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. 

End of September Announcements

DOK 

We have been writing DOK questions for 5 weeks now, and the rigor of our questions is meeting DOK 2 or 3.  Great job!!!  As we move into the 2nd 6 weeks, the question I would like you to focus on is this.

"How has our instruction changed?"

When we are designing instruction to stretch students to meet DOK Level 2 or 3,

• What learning behaviors are students required to exhibit on a daily basis?
• What is the ratio of teacher talk to student talk in instruction?
• What is the ratio of teacher work to student work in instruction?
• What products are students required to create as evidence of their learning? 

Comments and great ideas are welcome.  Let us know what has changed to help your kids meet DOK Level 2 or 3.  Please drop a comment at the bottom of this post. 

TIP (Technology Integration Pic) of the Week

 8th grade ELA students are creating bio cubes for their non-fiction unit about famous sports figures using the website, readwritethink.com.

Google Drive Tutorial

If you want to learn how to use Google Drive to drive your work, click on this link.

App of the Week

Dr. Hartt found this week's App of the Week.  Handouts (CLICK HERE) is a cool app for classes using tablets.  Teachers can assign a PDF, and the students can complete assignments on their tablet and send it back in.  It's definitely worth checking out.

HOMEWORK 

Homework has a different meaning to people based on who you ask, and if learners struggle academically, homework has a negative meaning.  When assigning homework, we should always consider the following criteria if we want parents and students to find it beneficial.

1. Familiar Content - Homework should be over content that is familiar to the student.  Work that is unfamiliar to students can cause frustration or create bad habits or incorrect understanding.
2. Time Considerate - Homework should be something that the student can do in a relatively short period of time.  Consideration should be given when deciding how much homework to give students.
3. Feedback - Homework only works when the teacher reviews it and gives feedback.  Research proves that homework that is not review by the teacher has little effect on learning. (Marzano, Classroom Instruction that Works, 2001. p 64)

HOMEWORK TIPS FOR PARENTS

When encouraging parents to get involved with teaching their children good study habits, here are tips from the US Department of Education  on ways parents can help their children successfully do their homework.  The last thing parents want from homework is to be confused about the role that they serve when it comes to homework.


✪ Make sure your child has a quiet, well-lit place to do homework.
Avoid having your child do homework with the television on or in places with other distractions, such as people coming and going.

✪ Make sure the materials your child needs, such as paper, pencils and a dictionary, are available.
Ask your child if special materials will be needed for some projects and get them in advance.

✪ Help your child with time management.
Establish a set time each day for doing homework. Don‘t let your child leave homework until just
before bedtime. Think about using a weekend morning or afternoon for working on big projects,
especially if the project involves getting together with classmates.

✪ Be positive about homework.
Tell your child how important school is. The attitude you express about homework will be the attitude your child acquires.

✪ When your child does homework, you do homework.
Show your child that the skills they are learning are related to things you do as an adult. If your child
is reading, you read too. If your child is doing math, balance your checkbook.

✪ When your child asks for help, provide guidance, not answers.
Giving answers means your child will not learn the material. Too much help teaches your child that
when the going gets rough, someone will do the work for him or her.

✪ When the teacher asks that you play a role in homework, do it.
Cooperate with the teacher. It shows your child that the school and home are a team. Follow the
directions given by the teacher.

✪ If homework is meant to be done by your child alone, stay away.
Too much parent involvement can prevent homework from having some positive effects.
Homework is a great way for kids to develop independent, lifelong learning skills.

✪ Stay informed.
Talk with your child‘s teacher. Make sure you know the purpose of homework and what your child‘s
class rules are.

✪ Help your child figure out what is hard homework and what is easy homework.
Have your child do the hard work first. This will mean he will be most alert when facing the biggest
challenges. Easy material will seem to go fast when fatigue begins to set in.

3rd Week of September

DOK 

Depth of Knowledge is going great throughout our district.  As we end the 1st 6 weeks, we want to focus on taking DOK and make sure it does 2 things:

1. Help keep our focus on our TEKS.
2. Drive our daily instruction to a deeper level of knowledge as well.

Here are some things to consider when planning for instruction.

