2nd Week of May

#ThankaTeacher 

26 Traits of Terrific Teachers
created with Tagxedo

Teacher Appreciation Week is here, and it is time to give thanks for everything that our teachers and staff do for our kids. I'd like to take a moment to go beyond appreciating you for choosing the noblest profession of all. Sure it is great to hear words of appreciation for all that you do, but I would like to thank you for all the things that you do above and beyond teaching and learning. I would like thank you for embodying the 26 Traits of Terrific Teachers. To the right I have created a Tagxedo with descriptors of all the things you must be to all kids.  There are too many other adjectives that I could use to describe you, but the bottom line is this. You are not heroes. You are superheroes, and you take on superhuman qualities that no other profession requires.   Thank you for making Excellence for All a reality in every kid's life.




DOK - Epic Engagement

To further synthesize the idea of cognitive engagement and how we can push more kids to deeper levels of learning in our instruction next year, check out this post by John Spencer, What happens to student Engagement when you take away Grades?.

An Epic Guide to Student Engagement in the Classroom http://t.co/S35t7qPSJH via @ajjuliani

— Todd Nesloney (@TechNinjaTodd) May 5, 2015

May Events

• May 8 - End of 3 Weeks
• May 12 - STAAR 5 & 8 Reading Retest
• May 15 - Sarah Murphy Races in Henderson
• May 21- TISD Fine Arts Forum
• May 25 - Memorial Day
• June 4 - Early Release
• June 5 Staff Development Day

College & Career

These 14 THS seniors earned their National Career Readiness Certificate on Wednesday in Longview.  They took the ACT WorkKeys test which is comprised of 3 subtests in reading and math.  Based on their performance they could earn the following certificates which are recognized by major corporations throughout the nation.

• Platinum
• Gold
• Silver
• Bronze

Everyone of these students earned a certificate which puts them at the front of the hiring line when they graduate!

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week

TPS Teachers have lots of math fluency going on in May.

What I'm Learning
@TeachThought: 101 Ways For Teachers To Be More Creative http://t.co/iDFVyYg2dX http://t.co/JOu0iE2Mvq

Why #Teachers Should Give Themselves Reading Homework ow.ly/Mnx5a #edchat #reading pic.twitter.com/APb2z8rdcE

Experiment to find out why the colors from gobstoppers and water don't mix. - #STEM Projec… ift.tt/1E2X5r1 pic.twitter.com/KphnQqLQ7z

Reflection on Learning - Week 3: Guided Learning

In week 3 of our 6 week Reflection on Learning, we will focus on how we provide intervention supports in the classroom to students who have deficits in their learning..  This week, we will use our collaboration time to reflect on how we use our instructional block to intervene for students who struggle.  This week's component of instruction is called Guided Learning.

Description

Once the bell ringer hooks kids into learning for the day, and  the focus lesson has modeled what learning looks like for the class, students are now ready to interact with new content through activities that involve guided learning or collaborative learning (Week 4 Topic).  In guided learning, students are gathered in need-based groups based on performance data. “The groups consist of students who share a common instructional need that the teacher can address.” (Fisher, Frey. 2008)  To be effective, guided learning must provide students the opportunity to follow the teacher as she scaffolds the learning objective in smaller chunks that are easier for the students to grasp.  In other words, guided instruction breaks down learning for struggling students in ways that the focus lesson cannot.

Guided learning lessons begin with prerequisite skills that students already know and have under control independently.  Without focusing on skills that struggling students have mastered, guiding students to learning cannot begin.  Furthermore, to lead students to complex levels of  cognitive thinking at DOK 2 or 3, teachers must understand that in most cases students will have to scaffold learning by beginning with DOK 1 questions.  

Activities in guided learning  require complex thinking for all students and “the teacher should provide suitable scaffolding and challenges for students to explain their thinking” (Danielson 2013, p 66).  In successful guided learning lessons, teachers differentiate learning by varying either the content, the process or the student product.  Differentiating learning in a guided learning lesson is essential to lead each student to overcome their instructional deficit, and great teachers know how to individualize and personalize learning for each student.  

