Upcoming Events
Monday, 4/1
Tuesday, 4/2 STAAR Administration, 4th and 5th grade
Wednesday, 4/3 STAAR Administration, 4th and 5th grade
Thursday, 4/4
Friday, 4/5 PTO Meeting, 8:10 a.m.
Saturday, 4/6 Spring Community Night, movie begins at dusk
Monday, 4/8
Tuesday, 4/9 5th Grade Class Picture
Wednesday, 4/10 School Tour, 9:00 a.m.
Thursday, 4/11
Friday, 4/12 Rice Baseball Bash, 6:30 p.m. (purchase tickets in advance)
STAAR Testing
4th and 5th graders will take STAAR exams this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Because of the various small groups, all offices and the library will be used for test administration. Volunteers and visitors to campus will be limited while students are testing.
Tuesday folder volunteers will receive an email when the folder contents are ready. Please do not come to campus until you receive that email. If you need someone to stuff folders for your class, please call the school and leave a message with the receptionist.
New Website
By now you should have received an email with information about logging in to the new website and changing your temporary password. If you did not receive an email with your log in credentials, email our webmaster at information.services@robertselementary.org
So on to the next step! Have you found your teacher's blog yet? Here's how:
Spotlight on IB:
Approaches Teaching and Learning
excerpt from Toward a Continuum of International Education
For the sake of clarity the approaches to teaching and learning are described under three headings:
Learning How to Learn
Learning how to learn requires that students realistically evaluate and self-regulate their performance.
Effective learners monitor what they are doing and produce effective responses because they are self-aware and have a realistic appreciation of, and control over, their own learning process. They do not simply acquire more skills and knowledge.
Metacognition is a term used to refer to the reflective thinking strategies, attitudes and other competencies used to monitor and control learning. The concept can be further divided into two categories, but both are required for effective practice:
Learners manage their thought processes in different ways. No two learners are identical. Students have individual learning styles, preferred ways of using their abilities. Students' learning styles can also vary from one learning context to another. This makes it difficult to teach learning or study skills to students out of context or to teach one method as appropriate for all. While students can be taught strategies that might help them with metacognitive tasks they must lean to apply these themselves and be exposed to a number of approaches. Teaching students how they learn best must be an integral part of the curriculum and not considered as a separate task.
Monday, 4/1
Tuesday, 4/2 STAAR Administration, 4th and 5th grade
Wednesday, 4/3 STAAR Administration, 4th and 5th grade
Thursday, 4/4
Friday, 4/5 PTO Meeting, 8:10 a.m.
Saturday, 4/6 Spring Community Night, movie begins at dusk
Monday, 4/8
Tuesday, 4/9 5th Grade Class Picture
Wednesday, 4/10 School Tour, 9:00 a.m.
Thursday, 4/11
Friday, 4/12 Rice Baseball Bash, 6:30 p.m. (purchase tickets in advance)
STAAR Testing
4th and 5th graders will take STAAR exams this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Because of the various small groups, all offices and the library will be used for test administration. Volunteers and visitors to campus will be limited while students are testing.
Tuesday folder volunteers will receive an email when the folder contents are ready. Please do not come to campus until you receive that email. If you need someone to stuff folders for your class, please call the school and leave a message with the receptionist.
New Website
By now you should have received an email with information about logging in to the new website and changing your temporary password. If you did not receive an email with your log in credentials, email our webmaster at information.services@robertselementary.org
So on to the next step! Have you found your teacher's blog yet? Here's how:
- Log in at www.robertselementary.org
- Choose the Parent tab
- Use the links along the left side of the page to access the Directory
- Search for your child's teacher
- You will find the teacher's email address and blog address on the teacher page.
Spotlight on IB:
Approaches Teaching and Learning
excerpt from Toward a Continuum of International Education
For the sake of clarity the approaches to teaching and learning are described under three headings:
- learning how to learn
- structured inquiry (more on this an upcoming post)
- critical thinking (more on this an upcoming post)
Learning How to Learn
Learning how to learn requires that students realistically evaluate and self-regulate their performance.
Effective learners monitor what they are doing and produce effective responses because they are self-aware and have a realistic appreciation of, and control over, their own learning process. They do not simply acquire more skills and knowledge.
Metacognition is a term used to refer to the reflective thinking strategies, attitudes and other competencies used to monitor and control learning. The concept can be further divided into two categories, but both are required for effective practice:
- metacognitive knowledge - knowledge learners have about themselves and how they learn best
- metacognitive performance-the ability to use self-knowledge to improve performance.
Learners manage their thought processes in different ways. No two learners are identical. Students have individual learning styles, preferred ways of using their abilities. Students' learning styles can also vary from one learning context to another. This makes it difficult to teach learning or study skills to students out of context or to teach one method as appropriate for all. While students can be taught strategies that might help them with metacognitive tasks they must lean to apply these themselves and be exposed to a number of approaches. Teaching students how they learn best must be an integral part of the curriculum and not considered as a separate task.
