Seeking Feedback and Kahoot

Something Different…

I’d like to start an anonymous conversation with 2+ questions

1.     What do you need from me (eg suggestions for improvements, feedback, etc)

2.     What school, district or state policies inhibit student learning and you from doing your job as effectively and efficiently as possible?

3.     Anything else?

Obviously, this is totally anonymous and optional. I’ll keep this survey open for the entire year. You can answer either or all at any point.

Sometimes I’ll use Cougar Communication to explain a policy. Sometimes, I might agree with you (eg “A-B day vs semester block scheduling” but know there’s nothing I can do about it.)

Anyway, I hope it fosters some communication and helps me become a better educator.

Here’s the link http://goo.gl/forms/KAHNoGf5D2

Ideas for the Classroom: Kahoot

Kahoot is a web-based service for creating and sharing student quizzes, surveys or discussion to any web-abled device. Much like Socrative, you create a quiz, survey or discussion for your students. I experimented with Kahoot and found it intuitive and easy to use. It’s easy to add pictures and videos and I like that you can control the pace of the questions. I really like the ability to embed youtube videos, so students can watch a video and then be quizzed on it. It also enables you to embed only a portion of the video, so you can have students watch 2 minutes of the video and then ask a question, watch the next 3 minutes and then ask another question, etc.

Student sign in is easy (either through the app or by going to kahoot.it). Students simply enter a couple of unique digits and their names and they’re ready to go.

Great for:

·      BYOD and technology integration

·      Gamification

·      Formative Assessment

·      Feedback

·      Quizzing

·      Youtube video learning

Administrative Notes

Tomorrow is a flex day and student picture retakes.

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/s0KXRB

Work Order Request Form: http://goo.gl/H7hFwK

What I’m Reading

Throw Out the College Application Process : A New York Times Op-Ed Piece

How Curiosity Enhances The Brain to Enhance Learning : Lots of educational implications in this research-based (it’s short) article

Choral Response and CORBS Feedback

Excellence in Education: Choral Response

I saw choral response used in a different—and great—way this week. Choral response is, of course, when the teacher asks/posts a question and the entire class responds, preferably after wait time is provided or students have had a chance to answer on their own.

The “new” use of choral response that I saw was a quick strategy to get a general idea of what the students knew about the topic. The teacher asked the class a series of questions and had the entire class respond in unison.

What I liked about this simple strategy was it did not single out students, allowed the teacher to gauge what the class knew and established a mindset that it’s OK to be wrong.

Ideas for the Classroom: CORBS Feedback

CORBS is an acronym for how to provide effective feedback (Hawkins and Shohets, 1989)

Clear: Simple, specific and straight as opposed to vague, complex or confusing

Owned: Describe how it made you feel and use language  such as “I found…” or “I felt…” making feedback your own perception and not as an ultimate truth.

Regular: Try to give feedback as early as possible so that the person has time to do something about it

Balanced: Balance the positives with the negatives

Specific: Feedback should be based on observable behaviors and specific situations that can  be modified. General feedback is difficult for the learner to use, so attempt to be specific and give examples.

Administrative Notes

Homecoming was a great week! The spirit displayed by our students—and teachers—was phenomenal, capped off with a great pep rally, football game and homecoming dance.

Each year, the Kettle Run spirit seems to grow. We must never lose sight of the how the culture of our school influences student learning and we thank you for creating such a great climate.

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/s0KXRB

Work Order Request Form: http://goo.gl/H7hFwK

Tonight’s twitter #vachat (8pm) discusses Response to Intervention/Dealing with Struggling Learners. Hope you can join us.

What I’m Reading

10 Design Questions that Will Improve Your Teaching : From Marzano’s Art and Design of Teaching to help plan effective units and lessons.

Differentiated Instruction Visually Explained

Why a Leading Professor of New Media Just Banned Technology Use in Class : An interesting BYOD article from The Washington Post

It's OK (Beneficial Actually) for Students to Struggle and Vocabulary Instruction

Excellence in Education: Causing a Student to Struggle

“Causing a student to struggle,” sounds counter-intuitive to our mission as educators, doesn’t it?

It’s not.

So when I saw a math teacher challenge students to solve a problem without telling them how, I was excited. Research shows that when you’re asked to solve a problem before being shown  how to solve it, the subsequent solution is better learned and more  likely to be remembered.

