Welcome to the home page of Blossom Elementary School, an elementary school that strives to have its students cultivated through the many caring, dedicated, inspirational teachers staffed here. Blossom Elementary School has a warm and caring environment, where children can feel safe and secure while they learn and grow.
At Blossom Elementary, we believe that children are our students need to be treated as individuals. They each learn in their own ways, and we must recognize the strengths of each and every child. We are focused on differentiating instruction to enhance the learning process for each child. We believe that when given the opportunity, every child will be successful.
I encourage you, as members of the community and advocates for your children, to voice your comments, questions, and concerns to me at any time. If there is any suggestion you would like to make, feel free to contact me. Blossom Elementary School, along with every school in Miracle Grow School District, is a learning community made up of students, teachers and other school faculty, administrators, parents, community members, and our Board of Education. Without each other, we would not function as successfully as we do.
Thank you for your continued support.
eecorby@aol.com
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| Blossom Elementary School
Posted by Emily Corby, 6/1/04 at 11:31:39 AM.
The final day of the Journey for this year
Today, July 1, marks the beginning of summer for us in the Miracle Grow School District. As we begin to make plans for a few weeks of rest and relaxation, we reflect upon the steps we have taken to reach the point we are at today.
Through the collaboration between Miracle Grow and Dedicated to Discovery, we realize the strength in and the power of change. When we began our journey, we were two districts working independently. We have since realized the power of teamwork in the change process.
Our districts have focused on the development of six specific areas: the six engines of change. While each of us have the same vision in mind, we have each dedicated ourselves to an area of change. Throughout this process, our main objective was to share with you where we began. Through our blog entries, we have provided you with what we have accomplished. Please (CLICK HERE) to visit the engines of change each of us have developed over the year. Now, we will give you a glimpse of where we are going.
Building citizenship
After deciding upon our focus for our engine of change, we asked ourselves the following questions:
How can we use discipline to develop citizenship?
How can students gain an appreciation for behaviors that are appropriate in a democratic society?
How can we measure positive and negative behavior in school?
How can we promote correct behaviors within the school community?
Once these questions were compiled, we decided where we could find information to assit us in finding the answers to these questions. We wanted to include the school and the extended community and therefore decided that next year, we will devote the first few months to using interviews of students, parents, principals and teachers, surveys given to community members, various policies and procedures from other districts and statistics found through research. Once we have collected the data, we will present it in graphs, reports from surveys and analysis of internal data. We will share our results with the community in an information session where parents, community members, teachers, students and administrators can meet and discuss steps for future action. We look forward to continuing in the process of change with your feedback and your suggestions. Thank you for your patience and support as we venture into the change process and together look to make the students of today our leaders of tomorrow.
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The Need to Inspire
June 28, 2004
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Recently, after attending a writing workshop, I have realized the importance of inspiring children. Obviously, we all, as teachers have inspired many children in the past and will continue to do so as we move foward in our teaching careers. However, I think we often become to overwhelmed with the "coberage" aspect of teaching, and we try to fit everything in. When doing this, we become very focused on who is doing what in our classroom, who is not getting what, and how we can pull our students together to ensure that everyone has what they need to proceed foward.
Testing has us all on edge, and we have become teachers who teach to a testing society. Many of us resist this, yet we are all responsible for teaching our children what will appear on a test. Education has come to a point where teachers are teaching what they do not believe.
The reason I have recently reflected on this is because I think I, personally, have lost the focus of motivating my students. I have realized, now, that at the end of the school year, most of the work we've done ended up in the trash. Extra papers, loose documents, and meaningless dittos end up either getting thrown out at home or even in school. When children ask, "Do we need this", and you know they don't, what do you answer with? I have begun to think of how to change my ways of teaching next year, and am trying to remind myself that children, just like adults, need to be motivated to do, or learn, anything.
