I'll be the first to admit that I was skeptical about the influence of computer based testing for science. I was worried that computer scored questions would result in more "recall" questions. However, after taking the practice test, I was pleased to see that the majority of the questions evaluated the ability of the taker to think scientifically. Many questions require students to set up data tables, or graph data using the information presented within the four corners of the screen.
Science teachers will give their students a better chance to excel if they give their students some screen time with the practice tests. Students need to know that "tab" won't move the cursor between fields and they need a chance to work the "drag and drop" feature. Some time in Excel or Google Sheets won't hurt either. That said, putting kids behind a computer screen won't be the best way to prepare them for the test. The best way to prepare students for the test will be to get them in a lab.
If you want students to be able to fill out data tables and chart the data in graphs, give them opportunities that will allow them to design experiments and communicate the results of the experiments.
Not only will it prepare them for the new tests, it will also give them a chance to enjoy science.
Angela Duckworth's Ted Talk on grit celebrates perseverance in academic achievement. Duckworth correctly asserts that IQ and talent do not always lead to success. Her formula, achievement = talent x effort is another phrasing of the coaching maxim that hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.
I almost used the TedTalk in a professional development session because her basic message is so appealing: in addition to teaching content, we also need to teach work ethic.
It begs the question.......what's the best way to go about doing this?
Do we teach work ethic by pilling on more worksheets? Do we teach work ethic by assigning tasks with complexity beyond our students' skill levels and withholding any supports that would help them be successful? Do we make "responsibility" and "work ethic" a prerequisite for the opportunity to learn anything? For example, shaming a student for failure to complete an assignment in a way that guarantees disengagement.
I try to avoid coaching analogies, but before I stumbled into administration I spent twelve years coaching wrestling, a sport requiring perseverance.
I coached athletes who struggled with certain drills. They would say "I can't do that," and I would respond "You can't do that, yet." I never let them off the hook completely for attempting the drill, but I never made their inability to do one task restrict them from a chance to learn another. I also coached talented and driven athletes who had to be required to rest due to injuries or family situations. There were times over the course of a season when training peaked and times when it tapered off. Even in the very "gritty" sport of wrestling my coaching instincts told me sometimes "slack" was more appropriate.
And so it is in classrooms.
Our students need grit and perseverance, and our best teachers constantly calibrate how to do this best. How much? How fast? Which student needs a challenged? Which student needs more support? Determining the slack/grit ratio is not a science waiting to be perfected; it is an art.
More often than not, our teachers excel at this art.
Teaching is a tough job, a gritty job, taken on by tough, and caring, people. It is far more complicated, and beautiful, than a talk, a blog, or a word.
Jackson and Jensen both make two claims educators should accept.
1.) Poverty often negatively impacts brain development of children for a variety of reasons: chronic stress at home, limited access to medical care, improper nutrition, etc.
2.) The plasticity of the human brain allows educators to mitigate, and even reverse, those effects on the brain.
Jackson and Jensen each offer practical advice to educators for leveraging the brain's plasticity to increase academic achievement. Here are three values they both embrace.
1.) Relationships are key.
Jensen encourages teachers to "build supportive relationships, provide positive guidance, foster hope and optimism, and take time for affirmation, and celebration." Administrators are warned that their schools "will hit a test score ceiling until you include students' emotional and social lives in your school 'makeover.'" Jackson states, "Possessing a deep understanding of child and adolescent development enables us to be better able to construct relationships and classroom environments that are motivational and lead to cognitive and social growth."
Prioritizing relationships, in my mind, is a main function of building administrators. Most teachers, I believe, want to be given permission to teach kids, not content.
2.) Enrichment should be provided for all students, especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Jensen describes enrichment not as "'more' or 'faster' schooling.' It means rich, balanced, sustained, positive, and contrasting learning environments.'" Jackson draws on her experiences with gifted education and encourages teachers to allow their pupils to experience "gifted land."
Again, here I say, administrators should communicate clearly the expectation to provide rich learning experiences: projects, labs, field trips etc. These activities are important even if, and perhaps because, they force the pace of the class to slow or reduce the number of learning targets that can be assessed in a unit. The clearest way for administrators to do this in my opinion is to challenge teachers to reduce the number of power standards they intend to teach. Teachers have to be given permission to teach fewer standards if we expect deeper learning, the kind that occurs in enriched environments, to occur.
3.) Teachers should devote time and effort on teaching students how to learn.
