Even though I just got back from my first trip with EF Tours, it’s already time to start thinking about plans for next spring break. For spring break 2014, we will be taking a trip to London and Scotland. We will be holding our first informational meeting for students and parents this week on April 11 at 6:30 at Leverett Elementary School in Fayetteville. If you have any interest taking the trip with us we would like to invite you to attend.
Our trip to China this year was truly an amazing experience and I know that next year’s trip will be as well. See you on Thursday.
Mr. McClung
For spring break this year I took a trip to China with students from Woodland and FHS to China as apart of a group with Education First Tours. On our trip we were able to see three major cities in China: Beijing, Xi’an, and Shanghai. The trip was amazing and it was great to catch up with former students and get to experience international travel as a chaperone for those students. The pictures above are just a few of the shots that I took while I was in China.
Mr. McClung
After a long hiatus, I thought it was time to touch base on my website and give some quick updates…lessons learned style. Since the last time that I logged we have all become smarter. Some more than others, but specifically my kindergarten students have become smarter. On February 1st kindergarteners at Leverett celebrated the 100th day of school. This is a very exciting celebration that is very unique to elementary world. Teachers held parties in their classrooms to celebrate this occasion and students had a blast.
This past week we also celebrated our annual international festival. One of the great aspects of our school is the cultural diversity that we have at our school. Over 25 countries are representing in our school population and these students and their families help us during this by setting up booths kind of like an impromptu cultural lesson. Also in the time leading up the this festival students study a variety of cultures and listen to guest speakers from the University of Arkansas.
During international festival, our 5th grade students sold hand made goods in an effort to raise money for hurricane Sandy relief efforts. proceeds from the hand made goods went directly to a school district in New Jersey and gave our students a wonderful way to lend a helpful hand from so far away.
Lastly, back in January we celebrated Fun at Work Day…well, kinda. We had a cake made to celebrate this belated occasion, the day after, and just so happen to have a staff meeting that day. Which come to think of it, isn’t everyday a belated Fun at Work Day?
Mr. McClung
Happy Friday…here is a short pep talk to get you through what is left of this week. Enjoy.
Mr. McClung
Last week Leverett Elementary was invited to attend the monthly school district board meeting and lead the meeting in the pledge of allegiance. Accompany me to the board meeting was my 5th grade student council officers and representatives. It was a great a great privilege to be invited to lead the pledge and myself and the kiddos were extremely excited to get the opportunity.
Mr. McClung
A conversation that we really need to start having as educators is how do change math? I know that there has been an influx of ideas regarding this subject, but there has to be another way. Think about it, as time goes on just about all of our academic disciplines have morphed as a direct result of the impact that technology has had on them. The same cannot be said for math. While we have adopted new ways to handle computation (calculators) we have not changed our approach to how we teach and, more importantly, how we apply it in a practical sense. This is a dilemma that we currently face at my own school. We are facing a real issue with how we teach mathematics and the more I think about it the more I think there has to be a paradigm shift on the horizon. With that said, I’ll leave you with the video from Conrad Wolfram presenting what he believes is a reasonable solution to this entire dilemma.
Mr. McClung
Harry’s Kindergarten is a wonderful YouTube channel that provides educational videos to teach the basics of kindergarten. Our kindergarten teachers are currently using Mr. Harry’s channel to teach counting to 100. To check out all of his videos click here.
Mr. McClung
We had a very special visit today as the members and coaches of the Arkansas Razorback baseball team stopped by to help us celebrate the holidays. Over the past few weeks these young men worked to raise money to buy gifts for 4 very lucky children…it’s also worth noting that they then wrapped and presented the gifts as well. This was all coordinated by our wonderful counselor, Ms. Bley, who has helped us do something like this for many years now. Not only was it cool to see the children open the gifts, but it was equally as cool to see how much the players on the team enjoyed it. Majority of them were recording videos and taking pictures as these children opened their gifts. They were just as excited as the children themselves.
Mr. McClung
One of our major professional development focuses for our school this year is to increase the amount of cooperative strategies that we use in the classroom. The focus is on increasing student engagement by reducing the amount of teacher talk and replacing it with guided practice that the students perform. We have been focusing on implementing one new strategy a week each time we meet together in our grade level meetings. One strategy that we are currently focusing on is called numbered heads together. In this activity the teacher asks everyone in the group to number off 1-4. After they have numbered off, the teacher then poses a question to the students and everyone spends time thinking and answering the questions independently. After answering time is over, they then can share with each other or the teacher can asks students who have a certain number to share aloud with the whole class. As wed move forward and start to implement more strategies I will try to update my blog with that information. On another note, if you have effective cooperative strategies that you would like to share please feel free to leave us a comment.
