Podcast: Learning at Lely - Leader in Me Update

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Learning at Lely - Leader in Me Update

The Garden of Readin'

Lely Elementary School is a special place brimming with rock star teachers and talented students. Everyday, we see the kiddos at Lely do the right things: help other students, show kindness, display grace under pressure, and work hard toward their goals. Our amazing teachers plan some of the coolest learning activities for them that I have ever seen. There is always something awe-inspiring going on. 

One of my goals is to make the media center a hub of the school and nurture kids' love of reading. I want them to spend time there reading, looking for books, making, collaborating, listening, and learning. I know that an increase in student traffic is a good measure of how they perceive the media center. Do they like it? Do they want to spend time there? Do they come back? Do they avoid the place? I'm trying to remake the media center into one of the most kid-friendly elementary school libraries in the state of Florida. 

One of the things that we have been working on is transforming the space into a vibrant, colorful, interactive media center where kids always find something new. To that end, last weekend, we installed the Garden of Readin' right outside of our media center. This was an idea a few months in the making. We took an area outside that is adjacent to the media center and remade it into a colorful, interactive, peaceful place for kids to read, chill, learn, imagine, and wonder. This is the Garden of Readin' (scroll down for many more pics). 

In early August, I wrote two garden-themed grants on Donors Choose, one for the basic gardening items and the second for the decor items that would make this area magical. I enlisted the help of local artist Matt Park, who has been a great friend of Lely Elementary, to help make this vision a reality. He had many ideas that I had not even considered and that synergy was essential to this project. With all of the materials delivered, we took a couple of days over the long weekend and got to work. 

We cleared out the old plants that had been there for a long time, tilled the soil, added bags of topsoil and Black Kow, and got the area ready for planting. Having planned this garden out on paper, we then planted according to the drawings. After a few hours, we saw that this space was becoming what we had imagined.

A few hours into the second day of work, it was time to wrap things up. We placed the painted stones, attached Matt's signs, hung the wind chimes and spinners, and gave it one final look. Our garden idea had come to life. It was colorful, interactive, fun, and magical. We were incredibly pleased with how things turned out. We thought that the kids (and adults) were going to love it. No one really knew that we were going to do this project over the weekend. It was intended as a surprise. Was it ever!

One of the things that we planned for the garden was for each student at the school to choose their favorite color stone and use some paint markers to personalize the stone and place it back in the garden. We want all of our kids to be represented in our garden as they are in our school community. When classes came down for their read-alouds, they also painted stones. It was such a fun time and the kids seemed really excited. 

The kiddos had a blast making the stones their own. We have many more classes that still have to come down to make their stones, but we got about six classes finished in the last couple of days. Now when kids walk by the garden, they can point to their stone and know that they are an integral part of our garden, and our school. Since Lely Elementary is a Leader in Me School, the class adjacent to the garden has agreed to maintain and take care of the garden. That will probably happen one afternoon a week where the kiddos sweep, replace any stones that get moved, check for weather damage, and re-mulch when necessary. 

I have already heard about kiddos trying to match the fictional (or real) places on the sign with the books that go with them. Some are now trying to read them all. It is really fun to see how the kids interact with the garden and I'm looking forward to hearing more over the next few weeks. 

Now, it's time to find another area of campus that needs some sprucing up and get to work there. I have a couple in mind already so keep an eye on this space to see what happens on campus in the next few months. For now, enjoy the pictures as you scroll down.

The Only Constant is Change

Anyone who works in a school knows that every day will be a new and different day. We hear our friends in other professions talking about the hum-drum, boring work tasks they perform everyday. Not so in education. Our days start off with a solid plan but with the ebbs and flows of each school day, we adjust and tweak our plans to make sure the kids get what they need while juggling several unexpected occurrences. Truly, teachers and staff at your local public school are intellectually agile people who can troubleshoot in seconds and make even the most challenging situations into learning experiences that look like they were planned out for weeks. 

One reason that teachers are so nimble is that we live with the constant of change. In education, nothing stays the same. We receive new students to the school every day, we navigate changing classes, student absences, schedule changes, fire drills, code red drills, and a host of other changes in the normal schedule. Through all of this change, teachers excel. They take it all in stride and wind up turning even the most difficult situations into learning opportunities for students. I've seen countless occurrences of "teachable moments" when a teacher turns a potential problem into a seamless learning experience. 

