#tlap GPS

Last summer, I loved reading Dave Burgess' Teach Like a Pirate, and I keep re-reading parts of it to get re-inspired.  Earlier this summer, he issued a "challenge" for teachers to create their own personal GPS, and I've spent a couple weeks tweaking my words.  (I love this idea so much that we're even adding it to our agenda for our new teachers!  Can I do so same thing for my classes and my students?)  

I'm trying to think about my job as a teacher and as an Instructional Specialist, and as of today, I think I have my words.

By the end of the year, I want others (students and teachers) to feel...

• safe,
• inspired,
• challenged, and
• accomplished,
• all in a manner that is different from other classes or meetings.

This activity also reminds me of one of my favorite end of year assignment, which is to have my students create Six Word Memoirs, an idea I took from Math Teacher Mambo.  I haven't compiled all of my pictures from this year, but their work was even more creative.  I created my first six word memoir while actively monitoring an AP test, and I think it captures both my math teacher job and Instructional Specialist job: 

I love to help find solutions. 

Did you participate in the #tlap GPS?   Do you have your students write goals for the year?

Read More

So, What Exactly Is My Job?

I have enjoyed reading all of the posts about favorite classroom things and classroom structures...so that made me think: what is the "structure" of my job?  Next year, I will have a new job partner, a new head principal, and our district has completely restructured the upper echelon, so I thought it would be wise to pinpoint a few things, just in case anyone else asked about my job. ;)

My job title is "Instructional Specialist," and my job description in one sentence is that I spend my time supporting teachers and students as we work to fulfill school and district goals.  (Oh, I also teach two math classes.)  I have no administrative power, but I'm involved in a lot of school stuff, so I do have quite a bit of influence in campus decisions.  The IS job looks different on each campus, based on each school's priorities.

Last year, my IS partner and I decided we needed more focus for our jobs, so we posted a list of our priorities.  When people started asking about this or that, we asked, "Is that on our yellow sheet?" and it made it a bit easier to say "NO, I don't think we can do that." (I admit we often stretched a lot of our job responsibilities to fit categories on the yellow sheet!)

My schedule is very erratic each week.  I attend PLC (common planning) meetings for math and social studies.  I work with new teachers, I support our mentor teachers, and I pretty much am "on call" for any teacher who needs help...with lessons, tutoring plans, technology, classroom management, group work, intervention plans, testing...  We plan our site-based staff development, and we plan all meetings and professional development for our new teachers. I write and monitor our Campus Improvement Plan, plan all of our Instructional Leadership Team meetings, and visit as many classrooms as possible.  After reading Simon Sinek, we created a WHY for the Instructional Specialists, which is "Every day, make someone's life better," so bottom line, we look for ways we can help others.  (For a second WHY, we also borrowed Home Depot's motto: "You can do it, we can help!")

When I started my job as IS, the best information I received was "Your time is not your own," and that is absolutely true, although I usually have free time between 7:00 - 7:25 AM. ;) Our office is very centrally located in the building, and we have one of our test scan machines in our office, so our office door is always open, and I'm glad we have cultivated the feeling of trust and belonging in our office.  We host planning meetings and informal meetings in our office.  Teachers seem to love being in here (but that could also be because we have a few super comfy chairs and a coffee pot!)

Because I float and do not have a classroom, I frequently have tutoring in my office.  I have seating for about 12 in the office, and my students seem to enjoy hanging out in here as much as the teachers do.

Last year, I followed the trend on Pinterest, and created the door signs for our office door.  These signs made me happy every time I entered.  

My other office favorite is my collection of college pennants, donated by some of my former graduates.

Fun times on my job: last year for our new teacher in-service on campus, we had the cutest set-up, complete with a decorated classroom, personalized magnets, and breakfast.  At 8:00 AM, we decided the air-conditioning was definitely not working (and we're talking about August in Texas) so we ran around the building to find another suitable room for our supplies and 25 new teachers (but missing the cute set-up!) :(

A "real" fun part of the job: we're told, "Make certain that you do something to honor your mentor teachers!" so in some cases, we get to be party planners. :)

My creative talents were also put to the test when the district wanted schools to create technology-themed centerpieces for their Summer Leadership Meetings...and guess who was assigned to create that centerpiece?  Of course, the ISs will enjoy doing that!   (We did win 3rd place, which got us the new coffee pot, one of the office favorites, though!)

Oh yes, we need a two-minute video of what your school is doing to implement differentiated instruction.  Show what you've done and your plan for the future, and it must be in iMovie format, and it's due in three days... who does this on our campus?   (I loved learning how to use iMovie, though.)  

