4th Week of February

Do You Mentimeter?

What is your bell ringer activity tomorrow?  Why not try a poll?  Mentimeter is a new program that you can use to engage your students in answering a rigorous question and enter their responses with their cell phone.  

To get the full experience, get out your cell phone and go to www.govote.at and enter the code 84 44 64.  Then enter your response and watch the graphic below.

DOK - How do students view their learning?

The graphic below illustrates two mindsets that students have about learning.  When students have a growth mindset, there is a strong chance that the student will grow in their learning.  When their minds are fixed, they lack the perseverance to overcome any deficit or difficulty.  How we structure learning for them has a huge impact on how they perceive their potential to learn.  You can't learn something you already know.  You can only learn when you are introduced to a concept foreign to you and have the opportunity and support to study and eventually master it.

College & Career - Find your Future
Students have lots of dreams.  They aspire to reach this goal, or they want to change the world in this way.  But how do they know which careers or pathways they are best suited for?  Well, here is a website for students to explore where their talents best suit them.

TexasGenuine.org is a website that helps students, teachers, and parents explore careers fields and college programs to get there.  There are many links that you can look at, but one that I encourage you to use with your students is the Find Your Future Survey (click here).  After a series of questions, it will tell you the top 3 clusters that your student is best suited for.  The only drawback is that there is some advanced vocabulary, so I encourage you to use the Dictionary.com app, if you come across words that you are unsure about.

Dual Credit Courses 
Sophomores and juniors will be able to take dual credit courses in academic courses and CTE courses next year.  Visit with your students about this great opportunity and encourage them to talk to Mrs. Rowe about what they need to do to get enrolled.  The great thing about dual credit courses is that students get high school and college credit at the same time and the courses are paid for by Tatum ISD.  To be eligible for academic dual credit courses, students must make a 4000 on the STAAR EOC English 2 test (or a score of 4000 on the Alg 1 EOC for College Algebra) or pass the TSI test.  CTE dual credit courses do not have an academic prerequisite.

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week

Mrs. Jordan's 1st grade class is using Storybook Online.

My Weekly WebFinds
What a Gift by Rebecca DuFourFree Math Foldables from Math = LoveA Very Good Tool to Create Charts from Spreadsheets & Insert into GOOGLE DOCS

3rd Week of February

DOK - From Student Involvement to Student Commitment

I found this quote a few weeks ago and pondered this thought, "How much does involvement play in the arduous task we call learning.  If you think about it, involvement is a pretty big deal.  When kids or even adults don't feel included in any initiative or task, there is a strong chance that they will not choose to take ownership or even an active role in the task.

So how can we involve kids in our learning tasks in a way that will entice them to commit to the learning?

Source:  "Motivational Quotes"
Compiled by Mac Anderson

1. Leadership - When kids have the opportunity to help you lead the learning, participation grows,
2. Examples - When examples of student work are used as teaching tools or exemplars of great work, student motivation increases.
3. Advancement - If students can see how learning tasks advance their abilities and their knowledge, they choose to get involved.
4. Real-world - When learning is tied to the real-world that students either live in or can relate to, involvement grows.
5. N-It-4-Me - Every successful lesson answers this ever-present student question, "What's in it for me?"  If you can sell your content to your client, the student, chances are they will not only buy your teaching but sell it to their peers on your behalf.  That's the ultimate form of student commitment to learning.

Learning can't occur at high levels unless there is commitment.  The manner in which we intentionally involve kids in class everyday plays a huge role in determining whether or not kids will choose get involved and ultimately commit to their learning.

STAAR Vocabulary Challenge - How many words do your kids know? 
(Click here for Dynamo.Dictionary.com)

College & Career

•  The oil and gas business is booming (if you didn't already know that), and there is a huge demand for skilled workers in the areas of welding technology, industrial maintenance, petroleum technology and corrosion technology.  Did you know that in these 4 areas, students enrolled in associate degree programs at Kilgore College are getting hired before they graduate.  In addition these jobs have entry-level salaries that start as low as $40,000 per year and can go as high as $70,000.  
• College and career isn't just about courses that lead to 4 year degrees.  It is about preparing all kids for a career that will sustain them.  To the right you see the projects that our agriculture mechanics students are doing in preparation for shows this spring.  While these tasks prepare them for competition, students are also being prepared for careers with huge earning potential.
• This week, take time to share with your students the fact that college isn't just about 4 year degrees.  There are lots of careers that only require a 1 year college certificate or a 2 year associate's degree.