Jensen offers guidance for teachers on how to "build capacity" in their students by upgrading their "academic operating system." Jackson outlines techniques to help teachers "nurture high intellectual performances."
Often we assess the short term working memory of students without collectively working to build their short term working memories. Often we want students to evaluate without teaching how to evaluate. Administrators must support teachers' efforts to teach "learning how to learn," by providing professional development on teaching strategies that support engagement and critical thinking across all content areas.
Much of the Yvette Jackson and Eric Jensen's work compliments the other but there are unique offerings from each I find compelling.
Jensen offers a great deal to school leaders. He reminds them that the best way they can support disadvantaged students is to support their teachers. He reminds administrators that teachers need support, flexibility, and time to collaborate. He reminds administrators that one of the biggest mistakes that can be made is "putting kids first and staff last." These are important reminders.
Jackson also offers an important reminder. Much of her work is grounded in the work of Reuven Fuerenstein, who educated and documented the intellectual gains of Jewish children who survived the Holocaust. I love this because it places the work of educators in a historically significant context. We are part of Fuerenstein's legacy, which is a legacy of hope. We need to remember this.
On November 24th I attended a workshop on Student Learning Objectives (SLO's). Here are a few reflections on the training.
SLO's are DESE's response to the NCLB waiver, which requires student achievement data be part of teacher evaluation. Beginning in 2016 Missouri schools will be required to document, through core data, that achievement data is used in evaluation. Local districts have been given the responsibility for choosing what data will be used. This is certainly better than models which would mandate evaluations be based on state assessments. However any change to evaluation must be communicated clearly and followed by thoughtful support.
A few bullet points on using SLO's for achievement data:
-SLO's should evaluate individual objectives/learning targets contained in the Missouri Learning Standards.
-SLO's should document achievement over two points in time.
-SLO's should incorporate "stretch." Formative and summative assessments should challenge students in appropriate ways.
-SLO's should be chosen by teachers.
-SLO's should allow teachers to communicate to administrators any unique learning challenges students have.
-SLO's should allow teachers to set "growth targets" for individual students.
The formula for setting individual growth targets suggested by our trainers is illustrated below. Growth targets are set at half the distance between the student's baseline score and one hundred percent. This is a straightforward method, but it leaves me with a few questions.
Thoughts, questions, and concerns:
-Using SLO's will come naturally to many teachers. Most elementary teachers already use assessment data in reading and mathematics. Secondary teachers in large departments have common assessments. Many teachers already submit results on locally created assessments to central offices. Data being tracked by assessments already in place is a perfect resource for meeting new evaluation requirements. However, for various reasons, not all teachers have had the same practice working collaboratively on data collection and evaluation. How will administrators support them?
-What is the most efficient way to submit SLO data? Could a teacher's grade book be used to track SLO's. Administrators and teachers would need to have conversations along the way, but once the assessments have identified, could a teacher submit a printout of their grade book as part of the evaluation process?
-SLO's emphasize baseline data. How can administrators discourage teachers unfamiliar with best formative assessment practices from incorporating results of baseline assessments in a student's final grade?
-The "half the distance to the goal" strategy works on a points earned/points possible mindset, which runs counter to standards based grading. Wouldn't a rubric, with a high bar set for mastery, be a better model for incorporating both "stretch" and growth targets?
These are important questions that administrators and teachers should have sooner rather than later. I'd be interested in hearing from those who are further along in the conversation.
My son and I share a ritual. It begins when one of us, he as often as I, asks the other to go on a bear hunt. The ritual demands an invitation to bear hunt can not be declined, regardless of weather, or time left in a tied football game. If you are asked to bear hunt you are required to respond, "Let's go."
A half mile trail winds through a few acres of cedars on the far side of the lake behind our house. We walk the path with our eyes peeled, carrying sticks. We haven't seen a bear yet.
The name stands.
A November morning with frost on the ground and a stream of division on the news feed makes a bear hunt appealing. At four he is becoming bold enough to run ahead, leading me to a bench at the crest of the hill where I sit and consider the reasons I want to retreat from and engage in society. Along the trail we bust cottontails in the woods and ducks along the shoreline. We examine the workings of beavers and tracks in the frost left by the survivors of last week's deer season. All of it encourages: the cardinals, the cold air, the light reflecting off the cottonwoods.
He's four so he is beginning to run ahead and lead the hunts. But he's four and the hunts still end the same as they always have. His legs get tired and asks to "ride up top," on my shoulders back to the house.
