Wednesday, January 27, 2016

Week 4.3

Celebrate Excellence
TPS custodian Vernetta Whitten volunteered to spend her days off on past Sunday & Monday to ensure that the Head Start classrooms were in tip top shape for the Head Start monitors that arrived on Tuesday January 19. This is just one example of how Mrs. Vernetta is always going above and beyond for TPS students and staff. Over the years Mrs. Vernetta has worked at several campuses, however TPS has always been "home"! TPS loves Mrs. Vernetta!
What a great idea and message from Melody Ojeda
It's that time of year again, and my graphic design and debate students will be making Valentines for chronically ill kids in hospitals and seniors in assisted living facilities.  If you would like to have your students do the same and join in on the community service opportunity, I am happy to take them with ours.  I have included a link below with more information about the program.  I will be taking ours this Friday the 29th, but the final deadline isn't until February 9th if you would like to take them to one of the drop off locations after Friday.
https://kvne.com/valentines-for-kids-and-seniors-2016/



Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL) 
This week I had the pleasure of hearing Sir Ken Robinson and George Couros speak at the TASA conference.  It is rare that you get the opportunity to heard amazing thought leaders like this, but to hear 2 in one day was mind-blowing to say the least.  What I found interesting is that the emphasis of the messages from both speakers was that creativity in schools is not only essential but critical if we want to make more kids successful in learning.

Now when I think about creativity in schools, I naturally gravitate to the mindset of more difficult and a vast change, but that was not the case in both of their keynotes.  In George's message, he drove the point home was that in order to create the schools that kids deserve, it's all about the relationships that we cultivate daily with our kids.   It's about knowing them as individuals and creating the conditions in our classrooms where we leverage our relationships with kids that inspires them to dream beyond the confines of the curriculum.

"Your job is to unleash talent!" +George 

Robinson's message was similar but his approach to making change in schools focused on how we engage and then empower kids daily.  We don't know what kids will be when they grow up and neither do they, so we must remember that our job is to create an engaging environment where kids slowly discover that for themselves.

When the rhythms of education match the rhythms of a student's learning, kids will never disengage from learning. Sir Ken Robinson
As you look at your students this week, I want to encourage you to look at them not as what they are or where they're from.  View them as what they could become and where we want them to end up.  When we look at our kids from the lens of what could be, we create empowering learning environments that change for kids, not content.


 College AND Career 

College & Career Prezi by Amy D from Mrs. Ojeda's Class



Google Me This 
Are your kids well googled?  This is how high school kids are being evaluated for college admissions and scholarships.  It's a great question to pose to kids in social media or as they begin to make their digital footprint.
Canadian Martyrs C.S.


 Upcoming Dates 
    • Monday, Feb 22 - 4th 6 Weeks Formative Assessments Given (CLICK HERE)



 What I'm Learning
Five Questions about Feedback buff.ly/1Qggi35
Embracing @Twitter for Professional Development by @dscavitto via @Edudemic http://ow.ly/XkkFI  
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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Week 4.2

Celebrate Excellence
The Tatum High School Math Team has rolled up their sleeves and gone above and beyond to ensure that our students are successful.  With close collaboration among the team to extended tutoring sessions for students, the math team is determined to ensure that all students are not only prepared for STAAR testing but for success in College and Career.
Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL) 
Jason Cammack is a high school buddy of mine and his Instagram post below really popped out for me this morning when I got up.  The same old thinking leads to the same old results, and if we're not careful the same old results will lead back to our same old thinking.  When developing solutions to problems that we have been experiencing all year, we must ask ourselves this question. Is the problem really our result or is it our thinking?

 If we truly believe in growing kids and want to accomplish this goal of every kid increasing their performance by 10 points from last year, let's remember to look inward before we look outward.  Below are a few questions that can help us all evaluate our thinking after we look at results.

Question
Yes
No
Do we think about failure in terms of failure to grow and improve instead of the mindset of failure to pass?


Does our thinking about our response to a student’s failure to grow result in a meaningful change in the way we teach those kids who are regressing?


When a student fails to grow, do we initially reflect on our instruction and the ways it helped or didn’t help the student grow?


With respect to apathetic or disruptive students, do we think first about ways that we can change our approach to better meet the student’s deficits and how we can better connect with them?


With respect to academic deficits, do we reflect on how we teach concepts and whether or not they are truly meeting kids where they currently are in their ability?


