“So, I don’t do twitter, I can’t be part of #michED.” This is a statement I recently heard from a teacher when asking me about my T -shirt. Huge misconception. Yes, #michED has a twitter chat, Wednesdays from 8-9 pm, but it is SO much more. The twitter chat is just the gateway to connections that #michED community brings. The community is about connecting educators from all over Michigan to share the positives in education. The community includes anyone who wants to help promote great teaching and learning in OUR public schools.
The #michED community began at EdcampGR 2012 out of a discussion on how to connect state educators. Out of one discussion a twitter chat was born to connect educators and share ideas. As the active participants grew, the #michED podcasts were born. The podcasts highlight creative instructional practices found through out the state. Brad Wilson has done an incredible job capturing teaching practices in the state. Over the past year #michED has grown by fostering an environment of POSITIVE EDUCATION. Members of the community have presented at state and national conferences. Teachers meet in person to discuss our practice. Teachers collaborate online to make incredible learning opportunities for their students. In May, #michED issued a challenge (3 actually) to all educators in the state:
Hundreds of educators participated. If you are an educator and want to focus on the positive things in education, the #michED community is for you. Michigan Teacher of the year Gary Abud JR. recently wrote about the community in the Detroit News. Twitter is just a tool many of us use to connect over the many miles of this state. If you want to learn how to use twitter to connect to the community here is a great starting point. If twitter isn’t for you it does not mean you can’t be apart of #michED. The community includes all educators from pre-K to college. Join us at Edcamps, conferences, on other social media platforms. Be apart of the positive change we can make in education in the state of Michigan and beyond!! Look for ways to connect with other like minded educators.
I, like all educators in the #michED community, look forward to making the connection with you! Whether it is face to face or via social media. Lets make a better education environment for teachers and students alike, by focusing on the positive change we can make!
Top of my list is to take a break and get away from teaching to reflect on my year. Take time for myself and my family. After my top priority I do want to stay connected and learn a few things. There are so many wonderful Professional Development opportunities out there. For me I want something fast and personalized. Nothing too formal, possibly something I can do as a break from my relaxation. A quick mind turn on.
I would love to travel to a wonderful conference like the Association of Middle Level Educators Institute of Middle Level Leadership but it is not in my budget. The next best thing to being there is to connect with the conference online. AMLE is teaming up with #MSchat to bring to twitter connections to their leadership institute. SO take the opportunity to connect with the best and the brightest while you relax on you vacation!
What is it?Twitter Event at #mschat about the importance of Middle Level Leadership during the AMLE Institute for Middle Level Leadership!
· When? Monday, June 23rd from 8-9pmET and Monday, July 14th from 8-9pmET
· Where? #mschat and #AMLELI14
Hope you can join us for a couple of hours of powerful inspired learning!
In a world of casual Fridays, golf shirts and dressing down it is nice to see people dress up for a day!This week our school is having spirit week to help celebrate the year of learning. We have your typical school pride day, favorite sports team day, Grade color day etc, but Today we took things to the formal level. Dress to Impress Day or as I called it Dress for success.
Students and staff Dressed up! T-shirts and Hoodies gave way to nice dresses, coats and ties were seen all over the school. It impressed me. Student behavior seemed better. Students stated they felt good about themselves because they were getting compliments. The overall feeling in the building was that of pride! Of course not every student can participate. A few commented that they had “nothing” dressy to wear.
It was nice to see students take pride in their attire. Girls learned that heels are painful for their feet to wear all day. I took the time to help boys learn how to tie their ties. It felt great for me to get compliments for being dressed up, finally being called “professor” by a group of students. (My normal attire has me looking more like a golfer than a teacher.) Staff spent time modeling how to dress for success. I feel it was a very valuable experience for our students. Very different than the typical school spirit day.
A big thank you to our wonderful building staff for modeling how to dress for success! The student council and their leaders should get kudos for planning a day of modeling self-pride.
Next time your school is planning spirit week, place a positive day like “Dress for Success” next to wacky Wednesday and Sports Team Friday. You will be glad that you do!!