During my first year as an IS, one of the most challenging aspects of my job was that I allowed my instructional specialist responsibilities to creep into my classroom.  Teachers would stop by during class and ask questions, I would check email during class and learn that someone needed something now, and I tried to address all issues at all times.  The last few years, I promised my students that during our class period, I would be completely devoted to them.   I try to warn them when my IS job schedule interferes with the week (and limits tutoring, for example) but I communicate with my students via my website or email, and my math colleagues jump in to help with tutoring and make-ups.

At times, I really miss my own classroom and a schedule full of math classes; however, I love my job supporting teachers and students.   I enjoy working with and learning about other content areas, and I love the professional development side of my job. Side note: according to my FitBit, I average about 7,000 steps a day while at school, but in May during testing season (EOC tests and I proctored a bunch of AP tests) I got about 11,000 steps per day.  As with all teachers, I love that my job changes daily. Flexibility is always the key, right? I have learned so much on this job, and I have appreciated all of the new learning and growing opportunities.

Are there instructional coaches on your campus?  What are their job descriptions?

Read More

My Motivation to MoveIt!

I just saw this post on Teacher Tech, and MOVEIT is now my new favorite Chrome extension!  During the past week, I have spent way too much time sitting at my computer, and this extension reminds me to jump up and get moving.  You may choose an interval of time (15 minutes to 55 minutes) and at your chosen interval, you get a pop-up reminder on your computer to take a short brain and exercise break.  

The exercise breaks have been things like hop on your left and then right foot for 15 seconds, jab or punch the air for a count of 10, run in place for 15 seconds, and touch your left foot with your right hand, then alternate and repeat 10 times.  

When I have been on long grading stretches, I have tried the "Pomodoro Technique," where if you work for 25 minutes and then take a brief break, you supposedly increase your productivity.  (It seems to work for me!)  I love the addition of the bit of physical exercise, which the MOVEIT extension provides.

With students, we hear about the 10/2 strategy, which encourages us to teach in chunks of 10 minutes, and then allow students to process and reflect for 2 minutes.  I started using this strategy with my ESL students, but now I try to allow chunk and process time in my classes and in my staff development presentations.

I've just had the MOVEIT extension installed for a few hours, and I have enjoyed every little opportunity to get moving.  I wonder if I could incorporate the quick exercise breaks into our long days of staff development?  Does anyone else have moving breaks during professional development?

Time to get moving!

Read More

What I WANT to Know About Learners

As I mentioned on an earlier post, I am now obsessed with the idea of differentiating by learning profile.  I know I have a good understanding of what learning profile really means, but now I'm to the more difficult implementation stage.  I'm happy that I found a colleague who will help me fine tune some of these ideas, and I have found an overwhelming amount of information online to help with this part of the journey.

What I WANT to know (and do)... 

From a teacher's perspective, I want to know how to vary my questions, tasks, and assignments in order to address the variety of learning profiles in my classes.  I'm still at the point where I'm thinking about a giant juggling routine, but I want to make this more manageable: how to group my students, how to ask questions, how to get students to ask questions, and how to create thoughtful assignments and assessments.

• I found this awesome reflection after our #eduread.  @mwbigger classified different types of assignments and assessments according to their Silver-Strong profile.  He also referred to Sarah's post about 26 good homework ideas.  For some homework assignments, I would love to keep a generic list of possibilities from each of the learning profiles and allow the students to choose their favorite (or maybe one from their style, one from another style?).

From the free preview chapter of the Math Tools book, I found this chart, and I know that will help when I'm designing the work.

I keep reading about Task Rotations, and I think I could start by creating something like this to use on our "bring it all together" or review days.  The difference between the task rotations and menus is that for the task rotations, you must complete all 4 tasks, and each task intentionally addresses one of the four Silver-Strong learning styles (mastery, understanding, self-expressive, interpersonal).  I found this example on a page of Thoughtful Classrooms' free resources:

A "low prep" idea: I plan to use the vocabulary for each of the profiles, so I could ask my students to identify the types of questions I ask during class.  If they're seated with their like profile groups, I could ask them to change my question to one that "fits" their profile (or make up an additional question, if my question matches their profile).  To stretch themselves, they could exchange questions with another group and answer at least one question from each category.

I hope each week that I'll say things like, "The next part of class will appeal to those of you who are interpersonal learners; otherwise, you'll have an opportunity to stretch outside your comfort zone a bit," or "If you have a self-expressive learner in your group, then s/he will be able to help you think outside of the box for this activity."

Next steps...I'm ready to look at my own calendar, assessments, and lessons!

Any examples of task rotations for math?  Have you grouped your students based on different learning profiles?

