Highlights 2/1/13

News

..... and just like that, this school year is half over.   Time is flying!!

Digital Learning Day is this Wednesday, February 6.  If you have something planned for the day, please post it on the Digital Learning Day Google Doc.   If you have not planned something for the day, please consider putting something together   We do so many amazing things here at WHS.   This day gives us a chance to showcase them all on one day.  Make it fun!  Make it interactive!  Try something totally new!  Take a risk! 

Counting today, we have 17 school days till HSPA.  Testing dates are 3/5, 3/6 & 3/7.  


Important Dates:

1. Monday, February 25 - Testing Meeting for HSPA 3:10 to 3:30pm.   
2. Wednesday, February 27 - District faculty meeting with Dr. Raupers for all instructional staff in the Little Theater.   The purpose of the meeting is to update everyone on the implementation plan for the new evaluation system which goes into effect September, 2013.  
3. Monday, March 4 - Testing Meeting for HSPA 3:10 to 3:30pm

School Highlights - Blog/Twitter Posts: 

Joe D'Agustine Memorial Wrestling Tournament 

WordWright Challenge - Congratulations Peter Stahl & Dan Scherb

PD Resources 

Below is an excerpt from a Blog post written by Tom Whitby, who you can follow on Twitter at  @tomwhitby.  He is the founder of #edchat which is probably the most popular and meaningful educational twitter chat out there right now.   #edchat happens every Tuesday twice a day at 12pm & 7pm.  He also maintains a Ning called The Educators PLN which is a great site to connect with other educators, resources, educational blogs etc.  

EDUCUN: Shift Happens - Link to complete Blog Post

What I came away with was to me a more relevant idea as an educator. I saw a focus on teaching learning as a skill and not a consequence of content delivery. The ideas of thoughtful, and deep questioning of a subject, before tackling it, as a problem to solve was a striking revelation. The idea of teaching the use of the process to acquire the content knowledge as opposed to just providing the content made so much more sense to me. All of this emphasized the “How” to learn as opposed to “What’ to learn. I saw this as a much more meaningful goal for educators. Teaching the skill of learning as the focus of the lessons is a shift from what many do. Learning too often is a consequence of content being poured into the heads of students. Some students get it some students don’t. Throw enough wet spaghetti at the wall and some will stick. That seems to be a hit or miss method for success. More often than not, there is less success. 

T. Whitby