Archive for the ‘Models’ Category

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Getting Parents on Board with the Common Core

June 10th, 2013 by Sheila Grady

Parent teacher collaboration

When it comes to implementing the Common Core State Standards, we have much to do, not the least of which is parent education.  Parent newsletters are one obvious avenue for getting the message out.  Here are some topics and ideas that can help you get a head start on next fall’s newsletters.  Principals, you are welcome to cut and paste and, of course, contribute your own “open source” musings in the comments!

 21st Century Learning

Things are clearly different in our 2013 world, and school is one of those things!  The model of schooling that most of us experienced was established in the 19th century and fine-tuned in the 20th century to develop a citizen workforce for the Industrial Revolution.  In many ways, the schooling we adults received was based on an assembly line model.  As we educate your children, we are not preparing them to work in a factory.  The skills they will need in the workforce will be a “blend of content knowledge, specific skills, expertise and literacies”.   (Source: Partnership for 21st Century Skills.)

Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity

The new basics are critical thinking, collaboration, communication, and creativity.  In fact, at our school, we add a fifth “C” to this: conservation.   Let’s review what these skills are and think about how we may already see them being developed in our school.

  • Critical Thinking requires one to reason effectively, solve problems, make judgments and decisions.  We scaffold our students’ opportunities to think critically and provide a foundation upon which to base their thinking.  (Hint – our “Character Counts” program) 
  • Collaboration is the ability to work effectively and respectfully with diverse teams, to be flexible and able to compromise, to assume shared responsibility for collaborative work, and to value the individual contributions of each team member.    (Hint – Parent-Teacher Committees, Fundraising Drives)
  • Communication is the ability to express ideas clearly in a variety of ways—written, spoken, drawn, built, acted out—and to receive ideas from others by effective listening, watching, and questioning.  (Hint – Reading and Writing for sure, but also Art, Music, Tech)
  • Creativity not only means having new ideas.  It is the ability to elaborate or refine  the ideas of others and to be open to new ideas and possibilities.  (Hint – PTA Meetings, Science Night)
  • Conservation means that our students will take individual and collective action towards addressing environmental challenges.  (Hint – our school Green Team!)

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Posted in Models, Productivity | No Comments »

Push to the core with “Teaching Channel.”

March 22nd, 2013 by Lisa Marie Gonzales

 

 

 

We seem to now live in a world abuzz with the “Common Core,” and the resources are plentiful. Great problem to have, right? Wrong! Too many resources and so many require time to sift through for quality, applicability to our differing student populations, and then finding them later when we realize the resource was good.  It’s exhausting.  That’s why, when Teaching Channel (Tch) was recommended by a colleague, I thought, “Finally!”

As part of a county office team, I work with many school districts.  We regularly run across superintendents or board members who want to know, “How will classrooms look different in the Common Core era?”  Tch can help answer that question.  To start with, Tch has introductory videos the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) with a toolbox and an ongoing series of video conversations that address the stages and challenges of implementation.

The next highlight is the depth of videos they have on every subject (currently 155 in ELA and 113 in Math) that are broken down by grade level and concept. For example, I previewed a 2nd-3rd grade video on “number sense.” When you click on the lesson, the standards are highlighted and when you scroll over each standard, it details each beyond the number and header. This particular lesson has an 8 minute long video that focuses on the teacher leading a group of students through the lesson.

The teacher models a couple of ways to count to a specific number using counters, with students attentively watching. She asks questions and students come up to model how they might record their answers.  A quick check for understanding leads students into a group activity that was rich with academic vocabulary and mathematical conversations. The teacher moves around the room, working with small groups and asking probing questions that require the students to defend their thinking and math processes.

Grade level ranges are broken down into preK-2, 3-5, 6-8 and 9-12. The videos are also delineated by topics, ranging from student engagement to differentiation to digital literacy. And although the actual lesson plans are not provided, there is enough solid modeling in the videos that a novice teacher can pick up the particular lesson and run with it.  Likewise, a superintendent or board member—or anyone—can get a good look at how classrooms implementing CCSS are different.

Since much of my work in CCSS also focuses on the arts, I had to check out some of the 41 videos already created for the arts. I was pleasantly surprised to find the art lessons were tied to other core subjects, especially the ever-so-popular STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). From high school vocal warm-up techniques to kindergarten science/math/art animal patterns, even the arts have a central place in Tch. More importantly, the videos on Tch are rich with student engagement, conversation, clear instructional objectives that students articulate, and strong examples of formative assessments.