To create the environment for guided learning to work effectively and efficiently, the teacher must engage the rest of the class in meaningful work with specific procedures that hold all kids accountable.  Successful teachers leverage strong classroom routines and procedures as well as relationships with the kids to set the expectation that all students must work hard in whatever task they are given.  Teachers should plan to group other students, not being pulled for guided learning, in pairs or groups of 3 or 4 to work on meaningful activities that help them interact with the content addressed in the focus lesson without interrupting the teacher.  These students must work collaboratively or independently while the teacher pulls students for guided instruction.  Furthermore, the teacher must structure student expectations for learning in such a way that all students know and meet the expectations for holding appropriate conversations, accessing help independently, and completing the activity successfully without disturbing the teacher as she works in guided learning.    

Engagement Activity	Description	Questions	Content
		How are DOK 1, 2 & 3 questions provided and responded to?	What content is addressed?
Guiding Learning	Intervention activity that allows the teacher to remediate a small group of students who share a common instructional deficit.	Provided by the teacher to scaffold learning beginning with prerequisite skills and leading to skills on grade-level.	Prerequisite and grade level skills that have not been mastered which also includes processing standards.

Reflection

In what ways do you identify students with common instructional deficits and provide guided instruction during your instructional block? (CLICK HERE)

1st Week of May

DOK - Scope & Sequence

May is the perfect time to reflect on our academic year because the ups and downs of the year are fresh on our minds.  We are able to quickly identify the great things that we want to continue and the changes that we want to make for next year.  As you work on your scope and sequence (Due May 22 for Grades 3-12 and June 5 for grades PK-2), I want you to prioritize your development of the scope and sequence around the following items:

• Readiness Standards or Essential Learning Targets 
• Out of all of your standards, what are the most critical skills that every student must master to be successful on STAAR, in your course or on a certification or college readiness test?
• What was the students' performance on those skills this year?
• When and how often do we need to teach those skills next year to improve every student's performance?
• Supporting Standards or Important Learning Targets
• What additional skills are important for our kids to learn next year? 
• Which essential learning targets or readiness standards will be best supported by the important skills in our curriculum?
• When will we teach these important skills?
• Process Standards or Critical Thinking Skills
• Which of these skills do our kids need to work the most on next year?
• Which Process Standards or Critical Thinking Skills should we intentionally bundle with specific Readiness Standards or Essential Learning Targets?

Once these questions are answered, the next question that comes to mind, if it hasn't already is this?

Ok, so what about the data?

Since our STAAR scores and certification test results will not be back until late May, it will be critical to have a rough draft of our scope and sequence created with guidance from our formative assessment data from this year.  Once our state scores come back in, we will need to analyze the data and then proof our Scope and Sequence against the data to ensure that we place the right emphasis on the right essential learning targets or readiness skills next year.

May Events

• May 1 - Summer School Applications due to Michelle Young
• May 4 - 8 
• Teacher Appreciation Week
• STAAR EOC at THS
• May 5 - Cinco de Mayo Celebration at TPS and at Eagle Stadium
• May 6 - National Nurses Day & Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon
• May 8 - End of 3 Weeks
• May 12 - STAAR 5 & 8 Reading Retest
• May 15 - Sarah Murphy Races in Henderson
• May 21- TISD Fine Arts Forum
• May 25 - Memorial Day
• June 4 - Early Release
• June 5 Staff Development Day

Congrats, Good Luck & Thank You!

Taylor Burch

Congratulations to Daisy Hillin who won 1st place in the Region 7 2015 Earth Day Poster Contest.

Congrats to Taylor Burch for placing 3rd in Prose at the regional UIL Academic Contest. She will be moving on to the state contest.

Good Luck to the THS Band as they compete at the Region 21 UIL Concert and Sightreading Contest in Troup.

Thank you to Sabrena Socha for helping out with testing at the high school.









What I've Found

Digital Student Portfolios: A Whole School Approach to Connected Learning and ... amazon.com/dp/B00VDFZ4CU/…

6 What If Questions that Great Teachers Ask Every Day buff.ly/1E7xPWK

How to Make Time for Every Student
This elementary school takes formative assessment to the next level.
Posted by Edutopia on Friday, April 3, 2015

Are you signed up for the Global Read Aloud 2015? http://t.co/VScz1U2HHR One book to connect the world #edchat #nerdybookclub #gra15
— Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp) February 15, 2015

Reflection on Learning - Week 2: Focus Lesson

This is week 2 of 6 in our 6-week reflection on our instructional effectiveness, and our goal is to collect the very best instructional strategies so that we make next year even better in every classroom.  This week, we will use our collaboration time to reflect on our instructional practices to introduce the class to new content at the beginning of class after the bell-ringer activity.  This week we will reflect on the next component of instruction, the Focus Lesson.