When we don’t know what to do, do we look to our colleagues for guidance, suggestions and strategies to better meet the needs of our regressing students?



Do you have more checks in the yes column or no column?  
If you have more no's, you may be stuck in the same old thinking.  If you have more checks in the yes column, you are headed in the right direction.  The same old results are precipitated by the same old thinking.  If we truly want our students to grow, we must commit to our own growth and development first.  That will only happen when we honestly reflect on our own abilities and effectiveness.  When that happens, we will be more able to create new actions, skills and mindsets which in turn will lead to new and ultimately, better results. 
College AND Career 
Google Me This 



 Upcoming Dates 





 What I'm Learning

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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Week 4.1

Celebrate Excellence
TMS Excellence
"Cristi Whiddon has been a "Jack of all trades" during the first semester for TMS. From offering tech support for staff and students to leading a group of students who focus on graphic design creating a 3D model with our 3D printer. She has also help set up 20 computers to host the UIL Spelling completion in January. She takes on several tasks with maximum effort and a positive attitude. She makes TMS the best place to be!"

 8th Graders attend Career Fair
Our 8th graders attend a Career Fair hosted by Letourneau University.  Our students had the opportunity to see a wide variety of careers that will available to them in the future, which will help them as they begin to develop their Personal Graduation Plans this spring.  Thank you to Meagan Kiefer and Kim Ross for all of their organization in making this a valuable experience for our kids.


Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL) 
Exit Ticket
How do you know if kids are learning?  Check out these 22 closure activities to evaluate both student learning and the effectiveness of your lesson.

 College AND Career 

Amanda Hancock's art classes learned about commercial art as a career choice by studying typography and how graphic designers use typography as a tool for advertising. Check out the slides below of her students' work.

Google Me This 
Do you have kids who love to draw and are tech savvy?  John Spencer is really innovative teacher who writes a great blog and shares neat videos on YouTube. (See video below).  If you are interested in teaching kids how to make videos like his, go to his post that gives you a set of step by step instructions.

Upcoming Dates 


What I'm Learning

Check out this video that Dr. Payne's students make about meteorology and how this career connects to the science tools they use.

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Wednesday, January 6, 2016

Week 3.6

Celebrate Excellence
Welcome back!!!  As we leave 2015 behind and embrace 2016, I wanted to share a cool idea for a New Year's Resolution from Sylvia Duckworth.  She is a very innovative educator to follow as her graphic work helps me see learning and leading differently.


Growing Excellence (+10 for ALL) 
Our 3rd 6 weeks formative assessment will be given on Monday, January 11 through Thursday, January 14. .  All students data must be in DMAC by Friday, January 15.

 Have you ever had your students evaluate your lesson? 
Below is a neat idea to have students use emojis to rate how students feel about their learning as an Exit Ticket.




College AND Career 
College readiness is an indicator on STAAR, and in order for a student to perform at the college readiness level, they need to earn a score that is equivalent to the final passing standard.  If you go to this link, and look at the blue column (Quintile 4), you will find the college readiness score on STAAR for almost every test is in the 60-70 range.

Take time this week to educate and motivate your kids to earn a college readiness score on their formative assessments next week.


 Google Me This 
EdTech Venn Diagram - Check out this cool tool that Angie Garcia is using to teach kids how to create a Venn diagram based on the passage they are reading.

Click this link to learn how to use Google Forms as a Bell Ringer Activity



Upcoming Dates 
  • Monday, Jan 11 - 3rd 6 Weeks Formative Assessments Given (CLICK HERE)
  • Thursday, Jan 14 - Deadline to give and enter FAs into DMAC 
  • Monday, Jan 18 - MLK Jr. Holiday
  • Tuesday, Jan 19 - Response to Assessment (CLICK HERE)
  • Tuesday, Jan 19 - 2nd Semester Begins

 What I'm Learning
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Sunday, January 3, 2016

6 Strategies to Start off the New Year with Greater Classroom Engagement

The New Year is here, so what is your plan to get the kids more engaged than ever?  The solution won't be found in that new lesson that you developed or that cool tech-tool that you discovered over break.  The key to better classroom engagement is guaranteeing that each student optimizes every minute of his learning in your room. 

Every student's minute counts.  Now, if you are allotted 50 minutes of instruction, and you waste or lose 5 minutes everyday due to poor behavior, disengaged minds or apathetic students, you give up 10% of your instruction every day. 

