Student For A Day

As I plan for some upcoming activities that I want to participate in, I found this article from the Washington Post.  The article is written regarding the experience of a teacher/adult as he/she shadowed a student for a few days in their school.  "Shadowing A Student" is gaining traction in our world as a great way of reflection and analysis of what a student is experiencing in a school.

I don't believe all that is talked about in the article happens at PHHS but it is still worth thinking about.

I would encourage you to read the article and think about the below questions.

Questions To Consider:

1.  Is this something you would be willing to do?  Let me know, I will make sure you get the opportunity.
2.  The article lists a few key takeaways, do you think those apply at PHHS?
3.  Could you predict what your key takeaways would be in a day for one of our students?

"You Go Home A Loser"

Recently the woman's basketball coach at Louisville went on a rant about millennials and their unwillingness to compete.  Here is about 3 mins of the press conference he had after a loss.  As the press conference got more and more attention, I heard more and more people talking about it.

I knew I wanted to write about it but I wasn't really sure how.  This is what I landed on.

I think his topic of conversation has direct impact on what we do in education and for us locally at PHHS.

Here are the reasons I believe that to be true:
1.  We work directly with millennials or whatever they are being called this generation
2.  We work directly with this generation he says gets a trophy for everything
3.  We work with this generation that has more unique social emotional needs than any other in our history
4.  We work with this generation that will define our future
5.  We work with this generation that needs to be cared for and loved
6.  We work with this generation that hasn't completely mastered skills like resiliency and learning how to lose.
7.  Many other reasons that I have not listed.

Questions to Consider:

1.  I agree with some of what this coach said.  Really think about the short video clip....what strikes you?  How can it help you in your classroom?
2.  Students are more unique than ever.  Though handing out "trophies" to all so they aren't offended is not going to work, we have a more unique obligation to care about our students and their "feelings."  How does that impact negative/positive your classroom?  How can it be a positive or cause you to grow professionally?
3.  Resiliency is a great asset for adults and students alike.  I believe this is the biggest lacking characteristic for our students.  What do you think is the most lacking characteristic?  How can we help to build that?

Try This

As I was doing some reading this week, I came across a blog post by Justin Tarte (@justintarte).  Dr. Tarte is someone that has some distinct opinions on homework and redos/retakes.  All of you now know why I was reading his blog.  Dr. Tarte is a good follow on Twitter also.  

The blog I was reading was titled "Five Alternatives to Traditional Homework."  Though I didn't find all of the suggestions to be practical, a few of them were interesting to me.

Here they are:

When you are out and about (with an adult), say 'hello' and ask every person you encounter or interact with 'how they are doing': Talk about a neat social experiment! Imagine that when standing in line, or browsing in a store, or simply walking in the parking lot to and from the car... how much can we learn from interacting with others and simply observing and experiencing the ups and downs of basic human and social interactions. Also, think about how this social experiment could go both ways... by being nice to strangers we possibly brighten their day while also being reminded of our influence on the attitudes of others.

Read about something you know nothing about: It doesn't matter if it's a magazine in the doctor's office or an article from the newspaper or something online. Go find something you know nothing about and read about it and learn something new. Simple and easy.

Click here to see the whole article if you are interested.

Questions To Consider:

1.  Can you incorporate such activities, as above, into content in your classroom?  Do activities like this have place in content areas?

2.  Could you use some activities like this as some type of "homework" for your students over Christmas break or even between Christmas and the end of the semester?

3.  The above types of "assignments" don't hod any place in assessing content acquisition but what place could they hold in your classroom?

Google: Google Form Basics

As we continue through the evaluation process, I feel like I have been mentioning a tool within Google quite a bit.  That tool is the Google Form.  Google forms can be a great tool in collecting formative information from students.  As we continue to move to a 1:1 setting, I thought it would be a good opportunity to revisit this tool.

Here is a quick article from Alice Keeler about the use of Google Forms with an Infographic to use for reference.


Questions to consider:

1.  Do you use Google forms in your classroom?  Do you find them useful in collecting formative information?
2.  Reflect back on your goals from your professional growth plan or the "3 words" activity we did at the beginning of the year.  Were any of those focuses on technology or Google?  Maybe this is a good place to take a step, using a Google Form to collect information from students.
3.  Though we will have to do some PD once we get closer to 1:1, think about how something like using this in class will have to become more prevalent once all students have a computer in their hands.

