The Enrichment Continues

Fridays are always very engaging and exciting at Laurel Mountain because of our Enrichment Slot, or E-slot.  The E-slot happens every Friday from 8:00-9:00 am.  This is a time for enrichment, a time for students to explore an area of interest, a time for the students to explore their talents.  Below is a small sampling of the fantastic E-slots that took place last Friday.

Mr. Hance's 5th Grade Class: We had a great E-slot today as we paired up with Mrs. Rung's 2nd grade class. It was a lot of fun for our fifth graders to take on the role of "teacher" or mentor to the younger students. We placed Alka-Seltzer in film canisters with a little water inside and timed how long it would take for the lids to pop off. The kids really enjoyed it. We recorded our data based on the amount of water and the size of the tablets. The students our turning into some great science predictors.

Mrs. Neely's 1st Grade Class: My class really enjoyed their e-slot today. Yesterday they listed a long list of fish they wanted to learn about. I told them we did not have time to research that many fish as a class but we could do independent research for e-slot. They were thrilled with the idea so off to the computer lab we went this morning. Check out our finished products. The gnomes are very proud!

Mr. Hance and Mrs. Ferriola's 2nd Grade TAG Class: This morning as Mr. Hance was huffing and puffing in the garden and Mrs. Ferriola walked by and said that her second grade TAG students were about to design some of their own garden beds on graph paper.

He told her that was an awful idea because we had beds to design in the garden and he needed them to help! He quickly sent her the layout for the beds, the sizes he was planning, and a quick breakdown of the "3-4-5" method that explains how to "set a corner" when you build something. The 3-4-5 method is based on the Pythagorean theorem and says that to set a corner, pick a spot, measure 3-feet in one direction, 4-feet on a perpendicular line and if the distance between the two far points equals 5 feet, you have created a right angle.

Mrs. Ferriola delivered her mini-lesson in class and then they met Mr. Hance in the garden. The students set to work, measured 6" off the sidewalk (which corresponds with our other stone beds) and set their corner. Attached is a picture of proud LME second graders at work, hammering their first stake away from their very well formed corner.

About half-way through, one of the students said, "Mr. Hance, why are we even doing this?" He explained that the bed they were framing was going to be constructed by 5th graders, and that for the rest of their time at LME and beyond, it was also their bed.  What fun, what an adventure...

Mrs. Campbell and Mrs. Markle's 3rd Grade Class: This morning Mrs. Markle and Mrs. Campbell's were in the science lab experimenting with fruit to see which fruit would sink or float. They spent 90 minutes experimenting and TALKING a lot about the whys of everything.

Continuing to develop the whole child...

E-slot Fun

Fridays are always full of excitement here at Laurel Mountain. Of course the weekend is near, but on Fridays we have our Enrichment Slot, or E-slot, from 8:00-9:00 am. Here is a little sampling of some different enrichment activities that took place over the past two weeks.

Ms. Lofaro's second grade class: Ms. Lofaro's Leapfrogs prepared for working in the Edible Garden by learning more about plant needs and practicing planting seeds. We let Miss Frizzle lead the way to teach us that plants need soil, sunlight, water and air. Then we ventured outside to check out our plot. We learned that the graden is organic, we have 2 composts and we also collect rain water. Then, we used one of our top interests, cooking, to practice planting seeds. We made a chocolate mousse dirt pudding and dropped mini chocolate chips into the "moist soil" to plant our "seeds". Then, we covered them over with with the soil and added some crushed oreo "dry soil" on top. Of course we added a gummy worm so that our soil would have extra nutrients. We can't wait to plant our seeds in LME's Edible Garden!

Mrs. Castro's fifth grade class: The Castro Courgars spent time in the Edible Garden.

First graders were busy making their fish for Ocean Day. The first grade hallway is now an ocean.

Mrs. Castro's fifth grade class drew self portraits. Very impressive!

Mrs. Watson and Mrs. Heironymus' third grade classes worked throught he scientific process using "Oobleck" that they made.

Did you know that raisens can dance?  Mrs. Annette Lee's kindergarten class loves science and they watched their raisens get down and boogie!



Continuing to develop the whole child...



Dot Day

Every year on September 15, innovative educators around the world celebrate International Dot Day by making time to encourage their students’ creativity. Dot Day was created by Peter Reynolds, who is a NY Times best-selling author and illustrator, a renowned public speaker, and the founder of FableVision, Inc. He is best known as the author and illustrator of dozens of children’s books published in over 20 languages, including The Dot. Peter inspires kids and "grown up kids" with his messages about authentic learning, creativity, and self-expression.

Take a look at how many Laurel Mountain students celebrated International Dot Day, a day early, and how we are all learning to make our mark.

