Kiker's Strength-Based Learning Cohort

We learned new rhythm and enjoyed the West African Djembe drums! It was exciting to learn how our hands (plus goat leather) make incredible sounds. Our field trip to the Bob Bullock proved to be another fabulous learning experience! Thanks to all the wonderful chaperones who helped us navigate the three floors of artifacts. Seeing pieces that Stephen F. Austin penned and actual cannons brought history to life. If you haven't been to the Bullock in a while, it's had some amazing renovations in the past few years -- worth it to go back!! We enjoyed a Keynotes concert that featured many of our 4th grade singers. Awesome job to all of our performers and soloists! Third graders learned about electricity with a presentation by Austin Energy. The Van de Graf generator was by far their favorite part...a truly hair-raising experience! We have been pursuing deep understanding of expository text by analyzing what makes an effective Introduction, Body (Example...

On Tuesday, 4th grade attended the Austin Symphony at the Long Center. Music, singing, and a bus ride all gussied up -- what could be better?! In all subjects, we have been examining what it means to understand our learning on a surface, deep, and transfer level. We are looking at our work not as a grade, but as an opportunity to evaluate how well we know the LEARNING intentions. There's a big difference between completing an assignment and really UNDERSTANDING what the concepts are in the task. In ELA we have been looking at Word Work with those levels in mind. We've recognized that we need to put full effort into our centers -- the whole 15 minutes -- to really be practicing the words or language skill. We will be sending notebooks home soon -- you will see a marked difference! We have also been honing our skills with determining importance with our 5 word strategy. It's a tough one -- only choosing 5 words that are important to the section is challenging, bu...

This week we continued our focus on integrity. We thought about how we can reach out and be a friend, how we can do things without being asked, and we can take care of materials (treat them like treasures!). In ELA, we have looked with a writer's eye at editing. It is essential that we look at our writing thoroughly after we draft to insure accurate spelling and punctuation. We are learning to embrace that extra effort it takes to go back and check carefully. We revisited our Texas tree Vignettes too. We revised with fresh eyes. It was important to check back with our research to make sure our stories were accurate. It was a bit messy, but we are so glad that, with this later look, we were able to create pieces that will help our readers understand the events more clearly. Writers are also drafting important expository text based off of their heart maps. Ask them about their subjects! We are enjoying writing about things we care about! In reading, we used our 5 word strateg...

This week we focused on the word integrity. We discussed how it's not just "doing the right thing when no one is looking," it's being true to the values we hold. It's our words, our actions, our habits...that show what we believe. Integrity goes way past saying things -- it's the follow through that counts. In addition, it has EVERYTHING to do with how we treat people. We've also been pausing in all kinds of circumstances to think about how our decisions and words have a ripple effect EVERY TIME and affect EVERYONE. Lots to chew on. We are digging deep into how to develop ideas with specific details in our writing, and we had the opportunity to write about something we each care about. We created our own prompts, outlined, and drafted our expository pieces. Next week, revision and editing! Our reading study included a strategy called "5 Words." It's an amazing (almost magical) way to summarize sections and entire pieces of nonfiction te...

This week we focused on the power of our words. We considered the impact they have to bring people up, or bring them down. Our words have the power to make situations better or worse. Please have your SBLCer check his or her red folder for pink spring conference forms. Thanks for sending your spring conference preference slip back with your kiddo on ASAP so we can make time to meet on Monday, 2/17 if needed.  We're wrapping up several weeks of powerful fraction work and made some meaningful connections between fractions and measurement. Starting with distances around the room, student pairs created a unique distance measurement and labeled a measuring tape from 0 to 2 whole units. This rigorous task involved lots of comparing and ordering fractions, folding to create evenly spaced intervals, and effective collaboration. Your child can tell you about their creative unit name, which classroom objects they measured, and the feedback they gave/received from others. We started o...

This week our focus has challenged us to "be the world to one," rather than just "one in the world." Discussions have run deep with how our actions and words truly have an impact on everyone around us. We also talked about how all of us: humanity and nature make the music of this world, and without our unique voice, that music is missing something. Discover what you want to add to the music. Speak up. Say something. We wrestled with big history this week. We celebrated  Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and The Little Rock 5, Ruby Bridges, and the thousands of others who took a stand during the Civil Rights Era. To understand this better, we looked at primary source pictures -- these leaders, their actions, their speeches, their marches -- which brought them to life. We examined timelines and asked powerful questions. Again, another opportunity to look at the world -- right now -- and ask, "How can I be the world to one? What do I want to say that makes...