Control What We Can Control

I will not dive into the world of politics.  I think that noting good comes of me trying to do that.  I will admit that I am intrigued by change (as many of you know).  Watching this change in power and development of a new administration in Washington is a marvelous process to me (no matter who is in charge).

Here is an article about the appointment of Betsy DeVos.  I knew nothing about her but through my PLN (professional learning network (Twitter, Facebook), I have learned more than I want to know about her.  Just because, no specific reason.

All of the negativity from public school officials regarding this appointment got me thinking.  We have the opportunity to impact our kids everyday.  My chance of impacting her or the position she was assigned is pretty minimal.  So, I suggest...we control what we can control.

Please read this short article from Jon Gordon about Controlling what you can control.


Questions To Consider:

1.  How can we model, as adults, this attitude of "controlling what you can control" to our students?

2.  How can we respond to students that have big opinions about a political race or other social situations?

3.  I would encourage you to use what Jon Gordon has to say about complaining in your classroom:
"Complaining about something you can't control is a waste of energy, focus and time."

What Teachers Can Be Thankful For On Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is upon us in a few days.  Once we get past Thanksgiving, December will start and the middle of the second nine weeks will be half over.  Before long....Exams will be here.

Here is a short article directed at teachers and items you can reflect upon to be thankful at the the time of Thanksgiving.

Questions to Consider:

1.  What are you thankful for...no really think about it?  Better yet tell someone what you are thankful for.

2.  One of the items listed in the article is the internet or social media, what does that mean to you?  Are you using those resources to the extent that you are thankful for them?

3.  Co-Workers...What a great resource for encouragement and content.  Use your co-workers for words of encouragement, to help answers questions or just to have someone to listen to you.

Thank you for your work at PHHS.

Complicated or Complex- Problem Solving

I came across this blog while reading on alicekeeler.com.  This is a featured post that she was discussing on her website.

Read the article here

The article is from Robert Kaplinsky consulting.  This author is comparing problem solving in our students.  Specifically examining if a problem is either complicated or complex.

It really is an interesting article.  Please read it and think about these questions.

Questions to Consider:

1.  The author uses a couple of examples to think about the words complex and complicated.  Do either of those explanation have any connection to how you may think about problem solving in your classroom?

2.  Have you ever heard of the CUBES method to problem solving?  How about the problem solving framework?

3.  Check out the problem solving framework, could you use that in discussion in your classroom?  Is that something you could work with your students on it being part of their thinking?

Rethinking Graduation Requirements

Typically I use this short blog to present a professional development opportunity to you.  This blog will be more information being presented to you.  Recently I emailed an article from the Dayton area to the HS staff about the State Board of Education saying they were going to examine one of the three new pathways to graduation.  Mainly the pathway most students will use for graduation, the 18 points earned on End Of Course Exams.

Here is a bit of a more updated article from the Columbus Dispatch.

Please take a few minutes to read the article.

Questions to Consider:

1.  Do you understand the three pathways to graduation for the class of 2018 and beyond?  If you don't, please review some of the many resources I have shared with you in the past.  Here is a good resource from ODE.
2.  If the decision is made to back off the total number of points made...what does that mean for us?  What will that allow us to do differently?
3.  What percentage of our students, do you think, in the class of 2018 are not where they need to be at this point with graduation points?  Do you think it is more or less than we would have needing to pass the OGT at this point in their careers (if that was still around).

Dr. Rick Wormeli- Late Work

Again this week I am going to share a video with you from Dr. Rick Wormeli.  Dr. Wormeli has some interesting ideas about grading and assessment.  This 3 minute talk is about late work.  Please take the time to view it.  Below are a few questions to consider.


Here is a video from Dr. Wormeli about late work.


1.  Consider what a "Rim Waver" is when Dr. Wormeli is talking about late work.
2.  How do you feel about his idea that there are many ways to handle late work?  All of which don't include assigning a zero or F.
3.   Dr. Wormeli uses the following phrase in the first few seconds of this video "be constructive from being irresponsible."  He asks educators to approach late work with this attitude.