Mr. McClung
Today our 3-5 graders visited Bud Walton Arena to watch the women’s Razorback team play Jackson State. The visit was apart of the Sweat Hog program that our school participates in. Sweats Hogs is an organization that brings student athletes from the University of Arkansas to speak in our public schools about the importance of eating healthy and living a healthy lifestyle. This event was a huge hit with kids and was a nice break from their normal school day.
Mr. McClung
On Wednesday, our very own Ms. Bley received a $500 check from the our local news station KNWA and General Electric. Ms. Bley has submitted a project that she and her students did last year called “Energy Rocks”. This video focused on ways that students could conserve energy. This year she will be using the money to help fund a similar project that she and her students are currently working on. You can see the video that KNWA aired last night by clicking here. Congrats Ms. Bley.
Mr. McClung
Finally the day has come.
Although I do complain about politics during the election season, I do enjoy the election itself and the teaching moments that it can provide in education…that’s the social studies teacher in me. Here at Leverett we have used this opportunity to introduce some election themed lessons/activities. The image above was from our 5th grade classes and shows their mock election results using the Studies Weekly website. Students in grades 3-5 used the website to cast their vote for who they believed should be our next president.
Last week we also held elections for our student council as well. Students in grades 3-5 got the opportunity to take part in the election process as they voted for president, vice president, secretary, and class representatives. Students that ran for these offices were asked to campaign for a week before the election and then perform a speech in front of their peers. The video above is of our student council president, Topher, giving his speech last Friday.
Mr. McClung
This last week marked the end to our first quarter of school…and it was quite a busy one at that. We started out on Monday by having visitors from the first department come to our school to discuss fire safety awareness month. Student get a chance to get up close with a fire truck and learn some basic safety skills along the way. I have to admit that it was pretty cool to watch the excitement in our kids when they had the opportunity to interact with our local fire fighters.
This past week was also a big week for health awareness for us as well. In the same day that the firefighters came to visit, we also had a visit from a local organization called Apple Seeds, Inc. The purpose for this visit was to provide a apple tasting for our students and give them the opportunity to try fruit that was grown locally in Northwest Arkansas. One day later, our PE coaches arranged a visit from Southwest Dairy Farms to come and discuss the importance of dairy to our diets. They also provided some cool information about the milking process as well as put on a show by giving us a demonstration of the milking process.
Lastly, I got the opportunity to spend a lot of time in the classroom this week. If there is one negative to my new job as an administrator, that is that I do not get the chance to work with kids as closely as I did as a teacher. This week was very refreshing for me because it reminded me of what I got into this profession for. Being in the classroom in the classroom this week was just what I needed and put a nice bow on what has been an exciting first quarter of the school year.
Mr. McClung
One thing that I have learned in the short time that I have been an administrator is that there is always the “next big thing” on the horizon. Educators are always looking for the next program or resource that is going to make a meaningful impact on their students, and on the flip side, there is no shortage of educational consultants who are willing to sell you the program. I’m not sure if it is that I am more skeptical these days or what, but I don’t find myself getting as excited about every new idea I hear about in regards to education. Let me clarify, I’m not trying to imply that I know everything that there is to know about education and that I’m unwilling to listen to new ideas; but rather, I’m trying to say that I am now more leery about the information that I allow to sway my thinking…in other words, I’m no longer quick to believe the hype.
Early in my teaching career I would sit up late at night trolling the internet for all types of teaching resources. I would watch countless videos of all of the new teaching strategies that were sure to yield better outcomes in student engagement. I would treat each one of these videos as a golden nugget of information that I was fortunate enough to stumble across. I would fall in love with everything I found and try to implement all of these new found strategies into my teaching. These days I am more selective. I understand that everyone with a YouTube channel or blog is entitled to an opinion, but that doesn’t mean that each one of those opinions desires my full attention.
So, how do you find trusted information? BUILD A PLN! This is one thing that I neglected to do early on in my teaching career and it cost me a lot of wasted time. I use to think that I could do it all on my own and would fail to lean on my PLN for the proper support. By building a network of trusted professionals that have already crossed the bridges that you are currently trying to cross you can save yourself tons of time.
In closing, don’t believe the hype.
Mr. McClung
Yesterday morning athletes from the University of Arkansas stopped by Leverett as apart of the Sweat Hog program. Sweat Hogs is a program in which student athletes work with local schools in order to promote healthy lifestyles through exercise and diet. The university athletes spoke to the students about how they specifically stay healthy and what a day in the life of a student athlete is like. In the video above, you will our 3-5 grade students participating in the famous hog call with the university athletes.
Mr. McClung
Lesson One – Tis The Season
Every year, when the political climate is just right, I try to post one of my favorite videos regarding politics. There becomes a certain point during election time where a person can get very overwhelmed with the rhetoric and the pandering that goes on…it’s enough to drive you crazy.