I have been most impressed with the reach of Tch. Check it out.

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Posted in Integration, Models, Professional development | 1 Comment »

“The Delegation”

November 30th, 2012 by Skip Johnson

Students of El Crystal Elementary SchoolFacing incipient school closure

Last April I found out late on a Friday evening that my school had been unexpectedly listed in a San Bruno Park School District governing board agenda for closure at the end of the 11/12 school year. Up to that point only one other school had been recommended for closure by a consultant firm hired by the district. To say the least, there was a strong reaction from our school community. At the next board meeting dozens of parents and students lambasted the board and district administration. The final vote was 5-0 to not close any school in the upcoming year. However, knowing that with the the state and federal budget crisis, the potential failure of Proposition 30, and the uncertain success of a district sponsored parcel tax (it did not pass on November 5), as a school community we knew that we had to do something to fend off closure for the 13/14 year.

For the last couple of years, the former PTA president had wanted to establish our school, El Crystal, as a charter school. We looked at the district policy but quickly decided that none of us had the time to invest in that endeavor. However, with closure on the near horizon, Vince (the former PTA President) and I sought school and community members to create a mini-task force to discuss and consider other alternatives. By June of 2012 we had a group of between ten and twelve regular participants that met every other Thursday over the summer to strategize a plan. Eventually, we settled on becoming a Magnet School for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Our site has been designated by the district as a Demonstration School for the Integration of Curriculum and Technology for the last four years, so this move seemed logical. The staff had considered this notion during the school year, so it met with their overwhelming support.

Creating a proposal

We created our Magnet School Proposal throughout the summer. Just before school began, four members of what the district soon labelled “the delegation” met with the superintendent and one board member to present our proposal. The delegation was asked to come back with answers to a number of questions posed during the meeting. The district asked that I as principal, should serve as the liaison to the parent group. We met one more time to offer our responses. Our proposal was put on the board agenda in October as a presentation item. The board voted to place our proposal as an action item for the upcoming November 14 board meeting.

Whether or not our proposal gains the needed wind to take flight is in the hands of the governing board. But what I want to share is the extraordinary relationships that were established within the parent group known as the delegation.  Ten regular participants composed the group:

  • Parent and former PTA President who is a property manager
  •  A nurse
  •  A real estate broker
  •  An architect from the community
  •  Manager of a major department store
  •  Director at a bio-medical company
  •  Self-employed illustrator and author
  •  A former parent and community activist
  •  Director of fundraising at a public television station in San Francisco
  •  Webmaster for a non-profit organization

A model of collaboration

I have been an administrator in public schools for almost 25 years. I have facilitated, met with, and participated in numerous parent groups including PTA, ELAC, School Site Councils, and special committees designated by the governing board. Those meetings are usually agendized, focused on support for a specific school or school system, and driven by interest or protocol. Folks can participate or just ‘sit on their hands’ and let others do the talking and decision-making.

The delegation turned out to be a much more intense, personal, and gratifying experience. The participants were open-minded, candid, task-driven, solution-oriented, focused, and respectful to the perspectives brought by each member. The STEM idea was offered by Vince and myself. The group took this notion as a great idea, did research away from the meeting, brought their individual experiences and perspectives into the discussions, read everything given to them, and asked driving and well-thought out questions.  In other words, they were the ideal collaborative group. They were a model for what any teacher would want to see students achieve at any level in any classroom learning any subject.

Invest time with parents in open-ended problem-solving

I said at a recent conference that every principal should figure out a way to invest time regularly with a group of parents and an open-ended problem to solve. From this experience I gained insight to how parents perceive my behavior as an individual and administrator, how they perceive the goals of our school, how they perceive classroom activities, and how they perceive the intended culture of the school. If you asked folks to give you this insight straight up, you would receive nothing. In many ways, these participants were the faces behind the survey questions you send out about your school. I learned that some people perceive me as sometimes too frank and honest, that I could be more tactful, and that there was tremendous respect for how we care for the students in our charge especially with the technology we offer throughout the curriculum. In the final analysis, I learned that collaboration is an essential condition at all levels if any system if it is going to function at its maximum.

