TLC: Teaching. Learning. Community.

We've Moved!

2011-03-02T21:07:00.002-05:00

We've moved.
Our new site is http://tlcommunity.com.
See you there!

Image by Matthew W Jackson on Flickr Creative Commons

The Student As Historian - DBQ Strategies and Resources

2011-01-08T11:32:00.001-05:00

Check out this presentation by Peter Pappas, recently featured on SlideShare. Many of you worked with Peter at his fall presentation. This SlideShade a great review, full of ideas, resources, and links for engaging student thinking. Enjoy.

The Student As Historian - DBQ Strategies and Resources

View more presentations from Peter Pappas.

Teachers Textbooks Technology

2010-12-13T16:26:00.000-05:00

At Monday's Board meeting we presented to the Board an update on three of the district's processes: assuring quality hiring practices, providing texts and materials, getting technology in every classroom. These three components are part of West Clermont's Strategic Plan, approved in 2010. Click here to see the PowerPoint slides that accompanied our presentation.

How lovely are your branches!

2010-12-05T11:34:00.006-05:00

"Necessitie, the inventour of all goodnesse."
Toxophilus, 1545

"Neccesity is the Mother of Invention."
Richard Franck, 1658

Not much time.

Not many materials.

And we're responsible for decorating a huge evergreen for the 1st Annual Union Township Civic Center's Tree Lighting! Yikes!

Actually, there's no need for alarm. With the West Clermont Art Department, these kinds of situations are everyday fare. When the clock is rapidly ticking and supplies are in short supply, our talented art teachers take the reins.

In record time, West Clermont K-12 art students created festive, colorful, large-scale weatherproof ornaments. Hundreds of kids. Hundreds of decorations. We did it up on a grand scale!

And the 1st annual tree lighting was a success. Hot chocolate, cookies and carols added to the cold, clear night. But the tree took center stage, and her branches were indeed, very lovely.

Quality PD on A Shoestring

2010-11-09T00:00:00.004-05:00

Thanks to the Board members and school administrators who joined us for a demonstration and conversation about low-cost, no-cost web applications to help create quality professional learning. As promised, here is your "paperless" handout:

Voicethread: Share images & text, collaborate & comment

Ning: Share within a members-only network

Skype: Free audio or video conferencing

Google Docs: Share documents, spreadsheets, calendar

Animoto: Easily create dynamic slide shows

Blogging: Share text, images, & links

Screencasting: Teach & talk about what’s on screen

Twitter: Learn & share with fellow educators

Wallwisher: Easily collect & post comments

Bonus: See also Jing for easy screen capture capability

Click here for November 9 PPT slides.
Click here for November 9 handout.

Presented to the Ohio School Boards Association Capital Conference, November 9, 2010

West Clermont Local Schools Department of Teaching & Learning
4350 Aicholtz Road Cincinnati OH 45245 | 513.943.5017
M.E. Steele-Pierce PhD Assistant Superintendent skype: steelepierce1
Cheryl Turner MEd Instructional Supervisor skype: cturnerr
Tanny McGregor MEd Instructional Supervisor skype: tanny744

Halloween 2.0

2010-10-31T16:17:00.000-04:00

Source: Comics.com 10-30-2010

edcamp Cincy

2010-10-09T23:02:00.004-04:00

W-T Elementary School was the host site of Greater Cincinnati's first edcamp, Saturday, October 9.

Learn about edcamps here.

Learn about edcamp Cincy here.

Follow the updated edcamp Cincy wiki here.

More photos and interviews here.

Sixty educators from around the Greater Cincinnati region gathered to create their own personal learning agendas and networking conversations. West Clermont participants included Julie Schneider, Tammy Marcotte, Cheryl Koehler, Kathy Stemmer, Joan Stear, Jeff Riel, Kendra Herdtner, LeAnna Webber, Joe Stahl, Alicia Walls, Scott Morgan, Matt White, Cheryl Turner and M.E. Steele-Pierce. Ask them about the day!

A (Brief) History of Learning: How Do You Learn?

2010-10-03T11:52:00.001-04:00

At last Friday's kick off of Powerful Learning Practice, Will Richardson asked the 75 educators in the room, "How do you learn?" He challenged us that no conversation about educational reform can begin unless the focus is on LEARNING. He challenged us to consider our own learning systems and styles.

This morning I ran across this Prezi with commentary by Dallas McPheeters, entitled, "A 5000 Year Timeline of Learning Theories" (don't worry, it's 5000 years in 13 minutes). It begins and ends with the question, "How do you learn?"

5000 Year Timeline of Learning Theories from Dallas McPheeters on Vimeo.

One other thing, you'll find this Prezi and many, many other resources, videos, topics, and conversations on The Educator's PLN. It's a wonderful site for those of you building your own personal learning network. If you haven't toured it yet, please do. I invite you to join the conversation, or just lurk and learn for a while.

M.E.

PS And thank you to Tom Whitby, a member of my PLN, for posting the tweet that led me to the video.

Tech Tapas

2010-09-29T22:22:00.000-04:00

We'll be serving up some tech tapas to Ohio's English language arts supervisors during Thursday's fall meeting at the Ohio Resource Center. Tapas are appetizers, designed to encourage conversation. Legend has it that originally tapas were salty, to provoke thirst. We're hoping that some of the tech tapas served will make our colleagues thirsty to learn more.

On the menu board (all FREE or very low cost)
Delicious: share you bookmarks, browse others by friend or topic
Voicethread: interactive way to teach with images and audio
Wallwisher: collect feedback
Jing: capture whatever's on your screen
Skype: use free audio and video conferencing
Twitter: microblog (keepin' it concise) to learn, share, network
Ning: network securely and share resources
Google Docs: collaborate on all kinds of documents
Bit.ly: shorten those long URLs
Blogspot: blog from an easy-to-us template
Animoto: create video from your images

Buen Provecho!

21C Skills for the Arts: Customizing to Our Circumstances

2010-09-23T13:46:00.006-04:00

"If you're doing a thing that you're passionate about, time takes a different turn entirely," said Sir Ken Robinson in his 2010 TED Talk. We'll begin our K-8 Fine Arts professional learning day with Robinson's talk, "Bring on the Learning Revolution!"

Robinson urges us to examine what we take for granted and to consider what we need to leave behind to teach and learn in a new century. He invites us to change our metaphor of education from an industrial model (one size for all) to an agricultural one (organic and adapting). He goes on to talk about customizing to our circumstances, quoting Lincoln: "Let us not rise to the occasion. Rather, let us rise with the occasion."

Rising with the occasion, our K-5 Fine Arts teachers began their 21C Skills conversation* on our September 1 professional learning day. We used the Skills Map for the Arts created by P21, Partnership for 21st Century Skills. We'll be joined September 24 by our middle school arts teachers as we continue our exploration.

As we gather again on Friday we will focus on two of Robinson's themes: sharing our talents and collaborating on lessons that customize to our circumstances.

We'll enjoy the morning with our teacher showcase—sharing our diversity of talent. On deck so far: Tim Kloth will debut his newly completed composition, Mark Messerly will play a piece from his Thursday night gig at Grammers, Jennifer Witsken will share her pattern designs for knitting, and Pam Hall will show her favorite jewelry creations.

Then we'll follow Robinson's second charge—to customize to our circumstances. We'll play, experiment, innovate, and adapt to redesign a current lesson plan or unit, customizing with two or more 21C Skills:

Critical Thinking and Problem Solving
Communication
Collaboration
Creativity
Innovation
Information Literacy
Media Literacy
Information, Communications, and Technology Literacy
Flexibility and Adaptability
Initiative and Self-Direction
Social and Cross-Cultural Skills
Productivity and Accountability
Leadership and Responsibility

We'll end the day collaborating and sharing our unit makeovers. Stay tuned for a showcase of lessons!
________________________________
*About 21C Skills and our September 1 Arts conversation, what's the word? See for yourself:

Not Your Granny's Open House

2010-09-21T21:57:00.002-04:00

Amelia Middle School's 7th and 8th grade open house let parents meets their students' teachers and their classrooms' technology tools. Parents got a chance to sign in on interactive white boards and practice texting responses to teachers' questions. Classes across the district and across the country adapt to 21st Century teaching and learning. Take a look!

Class of 2014: No Wristwatches, No Email

2010-08-18T13:36:00.003-04:00

Yearly since 1998 two profs at Beloit College, Wisconsin, have created a Mindset List to help faculty better understand the incoming class. For those of us talking 21st Century Skills, this list is a powerful reminder.

Meet the CLASS of 2014, for whom...

1. Few in the class write in cursive.
2. Email is just too slow, and they seldom (if ever) use snail mail.
3. Buffy has always been a vampire slayer at Hemery High.
4. “Venti half-caf vanilla latte” has always been lingo.
5. Clint Eastwood is known as a director, not as Dirty Harry.
6. DNA fingerprinting and human genome maps have always existed.
7. Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
8. Their first computer's an Apple II. It’s now in a museum.
9. Czechoslovakia never existed.
10. Second-hand smoke has always been an official carcinogen.
11. Bud Selig has always been the Commissioner of MLB.
12. Russians & Americans have always lived together in space.
13. Food’s always been irradiated.
14. Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
15. Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
16. Rock bands have always played at presidential inaugural parties.
17. Michelangelo was just a computer virus.
18. Beethoven has always been a dog.
19. With cell phones to tell time, there’s no need for a wrist watch.

Source: Beloit College 2014 Mindset List. See the complete list here.

Image by Simon Peckham Flickr Creative Commons

The Writing is on the Screen

2010-08-05T21:42:00.000-04:00

"The writing is on the screen" author Bill Kist reminds us about the new media age as he invites teachers to use Web 2.0 and social media technologies to reach 21st Century kids. Kist, author of The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age (2009), will join West Clermont for two interactive workshops Tuesday, August 17. Location: Union Township Civic Center, Cincinnati, OH.

For teachers 5-12: 8:30 to 11:30 am: Teaching in the socially networked classroom.

For administrators: 12:30 to 3:30 pm: The new literacies: 21st century skills in our classrooms.

To learn more about Kist's book, see this great glogster review by Kevin Hodgson.

For information about registration: steele_m@westcler.org.

Did You Know? 4.0

2010-07-29T22:59:00.000-04:00

Many of us have seen the original Did You Know video by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod. This is the most recent version, updated in September 2009. I'm looking forward to the 2010 data, but still find this a powerful reminder as we enter a new school year. As adults, we can choose whether or not to use technology. Our children will not have that option. So our district's and schools' improvement plans this year include 21st Century Skills, for students and for staff. In the next month before our students return what new skills and technologies can we explore, try out, or just play with, to move us towards a 21st Century teaching & learning experience?

M.E.

PS For me, I'm learning Prezi this summer, reading Drive by Daniel Pink, and taking part in an online book study.

On Track for Graduation

2010-07-22T15:00:00.002-04:00

This guest blog post was written by Dennis Ashworth, who retired as Glen Este High School principal July 2010. It was inspired by the Cincinnati Enquirer's questions on preventing high school drop outs.
________________________

West Clermont School District has developed intervention programs aimed at increasing our student graduation rate, and deterring teens from dropping out of school. Research shows that the two most critical years for high school students are the 9th and 10th grades. If students have little success and fall behind in those early years, the drop out rate increases dramatically.

Amelia and Glen Este High Schools have programs in place designed to help 9th and 10th grade students stay on track for graduation. We also have programs for juniors and seniors who need extra support during their last years of school.

9th Grade Transition Teams:
Each high school creates incoming 9th grade students' schedules so they are with a team of teachers each day. Transition team teachers develop a common academic plan, and they meet once a week to discuss student progress. The school day is designed to allow each student a sense of structure: what their day will look like, goals, objectives, activities, and expectations. Students get a sense of what to expect each day to organize and prepare for their daily routine. Each 9th grade student is given a Reading Comprehension Assessment and a Learning Style Inventory. Beginning in the fall of 2010, each 9th grader will take the PLAN test from ACT©. Each of these assessments allows the team to generate lessons, activities and assessments that best fit each student. Teachers get to know their students and have an increased opportunity for communication with parents. During parent-teacher conferences the parent can meet with the entire team and get a better picture of how their student works though out the entire day.

10th Grade Level Teams:
These teams operate on the same principle as the 9th grade teams but are designed to help students begin to use the skills from their 9th grade year as a basis for independent work, self motivation, and increased expectations. The Ohio curriculum is standards-based and is developed to give each student the best opportunity to pass the OGT (Ohio Graduation Test) on their first attempt.

Virtual School:
West Clermont has developed a Virtual School Program open to juniors and seniors who have credit deficiencies and are in danger of not graduating, or not graduating with their class. This on-campus program allows students to complete course work using an online high school program approved by the Ohio Department of Education. Students can access their courses both at school and at home which allows them to complete their needed credit requirements. This helps students catch up without overloading them with additional classes in their schedule. It gives them immediate feedback about their progress and allows them the opportunity to work at their own pace. Admittance policies for the Virtual School are stringent and students must maintain specific academic goals to remain in the program. An additional student benefit: the program operates through the summer allowing students to continue the path towards graduation.

Credit Recovery Program:
Credit Recovery operates in the same way as the Virtual Program but is designed for students who need only a few credits. Students maintain their regular daily schedules but have the opportunity to be placed in online courses that they have previously failed. Each student reports to the credit recovery site on campus one hour a day to work, plus they can access the class from home. Both semester work and yearlong work can be recovered this way.

OGT Intervention:
All 11th and 12th graders who have not passed the OGT are placed in OGT Intervention sessions. Students are given specific help in the content area that they must pass on the OGT, with practice tests and online access for additional support. West Clermont also offers Summer OGT Intervention for upperclass students who want to retake the test in July.

All Students:
All high school students have access to several intervention/support programs. West Clermont has developed an active study table program that operates after school three days a week. This 90-minute help session is opened to all students and has teacher support in all core areas. We also offer after school tutoring for any core subject area.

Our goal is to make sure that each student progresses in a way that allows them the opportunity to graduate with their class. Waiting until the senior year does not help the student, the parents, the community, or the district.

Teaching in the New Media Age

2010-06-23T05:00:00.001-04:00

Mark your calendar! William Kist, author of The Socially Networked Classroom: Teaching in the New Media Age and The New Literacies, will join West Clermont for two workshops for teachers and administrators. Join us August 17 at the Union Township Civic Center, Cincinnati.

For teachers 5-12: 8:30 to 11:30 am: Teaching in the socially networked classroom.
For administrators: 12:30 to 3:30 pm: The new literacies: 21st century skills in our classrooms.

For information: steele_m@westcler.org

Leadership is Teaching

2010-06-22T22:32:00.000-04:00

This is a repost from my first article on Ken Royal's Educators Royal Treatment at Scholastic. Feedback and comments welcome! M.E.

Leadership is Teaching

I love my work.

Last week, Jeff Goldstein (@doctorjeff) posted this provocative tweet: “Shouldn't it be joyful employment? Shouldn't that be THE goal?” As I recall, he was talking about the goal of schooling.

But I was stunned by the juxtaposition of those two words: joyful employment.

And it got me to thinking about why on earth I love working as a district administrator. After all, change is messy. You can’t please everyone. Bureaucracy abounds. There are no summers off. Nonetheless.

I get to teach. Every single day.

I remember when I first read James McGregor Burns definitive work Leadership. “Leaders shape and alter and elevate the motives and values and goals of followers through the vital teaching role of leadership,” he claimed. I leaned forward in my chair. Yes! I thought. This is exactly what I love about my work.

A decade ago I had the opportunity to work with coaches from the Change Leadership Group (CLG) at Harvard. Our district was a beta site for the CLG’s early work in building capacity in school leadership teams to move from school re-formation to school trans-formation.

