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Happy Monday Redwood Families!
As always I hope that you had a lovely weekend and enjoyed a bit of sun, although it was a bit brisk outside, it certainly beats rain in my book. I realize that you are also waiting for me to admit it. Don't act coy and pretend that you don't know what I am talking about. You know quite well that I put my proverbial foot in my mouth in last week's All Things Redwood. I realize that this is a rather vague allusion, and you may not know to which instance I refer, when it comes to said proverbial tootsie. You can just come out and say it... Road construction. It's totally my fault, and when I say "my fault" know that I had nothing to do with the planning or implementation of the project in question, but rather, the fault of mine is that I mentioned it. I should have never brought the issue to light, but rather, just ignored it as a distant memory. But no, I had to snarkily type a few lines and show a photo to boot, and the next thing I know, Allendale Loop is closed. Although this is a knock on wood moment, the road construction is done. Yet, with that said, I'm sure they will be out to paint the lines on Tuesday at 8:05 am and put on the second coat, somewhere around 3:05 pm. Don't quote me on the second coat, but it seems apropos with how this project has been going.
Speaking of second coats, and yes, I realize that this is not my strongest transition game, but not every pitch you throw is a strike, am I right? Yet, sometimes it is important to revisit topics that correlate betwixt the students and that greater community as a whole. As of late the students have been using primary sources to determine the factual accuracy of a historical event. The process enables students to determine if perspective or implicit bias has played a role in the author's purpose in delineating the narrative in the first place. Students consider a multitude of facets: is it a first hand account, was the author a witness or a participant, is there direct evidence? Not to mention, is the author verified and can others corroborate the story? These fact finding skills not only play a part in our students' learning experiences, they directly correlate to how we, as adults, gather, process and synthesize information. In our world today we are inundated with information from a variety of sources: television, social media, and WhatsApp groups. Just to name a few. How we interpret the information should follow the same basic premises as those taught to our children. Take pause and consider, and if questions arise, find a primary source. When it comes to matters related to Redwood, I would be considered one of those sources, and would love to discuss whatever is on your mind. Just send me an email: Shamm@Saratogausd.org
In educationally related news, I must start with a correction from the previous edition. I mislabelled the math projects that were being created. Obviously they were mini-golf courses, not rollercoasters! My apologies, roller coaster projects will be forthcoming later, at which point, I am certain that I will call them the golf courses, so I'm asking for advanced forgiveness. I also popped into a science class where students were studying about flowers and pollinators. It was lovely to take a moment and smell the roses with them. During the eighth period SLCT day students had the opportunity to play games. No screen time, just good old fashioned card and board games. I was fascinated by some of the new games (at least to me) out there, especially: Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza. So fun! We also had a district-wide professional development last week, where we learned a bit more about Restorative Practices. The presenter, Carissa Lemos, discussed a variety of topics, many of which rung true with me, but her "word" for the year struck a chord with me. Whelmed. A fairly underused term, albeit, one where many of us would like to find ourselves on a daily basis, yet more often than not, we find ourselves including one of these two (under, over) lovely prepositions in abutment with said word. Keeping that in mind, I wish you a "whelmed" weekend!
Steve
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