Redos-Do Overs- Dr. Wormeli

Feedback that I have gotten about this little blog is that you enjoy while I provide something thoughtful but not real lengthy.

I am going to apologize to begin with.  This week I am presenting a Youtube video from Dr. Rick Wormeli.  Last week I blogged about some information from Dr. Wormeli about grading, homework and redos in the classroom.  This week, I want to let him talk with you about Redos.

Click here to see the video.  I am not going to give you some questions to think about.  I think what he says will cause some of you to say "this guy (including Josh for having us watch this) is a quack"  or "hey, this gives me a bit to think about."

I know a number of you employ the strategy of redos so that students can show you that they have mastered content.  The video clip is a sharing of some thoughts on redos.  My intent is not for you to employ all these techniques but only for you to hear a bit about his level of thinking on this.  If you can pick up an idea here or there, to improve what you do...then that is a positive.

14 Tips About Redos From Dr. Rick Wormeli

Dr. Rick Wormeli is an educator that speaks often about grading and standards based grading.  Here is a bio for Dr. Wormeli.

Rick Wormeli is one of the first Nationally Board Certified teachers in United States, is an American educator, national educational consultant, and author. Wormeli has taught math, science, English, physical education, health and history for over 20 years. He was the recipient of Disney's American Teacher Awards 1996 Outstanding English Teacher of the Nation.^[1] His work in middle school instruction is considered by many to be the defining work in that subject. He writes regular columns for the National Middle School Association's Middle Ground magazine ^[2] and ASCD.^[3]

Source: Wikipedia

Click here to see "14 Classroom Tips For Redos"

Questions to consider:

1.  Pick your two favorite numbers between 1 and 14.  Read them in the linked article above.  Or click here to see the article.

2.  Can you incorporate any of those ideas you just looked at?  Do you already do so?  Would any of these ideas be new/ridiculous/not ever going to happen in your classroom?

3.  Pick the two numbers you least like between 1 and 14 and read those on the linked article.

4.  Can you incorporate any of those ideas you just looked at?  Do you already do so?  Would any of these ideas be new/ridiculous/not ever going to happen in your classroom?

A Look Back

No new blog this week.  Just a look back at the last few weeks.

10/2/16- An Attitude of Gratitude-  Click here to read about your impact

9/24/16- What To Do NEXT With Depth of Knowledge (Follow up on PD) Click here to read it.

An Attitude of Gratitude

MORE WRITING THAN USUAL>>>I KNOW, PLEASE READ

As I prepared to write this week for this blog post a few conversations that I had last Friday/Saturday at our homecoming football game/dance kept coming to mind.  I know typically I give you some kind of PD related article or video to take a look at and some questions to make you think a bit.  This week, I am just going to write about those conversations because you need to hear them.

Conversation 1
This conversation was with a parent of a 9th grader.  The parent stopped me as I was walking to the field house to change a paper towel role.  She (the parent) went on to say that her student has come home this year with a bit of a different outlook in relation to seeking out extra help at school.  I don't say this to say that in other grades that teachers/staff don't offer or give extra help.  The parent relayed to me that she appreciated what was being done/said to her student at school to make them feel comfortable enough to seek out the help they need.  Maybe this change in approach came because of maturation or some other outside factor but I know all of you had a big part to play in it.  Thank you for what you are doing for this student.

Conversation 2
Because of homecoming, I get to talk to many recent graduates.  If it is a student that went to college, I always ask something along the lines of "Is it hard..."  On THREE different occasion over the weekend, I had recent graduates say the same thing to me.  They were grateful for the work that their junior/senior teachers had done with them.  They were grateful for being pushed but also cared for.

Conversation 3
Parent of an 11th grader cornered me as I was helping in the concession stand on Friday.  She quietly said "You know you have some pretty amazing people that work for you?"  I smiled and look at her and shook my head with pride.  That is all she said and I have no idea what happened for her to say that.  It just happened.

