TPS hosts STEM Lab Supply Drive

Tatum Primary School is beginning  to create a K-2 STEM Lab in the Primary Library that will align to the school's scope and sequence.  Below is a great description of the what TPS is attempting to create.

This is NOT your Ordinary Lab!!!

We don't want to make this a lab of purchased items.  This lab will be a "Recycled and Repurposed Lab".  In other words, we do not want to buy things for the lab.  This lab will be a makerspace (Click here for definition) where students will learn to use what they have to create what they can visualize.  This venture will be low in cost and high in imagination, but we need you.  Kids need opportunities to create and this lab will provide these unique opportunities.

Do you have any items lying around your house that you could donate?  The list is at the bottom, and the next section is how you can sign up to be a part of the TPS STEM Lab.

Do you want to help us out?

If so, all you need to do is CLICK HERE  to sign up to donate items to the TPS STEM Lab Supply Drive.  Once you sign up, bring the items to Veronica Wilkerson at TPS.  She is ready to get started building this lab for the kids.

So what is STEM learning?

STEM EDUCATION is a movement in American Education to help teachers and their students understand how the academic disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics impact their world and prepare them for the workforce of tomorrow. STEM is multidisciplinary based, incorporating the integration of other disciplinary knowledge into a new whole. Technology helps us communicate; Math is the language; Science and Engineering are the processes for thinking; all this leads to Innovation.

Students learn by shaping arguments and solving problems in the course of a continuous process of asking questions, experimenting, designing, creating, and gathering compelling supporting evidence. Through the implementation of STEM education and the best practices and strategies it promotes, teachers can construct a learning environment where students are given the opportunity to experience, talk, debate, discover, design, create, and build. They can learn to lead the way to innovation... learning today... making a better tomorrow.

If you are able to donate any of the following items, send them to the Tatum Primary School or call/text Veronica Wilkerson at 903-947-0205 and someone will arrange to pick them up!

K-2 STEM Lab Wishlist

• Digital Timers
• glass baby food jars
• metal coffee cans
• salt
• flour
• rock salt
• DVD-R
• band aids
• bug viewers
• grocery bags
• paper towels
• paper plates
• ziplock bags (sizes: snack, sandwich, quart, and gallon)
• terrariums
• universal pH strips
• tissues
• peg board
• strawberry baskets
• dowels
• Old keyboards
• video games and video game systems
• tools such as hammers, screwdrivers, nails, screws, picture hangers
• printers
• photo printers
• craft supplies
• microscopes, telescopes
• string, yarn
• measuring cups and jars
• sand, rocks, clay
• play dough
• mind games like soduko or rubic cubes
• board games
• LEGOS
• Blocks
• maps
• old faucets
• measuring tapes
• rulers
• calculators
• headphones
• microwaves
• wet wipes
• hand sanitizer
• construction paper
• markers
• wood scraps
• pvc pipe
• toothpicks
• tape
• fabric
• toys, cars, trains, tracks, puzzles, etc...
• styrofoam
• paper towels
• plastic bowls
• garbage bags
• old telephones and cords
• cell phones
• memory cards
• flashdrives
• ligh bulbs
• copper wiring
• circuit sets
• paint

…...AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU THINK KIDS CAN USE TO INVESTIGATE, EXPLORE, CREATE, IMAGINE, BUILD, AND TEAR APART!

End of October

3rd graders in Mrs. Acker's class
learned about buoyancy using pumpkins
#Relevance

Happy Halloween!!!

STAAR-A Resources

Go to THIS LINK to see the training resources for teachers and the student tutorials for:

• Grades 3-5
• Grades 6-8
• EOC

STAAR-A is an online test; therefore, we will need to familiarize ourselves and the students with this test and how it works. 

Taking your Content to Deeper Levels of Knowledge through Reading

"Points of Entry" (CLICK HERE) by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher  is a great article for any teacher who wants to make their students better at reading, comprehending and explaining what they have read.  Reading is THE foundational skill for every course, but teaching kids how to read is often relegated to the English teacher.  Kids need more reading instruction than any English teacher can provide, but the solution to this conundrum is not to go out and hire more English teachers.  The answer can be found by providing more reading instruction throughout the day.

