1st Week of December

I truly hope that each of you had a very restful Thanksgiving break.  It won't be long until we are out for Christmas break.  I hope you have a very productive 2 weeks.


DOK starts with the First 5 Minutes

If your instructional block is 50 minutes, the first five minutes  makes up 10% of your instruction.  How a lesson begins has huge implications on how deep you can take kids in their learning through the remaining 45 minutes.  As you reflect on your lessons, does the first five minutes engage your kids deeply?  Does the first 5 minutes connect kids with the day's content as well as their prior learning?  Chances are that if kids have tasks in the first 5 minutes that challenge them as well as connect them to the day's content, there is a greater chance that they will develop a desire to want to learn new information in the following 45 minutes.

This week, take time to share with others what you are doing to connect kids at deep levels in the first 5 minutes of your instructional block.

DOK Questioning Strategy for your Students

Click on this link to download a PDF of a cube net that you or your students can make.  On the 6 faces of the cube you can write DOK question stems.  Rolling the cube gives kids a fun or different way to answer high level questions with whatever activity they are doing.




Collaboration
TES reading teachers had a great collaboration this week. In their meeting they began with celebrations of the growth that they had seen on the 2nd six weeks assessment.  Their agenda posted on the board guided the team and maximized time.  When time is maximized, that is a good thing for everyone in the room.  To further maximize collaborative time, collaboration must have 2 things:

1. A purpose for coming together that involves all members, and 
2. A product that every person should walk away with.  This would include new ideas, activities, and most of all, a deeper understanding of how to ensure learning for all.

Formative Assessment Due - December 12
As you are refining your assessments for the 3rd 6 weeks, don't forget to look to Lead4Ward's Resource Page (Click Here) at the released test questions for the SE's that you will be testing.  It will give you a good idea if your test questions are at the rigor of STAAR.

DON'T FORGET - December 12 is the deadline to turn in FA checklists and assessments into your principal.  If you have questions about the assessments, please get with them.  If you need any help from me, please let me know.



TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week

Read and watch this:  The 4 Ss of Note-Taking with Technology via Edutopia and watch the video at the end.

Dr. Vilia Payne (right) is using online testing with her science classes to  provide herself and the students instant feedback on content mastery.

Social Media Find of the Week

Veronica Wilkerson found a great article on differentiation called, 

There's No Time to Differentiate: Myth-Busting DI, Part 2.  This article gives a wealth of suggestions and activities that teachers can use immediately to accelerate student learning.

Google+ Post of the Week

John Spencer

Shared publicly  -  Nov 16, 2014

 #Teachers

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