4th Week of March

DOK - Creative Strategies for Individual Students

No two kids are the same.  In fact, my four children have completely different personalities, affinities and ways that they learn.  To ensure that learning occurs for every child, it is critical to remember that all kids learn differently and therefore, we have to continuously ask this question.

How do we help each child grow from where they are to where they need to be?  

Joann Jordan working with a
student on guided reading.

If we truly want to focus on the growth of each child, we have to ask a follow up question.  Does learning belong to the student or the teacher?  If the learning belongs to the teacher, the control of how learning occurs will also belong to the teacher; however, if the learning belongs to the student, then control has to also belong to the student.  To give control over learning to students means that we also have to provide students some choices.  All students have strengths and all have weaknesses, and when students have choices in how they will grow in their learning, students tend to leverage their strengths to address their weaknesses.  Therefore, the role of the teacher transforms from a sage on the stage to a guide on the side.  

Teachers who successfully guide learning provide extension activities that do not require the teacher's direct support.  In fact, the most powerful extensions provide students the following:

• opportunities to independently challenge themselves in more personalized ways, 
• opportunities to foster student collaboration to deepen their learning, and ultimately 
• opportunities to create learning experiences that generate higher levels of cognitive activity. 

Finally, the reason that extension is so important is because it provides the teacher with opportunities to intervene with struggling students. While the class is engaged in extension, the teacher can do the following:

• pull small groups for remediation, 
• pull individual students for conferencing or goal-setting or 
• reteach a previously failed concept. 

Intervention and extension go hand in hand and when done correctly, every student's learning becomes more personalized. 

Checklist for STAAR Test Administrators

It gets a little stressful as we get ready to administer the STAAR test.  There are so many things to remember, so I put together a little checklist for you to review.  If you have any concerns, please consult your counselor as Friday (tomorrow) will be the last school day to be prepared.

1. You have followed all requests of your principal and counselor to be prepared to administer the STAAR test.
2. The test Administrator Manual has been read, and you have tabbed or paper-clipped important sections for testing.
3. You are prepared to be at school a little early on test day to get the test booklets from the counselor.
4. You know to verify that you have received the correct tests from the counselor.
5. You know that once you have checked out your tests from your counselor, you are responsible for monitoring them at all times, until you return them back to your counselor.
6. The Test Administrator Directions (the script) have been reviewed and practiced.
7. Your testing room is test ready with instructional displays removed or covered, desks separated and all materials removed from the desks.
8. You have pencils, scratch paper, highlighters or any other supplies ready for students.
9. You are prepared to take up cell phones and all electronic devices before testing begins.
10. You know to contact your counselor first if you encounter any problem, irregularity, or testing violation before, during or after testing.
11. You know to place a DO NOT DISTURB sign outside your door prior to testing.
12. You're prepared to actively monitor all students throughout testing.
13. You're prepared to announce the time remaining on the test at the correct intervals.
14. You know when and how to make the following statements:
1. I can't answer that for you; just do the best you can.
2. You have not recorded your responses on the answer document.  Please go back and mark your answers on it now.
15. You know the accommodations that students assigned to your room should receive and you ensure that they are provided correctly.
16. You have enough dictionaries in your room if they are required for testing. 
17. If you are doing online testing, you have familiarized yourself with the program.  (Special Note: Grade 4 & 7 Online Writing - Do NOT submit the test after Day 1 of testing.
18. If you are administering STAAR A , you have looked at the STAAR A Educator's Guide. (Click Here for a Copy)
19. If your are doing online testing, you have checked out the computers a day ahead of time to ensure that they work.

If you have completed this checklist for success on STAAR, then you are ready to go.  Good luck and as we begin the STAAR Wars, may the force be with you.

College & Career - Exposure is Everything

Great job to our CTE teachers at THS for the "Pick your Pathway" for 8th graders.   Watch this video to learn more about our high school pathways in CTE.

5th grade students @TES_Eagles spent the day touring the power plant. pic.twitter.com/N3ApAVGdpi

— Tatum ISD (@tatumisd) March 18, 2015

Academic Events for the next month
March 27 - End of 3 Weeks

Zack Wallace designed the parts of his
fire pit uisng the Torchmate Cad Cam
software and then using the
automated plasma cutter to
 cut out the parts.

March 30 - STAAR 4 & 7 Writing (Day 1) and EOC English 1
March 31 - STAAR 4 & 7 Writing (Day 2) and 5 & 8 Reading
April 1 - STAAR EOC English 2 & TELPAS Holistic Rating (TPS & TES)
April 2 - TELPAS Holistic Rating (TMS & THS)
April 3 - School Holiday
April 10 - Teacher submit TSR 2 & 3 in Eduphoria
             #LoveMySchoolDay (share on Twitter all the reasons why you love your school)
April 13 - Librarian Appreciation Week (Thank your MITS for all that they do for you!)
April 17 - End of 5th 6 Weeks
April 20 - STAAR 5 & 8 Math
           Public School Volunteer Week (Thank our volunteers for all that they do.)
April 21 - STAAR 3, 4, 6, 7 Math & 8 Social Studies
April 22 - STAAR 3, 4, 6, 7 Reading and 5 & 8 Science
              Administrative Professionals Day (Thank your office staff for all that they do)
April 29 - Early Release Day
May 4    - STAAR EOC Week at the High School







New Tech Tool
Easel.ly is an infographic creation tool that guides users to build visual and text representations of concepts or ideas. Easel.ly provides some themes and many objects, but it is up to the user to search through these materials and organize them into a cohesive infographic. Fortunately, the website offers an option to share finalized products, so there are many public infographics to choose from for a template. The site is easy to navigate, and progress on a project can be saved for later. Infographics can also be saved to a group, which simply allows other users to quickly find and view the work.

Skills: Creativity, Communication and Collaboration, Tech Skills
Price: Free
Grade Levels: 7-12


Fun with Google Forms
@brantfarris - 5 Things You Did Not Know About Google Forms #txed #gafe http://zite.to/1Fm9pIB