With that said, I'd like to offer some strategies that you can easily incorporate into your instruction immediately that will reduce your chances of losing valuable minutes of instruction while simultaneously increasing the chances that more students will be engaged in their learning in 2016.



1.  Routines & Procedures 
The best pair of tennis shoes always need to be tied before you go running.  Think of your routines and procedures as the shoes for your instruction.  If you don't tie them tight everyday, you will lose time having to tie and retie them throughout your run.  Spend time each day reviewing how students are expected to independently do everything such as:

  • enter the room & get started in the warm-up activity
  • request to leave the room 
  • sharpen a pencil 
  • retrieve all materials
  • ask for help if they have a problem
  • manage their materials independent of you
If students aren't reminded of the routines and procedures for the classroom on a daily basis, they will rely on their own routines and procedures to learn, and that will generally not lead to maximized engagement.

It must be emphasized that routines and procedures grow in effectiveness with praise and affirmation.  Spend time every day recognizing and thanking kids for doing things right, and the rest of the class will work hard to be praised as well.  What gets celebrated gets accelerated.



2.  Start off the period with Music
Haley Van Sandt was the first teacher that I saw use music consistently to engage kids in learning during the first 5 minutes of instruction without fail every single day.  As soon as the bell rang, Mandisa's "Good Morning" started, and the kids started singing and vibing to the music as they completed their warm-up work and readied themselves for the day's lesson.  Using a familiar song as a regular routine focuses students' thoughts on learning and what they need to do to be prepared for learning.


3. Excellence begins with Expectations
Before you begin any task, it is extremely helpful to set expectations for what you want kids to do.  If it is a normal activity, don't assume that all kids will know or remember the expectations.  Take 15 seconds to remind them of the expectations for that activity, or you'll lose 5 minutes redirecting and correcting off-task behavior (5 minutes = 10% of your instruction).  If it is a new activity, you will need to spend 2-4 minutes describe the learning behaviors necessary for students to complete the activity successfully.  Don't expect excellence.  Set expectations for students to reach excellence.


4. 3 B4 Me
Students can't truly maximize every minute of their learning if the only person they can ask for help is the teacher.  A "3 b4 Me" rule will help students own their learning by expecting them to solve their own problems without you.  Here are just a few places students can go before they go to you for assistance.

  • Anchor charts in the room,
  • Their notes,
  • Their classmates,
  • Google for things they don't know,
  • Dictionary.com for worlds they don't understand,
  • A print out of procedures for logging-in to websites.
In the real world, the most successful people are masters at solving their own problems.  "3 B4 Me"is a real world strategy to empower all kids to solve their own problems, and it keeps you available for the few problems that truly require the expertise that only you, the teacher, can provide.


5. Note-taking
Listening is not a very engaging activity.  In fact it's quite boring, and with every passing minute that students must listen to the teacher's lesson, their engagement decreases considerably.  Engaging lessons from the teacher require students to follow along, copy, imitate and/or summarize what the teacher is presenting. 

Note-taking and summarizing was noted by Marzano (see here) as one of the highest-yield strategies.  All students (K-12) should take notes everyday.  From copying what they teacher is doing in Kindergarten to using graphic organizers or notes with holes to take notes in elementary to using art to take notes in high school, note-taking is a powerful strategy that helps students deepen their learning of the content while you model learning for the kids.  If students aren't taking notes, how will they remember what you taught them?


6. Stop the Q&A and Start the 'Turn and Talk'
When you ask one student a question, the rest of the class disengages from the lesson.  If the goal is to get all students learning at high levels, pose a question and ask the students to turn and talk to their neighbor for 30 seconds.  This gives all students their opportunity to discuss their learning with one another, and there is a greater chance that all students will stay engaged in the lesson.

Why should you drop the Q&A? Well, every time you ask one student a question, the rest of the class is off the hook, and their learning essentially stops while they wait for that student to answer the question.  With turn and talk, every kid's learning keeps going, and you can monitor conversations and then hand pick 1 or 2 kids to share out what they discussed.  There will always be better engagement with turn and talk.



Make 2016 Ring with Engagement
Learning is accelerated with better engagement, and if we want all students to be active learners, we must make certain that all of them are active participants throughout every lesson that we provide.  By creating active learning environments that focus on optimizing every student's engagement, we actually foster each student's independence and autonomy that essentially transform their engagement into empowerment.  Imagine the kind of learning and growth we would see in every kid if we created a classroom where empowerment wasn't the goal, but the constant.

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