Third graders make a class dot.

 

Second graders make dots out of slime.

 

Students make their mark.

Third graders make clay dots.


 

More examples of second graders making their individual marks.

Some second graders make their dots on canvas. 

Another example of a whole class dot. 

Our kindergartners make their mark. 

And even get a dot snack.  Yum!!!

Dots, dots everywhere....

Mr. Holmstrom, one of our fantastic fifth grade teachers, knows how to make his mark. 

These fifth graders are very creative!

Finally, Mrs. Prentice, one of wonderful kindergarten teachers, wins the "award" for making the biggest mark on International Dot Day.  Check out her outfit, full of all sorts of dots.  Even her shoes had dots!

At Laurel Mountain, we believe in and understand the importance of creativity.  And we encourage all of our students (and teachers) to make their mark everyday.

Continuing to develop the whole child...

Enrichment Slot (E-slot) is in Full Swing

We just finished our second week of school at Laurel Mountain.  And things are in full swing, including our Enrichment Slot, or E-slot, time that occurs Friday morning from 8:00-9:00.  This is a time when students can explore special topics or projects, based on their interests.  And yes, this happens EVERY Friday at LME.

How do the teachers know what the students are interested in?  During the first few weeks of school EVERY student at Laurel Mountain completes an interest survey.  The surveys contain a list of different areas that we think the students would be interested in.  The students complete the survey but indicating their top ten or five interest areas.  Then, the data is calculated and organized. 

The teachers use the information from interest surveys to come up with different activities during the E-slot. For example, if a class indicated on the interest survey they love to cook, then the teacher might teach the class how to cook a kid-friendly recipe or even ask a parent to come in and demonstrate a family or cultural favorite. 

Here is an example of what Mrs. Castro's Cougars did last week during their second E-slot:

Today the Castro Cougars watched the video based on the book The Dot by Peter Reynolds and had a lively class discussion about how we are all creative in many different ways. Then we decided to put our talents to work to create a work of art using paint. We look forward to a great year of exploring our talents!

Continuing to develop the whole child...

Connecting a Hurricane to LME

What does a hurricane have to do with the teachers and staff at Laurel Mountain?  During our staff development on August 24th, we found out.  Nancy and Debbie from Mesquite ISD presented "Connectors" to all of the Laurel Mountain staff.

What is a connector? A connector is a way to look at and think about relationships, any type of relationship.  First, you start with the output...what to do want to happen?  Then, you look at the input...what is the current situation?  Finally, you focus on the transforms or the actions that connect your input  to the output. In the end, the only thing we have real control over are the transforms, or the actions that you can make in a situation.

In simpler terms, every teacher, every student, every parent, we are all connected at Laurel Mountain.  What we say and how we act affects everyone within our learning community.  And every one's output as a direct affect one someone else's input. 

Let me give you an example.  Let's pretend that I am not a morning person (side note: I know this is a stretch, since why would a person pick the profession of a teacher if he/she was not a morning person?  But for this situation, we are just going to pretend).  And let's say that I am on morning duty and I do not smile or greet a child walking in to school.  That child goes to class upset because I did not acknowledge him/her.  That child acts rude to his/her teacher, which then has started off that teacher's day on a bad note.  My output 9not smiling) had a direct affect on that teacher's input (being treated with disrespect).  It is all about the connections and the relationships that we create. 

Nancy and Debbie lead us through several different activities to demonstrate this point: my output directly affects some one's input. 

In this activity, we learned how hard it is to stay calm with so many "balls" in the air.

Next, we created a BIG connector.  We thought about about Laurel Mountain and how we want students to leave our school at the end of 5th grade (problem solvers, love to learn, prepared, respectful, etc.).  This became our output.  Then, we thought about how our students come to us (excited, nervous, experienced, tired, etc.).  This became our output.  Finally, we focused on the transforms in the middle.  What do we need to do as teachers to get our students from input to output (listen, teach, guide, question, support, love, etc)?  Here is a picture of this big connector, or as we named it, Lory the Lion.

Lory the Lion

Next, we discussed how in any organization there are smaller connectors inside the BIG connector.  See picture below.

All of the connectors need to line up for the organization to run smoothly.

We were put in small groups and thought about the other connectors that fit inside Lory.  We first worked on our relationship connectors.  How we act towards others has direct affect on our students, staff and parents.  The picture below shows how our relationship connectors line up inside Lory.  Each output affect another group's input.

Those blue papers are our relationship connectors.  Notice how all of the outputs line up with the next group's input.