1. How will my introduction challenge kids to think at DOK 2 or 3?
2. What instructional strategies and activities will scaffold student thinking to reach DOK 2 or 3?
3. What interventions will kids need when they struggle to think at a deeper level?
4. When kids master DOK 2 or 3 questions, how can we stretch them to apply their knowledge through project based tasks at DOK Level 3 or 4?

Collaboration 

The definition of collaboration has lots of meaning and lots of interpretations based on who you ask. The ultimate form of collaboration would be definition number 2 (see picture to the right), a product resulting from working and learning together. As we come together to collaborate, we should remind ourselves that collaboration requires each one of us to do 2 things:

• Share our ideas with our peers
• Learn new ideas from our peers 

By doing these 2 things, we can create a better product, which would include stronger and more focused instruction, powerful assessments and targeted interventions.

Drop a comment below and share with everyone how your team's collaboration is strengthening your personal effectiveness in the classroom. 

TIP (Technology Integration Pic) of the Week

Brad Moughon, THS Algebra Teacher

Coach Brad Moughon is integrating a program called Accelerated Math into his instruction that allows him to target the specific learning needs of all of his Algebra I students.  As students master learning objectives, the program will provide them with  new learning goals, so they are not held up by the rest of the class.  This allows Coach Moughon to target specific students or learning objectives that are causing issues and reteach those deficit objectives.  

What makes this an event bigger deal is that Brad not only took care of his class but helped his colleagues in the math department by setting them up with the program and taking time to teach them how to use this program.  Great job, Brad!

App of the Week worth Checking Out  

exitticket.org/ (CLICK HERE)

THS Print Shop is College & Career Readiness

Senior Graphic Design (Print Shop) student Tyler Leslie putting the finishing touches (grommets) on a breakaway banner the JV cheerleaders ordered for the Freshmen to use on Thursday nights.

In Melody Ojeda's class, students are not only supporting their school, they are learning that running a print shop is preparation for the real world.  The kids are designing cool things that promote "Eagle Excellence".  ContactMelody for more info on her program.

2nd Week of September Announcements

Tatum CIA Resources Page

I have made some updates to the CIA Resources page (CLICK HERE).  You can find these resources by clicking at the top of this blog on the tab called CIA Resources.

• Video on Lead4Ward Resources Page
• Lead4ward Resources
• ESL Required Forms
• Formative Assessment Checklist in odt format

DOK Questions of the Week

• Heather Haley (TPS) - How would you adapt (change) a declarative sentence to create a different kind of sentence (interrogative)?
• Jerri Bates (TES) - Why do we need to know what is the subject noun and predicate verb? 
• Shane Myer (TMS) - How would you describe the sequence of rational numbers from > to < and < to > to someone just learning about it?
• Wendy Fleming (THS) -  How did optimism impact the lives of immigrants who sought a better life in America?

Formative Assessment Explanation

As you are building formative assessments for STAAR, be sure to look at the criteria for assessments listed on the Formative Assessment Checklist.  Here are a couple of things to consider about standards.

• Readiness Standards make up 2/3 of the test
• Supporting Standards make up 1/3 of the test
• Processing Standards are bundled with Readiness and Support Standards.

To verify how your STAAR test assessed standards, you can pull up your Heat Map which is in your campus' Dropbox folder for curriculum.  If you can't access these Heat Maps, your principal can get these documents for you.

If you would like to learn more about your standards, call me.  I will be glad to sit down with you or your team and go over STAAR standards and the testing blueprint with you.

Digital Citizenship

Not much is said about teaching digital citizenship, but this blog really lays out some important points about the importance of teaching kids why being responsible stewards of technology is critical.

5 Reasons You Should be Teaching Digital Citizenship by @TeachThought (CLICK HERE)

TIP (Tech Integration Product) of the Week

Mrs. Nelson's kindergarten class
using the new digital math resources with
the interactive whiteboard.

