#17: Trivia, Art History, and Music Theory

 Celebrate Success! 

 Pursue High Standards! 

Meet Derek Claussen. In his second year at Valley,
he is finding a home teaching Intro to Music Theory and giving lessons.

 Find a Way-- Exhaust Your Resources! 

Collaborate with Colleagues:

Click HERE to access the Professional Development BINGO sheet, which includes ideas to meet PEER REVIEW requirements. (Accessible only within WDMCS Google domain.)

Use THIS LINK to submit  your 1/2-day with an Instructional Coach or PD/CF (goes to Bill Bird for approval):  Make sure when you put it into Subfinder to use the "REASON" (not code)--DEMO TCHR VISIT

Classroom Strategies: 

• Creating the Conditions for Innovative Teaching and Learning: A timely article with our snow day this past week.  Consider how to apply new strategies in the context of your own class.

Week 14: Forward Focus

 Celebrate Success! 

 Pursue High Standards! 

Carol Englemann decides to go Flipped Classroom:

 Find a Way-- Exhaust Your Resources! 

Collaborate with Colleagues:

Click HERE to access the Professional Development BINGO sheet, which includes ideas to meet PEER REVIEW requirements. (Accessible only within WDMCS Google domain.)

Use THIS LINK to submit  your 1/2-day with an Instructional Coach or PD/CF (goes to Bill Bird for approval):  Make sure when you put it into Subfinder to use the "REASON" (not code)--DEMO TCHR VISIT

Classroom Strategies:

1. Get to Know Your Teachers, Kids: "...when teachers and students know they have five things in common, relationships and educational outcomes both improve." 
2. Tips from Dr. [Robert] Marzano: review how building relationships, student choice, and other factors can foster an engaging classroom
3. NCTE's "What Do We Know About Assessment?" (click for full resources): 

1. Multiple assessments are needed for an accurate portrait of the academic achievement of all students.

2. High-stakes testing may be detrimental to student learning and motivation.

3. Assessments need to take into consideration both traditional components and elements that may be different for 21st century student work.

Week 11: Interaction & Productive Struggles

 Celebrate Success! 
Mixing it up

 Pursue High Standards! 

"The most successful math programs encourage student interaction." 

(Slavin, Lake, and Groff, "Educator's Guide- What Works in Teaching Math?")

See how Mary Whitaker and Tami Loge use this to students' advantage!

 Find a Way-- Exhaust Your Resources! 

Take advantage of your 8 hours (2 half days) to work with an 
Instructional Coach, PDCF, or go visit a Demonstration Teacher:

• Use THIS LINK to submit to Bill Bird for approval: Make sure when you put it into Subfinder to use the "REASON" (not code)--DEMO TCHR VISIT 

Classroom Management ideas:

1. DO YOU HAVE A CLASS CLOWN? Consider this approach.
2. CELL PHONE ISSUES? Here's how a Colorado professor handles it.

Week 3: "Get Busy Living"

 Celebrate Success! 

Getting in Stride with Growing Our Minds:

 Pursue High Standards! 

 GOAL SETTING at Valley (click the name to see details):  

DAVID MAXWELL looks to improve educational equity and increase student school involvement.

HEATHER HOPE's goals drove media center changes and look to increase online presence.

 Find a Way-  Exhaust Your Resources! 

This week, a psychological focus:

1. Teachers Nurture Growth Mindset in Math: read how teachers use "open tasks" and "normalized failure" to get students to integrate math concepts. Related: Dr. Carol Dweck shows and explains the research behind the Growth Mindset approach.
2. Growth Mindset on Pinterest: great resources presented visually for your perusal.

¶  SPECIAL: Former Cyclone Jeff Woody's profound insight into former Hawkeye 

Tyler Sash's death and the perception of self. A personal "must read."

Goals in Action

 Celebrate Success! 

The "Grit" of Excellence:

 Pursue High Standards! 

 GOAL SETTING at Valley (click the name to see details):  

ERICA WHITTLE, new associate principal, aims to build relationships an know names.

KARL GOLDSMITH & SARAH KNOKE use pre/post-test data to adjust class pace & instruction in Chemistry.

PIET VAN DER MEER, Spanish teacher, uses formative observation and interaction to drive oral exam proficiency.

 Find a Way-  Exhaust Your Resources! 

Here are some great places for ideas, utility, and support materials:

1. YouCanBook.me: "An easy way to schedule Parent-Teacher Conferences"
2. Achieve the Core on Pinterest: "Find, steal, and share free Common Core tools. For teachers, coaches, school and district leaders. Assembled by Student Achievement Partners."
3. Beyond Parent-Teacher Conferences: Building Connections That Last: tips for communicating with parents during conferences and beyond
4. New Teacher Survival Guide: Parent Teacher Conferences (video)

The Valley Way: Doing Well, Getting Better

 Celebrate Success! 