No school improves without the tough work of collaboration. "Leave me alone and let me teach," is a mantra for those who are uncomfortable with collaboration. While the allure of autonomy is understandable, interdependence is the path to better outcomes.
The mile stretch of Perche Creek just upstream from the Missouri is a fantastic place to watch the seasons change. My sit-on-top Wilderness Systems kayak allows me to skim along with the leaves that litter the surface. In late October I miss seeing the turtles, but when the trees begin to shed, terrific views of the limestone bluffs, hidden all summer, emerge.
Stripes on the trunks rising from the bank mark water lines from spring and summer floods, revealing how dynamic nature is. The creek, turtles, and trees seem to relax in the fall, but paddling in and out of the powerful eddies at the confluence reminds paddlers that the Missouri isn't ready for winter yet.
To support teachers in our evaluation system we are using the resources provided by Edhub in our monthly professional development days.
Registering for the Edhub resources was fairly simple. The Edhub administrator provided tokens that were redeemed when the account was created.
Once the account was created, resources for two of the four indicators our district uses for evaluation were curated: student/teacher relationships and critical thinking. Teachers volunteered to lead professional development sessions on the indicators, and a schedule was created that allowed teachers to choose, elective style, which indicator they most wanted to explore.
For our district this approach increases flexibility for teachers: they are provided a time and place to develop skills of their choosing. Clarity is also increased: administrators and teachers together can learn what research says regarding appropriate student/teacher relationships and critical thinking.
There is great value in educators gathering together to affirm:
-relationships are healthy and secure when structures and limits are in place
-creative, collaborative work on open ended assignments ensures that critical thinking is taking place
EdHub's research based presentations on a range of performance indicators are great resources for clear, yet flexible, professional development.
Our school began using online textbooks in our social studies classes this year. Students benefit from the marriage of content and technology. Educators have many options when it comes to online texts. Here, I examine the cost, content, assessments, and ease of enrollment of three.
Our students have been using this text a great deal this year. The content, including multi-media extras, is high quality. The aligned assessments are easily shared between student and instructor. Educators set up student accounts through a straightforward process. Once students are given their username and passwords they begin learning immediately. Unless a school purchases a traditional textbook and uses it for over a decade, the cost of the online resource is more affordable.
If I were a homeschool educator I would use ck12 exclusively for mathematics and science instruction based on quality, price, and flexibility. The same factors make it an attractive option for schools as well. My daughter and I have been exploring the middle school physical science resources. The content aligns to standards, and while modules require a bit of construction from instructors, assigning readings, quizzes, and discussion questions is not difficult. Ck12 is free, and students with email addresses create their own accounts.
USHistory.org is another free resource. The content is well designed and written at a lexile appropriate for middle school school students. The source documents in each chapter provide opportunities for students to read more challenging texts. There are no assessments provided, but most teachers would find it easy to use a platform such as Edmodo to write and assign questions. No registration is required. While there are some advertisements in the sidebars, they are not distracting.
Problem Let me be blunt: the person most likely to cause the leader problems is the leader. I face challenges everyday; the ones that become most challenging are the ones that are compounded by my lack of judgement. I believe there is much wisdom in the charge to be as innocent as a dove, but as shrewd as a snake. To me that is what leadership is about. However, I often find myself underwhelmed by the threshold of my own innocence and shrewdness. Let me frame the tension between dove and snake with two challenges that will be familiar to anyone who has held any leadership position.
Sharing
One of the toughest issues with which I struggle is information sharing. What should I tell to whom and when? Sometimes, in frustration I decide the answer is nothing, to no one, ever. This is not a wise choice. This is not the shrewd choice. There is information that some people need to know to do their job. It should be shared. I can't, in an effort to seek false innocence, be so worried about being seen as a gossip, or one who is not trustworthy, that I never share. I need to model innocence in my information sharing by not being sensational and not sharing information that will obviously hurt someone. I need to be shrewd enough to decided who can be trusted with information and who can't.
Pressure Every organization has daily task, many of which are menial yet vital, that are affected by inconsistency. Every organization has group members, probably all members, whose practices and beliefs occasionally contradict the mission of the organization. And yet all of the members have unique strengths that support the mission. One of my biggest struggles is deciding how much pressure to place on folks to change, particularly when I understand factors that influence their actions and beliefs. How much change? How fast? How much support to provide during the change. Leaders must constantly check to see if their desire to be a change agent is driven by proper motives. Leaders have an ethical duty to provide support. You must be a dove to protect people during times of change. However, leaders must be shrewd enough to know that not all members will change without pressure. Leaders must also be shrewd enough to know that being consistent with the application of pressure and support will be difficult, perhaps impossible.