Conversation 4
While talking to a recent graduate, I asked the question I mentioned above... "Is college hard?"  She responded by saying that some classes are but that she is getting help.  Interested I asked...how do they structure extra help at your college.  She responded by saying NO..."I am emailing (she mentioned two of our teachers) to have them help me..."  It hit me after this conversation just how often this happens to all of you.  Thank you.

I realize you all don't hear these types of things all the time.  Because these three or four conversations were still with me here on Sunday, I thought it was important to tell you about them.

Thank you for what you do at PHHS.

What To DO NEXT with Depth Of Knowledge (DOK)?

OK...we have had multiple PD sessions about DOK...they have all been worth it

I recently read an article from 2014 on the edutopia site.  That is a great website with multiple resources.  You can type a topic in and you will get a lot of resources.

Click here to read a short article about possible next steps with DOK.  If you don't want to take the time (it will be minutes) to read the article only focus on the section labeled 1-5.  Those are five possible ideas on how you can start using the information that you have about Depth Of Knowledge.

Using the information you have about DOK, will help out with assessment literacy.

Questions To Consider:

1.  Did you ever want to just see a list of tasks that are specific to your content area and where they would fall in the DOK spectrum?  The article has a great resource for that.  It will give you an idea of where some of your tasks may fall and ideas about new ones.  it is labeled "These examples of DoK levels for four content areas "  
Or you can click here to see that resource.

2.  One of the tasks suggest analyzing patterns of where you place tasks you have students do on the DOK spectrum.  Is there a way to do this on a micro level, don't make it too overwhelming...How could that benefit you?

3.  This article has some great possible activities for upcoming TBT meetings.


By The Way (BTW)-  Our little local PD blog done weekly will, this week, surpass 1000 views since its inception.  I appreciate you taking a look.

Making Failure "Hard"- Reflection

Click here to read an article titled " Making Failure Harder Work Than Passing."

This article is by a woman named Angela Campbell (2015), who is a high school Chemistry teacher.

The article discusses practices that Angela Campbell uses in her classroom.  She wrote the short article in 2015 for edutopia.  I just happen to come across it this weekend when doing some online reading within my PLC (professional learning community).

To me PLC just means the people that I follow online/spend time visiting that help me in my profession.

Angela Campbell describes how she assesses students from start to finish for a unit or chapter in her Chemistry classroom.  The premise of her article was that she felt, in her classroom, failing was more work than receiving a passing score.  I just thought that reading the article would be good for all of us.

Maybe you can't/won't implement anything learned from this short read.  Maybe you already do many of these things.  But their is nothing wrong with reinforcing or looking at new ideas.  Especially within the are of student assessment of learning.  I have been reading a lot lately about "mastery learning," and this fit right into it.  (I will have a blog post on that real soon.)

Questions to Consider:
1.  Though you may not teach chemistry, can any of the information presented be helpful to you?
2.  She uses the phrase "guided practice opportunities"  as a way of measuring students informatively in low risk situations.  Does that make sense?  Is it too low risk for you?
3.  Angela Campbell has quit the method of having students show mastery on assessments.  Do you do something like that?  Would that be doable for you?  Does she really know what the students know?
Real Question- Do you know we have someone in our building that uses this very method....?

Personal PD: Expanding Your Horizons

I once was told that the best way to learn is to teach it.  That seems to be something that is often used in education too.  We hear things like first year teachers/administrators being "one day ahead of the students/teachers" or the duck premise of paddling at an unbelievable pace under the water but looking calm and collected above the water.

To continue with ideas about Personal PD, I challenge you in expanding your horizons.  For me, this challenge came in writing this weekly PD blog for our staff.  It took me outside of my regular routines and I really like being able to publish a (hopefully) useful blog.

Here are some ideas to maybe "expand your horizons"
1.  Start a class twitter or facebook page- tell your "story" through that social media
2.  Write a research based article or a PD article for the Ohio ASCD journal
http://issuu.com/ohioascd/docs/oh_ascd_winter_spring_2016__2___1_/1?e=25933408/37866907
3.  Attend a PD and share out what you learned to your department or our staff
4.  You know something that has been nagging at you to "expand your horizons," now may be the time to take that on.

Questions To Consider:
1.  What does it hurt to give it a try?
2.  Give it a try, it may be something you really enjoy.