GREAT COMMUNITY BUILDING:

 Pursue High Standards! 

 GOAL SETTING in action (click the name to see details):  

CHRIS DORFF, first-year Special Ed teacher, plans goals for student behavior and performance.

BEN BALDUS uses pre-tests and reflective journals to adjust instruction.

TIM MILLER ties his goals to the building goals and district professional goals

 Find a Way-  Exhaust Your Resources! 

Here are some great places for ideas and support materials:

1. Edutopia, the George Lucas Educational Foundation's site that offers teaching tips and successful approaches through articles, blogs and videos, which can be sorted by grade level and content.
2. The Teaching Channel: "a thriving online community where teachers can watch, share, and learn diverse techniques to help every student grow." Like Edutopia, many successful resources, especially the videos."
3. OpenEd: K-12 Formative Assessments, Homework, Videos, Lesson Plans.

Affect and Effect

I am fortunate to observe many wonderful teachers and their lessons through this position. Sometimes, the best lessons are what happens in the moment, the unexpected reaction of what students say, write, or do. Inevitably in humanities courses, the theme of “Man’s Inhumanity to Man” emerges, which has varying effects within kids: callused, empathetic, confused, and quiet-reserved, quiet-reflective, quiet-shut down, verbal-reactionary, verbal-interrogative, verbal-sarcastic/caustic; predictably unpredictable.

Last week I watched a teacher perform a close reading of a Vietnam era text. Man’s Inhumanity to Man was a central premise. I couldn't help but notice that most of the class was indifferent about the person-to-person cruelty, but when it came to a soldier’s cruelty to an animal, the room went flat silent. Clearly, this was upsetting to several kids. The obvious psychological questions: Why? Why do people fairly well accept malice among people but reject it between humans and animals? Do we expect one but not the other?

10 images to share at your next faculty meeting (Justin Tarte)

It made me appreciate the reception I get from my little dog when I come home (dancing, smiling, pawing; the devotion of an animal is wonderful),  but it also made me step back and recognize the many positive experiences I’m afforded by the many people in my life: family, colleagues, kids, coaches; seemingly infinite in number and affect. I've been fortunately surrounded by good people all my life. Of course there’s a mother’s influence, but teachers along the way have made long-term impacts. With both Mother’s Day (Sunday, May 10) and Teacher Appreciation Day (Tuesday, May 5) coming soon, it seems appropriate to show some love to the mommas and the teachers. Their influence (affect) and resulting impacts and change upon me (effect) are not forgotten. Here are a few thoughts to consider for those that affect us and for ourselves and the good we can do:

1. Mother’s Day Roundup: Tips, Lessons, and Activities (Education World)

2. My Life-Changing Teacher

3. For your consideration:
• Kids’ Thoughts on Student Engagement
• What I Learned from Teachers Who Inspired Me (Simon Hauger)...

• & what he's done with it: Sustainability Workshop

Wonderful Wandering

yourturntogetup.wordpress.com

Back in the day, my school did not have Advanced Placement courses. We didn’t feel underprivileged or slighted. We dug in and learned as much as we could. Some were smart and went on to elite schools, some were smart and went to varying other schools, and some were smart in spite of their schooling. It’s not uncommon for those of us with small-town roots to look at ourselves with that “inward eye,” examining our stations, and proudly wonder, “How did I get here?”

The past few months, I’ve fielded my son’s questions regarding angles, angle properties, surface area, volume, logical sequences of proof, variables and linear equations-- all stuff covered under the tutelage of my 10th grade Geometry and 11th grade Algebra-Trig teacher.

My son is in 7th grade. <sigh> “How did I get here?”

Somewhere along the way, I must have concluded that I would always have a lot to learn, and that the learning is not always static. For the perpetual “chameleonization” of learning and teaching, here are some ideas to peruse:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

RESEARCH

World Language Boosts Student Achievement

New Study Suggests Educational Motivation is Genetic

High School GPA: best predictor of college freshman grades

THE BRAIN

The High Costs of Neuromyths in Education

The Difference Between Being Really Smart… and Being a Genius

Strategies for Strengthening the Brain’s Executive Functions

TEACHING

Fresh Starts for Hard-to-Like Students

Tools for Participation (video)

Art of Persuasion and Craft of Argument (video)

Educators Give Tips on How to Make Better Presentations

---

RESEARCH: Trends, Findings, etc.

