Tuesday, May 31

Today's Content:

• Authentic Learning:  Ekphrasis Night at Barnes and Noble

• Professional Learning Communities:  PLC Feedback

• Shifting Culture: Falcon Way Summer Planning

Falcon Focus: The Ekphrasis Project

by Gina Bergman  A cross-curricular collaboration between Falcon artists and 7th grade Pre-AP writers, the Ekphrasis Project highlights exemplary written responses across genres based on selected award winning artwork.  On Thursday evening, May 26^th at Barnes & Noble Booksellers at the North East Mall the 7^th grade Pre-AP writers read their works in conjunction with a display of artwork before a crowd of bookstore patrons, parents, faculty, and fellow students. The evening was highlighted with an opening poem/song acapella performance by Isabel Beasley based on Owen Stubblefield’s artwork Still Life with Boots and Skull. The evenings final piece was a once in a lifetime performance of burgeoning playwright Kyle Dickman’s response to Beverly Ontiveros’ artwork Majestic.  Sandwiched in between the song and the play were many great poems and short stories birthed through analysis and imagination. The evening was put together by ELAR Department Chair, Sarah Kelly and Rebekah McKnight, art teacher extraordinaire. 

Falcon Focus: PLC Feedback


To end the year, each department used the last data meeting to reflect on the effectiveness of our PLCs.  Through the discussion, teachers identified both PLC strengths and suggestions for improvement.  Repeated positives for this year included 1) having the opportunity to work with other grade levels, 2) being inspired by other grade levels to try different strategies, 3) collaborating with others to utilize individual expertise, and 4) having lots of time for planning.  Common ideas for change included 1) adding some structure to the PLC process to expand productivity (not just lesson planning), 2) allowing grade levels to sometimes work as a team independently from the department PLC, 3) finding a way to reach out to other departments to allow for more cross-curricular learning, and 4) changing data reflection to happen in real-time.

As we move forward and work on plans for 2016-17, all this valuable information will help determine how we can best utilize our PLCs to enhance student learning.  If you'd like to read the plus/deltas in their entirety, click on the images below for each department.

Click on the image go to the Writing PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Reading PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Social Studies PLC Notes in Padlet

Click on the image go to the Science PLC Notes in Padlet

Falcon Focus: Falcon Way Summer Groups

As the school year wraps up, work is just getting started on some of the different pieces that will make up our Falcon Way for next year.  Whether you've contributed your ideas thus far or not, everyone is invited to help grow the culture that we want for our school.  Changing our culture truly will take a village, so we would love to hear from you.

Summer Planning Groups include:

• Advisory - Appreciation activities
• Advisory - Community service
• Advisory - Family activities
• Advisory - Responsibility
• Advisory - Hall/announcements/campus challenges
• Faculty/staff - getting to know you
• Pep rallies & showcase pieces
• Student orientation

Today during dessert, be on the lookout for an orange handout for signing up.  We will have quick "orientation" meetings tomorrow after dismissal.

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!

Monday, May 23

Today's Content:

• Student Leadership:  Clever STUCO Campaign Posters

•  Best Practices:  TPR in Social Studies

• Shifting Culture: Falcon Way Update

Falcon Focus: Student Leadership

This past week, 34 7th graders ran for an officer position in next year's Student Council.  It was awesome to see so many students showing interest in campus leadership.  Also awesome - all the inventive energy that went into their campaign posters.  With whit and puns, this year's candidates cleverly tapped into commercials, phrases, and even infographics to humorously vie for student votes.

In case you didn't make it all the way around the building to read them, here's a quick recap of some of the quippier campaign posters.  If I missed your favorite, I apologize!

Yes, this last student got permission.  :)

  

So just who are next year's STUCO leaders?  We'll find out later today in the 7th grade Awards Ceremony.

 Falcon Focus: Total Physical Response in SS

Before the STAAR test, 8th grade Social Studies students reviewed the Bill of Rights using hand signals as memory triggers.  As covered in a previous post, total physical response (TPR) effectively helps students learn and remember different bits of information by pulling together the acting/gesturing/physical moving right side of the brain and the telling/explaining/analyzing left side. 

And it really works!  One student came back later and thanked Jonie Dodson for teaching her this strategy because she used it to help her with recall during the test.  Watch the video below of the students moving through the first ten Amendments with only minimal assistance from Jonie.  

