Tiger Champions Week In Review 5 - September 9, 2012
UTE GOAL: Top 15% of Elementary Schools in Kentucky in Reading and Math!!!
If you educate a man you educate a person, but if you educate a woman you educate a family.
Ruby Manikan
Education News:
Ruby Manikan
Education News:
KDE has announced that elementary schools will be required to complete a primary program review as part of their 2012-2013 Next Generation Accountability. Please take time to read and respond to the review that can be found at the link above.
The Brighter Brain Bulletin by Eric Jensen
The Research - Student Effort
Here is what the research tells us about effort: there are many causes, each requiring many different solutions. But let's cut to the chase. Kids who grow up with exposure to chronic and acute stress (without the coping skills) typically have more of a sense of the "world happening to them" (vs. having a strong locus of control). They either display anger (one symptom of a stress disorder) or helplessness (another symptom of a stress disorder) at school. Research suggests stress specifically impairs attentional control (Liston, et al., 2009). Children living in poverty experience significantly greater chronic stress than do their more affluent counterparts (Almeida, Neupert, Banks, & Serido, 2005). This means you'll see kids who look like they're either trying to "get in your face" or trying to "quit on you." We also know low childhood SES (socioeconomic status) correlates with chronic stress exposure and reduced working memory (Evans, et al., 2009).
The relevance is simple; to engage kids who have had serious adversity (financial or other stress issues), you'll need to provide a trusting relationship. Trusting relationships with both teachers and other adults are ranked as a top-ten student achievement factor (JA Hattie, 2009). Show kids how much you care first, before they care about you. Also, you'll want to provide more of a sense of control for the students in school. Reducing anxiety in kids has a strong correlation with student achievement (0.40 effect size contributing to student achievement). Both relationships and sense of control mitigate the effects of stress disorders. If your kids don't fit into this particular description, the next paragraph is for you. In fact, the next seven factors are each a separate jewel.
Practical Applications
You can have very active kids this year. Even at the secondary school level, there are kids who are inert in one class and very engaged in another. As a teacher, you have more to do with how your kids behave than you give yourself credit for. Here are seven more strategies, in addition to developing trusting relationships and allowing students to have a sense of control (see above).
- Show more passion for learning and your content (the student brain's "mirror neurons" may get activated by your passion, and mimic your excitement for learning)
- Use specific buy-in strategies to hook in students (build relevance)
- Make it their idea (inclusion, choice and control)
- Lower the risk (making failures part of the learning process and providing better support for ELL)
- Build the Learner's Mindset ("I can grow!")
- Increase Feedback ("It's the best motivator")
- Stair-step the Effort (Baby steps work)
Your passion will "hook in" more learners than most strategies. Use body language, voice inflection and facial expressions to augment passionate words about the new learning. Additionally, use "buy-in strategies" to build some of the "hooks" that keep students interested. Make it their idea (inclusion, choice and control). Lower the risk (appreciate every hand that goes up and every student's effort, whether the answer is good or not. Say, "Thanks very much, who else?") Build the Learner's Mindset (Tell kids that their brain can change and whatever they did last year, this year can be better). Increase Feedback; it's the single best motivator. Use affirmations, quality content feedback, peer feedback, mini quizzes, partner-developed quizzes, and verbal feedback from you on their strategy, effort or their attitude. Finally use the stair-step strategy. When asking students to do a complex activity, have them do it in small parts that are easier to say "yes" to. Yes, baby steps work if you move fast!
Tigers on a Roll!
Nancy Withrow for getting WTNN, Tiger Nation News going with our fifth graders.
Keri Flannery and Cymilee Napier for sharing their students with me during writing time.
Peggy Young for taking the time to be supportive of her teammates.
Debbie Gee for wearing many hats.
Keri Flannery for having very organized and rigourous centers. See pictures below.
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| Learning Target at Center |
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| Students Using a Tool to Create Complex Sentences and then Write Them |
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| Learning Target for Writing Center |
!Leigh Williams for engaging students in rigorous, hands-on, engaging math activities.
