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| Great furniture for students makes school more comfortable and inviting. |
Music at Assembly
Almost every week our wonderful music teacher leads the school in song. She teaches the songs well and chooses songs that bring everyone together and educate us about the world around us. There's something wonderful about 500 people singing the same song. This builds joy and community.
More Space
A thoughtful reconfiguration of our elementary schools has led to more space, and more space means less stress. This has been positive.
Service Learning
The principal's ongoing service learning initiative continues to grow with strength. As I've mentioned before, this initiative has brought a positive focus to our school, a focus which has eliminated a lot of strife and behavioral concerns as well as educating the whole school about school, community, and world needs. This week's projects involved donating blankets for the homeless and contributing to a water fund to build more wells in the Sudan.
School Gardens
A dedicated teacher at my school and the community's Green Team manage our school gardens. These gardens produce healthy vegetables and positive learning for our students. This project takes dedication, and that dedication results in positive learning and eating.
RTI and PLCs
These initiatives continue to grow and deepen, and the upside is that we're spending more collective time focusing on serving all students well.
Technology
We have lots of great tools. I especially enjoy the cart of laptops and computer labs we have available for terrific tech access and learning.
A Collective Focus on Learning
A thoughtful instructional rounds effort has fostered a school-wide focus on learning with respect to one question, a question our staff is working to determine at this point. This initiative has led our collective discussion towards learning which I think is great.
New Furniture and New Tools
Thanks to one teacher's generosity, we're getting to try some great new tools such as the hoki stools and lots of new interactive tech tools and equipment. She's both funded and worked overtime to advocate for these items and now the items are getting popular and some are being purchased and funded by the school system. This positive research and development makes the learning environment dynamic.
Support for Professional Development
Our staff has the opportunity to attend many wonderful conferences and learning events. These events develop what we're able to do with students.
STEAM
The school system is embracing STEAM with a number of events. In fact today I'm attending a professional development session focused on STEAM teaching. This summer the system is hosting a STEAM share Institute.
Communication
Our school now has a Friday memo which helps us all to be on the same page with the nuts and bolts of school information and learning links. This helps to build community. We also have a regular monthly faculty senate and other committees that help everyone to be involved in school decisions and efforts.
Happy Invested Students and Staff. Supportive Families
Our learning community enjoys tremendous support from all members including students, families, educators, leaders, and citizens. This support radiates throughout all school activities and events.
There's lots to be thankful for and these are the items that stand out this morning as I shortlist school strengths. What's on your school's "good list." Please share if you're interested.