If we really want students to be better at our content, then we must ensure that we are making them better readers.  In other words, all teachers must consider how reading is being taught explicitly to their students.  Furthermore, reading instruction is thought of as a silent and individual learning activity, but here's the problem with that philosophy.  How many of us read informational texts in our work and never do anything with it?  Real-world reading requires us to do more than answer multiple choice questions in isolation.  We need to make certain that our instruction mirrors this idea of interactivity.  If we can do that, the multiple choice answers will be answered correctly.

 What I like about this article is that it illustrates the 4 access points of reading:  

1. Establishing Purpose - "Kids benefit from having a clearly established purpose for learning."
2. Closed Reading - "A systematic practice of analyzing a text to gain deep comprehension."
3. Collaborative Conversations - "It's not enough to have students read complex informational texts; they also need time to discuss these texts and interact using academic language."
4.  Wide Reading - "Ensures that students read enough to build their background knowledge and vocabulary"

Using the 4 entry points of reading, all teachers can better engage all students, which will in turn make  them better readers.  The point of the article is this.  If all students can become better readers, they'll become better at mastering our content.  That is why we can't teach our content apart from reading.  They must be intentionally integrated.

Bonus Video - At the bottom of the article is a great video that shows how a teacher uses these 4 access points to make her students better readers.  Prepare yourself.  It's not a quiet video.

CTE - Health Science

In Nicola Hill's  Health Science class, the students learned how to put on personal protective equipment  (PPE). The purpose of PPE is to protect any healthcare person should they enter a room with a patient that is in contact precaution. Contact precaution means the patient has something that can be spread through body fluids such as blood.

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) 

of the Week

By Cristi Whiddon
In Mrs. Garcia's 8th grade ELA class, students are using Photopeach (CLICK HERE) to create a symbolism review over a book they read last year called The Hunger Games.  The project is titled The Hunger Games A-Z and students are finding examples for each letter of the alphabet from events, objects, actions in the book that represent symbolism.   All of this is a precursor for the reading of the 2nd book in the trilogy, "Catching Fire".

The iShare App

Mrs. Haley has discovered the ishare app. The app allows you to send other apps to tablets via wifi so the students can download appropriate apps without having to search for them in the  .  Playstore. It saves time for the teacher as well because she doesn't need to touch every tablet in order to load apps. 

CLICK HERE to go to the Google PlayStore

Ag Students are learning the importance of
good interviewing skills.
#CareerReadiness

Blogs of the Week

Making Cooperative Learning Powerful

The Path Least Taken: A quest to learn more about high school graduates who don't go on to college.

5 Keys to a Winning Professional Learning Team

4th Week of October

TEXAS STATE FAIR WINNER
Savannah Wood placed 3rd & 5th places in her classes
for Brahmen heifers at the State Fair of Texas.
This is a prestigious show and an awesome testament of
THE PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE.

DOK - 3 Fold Mindset

Depth of Knowledge is not about assessment or instruction.  It's about learning.  Developing DOK 2 and 3 questions is the assessment or first step to determining the end product that all students must produce to demonstrate mastery.  Instruction is the road map that will help all kids reach mastery at DOK Level 3.

That being said.  The rigor of daily classroom instruction is a strong predictor of success on any rigorous assessment.  Students who are consistently pushed daily to work and learn independently as well as cooperatively at high levels will always be more successful at reaching mastery on DOK Level 2 or 3 questions than students who are not pushed through rigorous learning environments.

Depth of Knowledge is a 3-fold mindset.  First, we should commit to the level of mastery that we want students to reach by the end of instruction.  Second, we must set high expectations for the learning that we will put in front of students to reach that goal, and last, we will do whatever it takes to support students and hold them accountable for reaching the goal.  When we embrace this mindset, we create high expectations with high levels of support and accountability, and that is the perfect recipe for excellence.