I was fascinated to watch our CLG leaders at work. Their leadership reminded me of how I thought good teaching looked. Whenever I practiced what I they preached, it always felt like doing my best teaching. Eventually, this led me to formal research—and lots of informal observations—of good teaching and good leading. Really, they’re much the same, aren’t they?

So as long as I get to teach (almost) every single day, that’s joyful employment.

Like good teachers, good leaders:
Build trust
Form community
Clarify expectations
Break tasks into manageable chunks
Promote dialogue
Ask provocative questions

Good teachers and leaders use processes that help others to consider, connect, and reshape their thinking. They’re change agents. Simply put, they help us change our minds.

R & R

2010-06-05T10:56:00.003-04:00

It is summer break. This is my hammock. I plan to nap in my hammock on lazy, warm days. My Blackberry will be inside of my house, recharging. I will be outside in my hammock, doing the very same thing.

Relax and recharge: now that's the kind of R & R I'm looking for. And you need it, too. But don't take it from me...

Ingrid Bergman: "The best way to keep going is to keep going at whatever it is that keeps you going. With me, that's work, and a lot of it. And when a job is finished, relax and have fun!"

Ovid: "Take rest. A field that has rested gives a bountiful crop. What is without periods of rest will not endure."

Ernest Hemingway: "I still need more rest in order to work at my best. My health is the main capital I have and I want to administer it dilligently."

Karen Brademeyer: "Who among us hasn't envied a cat's ability to ignore the cares of daily life and to relax completely?"

Leonardo DaVinci : "Every now and then go away, have a little relaxation, for when you come back to your work your judgment will be surer. Go some distance away because then the work appears smaller and more of it can be taken in at a glance and a lack of harmony and proportion is more readily seen."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz,
Tanny

In Remembrance: Memorial Day 2010

2010-05-31T12:59:00.001-04:00

One of West Clermont's longest running traditions is Willowville Elementary's Memorial Day Parade. Below are Principal Kennedy's remarks to students, veterans, and guests at their 33rd parade.

Again, I would like to welcome the Willowville community to the 33rd Annual Memorial Day Parade as we celebrate and honor all men and women who have fought for and defended our great nation. This day of celebration is for you!

Since the first official observance 1868, when it was called Decoration Day, it has been a day of remembrance; a time to honor, respect, and thank those who fought to protect our freedom.

The American flag is a symbol of freedom that we celebrate and hold sacred. Let it also remind each of us of the sacrifices made by men and women throughout our nation. Too often we fail to remember those who gave their life or those whose life today bears scars as a lasting memory of that sacrifice and commitment. There are many who remember vividly as the lives affected were sons, daughters, parents, aunts, uncles, friends, coworkers, and neighbors.

As educators, we have a responsibility to educate these young minds about the sacrifice others have made so that they may live in this outstanding country. So to all of those who fought, we owe them the honor of our respect for delivering to us liberty upon nothing less than the commitment of their life and the willingness to lose it for our freedom. Friends ~ Freedom is not free ~ let us never forget!

For 33 years Willowville families have gathered and paused to reflect on just what has been given and sacrificed so that freedom could ring across this great land. To all the veterans sitting here today and those who have given the ultimate sacrifice ~ this celebration and day of remembrance is for you!

Michelle Kennedy
Principal

Undercover Readers: RTRW 2010

2010-05-24T14:55:00.005-04:00

In the Teaching & Learning Community, we celebrate reading 365 days a year. It's so nice, though, to have an official week of festivities that gives reading the honor it deserves. After all, reading gives us knowledge, pleasure and escape anytime, anywhere. And compared to the cost of other entertainment, it costs next to nothing!

The twelve schools in our district observed Right to Read Week in a wide variety of ways, with varying themes. Activities included everything from reading parades to crazy contests to book fairs. Students and teachers read together each day, responding to the reading in book clubs, nings and at evening events.

Our schools have celebrated Right to Read Week for decades, but this year our district office decided to join in on the fun. We work together each day, know a lot about each others families and interests. But we don't necessarily know each other as readers. We captured images of our favorite books, tucked away our photographs underneath, and created an interactive hallway display entitled, "Undercover Readers". Here's the district office custodian, Edith. She loves Gone With The Wind, but we didn't know it until now!

Next year promises to be bigger and better. Our community of readers will have read millions more words, turned thousands more pages, and scanned as many screens of text. We're all thankful for the right to read!

Tanny

Improvement Planning for 2010-11

2010-05-20T11:31:00.006-04:00

Ohio requires that each of its 611 districts participate in the OIP, the Ohio Improvement Process. The OIP is a decision-making process established by the state—its products are the district's and schools' improvement plans.

Below are the district goal and five strategies for West Clermont's improvement plan and each school's improvement plan for 2010-11.

GOAL: By 2012, a minimum of 85% of West Clermont students will achieve proficient or above in Ohio Academic Content Standards, as measured by DIBELS, OAA/OGT and 22 composite on the ACT, with a 33% decrease in the achievement gap for all subgroups.

Strategy 1. All Instruction for core curricula aligns with Ohio Academic Content Standards grade level indicators.

Strategy 2. All assessments are aligned with Ohio Academic Content Standards grade level indicators.

Strategy 3. All teachers and administrators integrate 21st Century Skills (collaboration, critical thinking, communication, creativity) across the curriculum, supported by technology.

Strategy 4. All teachers implement “high-yield” instructional strategies across the curriculum, supported by technology:
· Summarizing and note taking
· Non-linguistic representation
· Setting objectives and providing feedback

Strategy 5. All schools implement and monitor the Response To Intervention process (RTI) to ensure positive behavior support within a safe learning environment and ensure adequate student progress in academic content areas.

Thanks to our District Leadership Team for excellent work on the district's improvement plan and the Ohio Decision Framework: Cheryl Turner, facilitator, Gary Brooks, Al Delgado, Toni Meyer, Tanny McGregor, Michelle Kennedy, Nancy Parks, Stephanie Walker, Kevin Thacker, Debbie Hobbs, Ross Hudson, Tim McGonagil, Chuck Boothby, Amy Storer, Sarah Vakharia, Mary Jane Wolf, Tracy Yarchi, and Matt Spangler. Thank you!
_________________________
Jargon Buster:

ACT - The ACT® is a curriculum-based (not aptitude) test that assesses high school students' ability to complete college-level work in English, math, reading, and science. It is universally accepted for college admission. The highest score possible is 36. The national composite score for 2008 was 21.1.

Decision Framework - An electronic representation of our student achievement data. It’s a one-stop data source and a decision-making tool. Each building has its own Building Decision Framework available online. Teachers, have you seen your school's Decision Framework?

DIBELS - Dynamic Indicators of Basic Literacy Skills is a diagnostic measure of children’s basic reading skills (for example, fluency) that predict student success in reading comprehension. DIBELS is a screening assessment of skills. It is not a reading program.

OAA - The Ohio Achievement Assessment is the state’s accountability measure for grades 3 through 8. Ohio is in process of revising standards for all tested subject areas, which will in turn affect the OAA* within the next few years. Because of budget cuts, Ohio has suspended testing in writing (grades 4 and 7) and social studies (grades 5 and 8) for the next two years.

OGT - The Ohio Graduation Test is the state’s accountability measure for high schools. Governor Strickland has called for the OGT to be replaced by the ACT (or another college readiness measure), though details and timelines have not been determined.

RTI - Response to Intervention is a multi-level prevention program that integrates assessment and instruction to maximize student achievement and reduce behavior problems.

To see more of our "Jargon Buster" glossary, click here.

The Teaching Role of Leadership

2010-05-17T22:13:00.010-04:00

James McGregor Burns (1978) writes of the "vital teaching role of leadership." As state and federal requirements for public schools become more complex, leadership at every level is more and more necessary. Teachers bring practical, grounded experience and wisdom to the table as schools and districts face new challenges of accountability and education reform.

To this end, the Ohio Department of Education recently moved to four levels of teacher licensure:
Resident Educator
Professional Educator
Senior Professional Educator
Lead Professional Educator

One way to be eligible for advanced licensure is to receive the new Master Teacher designation. To achieve this designation teachers must demonstrate mastery in the seven Ohio teaching standards:
1. Teachers understand student learning and development, and respect the diversity of the students they teach.
2. Teachers know and understand the content area for which they have instructional responsibility.
3. Teachers understand and use varied assessments to inform instruction, evaluate, and ensure student learning.
4. Teachers plan and deliver effective instruction that advances the learning of each individual student.
5. Teachers create learning environments that promote high levels of learning and achievement for all students.
6. Teachers collaborate and communicate with students, parents, other educators, administrators, and the community to support student learning.
7. Teachers assume responsibility for professional growth, performance and involvement as an individual and as a member of a learning community.

At the May 10, 2010, meeting of the West Clermont Board of Education, Board members and district administration recognized 19 teachers who fulfilled requirements to become Master Teachers. Our spring 2010 cadre of Master Teachers includes Katrina Smith, Gary Bertsch and Ceil Kuzma (AHS); Kathy Baughman and Tracy Yarchi (GEHS); Rena Ford and Jennifer Mirlisena (AMS); Mary Jane Wolff and Joe Schuh (GEMS); Judy Bruns (WT); Mary Taylor and Beth Flanigan (WV); Bonnie Frey (SS); Holly Brown and Renee Renken (MER); Margo Johnson (HH); Beth Testa (CP); Ann Marie Thornton (BE); Julie Schneider (AE).

For the highest licensure level, Lead Professional Educator, criteria includes completing a university program of endorsement in Teacher Leadership and being designated as a Master Teacher or attaining National Board Certification. Also at the May 10 Board meeting, West Clermont recognized seven teachers who achieved the Teacher Leader endorsement. These professionals completed ten graduate level semester hours from the University of Cincinnati's new Teacher Leader program, one of only two in the state. Our first Teacher Leader corps includes Robin Blamer (CP); Angela Preece and Gina McNeil (HH); Joe Stahl (WT); Liz Hanke (WV); Tracy Yarchi and Andrea Taktak (GEHS).

With congratulations and gratitude,
M.E.

For information on either of these programs for 2010-11, contact Ms. Angie Ferguson at the West Clermont Board office.

Home Grown Professional Development

2010-05-11T13:09:00.003-04:00

   I used to think Professional Development was "for sale." That is, I used to think it was strictly something you pursued out of district in order to learn from an "expert" about how to improve student learning.

   However, I now realize the most effective Professional Development is "home grown." It is not a commercial product or service, but an opportunity for colleagues to learn from each other, discuss, analyze, etc. within a local learning network. In Results Now, Mike Schmoker states that "effective team-based learning communities - not workshops- are the very best kind of professional development (p. 109)." These professional learning communities begin to build a new culture of teaching, as teachers realize that knowledge of improvement can and should be generated from within.

   This year, the majority of Professional Development in West Clermont has been modeled after such learning communities. As a member of several Professional Learning Networks (PLNs), I have worked with colleagues to examine student data, design instruction aligned with data, learn about technology applications, create common assessments, etc. We discovered, just like Schmoker said, that the experts are among us!

   Such PLNs can bring about systemic results as teachers collaborate and examine student data, discuss best practices, and share new learning in meaningful ways that impact student learning and instructional practices. As a result, professional development looks differently and feels differently. This is something that cannot be purchased or commercialized.

   Here are a few pictures from our WC "experts" participating in "home-grown" Professional Development.

Cheryl

The Pink Link: A 21st Century Book Club

2010-05-02T17:41:00.008-04:00

Q: What do you get when you mix 8th and 9th grade students with laptop computers, a social media platform, and an engaging work of nonfiction?

A: A 21st Century Book Club!

Thanks to a grant from the High Aims Consortium, nearly 300 of West Clermont's 8th and 9th grade English students participated in our first-ever NING-based book study. Grant money was used to purchase a copies of A Whole New Mind by best-selling author Daniel Pink. Document cameras were also purchased to enable teachers to maximize the effectiveness of the book's portfolio exercises during the school day.

Here's how it worked for us. With the help of student Taylor Olmstead, Amelia High School IB English teacher Angie Ferguson created a NING as a place where our students could trade ideas about their reading. English teachers Michelle Dohrmann (Glen Este High School) and Rena Ford (Amelia Middle School) joined Angie, and the three teachers began the online book-study, across grade-levels and campuses. Kids kept pace with each other, reading and discussing each chapter with accompanying portfolio exercises. Laptops were used in class and at home. High-level discussions were the rule of the day! And with nearly 100% student participation, teachers learned that using the NING platform to spark motivation and engagement is the way to go!

Visit us. Sign on to our NING and post a comment. The students would love to hear from you.

www.wcawholenewmind.ning.com

Tanny

Why Blog?

2010-04-26T16:05:00.004-04:00

At the end of last school year, we began TLC: Teaching. Learning. Community. It is our first attempt at blogging. We've learned lots and have lots still to learn—about using digital tools, about communicating, and about 21st Century leadership.

Back in May we wrote: How do we communicate news and views about teaching and learning in westcler with more of you (teachers) and fewer of us (T&L staff)? And how do we make this news a give and take? Jodi D took a bold step this year and starting blogging with her fourth graders. It's easy. They love it. And we hope you will, too. Check out Sachi and Lee LeFever 's "Blogs in Plain English" on TeacherTube.

So far, we've averaged two posts a week. And though we only starting tracking visitors in January 2010, since then we've had over 9,900 visits—awaiting our 10,000th visitor.

But the best part is that teachers around the district are now using their own blogs to communicate with their families and community. Recently teachers Joe Stahl and Lori Van Eman taught fellow kindergarten teachers how to set up their own blogs to stay in touch with their families. Lori said, "I loved having the chance to work one on one with teachers to help personalize their blog. I think that teachers were excited, encouraged and empowered to try this 21st century communication tool. Everyone said the same thing when they created a blog, 'That's it?!' I don't think that people believe us when we say it is really that easy."

Lori Huntington, Cindy Srouf, Caroline Demoss, Barb Clark, Julia Smith, & Mona Wells.

West Clermont's TLC was featured in a March Community Press and cincinnati.com article:

By Kellie Geist • March 19, 2010

When the West Clermont Local School District teaching and learning staff was cut almost in half last spring, the remaining employees had to find a way to serve the district.

"We went from five people to three people, which is pretty extraordinary for a district with 9,000 students," said Mary-Ellen Steele-Pierce, assistant superintendent who works with the teaching and learning department. "We had to figure out how, with just three people, we could maximize our time and resources."

At the same time, Steele-Pierce and a number of staff members were learning about Web 2.0, which is the idea that you don't just use the Web for finding information, but for communicating through tools such as blogs and social networks.

Steele-Pierce decided a free blog was the perfect way to stay in touch with and serve the needs of teachers and administrators in all 12 school buildings.

"It was just a nice confluence of learning something at just the right time," she said.

So the teaching and learning staff put together a blog containing posts about teachers in the district, ideas for lessons and just straight inspiration.

Originally, staff put up about one post a week, but during their March Madness challenge, they created posts for every day in March.

Although keeping the blog fresh does take time, Steele-Pierce said they're not hurting for blogging ideas. Between brainstorming, conferences and professional development days, the creative juices just keep flowing. And their efforts are not without rewards. The blog received 9,130 visits from people around the world between Jan. 2 and March 18.

"Our target audience is the West Clermont community, but we're hoping people will see this as a place to get information, learn about us and talk. We love when people make comments," Steele-Pierce said.

Amelia Middle School Assistant Principal Tim McGonagil said the site is an excellent resource for the teachers and administrators both in his school and throughout the district because it gets people talking about teaching and learning.

For example, the site recently featured articles about two middle school teachers who are doing interesting things in their classrooms. Those ideas, including using the "Teen Tribune" online newspaper written for and by teenagers, have spread throughout the school.