The end of the school year brings so many activities. As a teacher and a parent of 3 children, it is often hard to find balance in daily life. Constantly running from event to event. Making the impossible choices of disappointing my many students or my 3 children. Throw in my “extras” of being a union president, my son’s baseball coach and connected educator, one might say I spend my days spinning many plates, making sure none fall. Learning to find a balance is key for an educators survival in this unbalanced world.
A few rules I try to live by to make sure nothing falls:
1. Prioritize: What has to be done versus what can wait. Identify what is urgent and take care of these items. Delay action on items that are not time dependent until you have time. Keep a list, move thing up and down based on the time needs. Make sure you give your up-most attention to those items that are important.
2. Delegate: If someone else can handle the task, LET THEM DO IT!! If a friend offers to grade papers, take the kids to the park, or help out, take them up on the offer.
3. Take care of you: Make sure you eat right, get you needed sleep, and exercise. If you don’t take care of yourself, you won’t function properly to fulfill all the demands on you time. Take a break from the go, go, go and take care of your needs.
4. Be true to the task: Make sure your efforts are YOUR BEST, if you can’t give it your best it is time to cut items off your to do list and start saying NO!
5. Don’t Regret what you miss out on: IF you couldn’t attend a school event or be there for everyone of your child’s events it is okay. Make sure you ask about what you miss and show those that matter you care about them, but don’t regret that you don’t have a clone or 36 hours in the day.
Finally: Make the important moments matter! Show the appropriate enthusiasm at events, Make everyone that matters know you are there to participate fully. Don’t try to multitask during the school talent show or you child’s award ceremony. Just be there for them!!
So much is going on in our lives. Make sure you focus on what you can do. Live in the moment. Enjoy those that you are with. Keep all the plates spinning!!
Notice I have been so busy I haven’t written a blog post in awhile, many spinning in my head, hopefully I will have time when my summer break begins June 18th!
My district uses NWEA MAP scores to measure student growth. Our students take the test in the fall, are give a target to reach when they take the spring test. We have been using the Math and Reading tests for the past 3 years and this year we added the general science test. This week my classes took thescience test. We missed the growth target! One of my student growth data points will not be rated as effective. For me to have gotten effective 60% or more of my students needed to hit their growth target as projected by NWEA. We missed. I feel I have failed my class.
Or at least I did until:
A student took the 45 question test in 10 minutes and saw their test score jump 13 points!! Wait, What? I can’t read 45 questions in 10 minutes, That is answering a question about every 13 seconds is that possible with any accuracy? Yes, I know this student met their target, but it makes me question the validity of the test for every student. If someone can score higher by chance, can’t they also score lower? Should their be a way to make sure students actually read the test? Or is that one me monitoring 30+ students? (In fact this student tested 1 on 1 with another teacher because they we absent when the test was given) The fact is this student growth is reflected in MY teacher evaluation, it leaves me with a few questions.
1. Where do the growth targets come from? Not all students grow at the same rate so how in the world can NWEA project these targets? I have been told that they are calculated as the average growth for everyone that scores the same RIT score. IF so then 50% of ALL students will fall above and 50% will fall below as a law of averages.
2. What standards is the NWEA test based upon? I assume common core for ELA and Math, is it Next Gen for science? Surely not the Michigan 7th grade science standards that I am required to teach.
3. If students are above grade level, is it expected for them to grow? Teachers teach a grade level content standard, how can students grow in areas that are not taught as defined by curriculum? I know teachers need to offer enrichment opportunities in class but the dig deeper into curriculum not into high level curriculum that the NWEA test measures.
4. Do multiple choice test really measure knowledge? I often call them multiple guess tests. Most of my student love multiple choice because they can take a guess. They hate fill in the blank and short answer questions because that requires them to have the knowledge. I find it funny that a student who takes 30 minutes to try and unsuccessful complete a short answer test is done in 30 seconds with a similar multiple choice one! The new assessment for the common core are placing an emphasis on more open ended questions so why not NWEA?
5. Do these test scores correlate to content mastery? Is there evidence that doing will on MAP tests means students DO know the content knowledge?
I know these are changing times. Teachers are responsible for making sure our students grow. I KNOW every single student in my class grew in many different ways this year. I have their classwork to prove it. I hope the laws will be fixed so teachers like me don’t feel like FAILURES.