It is for this reason that I believe in problem-based learning, and making learning become real for students. When authentic learning, or problem-based learning takes place, students remember what they have learned, and it becomes important to them. Experience matters, and I think we've lost that idea. I have noticed, sitting in a workshop from 8a.m. to 4p.m, the need to motivate those who you teach!
Why We Teach
June 22, 2004
Something
happened recently that made me reflect on our engine of change. Discipline
can only work if all members of a child's community are on board. By that,
I mean teachers, administrators, and parents. Without consistency, our outlook
on discipline will not be successful. Children, I believe, receive mixed
messages if there is no consistency between actions and consequences. If
children receive one message in school, but parents do not follow through
at home, we are not benefiting the child at all, rather, we are destroying
any hope of helping the child become a responsible adult.
Oftentimes, I have found that parents are not willing to agree with
attempts to discipline in school, or follow through with what has been
told in school. I am currently dealing with a situation like this and find
it extremely frustrating. When we, as teachers or administrators, attempt
discipline on a student, we are trying to teach them a lesson, right from
wrong, how to be a good citizen. I find that parents become defensive when
their child becomes punished, which is a natural reaction. However, we must
all be rationale and look at the situation from all angles. If we do this
, we will all be moving forward to helping the students.
I often feel that we, as teachers, need to remind people why we do what
we do. We all feel a strong responsibility and passion for contributing
to society through the process of reaching and helping to mold children.
We are never looking to harm a child, or diminish their self esteem. Rather,
we strive to make each child reach their potential and way beyond it, achieve
greatness, and most of all, feel safe. Just a little reminder to all on
why teachers do what they do, because sometimes I think people forget!
Cranking
Out Our Mission
June 18, 2004
Coming up with engines of change was one hurdle, figuring out how to measure
the success of each engine of change is an even higher hurdle. In order
to plan our year of action research out, we first need to map out how we
are going to go about it. Although this seems like a simple task, it isn't!
We have to clearly define our mission statement geared toward discipline,
or building citizenship. We have to then find measurable criteria in which
we can assess our growth over the upcoming year. We have deadlines ahead
of us and work on top of us, and we are attempting to manage! Working as
a group means delegating, and this will be our first time completing a finished
project. We have come up with a mission statement for the Miracle Grow
School District that dictates the beliefs of all of our faculty members.
It is necessary to incorporate our six engines of change into our mission,
to ensure that our schools are all on focused on the same six goals. We
have new inspiration through this fresh mission statement that welcomes
change and growth for not only this upcoming year, but for years to come.
Interview Reflection
June 16, 2004
I had a very pleasant experience interviewing my principal. Due to the
lack of time in a principal! day, I felt like a burden. However, I was
pleasantly surprised to find the level of excitement that I was greeted
with. Mr. Kaplan greeted each question with enthusiasm, and he was anxious
to share his experiences and ideas with me. This is his first year as a
principal, and he is therefore putting into practice what we are in the
process of learning. Due to his young age and his recent position as a novice
principal, I feel that he is more willing to share information with me,
knowing that I am going through a program very similar to he went through.
I feel extremely fortunate to have him as a principal, and mentor. Mr. Kaplan
was most responsive to both seamless curriculum and professional development.
When I asked him about professional development, he immediately responded
with. Professional development is a pet peeve of mine?. He agreed with what
our class had griped about, saying that professional development often appears
as a one-shot deal. He has genuinely tried to incorporate professional
development into our everyday lives. For example, we had a speaker come
in October, to discuss problem based learning with us. Once the presentation
was done, every teacher in the school received the speaker's book, along
with supplementary information. Beyond that, we were given the opportunity,
at two faculty meetings, to spend time with our grade levels to re-write
a unit of study based on the new information we learned about. Also, we have
been offered an opportunity to complete more units following the speaker!
model this summer, as paid summer work. When people at our school attend
workshops, Mr. Kaplan often asks those who have attended to share their new
knowledge with our staff. Many times teachers will present power point presentations
at faculty meetings or photocopy information they feel may be useful. This
is a possible way to enhance teaching within all our classrooms. These
are a few ways in which Mr. Kaplan tries to combat the one-shot deal professional
development, which I can honestly say is not apparent in our school.