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week

By Veronica Wilkerson

Kindergarten students are

 using the Dr. Bones App to

 learn about the bones in the human body

 in the Discovery lab.

By Cristi Whiddon
TMS math students use Kahoot! to help reinforce
math facts in support of learning new concepts.

This Week's WebFinds

Great piece on the effects divorce has on learning  -  The Grip of Abandonment by @techninjatodd

Will you join 300,000 kids in the The Global Read Aloud by @pernilleripp

Educator Learning Series - A blog designed to engage educators in tasks that help them be more effective in the classroom. 

2nd Week of February

Intervention Quote of the Week

Eggy-Word App in 1st Grade
for learning sight-words

Instead of asking, 

"What is wrong with this child, and how do we stop it?" 

We need to be asking, 

"What happened to this child, and how do we help them?"

~Jennifer Ng'Andu~

New FAQ about the STAAR Test.
Growth Mindset - Carol Dweck
I encourage you to watch this video called "The Power of Not Yet".  It is great mindset to teach kids how to look at their learning through the lens of mastery vs. not quite there instead of through the battle of passing vs. failing.

DOK Engagement

Get out Your Cell Phone
Check out www.mentimeter.com.  It is a great tool to engage your kids with their cell phones.

Here is a mentimeter poll for you.  You can access it from your computer, but try it with your phone.

www. govote.at

enter code 84 44 64

Results can be seen here.



Valentine Cards Never Get Old
Engagement in learning is all about students finding relevance in the learning tasks that they are given.  Mrs. Ojeda and Mrs. Risner's students are making Valentines for Kids in the hospital and seniors in assisted living (nursing homes).  This is one of Mrs. Ojeda's favorite service projects  of the year because most of the students actually love to 'go back to their roots,' get their hands glittery and be a kid again. In both classes, they have made over 500 Valentine cards.  Some of the people in nursing homes may not get any cards, except for these, during the year, and the project makes her students more aware of the people around them, and, for a few minutes, think about how they can make someone else's life a little brighter - even if only for the day.

Here's the link again if you are wondering exactly where these go, and how they get to the kids and seniors.  http://kvne.com/valentinesforkidsandseniors2015/


Web Resource for Engagement

edutopia @edutopia  3h3 hours ago

Our BIG list of resources for student engagement: http://edut.to/1Et3vF1 . #k12

College & Career
Last week was National Signing Day.  If your students were asked where they are committing to go to college what would they say?  Would they say Texas or A&M?  Would they say, "I don't know", or would they say, "I'm not going to college."  Many students don't know what college is all about.  Even more think that they can't go to college, while a huge majority don't think they need to go to college or technical school after graduation.

Students in Mrs. Asaff's biology classes are simulating the 

digestive system in this messy but engaging lab.

College enrollment is down before kids even graduate from high school.  That is because college is a foreign concept to them, but if you think about it, that is something that we can fix.  In our work, we must inspire kids to believe that they are college material and that they have what it takes to pursue a college & career future.  So how can you promote a college-going mindset in your role?

• Tell students your college story.
• Share statistics about the benefits of getting a college degree or technical school degree.
• Talk about careers connected to your content and encourage students to research them.
• Explain that job opportunities are fewer and wages are less for students who choose not to go to college.
• Tell students about the potential you see in them to go to college.  Kids need to hear that we see their potential.

College is a long way off even for our seniors, but it is never too early to talk about the importance of pursuing an education after high school.  If we conditioned our kids to pursue college every year beginning with kindergarten, I am confident that National Signing Day would reach even more kids than it does today.



Congratulations to THS CX Debate Team 

THS Debate Team
From L-R:  Malik Allen, Damian Lopez, Nathan McBride,
Kevin Boatman, Chris Starling, Jason McBride

This past weekend was the district CX Debate District Meet.  THS students competed against 4 schools with a total of 11 teams.  Having 'buried the lead' a little bit...Nathan McBride and Kevin Boatman brought home 2nd place and top speaker points, and are HEADED TO STATE!! THS also had one other team (Damian Lopez and Jason McBride) only 1 speaker point away from being 3rd/4th place (and alternate to state). We are so proud of Mrs. Ojeda and her students for their work in taking Eagle Excellence to state.  

Congratulations to our THS Band Members

The following students have advanced to UIL State Solo and Ensemble. Twenty-four total including twirlers advance, and some of the students are going on more than one event.   The students came home with 32 first division medals.  Congratulations to Mr. Applegate, Mrs. Machado and Mr. Wells for their work in leading our students to excellence.

