KAGAN Structures Workshop

What are your thoughts about Kagan Structures?

Site Based Budget

It's time to evaluate our budget.  We need to look at how we spent our money last year, and what changes we may want to consider for next year.  I am seeking input from everyone because everyone is affected.  Site-Based funds come from the state and are distributed through the district based on per-student spending formulas.  You can open the budget attachments to see how our money was budgeted for this year and how much we have for next year.  What works well for you in this process and what would you like to see different?  Keep in mind this money is completely separate from our Activity Fund.  Activity funds are generated through fundraisers such as the Coyote Fun Run. 

In-House Professional Learning

I appreciate our facilitators giving us an update on what they've learned from the content coordinators.  I felt like Lynn's presentation on CLOSE reading was a great way to provide more in-depth learning on something we all need to know about.  If this is a good model, I would like to continue to look at having more in-house professional learning.  If you review my Belief Statements on this blog page, you will see that I believe we have more to learn from each other than any other source. 

Boys in Elementary School

Do boys and girls learn and behave differently?  There is a lot of research to suggest that boys and girls react differently to the elementary school environment.  I have attached a veteran teacher's perspective who provides some ideas on how to create a boy-friendly environment.  After reading the attached article, what are your thoughts about boys in elementary school?  Click on the picture above to access the full article by Kelley King. 

Small Group Collaboration

PE, Music, Special Ed, EAs, Math teachers, and others had the opportunity to work together yesterday for several hours.  The idea was that like-minded teachers will get more done in smaller groups discussing relevant things than being placed in a large group setting with information that doesn't directly pertain to their work.  Having so many different breakout groups on campus days is a new thing and came about because of the feedback we received from you after last year's staff development days.  Please share your thoughts about yesterday's sessions, what went well, and what you might like to see in the future. 

Walker Creek Writing

Writing can be a very difficult thing to teach and an even harder thing to grade objectively.  Making sense of planning, teaching, and assessing writing is a challenge at every grade level.  The purpose of having Norma Jackson come and work with us was to provide you with practical tools for the writing process and to begin building vertical alignment with our approach to writing at Walker Creek.  The focus is on excellent writing and not on STAAR.  We want excellent results on STAAR of course, but we are really looking at something much bigger.  We want to develop life-long writing skills in our scholars that will continue to build throughout middle school and high school.  As I listened in the afternoon session yesterday, I thought about two things.  If we all have the same framework for the writing process and if we use the same tools for assessment, our scholars will be better equipped to write as they move into fourth and fifth grades.  While we don't have a writing crisis at Walker Creek, there is room to improve.  I believe this is a matter of getting on the same page with instruction and assessment and not about more, more, more writing.  What are your thoughts about the tools from the Norma Jackson's workshop and how they apply to us? 

Thanksgiving

 

This Thanksgiving was one of the best I can ever remember.  My folks were in town for 7 days; we had two huge parties at our house, we saw a great concert at Bass Hall, and we ate more good food than anyone should eat in a month.  The highlight of the week was having family over at our house after Thanksgiving for a party that lasted into the morning.  Having some time off puts things into perspective and reminds us of what's important.  We would all love to hear your Thanksgiving stories if you feel like sharing.  What was special about your Thanksgiving break? 

Putting It All Together

One of my signature strengths is connectedness.  I'm always trying to figure out how things fit together and what they mean for the big picture.  I hope you are making connections and finding value with the tools you are provided.  Consider the following and look at them through the lense of the 4 guiding questions: Lesson Planning, Collaboration, RTI, WOW, Assessments, Flexible Grouping, Professional Learning, and more.  How are these things fitting together and what connections are you making? 

WOW Collaboration

I was very pleased with the overall effort of our first Working on the Work Day.  I saw connections being made, I heard excellent clarifying questions, and I felt the energy as you worked through the process of picking TEKS/SEs and visualizing your portrait of success.  What are your thoughts, connections, and questions after WOW Day? 

Building an airplane in flight

 

Ever feel like this?  Building an airplane in flight is a powerful analogy.  While it makes sense to actually finish building the plane before you attempt to fly it, the reality of school life is you don't ever get enough downtime to complete the plane before it's time to take off.  How does this apply to us?  While it's tempting to focus on the frustration, anxiety, and tension of so much work and so much change - how do we turn this adversity into opportunity?  How are you managing to stay focused on the important things and continue moving forward?   

Homework

There are many thoughts about homework.  How much, what type, should it be graded?  And the debates go on and on.  Even the researchers can't give definitive answers when it comes to elementary age children.  Below are two links to articles that review research about homework in elementary school.  I encourage you to read these articles to arm yourself with knowledge on the subject before you assign homework or attempt to talk with parents about it.
                                                    
http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar07/vol64/num06/The-Case-For-and-Against-Homework.aspx

http://www.greatschools.org/students/homework-help/1938-what-research-says-about-homework.gs?page=all

As we get ready for the school year, I want you to be very thoughtful about how your grade level constructs its homework policy. I believe that homework has its place within a few simple guidelines. I believe homework is an opportunity to deepen understanding of academics, develop a love of learning, build study skills, and create excellent relationships with parents.  Before we meet as grade levels, I want you to reflect on your own beliefs about homework.  Here are a few of mine.

• Homework should be consistent in all classes within a grade level
• Homework should be clearly communicated to parents
• Homework should take a reasonable amount of time (both articles explore this)
• Homework should be well-planned and not just whatever is not completed in class
• If assigned, homework should not be optional - if it's assigned it must be done
• I don't believe that homework necessarily needs to be graded, but I believe it must be addressed in some meaningful way if scholars are going to take it seriously 

Look at homework as an opportunity to hook kids and parents to get them on board with what you're doing in class.  Get them excited about school through homework.  When we meet as grade levels, be prepared to talk about what you think about homework.  Let's make Walker Creek a place where scholars and parents love their homework.

