4th Week of January

January is over and February is upon us.  Be sure to look at the testing calendar (Testing Calendar Tab is above) to make sure you're aware of all testing dates that apply to you.  Also check out the CIA Resources tab for links to help you prepare for STAAR.  Here are some links of interest pertaining to STAAR & TELPAS.

• STAAR-A Student Tutorials and Teacher Resources 
• TELPAS Reading Released Tests

DOK 3 your Tech Integration
If you're familiar with the Rigor and Relevance Framework by Bill Daggett of ICLE, you know that the goal of instruction is to take students to the highest levels of knowledge in real-world unpredictable situations.  Eric Sheninger, senior fellow with ICLE has added technology applications and products to get to the highest levels of DOK.  The tweet below from David Geurin illustrates where we want instruction to go with respect to DOK 3 and tech-integration.

 

David Geurin‏@DavidGeurin

Rigor relevance adaptation for technology @E_Sheninger #digilead

Collaboration - Aligned Discipline
Collaboration isn't about teaching, and it doesn't happen once a week at the team meeting.  Collaboration is about guaranteeing learning, and it happens every time we interact and learn from our colleagues.  Sometimes, the biggest barrier to learning is discipline.  Let's face it.  Every educator struggles at some point throughout the year with student discipline, and when we struggle ensuring learning for every kid, what do great educators do?  We look to one another for support.  If you think about it, when we respond to academic failure, administrators and teachers work together to address the issues that prevent learning.  The same principle should apply to our response to student behavior since it too affects learning.

School-wide rules are designed to set the stage for student success, but they are most effective when grade level or department level teams align their commitment to enforce school rules and procedures.   If you're struggling with a student's behavior or classroom behavior as a whole, I encourage you to collaborate with your teammates.  Everybody has successful strategies and ideas to address student behavior, and we should share those strategies with one another.  We're all in this together, and we all can support one another to ensure that classroom behavior supports our vision of "Excellence for All".

Jacob Knight and his
completely functioning
mini wind turbine.
Source: Jessica Rymel
THS Ag Teacher

College & Career Readiness

Competition is College & Career

Congratulations to the TMS UIL Academic team.  Two weeks ago, the team placed 3rd at the district meet.  We are proud of all of our coaches and participants for making this great showing.

The THS UIL Speech and Debate Team (plus Ready Writing) had a good weekend at the Whitehouse Invitational two weeks ago.  Geissel Garcia broke to finals and placed 3rd overall in LD Debate. Doug Smith took home 5th overall in Ready Writing (at his first meet!).

Student Leadership is College & Career

For School Board Appreciation Month, TES Student Ambassadors hosted a breakfast for our board members in appreciation for their hard work.  Student leadership is essential for success in life and TES is doing a great job preparing students in the area of leadership.

When we incorporate student leadership into our classrooms, students learn the value of collaboration and team work.  How do students lead in your classroom?

TIP (Tech Integration Pic) of the Week
by Cindy Haston
Students in Dr. Vilia Payne's Advanced Physics class are working on tutorials to teach 5th grade science TEKS to TES students.  In collaborating and creating the videos, the students had to think deeply about the science concept and how best to present it to the 5th graders.  On completion of the project, the videos will be posted to a blog so that the elementary students can post comments or questions to the high school students