Learning Together is Fun!

Last week our Curtis staff got together for our annual Curtis Retreat.  We had a fun-filled afternoon learning together because our differences.  Developing a positive culture is important in creating a team!  This is something that our Curtis team does best!  We had a great time together.

This year's theme is, "Making the Difference."  We want to encourage our classrooms to include challenges that cultivate problem solving, collaboration, collaboration, and creativity.  Maker's Spaces provide this opportunity.  Teachers can create these spaces for students in the their classrooms as well as accessing our Innovation Lab for class challenges throughout the year.  Our challenge in meeting the  needs of students is to individualize learning and embrace their differences.  At the retreat, our teachers worked in teams to complete a challenge.  Little did they know, some were more equipped than others.  The members of each team all have different experiences, talents, and passions.  Working together collaboratively, they were all able to contribute in their own unique way to complete the challenge together.

Each team had many of the same items to complete the challenge, but some of their items were a little different.  Some teams' directions were in another language while others may not have been able to talk while planning to execute their challenge. 

Like teaching and learning, not every student starts on the same playing field.  Some may be more equipped with certain talents and skills than others, but ALL students have talents.  Allowing students to collaborate to solve problems is important to learning.  Student-centered learning helps to break barriers allowing students to think differently to achieve a common goal.

Learning needs to be fun!

Our learning space on Thursday night was not quiet.  It was teeming with familiar sites and sounds of learning.  Staff members were communicating ideas, laughing, and working with their hands to complete the challenge to make something float!    Learning is messy!  There were materials flying all over the place.  Student-centered learning helps to engage all learners and encourages collaboration, a skill most important to success in life.

Curtis Elementary teachers had fun last Thursday night!  A Team that plays together, stays together!  We are committed to embracing differences in students' learning styles and differentiating learning for every child. 

We will know our students, individualize learning for each of them, and ensure that every child makes progress.  We accept the challenge to make learning fun leading our students to success.