November 17, 2014

Creating DIFFERENTIATED Math Assignments in Front Row

Thank you to Sarah Ganus for sharing this great tip with me, so I can pass it along to the staff! Your desire to share with your colleagues is one reason I LOVE teaching. I am thankful for teachers who value the growth of others, not just students. This reminds me of that saying, "You're only as strong as your weakest link."

The Printable page in Front Row allows teachers to create meaningful math worksheets for every student in his or her class. Front Row gives the option to print both Individualized Practice and Standards-Based Practice, depending upon what you want to accomplish that day.

Individualized Practice

The Individualized Practice sheets are created based on the skill (standard or sub-knowledge) on which each student in a class is currently working. With one click of the mouse, you will have a PDF document with a personalized printable for every student.

Click here to see a screenshot of the Printables page

Once you select the domain and click on "Generate (Domain Name) PDF" button, a new tab will open that has a different printable for every student!

After your students are finished practicing, you can check their answers using the answer keys that are generated for each student and located at the bottom of the document. Even if two students are both working on the same skill (3.NBT.2-2.0), they receive printables with different problems.

Since the printables are completely individualized, students are able to work at their own level.

If students work on the same skill for a long time and have difficulty moving on, they will constantly receive different printables to practice that one skill. Since the numbers and questions are different each time, each printable will be different than the time before.

November 10, 2014

This past week I had the opportunity to observe a 1st grade teacher named Ashley Read, who I had the opportunity to get to know in my Valor class this summer. I was impressed by her intentional use of vocabulary with her students. For example, “What does being present look like?” and “I will wait until everyone is present until I begin.” Obviously, she has taught her students that “present” means being attentive. What a positive, up-beat way to remind students to be on task WITHOUT saying it in a negative way! This made me start thinking, in general, how important it is that EVERY SINGLE WORD we say to ANYONE needs to be intentional, because it IMPACTS our relationship with them.

Likewise, our ACADEMIC vocabulary is even more important. There is a great resource called “lead4ward” that we will be working with in PLC's this year. You will find a comprehensive menu of all grade levels by clicking here. Note that there is an ACADEMIC VOCABULARY section for each subject listed for each grade level. This section provides a list of the academic vocabulary that is included in K-5 grade level TEKS, and which is also used in STAAR assessments. We can help support our students’ success by assuring we are using the correct academic vocabulary that our students will be held accountable for. So often, our students may fully understand the concepts they are being tested on, but academic vocabulary that they are not familiar with can get them off track!

I hope you will take the time to review the academic vocabulary for the content areas you teach in all grades, K-5. When we intentionally teach the vocabulary to our students and then hold high expectations for them to learn and utilize the correct vocabulary themselves, we are working together as a campus team to ensure success for ALL students!

November 3, 2014

In my opinion, Cannon is above the district learning curve when it comes to using Twitter, Facebook and blogs to communicate about your classrooms! The use of social media creates an atmosphere of transparency that helps to build relationships. I love to share with other liaisons the use of your weekly blogs - you set the standards high. I am impressed!!

Speaking of blogs, I am in the process of creating my own blog. As part of my blog, I will be uploading my section of the Cannon News FLASH called Coaching Corner. I will notify you asap when my blog is ready, so that you will know how to access and subscribe to it, so that you can be notified of when I post things to my Learning Liaison site that might be helpful. (I like the blog format because you can find things easier through the “labels/tags”.) I will be mindful of the titles, so you do not waste time reading something that does not apply to you.

TWITTER

I will be participating for the first time as a co-host with the GCISD Twitter chat on Thursday. Join us on 11/6 @ 8:30-9:30 pm for Learning Outside the Classroom with @sushi155@angiebakke & @Lisa_BrownGCISD #gcisdchat

Twitter shortcuts I am learning to use:

• Ts = teachers
• Ss = students
• w/ = with
• B4 = before
• b/c = because
• BTW = by the way
• DM = Direct Message
• Thx = thanks
• RT = Re-Tweet
• TIL = Today I Learned​
• IMO = In my opinion

Below are some of the Twitter names that I used to inspire my instruction last year:

ELA: @MrSchuReads, @literacydocent, @IRAToday, @ProfessorNana @AmyRass, @colbysharp, @nerdybookclub, @pennykittle

Authors: @barbaraoconnor, @PatriciaPolacco,

Technology: @SkypeClassroom, @TeacherApps, @AuntyTech @mattbgomez, @TechNinjaTodd

I would love to know more about your favorites in the areas of motivation, STEM, math and using technology in the classroom. We will be sharing these in our next round of PLCs. ​

October 27, 2014

team·work noun \ˈtēm-wərk\- the combined action of a group of people, especially when effective and efficient.

