Reflect & Celebrate

Tomorrow is the last day of school for our students.....where did the time go?  Its my first year without a group of little ones to hug and send off....it feels pretty strange.  I have had many last days filled with the blues, excitement for summer and sometimes a THANK GOODNESS its over type of feeling.  This year I think I can sum it up as a WOOHOO!!
 As I reflect back to my first year as literacy coach,  I am so proud of what we accomplished as a PreK-5 team.  I look forward to improving in many areas as a coach.  It was a year of many challenges and I am thankful for all of the new relationships I have made with teachers at various grade levels.

The  highlights.....

• Our literacy kick-off in August....bringing the love and motivation back to reading
• Developing our H-D Literacy Beliefs  (the non-negotiables) focusing on The Big Five
• Working with the lit committee to find new literacy curriculum and traveling to Jordan Creek
• 1/2 day workshops for every team level once a month.....WOW....this was amazing!
• Piloting Making Meaning  
• Purchasing Making Meaning & Vocabulary and receiving the many new materials
• Purchasing the Fountas & Pinnell Benchmark Assessment System for every grade level and implementing the assessment this May (600 students)
• Fluency.....finding and sharing strategies to help build fluency  (book study this summer too!)
• Watching many teachers let go of their Basal and diving into a new workshop model in April-they are an amazing group of dedicated teachers
• Developing a Schoolwide Title I plan with the selected committee....hard work but we did it!
• Planning literacy blocks for all grade levels....YES!
• Developing a new appreciation for administration...seeing another side of our work place
• PHONICS and word study for K-3....big changes and again watching teachers dive in and watching their excitement to have common goals 
• Traveling to Chicago for my first experience with the International Reading Convention
• Ordering a book room for K-8 teachers....lots of work to do this summer!

THANK YOU to the teachers for encouraging me and making me feel confident in my new job.   I now know how important it is for teachers to have high expectations and to believe every student can be successful....I felt I was the student they believed in and it helped greatly.

THANK YOU to my principal...for encouraging me and allowing me to do what I felt was best in many situations and for listening.

THANK YOU to my curriculum coordinator.... for encouraging me and valuing my opinion, my beliefs & for the many talks to get me through stressful moments.

THANK YOU to my superintendent for finding the funds to purchase our new curriculum and for allowing the 1/2 day work days at every grade level.  It was this work time that allowed the teachers to make many changes together...we valued it greatly!

THANK YOU to my office mate....a new teacher in our district that was fun to be around and her attitude and dedication to education was so refreshing and her willingness to speak up and get involved was just what I needed on many days!  

THANK YOU to Dawn, Lisa, Shelly & Molly....letting me come to your classroom for part of the year as a co-teacher.  (even though I had to be gone many times!) 

What a year!

Happy Reading-Mrs. Speake