Read More

What I KNOW About Learners

OK, thanks to an earlier #eduread, I am now officially obsessed with teaching and differentiating by understanding learning profiles.  I feel like I'm a bit late to this party, and I found so many resources that I finally had to force myself to stop reading, bookmarking, clipping, and flipping articles and posts.  I also had to restrain myself with additional purchases, but I finally settled on one more book, Math Tools, Grades 3 - 12... by Silver et al.

I was thinking about a KWL chart for differentiation by learning profile, and for now, I have a lot of Ks and Ws!

I KNOW that differentiating by learning profile increases efficiency.

I know I have a better understanding of what it looks like to differentiate by readiness or interest (but just because I know what it means doesn't mean that I'm an expert!)

When I first started teaching (ahem...years ago) I thought learning style simply meant auditory, visual, kinesthetic, but now I know that a complete learning profile involves so much more.

During the past two years, my students and I have dabbled with understanding Gardner's Multiple Intelligences and Sternberg's Intelligences (creative, analytical, and practical).  Our  #eduread article introduced me to the Silver-Strong profiles (mastery, understanding, self-expressive, and interpersonal). And hooray, hooray, I just found an older ASCD article and then an image on this slide-share that put everything together for me!

I know I need to educate my students about the different profiles, that the styles fluctuate depending on the context, and that no one profile is better than another!

• Idea for the first week(s) of school: give students a variety of inventories, have them create a learning profile a la the "Me at a Glance" pages on Sarah's blog.  For the Silver-Strong inventory, I found this post on Math Hombre's page, and he adapted the inventory to math. Teach the vocabulary.  Help students understand the philosophy of strategic flexible grouping.  (Some days we'll be grouped according to your strengths, and some days we'll make you work outside your comfort zone so that you'll be stretched!)  Work on the management aspect of how to let kids know the seating arrangement o' the day.  Create a Google form for students to record their preferred learning profiles.  
• Oh, I also know that mindset will be part of this conversation, too.  If we're grouping kiddos or if the questioning/task is outside of their preferred learning profile, what can I do to help students persevere? What are their options when they struggle? 
• I know that building a classroom community is an integral component of the big picture of differentiation, so with our discussion of learning profiles, I will also help students learn the importance of respecting the differences in all of us.

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no tangibles...YET...but at least I have a nebulous idea for the "2nd curriculum" objectives for the first week(s) of school.

A future post will focus on the WHAT.  What I want to know, my goals for the teaching, questioning, and assessing aspect of this idea.

Thanks for reading!  Any other insight on learning profiles?  Do you have favorite inventories that you have used?  

Read More

Classroom Management and #ASCDCTE14

Post #3 about the ASCD Conference, and I'm ready to reflect on goodies from one awesome session...

A large part of my job as Instructional Specialist is to support our new teachers, and a top concern for new teachers is classroom management.  In addition, I support all of our teachers on implementing school and district initiatives, and when we're talking about flexible grouping with differentiation, PBLs, and managing technology and devices, we must also have conversations about classroom management and procedures.  It seems like we assume veteran teachers have the management part down, but that's not necessarily the case; therefore, it was a no-brainer that I attended a session on classroom management.

(Side note: I didn't realize that many of the presenters would be pushing their own websites, materials, and books at this conference, but because this message and the presenter were so amazing, I'll include those links!)

If you ever have an opportunity to see Grace Dearborn present, run to her session!  She had our room of at least 300 people completely engaged, laughing, sharing, and accepting her every word as golden.  It's kind of sad that she is no longer in the classroom because I imagine she worked magic with her students...but at least she is sharing her wisdom with others.

Her session was Conscious Classroom Management, and the goal of her session was to provide "Stuff you can use."  Mission accomplished! She shared a few oldies but goodies, but it's always good to hear reminders about these strategies:

• 2 x 10 -- for your most challenging student(s), if you spend 2 minutes a day for 10 days in a row having a personal, non-academic conversation with that student, behavior will improve.  If a student is absent (ill, suspended, etc.) for several days, you must start over with the 10 days.  Be consistent as possible.
• "Procedures Precede Content" -- teach and reteach your procedures, and again, be consistent. (She used the example of the safety procedures on airplanes.  Have you ever not heard the flight attendants go over the airplane rules with visuals, demos, and talk-throughs??)  She even provides sample procedure quizzes on her website.  Another suggestion: if you have trouble with the consistency part, i.e. you don't always make your students raise their hands, give yourself a visual, such as a picture of a raised hand, posted in the back of the room where you'll see it.  Also, really spend the time in class to practice the procedures.  For example, require your students to move their desks into groups of 4 within 20 seconds.  Get out the stop watch, make them practice, explain how it must be done, and make them practice again. (One of her engaging strategies: she told us we had "32 seconds" or "17 seconds" or "2.18 minutes" to share--it was never a round number, which really amused me for some reason.)

