Week 8 - October 5 - World Teachers Day

Great Things We Noticed:

• The Equity Conference!  What a wonderful and powerful experience for our team!  Here are some of my take away's from the conference: 
• "Did we get the CALL or the CALLING?"
• "Equity is ACTION rooted in LOVE"
• "We are not excellent until everyone makes it"
• "It's not happening to you, it's happening in front of you"
• Greeting your students with a handshake, high five or hug and some eye contact is the BEST way to start their days
• Smiling while teaching increases student engagement
• Give what you have - Love your students like your own - 
• "ALL kids are at risk... they are kids"
• "When you set your mind to equity, you set your mind to high performance"
• History lives in each of us
• Each and every one of us descends from someone that made a difference
• When we listen close enough...that's when change happens
• "My teacher believed in COME IN, not get out"
• "The important thing was what my teacher chose to do with my disrespect"
• "You know my name but not my story.  You know what I've done but not what I've been through."
• Relationships - Engagement - Content 
• Love Hawthorne Day 
• The PL Visit from Borrego Springs - Thank you to all of the classrooms that shared their PL practices! 
• Mystery Science in Ms. Rubens class! 
• Materials and Motion in TK! 
• Team building in Ms. Nichols class! 
• We talked about breaking out the application problem over a few days and we noticed this practice in Judid's classroom: 
  

 

 

 

 

 

Nuts and Bolts :

• IAB (CAASP Interim Assessments) Training for 3rd-6th grade  - 3:00-3:30 C107
• Shared Leadership Team - October 5 is Instructional Design Day - Please secure a sub - we will be meeting here (YAY!) - Light breakfast will be provided 
• Gallup Survey will open 10/18
• Halloween Parade and Fall Festival will be on 10/26 - Classrooms can have small celebrations on 10/31 - but costumes should be on 10/26 ONLY
• Teachers Pay Teachers School Page:  

I've created a Teachers Pay Teachers (TpT) account for our school to make it easier to buy resources needed to support the work you do with students. You will be able to request resources you feel would be beneficial for you and your students. Your request would then be sent directly to me for review. Be prepared to provide a rationale or verbal explanation regarding resources you request. Watch this video to see how it works:

Once you join, you find a "Send Request" button on any resource page which will send your resource request directly to me. You will also be able to see any items in the "School Library" - which is a record of the purchases made by our school. It also tells who the items were purchased for so that you can send a request for an additional license if needed. Since TpT's policy is 1 license per teacher, you would not be able to download everything in the "School Library", just the items that were purchased specifically for you.

I am very excited about this new feature. Many of you take advantage of the free (and paid) resources provided through TpT and now you can request items without paying out of pocket! Join our account now so that you can view, request and have access to an array of wonderful resources!

• We are blessed to have a wonderful group of Classified Employee's - Please take some time to nominate a "Classified Employee of the Year" fill out the paperwork and submit by 10/23.
• Classified Employee's: Resume Writing and Interview Skills Workshop
• RUSD, Department of Personnel – Leadership and Development is offering workshops to ALL classified employees providing tips on building a strong resume and on how to create the greatest impact during the interview bringing you closer to obtaining your career goals. Click here for Flyer

• Reminder - Great California Shakeout - Thursday, October 18 at 10:18am.
• Google Certified Educator Trainings (LEVEL 1)
• The Department of Innovation and Learner Engagement will be hosting Google Certified Educator Level 1 After School Study Sessions. Over the course of 7 weeks participating teachers will learn the skills necessary to pass the Google Certified Educator Level 1 Exam. Teachers interested in participating must attend one of two Orientation meetings after school on Oct 9th or 18th. At the meeting teachers will get an overview of this after school program. Orientation will take place from 3:45-5:45 pm at the District Office. You and your staff can find out more here. If you have questions, please afleweling@rusdlearns.net.
• Art-to-Go!
• RUSD is excited to offer six lessons to all TK-6 grades with the Riverside Art Museum’s Art-to-Go. Three of the six lessons will be either Math/Art or Science/Art lessons and the other three are your choice from the subjects offered. All lessons (to take place September through May) must be scheduled no later than Wednesday, October 10. Click here to schedule lessons. For more information about Art-to-Go, please email art2go@riversideartmuseum.org or call (951) 684-7111 x311.
• Additionally, there are a limited number of additional History/Art lessons available that explore the special Tlatilco exhibit. This additional lesson is available through December 30. Click here for more information about booking and scholarships.
• Mystery Science
• Click the link below to access a crosswalk of the CA Science Framework and Mystery Science lessons. Please note, not all NGSS standards are covered by Mystery Science. Also, we have built in 6th grade Mystery Science options even though Mystery Science is designed for K-5 standards.
• Mystery Science/ CA Framework Crosswalk

Focus/Common Commitments:  

Several of our team members attended a ELD/Math workshop at the equity conference.  In the workshop they focused on integrating ELD with math content, the idea being "you cannot learn math without language".  To do this they created "Mathematics Language Routines" and "Design Principals".  The four design principals focus and guide teachers during planning and execution of your lessons.  Starting with the design principals while planning instruction will ensure that language routines and objectives are included in your math instruction.