"The teaching and learning site gets the creative wheels turning and it keeps the teaching talking about what's going on in the classroom. It creates that buzz," McGonagil said. "It's good positive reinforcement and a great resource."

Steele-Pierce said she plans to continue updating the blog and incorporate it into the daily workings of the teaching and learning department.

"This is something we would like to keep up. We're still learning and finding out ways to make it better and more user-friendly for our teachers," she said. "I think it has helped us think in new ways about our work and the way we communicate, but I also think it's inspired our teachers and principals to learn more about technology. It's helped people think in new and different ways."

West Clermont Art Show 2010

2010-04-23T16:31:00.005-04:00

Update! Thanks to our 804 visitors, 18 art teachers, and countless young artists. A special thank you to AMS teacher Joan Mountel for sketching caricatures, student artist Tony Reed for drawing on site for five hours, student string musicians Nick Sunday and Audrey Algers for providing live music, Kim Ziebold for serving as coordinator liaison, and Tanny McGregor for overseeing the annual show.

Please join us!

Saturday, April 24

Sunday, April 25

Noon to 5:00 pm

Union Township Civic Center

12 Schools

Hundreds of student artists!

Click to see a preview: West Clermont Art Show 2010

We Love Our Secretaries

2010-04-21T15:22:00.003-04:00

Support (verb): sustain, maintain, hold up, bear, carry, shore up, brace, encourage, help, assist, aid, defend, champion, provide, fend for, confirm, and uphold.

Everyone knows that the daily work in our schools is supported by our wonderful secretaries. We don't remember to tell them offer enough, so it's good that there's an "Administrative Professionals Day" each April to cause us to pause, remember, and THANK our district secretaries.

Thank you all for all you do!

April is National Poetry Month!

2010-04-08T14:51:00.003-04:00

In April 2003, my then six year old daughter Brynne wrote her first poem. I've been carrying it around ever since, charmed by the invented spelling, rhythm and emotion it holds. Here it is, accessible to the world for the very first time. Unedited.

"Sping! Sping!
I love Sping!
its My favrit
thing You no.
There are
Los of
flowrs to
and los
of Thnigs
to Do.
Spring! Spring!
I Love you."

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets instituted the month of April as National Poetry Month. Each year, educators recognize the uniqueness that is poetry, and celebrate the place it holds in our culture. No matter what the age of your students, no matter what subject you teach, there's always a way to share a poem. Take a look at these online resources.

Poets.org

Poem in Your Pocket Day

Poem Flow for iPhones

Request a FREE Poetry Month Poster!

Instructional ideas from Scholastic

Lesson plans from ReadWriteThink

Listen to a poem-a-day from NCTE

Deep down, you're a poet. And you know it.

Happy "Sping"!

Tanny

Adolescent Literacy: In Perspective

2010-04-02T21:55:00.001-04:00

"One of the biggest frustrations that many teachers wrestle with in the classroom is a lack of motivation among students. As teachers, we worry about how to motivate students who appear unmotivated and apathetic. We worry because as decades of research have revealed, motivation is integrally connected to achievement," writes literacy coordinator Kevin Perks in the March/April 2010 issue of Adolescent Literacy: In Perspective from the Ohio Resource Center.

Click here for the March/April issue. Table of Contents:

Crafting Effective Choices to Motivate Students by Kevin Perks

Choice at Finland Middle School by Paul Smathers, Debbie Camp, David Hampson, Barry Alcock, Julie Ison, and Lynnette Stephens

Providing Choice—A Risk Worth Taking for Teachers and Students by Amy Bradley and Michael Alcock

When You Give Me a Choice,You Give Me a Chance by Joleata Tidwell-Howell

A LOOK AT THE OGT: Teaching to the Test and Beyond by Carol Brown Dodson

FOR YOUR BOOKSHELF: Books by Gallagher, Bigelow and Voukon, Harvey and Daniels,and Quate and McDermott by Sheila Cantlebary

March Madness: Tone of Voice

2010-03-31T07:00:00.006-04:00

As I think I've mentioned in previous blog posts, I'm the mother of 2 middle school daughters. (Mix that sentence with the title of this post and I'm sure you can guess where I'm going with this!)

As you can imagine, sometimes emotions run high when it comes to which movies are appropriate, the right time for curfew, and what it means to "clean your room". Many times we end our family discussions, lively as they might be, by saying "it's not what you said, it's how you said it."

Around this time of year, that comment applies to our professional community. We get stressed out because of testing. The behavior of our students is often more difficult to manage when the weather gets nice. The year is quickly coming to a close and we still have so much to do! All of these things can be cause for short-tempers and sarcasm.

I have this quotation hanging on the bulletin board above my desk.

"Ninety percent of the friction of daily life is caused by the wrong tone of voice." Anonymous

It helps me to remember this. Just thought I'd share.

Tanny

March Madness: Hungry Minds

2010-03-30T06:56:00.000-04:00

Brantner student feeds body and mind during Family Literacy Night.

Hungry for a good book? Pizza, books and theatre were on the menu for Brantner Elementary students during Family Literacy Night.

Students and families were treated to a book of their choice, a magazine, pizza and a performance of Hansel and Gretel by The Children's Theatre of Cincinnati.

Title 1 teachers Courtney Wallace and Martha Jackson organized the event with the help of Brantner staff. The goal of the program is to develop family literacies and encourage home-school connections.

Check out this 5-star event!

Cheryl

Free Webinar with Sir Ken Robinson

2010-03-29T18:57:00.001-04:00

For those of you who enjoyed the video clip by creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson on our February 26 professional learning day, or Tanny's blog post about it, great news:

Tune in for a FREE webinar with him Tuesday, March 30, at 8:00 pm EST.

The webinar room on Elluminate will open at 7:30 pm EST. Register at http://tr.im/futureofed.

For more information, visit Steve Hargadon's site.

See you, and Sir Ken Robinson, online Tuesday night!

M.E.

March Madness: Why Skype?

2010-03-29T06:00:00.004-04:00

Skype is an internet telephone service that allows people around the country and around the world to enjoy free video calls. For students, that means free access to resources and to fellow students worldwide. For teachers and administrators districtwide, that means video conferencing in real time without having to leave their schools.

"I was somewhat familar with Skype because we use it for my own children to call and see their grandparents in Florida," said Holly Hill teacher Heather Copley. "But I never thought about using it in the classroom until the Ohio eTech Skype session. Now I'm brainstorming how to use it!"

Copley shared about her recent Ohio eTech conference workshop on Skyping:

"The focus of this session was using webcams to connect to classrooms. By having a webcam and downloading the free Skype software, you can call anyone else on Skype, for free, throughout the world! Many ideas were presented on how to use Skype. Classrooms can connect to each other to do book talks, read to each other, or form online e-pals. The presenter had some of her students connect to a preschool room and read books to the younger children. Two classrooms connected students from Japan (one who was also fluent in English) to help with the language barrier for the student who only knew Japanese. The school also used it to connect the middle school band to the upper elementary school students to do an online field trip."

Kindergarten teachers Lori Van Eman and Joe Stahl use Skype to connect their classes to share and learn with one another. During the Winter Olympics they Skyped with classes in Kansas, California, and Canada.

Interested in connecting with other Skyping classes? Learn about Around the World with 80 Schools to open the walls of your classroom...for free!

Amelia's Kinder-Skypers were featured in the Cincinnati Enquirer in February:

By Cindy Kranz • February 26, 2010

AMELIA - When Lori Van Eman’s kindergartners first learned that Olympic snowboarder and gold medalist Shaun White is nicknamed “The Flying Tomato,” they giggled and laughed.

The Amelia Elementary kindergartners are still giggling about the reference to White’s red hair.

It’s the favorite fun fact they’ve learned about the 2010 Olympic Winter Games – and they learned it while Skyping with other kindergartners in White’s home state of California.

Since the Vancouver Olympics began nearly three weeks ago, the Amelia kindergartners have been Skyping – seeing and hearing each other over the Internet – with The Village School in Pacific Palisades, Calif., and Haultain Community School in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.

They also Skype daily with Joe Stahl’s kindergarten class at Withamsville-Tobasco Elementary and have Skyped several times with Mary Lou Van Eman’s third-grade class at Mercer Elementary in Anderson Township. She’s Van Eman’s mother.

“We want to see the learning at home connect to the learning at school,” Van Eman said. “It’s letting them know they can go home and Skype anybody you want. It’s forming that friendship and that eagerness to learn what others are doing, what others are seeing.”

The kindergartners have been Skyping once a week with the California and Canadian schools since the Olympics began two weeks ago. Sessions last around 8 minutes, which is about their maximum attention span, Van Eman said. During that time, they exchange information about athletes and events, plus track medals won by the United States.

On Thursday, Van Eman’s students Skyped with their California friends. The first time Van Eman’s students Skyped with the California school, they couldn’t understand why they were wearing shorts.

“The kids could not get over that the climate was different there,” she said.

To give their new friends a taste of snow, Van Eman’s class made a video outside and threw snowballs at the camera.

The students also keep Olympic journals and graphs of the number of gold, silver and bronze medals won by the United States, which allows Van Eman to test their language and math skills.

Van Eman writes a classroom blog, which is now populated with photos and information about the students’ Olympics lessons.

After the Olympics, she and her students have an appointment to Skype with Kelli Stack of Brooklyn Heights, Ohio, a member of the silver medal-winning women’s ice hockey team.

Although the Olympics end Sunday, Van Eman’s class will continue Skyping with their new California friends. Plans are to become reading buddies with the children.

A year ago, Van Eman didn’t have any of the resources that she does now.

“I can honestly say that it has changed my students’ learning 100 percent,” Van Eman said. “There is little need for redirection when we are working with the SMART board technology or Skyping because the students know that if anything is going to happen it is going to be happening on our board.”

“Their eyes are always glued to see what is coming next.”
____________________________________________
This is post 21 out of 23 in our March Madness series.

Ohio's Science Standards for Review

2010-03-26T11:52:00.002-04:00

The second draft of the revised PreK-12 Science Education Standards for Ohio has been posted for public review. The documents include the PreK-8 grade-by-grade descriptions and the high school syllabi. The high school syllabi were developed based on the requirements of the Ohio core but do not represent all the possible courses for the advanced science requirements. All of the materials, which illustrate what science content is recommended for each grade, may be viewed by clicking here.

The second draft materials will be available for public comment from now until April 19, 2010. You may use the feedback questionnaire, located at the same site, to provide input from your review of this latest version of the science standards. Feedback from this round of public review and comment will be part of the ongoing revision process. The final version of the PreK-12 Science Education Standards for Ohio will be submitted to the State Board of Education in May for adoption during the June 2010 State Board meeting.

Public response on the first draft of the revised science standards was received from 103 focus/discussion groups (1184 individual participants) and 456 individual survey responses, for a total of 1640 individuals. As a result of the public feedback and the National Expert reviews, ODE staff reviewed and incorporated suggested changes when appropriate. The Science Standards Working Group, made up of teachers and science content and science education faculty from institutions of higher education also reviewed the feedback and contributed to the current draft.

Examples of changes include a reworking of content statements on energy at the elementary-level in the physical science standards to address energy in a less abstract, more observable manner; illustrating more explicitly the relationship of scientific inquiry to the revised science standards, and providing more clarity in the high school syllabi for physical science and biology. Additional research was conducted at both the national and international level to ensure that the latest revisions reflect the accepted learning progressions for the main themes within the science disciplines.

Technological design and 21st-century skills are critical to the teaching and learning of science and help to ensure that students are ready for careers or college. These important components will be blended with scientific inquiry and applications in the Model Curriculum. This next phase of the science standards addresses “how” science should be taught. The Model Curriculum will also emphasize real-world applications and making science relevant to students. The combination of the “what” of the revised science standards and the “how” of the Model Curriculum will contribute to increased depth of student learning and provide the components essential for encouraging scientific literacy for all students.

The third phase of the science standards revision will include the development of the “Eye of Integration.” (The “Eye” is illustrated in the PDF introduction to the second draft of the science standards.) This tool will be designed to encourage teachers to think about how content can be integrated between different disciplines and provide examples of possible cross-curricular integration. This cross-curricular integration has the potential of increasing the depth of the content, adding relevancy and helping to develop real-world and global connections. The integration includes engineering, technology and universal skills that ensure students are learning what they need to succeed after high school.

No revised standards will be implemented until new assessments are in place (probably around 2013). Given the proposed timing on the national standards, there will be time to make any needed adjustments before teachers are confronted with revised science standards. The emphasis for teachers between now and about 2013 will be to teach the current standards, using scientific inquiry in conjunction with the 5Es, emphasizing content depth. Click here to see the Ohio Science Matrix, a good reference.

Source: ODE Science Initiatives Administrator, Constance K. Barsky PhD, with permission to share.

March Madness: The "T" Word

2010-03-26T07:05:00.001-04:00

In Ohio, it's just about that time. TEST time. Like I need to remind you! Here are a few things on my mind this time of year.

Two of my instructional heroines, Stephanie Harvey & Anne Goudvis, suggest teaching "test taking" just as you would any other genre. The ideal time for teaching it is 3 to 4 weeks prior to a high-stakes test. Teach pacing, format, key words, types of questions and general guidelines for navigating through a test. And don't forget stress management!

Remember: Your students need you to appear calm (even if you're nervous on the inside)...and to show confidence in their abilities. Believe in the strong instruction you've provided all year long.

David Pearson said it best. "Never send a test out to do a curriculum's job." (Pearson, 2005). The very best test preparation is, and always has been, building strong readers, writers & thinkers. Not just for the test, but for life.

Tanny

March Madness: Teach Every Child About Food

2010-03-25T07:04:00.000-04:00

I'm all for handheld devices for our young learners. But there's one handheld I'm eager to see less of: fast food. Nachos, french fries, burgers, burritos, Little Debbies, and the like. Some of you know that I call myself an "aspiring locavore" and that I've committed myself to more "slow food." That means I'm working to eliminate, as much as I can, fast food from my diet. And especially I'm trying to stay away from processed foods and to cook from scratch, staying as close to the source as possible. I'd say I'm about 70% there.

And so, I'm looking forward to Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution starting on ABC this week. It's about teaching our children about real food and life skills.

Won't you join me in taking small steps to assuring that our children learn about real food, not just "handheld" food, about good taste, easy recipes, and healthy eating.

Bon appétit!
M.E.

PS One quick and easy guide is Michael Pollan's Food Rules.

March Madness: The Halls & Walls Talk

2010-03-24T00:02:00.000-04:00

A thoughtfully designed, inviting classroom environment speaks to the students who spend time there each day. It tells them that their teacher cares enough to create a space where learning can thrive! Case in point: the classroom of Clough Pike Elementary 2nd grade teacher, Robin Blamer. The halls and walls in and around Robin's room are filled with authentic, student-driven writing, charts and drawings. There's never a doubt about what Robin's students have been learning. Just look around. It's all right there!