Eduphoria Tip of the Week

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week

By Veronica Wilkerson
Students in Mrs. Crawford's class are reading eBooks in small groups. The eBooks are leveled to meet each child's individual reading level.  This is a great example of using technology as a tool to enhance instruction by personalizing the instruction that each student receives.

What unique ideas are you using to enhance instruction with technology for each child? 

Eagle Excellence

THS Band

Congratulations to the Tatum Eagle Band for being 1 of only 3 4A bands to earn straight 1's at the Region 21 Marching Contest on Saturday.  The band will advance to Area this Saturday in Longview.  Our band directors are David Applegate, Allyson Machado and Kirk Wells.  Congratulate them on a job well done.

THS Debate

The THS Debate Team just completed its first debate meet of the year, and they brought back 7th (Nathan McBride) and 10th place (Damian Lopez & Giuliano Galeazzi)  in CX at the Hallsville meet. That many not sound  like a big deal, but it is. They had two teams that went 2 and 1, and one of those (Nathan McBride) did so without his partner, which is a big deal in CX.  Nathan beat Hallsville's #1 debater, and THS has never placed in CX at a Hallsville meet before. We are so proud of our boys, and look forward to improving before district, as THS is in a tough debate district this year.

Flat Joey goes to Vietnam

Mrs. Evans' students did a Unit on Flat Stanley, and they made a Flat Joey of their own.  His picture was taken with administrators, kids, and custodians, etc... throughout our district.  The class sent Flat Joey to Mrs. Kim Permenter's 6th grade Science Class.  


Here is Mrs. Evan's story about Flat Joey.  "We have a mutual friend and Tatum Graduate, Daniel Weaver, who teaches in Vietnam.  Well, Mrs. P invited her class to my classroom.  We talked about Flat Joey, where he had been in our district, but... we wanted to mail him to Vietnam.
We mailed Flat Joey three weeks ago.  He arrived!!!  We received pictures today of Flat Joey spending the day at school with children half way across the WORLD!!!  He is going to keep Flat Joey until Christmas.  He will be traveling to many places and wants to take Flat Joey along!!!"

Tweet of the Week

@Edutopia

10/7/14, 2:58 PM How do you collect instant feedback from students? Some ideas: bit.ly/1s6wrMe. pic.twitter.com/XiZP4U0The

Blog of the Week

The Do's and Don'ts of Classroom Management: Your 25 Best Tips

THS Print Shop Pinks Out Tatum

By Melody Ojeda, THS Graphic Design Teacher

Our graphic design program is much more than just a “Print Shop.”

When people think of the THS Print Shop – most probably think “t-shirts.” However, it is my goal that t-shirts are just a by-product of what we teach in the graphic design program. In the past, that is mostly what the print shop has been – a place to make t-shirts. Since I took the program over last year, I have been striving to make it a place where we not only make t-shirts, but where students learn life-long skills of work ethic, citizenship, how to be a good employee, and of course, graphic design skills that they can take with them to college and the work place.

Graphic Design is a growing industry. With all of the digital content in our every day lives, graphic designers are in demand. I teach Adobe Illustrator and some Adobe Photoshop in the Print Shop. We have an online curriculum that not only teaches how to use the software, but also how to operate as a graphic designer. You must know your audience, the rules, parameters and how to deal with clients. These are life lessons that every student can use, even if they do not pursue a career in graphic design.

Having this program in the high school allows students to see the product of their labor. It's really cool for students to walk around the halls or a sporting event and see their work on people's backs. They take pride in that, as do I. Though it looked like a pink explosion in the Print Shop for two weeks, it was also really cool to know that their work was going to help a good cause for the Pink Out game. The community can see this too. I believe community members like to know that when they buy a shirt, decal, etc., that their money is going right back into the program – not someone else's pocket. When they buy a t-shirt, they're investing in a student's education, and there really is no better investment.

3rd Week of October

Collaboration

When students fail assessments, how will we respond.  Data is information not condemnation.  It is a result at a certain point in time; therefore, when the results are not favorable, then we must focus on what is the cause of the performance.  In order to analyze data, we must be looking for strengths as well as weaknesses.  Strengths show processes in place.  Weaknesses show room for improvement.  If our data shows everything as a strength, then it is time to turn up the rigor.  The kids are obviously ready for it.  If the data shows everything as a weakness, then we must ask why the rigor of our assessment didn't match the rigor of our instruction.

