Another huge thank to our Paraprofessionals and Educational Assistants at McKinley. The passion, experience, and talent from this team is second to none. You are such an integral part of our work at McKinley. Thank you for being such talented educators!
Time Left this Year:
As I do some reflecting on the year, I can't believe we are already entering into February. It seems like just yesterday we were quickly unpacking our rooms and getting use to our new building. Time flies, for sure!
Just remember- our kids only get each grade level once in their life. Each of our students only gets 1st grade (or 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc). one time. It's up to us to make sure that year is impactful and meaningful to our students' learning journeys.
Looking forward, we only have our students for 81 more days. 81 days.... that really isn't a lot when you think about it. 81 days is 4 months. 81 days is 526.5 hours of instruction. 81 days is 31,590 minutes of instruction. When you think that 81 days, ask yourself - am I using every second to the fullest? Do I have a sense of urgency when it comes to learning? Our students deserve that.
Culture Iceberg:
I appreciate all of the reflection and difficult questions you are asking around your own personal biases. It has been great to hear the way you are truly thinking about yourself as a person and educator... and how your thoughts, actions, and beliefs translate to the classroom.
This week, I posted this culture iceberg on Twitter. This came up in an MLK Day session I attended. Take some time to look through the iceberg to see the layers of culture and what we need to do, as both people and educators, to make sure we are being responsive to culture (not just race!). As you can see, culture goes way deeper than just dress, food, etc.
Maker Space Cart:
We have a team that is looking into starting a "maker space cart" at McKinley. For those of you who have never heard of what a makerspace is, click this 1 minute video link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLEJLOB6fDw
A huge thank you to this team who are helping form the work around our makerspace cart. This cart will be filled with resources for students to design, create, dream, and fail (remember how critical failure is to the learning process!). When we know a start date for the cart and resources, I will let you know.
Engagement Connection:
Thinking about our work this week with "creating an introduction for guided reading" and our work around engagement, I want to remind you of some of our learning from last year with Jensen's Engaging Students with Poverty in Mind. In chapter 4, Jensen urges that educators need to increase buy-in. He states that attention skills are predictive of school success. This is something we all know- if kids aren't engaged, they won't learn. However, we (collectively as teachers) don't plan for engaging. We hope it happens. In chapter 4, there are some great ways to build that excitement and engagement with students, including creating a "hook", playing red light, purple light, doing pause and chunk, and doing quick writes. I would strongly encourage you to check out this chapter for some awesome, practical ways to engage students in any lesson! If you have read this far, email Justin to enter your name for a prize!
Guided Reading in K:
I had the great opportunity to watch "guided reading in action" in our Kindergarten classrooms yesterday. Super impressive! There is some magic that happens with our youngest readers as they learn more about being a reader. It was great to see what we are learning put into action... nice work, Tamra, Jen, Paige, Rachel, and Courtney!
Building Weekly Newsletter:
Click here to access the building weekly newsletter
McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week:
Our McKinleyStrong Educator of the Week goes to Josiah Bachtle! As you know, Josiah wears many hats around McKinley, including SAC Supervisor and Lunchroom & Recess Supervisor. Josiah is a natural with our kids. Josiah is compassionate, trusting, and a true advocate for our students. One of the things that impresses me the most about Josiah is the way he builds relationships with kids. He knows them as a person and student - and uses this relationship to help keep our kids motivated and happy during the day. Josiah, we love having you as a member of our McKinley team!
Have an awesome weekend, colleagues!
-Justin
