectations, and then scaffolds her students to get there...

If you go across the hall you can see some co-teaching magic going on in Mrs. Thompson's room.  She, Mrs. Rogers and Mrs. Middleton are killing it!!!  While Mrs. Thompson teaches the lesson aligned with the learning target, Mrs. Rogers preps the students by teaching a lesson on place value and different forms of number, and Mrs. Middleton works on spiraling review....wow!!!

The perfect congruency between her learning target, her teacher station, and the exit slip is a thing of beauty...She has created the essential foundation for intervention.  She will know exactly who got it and who didn't.  

This foundation is not uncommon in our school.  Keep reading for some more GREAT examples of posted learning targets!  First, let's travel to second grade...What I LOVE about these examples is that they are obviously posted for the students.  They aren't just up there for me when I walk in the room.  They are posted with the intention of referring to them during instruction.  See how Mrs. Akers uses the language from the standard, but also defines the verb in parentheses?

She models how to ask and answer questions in whole group...

And then...transitions to reading stations where they practice the strategy...This is nothing new for Mrs. Akers.  She's been doing small group instruction since before it was cool. lol!!

Nearby, in Mrs. Coleman's room once again you see fabulous evidence of "Teaching Targets,"

followed by explicit modeling with overt responses.  

Mrs. Coleman could see immediately who had mastered the learning target from the day before and then adapt that day's instruction accordingly.  

I'd like to end this week blog with the first grade team.  They have truly had the "whatever it takes" attitude this year!  They have all worked so hard to implement station teaching and co-teaching with a challenging group.  They have been working through the kinks and their perseverance has paid off...Check out this clip of Mrs. Brumfield and Mrs. Jennings!

I can't tell you how lucky I feel to get to work with such an amazing staff.  Thank you all for everything you do for our students!  I hope you all know how much I appreciate you and that you always feel supported.  Have a wonderful week 3!! Go panthers!