Text Box:   The Lion’s Den April 7, 2008  

Text Box: Something to Think About:   “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”  Albert Einstein        

 

Text Box: School Announcements Social Studies teachers should be aware that this coming school year a portion of the 8th grade social studies course will be devoted to career and education planning.  This is a state mandate which must be implemented by the 2008-2009 school year.  If you are an 8th grade social studies teacher and interested in being a part of the planning process for this course please email Clay Austin, Social Studies Supervisor.  The first meeting will be held on April 15th from 4 – 5 at Darnell-Cookman Middle School.   Our spring sports teams are off to a running start!  We encourage the Landon faculty to support our students and coaches.  Additionally, we are still in need of assistance with supervision at athletic events on April 15th, April 24th, April 28th and May 5th.  Please see Ms. Kimbrough if you can assist.   The Times-Union is offering a special 20 page workbook entitled, “The Holocaust.”  If you are interested in participating please email Lavonderick.campbell@jacksonville.com.  Teachers can order these items in bundles of 35.    The Shcultz Center has just announced the launch of the “Aspiring Leaders Academy.”  This academy will allow teachers who have a Master’s Degree and three years of teaching experience to obtain their Educational Leadership Certification with no cost.  Please see Dr. Coker-Daniel if you have met these two criteria and are interested in pursuing this program.  She has all program and application information.   For Early Release on April 16th we will be completing an online Professional Development Survey.  We will meet in the NWEA Lab for this activity.   If you have not completed the ITTS survey please do so by Wednesday of this week.  Please email Ms. Fenton when you have completed the survey and she will check your name of the school list.   Spring NWEA dates are April 14th through the 25th.       

 

Text Box: Rigor in Our School Here’s an easy way of introducing the idea of rigor to your students which will work in the context of any discipline.  It involves listening, reading, note taking, sharing in groups, and writing.   Choose a brief, rigorous text (or work problem) to present to your class. The text is read aloud twice by the teacher---once so students can work on note taking and retelling, and again so they can explore mildly higher-order questions. After the second reading, students discuss in small groups the meaning of the text in terms of some guiding questions posed by the teacher.  While the students discuss, the teacher circulates, listens, and coaches the discussion. At the conclusion of the session the teacher assigns a product (a set of notes, a retelling, an essay) to be completed as a homework assignment. Take the process and tweak it to meet your instructional needs.  Be creative.  The important thing is that whatever you do, you use rigor to stretch your students’ minds.