Pillar Three- Family

I want to focus on the pillars of our culture movement- #WensinkWay.

All of the pillars are based around the word "Elite."
What is our definition of Elite?

Elite- Being the best version of yourself                              

That definition of ELITE has linkage back to guys named Brian and Tim Kight and their leadership training.  The Kight's are used by Urban Meyer and the Buckeye Football Team.  You can read more about them here.


Pillar Three is Family

What is Family?  The definition that our students helped us create is "Being ELITE for others."  Let that set in. How do we treat others?  Especially, how do we treat others in times of conflict or when we are wronged?  How do we treat others when we get the chance to pick between being right or being kind?

I am writing this on Sunday morning after I watched our annual spring musical last evening.  Our kids did GREAT.  Everyone, from the on stage talent to the off-stage talent.  After the show, they honored Jim Oberhaus in that they introduced the scholarship the music boosters is creating for him.  Jim spoke for just a few seconds but what he said, is about family.  He said, "Patrick Henry is more than a school district, it is a family,  keep it that way."
Scenario:  I would encourage you to tell your PATS class this week a story that pertains to "family."  It may be about you or someone you know.  Maybe you can tie in a book you are reading.  Let them what you are reading.

Though I know PATS classes will be limited this month, but I am going to give you some resource sheets you might want to use in PATS classes or possibly in other classes.  Here is a document that you could give to students to let them tell their "above and beyond" story.  If you do this, tell them you would like to post them in your room.  No names are required.  Collect them and post them. 

We will do something similar to this with the other two pillars.  I would love to see these posted in many of our rooms.  This helps build culture, you have to talk about it and teachers are the front line of communication with our students.



Questions To Consider:
1.  Be the first in your room to print this, fill in your story, and display it.  Let students see it.
2.  Have you read a great book or article lately that included how we define "family"?  Or maybe you saw a neat ESPN special during the Final Four about a player that had elements of the pillar family .  Find the link, email to some students.  Tell them it reminded you of them or something along those lines and encourage them to continue to be the best version of themselves with their family.
3.  What other ways can a teacher help build culture in their classrooms, building, or district?

Pillar Two Above and Beyond

I want to focus on the pillars of our culture movement- #WensinkWay.

All of the pillars are based around the word "Elite."
What is our definition of Elite?

Elite- Being the best version of yourself                              

That definition of ELITE has linkage back to guys named Brian and Tim Kight and their leadership training.  The Kight's are used by Urban Meyer and the Buckeye Football Team.  You can read more about them here.


Pillar Two is Above and Beyond

What is above and beyond?  The definition that our students helped us create is "Being ELITE when no one is looking."  Let that set in. What do we do when no one is looking?  How do we perform or do our duties?  Would we be OK with people seeing some of our decisions when no one is looking?

The whole idea is that if we talk about "above and beyond" and encourage our students, we can impact their decision making when no one is around.   

Scenario:  I would encourage you to tell your PATS class this week a story that pertains to "above and beyond."  It may be about you or someone you know.  Maybe you can tie in a book you are reading.  Let them what you are reading.

Though I know PATS classes will be limited this month, but I am going to give you some resource sheets you might want to use in PATS classes or possibly in other classes.  Here is a document that you could give to students to let them tell their "above and beyond" story.  If you do this, tell them you would like to post them in your room.  No names are required.  Collect them and post them. 

We will do something similar to this with the other two pillars.  I would love to see these posted in many of our rooms.  This helps build culture, you have to talk about it and teachers are the front line of communication with our students.



Questions To Consider:
1.  Be the first in your room to print this, fill in your story, and display it.  Let students see it.
2.  Have you read a great book or article lately that included perserverance?  Or maybe you saw a neat ESPN special during the Final Four about a player that perservered.  Find the link, email to some students.  Tell them it reminded you of them or something along those lines and encourage them to continue to perservere.
3.  What other ways can a teacher help build culture in their classrooms, building, or district?

Pillar One- Perserverance

I want to focus on the pillars of our culture movement- #WensinkWay.

All of the pillars are based around the word "Elite."
What is our definition of Elite?

Elite- Being the best version of yourself                             

That definition of ELITE has linkage back to guys named Brian and Tim Kight and their leadership training.  The Kight's are used by Urban Meyer and the Buckeye Football Team.  You can read more about them here.


Pillar One is PERSERVERANCE

What is perserverance?  The definition that our students helped us create is "Being ELITE in difficult times."  Let that set in.  Have you had a difficult time recently?  Were you the best version of yourself?  Ultimately, we will all fall short of being the best version of ourselves in all situations.  That would not be the goal.  To build culture, the talk of perserverance and what it means to us has to be relevant.  Our students have to hear about it and use the language in this blog to describe it.