Solution
Because my biggest problem is myself. I know that the solution will not be myself. I can't depend on myself to be a good gauge of the dove to snake ratio. Therefore I must ensure that I cultivate a circle of folks whom I can seek out for advice.
SNAKE : DOVE
The leader's most likely problem is the leader. The leader's most likely solution is a leadership team.
Slow down
Recently, I was challenged by a professor to identify one change I would make to improve American public education. In my opinion, there is one place to start: pace. Our schools, in response to the annual testing cycle, simply move too fast.
Content Knowledge
Research proves that spaced practice yields more benefits than massed practice. Students need time to learn, and some need more time than others. However, many teachers, responding to poorly communicated expectations from leaders, often forfeit reteaching to maintain fidelity to regimented curriculum sequences. Projects, the kind that promote mastery and that show the relevance of content in real world applications, are also casualties. If we truly want all students to learn at high levels, we must be willing to support adjustments to the pace of learning that currently is demanded.
Relationships Schools are dependent on healthy relationships, and cultivating healthy relationships takes time. Often the behaviors that impact learning are driven by emotions and experiences that lie under the surface. Strategies such as Conscious Discipline help students process their behaviors and motivations, but these interventions require time. Students often encounter set backs in their lives outside of school. The pace of schools should be flexible enough to support them as they bounce back. Teachers would also benefit from a slower pace. The collaboration and coaching that we all desire can not exist without time. Five minute feedback is better than none, and forty minutes of collaborative time beats none, but we could do better.
Slowing the pace of our schools would require substantial cultural and institutional changes and sacrifices. Making such sacrifices may not be realistic, but we should all consider what we risk sacrificing, richer learning opportunities and healthier relationships, to maintain the current pace.
Aside from a dog that rambled out of the brush, looked us over, and trotted off like he was expecting to find someone else, we had the river bank to ourselves. My daughter, who threw a pole and tackle box in the car at the last minute, searched the rip rap for anything that would serve as bait. I stared at the river, considering the swirling eddies that quickly popped up and disappeared like frustrations and anxieties that make a morning spent in a canoe so appealing.
"Dad you won't believe it! Look at this!"
No one else I know has the luck of my daughter. When I turned around she was holding a white carton of night crawlers that had washed up or been abandoned. We spent the morning watching her tight line and snacking on fruit and summer sausage on the dry bag that served as our table cloth.
The Missouri was at eleven feet that morning and we decided to briefly test our strength against the 72,000 cubic feet of water that flowed downstream each second. We paddled out and then looped back into the creek to begin the mile long trip back to the ramp where we parked.
A breeze at our back allowed us to fish and float back without paddling. Almost too quickly. As we loaded up, both of us wished we were still at the confluence of Perche Creek and the Missouri River.
I don't know who was more restless, my four year old son or me, but with temperatures in the seventies on Labor Day morning ,we decided it was a perfect time to make like Christopher Robbin and go on an explore.
Our destination: A portion of the Cedar Creek Trail known as Devil's Backbone.
If Lord of the Rings had been filmed in Boone County, Missouri, much of the action would have been shot here. The ridge, not more than thirty feet wide, with vertical drops on both sides, slips quickly down to Cedar Creek below. Not many places in Central Missouri feature as many rocky outcrops split by gnarled tree roots. We didn't battle any Wargs on our journey, but we did have a show down with a blood thirsty horsefly.
At the base of The Backbone we snacked on an orange while resting on an abandoned steel bridge before making the return trip up the steep trail. Before getting back in the van, we paused and dangled our feet off a limestone ledge two hundred feet above the creek bottom. It was a good moment for both of us.
Hattie's research demonstrates the importance of feedback. All of the individual techniques that yield high effect sizes do so because they are avenues for feedback. Because the quality of feedback depends on the quality of the assessment, time spent considering assessment practices is valuable. Rick Wormeli's Fair Isn't Always Equal provides guidance in this area.
