ELA Visits and Technology

Greetings, Coolidge Community!

I am sure many of us have shared a similar range of emotions this weekend.  For me, I felt a great degree of reflection on Saturday, the one year anniversary of the Newtown incident.  Despite the sadness and loss that still fills the hearts of so many surrounding what happened that day, from great loss has arisen many stories of courage, perseverance, and rebuilding.  No matter how directly or indirectly impacted, the event  has changed us all.

One of the gifts of being in my new position is the ability I now have to get into all classrooms at Coolidge and to support teachers to do the best work they can do.  I had the pleasure this week of sitting in on all of the ELA classes at all three levels.  At the 6th grade level, students in one class were dissecting a poem as they applied their learning of similies and metaphors.  In another, they were being challenged to find the deeper meaning in the story Gaston.  And in a third, students were presenting new (impressive!) vocabulary words, acting as teachers, which is the ultimate evidence that material has been learned.  In 7th grade, all classes were doing class reads of the book A Christmas Carol.  The teachers at this level not only spoke with British accents as they narrated, but knew all the right places to pause in the dialogue to probe students to go deeper and to discern what the text truly means.  One class was using iPads to read, and the teacher had embedded questions within the text that students would answer on their screens; they were able to read each other's responses, as was the teacher, who could give them immediate feedback.  It was a lesson that showed technology as a useful tool.  All 7th grade students will see "A Christmas Carol" on Wednesday; thanks to their lessons, they will have a better understanding of what the strory really means.  In 8th grade, students were analyzing the difference between books vs. movies made from books.  They had to draw on evidence from real texts/movies.  In all of these situations, I saw the new ELA Common Core working well.  The new standards challenge teachers to challenge students to go deeper into material, to support their writing with evidence from various texts, and to express their knowledge both with writing and with speaking and presenting.  I truly believe these students who are experiencing these new standards will evolve to be stronger in all aspects of reading, writing, and expression than they would have otherwise.  The teachers have been putting in a great deal of time to prepare thoughtful, new lessons that maintain high standards for all.

Another neat moment this week was to be privvy to Ms. Anderson's classroom on Thursday.  One of her groups presented their use of technology in the classroom to a group of adults who were attending the Blue Ribbon Conference in Orlando, FL.  The Blue Ribbon presentation was being led by our library and technology specialists, Ms. Steinhauser and Ms. Grant, who were attending the conference.  With the use of video streaming, Ms. Anderson's class shared their experience with the group in FL, who we could also see and hear on her SMART board.  A second classroom from the high school was also part of the presentation.  It certainly left an impression on me, and I think it did even more so on the students involved.

In case I don't get the chance again this year, please know I wish you all a wonderful, happy, and restful holiday.  It will be wonderful to see your students back in 2014!