Personal PD: Learning More About Google

This week I am going to introduce you to a resource that will be very helpful to everyone that uses google at anytime.

This resource is:  http://alicekeeler.com/

The Author of this website can be followed on Twitter: @alicekeeler

She is a great follow on Twitter.  She has opinions about other education related items but most of her tweets are what I will call "Google Hacks"

Below I will link some of these "Google Hacks" that might be useful to you:

http://alicekeeler.com/2016/08/17/offline-settings-google-drive/- Changing settings so that you can work offline in Google Drive.  It will sync once you come back online.

http://alicekeeler.com/2016/09/01/google-classroom-parents-need-google-account/-  Guardian access to Google Classroom

http://alicekeeler.com/2016/06/20/go-further-google-classroom/- 50 further tips for Google Classroom.  Extend your thinking

While at the website, I would suggest clicking on "all posts" to see her activity in the last month or so.  She is very willing to answer questions, as I have found out.  Emailing her or tweeting at her seems to be the most useful method.

Video Resources To Start The Year

Welcome to the 2016-2017 school year.  I will continue to write this weekly posting for all of you.  The objective of this blog is to serve you, as educators, an opportunity to weekly personal PD.

Here is the link to the video I used on Wednesday regarding "Knowing Your Why"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZe5y2D60YU

Hopefully this video helped you in creating your #whyIteach bubble and your "3 words" to focus on for the year.  Both those activities were focused on helping you develop a plan to write your professional growth plan for the year.

Here is the link to the second video that wouldn't play.  It is Rita Pierson, TED Talk.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFnMTHhKdkw

Questions to Consider:
1.  What does Ms. Pierson say we discount, as educators, in the school house?  What don't we focus on?
2.  What are some "simple things" that we can do to help establish relationships with students?
3.  How can a +2 on a paper be beneficial to a student?  Is that something that you can use?
4.  The title of this talk is "Every Kid Needs A Champion"  which sounds a lot like "Every Kid Deserves an Adult Advocate"

Feedback Loop

With the end of the year approaching, it may be time to collect some feedback from your students.  Maybe you tried something new this year or maybe you just want to get some feedback on something you have done for a while.  Click here to read a short article about feedback loops.  Really this is just asking students to think about what has worked for them and what maybe didn't work for them.  Knowing not all feedback from students is meaningful or even valid, as professionals we can delineate between what is useful to us and what is not.

Questions to consider:

1.  Did you do something this year that you are wondering about?  How did it work for students?  How can you make it better?
2.  Starting a "feedback loop" (as referred to in this article) doesn't seem too difficult.  How could you do that in your classroom?  Could you incorporate Google somehow?
3.  How have you used feedback to inform decisions or instruction in your classroom in the past?

Teacher Appreciation Week

This is Teacher Appreciation Week.  Thank you.

Click here to see a video that is a reflection and hopefully encouragement for a teacher.  The video is really seasoned teachers reflecting back and guiding younger teachers but it is applicable.  The video is under 3 mins in length.

Thanks for all you do.

Grading Practices: A Courageous Conversation

With our conversations the last few months about grading, I have been reading bloggers that spend time writing just about that.  This blog is from Alan Miller.  Click here to read it.  He calls the conversation about grading a "courageous one" to have.  I agree.

The article is a bit longer....please don't stop here...than what I usually have in this PD blog.

Here are some questions to consider:

1.  He says that he doesn't grade any of his formative assessments.  What does he consider a formative assessment?  How does he gauge student learning?
2.  He deviates between assessment and grading.  Do you agree with his deviation?  Can this help you?
3.  "My students cared more about the points than they did the class."  His direct quote.  How did he address that?

"This One Is For You Sir"

This week I am going to ask that you watch a short 2 minute clip from Dr. Adolph Brown.

Click here to see the video clip.  The clip is a small piece of a bigger talk that Dr. Brown was giving.  Even though it is a small piece of the whole talk, I think it has a some important items to think on.  I realize that he references gangs in the clip as an obstacle for learning in the setting he is in.  That doesn't affect us but we can insert any learning obstacle there.