Description

To begin any lesson, the teacher sets the tone for learning by focusing students on the content that they will need to master for the day.  In a focus lesson “teachers must clearly establish a purpose and model their own thinking.   It’s not enough to simply state the purpose.  We must ensure that students have opportunities to engage with the purpose and obtain feedback about their performance.   Additionally, the focus lesson should provide students with information about the ways in which a skilled reader, writer, or thinker processes information.” (Fisher, Frey. 2008).

Since a focus lesson serves as the first scaffold to guide students toward mastery in learning any concept, the success of a focus lesson involving new content depends on three components:  the teacher’s preparation and understanding of the content, the students’ cognitive ability to connect with the content, and the teacher’s efficient use of time.  In ineffective classrooms, the focus lesson takes an excessive amount of time because kids are unable to connect with the content due to the teacher’s poor preparation, and as a result, time is lost redelivering or clarifying the introduction.  In a classroom of excellence, a focus lesson communicates everything that a student needs to know in about 5-15 minutes, so that students can have an opportunity to interact with content through other modalities. 

Engagement Activity	Description	Questions	Content	Time Frame
		How are DOK 2 & 3 questions provided and responded to?	What type of content is addressed?	The approximate time that the activity should take.
Focus Lesson	Activity that involves new or unfamiliar content and requires the teacher to model learning for students through whole group instruction.	Posed by the teacher during focus lesson and the teacher models thinking and problem solving for the students.	New content or content that must be retaught to the  majority of the students.	5-15 minutes depending on content and age of student.

Reflection

Describe how you effectively and efficiently model your thinking and learning of content (new or in need of reteaching) to your students in a 5-15 minute focus lesson. (CLICK HERE)

4th Week of April

Spring Tasks

• April 29 - Early Release (See your principal for directions)
• May 1 - Summer School Applications due to Michelle Young
• May 4 - 8 
• Teacher Appreciation Week
• STAAR EOC at THS
• May 5 - Cinco de Mayo Celebration at TPS and at Eagle Stadium
• May 6 - National Nurses Day & Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon
• May 8 - End of 3 Weeks
• May 12 - STAAR 5 & 8 Reading Retest
• May 15 - Sarah Murphy Races in Henderson
• May 21- TISD Fine Arts Forum
• May 25 - Memorial Day
• June 4 - Early Release
• June 5 Staff Development Day

DOK - Early Release Day: Planning for 2015-16
 On Wednesday, April 29, we will have our Early Release Day.  For staff assigned to their campus, see your principal for specific information.  Here are the assignments and tasks for this day:

Teacher Assignments

Staff	Location	Task
TPS Staff	TPS	Guided Reading Training
TES Staff	TES	Build 2015-16 Scope & Sequence
TMS Staff	TMS	Build 2015-16 Scope & Sequence
THS Staff	THS	Build 2015-16 Scope & Sequence
Fine Arts Staff	Band Hall	Plan for TISD Fine Arts Forum

Paraprofessional Assignments

Staff	Location
Channing Centers Chandra Wheeler	TPS
Mary Ward Vicki Garcia	TES

Scope and Sequence Development Process
We will begin our summer CIA process early by writing our Scope and Sequence for next year during our April 29 staff development day.  Teachers will need to do the following prior to the early release day.

1. Make revisions to your 2014-2015 Scope and Sequence based on formative assessment data.
2. Bring a paper or electronic copy of the scope and sequence to the meeting.
3. Bring your laptop to the meeting.

VERY IMPORTANT INFO

On Tuesday, I will send principals a link to our new Scope and Sequence template.  We will create our 2015-2016 Scope and Sequences on Google Sheets.  Please do not use Open Office to make your scope and sequence as Google will be our main tool for curriculum development in 2015-2016.

The fact is that #kids #learn to make decisions by making decisions, not by following directions. #quote pic.twitter.com/Vr5HgkNsop
— Dr. Price-Mitchell (@DrPriceMitchell) April 16, 2015

Thank you 
Thank you to Betsy Yanas for locating a student who had been a dropout and for working hard to get the student enrolled in school.