Mrs. Nelson in Kindergarten has done a great job integrating the new digital textbook into her whole group instruction.  These interactive tools have the students jumping to get involved.  

Textbook integration has been a challenge as we implemented district-wide adoption of digital textbooks.  We know that there are difficulties as this change is very complex; however, there are bright points in this initiative.  For the first 6 weeks, our goal is have all students using tablets with PDF versions of the textbook and using the assessment portion of the book.  

In the subsequent weeks, our goal is identify exemplars of tech integration with the digital textbooks and use your expertise to show the rest of us how you are integrating the digital textbooks in your instruction.  

We all grow when we are learning from one another.

HMH Textbook Roll-out for Math & Science

Digital textbooks are a huge change from traditional textbooks and for good reason.  They are device dependent.  They have huge benefits only when everyone learns all about the bells and whistles that support learning through tech integration.  With that being said, change takes time ( and LOTS of IT); therefore, we must pace ourselves in a focused way to successfully implement this change.

Here are our steps to infuse our new digital textbooks into math and science classes this year.

• 1st 6 Weeks, all teachers will be able to 
• Have all students using tablets with PDF versions of the book.
• Integrate the exam-viewer component into our assessment process.

• Training
• We know this will take lots of support from our MITS, so here are all of the trainings that they will offer for the next few weeks.
• CLICK HERE for training opportunities over the next 2 months.
• CLICK HERE to access a Google Doc of resources, flipped videos and webinars that can help you get accustomed to the new textbook. Click on the bottom tab that says, "HMH Textbook Links"

• Interactive Tools
• We have teachers that are experimenting with the interactive tools and having success.
• In an effort to be a collaborative district, we will need your help in 2 ways.
• Textbook Functionality Survey (CLICK HERE) - If you have found success with a digital tool, we need your input to help others learn about it in the 2nd 6 weeks.  Complete the survey and let us know everything you know about the tools.
• Flipped Videos - Just like Cristi Whiddon's flipped videos in the CIA Resources page, we have found resources to pay teachers to create flipped videos on HMH Digital Tools that they are using.  If interested, please complete the survey above and indicate that you would like to train others on the resource. 

Elephants are Hard to Eat

Implementing digital tools are impossible to implement in one year, let alone 6 weeks.  Please know that we will have to eat this elephant one bite at a time.  To do that we must prioritize the tools that we can implement now, select the tools for the next few months and put off tools that need more time and training.  If we can do that, we will be less stressful, more accepting of the product and better prepared to implement it with fidelity.

1st Week of September Announcements

DOK Questioning

I really like visuals because they help me make meaning of something that I am learning about at a deeper level.  I came across this visual from Justin Tarte, an administrator from Missouri. (CLICK HERE).  The column going down helps us select the first word of the question and the top row helps us select the second word of the question.  Together, the words can take an ordinary question and ramp up the rigor.  What I also like about this graphic is the box, "Evaluating Others' Responses".  This is a great reminder for all of us that when a student gives a correct answer, we should challenge with these questions to get them to go deeper in their thining.

Drop a comment to let us know how DOK is going in your classroom.

HMH Digital Textbooks

Cristi Whiddon has put together some awesome video tutorials for those of you using HMH digital textbooks.  To find these awesome resources, click the CIA Resources tab at the top of this page and look under the subject, "Textbooks", and find what you are looking for.

#ThankYouCristi

TIP (Tech Integration Product) of the Week

Teresa Beazley had a great lesson last week where she integrated kahoot.it (CLICK HERE) into her bell ringer activity.  Check out this video below that illustrates how this awesome classroom response system works in classes where students have smartphones.

#WayToGoTeresa

I also added a great blog from Bill Ferriter, an awesome 6th grade teacher from North Carolina where he goes into depth about how he uses Kahoot.it in his instruction.  Click Here to read the blog.  Click here to follow Bill on Twitter (You should)

Drop a comment about Kahoot.it or other tech tools that are greatly enhancing your classroom instruction.  I would enjoy checking it out.