End of Year Ideas

Ideas for the Classroom: End of Year Ideas

With SOL tests wrapping up and AP tests in the rear-view mirror, this often becomes my favorite time of year as I see students imagining, creating, collaborating and exploring in their classes. With the restraints of standardization lifted, I love seeing lessons that remind us of why we entered education (it ain’t so students can do well on a multiple choice test).   

Some of the great things I’ve seen in the past two years (some of these I’ve  mentioned in previous Cougar Communications):

·      Create a class book. Each student/pair of students creates a chapter reviewing material from the year. These books could easily be used for next year’s SOL review sessions.

·      Make use of flip cameras and BYOD and have students create skits, chapter/unit reviews, commercials, movie trailers, news clips, etc.

·      Make use of Skype—host an expert, collaborate with another class from around the world, compete versus a class from FHS or LHS.

·      Cumulative assignments. As a history teacher, I tried to take a thematic approach to my teaching (some themes: role of geography, power, economic haves-have nots, etc.), so at the end of each year, students were assigned a theme and created a project highlighting examples of the theme from throughout the year.

·      Socratic seminars, talk shows or other discussions. Have students research a topic (individually or in groups), research it and then let them have at it. Furthermore you can assign students a side or perspective to research. If you’re hosting a talk show the producer and show host must become experts on both sides.

·      Give the students a FedEx Day. Essentially, a FedEx Day is where you allow the students to take an idea of their own and run with it. For more http://goo.gl/zWUCq (a positive to having the SOLs so early, there’s still plenty of time for almost everything)

I know the natural tendency is for us to lighten up after the SOLs, but we can do so much more than pop a movie into the DVD player. Why not stretch our students’ creativity, have them apply all what they’ve learned, and allow them to inspire us?

If you’re doing something special in your class, please remember to invite me. Thanks!

Administrative Notes

Thanks to everyone who has already submitted a positive referral. If you haven’t submitted one for this go-around, please do so. Positive Referral Link: http://goo.gl/cZIXm7

Sunday: Senior Scholarship Banquet, 3pm

Monday: Flip, History 2^nd/4^th SOLs (different lunch schedule), Senior Picnic

Tuesday: Flex, History Make-ups

Wednesday: Science 1^st/3^rd, different lunch schedule

                      Chorus and orchestra concert         

Thursday: Flip, Science 2^nd/4^th, different lunch schedule

Friday: Science Make-ups

Quote of the Week:

Self-discipline means doing what you SHOULD do rather than what you WANT to do.

What I’m Reading

Becoming Invisible in My Classroom 

Many Teachers Face Uncertain Retirements   

An interesting graph on college majors

Scaffolded Instruction and Paired Verbal Fluency

Excellence in Education: Scaffolding Instruction

Scaffolding instruction, coupled with formative assessment, is a powerful instructional strategy. Scaffolding refers to breaking up the learning into chunks and providing the appropriate supports for each step. This past week I saw several teachers using scaffolding in different ways.

• Mr, Kuzma showed students a completed student project before they began working on it. By presenting a model, he could more effectively guide students through the various steps of the process.
• I saw several teachers use think alouds as they read text or contemplated their own posed questions.
• Mr. Konoza pre-teaching vocabulary. By frontloading the vocabulary (as opposed to sending the students into a reading or class without the necessary knowledge) with additional support (examples, analogies, antonyms, synonyms, etc) students were ready to continue in class.
• Ms. Miller’s use of a graphic organizer to teach US History to her self-contained class. By providing the students with the graphic organizer as a starting point, her students were able slowly progress from simple to more difficult.

Each of the examples reduced student confusion, clarified purpose, enabled students to stay on task, and creating student momentum by inspiring learners to want to learn more.

Ideas for the Classroom: Paired Verbal Fluency

1. Students partner up.
2. Students decide who will be A who will be B.
3. Teacher provides a topic for discussion. This could be a review, something they hold an opinion of, etc.
4. A is to talk about the topic for 60 seconds. (You can allow/outlaw use of resources).
5. B is then to talk about the topic for 60 seconds but he/she can NOT repeat what Student A said.
6. Then give the students some time to reflect on their conversation.
7. Student B is then given 30 seconds to add anything left untouched in the conversation.
8. A is then given the final 30 seconds.

This is a great way to maintain high expectations and to formatively assess students. The one-on-one nature is non-threatening and provides students with meaningful feedback.

Administrative Notes

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

We’ll be looking at how we can best extend flex into May. More to come…

We had our leadership team meeting last Thursday, your department chairs will soon be sharing the information from this meeting.

May 30 will be the Senior-Faculty Basketball game. Each class period will meet (just shortened). Again more info will be coming.