Scenario:  A student struggles through putting an answer together after many promtpings by you, the teacher.  The student has genuinely made the effort and not just tried to bypass your question.  Really you can input any activity (quiz team, band, choir, sports, church, etc..)  What a great opprotuntity to quickly mention, "That is a great example of perserverance, being the best version of yourself when things are difficult."  "I appreciate that."  Done, move on.  You helped build culture.

Though I know PATS classes will be limited this month, but I am going to give you some resource sheets you might want to use in PATS classes or possibly in other classes.  Here is a document that you could give to students to let them tell their "perserverance" story.  If you do this, tell them you would like to post them in your room.  No names are required.  Collect them and post them. 

We will do something similar to this with the other two pillars.  I would love to see these posted in many of our rooms.  This helps build culture, you have to talk about it and teachers are the front line of communication with our students.
 


Questions To Consider:
1.  Be the first in your room to print this, fill in your story, and display it.  Let students see it.
2.  Have you read a great book or article lately that included perserverance?  Or maybe you saw a neat ESPN special during the Final Four about a player that perservered.  Find the link, email to some students.  Tell them it reminded you of them or something along those lines and encourage them to continue to perservere.
3.  What other ways can a teacher help build culture in their classrooms, building, or district?

#WensinkWay

Thanks to Ben George for the following documents.

Explanation of the WensinkWay
WensinkWay handout


Thanks to Scott Bley for these documents.
Scott's intro to the fight song
Scott's fight song explanation


The above documents will become a large part of our culture.  Take the time to read them.  Post them if you would like.  In the near future, we will be getting you some items connected to the #WensinkWay that you can post in your room.

Personalizing Learning Through Student Feedback

Thanks to Dustin Ruffell for providing the article linked below.

No matter what framework you employ in your classroom, student feedback is really important.  This article details the use of feedback from the students to the teachers connected to correcting assignments or tests. 

Here is a part of the article:
"I took my time reading their test corrections. I really tried to understand why the students missed the problem and also what part of the problem they got right.

I found this scrutiny to be time well spent. It helped me see that a lot of students understood exponential functions but were having trouble solving equations! I probably wouldn’t have caught this if I hadn’t gone through their tests again."

Questions to consider:

1.  Have you ever gotten excited enough to put an exclamation point at the end of a sentence about reading test corrections? 

2.  The author notes that "he would not have caught this if I hadn't gone through their tests again."  Have you ever identified a misunderstood concept on an assessment after reviewing student scores?  How did you address it? 

3.  What a great question, check out the student responses!  What can we learn from this?

Personalized Learning- Student Voice

Student voice is a major part of personalizing learning for our students.  Many of you provide students with great feedback regarding products they create for you.  I try to provide you with feedback through the evaluation process.  Allowing students to provide us feedback through activities designed to give us information that will allow us to shape instruction or other processes we use to better serve our students.  Here is a survey students take to provide information to their teachers about their learning and progress

YouthTruth is a non-profit that collects information from young people across an array of topics.  Here is a page describing some wide-ranging findings with regard to preparedness after high school.  Check out the resources at the bottom of the linked page. 

Questions To Consider:

1.  How do you provide students feedback?  How do you allow students to give you feedback?

2.  Think about the questions that would really make you think about your practices in your classroom, what would you ask students for their thoughts on?

3.  What questions could you ask students to help you personalize their learning?

Sharing A Resource: Staying Connected To A Personal Interest

As I was working on some coursework this week, I was directed to the Thomas B. Fordham Institute's website.  If you are not familiar with the Fordham Institute, the institute is designed to promote educational quality to all students in America based on research and advocacy.  Often times, this group will get involved in politics and especially with school of choice in Ohio.  I don't advocate their website as a resource for political reasons. 

Their website is catered to the state in which the search was conducted.  Here is a link to a publication they produce that provides articles relating to soon to be enacted, soon to be voted on, or new education based legislation in Ohio.

Here are some policy briefs for legislation that is pertinent to Ohio.

Here is the starting page for the institute's site for Ohio.

This is a bit different from most of my blogs.  I found the site interesting and full of information.  I would encourage you to bookmark it and search it for updates as you hear about them.


Questions To Consider:

1.  What resources, like this, would be beneficial to you?  Have you found any new resources that pertain to your teaching area or interest lately?
2.  Have you sought out new resources lately?  Have you read a good book lately?
3.  Pick one item that you want to find a new resource that connects to it...find it...

Good Luck