Learning from our Peers! The tradition continues.

by Linda Ashida

There are so many ways we collaborate and learn from our peers. Our October 2016 Institute Day is one great example. But Professional Learning at Elk Grove High School isn't just a one-day-and-it's-over kind of experience. Professional Learning here is ongoing and responsive to the needs and interests of staff.

One example is our tradition of Peer Observation Groups, first started at in 2011. Since the original groups started, we have developed such a culture of ongoing and collaborative professional learning that on any given day staff has the opportunity to visit classrooms of their peers.

Some Peer Observations happen spontaneously, when a teacher drops by the Collab Lab and invites us to stop by her class to see a strategy in action or ask for feedback. Other times a teacher will contact the Collab Lab to ask if we might help arrange a class visit. This happened recently.  A colleague expressed interest in visiting classes to see varied learning strategies, so we arranged the first in a series of class visits. Our first was to Mark Heintz' Human Geography class. Several teachers joined in. As a follow-up we will meet with Mark later in the week to discuss some of the strategies we observed related to classroom management, workflow with Schoology, student collaboration, and more.

Other Peer Observation experiences are planned in advance by the Collab Lab, like our Teaming on Tuesdays, in response to feedback from staff related to their needs, interests and learning goals for their students. You can read about some of our Teaming on Tuesdays in previous blog posts.  Stay tuned for upcoming Teaming on Tuesday's we will be announcing soon.

In the meantime . . .

• Do you have successful strategies we might see in your classroom? 
• Would you like to visit a colleague's classroom to be inspired by student learning in action?
• Do you have feedback related to your own peer observation experiences?  

We'd love to hear from you!  Leave us a comment or stop by the Collab Lab!

Inter-District Collaboration

By The Collab Lab Team:

Yesterday a team from Bremen HS came to visit the Collab Lab after participating in our webinar on "Collaborating to Learn" hosted by the Illinois Principals Association and EdLeaders Network last month.  This team of administrators and teachers is looking to expand their peer observation, professional development, and teacher leader opportunities and were interested in asking questions about how Elk Grove's Collab Lab formed and evolved.

We are thankful for the Bremen team for coming to visit us, and we look forward to the opportunity to continue to work with, visit them, and learn from them across districts as well!
 

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 4/4)

Period 7
We had two visitors join us this period: Cliff Darnall and Courtney Lavand.  Though unplanned, the theme of our Period 7 observations was activating background knowledge.  In both Lindsey Bucciarelli's Human Geography class and Señora Carmen Ruiz-Bergman's AP Spanish class, we observed numerous methods of brainstorming to initiate discussions.

In Human Geography, we saw students developing lists in Notability of why people migrate.  There are the "Pushes" and "Pulls" of why people leave home or come to a desired land/country.  Students also took a matching quiz on Schoology to ensure student understanding of these various push/pull factors.  Then, students watched a 5 minute video clip summarizing the situation in Syria.  After the video, students were going to work on a Jigsaw in pairs to explore the different elements of migration.

        

In AP Spanish, we observed students exploring the facts of Halloween vs. Día de los muertos.  Students were watching a video describing some of the rituals of both celebrations and then were going to write a persuasive essay where they had to choose one day to celebrate.  

Following the observations, we discussed the different methods both teachers used to activate students' background knowledge on the subject manners.  We also talked about the use of Schoology and Notability to record (both written and verbal) student learning.

Period 8
Matt Bohnenkamp joined our group for observing Sr. Burrier-Sanchis and Lindsey Bucciarelli.  

In Sr. Burrier-Sanchis's AP Spanish Literature class, they were discussing the novel Into the Beautiful North.  Students were discussing various adjectives that they could use to describe the novel.  Following the quick discussion in pairs, Sr. Burrier-Sanchis showed students the website wordreference.com to use as a thesaurus for multiple languages.  

Observations in both classes sparked great brainstorming sessions about scaffolding and other connections on the CollabLab's dry erase wall!  Stop on down to check it out and add more ideas!

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 2/4)

Colleen Mullaney's regular junior math class worked on a self-reflection document before the end of the quarter.  On the front side of the reflection, students filled in their grades for each of the assessments of first quarter.  Then on the back, they answered these four questions:
1)  The quarter is ending on Friday.  What are your thoughts about your grade where it is now?
2)  What has gotten you to the grade that you have now?  Is it the homework?  The time spent in class?
3)  Are all your assessments complete? Meaning have you taken them all? Or do you have a redo or missing?
4)  What are you going to do to either maintain the grade you have or improve your grade before the semester ends?

Anna Izzo's AP Italian class was peer editing a two-paragraph DBQ essay. Since this was the first one of the year, Ms. Izzo had students focus on writing an introduction and thesis statement. Then their peers were given a checklist with specific criteria to make sure they included the necessary information and supporting evidence from the article.