At Lely Elementary, we have experienced a lot of change as of late. At the end of last year, our principal made some changes to the teaching staff that included moving teachers to different grade levels and giving many teachers some new responsibilities. As anyone knows, when you move people into other jobs that they may not be comfortable with, they may not like it. However, our teachers accepted the challenge of their new roles. We are four weeks into the school year, and our teachers are performing beautifully. 

Some of the benefits of teachers moving grade levels is that they are intimately aware of the expectations and curricula of the grades they came from and can look at issues with a different perspective. They can even help align curricula and activities based on what they did at their old grade level. 

Another benefit of moving teachers is that a different kind of synergy emerges. Teachers who may not have worked together before can now bounce ideas off of each other, draw on past experiences and successes, troubleshoot problems, and dream a little. I know that I am at my most creative when I can talk to another teacher. We bounce ideas off of each other and within ten minutes, we have a viable plan to solve a problem or start a program. When we put teachers in the same room, that kind of energy multiplies. I have often said that giving teachers time together with no agenda is the best way to get some new and bold ideas. 

We have also had a leadership change at Lely Elementary. Our new principal comes to us excited to make a difference in the lives of the teachers and students. We know we are at the beginning of a renaissance at Lely Elementary and the previous principal put us on solid footing to make great gains. Our new principal will have the opportunity to guide our school to new heights. We are on board and we are eager to continue our journey together, helping our kids develop their fullest potential. 

Look out Collier County! Lely Elementary is ready to make some big strides!

The Positive is Palpable

There is always so much promise at the beginning of a new school year. Everyone is fresh and rested when they show up for the first day and really happy to begin a new school year. While this was a very short summer break, teachers and students still returned to school with positive attitudes about the year ahead. This year, there are a lot of things to be happy about at Lely Elementary School. It's going to be a good year.

One of the new things that we'll be doing this year is using a new literacy program. All instructional staff had a two-day training to get up to speed on the program's emphasis and resources. Based on what I saw during those two days, I think this program is going to lead to a huge improvement in student learning. For one thing, phonics takes a front seat in literacy learning. I'm not sure what has happened to phonics over the years. It seems that when I started (in the late 1980's), phonics was in vogue, and over the course of my 30+ years in education, it has gone in and out of fashion in schools. I never understood why. Phonics is a great way for many kids to learn to read and it should have been in our toolbox all along. Now, it is back and I think we are the better for it. Kids in all elementary grades, K-5, will have phonics incorporated into the literacy lessons. Yes, even fifth graders need phonics. Well, many adults do too :) 

Our amazing fifth grade news crew was ready to do the 

news live on the very first day of school!

Another improvement is the district emphasis on reading in class. It is long overdue. I remember a few years ago when I was observed by a principal and my kiddos were reading. We read every day for thirty minutes of our ninety minute block. It took a while to get the kids to buy in but after a while, we created a cool reading community where kids would find "their" books, read them, and share them with others. I made book recommendations, of course, but the kids did most of the recommending. It was a beautiful thing to see. However, my principal at the time was not a fan. The message to me was that I was wasting our time by having kids read in class. That was an activity that was not on his principal checklist. There was no box to check for what I was doing in class and therefore it was not a valid activity. Of course, I explained the research behind having kids read in class and the great learning strides that kids made, but my advocacy fell on deaf ears. There was no box for it on the checklist. Now, reading in class is a point of emphasis and the kids will all be better for it!

Another thing that will make a huge difference in our school year is our Leader in Me program at Lely. This will be our first real, uninterrupted year of implementing this program. We are all familiar enough with the program now that we can administer the program and grow it over the course of the year. Teachers' mindsets have evolved to include the kids in planning activities even more than we did before. While in the past couple of years, we have been able to get one or two things off the ground, this year, I expect we will get dozens of new aspects of this program integrated into our school year. Nearly all of the teachers are on board and we have excellent leadership, so the pieces are in place for a great school.

