That Time I Ate An Elephant...

 Have you ever had this task that loomed ahead of you and because of the enormity of the task you struggled to get started on it?  I know I have and many times once I laid out all the tasks that made up the bigger task, I was able to do what I needed to do to reach that goal.

This week's blog is focused on a huge task that all instructional staff members have ahead of them on a daily basis...meeting the needs of all of their students.  Most teachers, I believe, want the best for all of their students and strives each day to reach their students and teach them their assigned curriculum.  If students were blank slates and each slate was the same size and ready to written on, than teaching would be easy.  You could just open up your plans and start sharing knowledge with the students.  But as you know, all students are not the same.  Some of these "slates" are damaged, big, small, messy, need special chalk, etc.  The diversity we find in our students makes the job hard and a lot more interesting.

Although the job is hard and the task is HUGE, we can't use the excuse of a diverse student body to keep us reaching all of our kids.  We need to start somewhere and try different things to reach the students in our class.  Break down the large task of meeting the needs of all of your students by starting with smaller tasks.

Edutopia shared an article a few weeks back about differentiation.  Here are two important concepts when it come to differentiation:

• Differentiation is a method of instruction designed to meet the needs of all students by changing what students learn (content), how they accumulate information (process), how they demonstrate knowledge or skills (product), and with whom and where learning happens (learning environment).
• Differentiation is not an assortment of instructional recipes. Rather, it is “a way of thinking about teaching and learning” to ensure that children receive appropriate classroom experiences, writes differentiation expert Carol Tomlinson.

It is a way of thinking about teaching and learning.  When you begin to think this way, your actions become part of your nature.  You'll think...what is one thing I could do to better reach my kids today?  This is a start to the humongous task we have of preparing our students for the 21st century.

Here is the link to entire article and suggestions of where to start.  It is truly worth the read!

Hope you have had a great weekend and I'll see of you tomorrow, if you decide to work on the optional workday, or Tuesday!                                                             - Angela

Week of Monday, February 5-Friday, February 9

Monday, February 5

• Optional Teacher Workday; please complete the form here if not coming in tomorrow

Tuesday, February 6

• Mid Year Conferences Begin
• Arts Integration Planning (please be reminded that we might have volunteers to cover our staff in subbing in the rooms on AI Days)
• 8-9: Kindgarten
• Caudle- Falls
• Johnson- Strimel
• Williams- Pond
• 9:05-10:05: Third Grade
• Hill- Akers
• Weir- Carr
• 1st Grade to Library 9:45-11:00
• Hill at Appt from 1:50-3:10
• 8th Grade "Lincoln" film presentation in theater 3:30-5:30PM (with permission slips only)
• FEO Mtg. 6-7 PM in Cafe

Wednesday, February 7

• Mr. Thomas is Mr. Kline
• 4th Grade to Library 10-11
• 4th Grade Planning at 12:50
• Model Lesson and Interview from noon- 3PM for MS ELA Position
• Hill leaves at 4:30

Thursday, February 8

• Mid Year Conferences Continue
• Kindergarten Planning at 8 AM
• 2nd Grade Planning at 10:10
• Arts PLC 11:30-12:30
• Model Lesson and Interview from noon- 3PM for MS ELA Position

Friday, February 9

• Mid Year Conferences Continue
• Group Pictures (please look out for email with your picture times)
• Kindergarten Planning at 8 AM
• 1st Grade Planning at 9 AM
• Samuelson to Library 9-10
• Admin Mtg 9-10
• Russ to library 9:15- Noon
• Ezell to library 9:45-10:45
• Fleming to library 11:00-11:45
• 2nd Grade Library 1-2
• Make up pictures with Trish and photo class for yearbook 2-2:45 pm (please look for communication from Ms. Brownlee or office regarding this if it applies to you or students of yours)

🦎👏Chameleon Claps🦎👏

From Mrs. Weir:
Mrs. Covington went above and beyond to show me where to find specific resources to help a student. She did this in a way that I could organize the information in my head to make sense for future use. THANK YOU!

Mrs. Hill: Thank you for treating us to the Coffee Cup during PLC's!! It was fun to be outside of the building for a little bit!


ALL HOMEROOM TEACHERS -  Your lunch counts have been great this week! We appreciate your efforts in making sure this is as accurate as possible. Keep up the good work!  ~~~ Dena & Jennifer

From Mrs. Hill:
Thank you to the entire TCEA staff for an amazing renewal visit!