Friday, August 28, 2015
Getting Google Comments sent to your Email
If you're wondering how to set up your notifications for comments to come directly to your email, here you go.
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Week 1.2
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| Kallie Boxell's 8th grade science students are engaged with a relevant bell ringer activity. |
The first week was excellent, and I hope that every kid you met was exposed to high expectations for excellence in every class. Consistency is the key to help every kid get their +10, and every teacher and administrator owns a part of consistency. This week, I am sharing links that I found on bell ringers and exit tickets. I hope you find them valuable as you plan for weeks 2 and 3.
- 7 Bell Ringers for MS and HS English
- Math Bell Ringer - Financial Literacy Quiz
- Elementary STEM Activity
- 10 Exit Slip Prompts that will work in ANY Class
- See Twitter link below
Another tutor group/starter activity - How many words can you make out of the word 'education'? Pupils of all ages and abilities enjoy this
— Annabel Daniels (@Teacher20154) August 23, 2015
College AND Career
College and career should be in the forefront of every student's mind because they all need a career that will make them stable in life. To get that stable career, they will need some form of college or vocational education beyond high school. Your class is the training ground for College and Career. Please make sure that you connect your content to how it will help them in the future.
Check out Kim Permenter's class Twitter account. She will be using Twitter to show her followers and the TISD community what they are doing to promote college and career for every child. If you would like help starting a class Twitter account, let me know. It's very easy.
Students create their vehicle to cruise in to college and career! @JohnWink90 #TMSCandC #Excellence4ALL #TMS pic.twitter.com/vhVXe8lWzK
— TMSCandC (@TMSCandC) August 24, 2015
Google Me This
IU Templates
I have looked at a lot of plans this week and you are doing a great job planning for your instruction. As you plan for week 2 and beyond, remember that coaches, principals, and administrators will begin leaving comments based on what they review in your IU or based on what they see when they walk through your classroom.
Comments are feedback, and they will focus on the attributes of your work. We are all growing, so it is important to know that your feedback could encompass a combination of the following things:
- Positive comments on what is working in your classroom
- Observations of students connected or not connected to your instruction.
- Observations of what you are doing in the classroom and how it is enhancing student engagement.
- Feedback on the rigor of your lesson being aligned to the rigor of the standard.
- Suggestions to enhance the great things in place.
- Questions to help the observer learn more about your instruction.
Feedback should help you know what is working well and what you can do to strengthen engagement or rigor. The great part about feedback is that you can and should respond to the comments. What we see is based on our perception, so if you have questions or comments, you should feel comfortable REPLYing to the comment. If you have read the comment and don't need to reply, mark the comment RESOLVED so that all parties know the comment has been read.
Google Classroom
I know I have shared this before, but you may have not seen it. If you are using Google Classroom to manage your students' learning, this video will show you quickly how it works.
This article shows new features that are out and new features that are coming soon, like embedding Google Forms into Classroom for quizzes (exit ticket!!!).
Upcoming Dates
- Mon., 9/7 - Labor Day Holiday
- Fri., 9/11 - End of 3 Weeks Grading Period
- Fri., 9/11 - Formative Assessment Answer Keys emailed to Principal
What I'm Learning
- How can Introverted Students Collaborate?
- 10 Exit Slip Prompts that will work in ANY Class
- The Teaching Channel - AWESOME SITE to SUBSCRIBE to by EMAIL
Friday, August 21, 2015
Week 1.1: First Week of School! (8/24/2015)
Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL)
The first day of school is Day 1 of 180 in helping every kid grow this school year. I know there are a lot of things to do, but here are 3 things that are ESSENTIAL.
College AND Career
TPS, TES and TMS are submitting their PK-16 plans for the new school year, and THS has a comprehensive plan to integrate college and career into every single classroom this year. This plan is designed to intentionally teach our kids about the necessity to pursue a college AND career pathway beyond high school.
Remember the statistics. The high school diploma is not enough to make it in the 21st century, and the only way that kids will see the value in obtaining an education beyond high school is if we promote it consistently for 13 consecutive years in every classroom. Remember, your ability to inspire excellence can positively affect their trajectory and their commitment to College AND Career.
Google Me This
Each week I will drop an idea or two to help you integrate technology into your work and teaching seamlessly.
Device Management is key to Excellent Routines and Procedures
Tami Turner has an awesome strategy for device management. CLICK HERE Here is a video that she created to show you how to integrate technology management into her routines and procedures. This example of meticulous detail in device management is the reason why her excellence factor is extremely high. Since she invests lots of time on the front end creating a powerful structure for students to manage themselves with their devices, she banks lots of time to focus on what's most important, helping all kids learn and grow.
The Battle between Personal vs. TISD Google Accounts
If you have to request permission to see a document, make sure that you are in your TISD Google Account first. Since we are a GAFE school, settings are established to where you can access documents shared with your TISD account. A lot of times, accessing Google Docs from my phone or personal computer prompts the request for access page simply because my personal devices are set to my personal Google account.