• SUPPORT SENSE-MAKING: Scaffold tasks and amplify language so students can make their own meaning.
• OPTIMIZE OUTPUT: Strengthen the opportunities and supports for helping students to describe clearly their mathematical thinking to others, orally, visually, and in writing.
• CULTIVATE CONVERSATION: Strengthen the opportunities and supports for constructive mathematical conversations (pairs, groups, and whole class).
• MAXIMIZE META-AWARENESS: Strengthen the ”meta-” connections and distinctions between mathematical ideas, reasoning, and language.

Math Language Routines: 

• MLR1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time 
• MLR2: Collect and Display 
• MLR3: Critique, Correct, and Clarify 
• MLR4: Information Gap 
• MLR5: Co-Craft Questions and Problems 
• MLR6: Three Reads 
• MLR7: Compare and Connect Understanding 
• MLR8: Discussion Supports

Here is an example of MLR1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time

Mathematical Language Routine 1: Stronger and Clearer Each Time Purpose: To provide a structured and interactive opportunity for students to revise and refine both their ideas and their verbal and written output (Zwiers, 2014). This routine provides a purpose for student conversation as well as fortifies output. The main idea is to have students think or write individually about a response, use a structured pairing strategy to have multiple opportunities to refine and clarify the response through conversation, and then finally revise their original written response. Throughout this process, students should be pressed for details, and encouraged to press each other for details. Subsequent drafts should show evidence of incorporating or addressing new ideas or language. They should also show evidence of refinement in precision, communication, expression, examples, and/or reasoning about mathematical concepts.

Example 1 – Successive Pair Shares

• 1. PRE-WRITE: Have students, individually, look at a problem and write down their idea/reasoning for solving the problem a certain way, or any thoughts or questions about it, in complete sentences if possible. This is the pre-write sample; there will be a post-write to see if the sharing with others makes a difference. [Optional scaffold: Provide part of an initial draft for students to begin with that contains the language needed for an important idea.] 
• 2. THINK TIME: Then give a minute for students to think about what they will say to the first partner to explain what they are doing, or did, to solve it. (They can’t look at what they wrote while talking). 
• 3. STRUCTURED PAIRING: Use a successive pairing structure. (For example: Have students get into groups of 6 or 8, with inner circles of 3 or 4 facing outer circles of 3 or 4). Remind students that oral clarity and explaining reasoning are important. Even if they have the right answer or they both agree, the goal is either (1) to be able to clearly explain it to others as a mathematician would or (2) for the other person to truly understand the speaker’s ideas. Goal (1) is appropriate when students are further along in the development of a concept; goal (2) is appropriate closer to when students are first introduced to a concept. 
• 4. IN PAIRS: When one partner is listening, he or she can ask clarifying questions, especially related to justifying (Why did you do that?). The other person then also shares and the listener also asks clarifying questions to draw more language and ideas out of quiet partners, if needed.
•  5. SWITCH: Partners switch one, two, or three more times, strengthening and clarifying their idea each time they talk to a new partner. Optionally, turns can emphasize strength (focus on math concepts and skills) or clarity (how to describe the math to others). Scaffolds can be removed with each successive pairing to build student independence. 
• 6. POST-WRITE: Have students return to seats and write down their final explanations, in sentences (they can use drawings, too, explained by sentences). Turn in. 

Danielson: 

Personalized Learning:

On October 10th and 11th our 5th and 2nd grade teams will begin the process of "High Impact Teaming".  The purpose of this process is to create student centered/mastery based assessments AND empower our teams to analyze the results of these assessments to impact classroom instruction.  

I found this info-graphic and wanted to remind you that Mastery Based Learning and Assessment is one of the 5 elements (The Fulton County Schools have 7 elements) of our personalized learning program.  I am so excited to begin this process and cannot wait to see the results!  Thank you Patrick, Anna, Kevin, Beth, Katie, Sara and Racquel for leading this work! 

Upcoming Events: 

10/2 - Asst. Superintendent Jackie Perez Visit - 1:00-2:45

10/3 - WALK TO SCHOOL DAY/COFFEE WITH THE PRINCIPAL

10/3 - CAASPP Training - 3:00 - C107

10/4 - Principal Working Group/Elementary - Carrie off campus - 8:00-10:00

10/5 - Instructional Design Day - SLT Group - 8:00-3:00

10/8 - Miles of Smiles Dental Education - 

10/9 - PTA Board Meeting (Mr. Sheffield is teacher rep) 

10/10 & 10/11 - HIT Foundation Days - Poly High School Library - 2nd and 5th Grade Teams

10/10 - Leadership Team Meeting - 2:55 - Library

10/11 - Principals Meeting - Carrie off campus - 8:00-1:00

10/11 - District Leadership Team meeting - 3:30 - Longi and Carrie off Campus 2:45

10/12 - Miles of Smiles Dental Screening - Room D106
10/12 - Hawk Shop Open

Birthdays: 

10/2 - Sara Gallegos - 2nd Grade

10/7 - Racquel Schnakenberg - 2nd Grade

10/13 - Longi Summers - Assistant Principal

Have a great week!