We also have some "Wow" factor things planned. Kids and adults like to come into the building and see something new, something awe-inspiring, and they are going to have those experiences several times this year. We have many things in the works that, over the course of the school year, will provide that jolt of excitement for students and teachers when they walk through the doors of Lely Elementary. Now, I won't spill the beans here, but if you subscribe to our Facebook page (facebook.com/lelymediacenter) or follow us on Instagram (@doneckert_libraryguy) or Twitter (@dayankee). you will see all of the amazing things we are bringing to the school this year. And watch this space too. I'll be updating all of the cool and wonderful things that are happening at school all year long. 

While the first week of school is over, the positive vibes of administrators, teachers, and students is palpable, and it's just the beginning. This is going to be a great year at Lely, and we can't wait for these kids to experience their best school year ever!

The Reading Championship!

We all know that reading is THE most essential skill for students to master and at Lely Elementary, we focus like a laser on reading. Over the course of the year, we have developed an extensive reading incentive program to hook kids into reading. I've never been one to champion incentives for reading because I think once kids find "their books" they will read ravenously for the rest of their lives. It's all about the search for the books that match the student. Part of the art of teaching is making that match between students and books. 

When kids do not even attempt to read books, an incentive program is appropriate. After all, we are trying to hook them on reading and if an incentive furthers that cause, I'm all for it. Once they find the books they love, they will be off and reading on their own without any need for incentives. 

Our program has evolved over the course of the year into what it is today, and it may still grow. We set aside one day per quarter to celebrate the kids' accomplishments in reading. On that special day, all kids who reach their reading goals get a certificate and a Lely Elementary Reading Goals Brag Tag. They also get a cookie-decorating kit from the cafeteria. We mail a post card home so parents can see that their kiddo has been recognized for their reading; a parent connection is important. Kids who attain 100+ Reading Counts Points (Reading Counts is our reading program at Lely Elementary) are recognized as Century Club Members and get special perks (additional certificate, pizza, etc). To top it all off, we crown a Reading Champion Class each quarter. The class that has the greatest percentage of kids reaching their reading goals is crowned the Reading Champion for the quarter.

The reading championship is hotly contested and the kids really get into it. Often we will see kids encouraging each other to check out another book or read over the weekend so that they can more easily reach their reading goal. They are generating a positive peer pressure that recognizes the class as a community of readers. Kids recommend books to each other, talk about books, and come to the library multiple times per week. We, as the media team, keep tabs on their reading as well. The amount of traffic in the library has increased exponentially over the past year and we love the busy hive of learning that we are creating. 

On our reading celebration day, our principal, reading specialist, and media specialist walk around to all of the classrooms to deliver the good news to the kids and teachers. We pass out the certificates, recognize the Century Club winners, and celebrate all of their accomplishments. Most of the time, the kids are waiting to see if they will be crowned Reading Champions. We make sure to take the trophy with us to all of the classrooms. When the kids see that trophy come through their door, there is an audible gasp from the kids. It is awesome!

Mrs. Palmer's Q4 Reading Champions

This quarter, for the first time, we had a tie for the Lely Elementary Reading Championship. Mrs. Palmer's third grade class was one of the winners. This is a class that had a few kids reach their reading goals during the first quarter of the year. As the year went on, Mrs. Palmer coached and cheered on these kids so that more reached their goals during second and third quarter. During fourth quarter, this group was determined! They worked so hard and pushed each other to win the Lely Elementary Reading Championship. Neighboring classes knew something was going on in this room when they were presented with the trophy. Things got loud!

Mrs. Carbonell's Q4 Reading Champions

Mrs. Carbonell's class was the defending champion! In fact, this class was the Q2 AND Q3 champion. Only once before had we had a back-to-back winner. Mrs. Carbonell's class is now the only three-time champion in Lely Elementary history. To win three times is an awesome achievement but to win for three consecutive quarters is simply amazing! These kids were excited readers all year long and were frequent visitors to our media center.

The reading celebration day each quarter is always such a fun day. It is a day that kids really look forward to and the excitement is apparent on their faces as we walk the campus with certificates and trophy in hand. We are doing everything that we can to hook our kids on reading and this incentive plan has proven to be a hit!

We are working on some big surprises in the media center for next year. Stay tuned for more updates in the coming weeks. We're incredibly excited!

Making the News

We all know that kids can do amazing things when given the opportunity. Often, kids crave more responsibility and part of learning in schools is giving kids more responsibility. We want kids to become more independent and grow into curious, self-reliant learners. There are many roles in a school that kids can do instead of adults. Our Leader in Me program helps us identify various roles that kids can take on and many tasks that kids can do instead of adults. After all, we are a community of learners and we all teach each other and learn from each other.

