Today's Teaching and Learning: May 6, 2016

Today's class star is the Eastern spadefoot toad!

Today students will dive into the spadefoot toad information as they create crossword puzzles. Later classmates will complete the crossword puzzles made by peers. This will help students better learn about the little spadefoot tadpoles that are swimming in tanks in the fifth grade classrooms. This work will also prepare students for a talk by the local environmentalist and endangered species steward, Dr. Bryan Windmiller that's coming up in a couple of weeks.

Later students will have a chance to review their Middle School Assessment. I'll have them check over their work and ask questions. Then they'll prepare their scratch paper folders for the PARCC test. After that we'll likely watch a few spadefoot toad videos to learn more about these fascinating creatures.

Students will work on their biography projects during library, and later in the day they'll have a chance to study science with classmates as they practice for the MCAS test. There will be time for band and orchestra, clean-up, and an end-of-the-day recess as well.

I will end the day at a teacher leadership workshop in Boston. A number of private funders are bringing educators from throughout the State together to think about and work on creating a teacher leadership network. I'll have the chance to work with my ECET2 teammates as well as educators I've yet to meet. I find that whenever I meet with educators from a mix of systems and schools, I get lots of good ideas to bring back to my school and students as well so I look forward to this opportunity.