So whether it’s solving a math problem, or asking students, “How do you think (insert historical figure/event and a scenario?” or having students make corrections to something they haven’t yet learned, you’re actually priming their brain for learning. It’s perfectly acceptable for them   to struggle—learning shouldn’t be easy and learning is actually made more permanent when it is difficult.

For more information see Daniel  Willingham’s Why Students Don’t Like School or Make it Stick by Peter Brown, Henry Roediger, and  Mark  McDaniel. 

Ideas for the Classroom: Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary is a vital part of all learning, so important that it cannot be ignored because the correlation between vocabulary knowledge and learning and comprehension is undeniable.

Effective vocabulary instruction takes time and research shows that having students look up the definitions is perhaps the least effective means to improving student vocabulary. Robert Marzano has developed the following 6-step program to teach vocabulary.

Use direct instruction to provide students with a description, explanation, and an example (and a non-example) of the word. You can also provide a visual.

Have students restate the description, the explanation or an example in their OWN words.

Students should construct their own visual (graphic, picture, symbol, etc.) for the word.

Allow students to use the words in different settings and in different ways (interact with each other by sharing their visualizations, working together on graphic organizers, etc.)

Use periodic games or other high-interest strategies to learn the terms (Bingo, tech games, Pictionary, etc.)

Administrative Notes

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/s0KXRB So far only 2 students have been nominated for positive referrals. Let’s make it a goal for each of us to nominate at least one student by next Wednesday.

Work Order Request Form: http://goo.gl/H7hFwK

We’ll have one more fire drill this week. We’ll have a school-wide lockdown drill on Wednesday. Thanks to all of you who practiced lockdowns on Thursday.

What I’m Reading

Seven Ways to Engage Students In Class : Simple strategies to ensure every student is part of the learning process

Five Research-Based Tips for Providing Feedback : Testing is an effective means of monitoring student progress and providing meaningful feedback 

NY Times: Liking Work Really Matters : A lot of good stuff in this article which includes talk of interest, how to gain interest, and cognitive psychology

Lectures Aren’t Just Boring, They’re Ineffective Too : This is a scientific article, but also includes suggestions for how to enhance learning while not disbanding lectures 

Is a Degree Still Worth It? : Statistics show that a bachelor’s degree is near an all-time high.

Feedback, Fist of Five

Excellence in Education: Feedback

Research (John Hattie) clearly indicates that feedback, whether it be positive reinforcement, areas for improvement, or clarifying goals, is one of the most important things we can do to advance student learning.

Since high quality feedback can be provided in a variety of ways, I’ve been on the lookout for ways to provide effective feedback. Here are some ways that I’ve observed in first couple of weeks:

• Written notes on student work, especially with no grade attached or comments/questions that require students to respond. 
• After students completed an assignment, the teacher grouped students based on the feedback they needed. This created about six different feedback groups and the teacher was able to provide specific feedback to the groups and they were able to work together to solve their problems.
• Self-reflective feedback that required students to evaluate and reflect on their own work.  
• Pluses and minuses was a peer feedback technique that I saw a teacher use. Students simply commented on what was done well (based on a general rubric) and what could be done better. The teacher prompted them with the discussion question: What’s next? as a conclusion to peer feedback.

Ideas for the Classroom: Fist of Five

Any questions?

Does everyone understand?

I’ve finished the lesson, the directions, the lecture, whatever and far too often I asked the above questions. Simply put, these questions are not effective for a variety of reasons.

A better technique: Fist of Five. It’s simple, fast and accurate. Instead of the generic Does everyone understand? ask students to reflect on the goal/objective and how confident they are on a scale of 1-5, with 1 meaning not at all and 5 meaning they possess an expertise.

After giving them some time—and it’s important to give them time to reflect—ask them to put their fists in the air when their ready. When all fists are  in the air, ask them to shoot their  numbers to reveal their votes. I tended to use 4 as an acceptable cutoff.

What I did next depended on the number of ones, twos and threes. Sometimes I would simply ask what they were unsure of, what their concerns were. Other times, I would pair students up. Other  times I’d have an additional learning activity ready to go.

Administrative Notes

Due Dates for Initial Goal:

1.      Comprehensive Cycle: September 5, please remember to give pre-assessment as soon as possible.

2.      Annual Cycle: February 6

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/s0KXRB

Work Order Request Form: http://goo.gl/H7hFwK

What I’m Reading

Rethinking AP Classes

How We Learn Best: Smart Studying Strategies

            Quiz: How Good Are You at Teaching the Art of Learning?