I will continue to strive to be the best teacher I can. I don’t want to resort to teaching to the NWEA (or any test) just to keep my job, I personally feel that would be educational malpractice.
This year I have had the pleasure of working with an MSU PHD candidate, who has come in to observe my teaching. He started observation a few years back as part of the Formative Assessment for Michigan Educators (FAME) project. Since that time his observations really focus on the what and how teachers teach. The following is the most recent transcript of his observations in my classroom, Names have been changes of my students, I found it cool to reflect on my teaching after reading his account of what happened.
4.21.14
When I walk into Todd’s second hour science class a scene from the movie Up is playing on the screen in the front of the room. “You’re going to see something that I talk a lot about,” Todd tells students from the doorway as they settle in. He also mentions that the class will not be watching the entire movie. Students just need to watch this scene so Todd can make his point.
After the scene is over, Todd stops the video and says that students should not be like the dogs in the movie who are constantly distracted from their pursuits because they see a squirrel. Todd asks students to think about the “squirrels” in their lives and suggests that these distractions could be a cell phone or other electronic devices.
“The cellphone is not going to help you do well in school,” Todd says. “don’t let the squirrel lead you out of where you need to be.”
Next, Todd introduces his three children briefly. Today is “Take your child to work day” and Todd has brought his three children to see what their dad does for a living.
Some of the students are engaged in animated talking and Todd calls for their attention. He explains to students that today is the final day of working on the research report that they started a week ago. He tells students that they should consider the rubric for the assignment and compare their work against the stated requirements of the rubric before they submit their final project. When Todd is finished with the explanations, he asks, “Does this make sense?”
No student raises a hand. “Yes? No? Maybe so?” Todd asks as he scans the room looking for hands.
“Maybe so,” one student in the middle of the room calls out.
Todd dismisses this comment and begins talking to students about another requirement of the assignment. Students have to complete a self-reflection after they have submitted their research project. This self-reflection asks students what grade they think they deserved and also requires them to justify this conclusion.
“And I don’t want ‘I deserve a good grade because I worked hard,’” Todd explains, “everybody worked hard. I want you to use the language of the rubric in your response.”
Todd next asks two students to help distribute laptops from the laptop cart. The two boys go to the back left side of the room to where the cart is located and begin to distribute laptops to the other students who have now gathered around the cart waiting for a laptop. The research projects varied but each was supposed to use digital media of some sort. Thus, each group of 2-3 students needed a laptop to complete the work. The laptops are quickly distributed and students return to their tables. Many students engage in social talk as they are waiting for their computers to boot up.
I decide to go to a back table (nearest to where the laptops were being distributed), and ask a boy, Chris, who is working by himself if he would mind if I sat and talked with him for a few minutes. He says yes and tells me that students were allowed to pick their own groups. I ask him if students were also allowed to work alone as he appears to be doing. However, Chris tells me that he is not working alone. He has a partner. He then points to his partner, Brad, who is standing up on the left side of the class between the front and the back of the room talking to a boy and two girls.
“I’m working with Brad,” Chris says.
“He’s not working, though,” I say.
Chris smiles but keeps working.
For his project, Chris has created a website on the human impact of the earth. As one scrolls down the page, Chris has recorded information about his topic “Humans Impact on the Earth” and found several pictures (using Google images) that would appropriately represent each of the facts that Chris included on his website.
I ask what work Chris has done and what work Brad has done. For Brad’s portion, Chris show me a picture and a one-sentence description.
“How long have you been working on this?” I ask.
Chris tells me that the class has been working on the project for about a week.
“So, in a week Brad has written a sentence and found an picture on Google Images to go with it?” I ask.
“Yeah,” Chris confirms, again with a smile and again without taking his eyes off his computer screen.
Momentarily, Brad wanders over, sits for a moment, fiddles with the computer and then leaves to talk to a girl at another table, where he promptly commandeers the girl’s I-phone and begins to manipulate the buttons.
A female student comes over to Chris and stands behind his right shoulder.
“Are you in my advisory?” the girl asks.
“No,” Chris answers without looking up from his computer.