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Posted in Leadership, Models, Productivity | 6 Comments »

Classroom Visits Inform and Inspire

November 22nd, 2012 by Devin Vodicka

After 13 wonderful years with the Carlsbad Unified School District, I made the leap to neighboring Vista Unified as the new Superintendent in July.  Vista Unified is the fourth-largest district in San Diego County with over 22,000 students (25,000 when charters are included) and 32 school sites.  To help me to understand the new setting I made it a goal to visit every classroom within the first two months of the school year.  While I still have a few to see, I have managed to see hundreds of classrooms within that timeframe.

Though the duration of each visit was relatively brief, I saw amazing consistency in many respects and I also observed some unique and innovative practices.  In all, it has been a tremendous learning opportunity and I wish that I could share the experience in great detail.  In the spirit of brevity, here are three examples I doubt I would have seen even a few years ago.

High School

At Rancho Buena Vista High School the students in an English class had worked in small groups to create posters with content that would be used in an upcoming test.  In lieu of having each student copy the documents, the teacher invited students to take photos using their smartphones and then share the images with peers.  Brilliant!

 

High school students using cellphone in English class.

Rancho Buena Vista High School student uses phone to capture image of documents in English class.

Elementary School

In a primary classroom at Beaumont Elementary School, one teacher asked students to compose messages that could fit in a 140-character Twitter post to share their impressions of the classroom with me.  This was a great cross-disciplinary idea that required students to use a sentence frame and their writing skills.  Counting the characters required some number sense and application of mathematics.  Who knew that a Twitter assignment could be used as a prompt for first-grade students?

 

Twitter messages to the new superintendent.

Twitter messages to the new superintendent.

 

Tablets absolutely are  beginning to transform the educational experience for students.  In this photo from Temple Heights Elementary School the teacher was able to replay the work that a student had done on a particular math problem to better understand their reasoning and problem-solving approach.  The ease of use, portability, and flexibility of the tablets seem to be leading to higher levels of use than the computers that have all-too-frequently been left alone in the corners of the classroom.  I saw tablets being used for independent work, guided activities, and direct instruction in conjunction with LCD projectors.  I suspect that what I saw was simply the tip of the iceberg.

 

Elementary student using a tablet computer.

Elementary student using a tablet computer.

Insights

In reflecting on this experience, here are two quick insights:

  1. This is an amazing time to be in education.  New and innovative options for teaching and learning are emerging daily.
  2. Any educator in need of inspiration should find a way to visit classrooms.  The enthusiasm of the students—and the adults—is absolutely contagious.

I am already looking forward to the next round of visits!

Stay connected and follow our progress ….

Editor’s note: Here’s one of Devin’s recent Twitter posts.

 

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Posted in Integration, Leadership, Models | 6 Comments »

Update on a One-to-One iPad Implementation

October 17th, 2012 by Tim Landeck

Students with iPadsIt was last January when we distributed 35 used iPad1s to 35 eighth grade students in Mr Boggs’s class at Pajaro Middle School in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District.  Students were excited and enthusiastic to receive the iPads; teachers and parents were nervous.  Nine months later we have some experiences to share.

  • After four months of students taking the iPads home on a 24/7 basis, we had one iPad that developed an issue with the connector and one that had a broken screen.  All other iPads were returned in excellent condition and used again this fall for a new set of students.
  •  Each iPad was equipped with a copy of the HMH FUSE Algebra textbook which provided access to an abundance of online resources, videos and supplemental information.  The textbook came alive for the students and was used frequently throughout the year.  Each iPad also had a variety of other apps that were downloaded by the teacher prior to distribution or that the students downloaded with guidance from the teacher.
  • The teacher accepted the large challenge of integrating this new technology and textbook into his curriculum.  He began to flip his classroom, and the students adapted quickly.  He investigated and implemented new apps to use with his students.  He found that he had more time to work individually with students during class and that the students were enjoying the class time more than before.
  • This fall, Mr. Boggs’s algebra class was a commonly requested class by students.  The forward-thinking principal, Jean Gottlob, reported that Mr Boggs’s Algebra class was one of the most frequently requested classes of the year.  (Did you catch that? Algebra was one of the most commonly requested classes!

If engagement is a key factor to student learning, Mr. Boggs had the key to learning whenever he was using the iPads in his instruction.  The students were enthusiastically participating in a variety of ways.  It is with tools like these that creative and daring educators like Mr. Boggs and forward thinking leaders like Principal Gottlob can double the learning, triple the enjoyment, and maintain an outstanding instructional institution.

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Posted in Integration, Models | 2 Comments »

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