Dragonfly Digest

Happy 2 school days before a much needed break. Below is the weekly blog for this coming week and next week. Please let me know if you have any questions. Between now and Winter Break, I will be focusing on only one reading strategy in hopes that we, as a team, can explore it fully and begin to utilize it throughout the school. That WICOR Reading Strategy is the QAR Strategy. This week, I'd just like you to review the strategy and if you're already using it, please send me an email when you can. The next blog post will include a video of QAR in action. Thanks again for all you do and how flexible each of you are as issues comes our way. Hold on...the break is near. Because I am so grateful to each of you, please enjoy wearing jeans this coming Monday and Tuesday!  Enjoy. Also...on 12/3/23, I will release the 12 Days of Christmas celebration for staff and more surprises and treats and fun and jeans will be shared then.  Staff Birthdays 11/21: Bedore 11/25: Meyer 11/29: Ant...

This week I have one of my favorite stories that I heard during my principal internship in 2006-2007. When my mentor shared the story way back then, it stuck with me and I have shared it with others when I would sensed it was needed. I hope you enjoy this tale and more importantly you can see the connection between the story and the truth that all of us...no matter our role...are connected. The Rat Trap (Author Unknown) A rat looked through a crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife opening a package. What food might it contain? He was aghast to discover that it was a rat trap. Retreating to the barnyard the rat proclaimed the warning; “There’s a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!” The chicken clucked and scratched, raised her head and said, “Excuse me, Mr. Rat, I can tell this is a grave concern to you, but it is of no consequence to me. I cannot be bothered by it.” The rat turned to the pig and told him, “There’s a rat trap in the house, a rat trap in the house!”...

We have quickly transitioned into the month of November and for November and December I will be sharing Inquiry and Reading Strategies with you in the blog. I have been sharing Reading strategies since school began so I first wanted to start by explaining what Inquiry means in the AVID.  As educators, we usually use questioning to uncover students' understanding and since last year you have heard about DOK and how to increase the rigor by the questioning you use. Another way you can uncover student thinking and engage them at a higher level is my using an Inquiry strategy from AVID/WICOR. Costa's Levels of Inquiry is a way to help you and students recognize  different levels of questions and this is beneficial for all students and areas of learning. To learn more, you can read more HERE or you could watch a quick (3 minute YouTube video) below. For those of use that have been in education for awhile, this sounds very familiar to Bloom's Taxonomy. I will say that I LO...