Monday, March 21

Today's Content:

• Authentic Learning:  Big Art Day

• Digital Learning:  Digital Tech Takeaways

• Student Focus: NRMS "Believe" Challenge

  
Falcon Focus: Authentic Learning

Before spring break, Select Art students celebrated Big Art Day by beautifying our school with murals.  Students were tasked with designing murals that would represent different aspects of our Falcon community.  Starting in the back hall, the students considered athletics, technology and science when designing and painting different images.

 

Mr. Little is incredibly impressed with their hard work!

Falcon Focus: Digital Tech Takeaways

On Saturday, March 5, BISD held the Spring BISD Digital Technology Conference at the BCTAL. NRMS had several teachers in attendance, as well as several teachers presenting.  Scroll through for a highlight of each of our teachers' presentations.

The 7th grade science team of Karen Sanchez and Lindsey Cato led a Poster Session on the using task cards and QR codes to help student move through their own learning.  Karen & Lindsey shared with teachers the benefit of breaking the lessons into small manageable activities, using SIOP verbs (write, read, explain, listen, etc.) to direct students on the activity steps, and using QR codes for students to self-check.

Gina Bergman presented in the Formative Assessment: Feedback Based on Student Performance session to talk about how she uses Today's Meet in her classroom.  In case you are unfamiliar, Today's Meet is an app that allows individuals to message with the whole group.  Basically, as students are working on different concepts, they have the option to log into Today's Meet on their devices.  From there, students have the option to post questions to the group.  Students who know they answer may respond, or Gina will go to her own logged in area and answer the question herself.  

In the Digital Learning: Best Practices session, Lindsey Cato shared with teachers the success 7th grade science has had in flipping parts of their grade science classes.  Lindsey creates her preview videos using Screencastify, and then posts her videos to her YouTube channel.  In case you haven't checked it out, here's the link:

Lindsey's YouTube Channel

Also, in case you did not know, we all have YouTube channels; they come with your Google account.  If you'd like to figure out how to set it up, please let me know!

Mr. V would love to help you set up your Tweet Deck!

Falcon Focus: Student Focus

Finally, a reminder about our Believe Challenge from Friday's staff development.  I hope that you do take a moment to reflect, and to think of a student you really believe in.  Then, let them know!

As I mentioned, filming the conversation is completely optional; a video would simply act as a record of our conversations, a reminder of our impact.  (The video is NOT going to be shared with students.) Some of our students love that kind of attention!  But some don’t.  So you think about what type of conversation is best for you and your student(s).

Again, please send me names so we can share the love; I’ve already had a few people email me.  And if you’d like me to film the conversation, or you just want to talk about it some more, let me know.

If have any questions or would like some help implementing these or other strategies, please let me know.  And remember...

It's a great day to be a Falcon!

Friday, March 4

Today's Content:

• Tier 1 Priorities:  Academic Vocabulary in Toby Osborn's World Cultures class, and Analyzing TEKs in Mickie Siek's US History class

• Tier 1 Priorities: Socratic Seminar in Lori Liles' Texas History class

  
Falcon Focus: Academic Vocabulary in Word Walls

Feel like you've got too much on your walls?  It may be that you haven't settled on a way to really pull that information into your daily instruction.  By adding a header, Toby Osborn has turned the Social Studies Thinking Words into part of his students' daily routine.  

Academic Word Wall in Toby's Class

When students come in, they can read the TEK and the language objective, and they can review all of the academic vocabulary (with graphics!).  However, by adding the Thinking Words wall, students now know exactly what process they'll be using to work with all of that content.   All Toby has to do is circle the appropriate verb.


Falcon Focus: Academic Vocabulary in TEKs

If you need help getting your students to take ownership over the TEKs, try this approach that Mickie Siek uses in her 8th grade US History classes.  We know that students need to see the TEKs in all their scholarly glory, but sometimes (a lot of times) the meaning gets lost in the academic language.

When students are introduced to a new standard, Mickie's classes work together to analyze the TEK for  unknown words and academic vocabulary.  My video-editing skills here are not great - but her strategy for introducing new TEKs is.

Kids can create their own word walls, connecting the TEKs to the vocabulary displayed around the room.  Simple and to the point, having the kids discuss what they don't know about the standard will lead them to a deeper understanding of what they need to know.

Falcon Focus: Socratic Seminar

Finally, if you have never heard of Socratic Seminar, never used Socratic seminar, tried Socratic Seminar and tanked, or facilitated Socratic Seminar like a boss, you should take a couple of minutes to watch this next clip.  This week, Lori Liles created the environment for a lively academic discussion on states' rights and Texas secession.  Students spent day 1 prepping for the seminar through close reading and question writing.  By day 2, they were able to (almost entirely) move through an academic discussion on their own!

Students demonstrated respect for others' opinions, stayed on topic, and even invited more hesitant participants into the fray.

Socratic seminar requires a little prep work, but the results far outweigh the challenges.  Sometimes adults can't have conversations like this, so just imagine what our students can accomplish if they can learn how to express their informed opinions and disagree with others respectfully.

Word.

If have any questions or would like some help implementing these or other strategies, please let me know.  And remember...

It's a great day to be a Falcon!