Here is a bit of information about Dr. Brown.
http://www.docspeaks.com/


Questions To Think About:
1.  Do you connect to the video clip at all?
2.  What can you put in place of the learning obstacle of gangs in our setting in Henry County?
3.  Can you use the "communication style" that Dr. Brown did when the man was leaving the building?

50 Online Resources In One Tweet- Personal PD Pays Off Again...

This week I am going to feature a link tweeted by SimpleK12 (@SimpleK12).  The tweet is titled 50 free tech resources for your classroom.  You can take the time to look at the whole list.  I want to feature a few of them.  The interesting idea for me is that as I read the list, I know we have a number of them that are being used in our classrooms.

Click here to see the link.

Blabberize (make pictures that talk)-http://blabberize.com/
We all know how much students like to add un-needed items to the presentations for class.  Maybe this can be used to let them do that but add content to the "funny" part of the presentation.

Spiderscribe.net (organizing notes and idea)
This tool looks to have endless application for students or even adult students.  The site allows you to organize thoughts and ideas in a practical way.  The organization comes in the way of organizing files (google, word etc..) over a topic.  This may not be for all students but it seems it could be beneficial to some.

Littelbirdtales.com (digital story telling)
Are you looking for a new way to assess student learning?  Is taking a summative assessment just not fitting all your students????  This site helps students in the digital story telling area.  Students can create their stories, papers etc digitally for assessment.  The site is extensive and has some other great tools.

Enjoy

Differentiation For Instruction

The information presented this week comes from the ASCD publication "Classroom Instruction That Works."
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/classroom-instruction-that-works.aspx

Click here to view part of an article that was published by John McCarthy called

"Mythbusting Differentiation: Solutions to Make Differentiation a Reality"

Questions to Consider:

1. The suggestion to teach students multiple note taking strategies and let them pick what one to use is very interesting.  Just last week I was in a post conference with a teacher and they were talking about this very practice.  How can you differentiate note taking in your classroom?

2.  What is growth mindset language?  That would be a great item to Google and read about.

3.  At the top end of learning "synthesizing."  Think about how you can have students generate and test hypotheses?  This seems easy in a science classroom but how about an English/Math/SS classroom?

4 Inclusive Apps

This week's article comes from ASCD.  Click here to read the article.  This article outlines 4 new apps that teachers have available to them. One of them is Newsela, which is one that we have looked at many times.  The other three, I thought would be interesting for you to take a look at.  Please take a look at this recent article about some new resources.

Consider the following questions while reading:

1.  What a great resource that the open eBooks can be.  How could you use such books in your room?  Were you aware of free "open" books available on the internet?
2.  When I read about Padlet, it made me think about the "parking lot" for questions that often exist at PD for teachers.  I also thought about how it could be used in place of KWL charts.  Are you willing to give this a try in your classroom?
3.  Popplet looks like another story boarding app.  Take the time to review how that might be useful in your classroom.

Follow Up: Paper/Pencil vs Online Testing

With all the information that has come out this week about paper/pencil testing vs. online testing, I thought I would share this presentation with you.  Dustin Ruffell shared this with the admin team to view.  It is the Indian Valley superintendent just sharing information out to their community about this discussion.  This presentation was made after ODE said that those districts that previous selected "online" as their testing method, could not switch to paper/pencil.

Questions to Consider:

1.  Have you adjusted any of your assessments since we started looking at the rigor of these new questions two years ago?
2.  What is a fair way to adjust your questioning procedures?  Change all the questions at once, "field test" some items, a few here and there?
3.  Since we had our March two hour delay, have you looked at the folder for your breakout area and made any adjustments to your assessments?
4.  Is assessment literacy the only way we can help students adjust?

How Student Centered Is Your Classroom?

As we are all deep into another cycle of OTES evaluations, I thought that looking at student engagement would be a good idea.  Student engagement and student ownership cross many areas of the OTES rubric.  Many researches, Haite and Marzano-just to name a few,  have reported extensively on how student engagement and student ownership affect learning.  Click here to read an article about student centered classrooms.  The article is mostly just some questions to help you reflect on what type of learning environment you have in your classroom.  This article is on edutopia.com, if you haven't used that website before, I would encourage you to take a look at the many resources there.

