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Spring Spotlight #1

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The Living Wax Museum I was invited to Metropolis Elementary School last week to view the 4th grade students' Living Wax Museum.  I had never heard of anything exactly like this before and made it a point to attend.  When I arrived, I found all the fourth grade students lined up around the gym posing as famous Americans.  Each student had a display of facts about their person, and most were dressed in costumes to appear as their historical figure did when they were alive.  The students were also describing their historical figure's achievements in first person to all the visitors as we walked around this living museum.  These displays and re-enactments were quite impressive.  I met everyone from George Crum to Susan B. Anthony in the gym that morning.  Students from other grade levels were also allowed to visit the museum and learn about these individuals from these fourth grade students.  I even saw several parents visiting and learning from these students.  I asked the f
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January Spotlight

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STEM Activities: From Building Code to Building Bridges and Everything in Between.  This spotlight comes over a month late.  There are so many good things coming from this spotlight classroom that is was hard to find a stopping point for the ongoing examples.  The pictures above are from Melissa Thomasson's third grade class at Jefferson Elementary School.  Mrs. Thomasson is one of those teachers that always seems to stay ahead of the curve by consistently implementing cutting-edge teaching strategies within her classroom.  The latest examples of this include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) activities, and she has implemented many over the last couple of years.  When asked about these activities, Mrs. Thomasson stated: "First off, STEM education is vital to our children’s futures!  There is just no other way to put it.  Many of the careers they will have as adults don’t even exist yet, and yet we are faced with the task of preparing them for whatever l
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December Spotlight

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December Spotlight This December Spotlight was an easy choice after the 2017 MCHS/MJHS Christmas Concert.  Even though Ms. Gallip and Mr. Hannan packed this concert with about seventy minutes of music, the event seemed to last only moments.  The audience was treated to performances by the MJHS Band, MJHS Choir, MCHS Band, MCHS Jazz Band, MCHS Choir and countless other ensembles.  Over 165 students participated in these performances, which accounts for almost 20% of the total student body at MCHS and MJHS. Program Designed by Sam Coram As many of you know, one out of five students involved in performance arts such as this is really quite remarkable for our area.  This really speaks volumes about the immeasurable effort put forth by Ms. Gallip and Mr. Hannan as well as all the parents who support their children in the Arts.  There is a strong correlation between participation in extracurricular activities such as these and success in schools.  Even more, research suggests that
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November Spotlight

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November Spotlight     Plickers & Student-Created Assessment Items Aligned to Learning Targets Aligned to Standards In my short time as superintendent, I have been amazed at all of the creative ideas and strategies that I have witnessed just by making time for some random classroom visits.  Because these visits are completely random and unannounced, I know these strategies and techniques are routine and occurring regularly in these classrooms.  This really says something about our staff and their relentless efforts to continuously improve student learning in their classrooms.  One of these visits occurred early in November at Unity Elementary.  I actually dropped by Unity to observe Mr. Climan utilize Plickers with his P.E. classes.  I was recently made aware of Plicker cards and how they can be used for quick formative assessment through an online webinar.   After asking administrators
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