It is a significant moment in time. ISAT week brings with it the last set of ISATs our children will experience in District 97. I suppose that after this week, the countdown can start at different points. The weather is changing, and with it, the thoughts of what lies next should be entering the minds of our students. With this, we progress into the week ahead:
Monday:
Introduce Station
Rotation. Outline what you need to do and what must be done in order to
define success. Form your groups and hit your first station. Have you finished everything on your
checklist from last week? If not, get
it done.
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Find your 15 minutes. Enrichment reading: Read this article by
Anna Quindlen.
Write up any thoughts you have about it and, perhaps, even the best
line from it and explain why you feel the way you do.
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Tuesday:
Report to the station you left off at yesterday. Continue
your rotation. Have you finished everything on your checklist from last
week? If not, get it done.
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Find your 15 minutes. Enrichment reading: Read pages 39 to 43
of the following excerpt from Ed Whelchel’s book on teaching history. What are your thoughts? Represent
them any way you wish.
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Wednesday:
Report to the station you left off at yesterday. Continue
your rotation. Have you finished
everything on your checklist from last week?
If not, get it done.
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Find your 15 minutes.
Enrichment reading: Read this article from Alfie Kohn, a
fairly interesting cat.
So, whaddya think? Digitally display your findings.
(Go on DW, wordle it!)
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Thursday:
Report to the station you left off at yesterday. Continue
your rotation.
Have you finished everything on your checklist from last
week? If not, get it done.
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Find your 15 minutes. Diane Ravitch is an interesting
thinker. At her blog, read this article. What are your thoughts on this?
Discuss your findings with a colleague who has also read it and
represent your findings in any way you wish. (Wouldn’t it be cool if
you both actually read the blog together? So many students opt to be
with friends so much, wouldn’t it make sense that you and your friends
embrace the path of scholarship side by side with one another in reading
educational blogs? I mean, is that what defines social popularity these
days? “Yeah, I didn’t go to the movies Friday night- That’s played out-
Instead, I read Ravitch’s blog on standardized testing. Take that,
social popularity!)
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Friday:
Report to the station you left off at yesterday. Continue your
rotation. Have you finished everything
on your checklist from last week? If
not, get it done.
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Find your 15 minutes. Enrichment reading: Click here for another blog, this time from
Berkeley. Read over the
article. Pay special attention to the drawing from the elementary
school student. What does it say when a child of elementary school age
would draw such a picture? Through such a picture, what is wrong with
our current system of education? How can we make right that which does
such harm to so many students?
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Best of luck to our students this week. Tommy Guns' Money is due soon. Finally, I want to extend a personal thank you to so many of our students/ parents who donated so that other students may go to Tommy Guns'. The cost of the field trip is a challenge, but it is made easier with generous people who kicked in five or seven dollars for another child to go. Many thanks. In a world where there is a lack of generosity and compassion, it is nice to see 8.2 families represent those elements that are best in pursuit of "the good, the true, and the beautiful"... as well as the affordable.
Thanks so much.
Mr. Kannan
