What have you done well lately?

I have just finished my mid year conferences with all of my certified staff members. It has been a great time of reflection. I have not only been able to see and hear what people think have gone well for them this year...I have had the chance to reflect on what I have done this year well and what I need to rethink.

Some of the things I have done well: I like the staff development we have done this year. The Marzano's Strategies have been very helpful and has kept us focused on the higher order questions that stretches the learning of our students. I am also proud of all the staff who have taken the SIOP strategies and incorporated them into each of their lessons.

I also like the Awards program we have done after each quarter. I hope it grows into something that the students all strive to participate in. We salute perfect attendance, honor roll, and any special recognitions the teachers submit. I hope we have so many awards to give out that we have to do individual grade level awards programs.

The Grandparent's breakfast was a success as well. I hope that the Donuts for Dads and Muffins for Moms will be as, if not more, successful this year. It is my hope that these will grow into events that everyone looks forward to each year.

What are some of the things that you have done well lately? It can be a specific lesson you feel good about, getting all your conferences complete, all your students on grade level, or anything you feel good about in school. Please share with us. It is always good this time of year to see all the good things that are happening in our school(s). It helps make these long winter days go quicker and might inspire others to do the same.

I look forward to hearing from and reading your success stories.

Staff Development Q & A

I thought it would beneficial to post the questions and responses to today's staff development on our blog in case other teachers have suggestions, comments, etc. that they wish to add. For those who did not attend this morning's session please feel free to provide your suggestions and comments as well.

Setting Objectives

• How do you currently share your class's current objectives? Essential questions on the board; Teachers goes over verbally; Have children read questions to each other;
• Do you currently set a language objective along with your content language? Vocabulary; Language objective covered in essential question;No-but we think about it; Yes-because of SIOP training; It is embedded in daily reading and writing-building background knowledge helps to integrate language instruction into content areas;
• What was one idea about setting objectives that really jumped out at you? Projecting brainstorming ideas for students; Surveys for parents & students; Created rubrics (generic, teacher or student created); Student/Teacher generated scavenger hunts;
• Do you think South Fork should consider setting reading goals as a summer enrichment initiative? If so, what ideas do you think would help in accomplishing this? Funding for (PreK-5) books; Check in, check out program; Communication with families; Packet to go home-picked up by parents; Book mobile to coincide with summer feeding program; Include Math and Writing; Prizes; Look at objectives students are weak in;

Providing Feedback

• What are your thoughts about using peer feedback? Have you used it in your classroom? Have students tell each other what they learned; Share writing and ask how they can improve; Teacher question students while in line;
• Feedback to your students...how have you done it in the past? How will you do it now? Share an example. Conferencing and quick score results (immediate feedback); Summarization-write in journals; What they did well in and what they need to work on; According to grade level-age appropriate; Immediate feedback as well as incentives for long term goals; Writing conferences; Comparing work samples from earlier in year; Graphing how many sight words they know; Graphing minute math
• Are you currently using technology in the classroom that generates immediate feedback to students? If so, provide an example. Online assessments; AR; Games (give answers);
• What are your thoughts about granting a student who does poorly on a classroom assessment an opportunity to make corrections based on feedback? Do you agree or disagree? Support your answer. Yes; Older students also need to be prepared for middle school; Based on teacher judgement; May be an issue with teacher, necessary to RETEACH; Gives students a chance to learn from mistakes; Take home to do; Give extra points/grades averaged;

Setting objectives and providing feedback

We had another good session on setting objectives and providing feedback with the specialists and the second grade team. Although we talked about different objectives, we still found that we could use similar strategies to receive feedback from the students when we are checking for understanding.


We talked about ways to write the essential question. We found that we could have one broad question for a unit and then more specific questions for lessons within the unit. We would keep the unit EQ up for the duration of the unit and the day to day EQ's would change based on the desired objective. These can be displayed on the board, on sentence strips, or posted on a unit board.

