Make Your Mark!

Westfield Elementary Dot Day Celebration

Students proudly display their dots.

Teacher Leadership comes in many forms at Linn-Mar.  Not only do we have full time coaches and strategists that were willing to leave their classrooms to devote their time to strengthen adult learning and work with their peers, we all so have around 130 classroom teachers that were so devoted to their classrooms, they chose to teach full time AND take on additional responsibilities in the areas of curriculum, model teaching, and leading teams and initiatives that Linn-Mar is implementing.

When we think about building capacity of our leadership program it starts with teachers.  Building rapport, establishing trust, and collaborating with peers to improve what we do on a daily basis is at the heart of strengthening and growing our program.  This week I had the privilege of seeing some of our in-classroom teacher leaders show how collaboration and planning can impact student learning.

Deb Wegmann(left) Sarah Doyle(center) Ashley Messerli(right) proudly sport their dots
and enjoy the celebration of creativity at Westfield Elementary

Meet Deb Wegmann.  She is the librarian/media specialist at Westfield. She is also an elementary curriculum facilitator.  She traveled to ITEC, a technology conference in Des Moines with Sarah, Doyle, 4th grade teacher and 3rd-5th curriculum facilitator, and Ashley Messerli, 3rd grade teacher, and elementary program leader.  They were fortunate to hear Peter Reynold's Presentation about fostering creativity and innovation in our students today and helping them discover how to "Make their Mark" on the world.  His presentation left a mark on these three educators.  They came back to their school and immediately went to work planning their own school-wide DOT DAY, inspired by Peter's Reynolds book, The Dot.  Wegmann, Messerli, and Doyle planned a variety of literacy, art, and other activities that took place over two days in November.

Students created their dots showcasing their unique personalities and talents.

Not only did these three teachers plan activities for students to create in the library, they collaborated with other teachers in various content areas within their building.  Elementary physical education teacher, Chanda Mooney, and Art Teacher Michael Brandt(also a curriculum facilitator) got in on the day's events.  Mrs. Mooney planned gross motor activities that embraced the dot theme.  They created the largest human dot-to-dot in gym and played dot tag.  Mr. Brandt created a space for teachers to make their own dots and has plans to make some permanent dots in their school.

The Dot takes Westfield Elementary by storm.

This unified effort to promote communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity in classrooms is a great reminder that everything we plan and do in education should be about students. At Linn-Mar we are so lucky to have teachers, administrators, staff, and support personnel help our students "MAKE THEIR MARK" within school walls and beyond.

If you haven't read the The Dot by Peter Reynolds, please follow the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CHBrRyPb2I

Enjoy!

Extreme Makeover Classroom Edition

Teacher Leaders preparing for the Classroom Makeover Reveal

MOVE THAT BUS!  This familiar phrase from the TV home makeover show took on a new meaning at Wilkins Elementary last week.  While teachers had a work day to complete report forms and curriculum work, a task force of teacher leaders whisked into a kindergarten classroom to tackle interior design and maximize classroom space.

This makeover was the brain child of Carol Kesl, elementary mentor coach.  After working with first and second year teachers the first quarter of the year she decided to host a drawing and surprise one first year teacher with a classroom makeover.  Her budget was small.  In fact it was $0. So Carol relied on the generosity of her fellow teachers to donate items and money toward the project.  Carol, hosted the drawing at a monthly book club meeting she hosts for first year teachers and then met with the lucky recipient to discuss ideas, themes, and what the teacher wanted help with.  The lucky recipient was Molly Wickham, kindergarten teacher at Wilkins Elementary.  Molly was fortunate to be a last minute hire, the first week that Linn-Mar opened for classes this fall.  This was exciting, but Molly didn't have the time before school started to set up her classroom completely the way she envisioned.  Winning this drawing was a fun way to perk up her classroom and give her time to complete other tasks on her work day, such as report forms, and lesson planning.

Kindergarten Classroom Before and During

Many hands do make light work.  Put eight teacher leaders in a room for seven and a half hours and what you get is a freshly cleaned, organized, and spectacular room.  These eight veteran teachers were able to help this first year teacher clearly define learning and working spaces, find creative uses for nooks and crannies in her classroom, layout teacher materials in key areas, and put away non-essential items for later use.  It has been said that sometimes we don't know what we don't know, and having an extra set of hands and eyes, to help us figure it out is sometimes all we need.

Kindergarten Classroom After

Teacher Leader Makeover Team

Below you will find a link to a video of the day's events created by two of our Technology Integration Coaches.  We hope to make this classroom makeover idea a permanent piece of the mentor program each year.  Our mentor coaches are looking into securing some funding sources to help keep this in place as well as to grow the plan.  Wouldn't it be nice to complete a classroom makeover for each level:  elementary, middle, and high school?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_MCovY-GFc&feature=youtu.be