Tanny

Welcome to Reading Street

2010-03-23T06:38:00.004-04:00

Thank you to the West Clermont Board of Education for adopting Reading Street for our young readers, grades one through five at the March 22 Board meeting. The Teaching & Learning Department shared teachers' and students' voices about the program via a VoiceThread. Hear what they had to say:

Credits: Cheryl Turner, producer

Lisa Canter

Natalie Crawford

Cathy Cumbow

Jody Davis

Krista Devine

Devon Glassburn

Jeanne Halladay

Jackie Hospelhorn

Mimi Ladenburger

Gail Matheny

Layna Stiles

Mary Taylor

Stephanie Walker

Monte Wilson

West Clermont third graders

March Madness: In Search of Spring Reading

2010-03-23T06:00:00.012-04:00

Spring break is coming and for some people that means time—at last—for pleasure reading. I took my bibliophile curiosity to work today to see what our colleagues are reading and recommending. Hope you get some ideas here for your spring break beach reads (readers' names in parentheses):

Fiction
The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl (Nancy Maher)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson (Tim McGonagil)
Prey by Michael Crichton (Gary Bertsch)
Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier (Tanny McGregor)
Under the Dome by Stephen King (Gary Brooks)
Copper Sun by Sharon Draper (Jill Hartard)
Apollyon: The Destroyer is Unleashed by Tim LaHaye and JerryJenkins (Sarah Bose)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski (Kendra Herdtner)

World Without End by Ken Follett (Katie Hauer and Courtney Gelter)
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriell Barbery (Kathy Stemmer)
South of Broad by Pat Conroy (Pat Crahan)
The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien (Jake Riordan)
The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs (Cyndee Westermann)
The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult (Becky McCammon)
I Alex Cross by James Patterson (Tracey Collins)

Nonfiction
Man of Constant Sorrow: My Life and Times by Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean (Rudi Smith)
Linchpin by Seth Godin (Laura Nazzarine and Cheryl Turner)
Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard by Chip and Dan Heath (Jeff Riel)
Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse (Jim Beshalske)
The Explosive Child by (Kathy Ballitch)
New Found Land by Allan Wolf (Steve Brungs)
Death in Yellowstone by Lee Whittlesey (Jim Mason)
What the Dog Saw by Malcome Gladwell (James Shelton)

What are you currently reading? Comment, below, with your spring break recommendations.

M.E.

PS For me it's a nonfiction work The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

Photo credit: "Reading on Tangalle Beach" by Indi.ca via Flickr Creative Commons

March Madness: A Vision of 21st Century Teachers

2010-03-22T12:29:00.007-04:00

Video by Mahoning County (OH) Educational Service Center:
Creative Commons License

    We know what 21st century students look like. But what about 21st century teachers? Some of our younger colleagues don't have to reinvent themselves... they grew up with 21st century technologies and literacies. And then there are the rest of us, teachers who still remember the smell of fresh mimeograph ink and the sound of an Underwood typewriter.

   What does it mean to reinvent ourselves? According to Alvin Toffler, “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.”

   We can all be 21st century teachers if we are willing to learn, unlearn and relearn. Wipe the mimeograph ink off your fingers and check out A Vision of 21st Century Teachers... maybe you will see yourself!

Cheryl

March Madness: Thanks, Warren!

2010-03-19T07:00:00.008-04:00

From Warren Bennis, an encouraging quotation:

"One of the marvelous things about life is that any gaps in your education can be filled, whatever your age or situation, by reading and thinking about what you read."

This is good news. I didn't pay much attention in Problems of Democracy in 11th grade.

Tanny

March Madness: Life-long Learner

2010-03-18T14:42:00.001-04:00

Learning is a lifelong process. Ask Joy Mansfield, art teacher at Brantner Elementary. After 29 years of teaching, Joy decided to get a Masters' Degree in Educational Technology.

While she used to be afraid of technology... of pushing the wrong button... Joy has now embraced it! Her new learning has energized her, resulting in a huge boost of enthusiasm for teaching. Some of the technology applications Joy has been integrating in her instruction includes Web Quest, Photo Story, and Movie Maker. Joy states, "I started with what I had and what was free."

To see more of Joy's passion for learning check out the The Brantner Studio website. There is no teacher "burn-out" here... Joy Mansfield is on fire!

Cheryl

Happy St Patty's Day 2010

2010-03-17T21:31:00.002-04:00

When you meet on St. Patrick's Day, you can count on lots of green.

Happy St. Patty's Day from the Reading Street Green Team.

March Madness: It's Delicious

2010-03-17T01:01:00.005-04:00

Is your browser bookmark list too lengthy or messy to manage?

Organize your favorites using a social bookmarking site. I recommend Delicious. It's free. It's easy. And it's a really handy way to tag, find, and share websites.

The best reason to use Delicious is that you can find your saved sites from any computer, at home, work, a friend's house, on your mobile. Your favorites are available anywhere your have connectivity.

Haven't used it before? Take a look at my bookmarks here.

You can get started in 3 easy steps:
Go to delicious.com
Open an account
Start saving sites
You can click here to get started with Delicious

Check out these tips and tutorials:
Social bookmarking in plain English on Common Craft by the LeFevers
Social bookmarking with Delicious by Dave Fleet
Ultimate guide to Delicious by Robin Broitman

It's a great way to capture your thinking while you're surfing or researching, tagging your finds for future reference.

M.E.

March Madness: Passion is Power

2010-03-16T07:00:00.004-04:00

These days in education it's easy to feel discouraged. Disillusioned. Powerless even. Overwhelmed with paperwork, mandates and curricular changes, we sometimes forget that WE ARE the face of literacy to so many students, day in and day out. For some, we're their only hope.

High school teacher, literacy coach and author Penny Kittle carries a message for us. Everywhere she goes, she relays this simple, encouraging reminder:

"Literacy is a magnetic attraction. And the force of the attraction is the passion of the teacher."
(August 18, 2009, keynote address, Toronto, Canada)

Penny reminds us that we have the power to charm a child into a lifelong relationship with language. We ARE reading, writing and thinking to our students. And our influence goes on and on and on.

So, show your love of reading and writing, in big doses, every day! Read with expression. Talk about your favorite genres and authors. Read aloud a recent email, note or text message you've written. Share photos of your bookshelves at home. Bring in your favorite childhood book. Fill sticky notes with literacy quotations and place them on student desks. Tell stories about how you learned to read. Make sure your students know how reading & writing have changed your life.

Don't hold back. Literacy passion is literacy power.

Tanny

March Madness: I Didn't Know They Came with Instructions!

2010-03-15T07:22:00.003-04:00

Source: Frontline digital_nation

If you've been in a classroom lately you know what I mean. Today's students are wired differently. They process information differently. They communicate differently. They are a generation on fast forward.

Have you ever wished these students came with an instruction manual? Maybe it isn't exactly an instruction manual, but this Digital Native Map from Frontline comes pretty close. The interactive website show how life in a hyperconnected world impacts students' bodies and minds.

It also explains a lot about what we see (and don't see) happening in the classroom. For example, did you know students read text on websites in a completely different pattern than text in books? Did you know students from ages 13-17 average over 1,700 text messages a month?

If you would like to read the "user's manual" for your students, check out the Digital Native Map.

Cheryl

This is post 11/23 of our March Madness series

Mrch Mdnss: Hyphaeresis

2010-03-12T07:38:00.000-05:00

"Kids these days! Text messaging all the time and using crazy invented spelllings. What is the world coming to?"

Have you had similar thoughts or overheard comments such as these? Well, guess what? There truly is nothing new under the sun! Kids have been using hyphaeresis for a long, long time.

hyphaeresis (noun): the omission of sounds, syllables or letters from words.

In the 1830's, American teenagers and college students deliberately misspelled and abbreviated words, changing the English language to "make it their own". Some examples were published in the March 23, 1839 (that's right...1839) edition of the Boston Morning Post:

NS: 'nuf said
OW: oll wright
OK: oll korrect (for more information, click here!)

Remember: language is never static. We use new forms of words, written and oral, to express ourselves, to feel part of a group, to start trends. It was that way in March 1839 and now, in March 2010, we're still at it! OMG!

Thx 4 readn,
TanE

Spotlight: M. Fogelson

2010-03-11T09:33:00.001-05:00

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em! Amelia Middle School teacher Mark Fogelson has taken advantage of students' digital learning style by integrating an audience response system in his eighth grade history classes.

Realizing the different learning needs of digital students - students who spend over five hours outside the school day accessing technology- Mark began using the audience response system this year. The system allows students to respond to questions projected on a screen with "clickers" or small, handheld devices. Student responses to quizzes, polls, questions, etc. are projected instantly, providing immediate feedback and allowing Mark to assess students' comprehension.

Colleague Brian Wallace convinced Mark and fellow teacher Erin Cupito to give the audience response system a try. Now students actually look forward to taking quizzes. "It's a video game culture," stated Mark. "If there is one thing every kid knows how to manipulate, it's a remote control."

Now that's a Learning Channel!

Cheryl

March Madness: Free Tech 4 Teachers

2010-03-10T13:22:00.002-05:00

Short and sweet. If you bookmark only one teacher website, let it be this one: Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers.

Here's why:
1. It's free.
2. It shares free stuff.
3. It's written by a teacher for teachers.
4. It always shares the free stuff, plus it explains applications for your classroom (what + so what).

Take a look at today's free tech, here.
Take a look at Richard's Twelve Essentials for Technology Integration.

Enjoy,
M.E.

March Madness: Thinking in Pictures

2010-03-09T06:41:00.000-05:00

Pictures for Summarizing and Note Taking Voice Thread were captured using Google Images.

You've heard it before, but it's true...a picture is worth a thousand words. Especially for today's students who prefer processing pictures, sounds, color and video before text.

If you are looking for that "just right" picture to complement your lesson, try Google Images. Thousands of images are available at the click of a mouse... pictures that can help students visualize abstract and complex concepts.

Dirk Bogarde stated, "The camera can photograph thought." So here's to thinking in pictures. But don't take my word for it... check it out here!

Cheryl

March Madness: 21C Taxonomy

2010-03-08T06:14:00.002-05:00

One of the very best Bloom's tools I've seen came across Twitter last week. These two flash tutorials offer a quick overview for and application of the revised Bloom's Taxonomy—with a representation of 21st century skills and a recognition of Creating as the ultimate outcome for learners of all ages.

Source: Bloom's Taxonomy Tutorial Flash via the CCCS Faculty Wiki.

BTW, for a downloadable classroom poster of the new Bloom's, see this earlier TLC post.

M.E.

PS Thanks to Jeff Riel, GEHS, for helping me with the embed codes for this post.

March Madness: Gotta Keep Reading

2010-03-05T08:52:00.005-05:00

On December 11, 2009, students at Ocoee Middle School near Orlando, Florida recorded a video to inspire kids to read. With over 74,000 views on YouTube, their message of literacy has spread around the world! These kids were granted permission from The Black Eyed Peas to use the melody of the hit song, "I Gotta Feeling". They rewrote the lyrics, choreographed a routine, and stepped out into the warm Florida sunshine to have some fun.

Ocoee Middle School's Gotta Keep Reading on TeacherTube.

Tanny

March Madness: Consider Twitter

2010-03-04T06:47:00.003-05:00

If you think Twitter is only about celebrities, chitchat, gossip, and idle talk, read on.

If you'd like a way to connect with educators from around the world who share your interests, questions, subject area, problems, and perspectives, consider Twitter.

In the year that I've been tweeting I've built a professional learning network (PLN) that's taught me about technology, teaching, leadership, and learning and helped me make connections never before possible.

When Joe and Lori were looking for kindergarten classes to Skype with, for instance, I put out this tweet:

By the end of the day we'd connected with schools in California and Kansas and the Kinder-Skyping project was underway.

On Twitter I learned about free or very low-cost web tools like Voice Thread, Animoto, Delicious, and Google Forms. On Twitter I met Ken Royal (@KenRoyal) from Scholastic who met with our Ohio eTech team and Peter Pappas (@edteck) of Copy/Paste who agreed to work with West Clermont teachers next fall. Yoon Soo Lim (@DoremiGirl) helped me with Flip Camera and You Tube filter questions. On Twitter, I discovered online conversations with thinkers like Daniel Pink, Seth Godin, Kylene Beers, and Alfie Kohn.

Twitter was my window to Web 2.0 learning.

It's not everybody's cup of tea. But I invite you to spend a little time there just to "lurk and learn" for a while.

Get started with tips from these terrific teachers:

Why Teachers Should Try Twitter by teacher William Ferriter (@plugusin on Twitter) in the February 2010 issue of Educational Leadership

What Did They Tweet? by teacher Shelly Terrell (@ShellTerrell) on her award-winning edublog

Seven Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter by teacher Richard Byrne (@rmbyrne) on his site Free Tech 4 Teachers

Twitter? Professional? ...C'mon!!! by teacher William Steltz (@jpsteltz) on his blog

And if you decide to open an account, click here for a list of teachers, administrators, or PLN builders to follow.

M.E.

PS Follow me on Twitter. You'll find me @steelepierce.

This is post 4/23 in our March Madness quest

March Madness: Spotlight on A. Vaughn

2010-03-03T06:53:00.001-05:00

Anita integrates technology with her daily message.

What causes a "veteran" teacher to embrace the use of technology in the classroom? Of course, today's digital students thrive on instruction supported by technology, but how does a teacher make this shift? This was my question as I visited Anita Vaughn's classroom first grade classroom at Holly Hill Elementary.

According to Anita, a 25 year veteran, it started with curiosity. She heard about SMART Boards while completing her master's program, but didn't know much about them. Then opportunity knocked. When Nancy Parks, Holly Hill principal, asked Anita to become a member of the district's SMART Board pilot team it was game on!

Anita began integrating the SMART Board in her math class. She discovered many interactive activites and images that were helpful in viualizing math concepts. She began using dice for addition practice, base ten blocks, clocks, calculators, graphing, measurement, sorting, etc. Even students walking down the hall would wander in to check out the interactive math lesson!

Once Anita saw how the use of technology increased student motivation and learning, she began to explore other ways to integrate technology and instruction. She now uses technology to project virtual dice with short vowel letter chunks for skills group, projects decodable books from websites, shows author interviews and has students interact with the SMART Board during daily message.

"At first I was frustrated with some of the technical aspects of the SMART Board, but once I got it up and running, I used it regularly. Now everytime I explore I find something new I can use in the classroom. I find new uses everyday," stated Anita.

SMART Board... SMART Teacher!

Cheryl

March Madness: Making Mistakes

2010-03-02T06:23:00.001-05:00

Last Friday I got to hang out with the West Clermont art, music and tech teachers during a professional learning session. Make no mistake: they are a fun group to spend time with!

We viewed a video clip of creativity enthusiast Sir Ken Robinson. Talk about an interesting guy. He is as informative as he is entertaining. And with this quotation, he reminds us that being wrong is very...well, right!

Sir Ken says, "If you're not prepared to be wrong, you'll never create anything."

His speech totally made me want to dig in, mess up, and create something amazing! Next time you see me, don't hesitate to ask, "What mistakes have you made lately, Tanny?"

Tanny

PS In case you're curious, Correct, Indiana is a little town situated between Madison and Versailles. Only go there if you're ready to be "in Correct".

March Madness: Getting to Done

2010-03-01T11:22:00.003-05:00

Okay, it's the first day of March, and I have a crazy idea and a challenge: Can we create a blog post for every school day during the month? That's 23 posts. And that's madness.

But, I think we can do it. We have lots of ideas from Friday's Professional Learning Day, from our February trip to Ohio eTech, and from our recent reading.

We're currently reading Seth Godin's Linchpin. Great read!

Godin writes about "shipping," that is, moving from thinking, talking, planning, resisting, etc etc to DONE. Now I know that it's true in education that we are always "in process," and that we don't always see results right away. BUT, it is true that there is always an end-of-the-day or end-of-the-project, that is, there are lots of things that we CAN get done.

Godin shares Bre Pettis's Cult of Done Manifesto. Here it is is list form (you can see it in graphic form, here):
1. There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
2. Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
3. There is no editing stage.
4. Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
5. Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
6. The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
7. Once you're done you can throw it away.
8. Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
9. People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
10. Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
11. Destruction is a variant of done.
12. If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
13. Done is the engine of more.

So in the spirit of getting it done, let the March Madness begin.

M.E.