“Are you sure because I think I’ve seen you before,” The girl continues.
Chris says nothing and the girl quickly flits away and continues to work with the two girls with whom she was working before.
Brad comes back and stands over Chris’s shoulder. “Chris, did you finish?” Brad asks.
“I’m almost done,” Chris answers. Again, he does not look up from his computer.
“Don’t play games!” Brad says, “Hurry up.” Brad blows a bubble and walks away.
A few minutes later, Todd walks by and Chris tells Todd that he needs him.
“How can I help you, Chris?” Todd asks.
Chris tells Todd that he is having trouble publishing his website. Todd angles the computer toward him and tells Chris a few things. Todd then leaves and walks to the adjacent table where his children are playing chess with students who are finished with their projects or are otherwise not currently working on them. Todd takes a picture and moves on to help students who need him.
“Brad!” Chris calls. Brad is now talking to a pair of girls near the checker game. At first Brad delays in coming over to where Chris is working, but eventually Brad makes his way over to where Chris is working.
“Did you finish?” Brad asks.
“I don’t know how to spell your last name,” Chris tells Brad. Brad sits down, angles the computer toward him, and types in his last name. Brad then gets up, walks to the other side of the class, and sits on the back counter next to friend. The two boys talk to a girl who is standing in front of them.
Momentarily, Brad comes back and Chris tells him that he has now published the website and the project is finished.
“You got it published?” Brad asks with enthusiasm, “Woo-hoo! We’re famous!” Brad gets up and leaves again.
Again, Todd walks by and Chris stops him to ask a question.
“Then we do the reflection?” Chris asks. Chris is asking about the self-reflection that students must complete electronically as part of the assignment.
“Yes, do the reflection,” Todd confirms.
Chris begins working through the reflection. I ask Chris if he is doing one for both him and Brad. Chris responds that he thinks every student must do his or her own reflection. Brad comes back after socializing for a few more minutes
“Did you finish?” Brad asks.
“Yeah, I’m doing the reflection,” Chris explains. He then tells Brad that he, too, will have to complete a reflection.
“Put me and you both in it,” Brad insists, but before he can leave again, Chris tells him that each student has to do his or her own.
“I’ll do my after,” Brad says looking over Chris’s shoulder at the computer screen.
Chris says, “to be honest, I think we deserve a B because we could have added more.”
Brad, still looking over Chris’s shoulder, says nothing. After a few seconds, Brad begins walking around the room again. This time he is clapping rhythmically (this lasts for about five beats).
Chris completes his self-reflection. Todd tells students that they should be submitting their work or preparing to submit their work. Brad returns and Chris tells Brad that he should complete the self-reflection. Chris has it all set up for Brad.
Brad sits at the computer and reads the screen. He then types responses to two of the questions in the self-reflection activity:
What grade do you deserve?
Brad’s response: A
Why do you deserve that grade?
Brad’s response: because I put all my effort into this that is why I think I
Deserve an A
Brad finishes and puts his computer back on the rack. Todd calls for all students to log off on their computers and to return them to the mobile lab as Brad has just done. In a moment, Todd continues.
“Can everybody get in their seats, please?” Todd asks. He is repeating, “Shh!” as many students continue to talk socially. “Alright, excuse me. I know we’re having trouble settling back down.” Todd then thanks individual students and coordinates the return of a few final computers. “If I could have your attention please so we can wrap up and you can go on time.” Todd explains that some of the students are done but that some need more time. He suggests that students who need more time work on this project during advisory. All students will be presenting their projects next week. Todd says that he heard a lot of good collaboration and question asking during the period.
“What was the point of the project?” Todd asks.
“To understand how humans affect the earth,” A student calls out.
“Alright to help us understand the earth with the things we do,” Todd says. He then
tells students that he wanted them to learn how students can make a positive impact on the environment.
“I want to go now!” Todd’s young son announces (remember, it is “take your child to work day”)
Nearly everybody in the class laughs (a good-natured laugh).
“He’s a squirrel,” one student suggests. The student is referring to the reference Todd made about the importance of focus.
I don’t catch Todd’s response but in any event he dismisses the students and they exit.
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