Last Week of the 2014-2015 School Year

What a Great Year!!!
This has been an amazing year.  On a personal note, I have had a great time learning from and with you.  There are many amazing things, people and processes that make Tatum ISD a remarkable and unique district, and I am lucky to be a part of this place.  There are many things that I could brag about, but as we finish the year, I'd like to share just a couple of the fun facts and successes.  If you would like to add some fun facts, please leave a comment at the bottom.

1. TES moved into their new home, a brand new state of the art building.
2. 90% of our lessons integrated technology every day.
3. The number of CTE certifications offered to students increased to 12 this year.
4. THS students began using Chromebooks and Google Drive this year in English and Social Studies classes.
5. TPS and TES teachers began using iStation and Think Through Math this year to help more students improve in their reading and math skills.
6. TMS students were exposed to college and careers in a multitude of ways including visits to colleges.
7. Extracurricular programs continued their tradition of excellence in competition.

Obviously, there are 1000 more things to celebrate, so this week, I challenge you to reflect on your year.  There were successes, and there were failures.  There were times of great joy and times of great sadness.  All of these moments shaped our year and brought us to this point.  Before you leave, take some time and reflect with your colleagues and your students.  Reflection is a valuable exercise that is often ignored, but when we reflect, we actually affirm this fact.  The work that each of us did this year was meaningful, and it made a difference in the lives of kids.  The difference will be instantly noticeable in some kids today, and for some kids, the difference was a seed planted that will not come to fruition for many years.  In short, what you did this year was beneficial and helped students grow.


Summer Requirements and Dates

Here are some dates that you will need to put down before you leave.

• Comp Days  
• Every teacher and paraprofessional will need to earn 2 comp days this summer for the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving Break.
• TES, TMS, THS teachers will earn their comp days from 2 days of Google Drive training that is being created by the MITS.  This must be accomplished by Thursday, July 30.  If not completed, staff will need to attend mandatory Google Training during the week of August 3 - 6.
• TPS teachers will earn their comp days from 1 day of Google Drive Training and 1 Day of guided reading training.  Google training must be accomplished by Thursday, July 30.  If not completed, staff will need to attend mandatory Google Training during the week of August 3 - 6.
• All paraprofessional staff will need to see their principal to get direction on how to earn credit for the 2 comp days.
• August 17 - 21 - All staff return for District Staff Development, Campus Orientations and Teacher Preparation Days.  More information will come later in the summer.
• August 24 - Students return to start the 2015-2016 school year.

New Initiatives in 2015-2016
Since continuous improvement is the pathway to excellence, we will carry forward and improve the things we are already doing, but we will also introduce some new ideas.  Below are a couple of new initiatives that we are very excited about.

New IU Template
We will be moving away from Eduphoria and to Google Sheets for your new lesson plan next year.  Each campus had representatives give input on the new IU template so that the document meets the needs of each campus and each teacher.  You will receive a link over the summer to your very own personalized lesson plan template and instructions of how to use the document for planning this year.  We will also offer training on how to use it and how to enter information, hyperlinks and other information into the document.

College and Career at THS
Next year we will make a huge emphasis on College and Career.  To get started, we purchased Career Cruising, a software program to help kids become exposed to careers that fit their strengths and colleges or post-secondary schools that will help them reach their career goals.  The goal of College and Career will be simple; equip all kids with tools and knowledge to reach their college and career goals before they graduate.


Summer Learning
What is your summer learning plan?  What do you want to get better at next year?  Is it content related?  Is it kid-related?  Whatever your plan is, make a plan to learn more about it this summer.  If you would like some suggestions or help finding resources, please let me know.  What we learn this summer makes us even better for next year's kids.  Below are a few links that you may find beneficial this summer.


Summer Online Camp for kids by DIY.org

Even More Instagram and YouTube Accounts for Science Teachers

Google Apps for TISD - Our very onw link to several resources that will help you get Google-fied.

Digitial Citizenship - Teaching kids how to be ethically and morally responsible with technology.

To Teach Math, Study Reading Instruction

Homework vs. No Homework is the Wrong Question

8 Strategies to Keep Informational Reading Fun

Reflection on Learning Week 6 - Exit Ticket

This is the final week of our 6 week reflection on learning.  This week's collaborative discussion will reflect on all of the ways that we assess whether or not students learned through the collection of exit tickets.

How do great teachers know if kids learned what they were taught?  At the end of every great lesson, teachers of excellence conclude the lesson by gathering formative data.  By reviewing what had been learned during the class period, teachers get students to share their learning with the class as well as offer questions that continue to perplex them.  This helps teachers drive tomorrow's instruction.  Additionally, no great lesson ends without showing a preview of how today’s learning will be connected to tomorrow’s lesson.  In the last few minutes of instruction, teachers assign homework to the class, follow up with individuals or groups of students with specific feedback, and collect an exit-ticket, a quick formative assessment to check for understanding.  An exit ticket is important because it can quickly tell teachers which students learned the content, which students are starting to get the hang of it, and which students did not learn the content.  This data drives not only tomorrow's instruction, but it helps teachers build intervention groups for guided learning.