DMAC Update
Several of you have been able to start navigating DMAC and creating tests in TAG. If you haven't done that yet, DON'T SWEAT IT. We will be offering training during the 2nd week of school. In the meantime, just get familiar with your essential skills for your content. Get comfortable with the IU template, and focus on creating the greatest learning environment for kids.
The first day of school is Day 1 of 180 in helping every kid grow this school year. I know there are a lot of things to do, but here are 3 things that are ESSENTIAL.
- Routines and procedures that empower students to own their learning environment will set the stage for excellence.
- Building strong relationships for learning are imperative and aligning our expectations for excellence from classroom to classroom are crucial.
- The pathway to excellence starts by focusing on the most essential things, not everything.
College AND Career
TPS, TES and TMS are submitting their PK-16 plans for the new school year, and THS has a comprehensive plan to integrate college and career into every single classroom this year. This plan is designed to intentionally teach our kids about the necessity to pursue a college AND career pathway beyond high school.
Remember the statistics. The high school diploma is not enough to make it in the 21st century, and the only way that kids will see the value in obtaining an education beyond high school is if we promote it consistently for 13 consecutive years in every classroom. Remember, your ability to inspire excellence can positively affect their trajectory and their commitment to College AND Career.
Google Me This
Each week I will drop an idea or two to help you integrate technology into your work and teaching seamlessly.
Device Management is key to Excellent Routines and Procedures
Tami Turner has an awesome strategy for device management. CLICK HERE Here is a video that she created to show you how to integrate technology management into her routines and procedures. This example of meticulous detail in device management is the reason why her excellence factor is extremely high. Since she invests lots of time on the front end creating a powerful structure for students to manage themselves with their devices, she banks lots of time to focus on what's most important, helping all kids learn and grow.
The Battle between Personal vs. TISD Google Accounts
If you have to request permission to see a document, make sure that you are in your TISD Google Account first. Since we are a GAFE school, settings are established to where you can access documents shared with your TISD account. A lot of times, accessing Google Docs from my phone or personal computer prompts the request for access page simply because my personal devices are set to my personal Google account.
DMAC Update
Several of you have been able to start navigating DMAC and creating tests in TAG. If you haven't done that yet, DON'T SWEAT IT. We will be offering training during the 2nd week of school. In the meantime, just get familiar with your essential skills for your content. Get comfortable with the IU template, and focus on creating the greatest learning environment for kids.
Twitter Chat - Thursday, August 27 at 8 p.m.
I will be leading a Twitter chat on the #atplc hashtag. This is a great professional learning opportunity for educators all over the globe to use Twitter to learn with and from one another. I invite you to take an hour to participate in the discussion or just follow the stream. When I connect with educators that I will never meet in real life, it shows me all of the possibilities out there for me to discover.
If you're into Twitter. Share your classroom and learning with us and the world by tagging @tatumisd to your Tweet or by using our Tatum ISD hashtag, #Excellence4ALL
Monday, August 10, 2015
Check your IU Template
Many of you have started your work in planning for instruction with the new IU template. We will have training next week on the template and how it will serve a two fold purpose: planning for teachers and conducting walk-throughs for administrators.
Here is a checklist to help you answer any questions prior to training next week.
Here is a checklist to help you answer any questions prior to training next week.
- Accessing using TISD Google Account
- Every TISD employee has a TISD Google account.
- You cannot access your IU template until you activate your Google account.
- If you need help with that, please see your MITS
- Scope and Sequence - Please check this tab
- If you created one this spring - In the S&S tab, please check to see if what you created has been add. If it is not there and you created one in this format, email me and I will add it.
- If you did not create one this spring - You will need to begin creating a scope and sequence for your course.
- Master IU is the master template for your lesson plans.
- Each time you create a new lesson plan for the week, you will "DUPLICATE" the Master IU template.
- Once you DUPLICATE, you will "RENAME" your first sheet 1.1. Here is the coding system we will use to rename lesson plans for each week.
- 1.1 = 1st 6 weeks . 1st week.
- The second week of the 1st six weeks will be named 1.2
Monday, August 3, 2015
Using a Blog for your Instruction
I had a great conversation today with John Huffstetler, (new teacher at THS) about getting a blog started for his instruction. As many of you know, I am quite partial to blogs as they are great tool to communicate with students, parents and the community at large. The greatest benefit and definitely most underutilized use of a blog is that it is a great tool to drive your classroom instruction. I'm really excited to share that on our PD days on August 17 & 18, I will model for you through our 3 days together how you can use your blog for classroom instruction.
Opening your Blog Account
Since you have a Tatum Google account, you can create your account using your TISD email and password. Below is a short video to help you get started in creating a blog for your classroom if you are interested.
Since you have a Tatum Google account, you can create your account using your TISD email and password. Below is a short video to help you get started in creating a blog for your classroom if you are interested.
Creating your Blog on Blogger
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