Here's how teachers and leaders must work interdependently to analyze data and make a plan to effectively and efficiently respond to results.

• Schoolwide Grade Level Data
• What skills were strengths for the grade level?
• What skills were areas of concern for the grade level?
• What is our plan to remediate school-wide areas of concern?
• What is our plan to capitalize on strengths?
• Teacher or Class Data
• By each teacher or class period, which skills were our strengths?
• By each teacher or class period, which skills were our areas of concern?
• What is the plan to reteach the areas of concern?
• What is the plan to learn from our strong instructional practices?
• Individual Student Data
• Which students failed the assessment?
• What is the reason for failure?
• Reading difficulties?
• Vocabulary difficulties?
• Comprehending what the question is asking?
• Developing a plan to solve the problem or answer the question?
• What is the plan to remediate and when and how frequently will it be done?

Building Strong Readers

Mrs. Bates' class is displaying their science projects
that integrated science content with writing skills.
Great job 4th graders!!!

Watch this video see why Kelly Gallagher believes that building intrinsic motivation for reading is critically important.  http://youtu.be/oZscnKqHa2M.

Here's the point.  If we want students to be great students, we must model great reading for the students, show them that they are great readers and put them in situations as much as possible where reading is essential for learning.

Reading is a bicycle.  The more you practice reading, the better reader you become.

Vertical Team Success

Our first vertical team meeting on October 8 was a good success.  Lots of things were accomplished on this day.  ELA teachers began to discuss how they were going to improve in vocabulary acquisition, fluency and inferencing.  Math teachers collaborated on how they were going to create rigorous lessons aligned to the readiness standards in the 2nd 6 weeks.  Science and social studies teachers discussed how non-tested teachers would support tested grades in their instruction.  CTE teachers created course sequences that aligned to HB 5 and CTE certifications.  Special Education teachers reflected on the new AND different STAAR tests.  PE teachers made a plan to prepare our kids for Fitnessgram, while Fine Arts teachers created a fine arts plan to display our talented students' work throughout the year.  Our counselors began creating a district-wide RtI system while our MITS discussed a plan to roll out digital textbooks next August.  You did a great job.  Thank you for your efforts.

Wanda Risner's Anatomy students are using
Play-Dough to build models of all types of
body tissues.  Great assessment idea.

7 Things to Remember about Feedback - INFOGRAPHIC (CLICK HERE)

Tweet/Blog of the Week

Special Note - This post on leadership applies directly to leading kids.

 

Michael HyattVerified account@MichaelHyatt

New guest post: “The Most Important Question a Leader Can Ask” by @JohnCMaxwell: http://mhyatt.us/1vMar8f 

•  Reply 
•  Retweet 
•  Favorite 

2nd 6 Weeks Formative Assessments Timeline (Core Teachers)

Here is an overview of the 2nd 6 weeks formative assessment process.  The reason for specific deadlines to complete tasks is to ensure that the process has a quick turn-around.  A quick turn-around will result in systematic responses for students who fail to learn.  If you have questions about the deadlines, please consult your principal.

Friday, October 24 - FA Deadline

• Submit completed FA Checklist to your principal. (Link to FA Checklist Here)
• Enter formative assessments into Eduphoria (Video Link Here)
• Creating a Test in Eduphoria (CLICK HERE)

November 10 - 14:  Administer Formative Assessments

This is the final week of the 2nd six weeks; therefore, formative assessments must be administered during this week.

Plan for Oral Administration Kids

Principals and teachers should work together to create a schedule for students who have oral administration accommodations.  The schedule should also consider the amount of instructional time lost by the staff members who have to administer the test.  Having scheduled days to administer tests will help tremendously.

Friday, November 14 - Deadline to Enter Tests into Eduphoria

The test data must be entered into the computer no later than Friday, so that principals and teachers have time to extract data for data meetings the following week.