Purpose
A core belief communicated by Wormeli is that the main purpose of education is to promote mastery. Most teachers embrace this concept in regards to instruction. However, remembering to extend the emphasis on the promotion of mastery to assessment is difficult. Often assessments are treated with finality. All teachers are forced to operate within fixed time frames for courses; the most thoughtful teachers extend the opportunities for mastery as much as possible within those parameters.
Differentiation
When teachers see assessment primarily as a tool for promoting mastery, they see the need for differentiation more clearly. Because all students are at different stages in the journey toward mastery, it is necessary to adjust assessments accordingly. If the goal is mastery for each student, the act of extending a deadline, allowing a second chance, or providing extra scaffolding becomes the most pragmatic response. If treating a student exactly the same as a peer does not move the student closer towards mastery, then alternative practices should be employed.
Three Practices Worth Scrutinizing
Wormeli identifies ten practices that do not lend themselves to differentiation or the promotion of mastery. I'll briefly discuss three. Assigning grades to homework or quizzes given immediately after a concept is introduced does not respect differentiation or mastery learning. This does not mean that feedback should not be given when a student has not mastered a skill. Students need feedback, but it should not come in the form of 4 out of 10 points. Similarly, forbidding second attempts on assessments limits mastery. If the goal is for the student to demonstrate knowledge and skill, it should not matter how many opportunities they take advantage of. Lastly, is the practice of assigning grades to behaviors. Behaviors should be addressed, but averaging in grades for "showing up to class prepared," will result in final grades that do not accurately communicate the student's mastery of the content.
Perspective
Wormeli acknowledges that differentiation is not easy. When teachers are asked to process grades for over 100 students a cycle, precise calibration for each one is impossible. Wormeli also grants that there are times when students will not perform without the threat of a grade penalty. The "ten practices to avoid" could perhaps be deemed "ten practices to minimize."
I won't take a dogmatic approach to specific practices; however, I believe the healthiest classroom cultures will be visibly influenced by the values of mastery and differentiation.
"Next month many administrators will spend valuable time explaining growth models to first year teachers. There will be a temptation to take a reductionist approach."
Growth model. I prefer the term to most conceivable alternatives: stagnation model, death model, plateau model. It is important; however, to pause and critically consider growth models, particularly in teacher evaluation.
Next month many administrators will spend valuable time explaining growth models to first year teachers. There will be a temptation to take a reductionist approach.
-Using this Kagan strategy will increase the probability of scoring above a five out of seven for this indicator.
-Read this excerpt from Teach Like a Champion, watch the accompanying video clip, and implement the strategy in your classroom for successful evaluations.
Administrators have a responsibility to clearly communicate expectations while consistently implementing policy. But there must be an appreciation for context and a few questions.
-Teaching, more importantly learning, is challenging. Sometimes very challenging, and rarely tidy.
-Whose growth is the priority?
-Can numerical systems stand without authentic reflection and conversation?
-Will authentic reflection and conversation take place without accountability systems?
-When we define growth narrowly how much do we restrict it?
Teacher evaluation is a necessary element in our schools. Students and teachers will be best served in environments where it exists with high levels of mentoring, coaching, and evaluation of student performance on tasks other than state assessment.
"It's important to me because it's important to them."
Attention to detail is an area where I must focus my energy through discipline.
I easily embrace the idea that leaders must be able to see the big picture and be able to adjust appropriately to shifting variables. Broad strokes and creativity are spaces that I move most naturally; however, I realize that the best leaders are the ones who discipline themselves to attend to the small, yet important, tasks that confront them everyday. Deadlines, advance planning, proof reading, and follow through are not difficult when they are part of a highly visible project that is a priority to me, but the real test is the attention to detail devoted to a task that doesn't excite me.
Often leadership involves participating enthusiastically, though not always visibly, in projects that are important to others. These are opportunities to truly demonstrate servant leadership to the organization.
An important mantra in these moments is, "It's important to me because it's important to them."
Morning was the perfect time to visit the French Quarter with the kids. The crowd and heat hadn't kicked in, and for breakfast we love beignets from Cafe Du Monde, a short walk from the public parking on Decatur, which is easy to find from I-10. After shopping the French market and exploring St. Louis Cathedral, we ate po' boys and alligator before cruising Bourbon Street in the mini-van. At Ursulines we hung a left and then took Dauphine toward the Garden district, where we finished the trip by exploring Lafayette Cemetery.