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| 4th Grade Students Playing a Multiplication Array Game |
Lynsey Varney for bravely tackling the CIITS lesson planner!
Instructional Strategies That Work!
This website is a teacher who blogs about instructional strategies. She has many great suggestions and best practice tips of the trade. I particularly like her observations and suggestions for B,D, and A reading strategies.
Before, During, and After Reading Strategies
I also would like to share a great before reading strategy that I used regularly in my classroom. Its a game called "vocabulary buzz". If you would like for me to share it with your class, just let me know when.
Calendar Reminders
~~Turn all PLC agendas and minutes in outside my door weekly. PLC Agenda and Minutes Template
~Lesson plans should be on your desk or emailed to me by Monday morning each week using our plan format from last year unless using CIITS. (If you are already using CIITS for lesson planning, just let me know in an email.
~ Parent Curriculum Night has been postponed until we get the grade level Curriculum Maps to share.
~2nd-5th Don't forget to have your students complete the Fall Automaticity Assessment which should be sent to me in the electronic chart no later than September 10th.
~ Do/Whats should be underway in your classrooms (not K). The goal is to be completing one per week in each content area by the month of October.
~ You should have your website set up and being updated weekly by the third week of this month. We will get started on them at faculty meeting this week. I will begin randomly checking them in October.
September Events
10: PLC 1st, 4th, K, and 3rd
10,11,12 - Grandparents' Day
11: Severe weather drill @ 9:30
11: STAR FORCE Sound Off Introduction - K-2nd 12:30 and 1:15
12: PLC 2nd and 5th
12: Faculty Meeting @ 3:30 - Professional Growth, Classroom Websites, KEA
13: 3rd Rdg. Academy @ 8:30 and 2nd Rdg. Academy @ 12:30
13: FRC Parent volunteer trainings @ 2:00 and 5:00
14: Service Team Meeting - If you have concerns about the attendance, basic, or emotional needs of a students, please let Dianna, Regina, David, Debbie, or myself know before this day.
14: 1:00-2:30 Aides RTI strategies training in the cafeteria (Sarah, Denise, and Debbie)
14: 7:00 PTO family movie night
19: Leadership Team Meeting @ 2:30 and Faculty Meeting @ 3:30.
24: SBDM Meeting @ 3:30
Worthwhile Websites
If you are not familiar with CIITS, you need to take some time to get to know the program. We will be entering lesson plans there beginning next month. We will have a faculty meeting about it with some training before that time.
Our Mission: To assist each student to reach a progressively higher level of academic achievement and social and emotional development through the cooperative endeavors of responsible students, caring parents, dedicated educational staff, and an involved community
I have been showing a passion for my content area of writing. I made a conscious effort to participate in the writing exercises this past week which I believe has encouraged my students to embrace the different ideas presented to them. I have also been giving instant feedback as much as possible. I feel that my students are slowly but surely developing a trust in their environment. I know that I was a different teacher with them in second grade and I'm working each day to show the positive changes I have made in myself. I know that I did not develop trusting relationships with my students in the past and that was something I set out to change last year. This something I will continue to improve on.
ReplyDeleteI believe we will score higher on this review than we did on the Arts and Humanities Program Review. Most of us are more proficient in this field of the curriculum. I believe we have had more exposure, especially in the last two years to more effective instruction. I think we have grown in the past two years in the Student Access as well. I believe we will even grow more in this area when we move to the new school. We now have access to more technology, but with a more room to expand, we can have more children using technology. In the area of Aligned and Rigorous Curriculum, we may not be distinguished, but I feel we are all working as hard as we can to get there. As for Demonstator 4, RTI, I believe that last year we could have scored a Distinuished++++++. I believe we still have a good RTI system in place and will probably score very high in this area.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jackie this should be a much stronger area for us than the previous Arts and Humanities. This K-3 review seems more attainable considering our teachers work extremely hard to give our students everything they need to achieve success.