Questions to consider:
 
1.  In what ways do students feel respected, feel valued, and feel part of the whole group?

2.  In what ways do students have ownership of the classroom? Do they ever make decisions about resources, environment, or use of time? When? How often?

3.  Do they have ownership in their learning? Do they have choices and options for projects, assignments, and partners for group work?

Something A Little Different

Click here for a short 3:27 video for you to view this week in our blog.  It is not what I usually do but this video came across my Twitter feed three times this week, so I thought that meant I should share it.  Many of you have seen it already I would imagine, if you haven't enjoy.

Be encouraged.

Using Your Voice To Type

I thought I would use this blog to follow up something we spoke about at our last staff meeting.  Here is the link to the support document from Google for the talk to type feature.  Read through all the pull downs so that you have an idea of what they add on can do.  I would encourage you to explore the answers below by exploring some of the features.

Steps to start
1.  Open a new google doc
2.  Click tools and voice typing
3.  Read a paragraph from a book you are reading so that it is "typed" on your document.


Questions to consider:
1.  Compare what you read to what is on the screen.  What areas didn't come across correctly?  What may be some glitchy spots in the translation for students?
2.  While you are reading use the punctuation commands.  How do those work for you?
3.  Select some of the editing tools and try them out.  They are all voice activated and work pretty smoothly.
4.  What student can you share this with?  Who would knowing how to do this benefit?

Differentiated PD???DI For Teachers?

Recently I was asked by High Schools To Work to write a short article about something that is going on at PHHS that I thought was innovative.  Right away I knew what I wanted to write about.  I can't stop smiling about our last full day PD.  Teacher driven, teacher delivered---hopefully teacher appreciated PD.  Teacher PD is most often (and sometimes even in OUR district) a one size fits all.  District leadership has heard your feedback in the past and has tried to make our PD time more useful for all of you.  A prime example was that "EdCamp" style day, where you picked the sessions you wanted to go to and learn about.  Designed by teachers and carried out by teachers....This takes me back to the title of this post....can we differentiate PD?  If you designed learning in your classroom in the manner that we all designed and created our last PD day....we would definitely call it differentiated.

Here are a few items to keep in mind that make PD like this possible.
1.  Teachers/Staff willing to share great practices
2.  The use of Public School Works to fulfill the mandated training that we don't have to spend time on in our PD days.

Here is the article that really got me thinking about this idea.  It comes from a great resource called edutopia.  I would suggest a follow on Twitter or Facebook if you use either for personal PD.

Questions to consider, or even respond in a comment to this post....
1.  Did the last full day PD fit your learning style?
2.  How would you make that better?
3.  Could you present the next time we do something like that?
4.  What types of sessions would you like to have but weren't available?

If They'd Only Do Their Work! Part 3

We will be viewing sections of an article in the Educational Leadership magazine put out by ASCD.  The title of the article is If They'd Only Do Their Work.  The article examines homework, motivation and research behind why students don't do homework.  It is a rather long article.  I will break it up into a few different blog posts with some questions.

Click here to see this week's section of the article.

Here is the link to the article:  http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb06/vol63/num05/If-They'd-Only-Do-Their-Work!.aspx

Questions To Consider:

1.  How do you/we make sure that assignments we give are authentic and engaging?

2.  One of the people quoted in the article talks about homework being meaningful when it is used the next day in class.  How does this work in your classroom?

3.  The very end of the article talks about homework that requires students to prepare.  What does that mean to you?  Do you do that in your classroom?

If They'd Only Do Their Work!

We will be viewing sections of an article in the Educational Leadership magazine put out by ASCD.  The title of the article is If They'd Only Do Their Work.  The article examines homework, motivation and research behind why students don't do homework.  It is a rather long article.  I will break it up into a few different blog posts with some questions.  Click here to read the section for this post.

Here is the link to the article:  http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb06/vol63/num05/If-They'd-Only-Do-Their-Work!.aspx

Questions to Consider:

1.  Have you ever thought about "Why students don't do their work?"

2.  Have you ever thought that students are protecting their self esteem or protecting some other personal reason for not doing homework?  What example can you think of?

3.  "Accepting failure as an option to not have to do work"  How can we combat this feeling for students?

