Welcome to Writer's Workshop

Submitted by Tammy DiPonio

The teachers at Paxton School spent their PLC time last Wednesday with staff developer, Steve Peha. One of the Paxton school improvement initiatives is to increase writing skills. In order to strengthen writing for students, teachers learned about the writing workshop model. As educators we talk a lot about best practices, ways to reach our students so that they attain learning goals. The writing workshop model is a best practice strategy that can have a positive impact on students’ writing attitudes as well as performance on tests. Mr. Peha also worked with students on Thurday and Friday while teachers observed. Thank you to Jennifer Day and Mr. Searcey for coordinating this event. We know that this professional development will constructively influence student learning. Hats off to Paxton staff! Steve said that the Paxton teachers had the best questions from any teaching staff in a couple of years!

Visit Steve’s website to learn more www.ttms.org

Living Ish-ly
by Dr. Mike Reik

Time continues to fly by and we are looking at our Thanksgiving break next week. My days are filled with appointments, meetings, budgets, student achievement goals and strategic planning. Nothing brings me into the real world of education like visiting classrooms and spending time with our students.

Last week I had just that opportunity. Thanks to Mrs. Silver’s first grade class for the invitation to be a “celebrity reader.” To most of these students I am not much of a celebrity, most wonder who in the world I am, but I know of one student who considered it a special treat to have her uncle come and read to her class.

I read the book, Ish, to this group of Siegrist students. We should all take a lesson from Ramon and look at life ‘ishly. It isn’t so much making sure what you say, draw or experience is perfect, but more important that you engage and enjoy all of those things that you do. So, I can say to our students, I am superintendent-ish. Enjoying and engaging in all of my responsibilities, especially being celebrity-ish!

Educators become the students

by Tammy DiPonio

While students were gearing up for Halloween festivities, the Platte County staff participated in a day long professional development day. Pre-kindergarten through high school teachers worked with author and national educational consultant, Larry Ainsworth. One of Ainsworth’s nine books is titled Unwrapping the Standards and is an excellent read.

After Ainsworth’s keynote presentation, teachers and administrators spent time “unwrapping” state standards, determining grade level and content clarity, creating and evaluating what quality assessment questions look like. How does this help our students? When teachers are clear on what they are teaching, they work together to plan for student learning and create assessments that match the intended learning. The goal is to ensure that these best practice strategies are happening in every classroom and reaching every student.

Many of our district teachers also took on the role as presenters. They facilitated breakout sessions on a variety of topics such as Algebra Tiles, Differentiated Instruction, Grant Writing, SIS K12, and Reading Workshop, just to name a few. Our staff was so impressive!

The Platte County School District is proud to work as a Professional Learning Community promoting educators as learners, teachers teaching teachers and continuous improvement… in the end all of this = student success, student achievement, student growth.