Summarizing & Note Taking II

2010-02-27T14:55:00.003-05:00

Amelia Elementary teachers respond via wallwisher to our Summarizing & Note Taking module at Friday's professional learning day.

As promised, here are the Summarizing & Note Taking links from the Voice Thread, and more:

Copy/Paste by Peter Pappas
Pappas on Summarizing & Note Taking
Pappas on Taxonomy of Reflection

Robert Marzano Free Resources
Robert Marzano Meta-Analysis Database

Cornell note taking template

On Doodling here on TLC: Teaching. Learning. Community.

Janet Allen's Tools for Teaching Content Literacy (flip book)

We look forward to hearing your ideas about using these strategies in your classroom.

M.E.

Summarizing & Note Taking I

2010-02-22T13:57:00.009-05:00

Making Thinking Visible

We can maximize our chances of making difficult content sticky if we broaden our definition of note taking.

Summarizing & Note Taking is one of Robert Marzano's high yield instructional strategies, with benefits for students of all ages and for all kinds of content (I like to say "from Kindergarten to Calculus").

Learn about this and more as you listen to the Voice Thread we created for West Clermont's February 26 Professional Learning Day to align with the Ohio Improvement Process and our school improvement plans.

Full screen version, click here.

With thanks to Superintendent Gary Brooks for the introduction and to education consultant Peter Pappas for adding comments to the Voice Thread. Pappas will be working with teachers and administrators in September 2010.

For links, click here.

M.E.

It Felt Like Learning to Me

2010-02-17T11:29:00.001-05:00

Amelia Elementary Principal Stephanie Walker shares her blog project.

     Recently, I was working on a project and became "stuck." I was trying to create a new blog site and couldn't seem to move forward. My work seemed only mediocre and I quickly became frustrated.

     Then a colleague shared her blog project with me. We collaborated... we talked about what was working and what was not. We problem-solved and created new ways of thinking about our projects...we shared our brains!

     Before I knew it I was ready to move forward again. I was motivated with new ideas and my frustration had disappeared!

     Collaboration is not only important for educators, but for students too. All students can benefit from collaboration with a peer on class work, assignments, etc.

    Take it from me... collaborating with a peer or colleague is not "copying" or "cheating." In fact, it felt a whole lot like learning to me!

Don't forget to share your brain...
Cheryl

Shift Happens

2010-02-10T12:58:00.003-05:00

     Shift happens... in fact, it already has. Try to find a pay phone, a typewriter, a transitor radio. They have virtually disappeared from our cultural landscape. Ready or not... the digital future is here.

     This means students coming to our schools today are digital natives. They have never known life without cell phones, video games, instant messaging, etc. In fact, this constant bombardment of digital information is what Ian Jukes refers to as "InfoWhelm."

     According to Jukes, constant exposure to InfoWhelm has resulted in a different kind of learner. Quite simply, kids are wired differently. While we tend to process information in a linear, sequential manner, today's students are "hyper-linked." They are parallel processors and multi-taskers... they can listen to their iPod, text message a friend and watch a video, all while doing homework. They prefer to process pictures, sounds, video and color before text. They prefer instant gratification and immediate rewards.

     As a result, schools are not always friendly places for these digital natives. Instead of being allowed to access information quickly from multiple sources, students are often subjected to a slow and controlled release of information. They are expected to gain information from pages and pages of text without picture, sound or video. Or they are expected to work independently, without the benefits of networking .

     Yes, basic skills are still imporant. They form the building blocks for higher learning. But they are no longer enough. Unfortunately, many schools are not ready to address the unique needs of this digitial generation. In a way these schools are like the wall of obsolete telephones... watching in silence while shift happens.

     If you would like to learn why basic skills like literacy are not enough, click here to read Ian Juke's 21st Century Fluencies for the Digital Age.

Cheryl (a digital immigrant)

A Week Full of Firsts

2010-01-22T22:38:00.003-05:00

When my now teenaged daughters were in preschool, they had a particular videotape that they viewed over and over and over again. I mean like ten times a day. No kidding. It almost drove me crazy! The video was called "Baby's Firsts", and along with a catchy little tune, it featured babies experiencing the world for the first time: baby's first toy, baby's first tooth, baby's first steps, etc.

After all these years, I'm thinking about that annoying video once again. This week I've experienced a whole string of firsts myself. It was my first week as principal! Bear with me as I list my brand new encounters from Week One. Catchy tune not included.

Tanny's first morning announcements
Tanny's first fire drill
Tanny's first bus discipline
Tanny's first thank you note from a 2nd grader
Tanny's first use of a walkie-talkie
Tanny's first office referral
Tanny's first lunch duty (since 2001)
Tanny's first walk-through with the Board president
Tanny's first week as principal, filled with satisfaction

A "text cousin" to this blog post is Marla Frazee's beautiful picture book, Walk On! A Guide for Babies of All Ages (Harcourt, 2006). This is a perfect book for anyone, learning anything, at any age.

Check out Frazee's book here!
Tanny

Tween Tribune

2010-01-22T14:19:00.006-05:00

Guest post: Tina Wolfer Grade 8

I introduced Tween Tribune to my class last week and was blown away by how engaged they were.

TweenTribune offers teachers and students an opportunity to read high interest news stories about everyday people from around the world. Introduced in such an appealing way, Tribune stories are interesting to middle schoolers and are a great way to get students to read newspaper articles—and then to hear them comment.

After reading the stories, the students are able to post a response.

Students log on in a very safe manner and are able to access TweenTribune at home. I’m able to check the blogs before they are published and able to print them.

My students were sharing stories with each other and having a great time writing a response. They are proud to be published writers. I introduced this website on Thursday and many students logged in at home over the weekend!

The responses have to be at least 25 words. At first students were unhappy with that number, but as they started to respond, they realized how easy it was to accomplish. Students came in the next day and asked if we’re going to read new stories again.

In response to the article, “Suspended over long hair. Is it fair?” Korie posted: I don't think that it is fair that a four year old would get suspended for having long hair. There are students in my middle school with hair longer hair than him that don't get in trouble for it.

I recommend this site to all teachers. The students are engaged and they are reading and writing at the same time. Check it out: http://tweentribune.com/.

MLK Day: What ONE Can Do

2010-01-18T09:24:00.001-05:00

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." Martin Luther King, Jr.

Do all you can
With what you have
In the time you have
In the place you are.

What ONE Can Do
PowerPoint by Michael Gott
Do All You Can by Robert Anderson, performed by Devotion, used with permission

Metaphorically Speaking, x = y

2010-01-03T20:52:00.004-05:00

According to James Geary, we utter six metaphors a minute. “Metaphor is a way of thought before it is a way with words,” he says. It's about the brain's disposition to patterns and connections.

Watch Geary teach us more about this cognitive function and shake up our own ideas a bit in this TED Talk about metaphor.

In our professional learning sessions on Similarities & Differences, teachers especially enjoy Silver, Strong, and Perini's resource, The Strategic Teacher. Math teachers are surprised to be included—in fact, the focus of—Chapter 10 Metaphorical Expressions. In the chapter, middle school teacher Susan Billows says, "Metaphors and math go together better than most people imagine."

Not surprising, once you hear Geary's definition of metaphor. Simple. It's x = y.

See also: Similarities & Differences: Part 2

M.E.

Getting a Word in Edgewise: Wordle

2009-12-29T16:39:00.002-05:00

Missed the Just One Hour workshop on Wordle? A recap:

Horizontal, vertical, or any-which-way, Wordle makes it fun to, well, get a word in edgewise—visually. Wordle is an easy web-based program at wordle.net that allows you to create a graphic representation of text. Because it quantifies text (the more often a word or phrase appears, the larger it is represented), it can be used to compile or summarize data.

Most important, students love it.

So, how can you use it to promote student thinking in your classroom? What kinds of text can you use?

21 Ways to Use Wordle
1. Visualize a brainstorm session

2. Compile data from classroom polls

3. Create a graphic autobiography

4. Guess the ___________________ (story, novel, event)

5. Write a headline for a current event

6. See similarities and differences

7. Identify criteria for ____________

8. Show class rules

9. Present spelling lists in various fonts

10. Examine student writing (Overused words? Important details missing?)

11. Study an author’s tone

12. Display your syllabus

13. Discover main ideas in text

14. Look for key ideas in important speeches

15. Draw inferences

16. Summarize

17. Show synonyms or antonyms

18. Make a custom illustration for a blog, story, essay, book report

19. Compare news stories for bias

20. Customize your word wall

21. Reflect on your thinking

On his blog Copy/Paste, Peter Pappas shares ways to use Wordle to promote literacy skills. Pappas suggests:

Defining skills
Before the dictionary comes out, give your students a new vocabulary word and ask them to brainstorm all the word they associate with it. Gather up all the brainstormed words for a Wordle. After the term has been formally defined, repeat the process and compare to the "pre-dictionary" Wordle.

Summarizing skills
As a pre-reading exercise, copy/paste text of reading into a Wordle and ask students to predict what the main ideas of the reading will be. Another pre-reading option: give them a Wordle of a non-fiction reading and ask them to use the Wordle to generate a title or headline before they see the real article. Post reading: ask them to reflect on the reading based on a prompt (for example, main idea, what you've learned, funniest element, etc). Then collect all their reflections into a Wordle.

Comparison skills
Give them two different accounts / essays on the same theme / event - let them compare the Wordles generated by each. Or you could generate Wordles for two different readings, then let student see if they can match the Wordle to its corresponding reading.

For GREAT Wordle ideas and tips created by teachers, see the collaborative project Tom Barrett and colleagues created as a PowerPoint slide show:

How to create your own Wordles for class (or, better, have your students create them)? Start here with a copy of our Just One Hour workshop handout, Then head to wordle.net. It's really as easy as 1-2-3: Click create, paste in any text, and click go.

A word of caution, it's addictive. In a good way. Have fun.

M.E.

PS Just found this great post by Iowa teacher Becky Goerend with sample student work!

Sources:
http://www.wordle.net/
http://peterpappas.blogs.com/ (Twitter: edteck)
http://edte.ch/blog/ (Twitter: tombarrett)
http://mrsbmg.blogspot.com/ (Twitter: MrsBMG)

Blooming Butterfly

2009-12-28T16:47:00.004-05:00

Don't you just love this?

This BLOOMing Butterfly graphic, based on Benjamin Bloom's taxonomy of thinking skills, was created by Learning Today under a Creative Commons license. That means you can print it and use it if 1) you attribute the source (already printed on the poster) and
2) you don't sell it.

Download it by clicking here and print it for your students, your classroom, or your parent newsletter. Thanks, Learning Today!

M.E.

PS Learn more about Creative Commons here.

SIOP - Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol

2009-12-17T11:45:00.018-05:00

What is more difficult than learning about the interactions of matter and energy throughout the lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere? …Trying to learn about it in your non-native language!

Yet, English Language Learners (ELLs) face this challenge every day in classrooms across the nation. Not only are ELLs trying to master academic content, but they are still acquiring English language proficiency.

In order to support the learning and language needs of West Clermont’s ELL students, fourteen district teachers participated in Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) training.

SIOP is a research-based approach to lesson planning and implementation that has proven effective with ELL students. The model uses high quality features of instruction withinin a framework of eight components, i.e. lesson preparation, building background, comprehensible input, strategies, interaction, practice/application, lesson delivery, and review/assessment.

In the words of one WC teacher, “The SIOP model provides support to all students, but especially English Language Learners. The model provides meaningful access to the content, with the added benefit of practice in reading, listening, speaking, and writing."

Another teacher says, “SIOP is a way to take what we know about best practices, and make them even better by adding a language objective to every lesson."

Want to know more? Ask a member of our SIOP team or click here!

Cheryl

One Book, One School

2009-12-13T11:16:00.009-05:00

Seneca once said, "The best ideas are common property."

Isn't that the truth in teaching? In my school district, great ideas are passed up and down the hallways and in between school buildings. And thanks to the many kinds of electronic communication, lesson ideas are spreading instantaneously from up the street and around the world.

One Book, One School was one of those "common property" ideas for me. Let me explain.

I belong to a PLC that consists of Heinemann authors and consultants. Once a year we meet face to face, but mostly we connect via Elluminate and conference calls. Colleen Buddy is one of my colleagues in this PLC. She is truly an idea person! During one of our Heinemann retreats, Colleen shared an idea that brought her school closer together. The initiative was called One Book, One School. I listened to Colleen, scribbled down some notes, and went home ready to share. One Book, One School is simple. Inexpensive. Powerful. Here's how we made it work for us.

I met with our eight elementary principals, suggesting that we all read the same book at the same time, in every grade level at each school. The goal here is unity around a meaningful theme. And the coolest part about it is that it all begins with picture book.

As Colleen recommended, we settled on The Golden Rule for our first attempt. Written by Ilene Cooper and illustrated by Gabi Swiatkowska, this beautiful book reminds us all to treat others with the dignity and respect we want for ourselves. What greater message could be shared with our students?

Now we don't have a lot of money to spare, so in most cases we purchased a copy of The Golden Rule to be shared by each grade level at each school. During the first week of the school year, every child heard and discussed The Golden Rule with their classmates and teacher. Principals could stop in any classroom after the first few days of school and strike up a conversation about this age-old concept. The book's theme perfectly supported our district's anti-bullying initiative and classroom management plans.

We didn't stop there. Soon students were writing connections to the text and posting them in the hallways for all to see. Articles about The Golden Rule appeared in school-to-home newsletters and on school websites. Classroom teachers and their students brainstormed ways to practice The Golden Rule at school, on the bus and at home. Talking about The Golden Rule became part of weekly class meetings in the classrooms.

Several of our schools held additional One Book, One School weeks during the school year, like right after winter break and right before our high-stakes test week. The possibilities are endless!

With our hectic school schedules and filled-to-the-brim planning time, it is sometimes hard to come together around a common idea. One Book, One School is a wonderful, easy way to to do just that. It worked for us! And now this idea is officially "common property", just as Seneca said.

For more information, read this Education World article.

Tanny

What We Really Read

2009-12-06T12:59:00.002-05:00

Love this graphic! Meant to spoof, perhaps, but LOL true. It illustrates the perennial teachers' conflict: teaching the classics ("the canon") or nurturing a love of reading. Forced to choose, I'd go with the latter. I'd rather be a reading catalyst. And you?

M.E.

So, what are you really reading? For me, it's Barbara Kingsolver's newest, The Lacuna, with Curtis Bonk's The World is Open on deck.

Graphic from graphjam.com.

On Doodling

2009-11-24T23:49:00.007-05:00

Do your students like to doodle? Do you? What some might see as an off-task, even disrespectful behavior, I see as a way to process information. A way to make thinking visible.

My colleagues are used to my crazy notebook, pictured above (click on photo to enlarge). They don't bat an eye when I'm sitting in a formal meeting or important keynote address and I take out my Flair pens and manuscript book. With paper and pens at my disposal, I can focus. I can relax. I can think.

I'm not alone in my need to turn the audible into the visible. A few years ago I read a BBC article about how British Prime Minister Tony Blair was criticized when he inadvertently left some of his doodles on a table at Number 10 Downing Street. Those same critics were left speechless when it was discovered that the doodles didn't belong to Tony Blair at all. Instead, they were the creation of a guy named Bill Gates!

For two centuries, U.S. Presidents have doodled during critical briefings and while strategizing and brainstorming. Presidential Doodles showcases sketches from George Washington to George W. Bush, and almost every president in between. I was happy to discover this book. It lends a scholarly view to the practice that some of us, adults and kids alike, can't live without.