 

Peer Observation: Round 2 (Post 1/4)

Period 1
The second Peer Observation Day got off to a great start in Kristen Guth's freshman english class. Students were self-assessing on their speeches about a person who had a positive impact on their lives. Kristen recorded students' speeches on her iPad and was able to share the speeches with each  student through Google Drive. Students were then able to watch themselves and assess their speaking skills - rating themselves on volume, eye contact, posture, clarity, and preparation using a rubric.

 The self-assessment rubric also left room for students to provide examples or evidence for their rankings.

This outside perspective let students see themselves in a more objective manner, which presented a chance for them to see strengths and areas that may need improvement.  It was great seeing students self reflect in other subject areas and I have plenty of ideas for my classroom as a result. Thank you Kristen for letting us observe your classroom!


Period 2

A big Thank You to Tim Phillips and Beata Yormark for inviting us into their classrooms during 2nd period for our second Peer Observation Day. In Human Geography, we saw students engaging with the lesson by participating in a Schoology discussion about voluntary migration. It was a great way to get students to connect the concept to their own lives. It was particularly fun to watch Mr. Phillips' students explaining Schoology discussions to observing staff members. 

In Beata's math class, students were reviewing for a unit test by completing a Schoology checklist. It was empowering to see students all engaged and working at their own pace to review the material. We saw kids collaborating to review the material, asking good questions, and all advancing toward their learning goals. Students explained to observing staff members the importance of showing their work as they completed tasks in Notability. They truly took ownership of their learning.

We loved having Mary Beth Khoury and Marge Wojtas join us for our second Peer Observation Day. We hope others find the time to join us next time, too!

Energizing the Mid-Career Teacher

By Kim Miklusak

We have all perhaps seen a variation of this chart during our teaching career: phases of first-year teachers' attitude toward teaching.  It makes sense, and it makes new (and veteran!) teachers feel less isolated in their attitudes as the year goes on.  There is a natural progression to things, and it is something we can be conscious of and try to address and prevent.  See this image here:
Graphic from http://www.newteachercenter.org/

There has been a lot of talk in the past ten plus years--but again recently--about new teacher retention: its costs, its causes, its remedies.  I think it's vital to have these conversations about new teachers.  However, I think another conversation we need to be having is mid-career teacher retention--or, more specifically, mid-career teacher re-invigoration.

I wonder what the above chart looks like across the span of a career.  I'm sure there are many peaks and valleys for a variety of reasons both internal and external to each individual.  I wonder how we can support mid-career teachers as we do new teachers to help them connect to other educators, to continue to grow as experts in their field, and to help them find new avenues to learn.

One way is for teachers to make those connections on their own whether that be through Twitter, conferences, EdCamps, etc.  I think another way is for teachers to start finding ways to publish their own writing and reflection be that in journals, websites, or their own blog!  Another way is for schools to facilitate this re-invigoration.  This past week our school held Spark Sessions and a Mini-EdCamp at our first In-Service day in addition to the teacher-led sessions held at our Institute Days.  In addition, administrators both in-building and at the district are working with many mid-career and new teachers to branch out into new roles and help guide new and existing initiatives.  I hope that all schools follow this lead and spend their resources in some of these ways as well in order to connect to new and veteran teachers.  While it's true that teachers can hit a groove in mid-career and be left on their own, it's also a time to be sure to find ways to remain energized and constantly reflect and grow!

My First Video!

By Mark Heintz

Last week, Christina Barnum taught a few teachers how to create videos for her Biology classes using the app Educreations.  It was another great example of how easy it is to make videos and the different ways to implement them in the classroom.  I have wanted for a few years now to create videos to help students learn the material. I keep seeing examples from my own students that reading at home or on their own is not the easiest way to learn history.

The book our district adopted is a challenge.  To be fair, I was on the textbook adoption committee and approved the book. But, I digress.  First, the books is at a college reading level.  Second, the book assumes the students have a great deal of back ground knowledge.  The book is great for students who know a lot of history, but almost all of my students are taking their first world history course. The students spend a lot of time outside of class trying to decode the text book.  No matter what pre-reading strategies are done in the classroom, it is still very hard for my students to comprehend the material.

To help the students at home understand the reading, I made my first video! It was on methods used by Europeans to imperialize between the years 1750-1900.  I used the software Screenflow.  It records your screen and can record you at the same time.  Using this software, I record myself while filming what is on screen.  I remember reading Paul Anderson's guide to video making who gave the advice of putting yourself in the video to make it more approachable.  I took his advice.

Overall, I learned a lot from my first video.  I spoke too fast and stumbled over words.  But, I love the idea.  The video is short and gets to the point. I made a few multiple choice questions to go with the video to have students self-assess their comprehension of their learning.   Now, I have the video forever. If a student is absent or is having difficulty understanding the material, they will be able to go back and re-watch it.  I have since made five videos in the past two days and am jonesing to make more. 

