Weekly Update #6

This week was busy in a different way:) 

Monday I spent all day at SHS training with John who is my coach.  My brain hurt at the end of the day.
 

That's John my coach at the front.

Tuesday I spent all day at HES doing coaching rounds.  Several Hardy teachers invited all the elementary coaches and our coach in to look for something they wanted feedback on.  It was very informative and I got to see a pro in action as he coached teachers.
 

Peggy Spencer was one of the volunteers at HES.

This was the morning message from Mrs. Knight's room.  Thought it was neat to see this ARC component just like at WES.

Wednesday I spent the day with Ms. Miller's Class, Mrs. Hall's Class, Mrs. Littlefield's Class, and Mrs. Stull's Class, on their project launch.  We went to First Landing State Park in VA Beach.  We all had  a great time and the kids were exhausted by the end of the day.

Thursday I spent the day with our ARC coach and K-2 teachers learning more about the one on one coaching aspect of ARC which takes place during the readers workshop portion of the day.
 

Here is Katie our ARC coach working with a kindergarten student.

Friday I spent the day at SHS again with John our coach.  We did a lot of brain work again on this day, but I felt very good at the end of the day because we really accomplished quite a bit together.

Weekly Update #5

This was a very exciting week for me, I was able to get into many classrooms this week! 

Caught Mrs. Carter's class begging for her to continue reading!

 I love finding the 5C's all over the building, here is Mrs. Hall's door :)

 Some projects have commenced all over the building.  I did get a chance to see third grade beginning to research Famous Americans but I failed to get any good pictures so I will try and get some up on the blog soon.   Mrs. Stull and Mrs. Littlefield's 5th grade classes are working on a globe project.... here are a few pictures 

 First a little papier-mache... talk about engagement!!

They had to complete several layers, and it needed to dry for awhile..

 Then they painted :)

 Then they began placing the continents and labeling essential parts of the globe...

They researched a specific continent and are  writing papers to go along with their globe :)  can't wait to see these hanging in the hall!

Weekly Update #4

So this week I thought I would share a little about our new reading series that is being used in K-2..hopefully this will allow others to see some of the components of this ARC program, later I will focus on the other components of the program.

One of the components of this program is the Read Aloud component.  Similar to your typical read aloud however there is usually a very narrowed focus for the read aloud.

 Here is Mrs. Guimoye doing a read aloud and her big focus was looking at the break between words and touching each word as the kindergarten friends do their Readers Workshop.
 

 Readers Workshop was probably one of the trickiest components of ARC that our K-2 teachers have been working on these past few weeks -  kids are independently reading and building stamina to get up to 30 minutes of continuous reading. Here are a few pictures of kids during this time from Mrs. Hall's room.

After they read independently there is accountable talk :) They are given a focus during this time and they turn and talk - these friends were asked to share a favorite part of the story.

 So your probably wondering how do the kids get books that they are able to read on their own (especially in K and 1)...You may have heard others talking about something called the IRLA- this is a tool used to identify kids independent reading level in ARC's continuum ...it is a giant spiral bound book, I'm sure you have seen us carrying it around.  Once they are leveled they select books from the corresponding color tub which should offer that child a wide selection of books at their independent level.

Now you may be asking yourself what if they can't even read a very simple patterned text?  Well, those kids are considered "Read To Me" kids (RTM).  These children will need lots of books read to them- ARC asks for them to get 20 per day. Woah! yes, that is upper grades may be hearing from lower grades in order to get some readers to help.  Anyone can help, if you know of a volunteer that would like to come in, this would be a perfect opportunity for them to help!  Here I am reading with a kindergarten buddy who was so eager and very excited about reading :)

 
 After Readers Workshop they record their reading in their log.  For every 15 minutes they read they record a step- so typically on a day at school they would record 2 steps and then soon when they begin their home steps they will record 2 at home :)  This is an example of Mrs. Baughman's class recording in their logs.

So that's just a portion of ARC... I hope to show you more soon!

 Now all classes are up and Running with ST Math... way to go WES!!!  Please let me know if you would like support with ST math during your math time :)

Weekly Update #3

This week was very busy with ST Math!  I supported some initial work within this new program we have at WES! In fact I didn't really take many pictures this week :(  However, I think I did have my hands on over 100 IPADS :) supporting teachers as they load ST Math!

I have noticed overall that the kids really like ST Math.  I am working on sharing a notes page for the next few weeks so that teachers can get plenty of information.

So my favorite moment of the week was when this kindergarten friend said,"I can't wait to tell my mom I am learning math!"

  In addition this week I spent time participating in our first extended PLC meetings of the year, sorry I didn't take any pictures. 
I will do better next week. :)

The other part of my week was spent learning more about ARC and IRLA in order to be an additional support for k-2 teachers in the implementation of this new program.

The one thing I saw is that some teachers have tabbed their IRLA, here is an example of one that I saw:

 This makes it very easy to get to each section as you are leveling.