“If the weather never changed, would leaves still change color and fall off of trees?”
– Ms. Patoli, THINKING GENERATOR for Kindergarten STEAM
It’s been an impressive first month for teacher growth. Many of the Thinking Generators we saw during our 2nd TG walkthrough were so strong that it was nearly impossible to suggest revisions or to give critical feedback. Whether the teacher used it as a way to build new understanding by linking it with prior knowledge (“How is retelling before you read like a runner getting ready for a race?” -Ms. Budarf), teach strategy (“How can you use the grids of a graph paper to find factors of the number 40?” -Ms. Lellis), or clarify conceptual understanding (“Lauren wrote 80.356 x 10^3 to represent 80,356 in scientific notation. Her teacher told her it wasn’t scientific notation? Why?” -Zecca), strong TGs are easy to recognize because they are always authentic to individual lessons and students.
Learning objectives can always be copied from a textbook. Effective TGs, however, can only come from intentional teacher thinking and that’s why they’re effective in generating student thinking. Can’t wait to see what our teachers have our students thinking about in our next walkthrough.
HIGHLIGHTS:
From Mr. Borelli: Ms. Anna Arsenault’s 4th graders were transported to a parallel universe where they could only work within a Base-5 system to demonstrate number sense. Students were working both independently or with partners, their choice, to figure out how 15 ones is really 30, 4 ones is 4, but 6 ones is 11 in this alternate world. When I walked in, students were eager to share with me their thinking, but they wouldn’t tell me the answer or a simple formula. It wasn’t about learning a quick “trick” to bring about a correct answer. They let me see their thinking as they grouped and regrouped their math cubes. Students across the room were having “Aha” moments as they used simple numbers and regrouping in a new way.
From Ms. Mintiens: As our youngest students get more immersed in the 102 community, it is clear the thoughtful TLC that each teacher has given them. I see reluctant Kindergarten students running to their classes, reaching for a hug or a hand from their teacher. Ms. Foley and Ms. Khatibi were teaching parallel math groups in order to ensure multiple entry points were offered. Ms. Cohen and Ms. Gelermino have a student dance into helping with word study. Finally Ms. Monteleone and Ms Wyckoff pull a nervous student aside and let him know everyone forgets their homework. All of these small gestures help our students gain confidence and in turn make them better students, ready to succeed. Keep up the good work!
From Ms. Mulé: Monday night’s Presidential Debate was the most widely watched debate in history. On Tuesday (and Wednesday and Thursday) students in Mrs. Gaffan’s 8th grade Social Studies class had intense class discussions on the merits or lack of merits of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. One student pointed out Trump’s lack of knowledge on America’s policy and noted that he “just got angry and started making noises” when he didn’t know the answer to a question. Another student noted Trump’s “hostile” nature to Clinton’s very “passive aggressive” personality. The climate of the political world will have long lasting effects on the students and to see them so engaged in the discussion was a great way to see them measure the impact of this election on their future.
Things You Need to Know
Google Drive content in our school folders SHOULD NOT be shared with non-102 users without explicit permission from your supervisor. We are reviewing unauthorized edits to our materials by individuals not on our school staff and it’s disappointing that we have to edit ownership and file sharing rights of all our files.
Hallways must be monitored when your students transition to and from class/auditorium/cafeteria. Horseplay and excessive noise increase risks for student injuries, and members of our School Climate Team will meet with individual classes to adjust behavior.
Observations begin when we return. Informal observations are 15 minutes, and formal observations are 45 minutes with both pre and post conferences.
No school Monday and Tuesday. Enjoy!
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