Oxford
Demanding that your children read "A Rose for Emily" at bedtime may or may not be good parenting, but that's how I introduced Faulkner to my daughters before visiting Rowan Oak, on July 6th, the anniversary of his death. The girls were thinking of the story as they walked up the steps to the door and whispered, "This place looks haunted." Our son reached the door first and knocked. When the door sprung open by itself all three mouths dropped. For a moment we thought they were going to run. The attendant, who watched their approach, paused before stepping out from behind the door. He had the same mischievous eyes and smile as our son, and made us feel welcome. In the study, we examined plot diagrams on the walls, written for the books that rest on our living room bookshelf. In a photograph upstairs we searched for the mysteries held in Caroline Barr's eyes. Outside we shared the grounds with the ghosts of Yoknapatawpha County.
Memphis
For our family, learning about Blues Music is an important window into American history. The Rock 'n' Soul Museum was a perfect classroom for all of us. Every minute we spent was a valuable investment of time. Feeling inspired, we crossed the street to the Gibson gift shop where I was able to grab an ax and pick a little.
The kids weren't impressed with my amateurish attempt, so we headed one block over to Beale where we met real blues men and enjoyed great ribs and live music at Flynn's. After lunch we made a quick visit to the ducks at the Peabody before jumping back in the van, which was parked just across the street on South Third.
It wasn't long before my daughter felt the familiar tug and I heard, "Fish on, Daddy."
We walked through chest deep troughs carefully holding the rod and reel high. One hundred yards from shore we found a sand bar. There the water of Bay St. Louis gently lapped against us at our knees on its way to the beach where the rest of the family played.
My oldest daughter and I surveyed our surroundings. To our left the bridges carrying cars and trains to Pass Christian arched into the air. To our right the coastline worked its way toward New Orleans where we spent the morning shopping and dipping beignets in cafe au lait. Behind us the sun began to set over multicolored beach homes on South Beach Boulevard . All around us small fish made double leaps over the surface. Sea gulls and pelicans patrolled above.
A plastic crawfish on a .5 circle hook dangled on twenty four inches of leader below a large popping float. My daughter was excited, and though I tried to feign confidence as I assembled the rig, I was too. We grant ourselves expert status in our canoe at home where we bass fish, but this our first experience together fishing salt.
We began working the next trough out, and though our first few casts yielded no result, it wasn't long before my daughter felt the familiar tug and I heard, "fish on, Daddy."
As we waded back to shore to show off the catfish, all of ten inches, she had a smile and the confidence to ensure this wouldn't be her last catch from the bay.
I decided to update this blog post after recently exploring the library. Many resources have been added since I attended the training. I do still believe that some educators will be disappointed in the Digital Library if they confuse it for the SBAC interim assessments that have not been released yet.
I also wanted to share screen casts of what it looks like to search the library for resources. Flash player is required.
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium maintains an online bank of resources, the Digital Library, to support teachers as they prepare students for the SBAC exams. Today, June 30th, I attended a workshop on the Digital Library.
A few observations:
1.) The digital library is not an assessment bank. According to our trainer, SBAC interim assessments will be available in December or January.
2.) The resource is primarily designed to model formative assessment practices. Animated vignettes of teaching practices, rubrics, model lesson plans for performance events, and information on techniques such exit slips and quiz, quiz trade are available. General instructional strategies make up more of the library than content specific, grade level resources.
3.) The library is designed for easy use. Users can filter resources by grade level and subject area.
4.) The resources in the library are high quality. An intensive vetting process was used to select resources.
5.) Perhaps, due to intensive vetting the amount of content is limited at this time.
For example:
A filtered search for resources designed to support seventh grade instruction for Reading Informational Texts Standard 4 (vocabulary in context) provided one resource, a video of quiz, quiz trade protocol from a fourth grade classroom.
A filtered search for resources designed to support seventh grade instruction for Mathematics G.B.4 (circumference) returned no results.
It is important to note that content is still being uploaded. Two resources were uploaded during the training.
So how should the Digital Library be used? It depends.
While some model lesson plans include reproducible assessments, teachers looking for digital or reproducible classroom activities for students will most likely be frustrated. However, the more time I spent in the library, the more material I found that would help classroom teachers in lesson design. For example, a resource titled "Flustered by Fractions," included a clip from American Choppers and instructions on how to use the clip in a lesson.
For administrators the digital library could be a resource to supplement professional development on formative assessment. It could also serve as resource for curriculum writers looking for models endorsed by SBAC.
I would be interested in hearing how others plan to use this tool.