November 17 - 21:  FA Data Review

Teams will meet the following week to review data.  Teams should determine instructional and intervention plans for the following:

• Grade-Level Strengths & Weaknesses
• Teacher or Class Level Strengths & Weaknesses
• Student Intervention & Extensions

Adjust Scope & Sequence Accordingly

If  teams are able to reflect effectively, instructional plans should be modified to reflect the change.  One word of caution is to NOT push things back later in the year because if you put them off, you may not have enough time to teach them deeply.

Celebrate

There will be good results and poor results that come from our assessments.  Anthony Muhammad describes data in this way.  "Data is information, not condemnation".  When we have poor data, that should drive us to determine causal factors that contributed to poor performance.  Once we can determine causal factors, we can then determine our next steps to fix the problem.  

In every assessment, there is always good data.  The problem is that we don't always mine for it.  No matter the result, we must always find our strengths and leverage them to address our weaknesses.  Education is a marathon, not a sprint.  When we celebrate our progress, we accelerate our growth.

2nd Week of October

DOK in our Instruction

Jennifer Liles - Head Start
Kids at DOK 2 & 3

High level questioning is a great instructional strategy, but when students are the ones asking the great questions, learning becomes exponential.  Check out Bill Ferriter's reflections (Click Here for Post) on getting students to pose the high-level questions.

Getting a Head Start on DOK

Every day in Jennifer Liles' HeadStart class instruction always begins with a DOK 2 or 3 question.  Here is what she does.

 Each day since the first day we arrived at school we have been counting the days we are in school. This year I am using not only the 100's chart but also a puzzle that has 100 pieces. Every morning we add a puzzle piece to the board. Students will then predict what the puzzle is going to be. With each day that goes by, the puzzle is revealed and their predictions change. 

Deadline for 2nd 6 Weeks Formative Assessment Checklists is Friday, October 24

• Submit completed FA Checklist to your principal. (Link to FA Checklist Here)
• Enter formative assessments into Eduphoria (Video Link Here)

Writing and Reading Strategies

This is a great video where Kelly Gallagher tells teachers why kids must write far more than we can read and why they must read more than we can physically assess.  http://ow.ly/CdxXK 

College Readiness - Agriculture Science & FFA

Josh NcNeil working in
the greenhouse

Mac Amick working FFA
Alumni Concession Stand

9th Gr FFA Members at Waskom Leadership Summit

The FFA and classroom instruction are both parts of the 3-part Ag Education model. The Agricultural Education model is made up of Supervised Agricultural Experiences, FFA Leadership, and Classroom excersises. When combined, we create students prepared for jobs that don't even exist yet, with work ethic and real life experiences in their chosen career paths.



The National FFA Organization is dedicated to making a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

We have a junior FFA program that allows students to begin their supervised agricultural experience programs earlier, starting in the 3rd grade. 

Contact Jessica Rymel or Chris Tondre at THS for more information on this great College & Career Readiness program. They are our new Agriculture teachers and are doing a fantastic job getting kids plugged in.

TIP - Tech Integration Pic of the Week

Mrs. Carr's students on
iStation

One of the greatest challenges for teachers, particularly at the Primary is the structure and organization of the class.  Much of our day is spent in small group instruction. As a result, planning lessons becomes challenging because you must have a learning activity for each child that reflects their Independent academic, maturity, and interest levels.  Mrs. Carr has excelled at integrating technology into her class while she spends time in small group instruction. Students are spending time on Istation, reading apps such as Booksy, whiteboard app to practice sight words and formation of the letters. I applaud her for her willingness to put the technology into the students hand for independent work, but also for the time she puts into the planning of making sure the students' time spent with technology enhances learning and is not just playtime. Making the most of every academic moment of the day!

Thank you to Veronica Wilkerson for sharing this excellent example of tech integration from the primary.

Blog Post of the Week

Using Descriptive Feedback as a Part of Formative Assessment by Sally l'Anson (CLICK HERE)

Tweet of the Week

mary jane burke‏@burkemaryjane

11 ways to use technology in the classroom via @edutopia ”

Fitnessgram Information

This post is for PE teachers to ensure that we are following guidelines for Fitnessgram in the 2014-2015 school year.

