Tharptown Elementary School

Last Friday I celebrated my 60th birthday. I must admit....it wasn't an easy one. What could have been a terrible and depressing day, turned out to be an absolutely amazing and wonderful day for me. Thanks to all of you, I had the best birthday of my life! Your cards, birthday wishes, gifts, and fabulous food and treats were simply the best! I enjoyed every minute of the day and there really are not enough words to express my appreciation for everything you did to make the day perfect.

As we hit milestones in our life, we began to realize more and more how valuable time is and how fast it goes. We also become more aware of the lives we have touched around us and the impact we have made on someone else. We reflect upon our journey and wonder if we made a difference.

Each day at Tharptown Elementary School, we have the enormous opportunity to touch lives. We have the power to instill confidence and pride in our students. We have the ability to build the educational foundation that will prepare the student for academic and future success. We have the power to make a difference!

As we work with students each day, we will leave "crumbs" behind with those we come in contact with and we may never know the impact of those "crumbs" we leave in our path. Our words and our actions with our students each day are like little falling crumbs that they carry with them. Our goal should be that at the end of the year, a student enjoys your crumbs so much, that they never want to leave your class!

I thank you for the "crumbs" you shared with me this past week. All of you have made such a huge impact on me in the short time I have been here. Your kindness, hard work, and dedication to our students is evident in what you do each day and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity I have to work with all of you!

Learning in school takes place in a variety of settings, which include whole group, small group, peer-to-peer....and the list could go on and on. Whole group instruction is a great way to introduce a new concept or new material. It can set the tone of the lesson and even create motivation for learning. Whole group instruction ensures that all students are exposed to the key concepts and new information.

However, for whole group lessons to be effective, they must be engaging and developed so that the majority of the students understand the concept. They must include feedback from students so that teachers can gauge student understanding. Most importantly, whole group instruction should be followed up by small group instruction where the teacher can solidify the concepts, identify struggling students, and integrate other instructional approaches to meet the needs of individual students.

Last week I enjoyed watching Mrs. Cantrell's students engaged in a whole group reading lesson. Her lesson was designed so that it was interesting to students and kept them engaged. Throughout the lesson, Mrs. Cantrell gauged understanding through a variety of formative assessment tools. Yes, it is possible to keep students engaged in a whole group lesson, as you can see from the picture above. Even for five year old students! This lesson was successful through purposeful planning and intentional instruction. How exciting it is to see kids learning!

Would you rather read about something or would you rather see it? My guess is that most of you would answer you would rather see it. Well so would your students! Visuals are much more appealing to students than plain text and students respond faster to visual information rather than textual information. So why use visuals:

• Visuals help the brain store information longer
• Visuals help make communication quicker and simpler
• Visuals improve comprehension
• Visuals help stimulate emotions
• Visuals help drive motivation
• Visuals help simplify hard to understand content

When I walked into Mrs. Smith's classroom last week, I was thrilled to see her conducting a visual demonstration with her students. Mrs. Smith was using a visual demonstration to teach science content to her students, rather than having them read about it. You can see from the picture, how the students were reacting to her lesson. Students were involved, engaged, and excited. They were curious and interested in what she was teaching. They will remember this lesson! Thank you, Mrs. Smith, for your hard work and preparation for this learning experience. I enjoyed it very much and so did your students!

TES teachers....Can you think of creative ways to bring in visuals into your classroom to improve understanding or engagement? If so, please share those with other teachers and let me know so I can come see them!

A big congratulations goes out to Mrs. Stockton for receiving the LAMP (Library and Media Professionals) Award at the Library Expo. this past week. We are thankful for everything you do for the students and teachers at Tharptown Elementary School and are so proud of you!

October 2nd has been set aside to show appreciation to the many women/men who work each day to keep our schools clean and running smoothly. School custodians work behind the scenes and many times can go unappreciated for the things they do to make sure school is ready each day. They clean up endless amounts of garbage, restrooms, and other disgusting things we won't even mention. They make sure our facilities are stocked with necessary items and provide the support we need to make our classrooms run efficiently.

I think we are very blessed with the absolute best school custodian at Tharptown Elementary School. She works tirelessly each day and makes every effort to see that everything is done is day before she leaves.

Wouldn't it be great if we showed her some love and appreciate on Wednesday, October 2nd to let her know how much we appreciate what she does for us! A card from your students, a note from you, a cold bottle of cola, a tasty candy bar....well the list could go on and on! I encourage all of you to show your appreciation to Mrs. Butler for everything she does for us each day!

I am so excited to experience my first Fall Festival at Tharptown Elementary. I have heard so many great things about it and I can't wait to see first hand! Mrs. Harris and Ms. Lucas have done an outstanding job organizing all of details of the festival and I know it is going to be perfect. Thank you for your willingness to volunteer to help with the Haunted Gym on Monday and Tuesday. This additional help makes things easier on everyone. The teamwork that all of you show is what makes Tharptown Elementary such a great school and great place to work!

Monday, September 30

• No known activities
  
  

Tuesday, October 1

• No known activities

Wednesday, October 2

• RtI Meetings - Meetings will take place in Mrs. Kiel's classroom. Please plan to attend during your planning time.

Thursday, October 3

• Fall Festival - 5:30 p.m. - 9:00 p.m.

Friday, October 4

• End of first 9-weeks grading period
• Wellness Screenings - 8:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. & 12:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.
• Haunted Gym - 7:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.