Until this summer, even after spending three years in the classroom teaching middle school science, I never participated in a dissection lab. That changed while participating in a free workshop at the University of Missouri with our school's science teacher.
The workshop, led by Dr. Folk, was designed to familiarize science teachers with the ShowMe InaBox, Eye-InaBox and Ear-InaBox, kits. The kits are available for one month free check outs through Folk's office.
One of the program's strengths is its ability to connect physical and life sciences. Wave lengths, energy transformations, and chemical changes are taught through a series of hands on labs and lessons on the eye.
Workshop participants learned how to lead labs on UV light sensitive beads, pin hole lens construction, live planarian responses, and cow eyeball dissection. The kits include readings and all necessary supplies, including the cow eyeballs. All materials are returned at the end of the check out period, with the exception of the eyeballs.
After a few seconds in the sun the beads on the right changed colors.
Because of our science teacher's participation in the Eye In A Box program, our students will benefit from seeing the connections between physical and life sciences. Students will also benefit from our school's connection to a professor who conducts research at a world class university.
They will also get the opportunity to participate in a dissection lab, at no cost to our school, at a much earlier age than their principal.
Information on the Eye-InaBox program can be found through the program's website.
As educators pour over data points, three areas of student achievement deserve consideration.
Creativity: Imagine measuring the number of smiles produced when adults admire a painting, poem, musical performance, robot, or video game created by a student. We are all better when we give students the opportunity to imagine something that is not yet, but is better that what is. Though the creative process can be sloppy, the results are worth it.
Compassion: Imagine measuring the number of new students welcomed into a school by the existing student body. Our society is more mobile than ever. Every day schools have new students transfer into their family. More often than not these students have this difficult transition eased by compassionate students.
Persistence: Imagine measuring the number of assignments turned in after, or during, substantial setbacks in the life of a student. All teachers have students on their rosters who are experiencing trials. When these students fight through and continue to turn in work and study for tests, they demonstrate a persistence that serves them well.
Last year our school implemented iPad minis in the classroom for the first time. Due to the talents of our teachers, the devices helped create a rich learning environment. Another post reflects on reasons why the devices became effective learning tools. This post details the process we went through to get devices to the classroom.
Below are three tips for educators buying school iPads for the first time. 1.) Device Purchases:
Work with Apple directly. You will get the best value if you purchase devices in ten packs. To do this you must enroll in the volume purchase program for educators. This process is not too cumbersome but it takes some time, so start early. 2.) App Purchases:
Plan your app purchases. The time spent enrolling in the volume purchasing program will pay off in purchasing apps. Schools enrolled in the program can purchase apps for a reduced rate when purchasing more than twenty apps. The best way to do this is to purchase a voucher card. The physical card will come in the mail and has a code. When you redeem the code online, Apple emails a spread sheet with individual redemption codes for each app purchase. Our school set up an Apple ID, which is not tied to a credit card (a good practice for many reasons). All of our student devices used the same apple ID to load the apps. 3.) Questions:
Don't be afraid to call your apple representative with questions. Once you've made contact with the representative for your area, be sure to save the direct phone number. Calling the Apple's toll free number will always put you in contact with friendly folks, but they will most likely have to transfer you to the representative who works only with schools to help you.
What started out with a question, ended with lunch. The fact that we hit for our version of the cycle and missed the afternoon storms made it even better.
Today was the first day of summer vacation that I was able to spend at home, and when I asked my oldest daughter if she she thought we should run to the store to buy worms to go fishing her reply was, "Can we?"
Soon we were dodging snags and rain clouds. We beat the rain back to shore with the perfect amount of fish for lunch. By the time we were finished, the basket held at least one of the lake's three tastiest species: bass, crappie, and my favorite, bluegill.
The picnic table, camp stove, and cast iron skillet served as our backyard kitchen. Tortilla shells, which are perfect for checking to see if the oil is ready, were our side dish. Thin fillets crisped to a golden brown in the Andy's fry mix. The mullberry tree provided dessert.
We both agreed to do it again soon. Now we need a day without meetings on the schedule or rain in the forecast.
As an amateur (and even that is a stretch) astronomer, the kind who can barely track the path of Jupiter's moons, I am fascinated with Kepler 16-b. Kepler 16-b is a circumbinary planet, meaning it orbits not one, but two stars. A two star solar system forces a paradigm shift for us when we are first exposed to the idea, which makes it a perfect metaphor for classroom and school culture.