Wednesday morning will be our top decile breakfast. Congratulations to these hard-working students who have earned this honor.

With all of the rain forecasted for this week, I’m not even going to post this week’s sports schedule.

Quote of the Week

The process of learning is much more important for our kids to see than the product of our learning.

~George Couros

What I’m Reading

How Anxious Are Kids About Standardized Tests

Ten Thoughts on Grading and Assessment  

Feedback through Reflection Sheets, QuickKey

Excellence in Education

Susan Brookhart, an educator and researcher who focuses on feedback, urges us to involve students into the feedback process. One suggestion she has is to provide students with reflection sheets. The reflection sheets, whether they be a log, a graph, or something else completed by the student, should require the students to reflect on their daily learning success.

By monitoring their own progress, students took more responsibility for their learning and were able to accurately predict their own performance on larger tests. By involving the students in a metacognitive manner, students took greater ownership of their learning and enjoyed the learning process more!

Tech in Education: QuickKey

The founder of QuickKey has reached out to me several times on Twitter and this past weekend, a teacher mentioned it at this past weekend’s edcamp.

Right now it’s only an IOS app, but it’s coming soon for Android and Windows mobile devices.

What’s it do?

1. It turns your phone into a optical scanner to grade quizzes, tests, surveys, etc. up to 30 questions long.
2. It then gives you a data breakdown and the data can be uploaded (I don’t know how well it works with BlackBoard’s gradebook).

How’s it work?

1. Download the app.
2. Download the answer sheet and copy it. No more having to pay for Scantron sheets!
3. Enter the answers into your phone and scan each student’s answer using your phone.

Advantages?

1. Cheap! Actually it’s free. The only cost is the paper we print our answer sheets on.
2. While not as fast as the Scantron machine, it doesn’t break, there are no lines, you can do it at home.
3. It’s great for quick formative assessments and quizzes.

Administrative Stuff

Thank you to all of you who attended prom. It was—by far—the best attended prom by both students AND staff. While your attending helps with supervision, more importantly, the students appreciate seeing you.

We’d really like to say thank you for your participation in last week’s professional development and faculty meetings. It was among our best! As we go forward, please remember that you are the biggest variable in making Kettle Run better.

We’re trying to be more proactive and supportive of your efforts to educate all of our students. We’ve had some great success with some early strategies! Thanks for collaborating and communicating with us and let us know what we can do to support your teaching.

Please be sure to contact any families of students with D’s and Fs’ through a phone call or a personalized email.

Tonight’s #vachat tackles one of the most heated/passionate topics in education: homework. Join us tonight at 8.

Upcoming Kettle Run Events/Schedule

April 7:

Boys Lacrosse vs. Brentsville Home 6/7:30

Girls Lacrosse @ Brentsville 6/7:30

Boys Tennis @ Spotsylvania 4:30

Girls Tennis vs. Spotsylvania Home 4:30

April 8:

FLEX

Girls Soccer @ Fauquier 5:30/7:00

Boys Soccer vs. Fauquier Home 5:30/7:00

Varsity Softball vs. Fauquier Home 6

Varsity Baseball vs. Fauquier Home 6

JV Baseball @ Fauquier 6

April 9:

Varsity Softball vs. Freedom Home 6

Track @ Kettle Run Home

April 10:

FLEX

Career Shadowing Day

CTE Interviews

Girls Lacrosse @ Eastern View 6/7:30

Lacrosse vs. Eastern View Home 5:30/7:00

Girls Soccer @ Spotsylvania 6/7:30

Boys Tennis vs. James Monroe Home 4:30

Girls Tennis @ James Monroe

April 11:

Varsity Baseball @ Culpeper 4:30

JV Baseball vs. Culpeper 6

Varsity Softball @ Culpeper 4:30

Boys Soccer @ Culpeper 6/7:30

Girls Soccer vs/ Culpeper 5:30/7:00.

What I’m Reading

7 Things to Remember About Feedback

What Americans Like About Their Favorite Teachers

Virginia’s New State Superintendent of Instruction : (the Twitter world spoke really highly of his appointment and this article makes him look pretty promising)

Quote of the Week

Feedback to any pupil should be about the particular qualities of his or her work, with advice on what he or she can do to improve, and should avoid comparisons with other pupils.

~Dylan Wiliam

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

                                   

Feedback

Ideas for the Classroom: Feedback

I came across the following when reading John Hattie’s Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn.

