At Lake Murray Elementary School, we provide all students with opportunities to develop world-class skills and life and career characteristics of the Profile of the South Carolina Graduate by creating an innovative learning environment that focuses on leadership and self-directed learners. The campus exemplifies student learning and growth by emphasizing collaboration, communication, creativity and critical thinking. Our vision is to help develop self-directed, global citizens who lead and learn with excellence. This year our theme centered around “Navigating Excellence” and the crux of this journey began with a focus on relationships and school culture. By investing time and energy in these foundational components, LMES was able to weather a year that began on a very high note of becoming a National Blue Ribbon School for 2019 and ended with teachers supporting students and families in a distance learning environment.
This year, one of our focal points was on math instruction being delivered through a workshop model. The purpose of this structure is to better support students in mastering concepts over time through guided math groups and learning stations. We received on-site professional development through Math Solutions in the areas of number sense routines and lesson planning, which aided in the implementation of this framework. Furthermore, we continued our concentration in ELA around small group instruction, goal setting, and the utilization of the Units of Study learning progressions to support students in writing more complex texts. In order for students to grow as readers, we need the resources and books that match a student’s instructional level. We are very fortunate to have a PTA who values literacy and the needs of our students. They purchased level text to support our students in reading and comprehension. Also, the PTA purchased chromebooks for our special education classes and shade structures for our kindergarten playground.
In regards to our school based literacy plan, we implemented the Unit of Study Phonics curriculum for students in kindergarten through 2nd grade. This resulted in a common language and expectations for phonics instruction as the students progress through school. We also continued our work with an outside consultant who provided on-site professional development on reading strategy groups. In monthly vertical planning meetings, we continued our focus in writing around two important concepts: editing and revising. For our Reading Recovery and Response to Intervention (RTI) teams, communication between these programs and the regular classroom teacher was at the forefront. We became even more intentional about ensuring that students were able to transfer skills learned through Reading Recovery back into the general classroom setting. To support this, we had data meetings with teachers, interventionists and administrators to review noticings and progress which lead to the development of new goals and next steps for each individual child served. Through teacher choice PLC groups, teachers grew in their knowledge of text demands, small group instruction and conferring with beginning writers.
As we all know, the social and emotional health of students is paramount in a child’s overall development. Our school counselors, our mentor program and our school based mental health counselor ensured our students were receiving the level of support they needed for emotional growth, empathy for others, positive relationships and making good choices. It is vital in today’s world that our students and parents know how to best navigate the digital world. Therefore, we had a more intensive focus on digital citizenship through our partnership with Common Sense Media. Two of our teachers became Common Sense Educator certified, and in January of this year LMES became a Common Sense Media School. We have demonstrated a commitment to responsible and effective technology use.
In terms of service to others, our students participated in service projects such as donating coats to kids, raising money for Special Olympics, supporting the American Heart Association through the Kids Heart Challenge, as well as contributed money for Relay for Life. To develop and strengthen leadership traits, we continued to integrate the FISH! Philosophy which contains four major pillars: Be There, Make Their Day, Play, and Choose Your Attitude. Furthermore, students applied for leadership teams such as the LMES News Show, Mariner Book Buddies, Media Leaders and the Morning Announcement Team. In addition to these school-based opportunities, all students had leadership roles within their classroom.
Even though face to face instruction ended abruptly in March, our LMES staff did an amazing job learning, in a very brief period of time, how to educate students virtually. We were very proud of our faculty and staff for all of their efforts in supporting the students and their families during these uncharted times. We always say school culture is our strength and this experience illustrated this truth. “WE Are Lake Murray!” was the resounding theme as we concluded the last nine weeks of school. No matter what comes our way, we will find a way to thrive and excel!
Jennifer Stanley, Principal
Jason Mulligan, SIC Chair