Tharptown Elementary School

I hope all of you have had a great week! With all the crazy things going on right now, I hope you continue to focus on the good and the positive. When we stop and reflect on the blessings we have, it is hard not to be joyful and thankful for how good things really are! I encourage you to smile more this week, make someone else smile, encourage those who need encouraging, and thank someone for what they do!

Each day, students enter classrooms with the anticipation of learning. Parents rely on schools to educate their children. Their desire is that great teaching is going on in their child's classroom every day with the ultimate goal of their child receiving the best education possible. So how do we, as educators, ensure that each child receives the best education possible?

Education research confirms that teaching quality is the most important factor in raising student achievement. Therefore, if we want to provide students with a quality education, we must staff our schools with the highest quality teachers who are equip with the highest quality skills! So how do we achieve this goal? Like anything else in life, to become the best at what we do requires work. It also requires desire, committment, and intentionality. In other words, it doesn't just magically happen.

In a school setting, the best way for teachers to continue to learn is through professional development. Professional development opportunities allow teachers to learn and strengthen their practice and skills. When teachers engage in continuous professional learning, they improve teaching, which results in improved student learning. Professional development is the way teachers can continue to learn so that they are better able to improve their performance and raise student achievement.

Professional development can occur through both formal and informal methods. When we think of professional development, we normally think of attending a training, conference, seminar, or something similar. However, professional development can actually occur in a less formal format such as independent reading and research, observations, as well as learning from a peer.

As we ask our students to continue to learn remotely while we are not in school, I also encourage you to learn as well. This is a great time to engage in professional growth opportunities to improve and strengthen your teaching skills. With that in mind, I am going to conduct a virtual book study on the book, The Fundamental Five. I believe this is a very powerful book that can empower teachers with the practices that can improve student academic success. I encourage all of you to take the time to view it. My desire is that we can begin to implement these five practices into our classrooms next year!

This past week I had the opportunity to participate in a Reading Horizons webinar. Although the webinar had a focus on teaching EL students, everything discussed in the webinar applies to the general ed. students as well. I found it to be very imformative and thought you might also.

We are really lost without our students. I believe we miss them more each day. But our students also miss their teachers very much! I love seeing the sweet letters and notes that teachers get from their students. It just reinforces the powerful impact teachers make in the classroom each day. Not only do teacher impact academic success, but they also impact a child's social and emotional learning. Thank you for all you continue to do to reach out to your students to let them know that you miss them. It means so much to them and they will never forget the love you have shown during this difficult time!

The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics is offering 100 days of Professional Learning with lots of free webinars. There are several elementary webinars offered that I think will be of intereste to you...especially as we begin to implement the new Alabama Math Course of Study. I encourage you to check it out!

From Amplify:

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