Yesterday was an amazing day! So many things happened that exemplified the best of what schools have to offer. It wasn't perfect, but it was close.
The day started early with Edna Sackson's 2011 Global Education Conference presentation from Australia which described a number of motivating, student-centered, engaging global projects.
After that, our responsive math curriculum director stopped by to follow up on a math question. I asked the question the night before via email, and she was there the next day to discuss it--amazing.
A short time later, a very competent and kind student teacher from the local university arrived to help out as part of her practicum. The university-school partnership is an invaluable resource.
Then students embarked on the next stage of the Minnesota-Massachusetts collaborative regional exchange project. The children eagerly worked with partners for an hour preparing a collective Northeast Google presentation for our Edina friends.
Later, while the students played instruments in music class, the tech integration specialist taught me how to use skype as part of the one-to-one technology days professional development effort. The one-to-one days give teachers a chance to learn for an hour with a tech integration specialist.
Following that, students met in the computer lab to complete number poster projects. A math coach and special needs teacher were there to assist us.
After lunch it was reading workshop. Thanks to the efforts of our enhanced PLC model and RTI, a regular special needs teacher is also in the room during most of the reading workshop time. She and I lead book groups while other students read independently, work on reading-related computer programs, and write/create a variety reading responses.
Finally, at the end of the day, we had a little time for math drawing and immigration stories. During that time, a reading specialist arrived to give extra reading support to some.
The day was great thanks to the amazing efforts and careful coordination of so many skilled and dedicated teachers in addition to thoughtful, student-centered programs.
Targeted, collaborative efforts worked in harmony today to benefit both teachers and students.
Every day should be like this!
