First Year of Teaching in Review

By Kristen Gierman 

There is no doubt that one of the most powerful things I did to develop as an individual and educator in my first year at Elk Grove was connecting with others in the building.  Thankfully, the atmosphere that our ITF/DTCs created provided me the opportunity and space to build valuable networks to expand my ideas and teaching practice.

Partaking in collaboration did require an initial nudge, but it generated enormous value at practically no cost to me.  While I understand that time is one of our most precious resources as teachers, I would argue that the transmission of new ideas and perspectives that took place in moments of collaboration far outweighed my fear of “misusing my time” in that way.

In exchanging ideas and listening to the suggestions of others, I not only got to see my ideas improve but also received tangible evidence about how my thoughts could be put to use elsewhere in the school.

This year reaffirmed my belief that good ideas do not develop in isolation or in the confines of our own practice.  Rather, they come from a network of connections that are all around us at Elk Grove if we challenge our ways of thinking and recognize the potential that exists in connecting, learning, and sharing with others.  There is value in the unlikely interactions that occur when clusters of individuals with distinct skills and passions overlap.  It is these combinations that carry the potential to spark innovation and can drive us all forward.

As I wrap up my first year, I want to take the time to thank those who have given me the opportunity to work in conjunction with them and challenged me to grow.  You have served as a clear reminder of the reality that there is a small difference between doing something and doing nothing but the two have wildly different outcomes for our students and us!

On Making Mistakes & Learning in a 1:1 Classroom

By Kim Miklusak

This has been a year of uncharted territory for many of us.  Although I had worked with iPads and technology prior to this year, it was my first year teaching in a full 1:1 classroom.  I have to say I was nervous--especially working with people who had been in iPad pilot programs for a few years.  I was nervous that people would ask me questions that I may not immediately know the answer to.  I was nervous that I would try things out in my classroom and they wouldn't work.  I was nervous that I would take time to make something only to find a better way to do it later.

And you know what?  All of those things happened.  But because of the general support structure at  EGHS--and throughout the district as a whole--as well as the specific support structure of the CollabLab and my peers, I was able to learn and grow alongside those I was helping--and alongside my students!  I appreciate the willingness to share in our school, and I appreciate the instructional conversations we can have in our departments and across departments.  I've learned as much from teachers in other subjects as I have from teachers in my own!  Additionally I've learned so much from connecting with people on Twitter and at EdCamps.

I know the shift in instructional technology is a big one, and we are all in different places with it.  The mindset at our school is so important: move at a pace that is comfortable for you.  For some that means considering the SAMR model and working first with substitution as we digitize curricula.  For some that means trying out one thing such as doing entrance or exit slips on the iPad each day.  For others that could be doing one project on the iPad.  And still for others that means transforming as many pieces of the curriculum as possible.

The key is always, however, to realize that whatever we do for the first time, we may (we will!) find more effective and efficient ways to do it in the future--especially if we share our successes and missteps with others.  As long as our instructional focus comes first and technology comes second, the technology will be there to enhance as oppose to diminish what we do in our classrooms for our students.

Saving Courses from the "Archive" in Schoology

By: Rachel Barry

Don't worry, all of your hard work and long hours spent adding documents, building formative assessments, and constructing assessment rubrics to Schoology has not gone to waste for upcoming school years!  Here I will provide you with a simple step-by-step guide to keep your courses live for future use.

1.  Click "Courses" in the top toolbar.

2.  Click "See All" in the bottom right corner of the open tab.

3.  Click on the Setting (gear) aligned to the course you want to keep from being archived.

4.  Click "Edit".

5.  Check "Keep Forever", and your course will be kept at least until January 21, 2025!

6.  Don't forget to SAVE!

If you would like help with this or have any additional questions for the end of the school year, please stop by the Collab Lab!

Use Twitter Lists to Connect with Colleagues!

Written by Linda Ashida



Last week my Prospect High School colleague, Teri Buczinsky wrote a great post: Top Three Reasons Teachers Love Twitter.  In this piece she included examples of how her students use Twitter lists to facilitate their research. If you missed it, make sure to check it out!




In this post, I would like to expand on Teri's ideas for using Twitter lists, and share some additional examples of how you can use them to connect with colleagues.  Specifically, I will share several of my own Twitter lists and show you how to subscribe to them.  Whether you are new to Twitter or a long-time user, you might find the lists helpful to connect with more EGHS and District 214 colleagues.  If you are a reader who is not from EGHS or D214, this post might still give you ideas on how to use and create lists to connect with colleagues from your own school and district.

Why lists?

By creating lists, you can easily check, at-a-glance, all the Tweets from your colleagues; the Tweets won't get lost in the shuffle of your long newsfeed.  Organizing Tweets into lists is a powerful way to strengthen our connections; to learn about and share the work of our colleagues and our students.  It is a great way to build community.

