Kiker's Strength-Based Learning Cohort

Happy Friday! Your child has their First Quarter report card in their Take Home section of their red folder. We wanted to touch base on a few points. First off, 3rd Grade has letter grades for the first time. It is an adjustment! The kids have really been working hard on developing and maintaining a growth mindset about themselves and their learning. They know it's a process...one that they are always getting better at, and that it takes time. We know grades are a type of marking, but they DO NOT define your child as a learner. Keep in mind the student reflections, their evidence of quality work, and the teacher/student report on where they are in the process of mastering the standards. We strive for the deep understanding where they know concepts so well that they can not just show, but explain, their learning and processes. Your child knows that their locus of control is their effort in ALL the parts of learning -- engagement, listening, accuracy, questioning, and repea...

We have really enjoyed with meeting with all of our family units this past week! 45 meetings is a lot, and it does take time, but we truly value both teachers getting that time to sit down with each of you. Thanks too, for your work last weekend going through the notebooks! Know that your child can bring them home to review with you anytime -- just make sure they return them the very next day. We work with the notebooks every day. Thursday night, your child brought home a permission slip to join NASA's Name the Rover Contest. We are endeavoring to write our first polished expository piece through this opportunity. If you don't give permission, no problem -- they will write the same piece, I just won't enter them in the contest. It's a perfect way to show them in an authentic, motivational way how to write to a prompt, choose a central idea, and explain with examples (in 150 words or less -- they'll have to be precise!). In reading, we are researching through n...

We have spent this week taking time to look back at all the learning, process, and growing we have done. The kids have looked through all of their notebooks and reviewed work products, work habits, and rubrics. Reading, writing, math, and word work notebooks all came home today. We talked to students about their responsibility in this. They need to set up or ask you for a specific time that works for you to review their work. Sit side by side and go through each notebook. They will be able to talk you through each activity and what it means. There is a reflection sheet -- one for math and one for ELA -- for you to fill out and return. As you go through, remember the questions/approach we talked about at Back to School Night. In addition, keep in mind that the kids definitely have a growth mindset and are already setting goals in areas they know are wanting to get better at. In reading, we definitely have a solid theory of Red's struggle. Now we are using each piece to make sens...

Our morning message today challenged us to think back over the past 7 weeks. We've been developing some new, positive habits, and we reflected on that. "I am completing my Learning Habits," "I'm taking mindful breaths before I act," "I'm not rushing and going back to check to make sure my work is complete," were just a few comments. SO exciting! In reading, our journey with Red has brought us to the point where we are able to identify the STRUGGLE Red has, and how each event, or problem, ties into it. MAN! Good stuff. It really helps bring the whole book together, especially now that we are moving into learning how to summarize text in our own words. We will find that we don't have to retell everything...it all fits together as a whole. We are expanding the depth of exploring specific quotes and seeing the power when we pause and think. In writing, we are beginning a new descriptive technique called "Come To..." which has us u...