• 1.     It is important to focus on how feedback is received rather than how it is given
• 2.     Feedback becomes powerful when it renders criteria for success in achieving learning goals transparent to the learner
• 3.     Feedback becomes powerful when it cues a learner’s attention onto the task, and effective task-related strategies but away from self-focus
• 4.     Feedback need to engage learners at, or just above, their current level of functioning.
• 5.     Feedback should challenge the learner to invest effort in setting challenging goals
• 6.     The learning environment must be open to errors and to disconfirmation
• 7.     Peer feedback provides a valuable platform for elaborative discourse. Given opportunities, students readily learn appropriate methods and rules by which respectful peer feedback can be harnessed
• 8.     Feedback cues teachers to deficiencies within their instructional management and can lead to efforts to improve teaching practices 

Excellence in Education: Peer Feedback

Based on the above (especially 7), I wanted to share some of the strategies I’ve seen various teachers use at ensuring effective peer feedback.

I know I’ve talked about peer grading before, so this time I wanted to focus on writing, which, of course, is a higher level and more complex process. Because of this, it’s important to provide more instruction, direction and guidance about the peer editing process.

•  Provide students with a template

a.    My favorite part was…

b.    An area of improvement…

c.     What should they be looking for (narrow the focus)

d.    Was my feedback specific?

• Class discussion boards and blogs

• High-fives. This was one of my favorites, when students worked in groups they literally were giving each other high-fives when someone did something awesome or when the group did
• Use of sticky notes instead of ink
• Have the original author reflect on how he/she used the peer editing process to improve his/her original work  
• Model and provide feedback to the peer editing process
• It’s often helpful to partner students up with someone they’re comfortable with

Administrative Notes

Thanks to all of those who have submitted positive referrals. I’ll be baking brownies midweek, so if you have a deserving student, here’s the link: http://goo.gl/cZIXm7

Edcamp Arlington is this Saturday. You can still sign-up if you’re interested in going.

I finally got around to looking at the new VRS options http://www.varetire.org/ The website easy to use and it only took a couple of minutes to figure out what option I should choose.

Faculty meetings are this week, an email will be coming out (or it already has).

Lots of opportunities to get involved beyond the classroom: the junior class would love your help chaperone prom, spring sports are underway (finally), and just around the bend are theater, band, orchestra, and chorus performances.

The latest weather forecast looks good (no snow on Tuesday). Hopefully, it’s all behind us and we can return to normalcy.

Interesting topic tonight for #vachat: My friend Phil Griffins leads us as we talk about work-life balance. Join us a 8pm. It’s easier to follow along by using tweetchat.com.

Quote  of the Week

It's not just about raising test scores; it's about raising human potential!!

Dave Burgess

What I’m Reading

Testing to, and beyond, the Common Core (still applies to Virginia, though)

Five Rules of Student Engagement

50 Myths and Lies About Public Education

For children of bankrupt Detroit, world of challenges outside school  

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: Think-Alouds

Excellence in Education: Using Think-Alouds

This past week, I was fortunate to see several teachers, most notably Ms. Cooper and Mr. Christian, use think-alouds in their classrooms.

When using think-alouds the teacher models the thinking process that good readers, mathematicians, historians, etc. use when processing. By sharing their thought process with all students as they read (Ms. Cooper) or solve a problem (Mr. Christian), they model how experts solve a problem, work through difficult concepts and builds such skills in their students.

                                                                                                                   

For example, in math class as Mr. Christian thought out loud, he was sharing with the students not just the correct thought process but also how he (and his students) could overcome potential roadblocks to correctly answering the question. Again this is much more than simply explaining how to achieve an answer; instead it means demonstrating different ways of approaching the task and internalizing the dialogue. By modeling the process for students, they become more comfortable with the process, more reflective and more ready to take on difficult tasks.

In collaborative classrooms, the process can easily be developed and embellished by the two teachers playing off of each other (but it will require a little pre-planning conversation).

In both classes, the teacher think-alouds served as the leaping point for gradually releasing more responsibility to the students.

Once students are familiar with the think-aloud strategy, you can use ask students to use the think-aloud process as they solve the problem or read a passage. Doing so, is a great means of formatively assessing students knowledge and skills and providing feedback.

Administrative Notes

If you haven’t yet completed the school safety survey, please do so.

Please remind and invite parents through email, blackboard,  remind101, etc. that Thursday is parent-teacher conferences.

And that’s a perfect segue to….tonight’s #vachat topic is Engaging All Parents. Please think about joining and learning with us. It starts at 8. Use tweetchat.com to follow along or an app like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck (which enable you to use columns to see only #vachat tweets).

Positive referral link

Thursday we’re having our leadership meeting, if you have anything that you would like addressed, please let your department chair know. 

**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.** 

Tweet of the Week

Worth Reading

8 Elements of Project-Based Learning

Personalization vs Differentiation vs Individualization Chart

The Myth Behind Public School Failure