The new stuff...she was all about visual cues for procedures and management, and that idea was such an a-ha! She took pictures of what she wanted and had those images projected or posted around the room.

• On test days, as students entered the room, she projected a picture of a desk that was cleared except for a pencil and calculator.
• For science lab days, she had a picture projected with all equipment needed for the lab (goggles, lab book, pen, calculator, 2 beakers).
• On her bookshelves, she had two pictures.  The "YES" picture showed her books in order, spines vertical, supplies in the correct containers, everything neat.  The "NO" picture showed the same bookcase with the textbooks mixed together, supplies thrown around, loose papers on the shelves, etc. (She also used this strategy for her youngsters' toy chest at home.)
• A funny: for the elementary teachers, Grace shared the struggle of dealing with kids who tattle. To remedy that, a teacher posted a picture of a giant ear on the wall, so when kids started to tattle, she said, "Tell it to the ear!"  The teacher said after recess, there might be a line of kids waiting to "tell the ear" what had happened.  Grace also said a high school government teacher posted a big picture of President Obama, and when his seniors started to complain, he said, "Tell it to the President!" and he said kids would actually talk to the poster! :)

Grace was also all about creating rubrics with her visuals, and then she could tell students they needed to get from a "3" to a "5."  She had students demo each number on her rubric, she took pictures of each scenario, labeled each picture with the appropriate number, and then posted or showed pictures when necessary.

• For high school students, she had an issue of kids packing up before the end of the period, so she created a 1 - 5 rubric for her end of the period procedures.  A "1" was where kids were lined up at the door, ready to leave.  For a "3," some kids were seated, some were standing, some had backpacks on, some students were still working.  A "5" was the ideal situation, and kids were still seated with work on their desks.  She posted the pictures around her door frame, and some days had to say, "I see most of you are at a 3, but I need you to be a 5 before you are dismissed!"  Kids could simply look at the photographs to see what they needed to change.  
• For her elementary example, she created a similar rubric for kids lining up in the hallways.  This document shows her photos and rubric, plus it gives a couple other examples of using visuals for classroom management.

Added bonus: the images of the expectations would be so useful for our English Language Learners!  We have a large ESL population, so I think this strategy would really help those kiddos understand.  

Another side note: I do not have my own classroom and float into two different classrooms, but it would be easy to keep the photos on my iPad and display them when necessary.

Any other favorite classroom management tips?  Have you ever used visuals or a rubric to help your students learn your class procedures?

Read More

A Lot of Learning at #ASCDCTE14!

I love reading blog reflections after conferences, seminars, and summer institutes (@druinok & @KimAxtell!) and it's a wonderful way to document the great things learned.  Last weekend, I attended the ASCD Conference on Teaching Excellence, and I now have enough new information to keep me thinking and reflecting for at least a month! But before I get to the content, a few side observations...

• Attending a conference is expensive! I had the ASCD + Texas resident discount, plus my mom lives minutes from the conference location, so I stayed with her.  In addition, she dropped me off each day so I didn't have to pay for parking.  But whoa, how do all of those people and/or districts afford to vacation it up at the conference at the Gaylord? (Next to do: investigate grants for PD!)  It was only mildly embarrassing that I had to tell someone that I was waiting for a ride from my mom. :)

• I was surrounded by great educators.  One of my presenters was one of Benjamin Bloom's students, yes that Bloom.  I've been fortunate to see Carol Ann Tomlinson before, and I am in awe of her wisdom and thoughtfulness about differentiation, and I am captivated when she speaks.  Her keynote brought tears to my eyes.  One of my presenters was her student, and she was also just as incredible!  I also saw a mind-blowing presentation by Jane Pollock, one of the co-authors of Classroom Instruction That Works, so I guess she's one of Marzano's BFFs.
• ...however, I learned that just because a person holds multiple advanced degrees and is an educational consultant and author, it doesn't necessarily mean that s/he is an earth-shattering presenter.  Most of my sessions were fantastic, but I heard other comments that were not so great.
• I was surrounded by great educators part 2.  All of the participants seemed to be amazing educators too, and that was just as energizing!  I met professors, administrators, instructional coaches, curriculum directors, and teachers...all who were excited to learn and find ways to help students succeed.  I don't think I've ever attended a conference that had so many out of state and international visitors.  The people from New York were not happy with our heat and humidity, and the principal from New Zealand said it was snowing back home.  Gotta love summer in Texas.

