Be Our Best

The school year here has only just ended, but we are already thinking about how to make next year even better than the last!  I’ve been pondering the power of a theme, a mantra, or a chant to guide our upcoming work.  Right now, I’m leaning toward, “Be Our Best!”

I’m envisioning kicking off the school year with a “Be Our Best” banner and a Disney sing-along (or at least watch-along!) of Beauty and the Beast’s “Be Our Guest,” with a consonant modification, just to get the mantra stuck in our heads.  We’ll do some brainstorming about what it takes to “be our best,” creating an anchor chart that we can reference when we meet throughout the year.  Then we’ll read a short piece about collaboration and think together about how we can encourage and support one another, how we help one another see the bright spots.  We’ll make a list of adjectives that describe the type of feedback we’d like to get from each other (helpful, honest, constructive, etc.), and we’ll talk about how this helps us grow together and pushes our practice to a higher level.  We’ll brainstorm ways we can solicit colleagues’ feedback – how we can find the time and space to make it happen. 

I hope this conversation creates a shared sense of ownership and a climate for collaboration. I hope we walk away confident that we can depend on our colleagues to help us reach our potential.  I also hope teachers feel they can depend on me to be part of the respectful, candid conversation that leads to useful next steps. 

It’s a little corny, I know, but I think I can get away with it if I ham it up enough! I’ve found that when we begin by having fun and laughing together, good things follow.  As I dream about next school year, it all looks good in my imagination!

This week, you might want to take a look at:

Neurons that fire together wire together: Get the brain ready for change:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3059634/your-brain-has-a-delete-button-heres-how-to-use-it

Fact checking criteria in the days of fake news:

http://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/3/29/15042692/fake-news-education-election

Music video to make the “Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then” summarizing strategy memorable for your students:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6EMIaoE9_Q&feature=youtu.be

Teaching argumentative mathematical thinking in kindergarten:

https://www.teachingchannel.org/videos/kindergarten-math-lesson-nsf?utm_campaign=digest&utm_medium=email&utm_source=digest

6 ways to confer in a crowded classroom (you could skip right down to those 6 ways):

https://threeteacherstalk.com/2015/03/30/6-ways-to-confer-in-the-crowded-classroom/

That’s it for this week.  Happy Coaching!

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