So what does this mean for classroom instruction? A recent study suggests that doodling aids in memory recall. Those who doodled while listening to information recalled 29% more than those who tried to attend without pen in hand. Consider asking students to sketch their way through a lecture, dry textbook passage or PowerPoint presentation. Allow students to create logos or other graphic representations of their learning, to aid in the synthesizing of new information. Encourage the use of color, creative font and multi-directionality on the page. Student engagement and motivation are sure to rise!

If you're a doodler, feel affirmed. If you're not, it's never too late. You, too, can join the ranks of John F. Kennedy and Bill Gates!

Tanny

PS A shout-out to amazing educator Ian Jukes! Your recent keynote address in Columbus, Ohio inspired a page of colorful doodles and a mind full of new thinking for me. See Ian's signature right smack dab in the center of the photo.

All Hands On Deck: Response to Intervention

2009-11-15T21:39:00.010-05:00

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a problem solving process to assure success for struggling students. It is not a gateway to special education (nor a delay to special ed) and it is not a quick fix.

You’ll often hear us use the expression, “all kids, all schools, all hands on deck.” Following our Response to Intervention (RTI) professional learning session, I asked colleagues to help me create a recap. Here’s a compilation of what “all hands” have so say about RTI, plus helpful RTI links.

What do teachers have to say?
RTI is a process teachers should use to help struggling students be successful in their classroom. It’s probably something teachers are already doing. But I think teachers need to do a better job of documenting the strategies that are in place for students and then collecting data over time to check and see if these strategies are helping the students be successful in the classroom. ~ Todd M, grade 8 Algebra teacher

RTI is something that most of us do most of the time, but in an unstructured, undocumented way. We do it for short term intervention and longer term intervention. In possible Special Ed cases, we need to make sure we have the documentation. In other cases, we need to make sure that the rigors of documentation don't cause teachers to avoid doing what they would normally do. ~ Ceil K, IB math teacher

RTI is a continuous process of pre-assessments, proper student placements into appropriate intervention groups, weekly progress monitoring to ensure that the intervention is working, followed by a post-assessment to document student progress backed with data. ~ Aarty S, ESL assistant

RTI is a multi-layered approach to get to the new/modern idea/ideal that all kids can learn at high levels. It’s a way of getting schools to move beyond the archaic idea that school is meant to be a "sorting" place. So, RTI is a real series of techniques to make this happen, but it's not a path to special education. It's sort of like scaffolding a whole-school response of what to do when kids hit a road block. ~ Angie F, freshman English teacher

How long does RTI take?
It’s a process without a specific time frame. It’s okay for a student to have tiered supports in place throughout their schooling to help them be successful. ~ Julie C, work study coordinator

Why have we chosen this approach, K-12?
RTI allows us to focus our collective resources toward early intervention and toward providing appropriate help and supports that prevent academic and behavioral concerns from becoming bigger issues. Amy S, school psychologist

Most important to remember: We are all learners in this process. And we’re all in this together.

Here are some resources to help us as we learn. What resources or ideas do you have to share?

M.E.

Links:
West Clermont’s RTI links
West Clermont's RTI Plan
National Center on RTI

Books:
Pyramid Respond to Intervention: RTI, PLCs, and How to Respond When Kids Don’t Learn
Raising the Bar and Closing the Gap

Photo Credit: Flickr Creative Commons

Digital Dictionaries

2009-11-15T21:36:00.010-05:00

Photo Credit: iStockphoto

What image comes to mind when you think of a dictionary? A heavy, thick book with an infinite supply of words? A useful tool, but boring read? Actually, Noah Webster's first American Dictionary of the English language, published in 1828, became one of the best selling books of the 1800's. Webster's dictionary had 70,000 entries and took 27 years to complete. His work lives on and led to today's standardized and "American" spellings, i.e. color instead of colour, plow instead of plough.

However, even Mr. Webster has joined the digital age. Today's dictionaries are online with audio, video and other student-friendly features. Merriam-Webster offers a Visual Dictionary Online, connecting words with images... a winning combination for today's visual students. Merriam-Webster also features Word Central, a gaming site that allows students to build their word knowledge.

A favorite online dictionary for middle and high school students (and adults) is Word Ahead. This site features vocabulary videos of over 900 difficult words. It also includes a Study Room with video and flash cards for ACT/SAT vocabulary. (You have to see this!)

Another interesting visual dictionary for middle school students and above is Visuwords. This site offers word meanings and associations in a diagram that resembles a neural network. Students can explore word meanings and their associations with other words and concepts. The interactive site allows students to click on the background to pan around and drag the individual word nodes.

Here are some other student-friendly dictionaries worth checking out.

Do you have some favorite digital dictionaries? If so..let us know. We can build a list of favorites, and it won't take us 27 years to do it!

Cheryl

Day by Day, Child by Child

2009-11-06T22:24:00.002-05:00

On November 3, teachers gathered for our annual convocation and celebration of teaching and teachers. The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Krista Ramsey was keynote speaker. Her remarks:

I work on the 19th floor of the Enquirer building, on the corner of Elm and 3rd streets very close to the Ohio River and, during baseball season, every time the Reds hit a home run, there are fireworks and, for a minute, everybody downtown stops working and takes notice.

I think the Ohio Department of Education, when it releases its list of Excellent schools, should set off fireworks across the state, in the middle of the day. It would be cool for every community with an excellent school system to hear the commotion and look up at the sky and say, hey, they’re winning!

But that, as we all know, is not how things work in the world of education. Unlike professional athletes, you are the quiet heroes. Your stunning plays are getting the girl who sits glowering in the back row to finally join a discussion. Your perfect record is 10 years of driving a bus accident free, keeping dozens of children safe day after day after day.

Your “save” is keeping the districts’ computers up and running every day, or filling every classroom that needs one with an excellent substitute teacher – or sending out good, clear information on the H1N1 virus, and patiently answering all the questions from angry, confused and frustrated parents that follow.

Your victories are quiet victories. If you waited for the fireworks, you’d wait your entire career. But you – and sometimes only you – know what you have won at the end of the day. You know when you see the socially-awkward kid who always glides along the edge of the hallway so no one notices him; suddenly find a friend in your classroom.

You know when the parents who have resisted for so long finally agree to have their child tested for learning disabilities.

You know when you as a guidance counselor have a student walk into your office to show you her college acceptance letter – and you know she’ll be the first generation in her family ever on a college campus.

You win when they win – when those children in your care as a principal or classroom aide or music teacher or basketball coach or food service worker or psychologist lose a little bit of their self-doubt or find the first inkling of something they’re good at.

But there are long stretches when you don’t think you’re winning at all. I was a teacher for eight years and I remember those stretches. I remember watching my 7th bell class walk out of my room – they were ALWAYS the rowdiest, most disrespectful class – and swearing that I was going to immediately go and apply to be one of those people who holds the SLOW and STOP signs on the highway crews.

Today I work on a daily newspaper. Every day, I have to produce a brand-new product. Every time I make a mistake, 200,000 people see it – and it seems like 50,000 blog about it. I am part of the media, surely one of the most suspect groups of workers in the world. And every day I have to answer to big and hairy editors who like to scream in people’s faces. And let me tell you, everything I do is way easier than being a classroom teacher.

I have been on the editorial board for the last six years, and in that position I have met with governors, ambassadors, presidential candidates, senators, county commissioners, Cabinet members, college presidents and CEOs. Some I have admired, some I have not. But over that time, I have come to realize that virtually none of them are the people who really hold the world together. The people who do that are far too busy to come in and meet with editorial boards. They are working in emergency rooms and counseling troubled teenagers, and doing therapy with stroke victims and caring for foster children and working in public schools.

YOU are the people who keep the world from splintering into pieces.

And if you’re tired of the feeling that the world expects you fix everything from teenage drinking to childhood obesity to bad grammar to poor hygiene, all I can say is I’m sorry.

Maybe we don’t actually EXPECT it, but we certainly do hope it.

You are the people we turn to again and again

to care for children who aren’t cared for anywhere else
to reach out to parents who have no one to turn to for advice
to model kind, considerate behavior for children who have been abused and neglected
to move the next generation of Americans to a new level of competence and creativity
to prepare today’s children for the world of tomorrow
to encourage, embolden and inspire.

Never think for a moment that your words or your actions are simply bouncing off the children you serve. Somewhere in this school year, every one of you will take some action that will change a child’s life.

It may be a simple kindness that made an unbearable day bearable. It may be praise that erases the misery of being absolutely average. It may be a second chance for a child who has almost resigned himself to being a failure.

Sometime this year, you will say something positive to a child that you will forget the next day, but that child will remember for the rest of his life.

There is no power on earth greater than that power.

So I challenge you to carry on with excellence. Not one drop of your energy, your intelligence, your passion, your compassion will be wasted.

I leave you today with one of my favorite quotes. The first time I read it, it was attributed to Shaquille O’Neal, but I came to find out he actually borrowed it from Socrates.

It is this: Excellence is a habit. We are what we repeatedly do.

Thank you for creating excellence day by day and child by child.

_____________________________

A former teacher, Krista Ramsey is columnist for the Cincinnati Enquirer. She serves on their Editorial Boad. For a PDF copy of Krista's remarks, click here.

Meet New Information. Change Your Mind.

2009-10-27T19:55:00.022-04:00

Russian nesting dolls photo credit: Mollypop on Flickr Creative Commons

It's Monday after work, and I'm sitting in a Just One Hour PD session with Tanny McGregor and a great team of teachers. Hope she doesn't find my laptop notetaking a distraction while she's teaching. Today we're reviewing SYNTHESIS, in the Thinking Strategy Series. My notes:

Tanny likes to explain synthesis to students using concrete examples. She used the simile of nesting dolls. "When you think of synthesizing, picture nesting dolls," she says. One idea within another. As students continue to change their thinking, their thinking develops and grows. The original thinking may be embedded and still existing, but the new thinking is larger and different.

And Daniel Pink in A Whole New Mind uses the metaphor symphony. He writes, "Symphony...is the ability to put together the pieces. It is the capacity to synthesize rather than to analyze; to see relationships between seemingly unrelated fields; to detect broad patterns rather than to deliver specific answers; and to invent something new by combining elements nobody else thought to pair."

Love this quotation from Tanny: "Meet new information and change your mind."

Tanny tells about asking Steph Harvey to define synthesis. She shared Steph's defining sentence stem:
I used to think __________, but now I think _____________.

Debbie Miller used Thinking Quadrants when modeling synthesis for our primary teachers:
1. Right now I'm thinking...
2. And now I'm thinking...
3. And now I'm thinking...
4. Now that I'm finished, I think...
Each stem falls in a quadrant of a graphic organizer. Nothing fancy, Tanny says, just fold a piece of paper in fourths. Each quadrant captures student thinking before-during-after reading. "I really like the idea of the four square model for working with my English Language Learners," ESL teacher Rachel tells me.

Tanny shared a turn and talk strategy from Kylene Beers that helps student synthesize their thinking after reading text (fiction or non-fiction). Beers calls it "Say Something." Here are the rules:
1. With your partner, decide who will say something first.
2. When you say something, do one or more of the following: make a prediction, ask a question, clarify something you misunderstood, make a comment, or make a connection.
3. If you can't do one of those five things, then you need to reread.

We talked about and practiced genre reformulation. That is, take what you've read and turn it into something else. Options: lyrics with a familiar tune, a graphic representation (logo, sketch), an alphabet list, a pattern book structure (like Brown Bear, Brown Bear or The Important Book).

Tanny shared a six-word-synthesis idea adapted from Smith Magazine's six-word memoirs. Amy K shared that she had used the six-word-synthesis strategy as an exit ticket for her middle school students. The six-word-synthesis is a great way for teachers to check for understanding.

Finally, we worked with partners and shared our own synthesis of the book Fox, by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks. (This children's book is so beautiful and its story so profound I think I'm going to recommend it for my turn at book club.)

My six-word-synthesis of this Just One Hour:
"Not literary analysis. Literary thinking. Anew."

Miss the session? Our next Just One Hour in the Thinking Strategies Series is November 30 on schema and inferring.

M.E.

PS Here's the handout:

Getting to Know Gee

2009-10-25T10:24:00.019-04:00

Have you met James Gee?

A virtual introduction is in order if you answer yes to any of the questions below.

Do you think our current use of textbooks could be improved?
Would you like to know how we can motivate students to love our lessons the way they love to play video games?
Should teachers support students as thinkers instead of memorizers?
Would you like to understand how solid literacy instruction and 21st century skills can be taught in tandem?

James Paul Gee is the Fulton Presidential Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University, but that's just where he hangs his hat. His unique research extends around the world yet trickles down right into the classroom. I first read Gee's work a few years ago when investigating the link between gaming and learning. It whet my appetite for more about kids in the 21st century and how we can embrace them as learners.

I could blog about Gee all day. Maybe you'd be interested, maybe not. The best way I can tell you about Gee, however, is to arrange a virtual introduction. Let's attend a lecture, read his bio and view a recent video clip. Then you'll see what I mean. Gee has a brilliant way of taking the here and now and merging it with best instructional practice.

Games, Not Grades
(from Edutopia, recently featured on Dan Pink's blog)

On Games and Learning
(from the MacArthur Foundation)

James Gee on The 4th Grade Slump
(from The Cooney Center)

Gee Bio Info
(from Wikipedia)

Visit these links and your thinking will be challenged and changed.

Every time I read or listen to James Gee, I walk away saying, "Gee, I never thought about it like that!"

Tanny

(Graphic created with wordle.net)

What Did You Write Today? National Day on Writing

2009-10-20T21:01:00.011-04:00

October 20 was the National Day on Writing sponsored by the National Writing Project. Early this morning I sent an email to a few teachers to see what students were writing today. Lots!

"We've talked a lot about good readers making predictions," said Mr. Bertsch. Today his students wrote their predictions about the end of Arthur Miller's The Crucible.
First graders in Mrs. Cramer's class wrote and drew about what they want to do at Sun Rock Farm. Field trip tomorrow!
Ms. Ferguson's freshmen have read Night by Elie Wiesel. Today they wrote in response to a section of a 5th grade German girl's social studies text used to promote Hitler propaganda about racial superiority.
In Intro to Video Productions, Mr. Hammer's students wrote short personal essays in the form of the "This I Believe."
"A White Heron" by Sarah Orne Jewett provided the prompt for Mr. Poince's class. "Today my students are writing symbolic and persuasive responses to the short story."
Mrs. Wolff's 13-year-olds compared two nonfiction articles they read about detective work. High interest!
Macbeth's Act I was the backdrop for Ms. Yarchi's senior class. Today they wrote about Macbeth and Lady Macbeth's state of mind.
AP Environmental Science students in Mr. Whitford's class wrote about forest fire management.
Mrs. Henshey's eighth graders are writing personal narratives. "They're self-evaluating, peer editing and getting their papers ready for publishing," she said.
Today marked day one of Mrs. Ford's G/T students' after school Writing Club. They'll participate in the national Novel Writing Month, setting up online accounts to keep track of words written for the month and receive one-on-one creative writing instruction.

What did YOU write today?
M.E.
PS Count me in with 23 emails, one informational table, one blog post, two thank you letters, and four tweets.

BrainPOP - A Recipe for Success

2009-10-18T20:08:00.016-04:00

It's easy...combine one classroom teacher, Ohio Academic Content Standards and BrainPOP. The result? A lesson that supports 21st Century Curriculum and Instruction, a digital learning environment and a classroom of engaged students who are not forced to "power-down" during school.

BrainPOP is a web-based tool that creates animated, curriculum-based content aligned with Ohio (and other states') Academic Content Standards. Hundreds of short, animated movies are available with topics in Science, Social Studies, Math, English, Technology, Arts, Music and Health. In addition to the video animations, BrainPOP features interactive quizzes, graphic organizers and other activities to support student learning.

