Thursday, March 20, 2014

Time for Spring, African Drums & PSI!!!


Top o' the morning to you! Spring is a welcome season to the Chicago area this year! 


The African drums have made their way to Dryden! Students are enjoying the sounds and rhythms of these beautiful instruments. This is "hands-on" learning at its finest!


You may have heard of Google's 20% time to promote their employees' creativity and innovation. At Dryden and across Arlington Heights School District 25, a similar experience is being piloted in classrooms called Problem-Solving Innovation time (PSI). 

Students pose their own question, problem, or challenge of interest and then design a plan to explore this inquiry and, ultimately, share their findings with others.

As the students explore their own interests, they are active documenters of their learning, ongoing reflectors of their progress, and continuous self-assessors.

The PSI experience is designed to help students develop District 25’s Habits of Mind that can be applied to the learning that is of great importance and interest to them personally.



The skills they learn as part of the PSI experience are skills which can be applied to all learning. The PSI experience is an educational journey in which children can learn about themselves and the ways in which they respond to challenges and obstacles.


Students come to understand the value of reflection as a portal to learning and understanding as well as the benefits of self-assessment and peer critique. 







Thursday, March 13, 2014

Teachnology and More!

On Wednesday, evening our school district held its first Teachnology Fair. It was delightful! Students led presentations and poster-sessions about different technology tools they use to enhance their learning and creativity.  I learned about so many wonderful new ways to use technology.

 "Grab It" is a great tool for importing images into your presentations.

You can design, play and share your own computer games at challengeyou.com

The Fugleflicks Art Club showed how they used the Doink Green Screen app to incorporate human video with student-illustrated animation. 

Blabberize brought a slide show research project on dingos to life. The dingos "spoke" facts about themselves in a student-recorded Australian accent. How clever!

Scratch is a kid-friendly program that teaches computer-coding to create animations, stories and games. 


 4th & 5th Grade Volleyball Night was a blast. The evening was full of friendly competition, teamwork and fun. I was so proud of our students, because for many, this was their first time playing volleyball. 

 Thanks to the many PTA moms and dads who volunteered their time to make this such a great experience for the children. They were awesome coaches, referees, scorekeepers, concession stand workers and time keepers! 



 Schools all across the state practice tornado drills this time of year. 
Our students know how to play it safe!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Habits of Mind

At Dryden Elementary School and throughout Arlington Heights School District 25, we strive to nurture "Habits of Mind" (as identified in the work of Arthur L. Costa) in our students and in ourselves. Habits of Mind  are the dispositions that successful people skillfully and mindfully use when confronted with challenging problems. Following are the Habits of Mind our district emphasizes:

Persisting: Sticking to it! Perservering in a task to its completion. Remaining focused. Looking for ways to reach your goal when stuck. Not giving up 

Thinking about Thinking (Metacognition): Being aware of your own thoughts, strategies, feelings, actions and their effects on others. 


Questioning and Posing Problems: Having a questioning attitude. Knowing what data are needed, and developing questioning strategies to produce those data. Finding problems to solve. 


Thinking and Communicating with Clarity and Precision: Striving for accurate communication in both written and oral forms. Avoiding over-generalizations, distortions, deletions and exaggerations.


Creating, Imagining and Innovating: Trying a different way. Generating new and novel ideas with fluency and originality.


Thinking Interdependently: Working together. Being able to work with and learn from others in reciprocal situations. Working as a team.


Thinking Flexibly: Looking at things in a different way. Being able to change perspectives, generate alternative and consider options. 



Striving for Accuracy: Checking your work. Always doing your best. Setting high standards. Finding ways to constantly improve. 



Applying Past Knowledge to New Situations: Using what you learn. Accessing prior knowledge beyond the situation in which it was learned. 


Remaining Open to Continuous Learning: Having the mindset "I have so much more to learn!" Having humility and pride when admitting we don't know. Resisting complacency.


Additional resources can be found at habitsofmind.org