• Suggested Timelines
• State Law
• General Overview
• Testing Protocol & Standards

Contact Wes Boyd for information about log-ins and data entry.

Product or October 8

• Review Fitnessgram protocols
• Create calendar for training of students.
• Create schedule of testing of students during the week of March 16-20. 

1st Week of October

DOK in our Instruction

Helping Students be Comfortable with Not Knowing (CLICK HERE) is a great post by Bill Ferriter (CLICK HERE)  This post presents a cool instructional activity to challenge kids to think at DOK Level 3.  The biggest barrier to DOK 3 instruction is how we structure time to give kids an opportunity to think and manipulate information at DOK 3.

What instructional activities do you use to make kids think at DOK Level 3.

October 8 - Early Release Day

If anyone wants to know why reading is important,
show them this infographic.
Reading is the future.

Here is a list of assignments for you on our Early Release Day (CLICK HERE).  In the core content areas, we will be focusing on our standards that teachers share in common and discuss what plans can be made to scaffold student thinking at DOK Level 3.  Non-STAAR curriculum teams will have a different focus for working together.

Time - 2 pm to 4 pm
Location - See Google Doc above
Purpose - See Google Doc above

Vertical Teams

CLICK HERE for your Assignments

THS Student named NASA Aerospace Scholar

We have a NASA Aerospace Scholar on campus, Nathan McBride.  After a rigorous competition, he won a spot in the summer academy at NASA.  His team elected him project manager, so he was tasked with leading them in planting a colony on Mars.  Below is the link to the video they made at the end of the week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPWDPj3XI3c&noredirect=1

Dr. Hartt with Mrs. Evans' students
at their luncheon fundraiser.

App of the Week - Educreations

This app for tablets make a great addition to your assessment tools.  Students can import pictures, draw on top of them and record a narration of what they have learned.  Check it out at https://www.educreations.com/

Mrs. Evans teaches Life & Career Readiness Skills

Students in Mrs. Evans' Class are doing luncheons, bake sales, and providing a laundry service to raise money for a trip to Morgan's Wonderland in San Antonio, a theme park for students with disabilities.  This is a great way to give kids career readiness skills.

Students recently went on a Community Based Outing to Longview and bought ingredients and supplies for the luncheon held in September.   The students did a great job while shopping!  For instance, our goal was to make 200 sandwich lunches.  The students collaborated to see how many boxes of chips they needed to purchase.   Each box contained 50 bags of chips.   After working together, they decided that we needed to purchase 4 boxes of chips.  They did this sort of calculation throughout the trip at Sam's.  
We went on to have lunch at the Cracker Barrel.  Each student was given $10, (money they had made from the laundry service) to order something of his/her choice off of the menu.  They each were given a printed ticket and paid for his/her own lunch and calculated the gratuity.  It was a great time.  (I have pictures of this also.) 

At the end of October, students will load buses at 7:00 am and travel to Longview.  Students will board the Texas Express, an Amtrack Train, to Dallas.  Students will then have lunch at El-Fenix and then conclude our day with a visit to the Dallas World Aquarium.  We are excited about visiting places that are in our curriculum and have hands-on experiences in the big city of Dallas.  Our current events story in News2You is about the recently released movie, Dolphin Tale 2.  Students are learning about aquariums, sea mammals, and will do a really neat science experiment later in the week.  Next week, we will learn about Hispanic Heritage, which is observed September 15th - October 15th each year.   Our trip to Dallas will give students a personal experience to make their learning more meaningful.  

STAAR Update

Here is a link to give you a broad overview of the STAAR tests that our students can take this year.  Basically, our students will take STAAR unless they are in special education, 504 or ESL.  If these students are going to take a test other than STAAR, the ARD, 504 committee or LPAC committee must make that decision.  The link has hyperlinks to give you an overview of each test.

Here is a link to the page that has the TEA Accommodation Manual from last year.  In order for a student to be able to have accommodations on the STAAR test, they must be used regularly in daily instruction with the student and the student must meet the eligibility requirements to use the accommodations.