 Falcon Focus: Falcon Way Update

As we mentioned in the faculty meeting this past Wednesday, NRMS is moving forward with the work to implement the Falcon Way from day one of 2016-17.  As always, thank you SO MUCH to all of the teachers, staff, and admin who have offered their opinions and ideas either in Falcon Way meetings, in emails, or in hallway conversations.  

This culture shift is about us - our students, our faculty & staff, and our community - and we will not be successful unless we are all on board.  This summer, the Falcon Way needs help with planning:

• Student orientation - plans & materials
• Advisory rotations - schedule & materials
• Pep rallies - creative ideas & planning
• Faculty/Staff "Get to Know You" Activities - ideas & materials

If you are interested in helping, please contact Kathryn Humer, Laurie Istook, Ann Newhouse, or Mary Terry.

Click on the slide to see the Falcon Way presentation from Wednesday's meeting.

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!

   

Monday, May 16

Today's Content:

• Project-Based Learning:  Room Design

•  Digital Learning:  Social Studies Twitter Chats

• Shifting Culture: Falcon Way Update

Falcon Focus: Project-Based Learning

Students search online to build cost estimates

Some students chose online design programs

Over the last couple of  weeks, 8th grade math has been using project-based learning to give students a chance to dream up some ideas for the new building.  Mrs. Atkinson posed the question to 8th graders, "What would you like to see included?"  The result has been an array of creative and inventive ideas to enhance our new campus.  While some concepts are more feasible than others, there's no reason not to consider at least pieces of some of their  ideas and appreciate the creativity that went into the process.

Once students selected an element to design (a "chill-out' or break room, indoor athletic facility, or outdoor recreation area), students were asked to establish the square footage of the space and its components.  Some students elected to use online design programs (see above), while others stuck with pencil and paper.  Students also researched online for cost estimates of the different design elements (see above).

   

Click on the image to see Mrs. A's Prezi

Some groups had time to start working with Tinkercad after creating their 2-D model.
See their 3-D file below.

For final products, students created either 2-D or 3-D models of their space, and presented on the total square footage, estimated cost, and overall "coolness" of their designs.  Watch the video below for a presentation over the addition of an indoor futbol field.

Tinkercad 3-D version of the above group's plan

A final extension Leslie is exploring is the use Tinkercad, an online 3-D design platform, to bring an element of authenticity to the project.  This would allow students the opportunity to see how the design process might work in the real world, by bringing smaller design elements to life with a 3-D printer.  Hopefully this piece works out; but even if it doesn't right now, you can expect to see this project even more developed in the future. 

Falcon Focus: Social Studies Twitter Chat

Teachers exhibited a lot of effort and creativity as they planned out STAAR review activities this spring.  Every room you looked in, students were moving, collaborating, discussing, and self-checking; as well as  Kahoot-ing, Quizizz-ing, Quizlet-ing, and utilizing countless other innovative digital learning tools.  One different technology approach that you may not have considered, however, is Twitter.  As part of their review, 8th grade social studies gave students the option to participate in a 3-week Twitter chat series.  Topics started with early exploration and colonization the first week, and ended with reconstruction and a call for any last questions the last week.  Students had the opportunity to answer teacher-generated questions, to read other students' responses, to respond to other students, and to ask their own questions.  Below is an excerpt of one of the chats.

If you're wondering how the a conversation flows on Twitter, you can view the entire chat transcripts on Storify.  Click on any of the three images below.  

Falcon Focus: Falcon Way Update

In the Falcon Way meetings on May 11 and 12, both students and teachers were asked what one thing they would like to see happen to build a community of CORE values from day one.  The most common responses are listed below.  Do you notice any similarities or differences?

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!

Monday, May 1

Today's Content:

• Tier 1 Priorities:  Questioning Strategies

•  Tier 1 Priorities:  Meaningful Review

• Shifting Culture: Falcon Way Update

Falcon Focus: Questioning Strategies

While this is technically a Tier 1 Priority in Math, good questioning strategies enhance learning for each and every student regardless of content area.  Effective questioning strategies include two key ingredients: first, how we call on students to make sure that all students are accountable for their learning; and second, how we question students to get them thinking about their answers, and, even better, think about that thinking (metacognition).  Together, these two pieces address both sides of the coin, giving you a more complete snapshot of what your students - all of them - know and don't know.

Ingredient #1: Equal-Opportunity Questioning

When you are leading a whole group discussion, it becomes very easy to fall into the "raise your hand" trap.  But the thing is, we already know little-Johnny-who-always-has-his-hand-raised knows the answer.  What about the rest of the students?  How can we make all students accountable for their learning?

