Many educators talk about the “summer slide” and the fact that the whole first month of school or even the first quarter must be spent in review. While summer is a time for taking a pause and catching a breath, it also affords time to sharpen skills and the mind! Mrs. A’s workshops are a fun and inventive way for students to come as they are, and grow from there! While most workshops can be turned into a 1:1 tutoring opportunity, certain workshops might not be available individually. Workshops are typically more stimulating, due to the interactive nature, in a small group setting.
My materials arrived today (May 7, 2023) and I CANNOT wait until students get a shot at this! It’s so much fun! I spent a good portion of my afternoon determining which breakout cases to prepare for students! Not only are there great topics, but there are subject-related break out games aligned to academic standards. Even though they are common core based, Indiana Academic Standards overlap a good deal. I will use these to reinforce topics and skills and lessons for the fun of it. So far, I have a reading comprehension break out box activity as well as one for math, one for science, and one for social studies. The digital version is crazy fun too! I tell you, I have a hard time cracking the upper grades’ codes, causing me to realize why they call the game show, “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?”
As a classroom teacher, I came to the disheartening realization that fewer and fewer students knew how to write friendly letters. I was pretty young when I learned the art and used (by force of course) letter writing as a skill. By the time I got to college, I appreciated it in a different way, and it was a cheaper way to stay in touch with loved ones than long distance calls. That necessity no longer exists, so we are ALL out of the practice of it. So I propose time dedicated to getting back to it! We will write to different recipients for different purposes in these sessions.I am open to suggestions. Parents can send students with addresses of families, friends and neighbors who would take great delight in receiving a handwritten and personal message from your child. I may even have a very special guest speaker come and share her love for letter writing planned:)
As a principal of a Lighthouse Leader in Me School, I can’t help but instill the skills I learned about forming young leaders into my practice. The Leader in Me is a school based program structured around Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, adapted for school-aged students and aligned with Christianity. Goal setting is an instrumental component of students internalizing the importance of working towards a goal and implementing strategies to aid in reaching goals. I look forward to bringing this mindset and ability to students who want to proactively set goals and make a plan to achieve them!
At Saint Joan of Arc, the parish and school staff took the Strengths Finder Assessment to reveal our God given strength, and consider how, when coupled with others, we could work effectively on behalf of the parish mission.
My top five are ordered: Connectedness, Belief, Arranger, Includer and Positivity. The program exists for students, and coupled with the habits, will serve as a means for internal reflection AND how to put those skills and strengths to work for the greater good and in serving God.
All five lie within the Relationship Building and Executing Domains. Since I have been working as an administrator, I am going to take it again because with time and experience, sometimes our strengths shift.
If your child struggles to write at all, we will begin by learning the Style and Structure of Writing. Once a child understands all included, he/she can write on any topic! To become better at the craft of teaching writing, I am enrolled in the Institute for Excellence in Writing “Style and Structure” class. Any student of any age would benefit from this class!
If your child is a solid writer but could benefit from a closer look or implementation of the traits that grow writing, we will work to put new skills into original pieces they write with me as well as new pieces drafted within our time together. From I do, to we do to you do, I will model, support and offer practice time to break writing into small pieces while practicing skills that move writing from proficient to interesting and engaging!
Would you believe that only in the past few weeks I have learned the most effective method for note taking ever? I am taking a writing course through the Institute For Excellence in Writing, and I cannot wait to teach as many students as possible! I can’t begin to express my enthusiasm to be able to help kids learn what I wish I would have. Proper note taking is one of the most underrated things in the field of education. And it can be taught. Even better, it can be learned!
One of the things former students recollect when I run into them is classroom simulations. In today’s classroom, there is great emphasis on teaching the standards and spiraling the curriculum leaving little room for “extras.” As I have worked with teachers through time on this very topic, I told them that the simulations I incorporated, one for new world exploration and one for westward expansion, would likely be off the table today. I could, however, streamline the same simulations and enhance them to meet numerous standards at a time, which is a best practice. In our time together, I will provide students the chance to partake in simulations, which provide teamwork opportunities and skill reinforcement while having fun!
Many schools overlook a very important topic of financial literacy. Finance is a topic that will, no matter what path in life they take, impact their ability to provide for themselves and others. With the reduction of cash usage in light of debit cards and the fewer people who balance a checkbook, the need to do so SEEMINGLY evaporated leaving a gap in skills and knowledge!
Using Ramsey Solutions, I will teach students things about finance including budget, saving, avoiding debt, the basics of investing and even how to be generous. I will also implement the Three Cups book by Tony Townsley.
Time and Money can be grouped together and incorporated into any other portion if parents check those categories. They are an extension of number sense, computation and real world problems.