Seamless curriculum seemed to be another point that Mr. Kaplan felt strongly
about. Again, when asked the question, he had an immediate response. Get
out of textbooks? was his reaction. He feels that students today need to
have their school day relate to their real lives, because if it doesn't,
than it means nothing to them. It is not real. Mr. Kaplan suggested that
the community become involved as well, to enhance the connections between
real life and education. Mr. Kaplan made a good point that made me think
of my own classroom. He suggested that students today have a much shorter
attention span than they did years ago, which forces us to be more creative
as teachers. When he brought this up, I couldn't help but think of the amount
of time I allow my students to move around, do group work, and complete
activities that give them an opportunity to challenge their energy in a
positive way.
Brainstorming
Our Strategies
June 9, 2004
As a group, the four of us in Miracle Grow School District have begun to
brainstorm ideas for our positive approaches to discipline. We have thought
of many ideas that will build character in the individuals that are finding
themselves in trouble, again and again. Traditional discipline does not
allow for troubled students to improve themselves and their character. Rather,
it restricts their time in the classroom, and isolates them further from
their classmates. Many times, students act in a manner that leads them to
punishment . Ex excluding children from activities will only lead them to
feelings of more anger and frustration.
The need to restructure discipline in our schools is necessary. We see
countless acts of violence every day, and unfortunately some of it is occurring
in schools. School was once a place to go where children could feel safe and
secure, and their parents as well. Now, schools are armed with metal detectors
and other drastic security measures. Schools are not the warm, caring environments
they once were.
As a group, we have begun to brainstorm some ways to research current methods
of discipline, and envision our more positive ways of handling problems,
while at the same time building character and a sense of responsibility
into these individuals. Maria has suggested looking at other countries to
see what methods of discipline are used around the world. We have also thought
of ways to reach the issues of discipline that occur in all schools, elementary,
secondary, and high school. Luckily, our group is made up of representatives
from an elementary background, one from a middle school background, and one
from a high school background.
We have had many ideas that came from a limited amount of time brainstorming.
It is both exciting and inspiring to think about the future with my colleagues!
Start
Your Engines
June 8th, 2004
It's amazing what can be accomplished by a group of people who are dedicated,
inspired professionals. Miracle Grow School District along with the Dedicated
to Discovery School District have come up with solid visions of change for
the upcoming year. We plan to organize committees to conquer the problems
that we feel are currently occurring. The six engines of change that we
are going to be focusing on are:
1. Professional Development 2. Authentic Curriculum Connections 3. The
New 3Rs... Research, Reflect and Retain 4. Community Connections Across
Contents 5. Teamwork: A Personal Commitment 6. Building Citizenship Through
Discipline: Positive Approaches to Traditional Procedures
Although this seems like a large and unreachable goal to "fine tune"
these engines, we feel that between the two districts we will make at the
least, a small change in each and every one of these. We understand that
it is impossible to expect us to completely conquer all engines of change,
but we feel inspired and are ready to begin taking our visions, and put
them into action.
I am personally working with 3 colleagues from Miracle Grow School District
on the topic of discipline. I am working with the following administrators:
James McCusker:
http://edfolio.fdu.edu/McCuskerJ/
Maria McCusker
http://edfolio.fdu.edu/McCuskerM/
AnnaMaria Rigolio
http://edfolio.fdu.edu/RigolioA/
We, together, are attempting to look at the traditional approaches
to discipline. Currently, we feel that attempts to discipline students
of all ages usually occur in an exclusive manner. We feel that we need
to focus more attention on these children, and attempt to make discipline
more positive. We are thinking of alternative ways to include students
in community building activities that benefit not only the community, but
the character of the student as well.