One of the areas in which students have excelled at is the morning news program. Under the direction of the school media specialist, kids present the morning news program to the rest of the school on the closed circuit television station. There is a combination of factors that make a news program good, or bad. 

Our fifth graders this year made our news program excellent. They were professional in their jobs, they were lively on-air, and they were fun and engaging. The rest of the school got to see these kids' personalities while they delivered the news. Students and teachers consistently reported that the news was engaging and they got to know the anchors a bit over time.

Connor - Anchor, Sound Master, Slides, Script

Jayla - Team Leader, Anchor, Slides, Script

Josh - Anchor, Sound Master, Slides, Script

Kevin - Anchor, Slides, Script

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Lauren - Anchor, Slides, Script

Rodney - Team Captain, Anchor, Sound Master, Script, Slides

In the newsroom, there are four "jobs" that kids can do. We train each kiddo on every job. This cross-training comes in handy when someone is absent or is not able to do the news one day. It is easy to switch around personnel to make sure that the news goes off without a hitch. 

We have our "Slider" - the person who controls the PowerPoint slides to correspond with the script that the anchor is reading. 

We have our "Scripter" - the person who controls the script, keeping it just ahead of the anchor so that there is never a long pause while delivering the news. 

We have the "Sound Master" - the person who controls which video feeds are seen on television and controls the microphones and other sounds. Everything revolves around the Sound Master.

And we have the Anchor - the star of the show. It is imperative that the anchor delivers the news smoothly and with feeling, inflection, and life.

I cannot convey how proud I am of this year's fifth grade news crew. Last week was their last week on the news crew so that we can move fourth graders into those positions for the last two weeks of school. We do so in order for these fourth graders to be ready on Day 1 of next year when the news begins. Our fifth grade team was professional, crazy, fun, and excellent at their jobs. They have set the bar extremely high and the fourth grade team knows it. I have no doubt that next year's news crew will perform as well as this year's team. After all, they had some amazing role models.

The Legacy Project: Well-Deserved Recognition

Teachers and schools never get enough positive news coverage. There are miraculous things going on in schools and classrooms everyday and yet, because there are so many, there is no way to cover them all. We always hear about negative things regarding public education but when you walk into a school, you tend to see the great things happening in the school. Here at Lely Elementary, we try to get our story out about all of the great things happening at school. 

One program that we have adopted since last year is the Leader in Me program where we work toward training kids to be leaders and then putting them in situations where they can excel as leaders. As part of that program, we are transforming what we are doing at school. We want both teachers and students to make their mark on our school and, in some cases, leave their mark. One way we are accomplishing this is through our Legacy Project. 

The Legacy Project is a concept that came to us during a Leader in Me Environmental Team meeting. We thought it would be great if the class leaving our school each year, the fifth grade class, would create some kind of physical entity for our school as a memory of them. The effect would be that as the years go by, the outgoing fifth grade classes would lend a hand in beautifying our campus. 

Kirstin Stockwell, our art teacher, bought into the project right away. Since she sees all of the kids in the building and since her class is best geared toward something like this, she led the fifth graders in designing the 2020-21 Legacy Project. After successfully writing a Donors Choose grant for supplies, she had the students create "stained glass" panels using paper and color. The panels range in theme from food to abstract design, but each student's personality shines through their panel. 

One morning, Mrs. Stockwell was hard at work hanging the panes in the wall of windows in the media center. We have since deemed that wall of windows our campus art gallery :) After arranging all of the panels in the windows, we took a look. It was breathtaking. Each panel was an individual work of art, but together, they combined to form an amazing work. This is a point of pride for our fifth grade class, and our entire school. In fact, an anchor at ABC7 News saw the project on Twitter and decided to make it a news story on the six o'clock news. Here is a link to the story: https://vimeo.com/549522270. What a cool thing for kids to see their creations on television.

Our Legacy Project will become a staple of life at Lely Elementary School. In ten years, we will be able to look back on all of the cool new features to our school and note that kids did all of the creating. I'm sure that our campus will look much different in a decade than it does now, and it will all have started with our 2020-21 fifth grade class and Mrs. Stockwell. We could not be more proud of all of them.