Our third round of testing is over.  Thank you to Jo Miller and Tamara Fite for organizing this week's testing.  Thank you to our staff for their hard work in administering the test successfully, and please join me in thanking our volunteers for helping us out.

STAAR Reading scores came out this week for 5th and 8th grade reading.  Results are in Dr. Hartt's email to the staff.  We will use the results to drive our focus in reading next year.  Thank you to Mrs. Garcia, Mrs. Mock and Mrs. Courtney for their work in preparing kids to pass the test.



College and Career - Opportunities in East Texas

From Jessica Rymel:  THS Students testing for
Pesticide Applicator Certification

Have you exposed your students to jobs in East Texas that don't require a college degree?  Students can get a job starting around $35,000 per year by earning a certification or associate's degree from Kilgore College or TSTC in Marshall.  Check out these short videos that will expose you to what's available in the Longview Area.

• Career Choices in East Texas
• CNC Machinist 
• Diesel Mechanic with Holt Caterpillar
• Electrician with Joy Global
• HVAC Technician with AAON
• Registered Nurse with Longview Regional
• Surgical Technician 

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week

My tech tip of the week comes from Bill Ferriter, a 6th grade science teacher and tech integration expert.  As you plan to integrate technology, keep this question and comparison of right and wrong answers in mind.

What I've Found

The Biggest Benefits of Effective Note-Taking

Krissy Venosdale is an educator from Houston.  Her Twitter account is very inspiring because she shares her gift of digital media to come up with awesome posters that inspire.  You have to check out stuff!

Just added 70 new posters to my @Flickr album. https://t.co/2AgbllZicH #CreativeCommons #edchat #teachershare
— Krissy Venosdale (@venspired) April 5, 2015

CTE Opportunities for THS Seniors & Juniors

Today, I had the pleasure of speaking to the juniors and seniors about career opportunities and CTE dual credit courses.  Here's some info below, and here is the Google Slide Presentation (CLICK HERE) with hyperlinks to handouts and resources.

WorkKeys
Seniors can take their first test to earn some money by applying for employment to over 62 businesses in the Longview area.  The WorkKeys test is developed by ACT and is a nationally recognized certification throughout America.  After students take the test and receive their scores, they can update their resume and send it to businesses that they would like to apply to.  The WorkKeys test is sponsored by LEDCO and we plan to take seniors to test in Longview during the first week of May.

To help seniors prepare for the test, here is a link to some practice material.

LEDCO also offers a scholarship to seniors.  Check it out here.



CTE Dual Credit
We are very excited to announce that we plan to offer 6 dual credit courses through Kilgore College next year that are tied to degree programs in the Health Science and Business and Technical pathways.

Qualifications

• To take health science or technical dual credit courses, student do not need to meet academic requirements.
• To take academic dual credit courses (English, History, Government, College Algebra, etc), students must earn a score of 4000 (Final Passing Standard) on the ELA 2 and Algebra 1 EOC tests, or they can take and pass pass the TSI test.  

Health Science Courses 

• We will offer Medical Terminology and Anatomy and Physiology to next year's seniors.
• These courses are part of the degree plans to become an LVN ($42,000 annual salary) or EMT ($28,000 annual salary).

Industrial & Technical Courses

• We will offer DC Electric, Intro to Welding, Intro to PTAC, and Intro to PTRT
• The table below shows multiple pathways that these courses will apply toward.

 

Degree	1 or 2 year degree	Companies that hire in East Texas	Entry Salary Range
Instrumentation	1year Certificate 2 year AAS degree	Eastman, Enbridge, West Lake Chemical	$36,000-60,000
Corrosion Technology	1year Certificate 2 year AAS degree	Bass Engineering, Enbridge, PIR, Sunoco, Enable Midstream	$35,000-80,000
Process Technology	2 year AAS degree	Eastman, Enbridge, Shell, Chevron	$30,000-70,000
Welding	3 Certificates 2 year AAS degree	Eastman, General Dynamics, Joy Global Hydesco, Esco, Trinity Industries	$16.00-35.00 per hr. $100-120 per hr. if you own your own welding truc

For more information about WorkKeys or CTE Dual Credit courses, students and parents can make contact with Robbye Rowe (THS counselor) or John Wink (TISD Curriculum Director).

We are very excited about these opportunities for our students, and we look forward to giving our students a great head start on their pathway to excellence.