Building Relationships through Routines

Take a moment to re-read my Philosophy of Discipline.  I believe that supervision is an essential part of good classroom management, but building a strong relationship is the most important part.  A strong relationship is created and renewed everyday in the little interactions you have with each and every scholar.  I talked with you almost a year ago about the power of greeting your scholars at the door every morning.  This one little thing demonstrates to scholars that you care and it gets everyone off on the right foot.  Never assume your scholars know how you feel; demonstate it every day.  Being prepared and greeting your scholars builds that relationship one day at a time and it models excellent life skills.  I am very pleased to say that most of our teachers consistently model this practice, and I see the difference it makes.  I want you to think about your morning and afternoon routines and the routines of the school.  What are some things that are working well, and what do we need to consider improving next year?  Think about how scholars walk the halls, come into class, go to lunch, and leave at the end of the day.  More importantly, think about how our routines build relationships with scholars. 

BISD Direction

We have talked a lot recently about possible changes in Curriculum and Instruction in BISD. To keep you in the loop as much as possible, I will pass on the things I learn at principal meetings. After listening to Dr. Clark last Tuesday, I believe we can expect a much cleaner delivery of curriculum next year through Eduphoria. I also expect we will be looking at research based instructional strategies and structures such as Kagan and Criss. If you are not familiar with these terms, never fear. Dr. Clark has emphasized that healthy training is essential to making these things work. My commitment to Walker Creek is to make sure our new learning connects with the things we already do well, and that we have the appropriate training and resources to use our new learning well. I am excited about our direction, and I hope that you see the possibilities for growth in the coming months. How we approach these changes will have a tremendous impact on our success. You heard Dr. Clark on Friday. How do you feel about the the direction Birdville is going?

Spring Break

Spring Break is right around the corner. I know that everyone is looking forward to the break, but the stress of all the things that need to get done can get in the way of enjoying it. I want to encourage you to truly take the time over spring break to recharge yourself. In the language of the 7 Habits, this is Sharpen the Saw. It may be tempting to do a lot of school work over break thinking you're, "Catching up," but the truth is, you'll come back tired, bitter, and less productive if you don't take advantage of your time off to enjoy family, friends, and fun times. Taking the time to renew will allow you to came back sharp and ready to go. One of the best ways to understand this is with a question, "Have you ever been too busy driving to stop for gas?"

Using DATA to see into the FUTURE

One of the most difficult things to do in education is connect the dots from year to year. It sometimes feels like we reinvent many data systems without taking full advantage of the information we put together the previous year. I pitched the idea of having a scholar data wall to Design Team recently. This is something WCE has done in the past, so they took the initial idea and developed plans for a pocket chart system to look at our scholars from K through 5. That pocket chart system is starting to take shape in my office. The idea is to collect usable data based on RTI and pass them along year to year. I have invited the Birdville Cluster Elementary teachers to get together to look at this and other systems for collecting relevant data and passing them along effectively from year to year. I'm looking forward to getting these systems up and running this year so we have good information in August to start next year. Take a minute to see the data wall, and think about other ways we can collect the pass along scholar data to strengthen our verical alignment. Your comments on this post will be helpful in my planning session with the other principals.

Dads and Male Role Models

I was very interested in the Watch Dogs program at Walker Creek, and I asked about it at PTA on a couple of occasions. I am pleased that staff members have brought it up recently and I hope I adequately explained why we don't currently have the program. I think most would agree, generally speaking, that moms dominate the parent volunteer ranks, and we need to find ways to attract our dads, grandpas, and male role models to be part of the Walker Creek experience. Research, observation, and common sense all say that involvement from the men in our scholars' lives is a good thing. How would you structure a dads group at Walker Creek. What things need to be in place, and what direction would you like to see this go?

Birdville Cluster PLC

Our Birdville Cluster Professional Learning Community is all about collaboration. What part of the work done on January 2 did you find beneficial to you? How will you contribute to the collaborative effort for all teachers in your grade level or department? What would you like to see next from our PLC?

There is nothing quite like being with family for Thanksgiving. Jeanne and I took Charlie to Carlsbad where my folks live. We got to spend some time with my 93 year grandmother and the food was amazing. What else would you expect from parents who own a bakery/restaurant. We would like to hear your Thanksgiving stories if you want to share. By the way, this picture was taken 2 days ago with an iPhone app called Hipstamatic that makes your photos look vintage.

Technology Tools

You've heard the expression, "A tool is only as good as the person using it." I think that is a good thing to remember as we gear up to spend more than $20,000 on technology for Walker Creek. We want to make sure the things we buy fit in with our bottom line of learning and that scholars are able to actually use the tools. I have received some very good ideas from individuals and site-based team members who have conferred with their colleagues. We will have Jeff Samuelson joining us on Monday, November 21 at our faculty meeting to talk about viable technology tools. I encourage you to do some research on your own before then and be prepared to ask Jeff questions. Some of the tools that have been discussed include smart boards, laptops, digital cameras and video cameras, itouches, and ipads. Feel free to email Teresa, Jeff or any of the ITS if you have questions.

Traditions

What a great day! My first Coyote Fun Run will be remembered for long time. The thing that stood out the most for me was seeing all of the scholars on the sidelines cheering on their fellow scholars. Thank you to our rotation teachers for their direction. Thank you to the teachers who brought their scholars out multiple times to cheer. Thank you to volunteers for their time. Thank you to Lisa for a tremendous job as MC. It was a great event that was truly encouraging and engaging. What are your thoughts about our Coyote Fun Run?