Wrapping up the day’s lesson takes around 5 minutes, and in a 50 minute block of time, that makes up 10% of instruction; therefore, it is critical to bear in mind that the end of the lesson serves as a platform for tomorrow’s lesson.  The most important reason to wrap up the lesson in this way is to use the data to reflect on the learning of each student and to drive the next day’s lesson.  To put it another way, the last five minutes of class may quite possibly be the most important 5 minutes of the entire class period.

Engagement Component	Description	Rigor	Content	Time Frame
		How are DOK 2 & 3 questions provided and responded to?	What content is covered?	The approximate time that the activity should take.
Exit Ticket	Activity that allows students to wrap up their learning and give the teacher formative assessment data to drive future instruction.	Students provide evidence of learning to the teacher through independent work at the rigor of the day's instruction.	Current day's content.	5 minutes

Reflection Task

List a couple of ways that you gather data from your kids to accomplish 2 goals:  determine first the effectiveness of your lesson, and second, gauge whether or not each student learned the content from your lesson.

4th Week of May

Congrats

STAAR scores are coming in this week, and we are getting information to the teachers and students this week. Next week, we will share percentages, but for this week we would like to say thank you for your work in preparing the kids to do their best.  You have put in so much hard work and effort to help all kids reach excellence, and you need to be proud of yourself for the job you have done.

End of School Events

• May 25 - Memorial Day
• June 4 - Early Release
• June 5 Staff Development Day, Deadline for All Scope and Sequence Documents & Graduation

College & Career

As we finish the year, we have several students getting exposed to college and career in various ways.  TES students are learning about appropriate career behaviors by performing skits. TMS 8th graders had a college visit to SFA and THS juniors attended the GLOBE scholar job fair.

8th graders at SFASU

TES students performing Job Ready Skits

What I'm Learning

4 Tools to Boost Student Engagement via Edutopia

TeachThought: How Google Apps For Education Can Be UsedIn Your Classroom 

@justintarte: This is an excellent approach to grading and assessment: #edchat #sblchat http://t.co/dTOOkmjd2T

TISD Fine Arts Spotlight is this Thursday

We hope you will come out this Thursday at 6 p.m. to support the TISD Fine Arts programs.  Below is an itinerary of all the great things that our fine arts programs will do to spotlight Excellence for All.

Reflection on Learning Week 5 - Independent Learning

We are in week 5 of our collaborative discussion on the components of Instructional Delivery.  This week we will reflect on all of the ways that we get students to high levels of rigor through independent learning tasks.

“The ultimate goal of instruction is that students can independently apply information, ideas, content, skills, and strategies in unique situations.”  (Fisher, Frey. 2008)  In order for students to apply their learning independently, students should be given familiar tasks that require application of information that was previously taught.  In absence of good instruction through a concise and precise focus lesson, guided learning supports from the teacher, and collaboration with fellow students, most students, especially struggling students, will fail to successfully demonstrate what they have learned independently.

Independent learning is not a one size fits all approach.  Since learning is a personal event, teachers should remember that they must require all students to complete the same independent task with the same level of difficulty, but also allow students the opportunity to challenge themselves beyond the minimum expectation.  In other words, teachers should have in mind what they expect all students to demonstrate for mastery, and they should also provide students some choice in the complexity.  For example, if students in a reading classes are engaged in an independent task over the concept of writing the summary of a story, students might select a familiar text with an appropriate reading level.  If students in a math class are demonstrating their understanding of ratios and proportions in problem solving situations, all students would have access to the minimum level of complexity for mastery but have the opportunity to demonstrate mastery through medium and high level tasks.  It is the salesmanship of the teacher that ensures that all students master minimum expectations but strive for the highest levels of learning possible.

Engagement Component	Description	Rigor	Content	Time Frame
		How are DOK 2 & 3 questions provided and responded to?	What content is covered?	The approximate time that the activity should take.
Independent Learning	Activity that allows students to interact with content individually and independently while teacher monitors and provides individualized support.	Provided to students at the rigor of the standard, but students are also challenged to tackle tasks at higher levels of rigor.	Content that students can handle independent of teacher.	10-20 minutes

Reflection Task

In what ways do you create independent learning activities for students that challenge them to surpass the minimum expectation for mastery and reach for higher levels of rigor?

3rd Week of May

Finishing Strong
Don't miss the opportunity to set your kids up for success next year.  Transition sheets or notes are a great way to help kids start next year off on the right foot by preparing next year's teachers to help them continue on their path to excellence.  A transition sheet/note can have performance data on it, but it can also have strategies and notes about the child to give next year's teachers a headstart on working with them.  Examples of useful information on a transition sheet/note  include the following:

• What strategies helped the student with problem-solving?
• Is the student a kinesthetic, auditory or visual learner, and how did you address this learning style?
• Does the kid respond well in one-on-one setting, in groups or whole group?
• Does the student benefit from preferential seating?
• What interventions help this kid learn best?
• If the student had behavior issues, what behavior supports helped him/her improve on their behavior?