• This conference was definitely not tech-y, which was rather interesting and refreshing.  In February, I attended the TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) conference, and it was almost impossible to meet people because everyone was glued to his device.  During past conferences, I always loved visiting with people at my table, in the hallways, waiting for the next session...but when you're at a tech conference, we're sometimes too engaged with our social media, etc. to have conversations.  At this conference, however, we saw "regular" power-points, and we were never asked to use back channels, poll everywhere, or any other tech response system.  We engaged with our neighbors, and I loved the face-to-face conversations!  There were only a few sessions devoted to technology, but I chose to attend presentations about formative assessment, grit, differentiation, coaching, etc.

• You chose either 90-minute or 3-hour sessions, which meant in 2.5 days, you didn't have time for a lot of presentations.  At first, I wanted to attend more sessions, but with that amount of time, you really had more opportunities to learn deeply, process, and engage with those around you.  Thumbs up!

I've already blogged about my first session, which was on Fostering Grit; it also coincided nicely with tonight's #eduread. 

So one quick take-away of something new and tech-y: a teacher shared info about the site http://dropevent.com/, and it's a place where you can quickly upload pictures to a shared site.  (The site is really for parties, weddings, events, etc.)  You can create an "event," and anyone can share photos by emailing to a specified address or posting them on the site.  The event expires after 6 months, but you can download all of the pictures before they expire.  If you want to practice and see how it works, feel free to upload a picture to my "Testing" event: http://dropevent.com/gallery/pho56503 .

My first idea for how to use this is for our site-based staff development.  I could have our new teachers take selfies in the morning, and we will all have pictures of each other and of the day (and important building locations.)   I might also have our teachers take pictures of their classrooms or favorite parts of their classrooms, and then we would have a collection of all kinds of cool classrooms.

For a class, I thought we might take pictures of work, projects, or even daily notes and submit them to the site.  In math, we could ask students to find a picture of a __________ (scalene triangle, parent function, graph in a newspaper, polygon...) and upload the photo before the next class period.  You do have the option to moderate the pictures before they are posted, and I would definitely take advantage of that restriction with my classes.

This Drop Event site was shared at a "networking" breakfast, and the day only got better from there!  I have so much to share and so much to remember...so even if I don't fulfill the July challenge, I might be able to get several posts out of this conference! :)

---

Super nerd-alert: while I was in the book store, my DI hero, Dr. Tomlinson herself, was just sitting there, waiting to sign books and talk to people!  So I had her sign a book, and I asked if I could take a picture.  An ASCD staff member asked if I wanted to be in the picture too, so the rest is recorded for all of history.  There are actually a few people at school who will be so envious that I got a picture with the differentiation rock star. :)

Yep, that's CAT herself!

Read More

Glorious Struggles and Good Failures

It really is crazy (in a good way) when education worlds collide.  I guess that means the conversation is an important one, and people all over are really reflecting on what we can do to help our students succeed.

Last week during a district staff development, we watched Angela Duckworth's TED talk on Grit, and our school leadership teams discussed ways to help reinforce the idea of a growth mindset and the importance of perseverance in problem solving. This weekend at an ASCD conference, my first session was on "Fostering Grit," and our presenter referenced Carol Dweck's work on mindset and Duckworth's research on grit. Finally, this week's #eduread article was also about developing perseverance in problem solving, specifically with math problems.

Message received!  I need to be intentional about teaching students (and teachers) the importance of grit, how to develop a growth mindset, and that failures help you learn and succeed.  After finishing our article Faster Isn't Smarter, I knew this objective needs to be a priority.

Luckily, I'm not starting from ground zero, but I know I can do much, much more.  For the past two years, we have talked mindset in my classes, and we call my challenge problems on assessments #growthmindset questions.  When I first started my work as an Instructional Specialists, my work partner and I heard the phrase "Glorious Struggle," and we used that when we were having a hard time with our job (which was quite often during the first year!) and I taught the same phrase to my students. Yesterday, I created my first TEDEd lesson on Duckworth's talk, and I will ask my students to watch and reflect on her message. In the past, I talked to my students about "Famous Failures," and last summer, I created the Google presentation with quotes on failure, success, and struggle, and shared it with them.



Our presenter at the ASCD conference was Thomas R. Hoerr, and he leads a "Multiple Intelligences" school where teaching grit is one of top objectives for teachers and students.  In his session, he offered six steps for teaching grit, and these ideas also align with some of the points in Cathy Seeley's article.