During extended planning, the fourth grade team was wanting to find something that truly highlighted the integration of science, math and social studies for their Family STEM Night focus. That conversation lead to "soil elements, capacity and clay making" that served a purpose for Native Americans. At a spur of the moment request, we asked Deborah to come into their planning meeting during her conference time. She DELAYED her team meeting to help out fourth grade and is now planning to co-teach pottery to accommodate their idea. She has art TEKS she is able to incorporate, as well as supporting 4th grade TEKS. 

Kudos to Deborah Highfill for being a flexible, excited team player who was thinking outside of her "plans" to meet the needs of our scholars! Our Specials teachers are eager to support STEM learning in all grades, don't forget to consider how they can support your content(s) as you are designing learning!

October 20, 2014

WHAT IS YOUR WORD??

Instead of meeting the needs of the students that come to ME in MY classroom this year, I am going to your classrooms, the PLC room, and the PDEC to carryout my new expectations as a liaison. My role is to foster and support growth among the staff.

In my classroom, I created hundreds of anchor charts with my students to foster growth. Bottom line… I miss having anchor charts!! The transition to using my computer or personal calendar/interactive notebook has not been flawless and I STILL MISS MY ANCHOR CHARTS! Thankfully, Tona asked each grade level to make an interactive bulletin board. Now I have an excuse to put one my office without looking foolish! :-) I am in the process of making TWO- one for me personally and one for the PLC room. Both of my interactive bulletin boards will “give meaning and focus” in my new role and help me achieve my goals-with an anchor chart & moving pieces. I can’t wait to share them with you.

This is from Jon Gordon:

My friends Dan Britton and Jimmy Page believe that one word can change our life. Dan and Jimmy are the co-authors of Wisdom Walks, and they share a powerful concept in their chapter “Just One Word.” Every year for 15 years before New Year ’s Day, they come up with their word for the year that will give meaning and focus to their life. They said they don’t randomly pick a word, but rather through reflection, prayer and listening to their heart the word comes to them.

My word for this school year is INTENTIONAL! Why did I choose this word? I chose this word because I must be intentional so I change and grow. I am curious to know what your word is AND what are you being intentional about?

October 13, 2014

Professional Growth

Please take a few minutes to view the video below on professional growth...it is powerful. I realize that some days we are exhausted and just not motivated. But we became teachers because we have a passion for learning-not just for our students but for ourselves.

Invite me to be a part of your growth :)

Enjoy-Lisa

October 6, 2014

PLCs

According to an article from Educational Leadership the purpose of a PLC is:

·               Big Idea #1: Ensuring That Students Learn

·               Big Idea #2: A Culture of Collaboration

·               Big Idea #3: A Focus on Results

This past week, this exact process happened naturally in the fourth grade PLC.  I would like to point out that 2 of the members of that team are new to GCISD.  The short version of this planning process happened as they planned their first TEAM PBL. 

The thought process was to link...

Social Studies

1.     Native Americans in Texas developed different ways of life based upon the geographic regions in which they lived

2.      The size, history, and geography of Texas shaped its growth and diversity.

Science

1.     Properties of soil,

2.     Changes to the earth’s surface

3.     Renewable and nonrenewable resources

Basically, if I could have taped this PLC-I would have!!!  The cornerstone task from the first unit of social studies will be used to reflect upon and even “add to or change if needed” to begin the look at the lives of different Native Americans tribes. 

Some of you may already be saying, “Yes, Lisa, we always uses prior knowledge to drive our learning.”  But in this instance, they are using the STUDENTS’ assessment piece (the cornerstone task) to a new and deeper level.  The students will have the opportunity to change/add to their initial learning.  The fact that the cornerstone task is a usable piece of a PBL joined with science is incredible.  I am a nerd at heart and the fact that a cornerstone task is truly not “just one more thing to do” and is a viable piece to drive instruction just makes me smileJ Kudos to Erin and Alejandra!!

If you would like to read this article on PLCs please access it at http://goo.gl/gb9ebm