BrainPOP's user-friendly design allows teachers to:

introduce a new concept in a way that engages students
review material in order to consolidate learning
promote active viewing through discussion
provide exposure to content-area vocabulary
set a purpose for viewing by taking the interactive quiz before the content video
provide evidence of learning by using the interactive video at the end of the video
use supporting features that promote critical thinking and inquiry based learning.
collaboarate with colleagues on Facebook/BrainPOP and Twitter/brainpop.

Evidence of the program's success is detailed in a study of 1,100 classrooms in Florida and New York. The study concluded that students who were in classrooms that used BrainPOP showed substantial gains in Science, Lanuage and Reading Comprehension on the Stanford 10. Students received 16-20 weeks of instruction, yet achieved the equivalence of one to two grade levels of growth when compared to the national sample of students in the Stanford 10 norm group.

BrainPOP has also received numerous awards, including Learning magazine's 2010 Teacher Choice Award and the Technology and Learning award of excellence, 2007. Colleagues Heather C. and Jennifer H. give it the thumbs-up as well. Heather discovered helpful videos on the Educator's site (and also on Facebook and Twitter). Heather writes, "The [videos] show a few things that I'd never thought to do." Jennifer really likes the review quiz after each video. "When the students answer the questions they are immediately given feedfback on if they answered it correctly or not."

But don't take our word for it... check out a video yourself. Click here to learn more!

Cheryl

Image Credit: Flickr Creative Commons BrainPOP

Virtual Text Trails

2009-10-10T00:15:00.017-04:00

After enjoying condo life for 15 years, my family and I finally decided to go house-shopping last Fall. Even though the experience of finding and buying a house was stressful at times, there was one part I found to be enjoyable: Open House (not the occasional Open House I had to host...that was too much work... but the Open Houses of hopeful sellers). Every Sunday for 3 months or so, we'd pile in the SUV and check out what was on the market. How cool it was to walk through someone else's house, someone we didn't even know, and make inferences! (Maybe I need a life, but I thought it was fun. Doesn't take much for me, I guess.) After an Open House visit, I could tell you about the interests of the homeowners, how many people in their family, what colors and type of decor they favor. One of my favorite authors, Malcolm Gladwell, writes about the science behind this. In his 2007 book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, Gladwell shows how just a walk through a room can help you learn a lot about the inhabitant. A person's space is a kind of definition of who they are. When I visited those countless Open House showings, I was following a trail of evidence as I walked from room to room.

A person's bookshelf is much the same, I think. One glance at my home office bookshelf and you'll know what I love: Frank Lloyd Wright, historical fiction, reading comprehension, The Beatles, old journals and Tracy Chevalier. With every cover of every book, a memory is unleashed. I think about where I was when I read that volume and who recommended it or in what bookstore I purchased it. Sometimes I group books together by topic or color or genre. These "text trails" help me connect to my past and know just who I am.

With the advent of virtual bookshelves, however, now my colleagues and I can view each others bookshelves anyplace, anytime. I can know what Nancy and Mike are reading, what they've already read and what they plan to read next. I'm never without a great book recommendation, and I know my friends even better because I can follow their reading trails and they can follow mine. The books bring us together in amazing ways.

Since February 2008, I have enjoyed creating a virtual bookshelf at Shelfari.com. Shelfari is a great way to keep track of your own text trails, but other virtual bookshelf options are popping up everyday.

Goodreads
Library Thing
Revish
Bookglutton
BooksWellRead
WhatsOnMyBookshelf
Bibliophil
Chain Reading

Virtual bookshelves help you remember what you've read and what you want to read. They help you know yourself as a reader, and your colleagues, too. So blaze a trail! And let me know where to find you.

Happy trails to you,

Tanny

Similarities & Differences Part 2

2009-09-27T17:13:00.149-04:00

At Friday's professional learning day 550 teachers, K-12, spent the morning going deeper with the what, why, and how of using "Similarities & Differences" as a continued instructional strategy. We reviewed the research and spent a lot of time talking about our own applications. Elementary teachers created a gallery walk of lessons, and secondary teachers shared successful strategies from their classes.

Why is explict teaching of similarities and differences critical for the learning brain? And why does it work from kindergarten to calculus? In The Strategic Teacher (ASCD, 2008), Silver, Strong, and Perini write:

The use of comparisons increases our memory capacity. Two ideas linked together last longer than two ideas standing alone.
Comparisons let us use old knowledge to make sense of new knowledge.
Comparisons help us find connections and create new ideas.
Comparisons make the invisible (or abstract) visible, the confusable (or easily mixed up with other content) clear, and the neglectable (or easily overlooked) unavoidable.

Gina, grade 4/5, reminded us that graphic organizers alone do not "teach" this strategy. Gina requires her students to add a conclusion statement to any graphic organizer they're using. Why does this work? It allows students to move from part to whole and synthesize their thinking and helps move their learning into long-term memory. And it requires them to make their thinking visible by communicating in writing.

We left the morning session with lots to process and try out. Here are some of the teacher resources from the workshop to add to our repetoire.

For teachers:

The Strategic Teacher: Selecting the Right Research-Based Strategy for Every Lesson by Silver, Strong, and Perini (ASCD, Paperback, 2008). See chapter 5 on compare and contrast and chapter 10 on metaphor.

Taking the Angst Out of Analogies from education.com.

IMS (Instructional Management System) on the Ohio Department of Ed site: Similarities & Differences.

Graphic Organizers galore from Holt Rinehart Winston. Remember to always add a conclusion/synthesis section.

And just for fun, I Never Metaphor I Didn't Like by Mardy Grothe (Harper, Hardcover, 2008).

For students:

Picture books using metaphor
Bang, Molly. 1998. When Sophie Gets Angry- Really, Really Angry
Carlstrom, Nancy White. 1991. Goodbye Geese
Chall, Marsha Wilson. 1992. Up North at the Cabin
Gregory, Valiska. 1991. Through the Mickle Woods
Martin, Rafe. 1992. The Rough-Face Girl
Mathews, Sally Schofer. 1991. The Sad Night: The Story of an Aztec Victory and Spanish Loss
Paterson, Katherine. 1991. The Tale of the Mandarin Ducks
Thomas, Joyce Carol. 1993. Brown Honey in Broomwheat Tea
Van Allsburg, Chris. 1986. The Stranger
Yolen, Jane. 1968. Greyling; 1987. Owl Moon; 1992. Encounter

Picture books that use simile
Goble, Paul. 1982. The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
Johnston, Tony. 1996. The Wagon
Lorbiecki, Marybeth. 1996. Just One Flick of a Finger
Sheldon, Dyan. 1991. The Whales’ Song
Turner, Ann Warren. 1987. Nettie’s Trip South
Yolen, Jane. 1987. Owl Moon

Why does this matter and what can we do?

Students benefit by having similarities and differences pointed out by the teacher in an explicit manner. This can include rich discussion and inquiry, but allows students to focus on the relationhship or bridge to the new ideas.
Students also benefit when teachers ask them to create their own strategies for identifying similarities and differences. (Source: Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory)

Wrote one Holly Hill teacher at the end of the day, "I can assimilate these concepts more overtly in my classroom. Step by step."

What is working for you in explicity teaching students to make connections? Share with us and we'll post your successes.

M.E.
See also Similarities & Differences Part 1

The Wordle (wordle.net) was created from teachers' synthesis after our August professional learning session.

Huddle Up!

2009-09-19T11:25:00.061-04:00

Not so long ago, being a teacher was like being a quarterback without a team. When I began teaching it was common practice to walk into the classroom in August, close the door, and walk out again in June. No team, no sense of community. I did the best I could every day. I called the plays. If I made a good call the students would advance down the field, but if I made a questionable play they might lose a few yards. I had no offense to help me plan the best instruction, and no defense to help me get back in the game.

Thank goodness things have changed! So far this year I have been part of several high school, middle school and elementary school Professional Learning Communities. I found myself in the middle of a team huddle. There were classroom teachers, Title 1 teachers, principals, intervention specialists and guidance counselors all having meaningful discussion about data, curriculum, intentional choice of instructional materials, etc. We were talking strategy. We were drawing Xs and Os. It was a real team effort with all the players... a winning combination!

In Results Now, Mike Schmoker describes how effective teamwork can produce a steady stream of successes, which in turn will create the magic of momentum. The secret is to "win small, win early, win often."

Professional Learning Communities are definitely a win. They create success and momentum through collaboration and informed decision making of all the team members. I hope to be a part of other PLCs this year. You might say... I'm their biggest fan. Huddle up!

Cheryl

Thinking: Coming Soon to a Reader Near You!

2009-09-13T21:07:00.015-04:00

Yes! Maurice Sendak on the big screen! I just can't wait until October 16th. Where the Wild Things Are has been one of my favorite picture books since it was first read to me in the 1960's, and now Spike Jonze is bringing it back to me 40 years later. I recall begging my mom to read the book slowly, to draw out those 10 sentences so I could wallow in the eerie-funny-imaginative world of disobedient Max.

10 sentences read aloud by my mom. One half-hour of fantasy for me.

10 sentences written by Maurice Sendak. One feature-length film from Spike Jonze.

This is precisely what we desire for every reader, isn't it? Thinking that travels deep into and beyond the printed page, thinking laced with emotion and escape. So what can we do to maximize the chances that this kind of real reading is available to every student?

There are obvious opportunities we can provide. Read aloud each and every day. Allow for student choice of text as often as possible. Build classroom libraries full of high-interest, level-appropriate books. Publicly model your own personal love affair with reading.

We can also get kids into the reading/thinking habit if we begin to offer and prompt metacognitive experiences. Through the years I've been banking a collection of thinking prompts, gleaned from conversations with colleagues, lab observations and online chatter. Partial list below.

How do you know when you don't understand something?
What do you do when your brain freezes/gets stuck?
How can making mistakes help your brain grow?
What kinds of questions do you ask yourself when you're reading?
When do you know you should stop and reread?
What do you do when you're reading and something just doesn't make sense?
Why do you sometimes abandon a book?
What kinds of connections do you make while reading?
Have you ever noticed your mind wandering when you're reading? What do you do then?
Do you ever make predictions while reading? Have you ever been right? Have you been wrong? How do you know?
Which of your senses do you use in your brain while reading? Can you see? Smell? Hear? Taste? Feel?

Consider offering up one of these ideas at the beginning of class as bell work, or at the end of a lesson for closure. Sometimes you have an unclaimed minute here or there, or need a journal topic for a quick-write. Keep this list handy for times just like that.

Thinking. Let the wild rumpus begin!

Tanny

Far too numerous is the herd of such, who think too little and who talk too much.
John Dryden

Professional Development Not For Sale

2009-09-07T15:23:00.025-04:00

There is no doubt about it. We are a nation of consumers. We are constantly assaulted with advertisements, telemarketers, and junk mail. (Thank goodness for pop-up blockers!) Everybody wants to sell you something. In fact, there is an entire branch of science devoted to consumer psychology.

Everyone is a potential consumer, including educators. Publishers and professional development services vie for educational dollars with the persistence of crabgrass, overtaking mailboxes with glossy brochures promising to increase student achievement.

I'll admit there was a time when I fell for it. I was always looking for a professional development opportunity that would help me perfect my craft. The Magic Bullet. Now I realize, as Mike Schmoker states in Results Now, the experts are among us. Who knew?

Schmoker goes on to state that "effective team-based learning communities - not workshops- are the very best kind of professional development (p. 109)." These professional learning communities begin to build a new culture of teaching, as teachers realize that knowledge of improvement can and should be generated from within.

So, here's to you... my colleagues. I look forward to working with you and learning from you as we begin another school year. Let's put our heads together and "grow" our own professional learning communities. No crabgrass, please.

Cheryl

Unplugged. Offline. Uni-tasking.

2009-08-30T19:32:00.031-04:00

This weekend I spent Saturday on the McCready homestead in Chandlersville, an Ohio Century Farm, canning tomatoes, picking grapes and canning juice, and later, exhausted but content in the porch swing on the gazebo watching the sun go down. No cell service. No email. No texting.

In this über-connected 24/7 culture (there's even my BlackBerry app called ÜberTwitter), I'm working to give myself at least one day a week unplugged and offline. My department and I have vowed to allow weekends for respite, with at least one day of "no emailing" allowed. A genuine sabbath, rest and renewal, so we can return to work recharged.

That's hard in a society that admires multitasking.

I suspected I'd crossed the line of multi-tasking and constant e-connectivity when I started keeping my laptop on the breakfast table. You know, just to check emails and online news.

Here we have a small made-for-two drop leaf table in the kitchen with coffee mugs, cereal bowls, newspapers. And my computer.

Friday morning Bob says to me, "Do you need fish oil?"

"What's official?" I reply, not missing a Tweet, but missing the conversation across the table.

I've been reading recent research that shows not only the ineffectiveness, but even the dangers of multitasking (like using the cellphone while driving). We now know that multitasking may not lead to higher productivity.

Today's NYT carried a fun and sardonic (okay, snarky) article on the editorial page. The title: The Mediocre Multitasker. Ouch!

So, I'm working on slowing down and uni-tasking. Won't you join me? Let's take small steps toward slowing down, showing up, and doing just one thing at a time.

M.E.

The Instructional Season

2009-08-29T21:50:00.018-04:00

Two-A-Days. If you've played high school football or marched with the high school band, you're already familiar with this term. If not, let me explain. Towards the end of summer vacation and the beginning of the school year, teams and bands often practice twice a day: once in the morning and again in the afternoon or evening. The purpose of Two-A-Days is not to tire out the kids (although that can be an added benefit!). Coaches and band directors structure this double dose of practice to help kids get into shape for the season and to give ample opportunities for players and musicians to learn new routines and procedures.

Maybe we should pay attention to what our extra-curricular colleagues can teach us. Here are a few practical ways to use Two-A-Days to create the kind of classroom you want, the kind your students need.

Have a routine or procedure in your classroom that just isn't going as smoothly as it should? Try a Two-A-Day. Practice once in the morning or at the beginning of the bell, then rehearse it again at the end.
Want to reinforce a student's appropriate behavior or praise a child who needs encouragement? Give them a double dose. Two-A-Days will let the student know that you care and that you're noticing their efforts.
Need to build your students' background knowledge for an upcoming unit or challenging topic? Create some new schema by reading short content-area text to your class...you guessed it, twice a day.

The list could go on and on. Two-A-Days are a reminder to us that redundancy is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it gives students an extra chance for needed practice, and gets us all in shape for the "instructional season" ahead. Let's get on the field and play!

For more ideas about academic routines and managerial procedures, check out this link from Scholastic. The research and practical tips given are perfect reading for this time of year. Maybe you should even read it twice!

Tanny

Wired for Learning

2009-08-24T18:46:00.017-04:00

Google, Skype, My Space, You Tube, Twitter, Wikis, voice threads and the list goes on. How did our students become so tech-savvy? Were they born that way? Sometimes it seems so. Today's students certainly know their way around the digital world, but are often forced to "power-down" at school.

The ability to use supportive technologies for inquiry- and problem-based learning is a critical skill for 21st century learners. As a result, critical literacies have been redefined. Basic literacy skills of decoding, predicting, and summarizing are not sufficient for today's students. Instead, students must become critical consumers of information from multiple sources, questioning the contexts, purposes, biases, and applications.

As a result, today's classrooms must be "elastic," going beyond the confining walls of physical space. Today's classroom environments must integrate virtual learning experiences, on-line learning, and cyberspace learning communities.

If you are like me, with one foot in the twentieth century and another foot in the twenty-first century, this requires a reality check (not to mention the acquisition of new skills and new ways of thinking). If you dare to join me on this digital learning journey, check out the links below.

Click here for a digital version of Bloom's Taxonomy (I LOVE this!)

