Monday Memo - Week of April 30

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*A 3rd grade class added writing into their math lesson by simply turning over their worksheet on geometric shapes/solids to design a construction using those solids and writing to describe it (using the correct terms).  What a great way to add writing into the day!
*Our volunteers were very appreciative of the thank you cards and recognition they received on Friday.  They spent much of the time talking about how wonderful our teachers are here at Dodgeland. One volunteer shared that all of her grandchildren attend other schools, but since all 4 of her students graduated from Dodgeland she wants to give back to our wonderful school!
*I know I already said this in our meeting last week, but I was overjoyed to see that we have many great things happening in our building that we saw during our Spotlight School visit. We have awesome things happening at Dodgeland!

Events This Week:
Monday-Early Dismissal with Professional Development starting at 12:45 in the Multi-Purpose Room. Please bring your Common Core binders.
Tuesday-I will be in Madison for the DPI Committee working on the teacher evaluation rubric
Wednesday-all district staff meeting on mandatory reporting
Thursday-Fundraiser Pick-Up after school (until 5:00).  If you're available to stay and help at all please come and join us in the commons.
Friday-Grandparents Day at 1:15 Please dress professional since we will have so many grandparents and special guests this day.
Next week is already Mid-Quarter---please send home progress reports and speak with any parents of students that are declining in grades.

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*Some of you have already started asking about end of year Benchmark Assessments.  When you assess at the end of the year, make sure you test to find out what level each student is at...even if it is passed the grade level goal. In previous years we have stopped at the goal, but then never knew where they actually were. We want to find out what independent reading level every student is at.
*If you haven't already done so, please take the tech survey that Brad emailed out last week. This is to help us plan PD sessions for next year.
*It's that time of year again...when kids start getting excited for the end of the year and (it's no secret) that we do too.  Keep in mind that the more you stray from the normal routine, then the more your students will (which will result in driving you crazy!).  Here's a great post I recently read on keeping focus at the end of the year. 

Neat Ideas I Found on Pinterest Last Week:

Friday Focus - 4/27/12

"The best thing about being a teacher is it matters. 

The hardest thing about being a teacher is it matters every day."

~Todd Whitaker

While visiting classrooms and interacting with students the past couple weeks I've really been noticing how engaged some of our previously disengaged students are becoming. (This hasn't just started happening, I've just really started to pay attention better).  I'm sure that you can all instantly name a student in your class that just doesn't seem interested in school, doesn't put forth effort, doesn't have a home that is supportive of education, etc.  Being in my role and in my 4th year, I can probably name all of the same students you have; however, I am in the unique position that I've been able to see them in classrooms making gains over the past 4 years.  I'm sure that our specials teachers (who also see all of our students in their classrooms each year) can also chime in here.  Without being descriptive to identify individual students, here are the kinds of specific changes I am seeing in students that I have previously seen as being disengaged in learning:

• A student eagerly raising his hand many times to answer questions (I mean the dancing kind of eager hand).
• A student that has been tardy almost every day, getting to school early and running into the building with a big smile at the start of the day.
• A child that was basically a non reader for many years now has to be told to stop reading and eat something for lunch each day. 
• A child that has spent several years being unkind to others, shares during a Daily 5 check-in that she realizes that she distracted other students when she had to go get a new pen and broke their stamina. 
• A child that has previously had difficulty sitting appropriately during assemblies is the role model for behavior in the 3rd quarter assembly.
• A 5th grader asking many questions about what college is like while on the 5th grade UW Madison college visit.

These kinds of changes in students don't just happen over night, especially if a child is coming from a home environment that does not value or support education and hard work.  These are the kinds of changes in students that occur from being surrounded by adults at school that care about them, have high expectations, and believe in their potential.  You have difficult jobs each and every day and I am amazed at your brainstorming, research, and collaboration that you go through to find new strategies to reach your students.  I've told you before that I am where I am today, because of the great teachers that I had along the way.  So, if our students don't realize it today to tell you how much of an impact you are making on them, please hear me tell you now that you are making an incredible impact on our students!

Monday Memo - Week of April 23

Great Things I Noticed Last Week:
*A 5th grade class discussion during Daily 5 Check-In on how important it is to keep their focus to finish the year strong (because their stamina was not as long as it had been previously and they knew they could do better).
*After learning about friction and gravity in science, 4th graders made different roller coasters for marbles to put their knowledge to practical use.
*3rd Graders put their knowledge about circuits to use in hands-on activities to get batteries to light bulbs (it is so fun to see their faces light up as they figure out how to get the light bulbs to light!)
*When a student was very disappointed to find out that her mother wouldn't be coming to the Pride assembly, several of our staff members stepped in to make it a special event for her and let her know how proud they were of her.

