Reading with the Principal at Horace Mann

During the summer of 2018, I was VERY fortunate to attend a week of professional development sessions focused on our district's Reading Workshop.  I learned so much from the knowledgeable and enthusiastic presenters at the training.  Because I attended with Emerson Principal Denice Leddy, I had lots of great opportunities to learn from her, too.  

We attended all kinds of sessions, some of the geared specifically toward building administrators who wanted to understand our role in the work.  How do we support teachers?  Students?  Parents?  The goals of Workshop are lofty, and we know our best collaborative effort is needed!

In particular, I wondered how I could encourage students while becoming familiar with the detailed work kids need to do in the different text levels.  Mrs. Leddy had a great suggestion - Why not read with individual students, doing an informal mini-conference to praise their effort and skill?

Well, a mission for me was born!  I had comment cards printed and set out a schedule for the year.  If I was going to read with almost 300 kids, I would need a plan...

Fast forward to the present, halfway through the year.  I'm thrilled to report that I've read with half of our student body (I started with 5th grade and am working my way to Kindergarten, giving them time to build their reading skills).  My time doing this with kids has been all I hoped and more - the "more" is that it is SO MUCH FUN!

I encourage kids to show their compliment cards to their teachers and parents, so I hope many of you have seen them.  I welcome any feedback and also ideas about a possible mission for 2019-20 🙂

I'll be starting the primary grades in February (2nd, then 1st then K), so keep an eye out for your child's card!  I hope you are enjoying reading with them at home as much as I am at school.  If we can provide any support to make it more fun, please let us know.

Horace Mann Sticks Together

Be Kind® Stick Together® is a FREE, character education program offered to schools and youth organizations by Project Love® and Duck Tape® in an effort to provide a fun and different way for students to explore the important social-emotional learning concepts of kindness and sticking together to combat bullying and negative behaviors.

As part of our ongoing positive behavior instruction and supports theme of developing kindness, four Lakewood High School/West Shore Career Tech students presented this program to Horace Mann 3rd - 5th graders today. Thank you Abbie, Emily, Safiya, and Sophie (and their teacher Emily Stephenson) for leading these great mini-assemblies!

Kids thought about how kindness makes them feel, and unkindness (referred to as bullying in this program...even though there are important distinctions), too. They had the opportunity to use a magic wand to change something about how people act and wrote a personal commitment about doing their part to Stick Together. The highlight of the program was writing their names on Duck Tape and sticking them to a big banner, indicating they are on board!









The Stick Together program has a different activity for younger kids, and we worked with them today, too...with our own Horace Mann spin. The children's book Bomba the Brave tells the story of a rabbit named Bomba who started brave, had trouble with some friends at school, got help from a friend, and then made up with the bully bunny. The book was illustrated by Kim Soderberg, parent of two Horace Mann students. We are grateful to Mrs. Soderberg for joining us today to read the story (written by Denise Dufala), talk about its lessons and show us how to draw Bomba. We hope kids had fun coloring their very own picture of Bomba afterwards. Thank you Mrs. Soderberg for sharing this sweet book and character with us, and to Mrs. Megan Milanich and Mrs. Debbie Baker for helping out, too. We really do hope there will be a Bomba sequel :)








Mrs. Soderberg reads Bomba to our PK and 1st graders







...and then shows us how she draws him from circles!

Welcome to 2019 - Powered by BBQ

As we returned to Horace Mann for the first time in 2019, it was clear that students and staff rested up over our Winter Break.  Although we enjoyed our time off, it was wonderful to be back together again!

The big work of last week was our Data Team Meetings.  Teachers in grades K-5 reviewed reading and math data in order to group students for intervention and collaborate about the interventions being provided.  As we compared fall testing data with the results of testing in December, we were impressed with the growth our students have made.  Big props to students, families and teachers for the strong work so far this year👍

Looking ahead to this week, I hope you will consider partaking of Woodstock BBQ during our PTA's fundraising days (Tue Jan 15 - Thu Jan 17th from 4:00 - 10:00 pm).  If you do, 15% of the proceeds will be donated to the Horace Mann PTA.  Here's a link to Woodstock's website:  https://www.woodstocksmokejoint.com/