I have heard some educators say, "I don't have time for Twitter!"  They imagine having to sift through a long newsfeed of Tweets each day.  But with lists, you really can connect with colleagues in just a few minutes daily!  In those brief minutes, you will learn about the work of your colleagues and students, you might come across a really great resource, and you are bound to be inspired!

Subscribe to Lists!

If you are an Elk Grove High School staff member, and you want to connect with more EGHS staff, clubs, sports, or extracurricular groups, you can subscribe to my list: Elk Grove High School.  Just click on the link to get to my list. On the top left corner you will see the name of the list and and the "Subscribe" icon (screen shot below).  Click on "Subscribe" and you will be immediately connected to more colleagues and EG groups that you can follow.  Click on "List members" (just below the "Subscribe" icon), and you can choose the colleagues whom you wish to follow.  (You can subscribe to a list without following the members.)

If you are interested in connecting with more District 214 colleagues, you can subscribe to my list:
District 214.

Please note! If you are an Elk Grove or District 214 colleague and you find that you are not included in my lists, I would love to add you and connect with you! Please follow me and I'll follow you back, and then add you to the lists!  If I am already following you and accidentally missed you, please message me so I can add you! The more members we add to these two lists, the more we can grow our school and district connections!

Lists can be a great way to follow colleagues who share similar interests, or who teach the same subject.  For example, whenever I follow World Language teachers, I add them to World Language Educators.  That way, if I just want to quickly see the Tweets from these teachers, I can easily do so by checking that specific list.

You can find other interesting lists to subscribe to by checking out the profile pages of people you follow. You will see at the top of their profile pages:  Tweets, Followers, Following, Favorites, and Lists.  Click on their link of lists and, if they have made them public, you will be able to subscribe.

Create Your Own Lists!

As you follow more people, you may want to create your own lists.  It's easy!  When you follow someone, you will notice the settings gear icon to the left (photo below).  Click on the gear and choose, "Add or remove from lists . . . "  The next window will give you the option to "Create a list." You can choose to make the list public or private. Then click on setting gear for each person/group you are following to add them.  As you follow new people, remember to add them to the appropriate lists.

Next steps:  TweetDeck!

Once you get the hang of lists, you can set up TweetDeck. I think TweetDeck looks daunting at first; however, it really is easy to set up. And TweetDeck makes it SO much easier to organize your lists in columns so that you can efficiently check multiple lists at-a-glance.  More on the "how to" in a future post.

For now, I'll share below a screen shot to give you an idea of how I use TweetDeck. I include columns for both lists and hashtags.  For example, you will see columns for my EGHS and D214 lists. This week I added a column to follow all of the tweets of our D214 Graduations by creating a #d214Grad column.  I also have a #EGSR2015 column to follow our Summer Reading Tweets. You can add many, many columns if you wish, and easily scroll across them to check out all the tweets from your favorite categories.

If you want learn more about anything in this post, or anything at all about Twitter, come see us in the Collab Lab! Or contact us at CollabLab@d214.org. We would LOVE to help you, and grow our learning connections!

If you have ideas to share, please leave us a comment!

Book Recommendation: Teaching with Poverty in Mind

By Kim Miklusak

I've been reading a lot lately...This week's book recommendation is Teaching with Poverty in Mind: What Being Poor Does to Kids' Brains and What Schools Can Do About it by Eric Jensen.

So often we as teachers can get wrapped up in the day-to-day of curriculum and assessment.  Sometimes we can overlook that what happens in the students' home lives--and, in fact, what has happened for their entire lives--plays an enormous role in not only their ability to accomplish the tasks we give them but also in their ability to function in class and process information and emotions.  This book serves as an excellent reminder in both theory and practice.

One of the most interesting concepts to me was the chapter on emotional challenges, stressors, cognitive lags, and health and safety issues and their effects on academics.  Jensen covers the how and why of these effects, but he then offers specific action steps for individual classroom teachers and whole schools.  This includes the graphic below that highlights the idea that while most people are "hardwired" for certain emotions, other emotions like those on either end of the "emotional keyboard" are ones that need to be taught--in this case, at times, by teachers.  This is partnered with the importance of a mindset of change, a concept also echoed in Mindset by Carol Dweck. 

A graphic from the book

Finally, Jensen closes with a chapter on schoolwide success factors and a chapter on classroom success factors.  At a schoolwide level, he suggests focusing on Support of the Whole Child, Hard Data, Accountability, Relationship Building, and an Enrichment Mindset.  At the classroom level, he focuses on Standards-Based Curriculum and Instruction, Hope Building, Arts/Athletics/Advanced Placement, Retooling of the Operating System, and Engaging Instruction.  He goes into great detail on each of these factors, including suggestions for avoiding common mistakes.

What makes this book so accessible to administrators and teachers alike is not only Jensen's approachable explanations of theories but also the tangible and manageable set of factors for helping to guide entire schools in better teaching students in poverty. 