Events this Week:
Tuesday -2nd grade field trip
     - I will be out of the building with several teachers to visit the Title I Spotlight school in OshKosh.
Wednesday - Elementary Professional Learning Meeting after school in the Media Center.  We will be talking about our math curriculum and planning for next year.
Thursday - 4K Screening 9:30-4:30 in Mrs. Hiles/Mrs. McLeod's room and a D.O.Conference room
   -5th grade field trip to UW Madison for a college tour (I will be joining the 5th graders for this trip)
Friday -4K Screening 8:00-3:00 (same place as Thursday)
  Volunteers Recognition Tea at 9:00 in the commons. Please have thank you cards for your classroom volunteers.  I'm still hoping to find a class or group of students that would like to read a poem or something for an entertaining thank you.


Future events to mark on your calendars:

*FFA Petting Zoo for classes to rotate through outside on Thursday, May 3rd (I know this means 4th grade will miss it, but this is the day that they can organize all the animals to come).
*Olympic Day on Wednesday, May 9th in the afternoon. This will be planned by the HS Student Council again
*Tuesday May 15th will be the day for our students that sold over 25 items to ride in the Hummer Limo (more info to come) and for a Family Fun Night that evening 5:00-7:00. We will need 9 volunteers to help run the inflatable events at that party. Please let me know if you're interested so I can start a schedule.


"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*Please have your students make cards for your classroom volunteers for Friday. You can either bring them to the office before hand or send a student down during the Recognition Tea. Let me know if you have any students that would like to read a poem or something to add some student entertainment.
*Recently a few people have asked about how to find grant opportunities.  One of the blogs I follow in my google reader posted a list of current grant opportunities here.  Let me know if you're interested in one and I can help you thought the process.

Neat Ideas I discovered on Pinterest this week:
(click on the image to go to the page that explains it)



Class Data Wall:

Fun end of year activity

Friday Focus - 4/18/12 My "Coaching Hat"

In a previous Friday Focus posts I have shared with you my goal to get in classrooms and provide feedback and questions encouraging you to reflect.  I also shared with you in this post that I want to act more like an Instructional Coach than a supervisor to help improve instruction and learning.  Throughout this year, I have networked with other administrators (both on twitter and in "real life") and had conversations around evaluations and coaching.  In addition, I recently joined DPI's Teacher Design Team-the committee that is developing the teacher rubric to evaluate teacher practice.  Throughout these formal and informal conversations, I have struggled with trying to figure out how I can formally evaluate teachers, yet be seen as someone to give non-evaluatory feedback in a coaching manner to help your reflective process in the classroom.  I have read books on instructional coaching and read books geared towards principals, though none that combine the two roles for an administrator.  I'm sure by now, you're probably wondering why I am sharing my own personal reflection with you?

Because I recognize that when I come in your classroom and send you an email or talk to you afterwards, that it may make you feel nervous or worried...which is NOT my intent! As I reflect, I realize, I have probably never clearly explained (or maybe I never clearly understood myself) what my intent is as I come in classrooms and give feedback.  When I am come into classrooms for informal walkthroughs I am coming in with a "coaching hat" on, so to speak.  Quite honestly, I feel like I'm doing the same when I come in for the formal observations (for the evaluation process) and meet with you afterwards to discuss how the lesson went.  I may pose a question to you that stretches your thinking that is not meant to be intrusive or evaluatory, but is a question to have you reflect on why you do what you do.  When you are reflective and consciously aware of why you do what you do, you will continue to utilize effective strategies for students in your classroom.  I can share with you from my own experience that when I had a guest administrator with me a while back, she asked me many questions for her learning, but as I explained my answers to her, I realized how much it made me reflect on why I do those things she asked about.  So, my key message to you is that unless I specifically say, "I have a concern..." then you have nothing to be concerned about, I am just in there wearing my "coaching hat."