DeleteI too agree Jackie and Christy, we should score considerably higher on this review than we did on the Arts and Humanities review. Looking over the document I feel confident we are proficient in most areas. One demonstrator, instructional strategies stood out to me as something I need to work toward proficiency - the area of "consistently involving my students in defining and/or writing learning targets . . .". In my haste to post targets (I cans) I sometimes forget I need to allow ownership for my students. For ownership they have to have a buy in - so, involving them in the writing or defining will give that ownership. I will work to improve in that area. I think we have made tremendous progress towards proficiency in all of the demonstrators. RTI stands out - we've come a long way, baby! Thinking about students and stress - we all know how stress can control daily functions. Students who come to school stressed cannot function normally and will react in different ways in the school environment. I have learned so much (as we all have and will continue to do so daily) on the job. First, and one of the most important, in order to get respect you must give it. Respect is the foundation of our relationship with our students. Respect who they are, where they come from, and the battles they are fighting (ADHD, behavior disorders, etc). You do that and they will show you respect. Second, we set the tone for the day. Show your passion and your passions will become their passions. Remember, students really need and want structure and a sense of normal (that's why we establish procedures). It's all about our expectations - you'll get what you give. I love the seven strategies Shawn shared especially "make it their idea" and "lower the risk". Our passion is truly the hook for our students. My passion is reading and I always shared that with my students. Countless students tell me years later they remember me telling them that and think of me even as adults when they pick up a book to read. It doesn't get better than that,
ReplyDeleteAfter looking over the review I believe we can show proficient in a lot of the areas already. We all work collaboratively here, we are working on vertical and horizontal alignments with the new curriculum maps, etc. Passion-I feel UTES faculty has a great passion for teaching and we try to show that passion and pass it along to our students so they will have a passion for learning. We have a large number of students with low SES status and that means we have to be a little more passionate and work a little bit harder to reach those students and make education important to them. Chances are we are the only people in those children's lifes that try to get them to see how important learning is and what a difference it could make in their lifes.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the review, I am not really concerned about it. I feel we are proficient if not distinguished in most areas. I am concerned about the statement that parents have a regular input on their child's intervention and I feel we are not really distinguished. I agree with Clary that we are the only people in many of our students lives that encourage them that education is important. We have to continue learning to be better teachers for them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Michelle,after reading the KDE Program Review, I feel we are proficient/distinguished in most areas. This is going to be a productive year with demonstrators that we can feel at ease with and a year under our belts using RTI at all three levels.
ReplyDeleteI really got some valuable information from the Before During and After Reading Strategies website. After having a small breakdown earlier this week trying to figure out how I was going to fit anything else in the 4o minutes with students each week, I appreciated this website for giving me some easy strategies. I would like to say I work with some of the most amazing professionals in the world! Thank you Lynsey and Christie for picking up this week while I was down and simplifying something I was making very difficult. Sometimes we can’t see the forest for the trees! It was just as simple as B D A!!!
ReplyDeleteThe stress article reminds me of friends with illnesses that stress negatively affect their physical symptoms. I recently had a student stressed over family members that didn't like her family, it had ruined her day worrying about something her parents had said that morning in general conversation. Kids are so sensitive to others emotions, I always try to put on my best face and smile as not to upset them. In life we need to keep the big picture in mind. This weekend at the high school homecoming dance a junior approached my sister in law, Teena Liles, and asked her if she remembered him, she said that she did, and he proceeded to pull out his wallet. He said, "I still have it!" she said, "What?" . He then showed a wore little slip of paper. It was a caught being good slip that he had kept for 4 years!
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the stress article I definitely want to make sure I am not adding anymore stress to my students. Some students have more stress on them than I could imagine and I want to make sure I am positive and helping them in any way I can. Sandra, I loved you post about the student who kept the caught being good slip for years! As for the program review, I agree that we are proficient in most of the areas.
ReplyDelete