Click here for Larry Ferlazzo's list of Top Tools for Learning (You have to look at this!)

Click here to learn more about 21st century skills

See you in cyberspace!
Cheryl

Build Classroom Community w/ Read Alouds

2009-08-16T17:20:00.019-04:00

The first week of school is made of lesson plans, forgotten bus numbers and piles of emergency medical forms. It's a week filled with new routines & procedures, a week with not a minute to spare.

In spite of the crazy-busy pace we keep during the first week with our students, we know that one thing trumps all else when it comes to getting our classrooms up and going: building classroom community. The choices we make during this formative period of the school year influence everything that happens afterward.

Naturally, our new students want to know who their teachers are and what time their lunch period begins. But what they really want to know is, "Will my new teacher care about me?" Poet Kalli Dakos says it best in her poem, The Best Thing I Can Say About My Teacher.

"She did not care
As much about
Page 55,
As she did
About
Me."

Of course we can start to build community with our students right away.We can learn their names quickly and make connections with their families. We can plan activities that allow us to uncover their interests. We can also choose books to read aloud that emphasize the community values of our classrooms and foster personal, purposeful conversation about what matters most.

Looking for a few great titles to read aloud during the first few days of school? Titles that strengthen classroom community? Look no further. Follow these links and you'll find books that emphasize persistence, cooperation, creativity and more.

Choice Literacy

Mad Hot Literacy

Education World

When the school year has started and the dust begins to settle, reply to this post and let us know what titles you selected for read alouds during the first week of school!

Tanny

PS Thanks for being part of our little community.

Small Moments

2009-08-09T20:17:00.026-04:00

It was a departure like many others throughout the years. Mom and Dad standing on the driveway waving good-bye, me fumbling around pretending to check the gas gauge while fighting the lump in my throat. After all these years, saying goodbye was still not easy.

And then I saw it. I looked up and saw my mother in a way I had never seen her before. She seemed more frail than I remembered. She looked smaller and a wisp of white hair hung down on her face. Her eyes still twinkled, but there were lines and a hollowness to her face that I had not seen before. I knew in that moment things had changed. I knew I would call her more often. I knew I would try to be a better daughter.

Small moments like this can teach us if we are open to learn, even in our professional lives. When August 24th arrives children will spill out of the buses, into our classrooms and into our hearts. We will be busy all year long... pouring over pacing guides and indicators, planning short-cycle assessments, making parent phone calls. We will arrive at school early and go home late. And we will continue to work at this frantic pace for 184 more days.

But within those 185 days there are thousands of small moments waiting to be discovered. Small moments with great lessons just waiting to be learned. Maybe it will be a lesson about you as a teacher. Maybe it will be a lesson about you as a colleague. Whatever the lesson, here's to wishing you many small moments throughout the 2009-10 school year. I hope you laugh, I hope you have a lump in your throat. For these are the small moments that make us real.

Cheryl

Celebrate the gate

2009-08-02T19:37:00.006-04:00

August.

There. I said it.

I have a love/hate relationship with this month. I hate it because it means less time with my family, less leisure, less sleep. To everything there is a season, however, as Ecclesiastes reminds us. My family will soon be moving into their busy new Fall schedules, anyway, and I'll start to treasure the extra leisure and sleep the weekends bring.

I love August because it signals an entrance to new learning, new experiences, new relationships. Since we're on a traditional schedule here at West Clermont, August is like a gate for us. It marks the time when we begin to write "2009-10" on every document, when we talk about last year like it was an eternity ago. It's a welcoming gate, unlocked, that bids us in with the promise of better times ahead.

I'm glad I have friends to walk with as we enter this month, friends in West Clermont and beyond. Let's stick together this year through email, telephone conversations, blog posts and Starbucks meetings, of course. Let's go through the gate together.

Tanny

(Photo of Tanny's gate, this year's birthday present from her family. As seen through her kitchen window.)

Try TeacherTube

2009-07-26T15:19:00.011-04:00

Originally published in Winter 2009 as a T4 (Tanny's Tuesday Tech Tip)

TEACHERTUBE

2009 marks the 2-year anniversary of TeacherTube as an online community for sharing instructional videos. TeacherTube was the brainchild of Jason Smith, a veteran educator. It provides free videos & professional development with teachers teaching teachers.

With TeacherTube, you can:

Browse hundreds of videos uploaded by teachers around the globe.
Upload Support Files and attach them to your lesson plans.
Save your favorite videos and create playlists.

Here are links to some TeacherTube videos I’ve recently viewed:

Dr. Skateboard teaches about simple machines

50 States & Capitals Cartoon Song

Abraham Lincoln reads the Gettysburg Address

Try it out! Make TeacherTube part of your weekly planning for engaging classroom instruction!

Tanny

Learning Academic English

2009-07-22T10:49:00.003-04:00

ALL learners, including native English language speakers, are continuing to learn "academic English." According to researcher Jim Cummins, Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) is proficiency in reading, writing, speaking, & listening related to content area material. Academic language acquisition isn't just the understanding of content area vocabulary. It includes skills such as comparing, classifying, synthesizing, evaluating, and inferring. This can take 5-7 years for ELLs to develop. (Doesn't this describe our work with ALL students?)

In contrast, basic interpersonal communication skills (BICS) are language skills needed in social situations..."playground language." It usually takes only 6 months - 2 years to develop. Click here to learn more about BICS & CALP.

As the world is shrinking, we find ourselves working with students from all over the globe. We become learners ourselves in interacting with ELLs in the classroom. No matter what your experience or comfort level, just remember one thing..."Although there are hundreds of languages in the world, a smile speaks them all.” (author unknown)

Cheryl

Sideways Learning

2009-07-14T11:46:00.005-04:00

I find it ironic to be considered a "teacher," when in reality I am more of a "learner." Currently,I am learning how to work with English Language Learners (ELLs), and how to navigate all the latest technology, while still trying to perfect my craft. Obviously, learning is a lifelong process and everyday there are new lessons to be learned... everyday I am still trying to "get it right."

This reminds me of "sideways learning," a term coined by E.J. Langer (1996). According to Langer, "sideways learning" is a mindful state that exists when one embodies an openness to new ideas, alertness to similarities and differences, sensitivity to particular contexts, implicit awareness of multiple perspectives, and awareness of what is occurring in the present .

Isn't that what we do as teachers? We must practice mindful teaching, reflecting on how our everyday actions support student learning. We must be mindful of the match between our instruction and the standards for which we are responsible, sensitive to the needs of different learners, and awareness of "who is getting it and who is not." The terms achievement gap, value-added and adequate yearly progress are now part of our mindful teaching and reflection. Is it any wonder we go home tired each afternoon?

We are constantly rethinking our instruction and trying to perfect our craft, knowing that tomorrow we will have another opportunity to support those students and close that achievement gap. So enjoy these last few weeks of summer, knowing that soon the school doors will open and each afternoon we will go home tired. Tired from "sideways learning," but anxious to get up in the morning and do it all over again.

Cheryl

Using Link Banks to support the English Language Learner

2009-07-10T22:56:00.009-04:00

Originally published in March 2009 as a T4 (Tanny's Tuesday Tech Tip)

Did you know there are more than 5 million English Language Learners in American schools? Nationwide, one in every ten students is an ELL student.
Research tells us that all language learners have the same 2 critical needs, regardless of what language they speak. First of all, ELL’s need to become fluent speakers who can read & write English. Secondly, they need access to the same core curriculum as everyone else.

Here’s the top 10 ELL ranking, sequenced by # of speakers:
1. Spanish
2. Vietnamese
3. Hmong
4. Cantonese
5. Korean
6. Haitian Creole
7. Arabic
8. Russian
9. Tagalog
10. Navajo

A note about the acronyms: According to Dr. Stephen Cary from the University of San Francisco, LES/NES (Limited/Non-English Speaking) or LEP/NEP (Limited/Non-English Proficient) emphasizes what students lack instead of what they’re learning. ESL (English as a Second Language) refers to a certain kind of instruction, not a particular kind of student. The ELL (English Language Learner) acronym has gradually become dominant in local, state, and federal documents. Cary reminds us, however, that ELL could apply to all of us, however, since we never stop perfecting our abilities to read & write in English! (Working with English Language Learners, 2nd edition, Heinemann, 2007)

I’ve visited several West Clermont classrooms this year where the teacher expressed anxiety regarding the ELL student(s) in her/his classroom. WC teachers want to provide the best instruction possible to these students, but in many instances have not yet had the training they need. The following topic-specific list emphasizes free, web-based resources to help the classroom teacher quickly find strategies, lesson ideas, and ELL information. Directories such as these are known as link banks. Link banks are a big time saver for busy folks like us.

ELL Link Banks

I Love Languages
www.ilovelanguages.com
With over 200 languages represented here, this site provides hundreds of links to language learning resources.

Word Champ
www.wordchamp.com
Some WC high school teachers use this site. You can learn a language and get help from people around the world. Create online homework and activities for all ages and languages.

Isabel’s ESL Site
www.isabelperez.com/tesllinks.htm
For the past 12 years, ESL teacher Isabel Perez Torres has maintained this amazing site. You’ll find language practice ideas, testing prompts, songs, games, and more.

ELL FYI: Ohio TESOL is a professional organization that has been around for 30 years. TESOL, or “Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages”, provides learning opportunities and resources to its members. For more information, visit www.ohiotesol.org/

Online Reading to Improve Your Practice

• Educational Leadership’s ELL issue: www.ascd.org/el

• Chapter 4 from Cary’s book, Working With English Language Learners: http://books.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/E00985/chapter1.pdf

Ahehee! Gracias! Cam on em! Shukran! Thank you!

Tanny

Sites We Like

2009-07-10T21:21:00.011-04:00

This summer I'm immersing myself in DIY professional development, reading and learning as much as I can about Web 2.0, social media, and other technologies for K-12 teaching and learning. I've opened a Twitter account to create my own Professional Learning Network, following teachers, admins, education experts, and writers from around the globe. Still learning. And eager to share with our westcler team.

For starters, let me introduce you to Free Tech 4 Teachers, an extraordinary site by real-life Maine social studies teacher, Richard Byrne, that chronicles all sorts of technology for you to examine, explore...and use in your classroom. What I like best (besides that it's all FREE) is that each post is short and simple and includes classroom applications and related sites. Subscribe, RSS, or bookmark Free Tech 4 Teachers.

M.E.

Similarities & Differences Part 1

2009-06-26T21:01:00.011-04:00

In Classroom Instruction That Works (that is, real strategies for real learning) Robert Marzano's research shows that identifying similarities and differences is one of the most powerful thinking strategies we can teach. Helping students compare, classify, create metaphors and similies, and use analogies can boost student achievement up to 45 percentile points.

Tired of the ubiquitous Venn Diagram? Try these tech sites for a few fresh ideas:

1. Out on a Lim by Janice Lim, Michigan edtech expert
2. Analogix, an interactive site for older students
3. Similes and Metaphors on BrainPop (intermediate grades)

M.E.

Take-out & Take-aways

2009-06-17T21:43:00.003-04:00

It has been 20 years for me now. 20 years in public education. I can't believe it! Seems like just yesterday when, as a nervous 22 year old, I walked through the doors of Holly Hill Elementary to inquire about my first teaching job.

Weird things have happened along the way, such as critical school levies, bus strikes, new standards and programs, large class sizes, cutbacks and changes in administration, to name a few. Every so often, however, and in the most unexpected ways, I'm reminded of what matters most: the child.

Tonight I visited my local Mexican restaurant to pick up some chips & salsa. While waiting I noticed a small sign behind the counter. It read:

"What is a customer?

A customer is the most important person to pass through these doors.

Not an interruption to our work, but the purpose of it.

Without the customer, there is not a purpose for us."

Let's change "customer" to "child" and do a rethink.

"What is a child?

A child is the most important person to pass through these doors.

Not an interruption to our work, but the purpose of it.

Without the child, there is not a purpose for us."

So...tonight I got some tasty take-out, along with a delicious take-away.

A PLAYful Idea

2009-06-07T22:26:00.010-04:00

I'm watching the Tony Awards tonight. Now here's a novel idea. Actually it's a PLAYful idea. For this summer's reading I going to read...some plays. Here's a terrific article I read this morning about the joys of READING drama. I love to watch the playwrightt's words come alive on stage. So I haven't read drama since I taught ninth grade English (Romeo & Juliet, anyone?).

But Dwight Garner inspired me to try reading some drama again. He says, "To encounter plays on paper is to encounter them in their platonic form. You’re glued to the playwright’s words, not sitting in Row K jostling for an armrest. While reading, you can submit more perfectly to the author’s spell and, what’s more, you are your own casting director." Convinced! I'm off to order Yasmina Reza's Tony Award winner God of Carnage.

Why We'll Blog

2009-05-29T20:11:00.007-04:00

Okay westcler teachers and friends. Here's the deal. How do we communicate news and views about teaching and learning in westcler with more of you (teachers) and fewer of us (T&L staff)? And how do we make this news a give and take? Jodi D took a bold step this year and starting blogging with her fourth graders. It's easy. They love it. And we hope you will, too. Check out Sachi and Lee LeFever 's "Blogs in Plain English" on TeacherTube.

perfection vs. persistence

2009-05-28T23:11:00.005-04:00

"There's no such thing as the perfect lesson, the perfect day
in school or the perfect teacher. For teachers and students alike,
the goal is not perfection, but persistence in the pursuit of
understanding things."

Carol Ann Tomlinson and Jay McTighe

It's Closing Time

2009-05-28T15:48:00.003-04:00

It's the end of an era for Jay Leno. Seventeen years ago, Jay succeeded Johnny Carson as the host of The Tonight Show. Now the baton will be handed to Conan O'Brien, and Jay will move to prime time. As I watched The Tonight Show earlier this week and listened to Lyle Lovett sing "Closing Time", a certain sadness came over me. Not a tear-your-heart-out sadness. Not an all-hope-is-gone kind of sadness. I guess I would describe it as a little bit of melancholy tinged with sentiment. Almost the same feeling I get at the end of the school year when the bulletin boards are dismantled and the last child gets on the bus, waving out that little rectangular bus window.

Now don't get me wrong. When I was a classroom teacher, I was filled with joy at the prospect of endless summer days, not wearing a watch, and visiting the bathroom whenever I wanted to! And even now, in my work as a support for classroom teachers, I look forward to family vacations and late nights around the fire pit.

But for me, there is still something sad about the end of the school year. Maybe it's the wish that I had been more patient with that child who constantly tugged on my shirttail. Or with that colleague who always talked too long or complained too much. Or perhaps in my reflection about the year I tend to magnify my mistakes and minimize my triumphs.

Do you feel the same? Is the end of the school year bittersweet for you, too? If so, I think we're among the lucky ones. Our sentimentality tells us a lot. It means we are reflective. It means we want better for ourselves and for our students. It means we still care, after all these years.

So here's to you at closing time. Stack up those chairs and say your goodbyes. By the time Independence Day rolls around, you'll be full of plans and dreams for next year. And so will I.

In Flanders Fields

2009-05-22T20:29:00.012-04:00

Do students memorize poems any more? Beyond primary grades, I mean. Tanny inspired me a few weeks ago--it was "poem-in-your-pocket day," I recall--to memorize some poetry. So for this weekend, I'm working on "In Flanders Fields" by Lt. Col. John McRae.

It's Memorial weekend and our pool opens for the summer! A group of us were talking about our plans...travel, family, picnics. Hurray for Willowville Elementary's Memorial Day parade. It's become a community tradition, but most importantly, it teaches our children that Memorial Day is more than just the beginning of summer. Let's carve a few minutes of this weekend's fun to remember the origin of the holiday and to salute all fallen soldiers.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.