Curriculum Changes-Mastery of Learning

By Mark Heintz


The Elk Grove freshmen human geography team added a document based question curriculum to achieve higher level thinking skills.  Over the last month of school, the team has been testing new ideas through student-centered document based instruction in hopes to get a great understanding of how to move forward next year.  The concepts and skills are driving a focus for next year in human geography centered around four main categories.

Content	Writing	Interpreting Texts	Interpreting Charts, Maps, Graphs
·        See each unit plan.	·        Write main ideas to examine and convey complex ideas. ·        Through writing, provide examples to support main ideas. ·        Through writing, analyze details.	·   State the main idea from texts. ·   Draw evidence from texts to support main ideas.	·   State the main idea of charts, maps, and graphs. ·   Provide evidence from charts, maps or graphs to support the main idea.
One summative multiple choice test per unit.	One summative writing per unit.  Each unit the skills will build upon each other.  The grade will reflect the students overall writing ability at the end of the semester.	One summative interpreting portion per unit as measured by providing the main idea and supporting details for the number of documents listed.  The overall category grade will be reflective of the student’s ability at the end of the semester.	One summative interpreting portion per unit as measured by a multiple-choice test.  The test will cover charts, maps and graphs.  The overall category grade will be reflective of the student’s ability at the end of the semester.
30% of the overall grade	30% of the overall grade	20% of the overall grade	20% of the overall grade

The team came to agreements that the semester grade would reflect student's current ability levels.  From the "testing" period, came a greater understanding of what students were capable of and what we as teachers could do to improve the student's mastery.  Over the semester, the skills would advance, requiring higher level thought processes.  Additionally as the year progresses, increasingly complex passages will be used as their abilities hopefully improve.

The work that we are doing is has been so rejuvenating for me as a teacher as we move towards a place where students are rewarded for mastering content and skills over time.  The students' learning is centered around interpreting texts, charts, maps, and graphs to learn content.  And then writing to express their understanding of content.  It is very powerful and the impact in the classroom leaves students tired from thinking so much.  

Another change is the instruction.  Since the team's focus is centered around a blend of skills and content, the instruction must mirror that.  That subject is for another post.

  

Guest Post: Adding Value to People

By Joe Bush

In February of 2015, I was fortunate enough to attend the John Maxwell Team Leadership Certification Program.  It was the best professional development I ever experienced, and the knowledge I learned from that conference fundamentally altered they way in which I teach.  The most important pieces of information that I took away from the three-day conference are as follows: 1. The best leaders are those who have the greatest influence, 2. Leaders need to serve, 3. Leaders need to add value to people and 4. Expectations drive beliefs and beliefs drive behavior.

As a teacher, I have always considered myself a leader. However, for much of my career, I was a positional leader.  A positional leader is someone who leads because someone else gave them a position.  An example might be an NFL head coach who was handpicked by the owner, but is unable to influence the players.  That type of teacher rarely has success in the classroom because they use their position to hold it over students.  After hearing John Maxwell (The Number One Leadership Guru in the World) speak, I began to think differently about teaching.  If I were going to truly change the minds and hearts of students and educate them they way that I saw fit, I was going to need to serve them.  The second part was adding value to the lives of the students. 

I would like to explain more on the notion of serving others and adding value through an example.  This year I was blessed with the opportunity to teach a leadership through service course.  What I quickly realized was that my students had great ideas, were already influential in their own circles and they all loved to serve.  After hearing Maxwell speak I realized that instead of pushing my own leadership agenda at the beginning of the year I should have focused on helping each student become more influential using their own strengths.  For some it may have been through public speaking, others it was through organization and still others just needed encouragement.  After coming back from the conference, I quickly changed my agenda in time to help the students succeed in our St. Baldrick’s charity drive.  As I incorporated Maxwell’s ideas, I could quickly see how the students grew in an explosive fashion.  I helped my students enhance what they already did well. 

The final piece to the puzzle was the idea that expectations drive belief and belief drives behavior. Motivational speaker and entrepreneur Paul Martinelli talked about how he overcame stuttering and the fact that he was a high school dropout to build several million-dollar businesses.  Paul said that belief drives behavior.  Therefore, if we think we are stupid, our behaviors are stupid.  However, because expectations drive beliefs, as a teacher it is our job to set expectations for our students to live up to.   When we set those expectations, hold students accountable and provide supports to assist them, students achieve more.

What I found to be the best part of the Maxwell training was the fact that serving and adding value to others is something that can be done regardless of your position. Maxwell says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.”  This is true because leadership is influence.  So, regardless of your position, you can always strive to be more influential, thus becoming a better leader.   Going forward, I will strive to add value to my students right from the start.  Each year will be different based on the different needs of students, but the lessons learned from that conference will forever change the way I think, lead and teach.