Cougar Communication: Edcamp Reflection, Geddit

 Excellence in Education

As you know, I had the opportunity to participate in another edcamp this weekend. These always energize me for two reasons: 1) I learn new things that I can’t wait to try or implement; 2) I realize how fortunate I am to work with such a phenomenal staff and great students.

Looking back I wanted to let you all know about some of the bragging I did about Kettle Run and you.

• While not absolute, our faculty gets along with each other!
•  Our principal fosters a spirit of collegiality, teamwork and is willing to listen!
•  Our professional development in October followed the edcamp model and it rocked!
• Teachers benefit from a great amount of classroom autonomy!
• Teachers are willing and encouraged to take risks!
• Our parents and students are actively involved in Kettle Run!

Thanks for being awesome and giving me the chance to brag!

Tech Idea of the Month: Geddit

I know our BYOD still lacks something because of the inability for students to routinely get online, but I wanted to share a new BYOD program/app with you.

It’s similar to Socrative, PollEverywhere and Celly, which I’ve shared before.

What it does:

• Gather feedback from students as part of the formative assessment-feedback loop.
• Your questions go to the students’ devices (multiple choice, short answer). Students join classes by entering a class code.
• Answers are displayed in a graph format or listed individually for each student.
• Questions can include pictures.

For more : www.letsgeddit.com

 The idea comes from Richard Byrne’s Free Tech for Teachers http://goo.gl/kPDSR9

Administrative Stuff

Most of you are doing a phenomenal job of using BlackBoard for posting grades. We’ve received lots of positive comments from parents and students. Thanks!

Even with BlackBoard use, we ask that you please contact parents of any student who is receiving a D or F in your class. As you know, it’s extremely important to engage parents in the education of their children.

We’ll be adding a 3^rd faculty meeting option this week to help avoid conflicts. I’m still working out the details.

Tonight’s #vachat topic: What Matters in Education?

Upcoming Kettle Run Events/Schedule   

Tuesday:                    Beware of April Fool’s Day (don’t say I didn’t warn you)

                                    FLEX (meeting for students participating in Career Shadowing)

                                    Faculty Meeting

                                     

Wednesday:               Faculty Meeting

Thursday:                  FLEX

                                   

Cougar Communication: Feedback and Purpose Games

Cougar Communication

Excellence in Education: Feedback

Last Friday, I visited classrooms that I normally don’t visit. Among my last stops were Mr. Yonkey’s and Ms. Deavers’ classrooms. Please understand, that I have absolutely no musical talent, so I’m always amazed by our students’ talent. As an educator, every time I enter these classes, one thing stands out: the feedback provided to the students. While some of us might scoff, “It’s easier in music than (insert name of subject),” I’d like to point out why the feedback provided by Mr. Yonkey and Ms. Deavers is something we should all strive for.

1.     The students knew what was expected of them. It’s hard to provide feedback to students if they don’t know where they’re going. By sharing the goal/objective/target with the students and constantly referring to how the students are progressing towards the goal, feedback becomes more effective. Feedback is most effective when it relates to how the learner is advancing towards meeting the goal.

2.     It’s very specific. Instead of simply praising or criticizing, their feedback is pinpointed. “More air.” “Be sure to come in on…” Feedback is more effective when it provides true information on what the learner is or is not doing.

3.     The feedback is presented in a non-threatening way. As experts, it’s often easy for us provide too much feedback or to overpower the students with our feedback. Instead, of simply directing the students to do it this way, the .

4.     Feedback led to improvement. The whole purpose of feedback is for students to improve and become more aware of their learning. Because Mr. Yonkey and Ms. Deavers provided quality feedback, students were able to monitor their own progress and improve. Even my tone-deaf ears noticed the improvement, so I’m sure the students felt satisfaction and pride in their improvement efforts.

Ideas for the Classroom: Purpose Games

http://www.purposegames.com

I don’t know why I haven’t shared this one before, but it’s a great site.

Purpose games is totally free to create and play. You can create either multiple choice games or use images. The latter gives you so many options: maps, identifications, parts of something, etc. Of course, many games have already been created and are public but creating your own games is easy.

Two options I really like:

1.     You can make your games public or private (only those you invite are allowed to play, but you can also create a group for your class)

2.     The Challenge option where students can challenge other students (they have to create their own accounts).

Check it out; I think you'll like it. 

Administrative Notes

Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/cZIXm7

**First term, I asked for each of you to invite me to observe a lesson that stood out for its creativity and student-centeredness. Thank you to those of you who invited me to observe some wonderful lessons. If you haven’t yet extended an invitation, please don’t forget to do so.** 

Monday’s #vachat: Motivating All Students. I chose this topic because at our December faculty meeting, many of you asked for strategies to help motivate students. It will also be part of our March faculty meeting. Join us at 8. Use www.tweetchat.com/room/vachat  to load the live stream and to participate.

Don’t forget to sign up for one of 3 “local” edcamps.

March 29: Edcamp Arlington http://edcamp.wikispaces.com/Edcamp+Arlington

April 5: Edcamp Metro DC (Bethesda/Rockville) http://edcampmetrodc.org/ (just realized I’m in the picture)

May 17: Edcamp RVA (Richmond) https://edcamp.wikispaces.com/edcamp+RVA

I’m trying to share with the public (via twitter and our school webpage) all the great things that are happening here at KR. Please shoot me an email or stop me in the hall when you have something cool, special, awesome, etc. going on in your classroom. My goal is to get at least 2 a day.