If you think about it, these are questions that teachers will spend the first 6 weeks of school answering through trial and error, but with transition sheets/notes passed from this year's teacher to next year's teacher, next year's teacher set up for success on the first day of school.  If you have students  that benefited from your great strategies to help them reach excellence, take a second to write down those strategies and share them with next year's teacher. 

GoNoodle  
This is a cool site for K-5 teachers to incorporate movement and dance into transitions or learning.  Kinesthetic movement recharges the brain for enhanced focus and it gets the wiggle.

May Events

• May 8 - End of 3 Weeks
• May 12 - STAAR 5 & 8 Reading Retest
• May 14 - M&M Program at 6:30 in the Coliseum
• May 15 - Sarah Murphy Races in Henderson
• May 18 - Course Selection Guide Meeting for Parents of 8th - 11th graders at 4 pm & 6 pm in the THS Auditorium
• May 19 - THS Academic Banquet
• May 21- TISD Fine Arts Forum
• May 25 - Memorial Day
• June 4 - Early Release
• June 5 Staff Development Day

College Career

May is certification time, and in Health Science, Principles of Law Enforcement, and the Paxton/Patterson lab classes, students have been working hard and having fun earning their CPR certification.  The CPR certification can be earned through the American Heart Association or the Red Cross.

This certification can help kids in lots of ways.  Here are a few jobs that require CPR certification:

• Lifeguard,
• Babysitter
• Childcare Worker
• Nurse Aide

Great job to Nicola Hill and Jeff Gibson in preparing our students to save lives.

Tech-Integration
Congrats to Veronica Wilkerson who has been invited to present at the TCEA Region 7 Conference on June 12 in White Oak.  Her topic will be Makerspaces.  See her Movenote below to learn more about what's happening at TPS.  Movenote is a great way for teachers and leaders to flip their instruction or communication.  It is very easy to use.

TMS Takes First Place at STEM Competition!

The TMS STEM team led by Ms. Hatfield won 1st place the the TEAMS competition.  We are proud of our students for representing TMS in their first STEM competition.

The students on the 1^st place Middle School Team are:

Demi Worke, Nolan Nail, Yuvia Vasquez,  Luke Lister, Emily Smith, Dillon Taylor, Keniya Starling, Clay Rabius 

Alternates include:  Dylan Glasco, Bryan Hawkins, Kayla Jones, Brooklyn Killen

Here is a little more about the competition

2015 TEAMS competition, “The Power of Engineering,” explored the relationship between energy and engineering. Scenario topics included biofuel, electricity, nuclear and solar energy.

Focused on a theme each year, original academic and innovative concepts are developed for the TEAMS competition based on the National Academy of Engineering Grand Challenges. Tackling these challenges requires critical job-readiness skills such as collaboration, analytical thinking, and multidimensional problem-solving.

Experience Engineering!

Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science (TEAMS) is an annual competition for middle and high school students designed to help them discover their potential for engineering.

During this one-day competition, students apply math and science knowledge in practical, creative ways to solve real-world engineering challenges.

TEAMS sparks excitement by:

• Providing an integrated STEM learning experience
• Allowing students a unique inside look at problem solving from an engineer’s viewpoint
• Increasing students’ self-confidence in solving complex problems while working on a team
• Inspiring students to consider engineering majors and careers

Reflection on Learning - Week 4: Collaborative Learning

So far, we have studied the components of instruction that engage students with bell ringer to connect them with the content that is delivered in the focus lesson.  Last week, we reflected on how we provide targeted instructional / intervention supports in guided learning.  This week, we will shift the focus from teacher-led instructional components to student-led settings.  Collaborative learning will be our focus this week and independent learning will be our focus next week.  Our final reflection will be the exit ticket.

After students have had time to interact with the content through the focus lesson and/or guided learning, teachers should make a plan for students to interact with familiar content and tasks with one another through student collaboration.  The key to successful collaboration is simple.  Each student must work together and learn from one but be responsible for creating an independent product as a result of collaboration with his peers.  “When collaborative learning is done right, our experience suggests that it is during this phase of instruction that students consolidate their thinking and understanding.”  By negotiating their understanding with one another, students further synthesize their own understanding while simultaneously reinforcing the learning of their peers.

To make collaborative learning successful, teachers must create learning situations that help students think through ideas, answer challenging questions, identify multiple ways to solve the same problem, and teach one another about the content.  Furthermore, collaborative activities must scaffold learning for students by offering structures that help collaborative groups not only engage in learning but remain cognitively engaged.  To engage students cognitively, teachers must ensure that collaborative learning tasks require students to demonstrate their learning to one another so that students can be prepared to apply what they learning through collaboration to independent learning tasks.

Engagement Activity	Description	Questions	Content	Time Frame
		How are DOK 2 & 3 questions provided and responded to?	What content is addressed?	The approximate time that the activity should take.
Collaborative Groups	Activity that allows students to interact with familiar content through collaboration with peers while teacher provides on-going support to groups or individuals who struggle.	Provided to or created by the group.	Content that students can handle independent of teacher.	10-20 minutes

Reflection Task

Share a successful practice of how you group students and set expectations for collaborative groups to ensure that students work together and learn the content more deeply?