One last note.  Making the videos really was a self reflective process on what students need to know. I summarized the facts and story of history.  I feel like a true historian by pulling sources together to tell a story.  It is interesting to see what I leave out, include, and how I put the story together.  

Collaborating to Learn: A New Twist on Peer Observation Groups

Posted by Linda Ashida

The Collab Lab is in its 4th year of facilitating Peer Observation Groups (POGs), and it is exciting to see the ways they continue to evolve depending on the needs of the staff participating. First semester we ran four POGs, involving nearly 40 staff members. Participants represented all departments, and included classroom teachers, student services staff, and special education personnel.  Each POG completed several two-week observation cycles, consisting of a classroom visit the first week, and a follow-up meeting the second week.  The follow-up meetings gave participants a chance to reflect on the practices they observed in their peer's classroom and to share strategies that they could apply in their own lessons. The POG meetings naturally evolved to meet the needs of the groups. Sometimes groups would suspend the two-week observation cycle to conduct a mini-workshop where participants would share or demonstrate specific teaching and learning strategies that they were most interested in.  For example, several groups conducted mini-workshops on our most commonly used LMS, Schoology.

The POGs continue to evolve second semester as we noticed that many staff wanted to participate, but they were unable to make the long-term commitment to join a POG.  Therefore, while we continue to facilitate Peer Observation Groups, our focus has shifted to offer more short-term collaborative learning opportunities in the form of Peer Learning Workshops.  These are informal workshops in which one or two teachers demonstrate a teaching strategy and other participants
share similar examples from their disciplines, or share ways they will apply their new learning. As we move closer to being a 100% 1:1 iPad school, we have found increasing interest in these kinds of workshops.

Some examples of our Peer Learning Workshops second semester:

February:

1) Personalizing Instruction with Schoology: 
2/17 5th Hour
Ami Heng and Colleen Mullaney shared strategies that they use with @Schoology to differentiate instruction and learn at their own pace.

2)  Learning Accomodations for Students with Special Needs
2/17/15 6th hour and 2/24/15 5th Hour
Drs. Karen Simon-Leff and Marla Carson conducted a session on strategies to meet the needs of students with autism, and students who exhibit learned helplessness.  Participants discusses specific strategies to encourage a growth-mindset in their students.

March:

3)  Student-Centered Learning with Notability and Flashcard apps 
3/4/15 8th Hour
Katie Owen will conduct a demonstration on student-centered activities that she has developed using Notability and Flashcard apps.  After a 15-minute demonstration, participants will have the chance to "play" with these apps and create applications of these activities for their classes.

4)  Making Student Learning Visible with Student-Created Videos
 3/11/15 8th hour
Cristina Barnum will conduct a demonstration of how her students demonstrate their learning for each unit using Educreation Videos.  After a 15-minute demonstration, participants will have the chance to "play" with this and create applications of these activities for their classes.

5) Formative Asssessment and Peer Learning in PE classes
3/11/15 5th hour
Anthony Furman will host a 15-minute observation of his Advanced Strength and Conditioning class.  Participants will observe the ways that students use technology with Train Heroic and Ubersense to do movement analysis, get immediate feedback and coach their peers.  After the observation, participants will return to the Collab Lab to discuss applications of this kind of formative assessment in their own classes.

We will offer even more Peer Learning Workshops in April and May.

Do you have ideas for other kinds of peer learning experiences? We'd love to hear from you!  Please leave us a comment below.

Tech Tuesday: POG round-up

Peer Observation Groups started up today!  Thank you to everyone who presented and everyone who was able to stop down.

5th period: The POG had representation from almost every department with over ten participants! Colleen Mullaney and Ami Heng were gracious enough to showcase the checklist feature in Schoology.  They explained the creation process to the group.  The POG discussed the positives and the negatives to the use of checklists.  Colleen and Ami highlighted the student centered learning that can take place with the use of checklists.   If you want to know how to create a checklist in Schoology click here!  Kirsten Fletcher also briefly shared how she is using Media Folders in Schoology and different ways teachers could use them in different subject areas.

6th period: Dr. Karen Simon-Leff and Dr. Marla Carson presented to the group on working with students with disabilities.  One of their main messages was the idea that the goal of public education is that the students leave school with a proper understanding of what it means to be a citizen, including how to successfully hold a job.  So once we have ensured that all appropriate accommodations are made, it is important to hold all students to the same expectations.  For example, the standard of due dates, following directions, and adhering to school and classroom rules should not change as this is not what these students will experience out at a store or at a job.  There were very interesting conversations and questions covered by the group throughout the session.