We then talked about ways to check for student understanding in closing the lesson. There are several good ways to assess if students learned the objective. A few of those are: 1. A ticket out the door- ask students to write down a sentence answering the essential question. They then hand it to you on their way out the door. 2. Think-Pair- Share- Students are asked to think about their answer to the essential question, or whatever objective you are checking. Then they turn to their neighbor to share their answer, then- they chose which answer to share with the group. 3. 3-2-1- You ask students to think about three things they learned in this lesson, write down 2 of them in their journal, paper, card, then share one thought with a partner or the group.



What other ideas do you have to add to closure activities to check for understanding of objectives?

Feedback from TWC Survey

Thank you to all who filled out the questions for the TWC Survey. Your responses were very specific and informative. I have and will continue to take your responses, suggestions, and criticism to heart and incorporate what I can for next year. If you did not turn in your responses- please do. I would like to hear from all of you.

A time to reflect

Today starts our 2 week break from school. I am glad to have this time to rest and to reflect. I am thankful for the time to reflect on what we have accomplished so far this year and what we have to look forward to complete this year. As a school we have done quite a lot. We have shown great growth in math, been recognized as a Signature School, incorporated what we have learned from Marzano's, completed a very thorough school improvement plan, and grown more as a staff and as a team. When I look at where we started and where we are now- I am very proud of all of you for stepping up and taking on whatever challenge comes your way. We have two classes that are inclusive shelterd instruction. We have a grade level that is team teaching- reading and math. We have classes where teachers are experimenting with all the technology we have in our building. Good things are happening in all classrooms and students are being successful.

We still have a ways to go but I think we are on the right path and we have momentum helping us along. We need to continue incorporating what we learn in Marzano's and from the Sheltered Instruction Observational Protocol. These strategies are good for student learning and we need to keep our focus on getting our students to grow as much as we can. I have enjoyed seeing what you do with these strategies in your class. You are doing really good stuff.

Enjoy your break and we'll see you soon!

Trish

Books are here for book study and Feedback- What do you think?

The Daniel Pink books are here. If you want to buy your book- it is $10.20 payable to South Fork ES. See Delaine if you want to buy it. Otherwise, it will be processed through the library and you will have to check yours out. We will start the study in January. You can read it before hand. There is a lot to take in and it may help you to understand it better- if you read it more than once.



Today, three grade levels had their beginning staff development on Setting Objectives and Giving Feedback. We did not have a lot of time to discuss the feedback piece so I thought we could have it here. Those that did not have your learning team meeting today will have it on the 18th. Feel free to jump in the discussion...



1. What was one idea about setting objectives or giving feedback that really jumped out at you?

2. How can you incorporate that idea in your classroom? Was it something that you would want to incorporate?

3. Feedback to your students...how have you done it in the past? How will you do it now? Share an example?

4. Share how feedback you have received- either as a student yourself or as a teacher- has motivated you? How has it motivated your students?



Thank you to those who met today. I think we had some great discussions and wonderful examples. I look forward to meeting with the other three groups next Thursday. I am also anxious to read your responses from this- as that is my feedback.

Online Movie Resource

In one of our Marzano sessions, we learned about the website "brainpop" where you can view some free movies. There is a related site, http://www.brainpopjr.com/, which is geared more toward K-3. I am currently signed up for a 5-day trial of brainpop (all related sites are included), and I love it! I have shown movies about "Parts of a Whole," "Converting Decimals to Fractions," "Cesar Chavez," and "Science Fair Projects," and the students have been very engaged.

The science project movie would be helpful for all of our students in grades 3-5 who are required to do a project. It tells about asking questions about the world around us and finding a topic of interest. It also walks students through the scientific process. There is another movie about the scientific proccess that I have not previewed yet. Each movie has accompanying activities, including online journal writing, games, things to talk about, book lists, online graphic organizers, things to draw, etc. I highly recommend checking it out! Try one of the free movies or sign up for your own 5-day trial...If there is enough interest, maybe we could talk about a school subscription... How's that money tree coming along?!