Teaching for Grit

1. Establish the environment.  Students must realize that they are cared for and supported, even when they're struggling. (How many times have we heard that it all boils down to relationships??)  When teaching grit, how can we acknowledge effort and improvements?  How can we make it "cool" for students to be seen working hard?  Have posters in your room or hallways about effort, success, and hard work.
2. Set the expectations.  Students must understand the value of grit and accept that learning is not always easy or fun. Seeley says the same thing in her article.  Teach that mistakes are good lessons, and there are such things as good failures! (At a different session, we watched "My Favorite No," which I think would help here.)  Teach the students about the brain research, too!
3. Teach the vocabulary.  Hoerr asks his teachers to frequently use words like grit, growth mindset, frustration, and comfort zone when talking with students and parents.  (Seeley had the same reflections in the "For Families" section of the article.)
4. Create the frustration.  Another way that my edu-worlds collide: Hoerr suggests to differentiate by process, and ask students to solve problems using an intelligence that was not their dominant intelligence.  (Referencing last week's #eduread article, instead of using the Mastery or Understanding styles, require students to solve a problem as a Self-Expressive or Interpersonal learner.)  Another idea, tell students that "Today is a GRIT day," and the tasks, instructions, or the final product will be intentionally challenging.  Seeley called it constructive struggling, which I loved!  In math, create problems that are complex and require more than just a rote procedure.
5. Monitor the experience.  Watch your students and their emotions.  Solicit feedback during the gritty experience, either using non-verbal signals or a Likert scale on the work and frustration level.  We don't want students to feel pointless frustration.
6. Reflect and learn.  Ask the students to share why they didn't give up on a particular task.  What did they do that will help them in the future when they're frustrated again?  

Hoerr also provided a few steps for how to teach students to keep persevering, and this is something that I will start at the beginning of the year:

• "Anticipate the level of difficulty."  Ask student to self-assess and guess how difficult they think today's work will be.
• Before beginning the work, ask students to reflect on a time where they have succeeded on something (in academics or outside of school).
• During the task, require students to give 5 full minutes of full-force effort.
• Remind students of the power of a "good failure."

So teaching (and learning more) about growth mindset, grit, and good failures are back at the top of my priority list; what else can I do to help my students learn about grit and perseverance?  How do I incorporate those "gritty" problems into my curriculum?  (One per day?  Once per week?  One on each assessment?)  I also need to start planning now to create tasks and problems that are complex and will create those glorious struggles and good failures for my students!

Again, so much to think about...looking forward to the upcoming #eduread to help reflect on these questions!

---

Jumping to the top of my to read list: Paul Tough's book How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity, and the Hidden Power of Character
(Side note--his recent NYT article was another great commercial for teaching grit and perseverance as a "2nd curriculum," and sounds like AVID for college!)

Read More

Trying Out TED-Ed

I spent a weekend of fabulous learning at the ASCD Conference for Teaching Excellence, and I plan to post some reflections during the next couple weeks...but for now, here's my first follow-up.

In the past few years, we've heard more and more talk about growth and fixed mindsets, and I'm now a fan and believer of Carol Dweck's work.  (If you want to join a great conversation, check out the #eduread chats on Wednesday nights!  Our discussion for July 9th, 2014, will be over Dweck's article "Even Geniuses Work Hard.")  The more recent trend has been about grit, and my first session at the ASCD conference was with Thomas R. Hoerr, who presented on Fostering Grit.

During the past couple years, I've discussed growth mindset with my students, but I've wanted to try something more tangible with them, and after hearing Dr. Hoerr's talk, I knew I needed to give them some more specifics.  Last week at a different staff development, we watched Angela Duckworth's TED talk on grit, and I thought that video was short enough for my students...but how could I get them to do a bit of reflecting?  Enter the lessons on TEDEd.

Without too much time or trouble, I've created two TEDEd lessons this morning: one for my students and one for our faculty.

First, you find any YouTube or TED Talk video, and create an account on TEDEd.  Once you choose your video, the lesson creator for TEDEd allows you to write an "objective" and create multiple choice and short answer questions about the video.  For the multiple choice questions, you even add the exact time where the video refers to the answer, so if viewers answer incorrectly, the video returns to that location to help students find the correct answer.  (You may create up to 15 questions, plus you may edit and re-order the questions at any time.)  Students must create an account with TED to be able to respond on the site and receive feedback; perhaps I'll create a Google Form that mirrors the questions so that they may respond there...still thinking.

Next, you may add additional resources, links, and images that allow the viewers to "Dig Deeper."  For my students' lesson on grit, I found links to Duckworth's grit test, a video on growth/fixed mindset, and a link to Dweck's work on how to change your mindset.

There is also a place for discussion, if you would like to add that feature, but I'm asking my students respond on a protected Google doc instead.  You may add or delete any of these sections for your TEDEd lesson.