Tweet of the Week

What I’m Reading

Control: Snap Out of It : Encouraging student learning

Bigger Gains for Students Who Don’t Get Help Solving Problems  

Why Most PD for Teachers Is Useless

Cougar Communication: Students Finishing Work and Improved Remind101

Excellence in Education

I’m going to try something new and I hope you’re willing to participate by visiting the blog site and leaving your suggestions by commenting.

At our December faculty meeting each of you asked a question, I’m going to do my best to come up with an answer. Often my “answers” will be stolen from you—strategies that I’ve learned by observing the best teachers in the nation.

When students are assigned work, they often finish at different times. This is especially troublesome at the end of class because the finished students can become distracted.

Students are strategically grouped in groups of 4 with a high, 2 middle, and low student. Students are not permitted to turn their completed work until everyone in the group is done. Students will need to learn and practice how to help and teach instead of simply giving their partners the answers. If there’s still time left in class when everyone is finished, students should practice and quiz other members of their group. Some students will need more structure (make flashcards, for example) while others will do splendidly with little guidance.

Credit for this idea goes to Natasha Marple and Mr. Whitt, who I student taught with. 

Ideas for the Classroom: New Improved Remind101

By now you know I’m a huge fan of Remind101. Well, they’ve added a new feature called Send to a Few. Using this new feature you can send a text to a select subgroup of students (minimum of 3). It still provides all the protections of Remind101 (not sharing your number with students) but allows you to target your message to specific students.

Some examples of how this could be used:

1.     Remind students who are presenting tomorrow of their presentation. Don’t forget to have your presentation ready to go tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

2.     Alert select students to an upcoming deadline. Tomorrow’s the deadline to turn in your essay, please be sure to bring it tomorrow.

3.     As coaches, you can send a message to your captains or select position players. Pitchers, be prepared to stay after practice tomorrow.

4.     Remind students who haven’t turned in permission slips of an upcoming deadline. Don’t forget that all permission slips for our field trip to Richmond are due Wednesday

Here’s a video explaining the new feature http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbCXvBaLDns

Administrative Notes

You’ve experienced our great edcamps. Wouldn’t you like to share that experience with teachers from other schools? Why not go to an upcoming edcamp?

            March 29: EdCamp Arlington (Washington-Lee HS)

            April 5: EdCamp MetroDC (Stone Ridge School, Bethesda)

I’ve signed up for both. Let me know if you’re interested in going/carpooling. I’ll see if we can get PD/Opt-Out credit as well.

Oh yeah, the organizers of these events often drum up lots of great sponsors with free gifts and prizes!    

Tonight’s #vachat topic is Teacher Leadership. Join us at 8. Use www.tweetchat.com to easily follow and participate.

Stat of the Week

According to famed educational researcher John Hattie, friendships are perhaps the most critical element in a student’s attachment to the school community.

Not surprising, but something we should never lose sight of.

What I’m Reading

Oldie but goodie. Kid President: 20 Things We Should Say More Often

Learning to Think Outside the Box: Creativity Becomes an Academic Discipline

A Chart on Summative vs Formative Assessment

Going Beyond Standards

Excellence in Education: Going Beyond the Standards

As a teacher, I struggled trying to balance SOL standards with bringing history alive, instilling creativity, developing higher-order thinking skills, and building 21^st-century skills.

Recently, I’ve seen several teachers—and more importantly, students—go beyond the standards.

• Ms. Campbell’s students doing book projects. 
• Mr. Kuzma’s students creating mini-projects and posters that required creativity and personal touches
• Mr. Batt and Ms. Harper’s students allowing students to run with their own ideas.
• Of course, this is only a partial list but I wanted to focus on teachers who have End of Course Tests.

What do all these activities have in common?

• Teachers recognizing that standards are just a framework and are not limiting their teaching to standards-only
• Creativity
• Questions being asked that don’t have right-wrong answers
• Student enthusiasm
• Passion and pride

In addition to applauding your efforts, I want to encourage you to take risks. Step out of your comfort zones. Try something new. Diverge from the pacing guide. Challenge yourself and your students. Try a new lesson, one where the outcome is not always known.

We owe it to our students to encourage risk-taking behavior.

Please know that I have complete confidence in you. In this era of standards and accountability, risk-taking can be daunting, but I’ll come back to a simple question, “Why did you become a teacher?”

I’m willing to bet that none of you answer, “So my students can pass a multiple choice test?”

So as you enter the second term, take a risk. Step out of your comfort zone. Bring your subject alive. Create lessons that embody your spirit, your passion and show why you became a teacher.

As we go forward, lets make it a goal/expectation that each of us tries one brand new lesson this term. Please invite me into your classroom when you try this new lesson.  I look forward to seeing your passion come alive.

Administrative Notes

As we near the end of October and the first term, please take a couple of minutes to submit a positive referral http://goo.gl/cZIXm7 . Possibilities: biggest improvement from marking period 1 to 2, student who brought the most to your class, student who got the most of your class, etc.

We have a leadership meeting this afternoon. If you have any questions or concerns, please share them with your department chair.

Interested in attending an edcamp? Some upcoming edcamps near us:

• Nov 2: Harrisburg, PA
• Nov 9: Baltimore
• Nov 16: Hagerstown
• Nov 23: New Jersey 

I’ll probably be going to the Baltimore edcamp if anyone is interested in carpooling (know a great place for crab cakes on the way home)

Stat/Tweet/Article of the Week

From the Harvard Business Review, After a Failure, Shame is Harmful, Guilt is Productive http://goo.gl/XtuYYV