Kepler 16-b's orbit is driven by the gravitational pull of stars: Kepler 16-A and Kepler 16-B. These stars are not considered opposite, or competing, but one binary star.
Similarly, master educators are driven by one binary star, with two factors: challenge and support. At different times in the life of a classroom, each mass has a stronger gravitational pull. Master teachers know when to give the stern look, and they know when to smile. They know how to present the rigorous assignment, and the scaffolding necessary for students to meet the challenge.
Likewise effective schools must be flexible enough to exert the forces of challenge and support as needed. Students must be held to high standards, academically and behaviorally. Systems must be in place to help them meet those standards, and support them when they fall short.
Questions to consider:
1.) What aspects of the class or school culture are designed to challenge?
2.) What aspects of the class or school culture are designed to support?
3.) What data is used to determine when the orbit of a class or an individual students needs to be influenced more by one than the other?
This fall, thanks to the support of our community, our school will have WiFi for the first time. Our students will have a richer learning environment, which is exciting. But it is also a time to stop and consider the following questions:
Why do we have WiFi?
What are the learning goals?
It's possible our students will be better prepared for these opportunities thanks to the work of their teachers in implementing iPad minis last year in classrooms without WiFi. When the minis were introduced to the school, a blog post was tweeted to parents explaining the goals for the devices. As the year progressed the vision laid out became a reality. Students honed their skills in presenting knowledge creatively using apps such as iMovie, Doceri, and Keynote When the wireless routers come on, and the hot spots go live, the devices will certainly be used for research, but because the school had a year to practice in spots that were cold, the students will see connectivity as a way to collaborate and create, not just consume.
"An individual with a high degree of naturalist intelligence is keenly aware of how to
distinguish from one another the diverse, plants, animals, mountains, and cloud
configurations in her ecological niche" Howard Gardner.
The students at our school benefit from a few wooded acres that border the campus to the west. Featuring a small pond, a path, and an amphitheater, the outdoor classroom is a result of the efforts of teachers and community members alike.
Science students are provided unique opportunities to study biology. Animal, fungi, and plant kingdoms are easier to learn when students are able to put their hands on fishing poles, morels, and spades. When rain gauges supplement text books, and a planned project to build a raised flower bed is postponed due to weather, meteorology is more meaningful. The outdoor classroom also serves as the subject of student produced documentaries and the setting for student produced dramas, filmed and edited with iPads in communication arts classes.
Howard Gardner's multiple intelligence theory includes a naturalist intelligence. Teachers and students at our school are better positioned to leverage the power of this intelligence due to the outdoor classroom.
"You give us cause to laugh and groan when we realize you are younger than the songs we listened to in high school."
This May the graduates of 2014 will rightfully be the center of a lot of attention; however, there's another group in the school community who deserve recognition as well: first year teachers.
When the final bell rings on the last day of school, and everyone exhales fully for the first time since August, take time to find the first year teachers in your building and give them a well deserved pat on the back as they reach the finish line for the first time.
Here are four bits of insight to share with those finishing the first year of this crazy, demanding, exhausting, frustrating, exhilarating, rewarding, and important job.
1.) If you had moments in the classroom this year that were less than perfect, you're not alone. Within the first ten minutes of the first class I taught, I spilled coffee on a student in the first row. I'd like to be able to say that from that moment I had no where to go but up, but that just wouldn't be true. Most honest teachers have similar stories to tell.
2.) There have been folks rooting for you along the way. Your victories have been celebrated, and your frustrations have been shared, by mentors struggling to ration out the proper amounts of support and space. Mentoring first year teachers is akin to teaching someone how to ride a bike. When the training wheels come off, there will be bumps and bruises, and increasing protection limits skill acquisition.
3.) You have inspired the other teachers in your building. You remind us why we started in this profession. You expose us to new ideas and challenge us to examine our own through a new perspective. You give us cause to laugh and groan when we realize you are younger than the songs we listened to in high school. Your presence is appreciated.
4.) A promise. Next year will not be easy, but it won't be nearly as difficult. Going into next year you will have much clearer expectations. You've made your first office referral (and maybe a couple others), your first parent phone call, and your first sub plans. You've probably had one hundred experiences that threatened your calm beforehand, but turned out to be much less dramatic that expected. You will be going into next year in a much better position. Your second year will not be easy. In fact, it will be hard. Every year you teach will be hard. This job is great because it is hard.....and important.
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