My first school visit was amazing! It was also in the district where my own children attended, so there was a bit of nostalgia going on. We started out with coffee, pastries, & gifts, followed by a greeting from the Superintendent who gave us a brief history of the district.
This is my group. These are eleven amazing teachers who were chosen by their districts to represent them as KS Teacher of the Year. We were missing 3 of our group, but hopefully they can join us next week in Haysville! 
Our first stop was the high school. This made me drool in envy! I would so love to have a screen printing machine so we could print shirts for my district at a reasonable cost. I'm going to approach my superintendent about this as soon as I get the chance. Other stops were to see the art room, the shop and the live streaming video class. I was amazed at what I saw!
Miss Kansas showed up to speak to the students as we were leaving, so we took advantage of another photo op!
We then had lunch, prepared by some Mennonite women who served us baked potatoes, salad, and the best brownies I've ever eaten! Then it was off to visit the middle school. We saw robotics, played a scenario explaining what life as an OCD person was like (incredible and eye opening!), talked about a work ethic rubric that helps students with soft skills. We visited a 6th grade class that was fully flexible seating. That was a first for me - I've seen variations, but this was truly an inviting atmosphere.
Our last stop was the grade school. We saw Pre-K & K creating elf traps (cuteness overload!), 4th graders creating habitats for an imaginary new creature discovered nearby, and a music teacher who taught subject integration. All I can say about her is WOW! I would love working with her!
Having the opportunity to visit other schools and see how other teachers approach instruction is the perfect professional development. I'm excited to share what I learned with my district.
Notes from the day:
District Office
- Welcome, history of district, gifts
- Lunch made by Mennonite ladies (potato bar, salad, brownies)
High School
- HS Art Class - amazing murals on walls
- Lyn Lawlor’s Graphic Design Class - screen printing signs & banners, t-shirts
- Runs as a marketing class
- Creates shirts for cost plus $1
- Matt Regier - Science
- Mousetrap cars w/CDs, moustraps, & popsicle sticks
- Tod Johnson - shop
- Creating custom knives with custom handles
- Tim Hesseltine (absent)
- Live Stream home games
- iPad for close ups on floor - wireless stream to computer
- Utilize drone & GoPro
- Man Cave Talks - Teacher Interviews
- Class for Juniors & Seniors only
- Advisory Period - Yoga, Mindfulness, Team Building, Community Service
- Each group does one per week, rotating activities
- Ramp Up to Readiness - $1500 startup, no additional fees
- Mindfulness - Ted Talks - pay attention to breathing, what you see, living in the moment
- No cell phones, no outside devices (1-1 Chromebooks). Use dish racks to store - students don’t take home
- $4.50 per device for Haperra - can see each device in room, can send messages to students
- Photo Op with Miss Kansas
Middle School
- Language Arts - OCD Activity (see picture) - write phrase with multiple directions
- Social Studies - students grade themselves daily on work ethic, discuss monthly student progress. Teachers fill out rubrics on each student as well.
- Place-Based Education - discoveringfarmland.com - Netflix video - entire curriculum included
- PLTW - Inventor Software
- 3D printer - cube/pegboard toy
- Robotics - each individual group contributes to a larger working project
Elementary School
- Marketday - all classes make something to sell. Money earned funds extra items for classroom. Plants, necklaces, ???
- Pre-K & K - Elf Traps
- 4th grade - imaginary animal made of 3-4 different animals. Create habitat for new animal
- Music - songs to learn math facts, science facts - subject integration
- Music K8 magazine - $100 year subscription, share w/all teachers
- Free music on website
- 6h Grade entirely flexible seating
No comments:
Post a Comment