Choices,
Choices, Choices...
June 3, 2004
Meeting to
form committees is no easy task. Before any change is made, there needs
to be much research done so to effectively imput the anticipated change.
We have spent much time forming committees that will work on the common
needs Red School District and Miracle Grow School District. Forming committees
is both exciting and difficult, and often becomes frustrating. However,
we must all realize what topic of change we will be working with for the
next year, and who we will be forming committees with.
The process of forming committees may seem frustrating to those who
are involved, as well as those who are looking from the outside in. Incorporating
change into schools is an enormous task, and will take time. As of now,
we are currently meeting as two districts that are trying to envision needs
that will improve the culture of our school. Once those needs decided upon,
we must face the task of forming committees of people who are dedicated to
making Miracle Grow School District the best it can be.
I will keep you all posted on the direction of where Blossom Elementary
School is headed. We are hoping to have many positive changes occur throughout
the next year. Although the process will take much time, I will update
you on our progress as both a school and as part of the district.
Thank you, in advance, for your patience and support in this effort.
How
to Become Involved
June 2, 2004
Working with the Dedicated Discovery District, we, as two separate faculties
have begun to study our common needs. There are problems that we both face,
although we are two separate entities. As a group of about twenty teachers
and administrators, we have decided on some focus issues. Some of these
issues involve teaching practices, discipline, assessment, and our school
cultures. Miracle Grow School District, Red School District, and many other
school districts around the world would feel the necessary need to reflect
upon, and change these issues.
One of the issues we are focusing on in the Miracle Grow School District
is discipline. At Blossom Elementary School, this will become a main focus.
We will be reviewing our policy of discipline as it is now, and discussing
the practices of our teachers and administrators.
We will be striving to make discipline more meaningful and relevant to
student lives. We, as a faculty have been discussing treatments such as
install suspension, suspensions, and detentions. Although these practices
are expected by students and parents, they are traditional and somewhat
archaic. We are currently thinking of how we can use disciplines to benefit
the students and the community. Some ideas we have had are related to community
service, service to the school, and service to fellow students.
This is a broad topic that needs much fine-tuning and planning. If you
have any ideas on this issue, please contact me as I am open to any idea
or vision on how to change our current practices.
Getting Our
Feet Wet
May 31, 2004
Miracle
Grow School District is a district set on cultivating children to grow in
many different ways. Throughout their time here, students will learn, mature,
and become successful citizens based on their positive experiences and
positive encounters with our faculty. Miracle Grow School District is made
up of Butterfly High School, Sunshine Middle School, Blossom Elementary
School, Cherry Lane Elementary School, and Little Flower Early Childhood
Center. As our students move from school to school, they change, grow, and
blossom into unique individuals.
Like all schools in Miracle Grow School District, Blossom Elementary
plays a huge role in cultivating our students' minds. We have a responsibility
to engage your student(s) and offer them a variety of ways to learn. Our
teachers are skilled and trained in offering many different ways of teaching
and assessing. Using differentiated instruction allows children to learn in
unique ways and ways that they are most successful in.
Blossom Elementary has recently began to analyze the means of assessment
used. As a faculty, we are beginning to brainstorm new ideas on how to assess
children, and think of alternatives to the traditional book tests. These
alternatives, for example, may include projects, portfolios, and creative
ideas like skits, songs, or artwork of some kind. If we are going to have
differentiated teaching, we must have differentiated assessments as well.
Along with testing we, as a faculty, have decided to look at how we
use and view standardized test scores. Based on the laws of the state,
we are often asked to administer certain tests. Oftentimes, the scores
come back to the school and results are written in a student's permanent
file/folder. What we have begun to think about is how effectively we are
using the scores of these tests. If we are not analyzing the strengths
and weaknesses of the students in our schools, than we are remiss. We must
draw conclusions from these scores and strive make all areas of our teaching
successful.
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