San Luis Obispo County Office of Education

Opera SLO, County Office of Education and the Arts Collaborative work together to provide students with educational opportunities outside of the traditional classroom. From this joint effort, students are invited to learn from professional artists as they prepare performances in local venues. Involvement in all aspects of productions requires students to mature into responsible theatre community members. They must rise to the challenge while developing life-long skills. Bravo!

Learning shouldn’t be represented by a sloped line. Stairsteps are a more appropriate representation as learning generates explosive growth of neural pathways. This period of expansion is followed by a season of consolidation and pruning. Specific steps come to mind as I reflect on my journey of learning how my attitudes and actions have hampered my desire to dismantle aspects of our educational system that reinforce marginalization and underserve too many of our students. Read more at https://mailchi.mp/858fe533a8c6/ess-missive-2021-02-22

Developing strong readers is what both parents and teachers want for their children. In this time of distant learning, parents can be a valuable part of their children's reading experience. Teacher guided reading strategies as seen in this video can be modified by parents to enhance students’ reading skills. Strong readers find enjoyment in learning about the world from school assignments and books of their own choice. They have skills which allow them to satisfy their growing curiosities.

The Practice of Mindfulness Mindfulness is a moment-by-moment attention and awareness training practice. It is an exercise of maintaining one’s attention and awareness purposefully on a chosen experience in the present space of time (the moment) while letting all other thoughts drift away that are not specific to the exercise or that are judgmental, even positive judgment. http://ow.ly/mgyG50DvLiy

Have you noticed teachers using new strategies to teach math? The teacher in our video honors different ways to approach a problem, encourages students to provide evidence of their thinking, focuses on giving students necessary math vocabulary and offers positive responses. She never gives answers, but asks questions that prod student thinking. These common core strategies are demonstrated by many of today’s teachers to enhance students’ understanding of math concepts. Video Courtesy: Massachusetts DESE

Exciting science lessons keep students engaged learning about their environment through different cognitive disciplines. Hands on participation allows them to explore topics using many senses: they observe, discuss, draw, write and share their own thinking. In their teams, they answer questions by evaluating, problem solving and coming to their own conclusions. Lessons in the scientific method widen children’s view and perspective of the natural world and the possibilities in their future lives. Video courtesy: Massachusetts DESE