The Typical HS Student Survey: I Learn Best When…

Numbered Heads Together, Random Spinner

Excellence in Education: Numbered Heads Together 

This is an oldie, but goodie from Spencer Kagan, a cooperative learning guru. I had great success using it for anything from unit reviews to the most complex, higher-order questions.

How to:

1. Students are placed in groups of 4. Assign each of the 4 a number (1-4).
2. You, as the teacher, pose a question. Of course, it helps for students to be  able to see the question as well as hear it.
3. Students individually think and write down their answers. Answers can be written on a their desks (using white board markers), individual white boards or on paper.
4. Provide the students with a set amount of time to answer the question individually and provide them with a countdown as time is about to expire.
5. After time is called, the group discusses the answer and works towards a consensus answer.
6. Each member of the group should be able to answer the question for the entire group.
7. Randomly call a number (1-4) and that student reports the answer to the entire class. Again, depending on the type of question, you could use this as a competition between groups by keeping score or by having all of the randomly called numbers write their answer on a small whiteboard. For example, after giving groups time to answer, tell them to erase their answers. Randomly call on a number and have all students who were that number write down the correct answer on their whiteboard. Then have them display their answers to you. It’s also great to ask follow-up questions too.  

Why it works?

1. Each student is accountable, but the team approach eliminates fear
2. It provides opportunities for students to talk and listen, making learning visible
3. Appropriate grouping means stronger students can support struggling students without feeling “slowed” by them

Ideas for the Classroom: Random Name Picker

You know I’m a big fan of cold-calling as a means of questioning and formative assessment. Russel Tarr—he of classtools.net and many other great things—has created a spinning wheel for random name selection.

To create your own wheel, go to http://www.classtools.net/random-name-picker/ -> Edit/Save

After editing the names, click <Save this list as currently shown>

You’ll be prompted to save it using a password so you can have access to it in the future.

It can be embedded into a website and is accessible from ipads and iphones too.

Administrative Notes

I enjoyed our meeting on Friday. The responses to “Why do you teach?” varied greatly yet the underlying theme was always about helping our students. I promised the share with you the questions that I occasionally ask the students when I observe (or sometimes I’ll ask at lunch, on the bus ramp, etc.):

1. Why are you doing this?
2. What will it help you do?
3. How does it fit into what you’ve previously done?
4. How do you know you've met the objective/learned what the teacher wanted you to learn? How do you know you've done good work? What does quality work look like?
5. Did this activity make you think? Did you have an opportunity to be creative for this activity or assignment? Are you being challenged?
6. What do you do in this class if you need help? Are you comfortable asking questions?

 Please complete the professional development choice form by Friday

Let’s make greeting our students at the door and accurate attendance a goal of ours this year.

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/s0KXRB

Work Order Request Form: http://goo.gl/H7hFwK

Tweet of the Week:

What I’m Reading

Teachers, Remember We Are a Work In Progress

World’s Most Famous Teacher Blasts School Reform (other great tidbits in Q-n-A format)

15 Examples of Student-Centered Teaching

Remind, My Goals

Cougar Communication

A special edition of Cougar Communication! I know you’ve been waiting all summer for this.

Ideas for the Classroom

I’ve plugged this seemingly a thousand times, but I’ve got to plug it one more time. Remind—they’ve dropped the 101—is a great tool that enables you to send mass texts/emails to parents and students in your class without them ever seeing your cell phone number. Truthfully, you don’t even need a cell phone to use it. 

Here’s why I love Remind:

• It takes less than 3 minutes to set up an account.
• They’ve added a new feature that enables you to text small groups (at least 3) students or their parents. For example, if 5 students have until tomorrow to take a test, you can select just those 5 to send emails or texts to.
• To send a text takes only as long as it takes you to type your message.
• Totally free!

Administrative Notes

Our admin supervisory meeting on Friday will be in Mr. Wright’s classroom. A couple of things to think about: 1) What is student engagement? 2) What are 3 goals that you are going to set for yourself this year.

Speaking of goals, here’s a link to mine (not my official Standard 7 Goal)

Some Useful Links

Strengthening Student Engagement: What Do Students Want

How Do We Know When Students Are Engaged?

Building a Better Teacher

Check out what this student produced: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-itvkb7kMc