Breakout, buttons, and bookmarks

I enjoyed attending most of your team meetings this week. It's fun to hear what's happening in your room. Please let me know how I can support your work in the classroom!

0 for 24. That's our current Breakout stat line. Third and fifth grades all took on a Breakout over the last two weeks and we came up empty. But we learned a lot, which takes me to point number one...

Collaboration Skills
As I watched so many groups work on their Breakout tasks, I realized that we need to continue to work on those crucial skills. We may not know what jobs our students will have, but we know that collaboration is vital for the workplace. My plan is to come up with short group activities and explicitly teach students different collaboration strategies. I'd like to fit it all within a 30 minute activity: mini-lesson, group task, debrief. The tasks will be tailored to your grade level. Yes, I mean kindergarten as well! I'm going to have everything organized by grade so we can keep building on these skills from year to year. Please let me know if you would like to start us off. 

Interactive Bulletin Board
Many of you have noticed the interactive bulletin board outside the library. Many students have as well. I haven't brought it up because I was curious to see what happens. And today, we had two girls add to the board when they arrived at school! Yes, it is meant for open discussions. I have supplies there for students and teachers to add their thoughts. Hopefully it can spark some conversations or writing in your classrooms. 

Maker Activities
We started making "about me" buttons and bookmarks with kindergarten this week. It is just so fun seeing their reactions when they see their drawing turn into a button. If you would like to schedule the same activity with your class, just let me know. 

PLTW
My big rock next week is to get organized with Project Lead the Way. I'd like to share the specific science unit with each grade level and start to think through how to implement it in your classroom. The learning is hands-on and I'm here to co-teach it with you. 

Have a great weekend!