Zack Arbegast, Madison Baker, Kevin Boatman, Taylor Burch, Ania Centers, Brayden Fleming, Ryan Gibson, Destiny Hicks, Breanna Hill, Remington Hill, Nicholas Jackson, Taylor Majors, Joshua Martin,  Lexie McAlister, Jonathan Mock,  Allen Morrison, James Nesbitt,  Matthew O'Dea, Tylar Phillips, Keanna Pipkin,  Breanna Tatum,  Nathan Trichel,  Matthew Vickers,  Amanda Zahn 

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week

Nathan McBride, Kevin Boatman and Lauren Scarborough from Mr. Miller's class submitted this animation to the UIL film festival. Check out Beep, Boop, Bop

Do you want Smore Technology Integration Ideas?

By Cristi Whiddon:  8th Grade Social Studies students are using smore.com to 

create an advertisement about an invention from the industrial revolution.

1st Week of February

DOK - From Rigor to Vigor

This week, I want to share with you some ideas that will help you motivate your students to strive for higher levels of rigor.                                                                                                                                                By Luh Putu Januwati - Jennifer Day has come up with a cool and interactive way for her 3rd grade math students to use QR codes to learn about equivalent fractions.  Students review equivalent fractions using bar models and check their answers using QR reader. This is an awesome idea for two reasons.  It is easy to make, and the students have a chance to move around. It does not feel like work for the students.                                                                                                                                      

• 4 Habits of Highly Effective Assessors  
•  My Google Apps for Education SMORE  
•  Math Tasks Matter

Tweet of the Week

 

Dan McCabe@danieldmccabe

Rigor is… Rigor is NOT #edchat #ukedchat #aussieED

Collaboration that Counts

100th Day of School at TPS

Improving our impact on student learning is tied directly to how we improve our own effectiveness as educators.  Meaningful collaboration should result in us getting better at supporting kids by supporting one another.  The most powerful collaboration happens when our discussions center on the following concepts:

• The essential skills that we expect all kids to master at the appropriate level of rigor, 
• The tasks that students must successfully complete to demonstrate mastery,
• The targeted strategies that we will use to respond when individual kids fail to learn, and
• The meaningful tasks that successful students will tackle to extend their thinking in deeper and more complex ways.

This week, ask yourself these questions about your take-aways from collaboration with your colleagues?

• Do I dig deep into discussions about content and reflect on my own effectiveness as an instructor?
• Do I walk away with new instructional and assessment ideas to try in the classroom?
• Do I leave challenged to be more focused in my work with my struggling students?
• Do I leave with more meaningful activities to extend our students once they master the learning target?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that your instruction is changing every day to better meet the needs of kids, and that is a good thing?

College & Career

Mrs. Morvan's class using the Mimi 

to learn the bossy r sound in the pirate song "Arg".

Dual credit courses are a huge advantage for our students at THS.  Dual credit courses are college courses that students can take in high school, and these classes earn college credit as well as high school credit.  This year, Tatum HS had the 6th highest enrollment in dual credit courses for the entire Kilgore College service area.  This area includes all of the 5A schools in the Longview area.  In addition, Tatum HS students as a whole earned the 4th most college hours of all schools with 411 hours behind Longview, Hallsville and Henderson.  This is very impressive.

Currently we offer academic dual credit courses from Kilgore College in the following courses:  English, U.S. History, College Algebra, Intro to Probability and Statisitcs, Psychology, Art Appreciation, and Government.  Students can qualify to take dual credit courses in their junior year if they earn a scale score of 4000 on the STAAR EOC English 2 test.  This equates to making a score at the final passing standard.

You can promote dual credit courses in your class by challenging your students to make a score that is at the final passing standard or the advanced standard on the STAAR test.  It is never too early to promote dual credit courses to our students.  Kids need to hear every day what it takes to be college and career ready.

TIP of the Week

(Tech Integration Pic)

By Cristi Whiddon - Coach Thompson's class used smore.com to create newsletters covering the Battle of the Alamo.  Students pretended to be reporters for the newspaper during that time and had to include significant events and people in their articles.






National Signing Day at THS

Andy Evans introduces seniors who
commit to the next level

Five THS Seniors signed their letters of commitment to be student athletes at the next level.  Congratulations to the following seniors:

• Lauren Rockwell - LeTourneau University for tennis
• Beau Craig - Panola College for baseball
• Nicole Aldridge - Centenary College for softball
• Chaston Brooks - Lamar University for football
• Keshaun Smith - SFASU for football

We are very proud of them!  

#Excellence4ALL