And last, there is the "...And Finally" section.  Here, you may type additional reflections, take-aways, and what happens next.  For our faculty's TEDEd, I plan to flip this video and ask that they view it before the first day of professional development.  We'll begin our discussions with the "...And Finally" reflections.  Over the past several years, we've discussed Simon Sinek's Start With WHY, and his latest TED talk is Why Good Leaders Make You Feel Safe.  My TEDEd lesson asks us to reflect how his ideas of leadership, safety and trust look in the school, departments, and in our classrooms.

I loved learning about the lesson possibilities on TEDEd, and for my purposes this morning, the features were fantastic.  I can't wait to try these videos with our students and teachers.  Watching and reflecting on Angela Duckwork's talk may be part of my assignment on day #1!

---

My stack of reading continues to grow...

Read More

Learning about our Learners

It's been so long since I've written anything (and I never blogged much overall) but the Read...Chat...Reflect #eduread article chats have so inspired me (and challenged me!) that I had to write. :)

This week's article was "Creating a Differentiated Mathematics Classroom," and since our district has been on a journey to differentiated instruction during the past three years, I am always on the lookout for DI ideas specific to math.

I've had a lot of professional development on DI, and I'm in the Dr. Carol Ann Tomlinson fan club, so if you're not familiar with the tenets of differentiated instruction, here's a quick summary of what I know...

The principles of DI include high quality curriculum, ongoing assessment, *instruction that responds to student variance, all working within a classroom community.  (Dr. Tomlinson's latest edition of The Differentiated Classroom has changed a bit of the wording. When we first learned about DI, we separated *this tenet into flexible grouping and respectful tasks.)  Teachers can differentiate through content, process, and product, all according to the student's readiness, interests, and learning profile.

In addition, differentiation by interest increases student motivation, differentiation by readiness produces growth, and differentiation by learning profile improves efficiency.

As as a math teacher, the "easiest" way for me to understand differentiation was by student readiness.   I thought, "Sure, I can do a quick assessment to see where my students are struggling," and respond to their needs.  (That only took two years, and I'm definitely not an expert, but I have a growth mindset about learning about assessment!)  I'm still working on writing awesome pre-assessments for my students, though...that is a real challenge for me!

I struggled with understanding learning profile, but the first thing I tried was to have my students assess themselves on their intelligence type.  (They learned a tiny bit about Gardner's Multiple Intelligences, they completed a survey and responded on a Google form, so then I had a record of their personal assessments.)  I created seating charts and groups based on their preferred intelligence, and they enjoyed sitting with like-minded students, but I didn't do much else with that grouping.  (sad face)

This year, I tried an additional activity to use learning profile, and it was moderately successful.  In recent trainings, I enjoyed "CAP" activities, so that's what I tried to duplicate for math...but I only did this one time.  (another sad face!)   I talked my students through the creative-analytical-practical descriptions of Sternberg's Theory of Intelligence, and they quickly self-assessed their intelligence on this Google form.

Column 1: Creative; Column 2: Analytical; Column 3: Practical

My students divided into their C-A-P groups, and they had the remainder of the period to work on this assignment.  We were creating and solving sinusoidal models, and I originally thought this type of assignment was general enough that it could be used with a variety of future lessons.  (Sigh.  Perhaps if I had been faithful about blogging, I would have returned to this idea!)

I'm now trying to picture how this week's #eduread article will add to the entire schema of learning profiles in my classroom.  Several teachers in our school refer to the True Colors test, which is loosely based on Myers-Briggs, and I like how the profiles in this article align with the colors.  (Mastery = Gold, Understanding = Green, Interpersonal = Blue, and Self-Expressive = Orange)  Someone in our district found this learner profile worksheet, and I like the structure of this handout.  I also saw the "Me at a Glance" post for interactive notebooks at Everybody is a Genius, and I loved all of her ideas about putting all of the strategies on a page.

I guess the bottom line is to know your students, craft lessons based on their needs, and be purposeful about students' work and assessments.  (Whew, is that all???)  I'm looking forward to the #eduread chat to help solidify my thinking about differentiation and learning profiles in mathematics!

---

A few of my summer educational reads...

• The Differentiated Classroom: Responding to the Needs of All Learners (2nd edition), Carol Ann Tomlinson
• Trust Matters: Leadership for Successful Schools (2nd edition), Megan Tschannen-Moran
• Instructional Rounds in Education: A Networked Approach to Improving Teaching and Learning, City, Elmore, Fiarman and Teitel
• Leaders Eat Last, Simon Sinek
• Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain
• (re-read) Teach Like a Pirate, Dave Burgess

Read More

Even More Mindset!