In the future, I would love for us as a staff to begin collaborating even more for our learning and student learning as a result.  We have had several staff members be recorded and reflected while watching their own lesson.  Several staff members have observed each other to gain new ideas and we have even had teachers from other districts visit us.  I have recently begun to read about other schools taking this even one step further and putting in the practice of "Instructional Rounds" in which teachers go together in groups to observe and have follow-up discussions.  Here are some of the posts I've read on this topic:
Teachers Observing Teachers: Instructional Rounds
Walking the Learning Walk
Engaging Teachers in Instructional Rounds
Don't worry, this isn't something we're starting tomorrow ;)  However, if you are interested in taking some walks through classrooms, just let me know and I'd be happy to cover your class for you!

For your reflection this week...how do you engage in conversations with others to reflect on instructional practices and student learning?  What are your thoughts on if I've had an impact on your reflection process as a result of walkthoughs (this question you can actually hold on to, because in a few weeks I'll be asking for your anonymous feedback on a survey to help me reflect).

Image by Kathy Cassidy

Monday Memo - Week of April 16

Image from Follow My Bliss

 Great things I noticed last week:
 *I heard a class get excited when they got an extra read-to-self time.
*A parent came in to share with me that 3 of our students stood up for a boy being bullied on the bus.
*On a classroom chart asking "How does reading make you a better writer?" Some of the incredible  student responses included:
 -If you read a book you like you can make a book similar to it, but don't copy it.
-You can make connections when reading and write about them.
-We read books to learn more words so we can write with more descriptive and interesting words.
-When you read a book and find a good lead you like, you can use it to start your own.
 
Events this Week:
Monday - Probationary teachers meeting at 3:05 in the Media Center
Tuesday-Tech Tuesday in Christina's room...she will share a couple of tips with you on saving your SMART files (good to know with the end of the year approaching so fast) and will also share with you about kid blogs (we already have a few classes that are utilizing kid blogs and seeing some awesome things happening!) If you have any tech ideas to share, please bring them.
Wednesday - K-3rd grade teachers meeting about SAGE at 3:05
Thursday - Tornado Drill beginning at 1:00 (an email will be sent with further details)
Friday - Staff Social Lunch
    3rd Quarter Dodgeland Pride Assembly at 2:00

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*The Volunteer appreciation tea date has been changed to April 27. Please email me names of your volunteers by this Wednesday so they can be sent invitations. There will be a sign up to bring snacks/treats for the tea in the lounge.
*Last Friday I shared with you my reflection on the book Mindset.  In this blog post, a teacher shares with you how she taught her students about the difference between a fixed and growth mindset. It is very interesting to see how her students reflected on this.
*Reading for pleasure makes your brain grow--a teacher's blog post of a scientific brain research study to share with your students.

*Just sharing a video clip from www.teachingchannel.org that highlights how the Morning Meeting can be used not only for building classroom culture, but also to integrate difficult vocabulary and other academic skills:

Friday Focus - 4/13/12

Previously, I shared with you that I planned to read the book Mindset by Carol Dweck over break, because I had heard about it on Twitter and read another educator's blog post about it.  The premise of the book is that there are two different mind states from which we operate:

• Fixed Mindset - you believe your intelligence, skills and abilities are carved in stone, or static.
• Growth Mindset - you believe that you can cultivate your basic qualities through your efforts.

Dweck draws upon studies and examples of students, business leaders, athletes, and her own teaching and personal life as she discusses how these differing mindsets can affect how we approach anything in life.  I found this book to be extremely interesting to me for myself as a leaner, as a teacher, as a principal, as a parent, and even as a wife.

As an educator, the student that stood out in my mind the most as I read this is that student that has so much potential, but just doesn't put forth the effort.  Maybe he/she is even highly gifted and has excelled so easily in previous grades or units, but now that the academics are getting more difficult, he's not used to having to study or work at it and doesn't.   I'm sure that you can all identify a student like this in your classroom.  A great graphic I found that highlights each mindset is below (click on this link if you need a larger view):

Image by Nigel Holmes

So, what can you do (besides pull your hair out) to help these students?  One of the biggest tools we have to help these students is our feedback/praise.  In one of Dweck's studies with hundreds of students, they started out with groups that were equal in IQ scores, but then were given different types of feedback/praise.  In one group students were given feedback that praised their ability (ex: "Wow, you got eight right. That's really good, you must be smart at this.") while the other group was given feedback/praise on their effort (ex: "Wow, you got eight right, that's a really good score. You must have worked really hard.").  After praise on ability was given, they could begin to see students differ in each group.  The students in the praise group were pushed into a fixed mindset.  When given a choice, they rejected a challenging new task that they could learn from and instead picked an easy problem that they already knew how to do.  They didn't want to do anything that would expose their inability to answer a question.  In contrast, the students in the other group that were praised for their effort, 90 percent of them wanted the challenging new task that they could learn from. When the problems became difficult, they enjoyed them and showed better performance.  The effort praised kids showed better and better performance as the ability praised kids plummeted. 