World Language Boosts Student Achievement (from education world)

• Language Immersion Program
• Students scored better on standardized tests as they got older
• Students Skype with sister schools in other districts

New Study Suggests Educational Motivation is Genetic (education world)

• The group: 13,000+ twins in 6 countries
• 40-50% of  children’s motivation differences to learn “could be explained by their genetic inheritance from their parents"
• "The results don’t mean there is a gene for how much children enjoy learning...But the findings suggest a complex process, involving many genes and gene-environment interactions, that help influence children’s motivation to learn"
• "The results strongly suggest that we should think twice before automatically blaming parents, teachers and the children themselves for students who aren’t motivated in class"

High School GPA: best predictor of college freshman grades

(Hansen, Omaha- World-Herald)

• ACT/SAT score isn’t even the best predictor; high school GPA is
• “SAT and ACT have long been underrating how well women will do as college freshmen”
• “...noncognitive skills... like grit, are what we’re trying to get a better handle on to measure”

__________

THE BRAIN: What is known…for now

The High Costs of Neuromyths in Education (edutopia)

• Left/Right Brain Myth

• Learning-Style Myth

• "10 Percent of Our Brains" Myth

The Difference Between Being Really Smart… and Being a Genius (Birch, Yahoo)

• “There’s a widespread belief that intelligence can be enhanced by enriching children’s lives early, but that has never been demonstrated by research.”
• “creativity, ‘the secret sauce’ of genius, … leverages intelligence”

Strategies for Strengthening the Brain’s Executive Functions (edutopia)

• Executive functions: set of mental skills that are coordinated in the brain’s frontal lobe (web MD), including time management, switching focus, planning, recalling detail, curbing inappropriate behavior, connecting past and present, etc.
• STRATEGIES THAT HELP:

1. Teach the functions: label and coach them
2. Student-centered opportunities
3. Articulate and model effective thinking practices
4. Articulate and model effective thinking practices
5. Clearly state classroom rules that support positive and productive learning interactions.

__________

TEACHING: Tips, techniques, & insights

Fresh Starts for Hard-to-Like Students (edutopia)

• Express gratitude to your difficult students.

• Use encouraging statements every day.

• Act toward your worst student the way you act toward your best student.

• Send the parents a "positive postcard"

Tools for Participation (<3 minutes, from Teaching Channel)

Art of Persuasion & Craft of Argument (7:30, Teaching Channel)

Educators Give Tips on How to Make Better Presentations (education world)

• listeners have a time limit to absorbing information before they begin to tune out (about 10 minutes)
• images, not words
• compare and contrast images and what they show (or do not show)
• 10 minutes of video, 2 minutes of discussion; 10, then 2, 10 then 2, etc.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

"Turn and face the strange... Just gonna have to be a different man"

Since "Changes" (1971), David Bowie extended his thought in "Sunday" (2002), saying "nothing has changed and everything has changed."  Perhaps the same can be said in the realm of education?

I am humored when I hear that school isn't what it used to be. I reflect back to days before word processing programs and how, comparatively, students write quite a bit more today. Two-page essays are the minimum now and are common assignments. To a comparative point, here's a 1979 1st Grade Readiness checklist, as posted by Christine Whitley on the chicagonow.com blog (10 of 12 yesses = ready):

1. Will your child be six years, six months or older when he begins first grade and starts receiving reading instruction?
2. Does your child have two to five permanent or second teeth?
3. Can your child tell, in such a way that his speech is understood by a school crossing guard or policeman, where he lives?
4. Can he draw and color and stay within the lines of the design being colored?
5. Can he stand on one foot with eyes closed for five to ten seconds?
6. Can he ride a small two-wheeled bicycle without helper wheels?
7. Can he tell left hand from right?
8. Can he travel alone in the neighborhood (four to eight blocks) to store, school, playground, or to a friend's home?
9. Can he be away from you all day without being upset?
10. Can he repeat an eight- to ten-word sentence, if you say it once, as "The boy ran all the way home from the store"?
11. Can he count eight to ten pennies correctly?
12. Does your child try to write or copy letters or numbers?

Other than being 6, I'm certain my kids had these mastered before kindergarten, a tip of the hat to pre-school. The times, they are a-changin'. 

So change it is, and here are a few contemporary perspectives to consider:

1.   CLASSROOM & CRAFT

from George Couros

• "5 Highly Effective Teaching Practices" by edutopia's Rebecca Alber

• The New Teacher Survival Guide (Teaching Channel)

2.   HOMEWORK

• "The Science of Homework" (from theguardian.com's Teacher Network)

• Is Homework Helpful? The 5 Questions Every Teacher Should Ask (Sztabnik, edutopia.org)

3.   LEARNING (from Teaching Channel)

Reading Like a Historian: Corroboration

Document-Based Questions: Warm and Cool Feedback