Our faculty started studying mindset a couple years ago, and after the first sessions in the How To Learn Math course, I knew I was on the right track with teaching about mindset, but I need to do much more. I just finished session 4 of the course, and one of the questions asked what can we do to communicate positive messages to our students.  We presented something to our faculty last year, I've practiced in my class this year, so that question was an easy one to answer.  As a reminder to myself and to solidify my thinking, I wanted to share my responses here.

One thing I've already prepared for next year is a slideshow of mindset, failure, and mistake quotes. I plan to show this power point during transition times, passing periods, or maybe on days where we have challenging lessons.

Last year, my students regularly used #growthmindset when they were struggling on concepts or problems.  I would also write #growthmindset on the bottom of tests/quizzes or class problems.  The students also would call me out when I said something with a fixed mindset. (ME: "Oh, I'll never get my old computer to work with this projector, I give up!" STUDENT: "Fixed mindset, Ms. Laster, keep trying!")

For something new, I've toyed with the idea about creating a "Growth Mindset" digital badge for my students. They would need to watch videos, reflect on mindset, and demonstrate how they've shown a growth mindset in our class and in another area in their lives.  It hasn't happened YET...but I still have one month 25 days until school begins. :)  I also LOVED the idea @karlfisch created of the letter before school and this "assignment".

Ideas shared with our faculty and what I've tried...

• Guide the students through the 4 steps to changing mindset. (The example I shared with our faculty and students was my first attempt at Wii Zumba--definitely heard my fixed mindset voice then!) 
• Present students with brain research and its potential to grow.
• Provide students with role models of individuals who have succeeded because of a growth mindset. (love the Michael Jordan failure commercial)
• Provide opportunities for students to reflect on their growth mindset experiences (student blog example and teacher blog about the "Power of Yet").
• Model your own growth mindset.
• Praise for strategies, effort and processes instead of for intelligence and ability.
• Create a Failure Quote wall in your classroom.

Quotes about failures & post-its of mistakes & how teachers/kids learned

Giving Feedback

• “You really studied for your test, and your improvement shows it. You read the material over several times, outlined it, and tested yourself on it. That really worked!”
• “I like the way you tried all kinds of strategies on that math problem until you got it.”
• “It was a long, hard assignment, but you stuck to it and got it done. You stayed at your desk, kept up your concentration, and kept working. That’s great!”
• “I like that you took on the challenging project. It will take a lot of work – research, designing the machine, buying the parts and building it. You’re going to learn a lot of great things.”

I'm still looking for ideas, and I'm still learning and growing.  Using scoop.it, I continue to curate blog posts and articles I find using #HowToLearnMath.

Any other ideas to share?  

What are you doing in your classrooms to help change your students' mindsets?

Read More

Mistakes and Mindset

I love when my education worlds collide!  This weekend, I worked on session 3 of #HowToLearnMath, which is "Mistakes and Persistence," I finished chapter 5 of Embedded Formative Assessment, which is all about providing feedback, and I created something for our new teachers to introduce them to our school's path to differentiation...and all 3 of these projects involved mindset!  

For those participating in the course, or if you recently studied Carol Dweck's work, do you hear and see the word mindset everywhere you turn?  (I do!)  During the past two years, I talked to my students a bit about the brain research, the importance of making mistakes, and how to foster a growth mindset, but I need to do much, much more.  One of the questions in #HowToLearnMath asked what should a failure/mistake poster say, and we talked about that same idea in an #efamath discussion.  Since I am a floater teacher, the wise @druinok suggested a power point, rather than a poster, so that's what I did.

Since there has been so much talk about mindset, mistakes, and failure, I found great quotes to create the presentation embedded below.   Several of the images came from Krissy Venosdale's wonderful site of free posters.  I found a few other posters on Live Life Happy, and several quotes came from this post on the Practical Savvy blog.  I plan to show this slideshow to my classes during passing periods or during other transitions, and I want to ask my students to contribute their favorite quotes about mindset, mistakes, and failures.

If interested, feel free to use/modify the presentation.  I believe you can download the presentation as a power point, but I doubt all of the fonts will transfer.  If you prefer, I can share the Google doc with you.



Larry Ferlazzo's blog contains countless ideas on motivation, mindset and learning from mistakes and failures, so if you would like additional videos, articles, or studies, you will certainly find them in his many lists of resources.

It has been a great summer of learning, and I am looking forward to sharing everything with our teachers and students!  What will you share with your students about mindset and mistakes?

Read More

Classroom Tour 2

At the beginning of the past two years, we have had room decorating contests, so I compiled a lot of pictures of classrooms.  (Our principal provided prizes for the best rooms, by the way.)  I shared some of the best pictures on this post, but this presentation (created for our new teachers) includes even more pictures, so I thought I would share here, too.  Enjoy!

Read More