Learning Together

The first days and weeks of school have been filled with positive energy and excitement. It was so nice to see staff welcoming our students as they took their first steps off the bus and into our classrooms. It is hard to believe that October is here but it brings our team an opportunity to connect with staff in each building.

The Office of Instruction team has identified a goal to bring our instructional focus to life in a way that resonates with all teachers at all levels, using common language and expectations for what we mean when we talk about rigorous instruction. Throughout the year, we are hoping you will see this come to life in our newsletters and during faculty meeting visits. In order to understand the definition in a way that makes sense and matters to you and your students, we will be facilitating five experiences with you during faculty meetings throughout the year. During each visit, we will focus on one of the five components of rigor, and the first up for October is Culturally Responsive.

We look forward to this opportunity and hope that our newsletters also highlight and provide examples of rigorous instruction in action.

Kindergarten is a busy place filled with many new experiences and opportunities to develop independence. Check out some of our students below practicing what readers and writers do at school. You will notice instructional strategies are varied to meet different learning styles and readiness levels. In one classroom, while students practice one-to-one correspondence in small reading groups, another young writer works independently to illustrate a story about a green poisonous snake on the playground near the swings! Next door students construct puzzles, work with Wikki Sticks, and explore authentic environmental print to reinforce knowledge that print has meaning. In another class the teacher models proper letter formation using a research-based, multi-sensory, hands-on approach and students practice independently.

How are your students challenged to demonstrate independent learning skills?

The fourth-grade team at Walt Disney introduced a Readers Response Notebook in Schoology to allow students to showcase what they know and make connections with other learners. Open-ended questions push students to think critically and develop their higher order thinking skills. Schoology format helps students be engaged, accountable and connected to teacher and classmates.

How could open-ended questions in Schoology connect your students and their ideas?

Sixth-grade teachers collaborated to integrate science content with math skills. Students watched one teacher demonstrate in a recorded video while the other teacher facilitated students as they created a scale model of the planets and their distance from the sun, each other, and the earth. Students were able to use cross-disciplinary knowledge and their work naturally integrated science and math.

Think about some innovative ways that you can tap into the expertise of your colleagues to collaborate.

Students used a variety of technology and traditional tools to match graphical representations with their own motion as they walked across the classroom or hallway. They engaged in collaborative critical thinking to analyze and revise their work to draw conclusions and increase their accuracy.

When do your students have opportunities to self-check and revise their work?

Those required to Register for CTLE and accumulate 100 Continuing Teacher and Leader Education (CTLE) hours need 15% or 15 of those hours to be dedicated to Language Acquisition. This means that coursework should address the needs of English Language Learners (ELLs), even if you have not yet had ELLs on your class rosters. Districts with fewer than 30 English Language Learners (ELLs) enrolled, or ELLs comprise less than 5% of the district's total student population, may apply for an exemption, however, Gates Chili does not qualify for the exemption. This means any Gates Chili staff who must accumulate CTLE hours must also have 15% of these hours reflect the NYSED's CTLE Language Acquisition Requirement.

On Oct. 8, applicable instructional staff may accrue up to 3 hours towards this Language Acquisition requirement. Certificates will be made available for those who may need one and you can upload a copy into your portfolio in Frontline.