Authentic Leadership

As you've probably noticed from my posts so far, I'm a big fan of providing authentic experiences to my students in the classroom.  But, as an aspiring administrator, I also understand the importance of providing authentic learning opportunities to the teachers and staff as well.  This past Friday, my principal did just that. You see, we are having a much lower than expected turnout for kindergarten registration this year.  Furthermore, we have identified a pre-K program that would do wonders for our kids preparedness when they eventually come to us.  This pre-K program is also having lower than expected registrations.  My principal, understanding that our community has a lot on their plates in terms of...well...life...asked us teachers to head out to the various neighborhoods, go door to door, and hand out fliers Friday afternoon (it was a half-day for our students- the afternoon was set aside for PD).  Needless to say, some staff members were horrified ...

Here's an amazing resource I just discovered the other day.  It's one of those rare resources that come up that you know if you would have just stumbled upon it earlier, it could have had a massive positive effect on my students. Anyways, check out Student News Daily .  This website provides a daily article that covers world news, comprehension questions for said article and a plethora of other resources you can use to provide authentic reading experiences for your students. Word of caution:  The younger your students are, the more you are going to have to filter what articles they read.  Some of the content is meant for a more mature audience than the 5th graders that I serve. How I do it:  If you are curious as to how to implement this in your classroom, this is how I do it.  In no way do I think this is the best way and I think how I implement it will evolve over the coming month and next school year. My classroom is set up in a collaborative wa...