Popsicle sticks in 7th grade math

There are countless ways to ensure that you are calling on all of your students.  There are numerous apps and online counters that can help you keep track of students you have called on.  (Check out the BISD Digital Learning Smore "Digital Questioning Strategies" for a list.)  And if you want to go old school, don't forget about good old-fashioned popsicle sticks.  A class set of popsicle sticks with students' names on them allow for random calling and ensure accountability.  Simply draw a stick, read the name, and then set it aside so you remember you've already called on that student.

Popsicle sticks in Mrs. Maupin's class

Truth be told, this used to scare me.  What if little Johnny gets nervous when I "single him out" to answer a question?  Well, here's what I've learned by going into some of your classrooms. If there are countless ways to ensure that you are calling on all of your students, there are even more ways to ensure that you are using the accountability to grow your students, not isolate them.  Differentiate your questioning strategies. For some of your students, you may want to try "echoing" - a strategy where students simply repeat the answer another student has already said.  ("So, Johnny, what answer did you hear from so-and-so?")  For other students, ask them to rephrase another student's response into their own words (paraphrase).  A third option could be to have students turn and talk to discuss their thoughts, and then call on individual students to answer questions.  This way, the unsure student get a confidence boost by having the opportunity to discuss the question with a peer first.  In all of these instances, students are still hearing and speaking the correct answers, even if the thought originated with a different student.

And if randomization is not what you need, there's an added bonus to the old-fashioned popsicle stick. Unlike an online randomizer that you project on the wall, the students can't actually read the names written on popsicle sticks; so if you want to target a student for some reason (you know they know the answer, you know they're not paying attention, etc.) then you can.  And the students are none the wiser.


Ingredient #2: Questioning for Depth

Once you've mastered the art of holding all of your students accountable, it's time to focus in on the depth of your questioning.  How much thinking are your students really doing?  This is where we think about Bloom's Taxonomy.  If everything your students have to answer is simply recall, then you're not digging deep enough.

Also we need to consider wait time.  How long do you really wait for a student to answer?  Do other kids jump in and provide answers in the original student's place?  If you're not sure, test yourself.  Wait time for basic comprehension questions should be at least 3 seconds.  For questions that require higher level thinking skills, wait time should be even longer.  Learn to be comfortable with that uncomfortable silence.  If you don't, you're not giving all of your students enough process time to get to the response they want to give.

Mrs. Harvell uses intentional questioning to help students think for themselves.

For more information on effective questioning strategies, check out the BISD Digital Tech Smore, "Digital Questioning Strategies".  There you will find links to several online randomizers, Kagan questioning strategies, and more.  You can also read "New Classroom Questioning Techniques for the Best Year Ever" from Edutopia.com, which offers several strategies to grow questioning depth.

Falcon Focus: Meaningful Reviews

Testing season is upon us and more than ever you can witness teachers supporting each other as we work together to support all of our students.  In 8th grade, math and reading teachers are working  with their departments to provide in-class remediation every day, giving up conferences and down time to help our kids do their very best on the retest.  In 7th grade writing, students are reinforcing their reading skills by practicing the close reading skills that will help them not only on their STAAR Reading test, but on all of them.  In science, a 7th grade teacher is sharing her time and technology resources to create task cards for 8th grade science review - and then co-teaching in 8th grade classes to help out even more.

There are games, new technology reviews, and reinforcement all around.  Need evidence that the Falcons are all of our kids?  Simply look around at the amazing collaboration going on, and you will know.

8th grade reading classes completed research over historically or scientifically significant people.

7th graders practice close reading skills in their writing classes.

Science review in partners...or individual focus on specific TEKs.

And of course, a little competition never hurt.

Falcon Focus: Falcon Way Update

In the Falcon Way meetings on Thursdays, faculty continuing to work through different thoughts and ideas, ways to grow our campus culture into the community we know is possible.  Below are the Padlet notes from the last two teacher meetings on 4/20 and 4/28.  So far, conversation has been focused more on identifying areas that require our attention.  The meeting this Wednesday, 5/4 will continue to be focused on that.

Starting next week, the group will be working on the actionable pieces of our plan.  If you would like to be a part of our campus culture shift, please feel free to attend a Falcon Way meeting on Thursdays, or to email your thoughts, questions, and concerns to Ann Newhouse, Laurie Istook, Kathryn Humer, or myself.

Click on the image above to go to the Padlet site.

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!