Lesson Two – Dress Your Age, Part II
Early this school year I was reminded of a very valuable lesson that was originally taught to me years ago. During week two of the school year I showed up on a Friday in my casual attire…jeans and a flannel. Everything was going well until I encountered a 5th grade student who promptly informed me that I “dressed like a teenager”. Quite a blow to the ego.
Lesson Three – Is It Basketball Season Yet?
As it turns out the Arkansas football team is not quite as good as everyone once thought. After dropping two games early on in the season it seems as if all is lost…and as you might guess, people in this state are taking it very well. Football talk has definitely dominated everyone’s conversations around town and has left me wishing for a bye week.
Mr. McClung
What measurable educational factors determine real life success for individuals? Educators, policy makers, and all other individuals involved with the public school systems have tried to figure out the answer to this question over many of years. The result that we have been left with is standardized tests…and lots of them. No one knows exactly what academic measures can predict success, but everyone has an opinion on the matter.
This week I came across a podcast that discusses this issue, but it points to something that standardized test can’t measure…soft skills. These are the skills that aren’t exclusive to academics, but rather the measure how an individual communicates and works with other peers. In the podcast (embedded above) they discuss not only soft skills but also brain development. A large part of the podcast discusses the development of the pre-frontal cortex…this is the part of the brain that handles impulses and judgement. Furthermore, they go on to discuss the science behind the development of the pre-frontal cortex in students who face stresses on a daily basis. I highly suggest giving the podcast a listen, it certainly provides some excellent talking points for some of the most relevant conversations going on right now in education.
Mr. McClung
To get the week started off right, I thought I would share some words of wisdom from Sir Ken Robinson as he speaks about curriculum. Enjoy.
Mr. McClung
In our district that has been an initiative to use more technology in the classroom and lately there has been specific training on how to to flip a classroom. With this in mind, I thought I would chime in with a quick three things on this subject matter.
- Students are Connected – So why aren’t we? Students have been raised in a generation where technology is so readily available and often times we in education make the decision to take technology out of their hands. I don’t see technology as an education tool as much as I see it as an engagement tool. We are always preaching about how we want to have students actively engaged in the classroom but often times technology isn’t being utilized the way it should be. Using methods, such as “Flipping the Classroom”, is a great way to differentiate instruction for students and keep them engaged in the lesson. Teachers should be welcoming such ideas and tools with open arms.
- Practice – Using this method is a great way to provide instructional practice for students at home. When I was a classroom teacher, I felt like giving homework as a losing battle because I could not explain the work to the parents or the student when they are at home. However, by utilizing YouTube students can not be given that practice and instruction at home as well as in the classroom.
- Learning Curve - I don’t like to hear people say that they are “not technological savvy”. The whole point of technology is to make our job/life easier and so many of these tools that we can use in the classroom at very simple. You would never want to hear a student dismiss their abilities before trying a challenge so why do we do it so much? I truly believe that the learning curve is not that drastic and that Flipping the Classroom and other methods of technology integration are easy to understand. You just gotta give yourself a chance.
Mr. McClung
Lesson One – Meet The New Boss
“You know, the camera adds a couple hundred pounds”
So I decided that I would like to continue with my usual lessons learned, but post them every other week instead of weekly. With that said I do have a few quick observations from my first two weeks of being an assistant principal. First of all I am very tired at the end of the day, but it’s a different kind of tired that I experienced with teaching. With teaching I felt like I was running all over the place trying to keep up with my lesson planning and coaching as well. While I am still running as an administrator, it’s not quite the same. I am trading the long nights of practice, games, and lesson planning for longer days. I get to school early and leave late and still don’t quite feel like I have enough time in the day to meet all of my duties…but I suppose that is par for the course.
Lesson Two – Can You Open This?
Each day during lunch time, you can find me posted up in the cafeteria performing my daily lunch duty…yay! One observation that I made very quickly was that most students in the lower grade levels (K-2) really struggle opening the packaging that their food comes in. Emphasis on struggling. Through-out the day I am asked to open at least a couple dozen containers/wrappers for children. I never learned this in the Ed Leadership program.
Lesson Three – Keeping Tabs
This week has been really cool for a couple of reasons. 1) I am finally starting to feel like I know what I am doing in my new role…meaning I’m starting to form a routine. 2) I have been fortunate to keep some of my Woodland connections still alive. This week alone I have had two former students ask me to be a guest at two upcoming Woodland events and I have been invited to help the AVID program at my former school with some upcoming training. While I am very excited about the fact that Leverett is starting to become my home away from home, I’m also very happy that folks from Woodland are reaching out to me as well.
Mr. McClung