If They'd Only Do Their Work!

We will be viewing sections of an article in the Educational Leadership magazine put out by ASCD.  The title of the article is If They'd Only Do Their Work.  The article examines homework, motivation and research behind why students don't do homework.  It is a rather long article.  I will break it up into a few different blog posts with some questions.  Click here to read the section for this post.

Here is the link to the article:  http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb06/vol63/num05/If-They'd-Only-Do-Their-Work!.aspx

Questions to consider:
1.  How does the following, research backed,  quote relate to you or your classroom?  "Students who do best in school are often those most adept at figuring out what the teacher wants (McCombs & Whisler, 1997).'
2. The article talks about students working across grade levels. How does that happen in our building? What other ways could it happen?
3. "Collaboration is Key" What ways do we allow for collaboration for adults in our building? What are some new/different ways we can do that?

What to Remember About Feedback

Feedback:
Check out this graphic.

Feedback is essential to student growth and acquisition.  Over time how feedback is given has changed.  I often see technology being used in our building for feedback.  In even more cases, I see our staff talking with students and giving feedback....meaningful feedback...how great is that.

Questions to Consider:
1.  Feedback should answer a question like this "How are we doing trying to achieve our intended outcome?"  Does your feedback address questions like this?
2.  This statement is made on the linked document "Feedback a student can give a teacher is more important than the feedback a teacher can give a student."  How does this apply to your classroom?  Do you take feedback from your students?
3.  "When we give a grade with our feedback, the students routinely only read as far as the grade."  What does this mean to you?

Encouraging Innovation

I came across this article on the ASCD website about innovative thinking in the classroom.  It was a quick read that made me think about a few things.  Below are the innovative thinking tips for the different content areas.

To me, innovation in another way of thinking about solving problems.  It is becoming more and more important that students leave us being able to solve problems in the real world...common sense.

Figure 1. The Innovation Process

Brainstorm possible needs or problems and ways to respond.

1. Evaluate ideas to decide which idea is most worth pursuing.
2. Identify steps in the process to produce the modification or improvement.
3. Identify enablers and disablers of the idea.
4. Reflect on the results of the innovation in order to determine if it is complete or needs to be modified.

Figure 2. Innovation Activities Across Content Areas

• Literacy
  • Create an innovation that would improve a character's life.
  • Create an innovative way to improve communication between two characters.
  • Develop an innovative way to solve the problem in the story.
  • Suggest an innovative way for the main character to take a risk.
• Math
  • Determine an innovative way to remember math facts.
  • Design an innovative system of measurement.
  • Create an innovative way to demonstrate parallel operations using scale and manipulative.
  • Determine an innovative way to demonstrate place value.
• Science
  • Identify an innovative way to reduce pollution.
  • Develop an innovative way to continue space exploration.
  • Determine an innovative solution to compensate for the loss of a sense.
  • Create an innovative space object using at least two characteristics.
• Social Studies
• Create an innovative solution to a problem in our community.
• Describe an innovative solution to the concept of scarcity.
• Create an innovative way to celebrate a national holiday.
• Develop an innovative form of transportation that will be beneficial to society.
• http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol11/1109-drapeau.aspx

Questions to Consider:

1.  How important is innovation in the 21st century learner?

2.  Do you encourage innovation in your classroom, possibly without even thinking about it?

3.  Can you incorporate the ideas above in any way?

Power Of A Positive Educator

The next few blog posts for us will feature short video clips from Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11).

Click here to view the clip from Jon Gordon titled “The Power Of A Positive Educator”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUlHrwmOh6Y

Questions to Consider

1. Will someone want to email you 27 years from now?
2. What stories will your students be telling about you?  What role do you want?
3. Think of a practical way/real life application to helping someone become a hero.

NO Energy Vampires

The next few blog posts for us will feature short video clips from Jon Gordon (@JonGordon11).

Click here to see the video clip titled “No Energy Vampires Allowed”

Questions to Consider

1. Have you ever thought about fear vs. faith
2. Do you have Energy Vampires in your life?  Are they close to you?
3. Could you post a sign like Jon Gordon talks about in your room/office?

“Our positive energy has to be greater than all the negativity and doubts.”