Lesson Sharing & School Culture

By Kim Miklusak

One of the things I like most about the school culture at EG is our willingness to share lesson ideas and instructional techniques with each other.  I've done two lessons this week that were introduced to me by my peers.

The first was a QR code pre-reading activity that was originally done at our Freshman First Days event at the start of the school year.  I then observed Bonnie Kale use it with her freshmen as a preview to reading Shakepeare; it was so well received by her students that other members of her freshmen team started using it as well!  Many members of our American Literature team are now using that idea this week to preview the concept of race and conflicts surrounding race in the US today as we begin preparing to read Huck Finn.  What was great about this activity was that it was self-paced but still skills-centered and incorporated current events and conflicts via articles and videos.

The second idea is the gamification of grammar practice, an idea long championed by Rita Sayre.  Today I did brackets to make a head-to-head competition.  Students worked by themselves or with a peer.  Each English grammar passage was a round.  The students put the number of correct answers plus an answer explanation as a tie breaker.  Even if they were kicked out in the first round they kept playing because the team with the next highest total came back in for the final round!  The students really got into it--even students who normally wouldn't be as interested in grammar.  Another great way to do this would be through Kahoot!

Lesson reflection: determining relevant vs. best evidence

Today the CollabLab welcomes Alexa Rodheim, an English teacher at Elk Grove HS. She can be reached @AlexaRodheim

One of the biggest challenges English teachers face is how to help students improve their ability to analyze evidence in argumentative writing. We are constantly asking them to answer the questions “So what?” and “Why is this important?” rather than simply summarize the examples or data they have chosen to support their arguments. With this in mind, what I have begun to realize is that many students, especially freshmen, struggle with this skill— not because they lack the ability to explain or “dig deeper,” but because they often choose only relevant (and sometimes even irrelevant) evidence rather than the best evidence. In other words, we can only ask students to write strong analysis if we first ask them and show them how to incorporate strong evidence.

Sixth period Peer Observation Group members visited my double-period WOC/prep reading classes in October to observe a lesson in which I attempted to do just this. Prior to the lesson, my students and I discussed the difference between relevant evidence and best evidence, and I modeled examples from a non-fiction article that presented two sides of current, controversial issues in Upfront magazine. Next, I had my students rotate through stations in which they skimmed additional articles from the magazine, looked at the pictures and captions, and ultimately chose one based on interest. They then independently read and annotated their articles and derived two main ideas (arguments).  For each main idea, they chose three pieces of supporting evidence from the article and completed a graphic organizer.

For the observed lesson students worked in small groups with peers who had chosen the same articles. Their objectives were to compare the three pieces of evidence they had each chosen for each main idea and compile their “top three” pieces of best evidence.  I asked them to record these choices, along with explanations for each, in a new graphic organizer. I also made the last minute decision to have students record their conversations on Notability using the audio note feature. I had been inspired by a lesson I observed in Kim Miklusak’s classroom a few weeks prior. Each group was required to send their recordings along with their completed organizers to me at the end. From there, they would be asked to evaluate both main ideas along with their corresponding best evidence and choose an argument for which they would independently write a MEL-Con paragraph.

From my perspective, one strategy that worked well was allowing student choice with the articles; it led to engagement in subsequent parts of the lesson. I also felt that the scaffolding for the lesson was appropriate: modeling, guided practice, independent work, group work, and back to independent work with built-in checkpoints with the whole group along the way. For example, Kim Miklusak and Linda Ashida both commented on the effectiveness of my pausing the lesson to remind students of prior knowledge and activities to prompt them for their next steps. Linda also noted that there was an effective blend of tech and non-tech, which allowed students to simultaneously view and synthesize pieces of information with ease. Students, despite their varying learning and behavior profiles, also had mostly positive interactions throughout the activity. Katie Owen noted that most groups she observed were respectful to one another, despite the sensitive topics in some of these articles, and that they made sure to move through the steps together.

One challenge I experienced with this lesson was the misconception of some students that the activity required them to debate sides of the argument rather than best evidence. Even with the clear expectations I set at the beginning of the lesson, some students persisted with these discussions, which steered them away from the true purpose. By the end, through redirection from me and even prompting from their peers, most were able to get on track. Another challenge during this lesson was how to go about using the audio note recordings. Both Rachel Barry and Mark Heintz inquired about how I would use the recordings, and I realized I didn’t have a solid plan. Going into the lesson, I thought of it as a classroom management tool for keeping students on-task and accountable; on the other hand, the recordings had potential to inspire students for their analysis in their paragraphs. For this lesson, it became a bit of a wash, but for future lessons I plan to experiment with more effective uses for this feature and to seek ideas from colleagues.

Overall, I appreciated the opportunity to invite my peers into my classroom and receive valuable feedback. I am excited to continue finding new ways to help students improve argumentative writing.