Prepping For The First Day

We've spent a lot of time in the past few weeks prepping for our first day of E-Time (January 6th).  At our most recent SEM Professional Learning session, we shared some ideas on what to do/plan for that first session.  Remember, for many of our students, this will be their first exposure to SEM and enrichment!  Below are some guiding topics and questions that we thought might assist our teachers.  Thank you Mrs. Kirby and Mrs. Raney for pulling this together!

First Day of E-Time

• Class discussion of key words: enrichment, E-Time, interest, choice, passion, discovery
• Show students some of the common interests within the classroom from Renzulli profiles
• Complete grade level interest surveys - (binder in the workroom)
• Group students with common interests and give them time to discuss what types of activities they would enjoy doing.
• Discuss what some of the activities could look like-
• Making cards for new students
• Researching your favorite sport
• Learning how to take care of pets
• Scrapbooking
• Creating clay sculptures
• Interviewing community helpers
• Designing an ocean mural
• Performing magic tricks
• Using problem-solving skills to solve pattern block puzzles

Our Hollywood Debut!

It's been a long time coming....

I've finally been able to put our experience at Laurel Mountain Elementary into a short movie!  There are some great examples of current enrichment clusters as well as some good advice and suggestions from the Principal and SEM Coordinator.

Once again, we would like to send a big THANK YOU to Laurel Mountain for hosting us and spending the time to answer our questions.

E-Time Is... E-Time Is Not

Our professional learning on E-Time earlier this week was a big hit!  We began with our Scavenger Hunt of the Laurel Mountain S.E.M. blog (see previous post).  We then had an energizing and enlightening (more "E" words) Skype session with Laurel Mountain S.E.M. coordinator Nicole Levitan.  She was kind enough to share her time answering questions and giving advice on how Laurel Mountain has successfully implemented E-Time.

Drawing on what we took away from the Scavenger Hunt and from speaking with Nicole, we then created a list on the SmartBoard of what E-Time Is and Is Not.  Check it out...



We wrapped up our professional learning with a challenging reflection piece facilitated by Laurie O'Neill.  Each teacher thought of one word that summed up the afternoon's learning.  They then shared their word with their E-Team.  Each team then wrote a sentence incorporating every teacher's word (that's when it became a bit challenging).  Check out their sentences below.  It wasn't as easy as it sounds!