Next, we worked on our academic connectors.  This time, we were grouped by grade level. We discussed how we want our students to leave that grade level (output), how they come to that grade level (input) and finally what we can do as teachers to get them to that desired output (transforms/actions).  In the end, the only thing we have control over as teachers are the transforms, or what we can do to make sure our students are ready for the next level. See the picture below to see how our academic connectors fit inside Lory.

The pink ones are our academic connectors. 

It was a eye-opening day of learning.  There were several "ah-hahs!" and "hmmm..." throughout the day.  Nancy and Debbie were very easy to listen to and entertaining.  But they did get the message across that our output affects the input of everyone we come in contact with. 

So, finally back to the title of this entry, "Connecting a Hurricane to LME".  What does a massive storm have to do with our school.  Well, look at the definition below:

"A hurricane: many individual raindrops cooperating."

An individual raindrop can't do much good.  It can water one blade of grass.  However, one raindrop is not going to do much good for the whole yard.  But when those raindrops get together and cooperate, massive change can happen (as shown to us this past week with Hurricane Issac). 

At Laurel Mountain, we want to be a hurricane.  We want to be strong.  We want to be a powerful force of change. The only way we can do that is by working together.  That means all of us, teachers, parents and students.  By thinking about, creating and remembering our connectors we can guarantee a successful and powerful year of learning for all of the students at Laurel Mountain.

Continuing to develop the whole child....

Building SEM Brick by Brick

This past July, I had the opportunity (along with eight fellow staff members) to attended Confratute at the University of Connecticut.  This conference, attended by educators from all over the globe, provides research-based practical strategies for engagement and enrichment learning for all students. 

I was very excited to present this year at Confratute.  I was honored to share Laurel Mountain's successes with fellow attendees.  My presentation was titled "Building SEM Brick by Brick".  I discussed how we implemented the Schoolwide Enrichment Model at LME.  I also talked about what has and has not worked.  I was a little nervous at first.  But once I got started, it was hard for me to stop talking about the important work we are all doing for all of our students.

Below is my presentation on Prezi.  Feel free to take a look.

Continuing to develop the whole child...

Building SEM Brick by Brick

Our Teachers are Learners at Confratute

This past July, nine Laurel Mountain Elementary educators had the opportunity to join more than 600 educators from across the US and fifteen countries at Confratute, a week long program at the University of Connecticut that provides educators with research-based practical strategies for engagement and enrichment learning for all students. Attending this past summer:

Mrs. Lucy Castro, 5th grade teacher
Mrs. Melissa Hein, 5th grade teacher
Mr. Trevor Hance, 4th grade teacher
Ms. Kate Fredrickson, 3rd grade teacher
Ms. Jessica Lofaro, 2nd grade teacher
Mrs. Charlotte Justice, Counselor
Mrs. Nicole Levitan, Enrichment Coordinator
Mrs. Johanna Kelley, Assistant Principal
Mrs. Jan Richards, Principal

For the past 35 years, Storrs, Connecticut, has attracted more than 20,000 educators worldwide for this highly acclaimed, enrichment-based program sponsored by the Neag Center for Gifted Education and Talent Development. It blends educators interested in gifted education, differentiation of instruction and curriculum, and creativity and innovation in education.

Confratute started in 1978, when Dr. Joseph Renzulli and Dr. Sally Reis decided that they wanted to host a summer conference focused on Enrichment Teaching and Learning. They didn't want it to be just any conference, though. They wanted to combine the best qualities of a CONference with a summer instiTUTE and add a whole lot of FRAternity in between.

This summer, Confratute offered a jam-packed schedule of events to engage, inspire and rejuvenate educators. Some of the sessions our staff attended included Math for Those Who Think They Can’t Do Math; Storytelling, Mime and Movement; Silk Screen Printing; Enrichment Clusters-Advanced; The Kaplan Depth and Complexity Model; Fun and Friendly Algebra and numerous other sessions. Mrs. Levitan presented a Special Topic Session titled “Building SEM Brick by Brick”. She was proud to share Laurel Mountain’s successes and challenges implementing and sustaining SEM.

For the first time, Confratute hosted the Schoolwide Enrichment Model (SEM) Leaders Forum, an intensive week for principals who are interested in school change using a philosophy of Enrichment Learning and Teaching. Mrs. Richards attended the SEM Leaders Forum and was able to share her experiences. Just as important, she learned from other principals and leaders from around the country on how they have implemented SEM at their schools.

Through exposure to differentiation, talent development and enriching learning experiences, the community of adult learners at Confratute are able to share similar interests, as well as foster professional growth. All of our staff members returned to Austin energized, excited and ready to enrich the lives of our students at Laurel Mountain Elementary to ensure that we are developing the whole child for a lifetime of success.