What does this mean for us?  Kids are very intuitive to what they're being judged on and it can affect their mindset.  The very tool you have to help students be successful is in your choice of words as you provide them with feedback to empower them.  If you praise students for being smart or talented, in the long-run, you will be leading them into a fixed mindset.  If you give praise on their effort and hard work, you will be fostering in them the belief that they can continue to work hard to learn and achieve.

It is also important to think about yourself...do you have a fixed or growth mindset of yourself?  What messages are you telling yourself when you find something that you don't know how to do, or you try and fail at something?  Do you believe that you can keep working at it to learn it or do you give up?  Do you ask others for help when you're not sure or are you afraid that they will think you're stupid?

I could seriously talk about what I've learned in this book forever, but I know you only have a few minutes to read this.  For your reflection this week, please think about what your mindset is and on what type of feedback you give your students.

Monday Memo - Week of April 9

Welcome back! I hope you all enjoyed a restful break and enjoyed time with family...I know I did!  One of my personal goals I shared with you before break was to learn more about the Common Core State Standards.  I did go to a workshop and wrote a blog post about it here in case you're interested. 

Great things I noticed the week before spring break:

*One class celebrating because all students met their rocket math goal for the month 

*During Daily 5 check-in students shared their goal and how they did on it 

*A literacy mini lesson on using a table of contents and then all students applied what they were learning about using a table of contents to a non fiction book they chose to read before the lesson

*After an ongoing author study in 5K many students were writing their own stories with the same characters during their work on writing time 

*5th graders learned about technical colleges with a visit from Moraine Park.

*When 5k students were called back to the carpet and asked why, one of them said it was because they were "interacting with each other"....I just love hearing the vocabulary even our youngest students are using!

Events this Week:
Tuesday- Grades due! I will be printing report cards at  7:00 AM. Please make sure to give Sarah your On a Roll and Honor Roll names so she can make certificates.  The parent invitations are in the mail room for you to send home with report cards.

Wednesday-Student Fundraiser Packets due
I will be gone all day for the DPI Teacher Design Committee (this is the work group developing the rubric to evaluate teacher practice).
Thursday- Report cards go home (w/ Assembly invitations)

"Nuts & Bolts" Notes
*For Tuesday Newsday we'll be sending parent letters home that give them the opportunity to share their input on class placement for next year. This is the same letter that we've used for the past few years and can be found here. When these return you can either hold on to them until your grade level works on class placements or put them in my mailbox and I'll hold on to them for those meetings.

*I am planning a Volunteer Recognition Tea again this year for Friday, May 4 at 9:00 in the Commons. Please email me the names of any parents/community members (not MS/HS students) that have volunteered in your room this year. We will again be having students in your class make/sign thank you cards that will be delivered to the Volunteers on this day. Closer to the date, I will be seeking help in bringing treats for the tea. Let me know if you have other great ideas to honor our
volunteers.

*We have been invited to participate in a week long Summer Institutes being offered July 30-August 3 (in Appleton) through the Wisconsin Statewide Mathematics initiative (WSMI).  The purpose of the institute is to provide K-12 mathematics professional development that is based on the Common Core State Standards of Mathematics.  Each invited district is encouraged to send a TEAM OF FOUR teachers, one per grade band (K-2, 3-6, 6-8 and 9-12).  Additionally, an administrator is required to attend as a member of the team.  Please let me know if you would be interested and willing to attend (or if you have any questions about it before deciding).
 

*Starting next week the announcements will include "Where in the U.S. is Troy the Trojan?" Troy the Trojan will be "traveling" to a mystery state each week.  Each day will have a clue for his location and we will announce his state on Friday.  This will just be for a few minutes of fun US trivia to see if your students can figure it out.  Let me know if you have any state/clue ideas, because I only have next week's figured out!


*Here's a neat teacher website that shows math charts that I found on Pinterest.

*The video below is an oldie, but a goodie! Remember, you have the ability to make an incredible impact on each and every student you come in contact with on a daily basis. What you say and do has such a huge impact on your students. You may never know how much you inspire your students, but please know that you do! Please take a moment to watch this video below & revisit it when needed. What we have is a gift.