{"id":8227,"date":"2018-10-05T16:12:28","date_gmt":"2018-10-05T20:12:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/?p=8227"},"modified":"2018-11-05T16:03:05","modified_gmt":"2018-11-05T21:03:05","slug":"thalia-elementary-school-celebrates-innovative-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/thalia-elementary-school-celebrates-innovative-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Thalia Elementary School celebrates innovative learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sheila Holley\u2019s third-grade students entered the room, found their seats and in typical fashion, looked to their teacher for instruction\u2014but it wasn\u2019t a typical day. One day each month at Thalia Elementary School is Innovation Day. The volume level of the class got louder as students began to get more and more excited about what the day will bring.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, we will be planning, creating and testing our own three-dimensional mazes,\u201d said Holley.<\/p>\n

The activity began with students watching a video on Google Classroom that demonstrated how to make a maze. During their morning meeting, Holley asked her students what they saw in the video that they will need to complete this project in class. Together, students listed all the necessary materials their team will need to build their own maze.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAllowing them to collaborate on this assignment and telling them what to expect when working with a team focuses the social-emotional piece while also keeping in line with the curriculum,\u201d said Holley. \u201cInnovation Day is my favorite because of this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Crystal Wilkerson brought Innovation Day to Thalia when she became principal two years ago after being inspired by previous school administrators and educative literature.<\/p>\n

\u201cChanging one\u2019s mindset isn\u2019t easy, so I thought if we had one day a month where teachers can really think differently and creatively, take risks and also stay aligned with the curriculum – a day that the students are engaged and the teachers are excited about teaching \u2013 it would really make a difference,\u201d said Wilkerson.<\/p>\n

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For fifth-grader Eleanor Strader, it\u2019s a day of enjoyment.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll day you don\u2019t feel like you\u2019re learning at all. You\u2019re just having fun. But, at the end of the day your teacher gives you a slip that tells you all the areas that you learned that day and you\u2019re like, \u2018Wow, I love Innovation Day,\u2019\u201d said Strader.<\/p>\n

One thing that Wilkerson wants both students and teachers to learn from this day is failure is not a conclusion, but rather a new beginning.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you fail, fail forward,\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cGrowth comes from failing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Wilkerson believes that students feel encouraged to take risks and not fear failure, but instead see it as necessary to success.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen our teachers take creative risks with their students, they\u2019re not simply telling them to take creative risks,\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cThey are leading the way by taking risks themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Thalia dedicates a day each month to celebrate creative thinking, and risk-taking, Wilkerson hopes teachers take these lessons into their classrooms every day.<\/p>\n

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Sheila Holley\u2019s third-grade students entered the room, found their seats and in typical fashion, looked to their teacher for instruction\u2014but it wasn\u2019t a typical day. One day each month at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":8225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8227"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8228,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8227\/revisions\/8228"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}