OSP Connected
Office for School Performance: December 2022, Vol. 64
Message from Audrea
With over 80 countries of origin represented in our school district, December can often kick off a time where many of us celebrate the various holiday and religious traditions that occur during the winter months. There are great educational benefits to teaching about the many religious traditions and cultures that exist while also being mindful that we don’t set one holiday, belief or tradition above any of the others and also acknowledging not all may celebrate these events. Upcoming holidays include: Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, Three Kings and Lunar/Chinese New Year. Last year, I learned about what it means if you find the baby in the king cake on Three Kings day and the variety of traditions that our families celebrate connected to this day that I did not know anything about previously and big hint, depending on the tradition, getting the baby in the cake has a lot of meaning behind it! Even just yesterday, I learned about a new holiday, Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which is widely celebrated in Mexico this month. All of these offer meaningful opportunities for our students to learn about culture, religion and the historical importance of how these holidays came to be. Students and staff in our schools represent a variety of religions, cultures and traditions and even within those groups, not all members of the same cultural or religious group necessarily observe the same holidays or celebrate them in the same way. The diversity within our community allows us to have so much to share and learn from and helps us to build connections and commonalities with one another!
Whether you celebrate any of these holidays or not, I hope you are able to enjoy the season with students, friends and family and have the chance to get some well deserved rest over the break. Thank you again for all that you do for our students and our community!
What percentage of time do students engage in productive discourse in your classroom? Research shows that student achievement increases when students do a majority of the talking. When students engage in discipline-specific talk time it increases their retention of knowledge, they are more likely to collaborate with other students, and by allowing students to think things through on their own it increases the challenge of the task. Here are a few things to consider to increase meaningful student talk time in your classroom:
Intentionally planning student talk time into your lessons
Select a 5Ds Student Engagement Guiding Question to focus on when planning
Instead of calling for a few raised hands, ask everyone to write their response first, or use Think-Pair-Share before whole class discussion
Instead of having your voice dominate the discussion time, employ the use of discussion prompts and questions. Click here for discussion resources
Give some of these strategies a try: Clock Appointments, Give One, Get One, Lines of Communication, Structured Role Play, Numbered Heads Together, more talk routines
In your PLC, choose a strategy to commit to for increasing productive discourse in your classroom while having accountability with your team to learn and grow together in your professional learning
The main point is to work to put the focus back on the students themselves for meaningful engagement and deeper understanding.
All School to Career opportunities are FREE for Washington County high school students; they offer both middle and high school experiences for our Hillsboro students! You are invited to explore as many occupations as you like. It’s a great way for you and your students to learn about a wide variety of careers in our Hillsboro community. Connect your students to live career exploration events by clicking HERE. Students will connect with industry professionals and participate in activities. DON’T MISS YOUR CHANCE TO ATTEND! All high schools have School to Career Specialists that can assist your classroom or individual students. All middle schools have a Career Connections Counselor once a week to help connect with these opportunities.
***Click HERE for the full December resource from our Career and College Pathway and Student Networks Team!
Our core competency for the month of November was social awareness. The CASEL definition for social awareness is the ability to understand the perspectives of and empathize with others, including those from diverse backgrounds, cultures & contexts. Practicing empathy and understanding for those around us during a possibly emotional time of the year is important. By doing this, we can help make the season much more enjoyable.
Around the holidays our students may really benefit from having time and space to practice identifying and regulating their emotions. We should give our students space to anticipate emotions they feel and come up with ways they might respond to those feelings. During morning meetings/advisory give time for students to journal or share in a circle.
What do you do when you don’t get what you want?
What are some difficult things you deal with during the holidays and how do you handle them?
What do you enjoy about the holidays?
Let us all reflect, connect, and take action (Social Awareness): How do you challenge yourself and colleagues to consider diverse perspectives and demonstrate empathy? What are the social dynamics between you and your co-workers, school staff, students, and families/caregivers, and how does this impact your relationships?
Social Awareness Video
Social Awareness Bibliolist
Teachers can request these books from the library using the teacher pull request form.
Commemorations:
Holiday Season is Here!! Holidays Around the Globe
It’s the holiday season and more! During the month of December and throughout the school year, we encourage our staff to prepare an environment where the beautiful diversity of the world can be shared through authentic experiences that promote learning about the different ways that our students commemorate their beliefs, historical events, and people significant to their culture though special celebrations and holidays. The beliefs and traditions of some families differ from those of others. Even within groups that honor the same holiday, how individual families celebrate will reflect both similarities and differences.
The theme for this month? Relationships! Let your students know that you care about them and spend time getting to know your student’s relationship with this time of the year. While this time of the year might be joyous and celebratory for many of us, for others this is a time of uncertainty and stress. By being intentional with our approach during the holidays we have the power to amplify our student’s sense of belonging. By prioritizing the educator quality of being kind and caring we strengthen our relationships with our students.
Social Emotional Learning during the most wonderful time of the year:
Self-awareness: What is your state of mind and body before and during the holidays? How satisfied and fulfilled are you after the holidays?
Social Awareness: How are you recognizing the diverse and challenging positions some people are going through during these times?
Self-management: Know and respect your limits.
Relationship Skills: How are you communicating and being considerate to those around you?
Responsible Decision-Making: It is okay for you to say no to things that you don’t want to participate in.
December resources for holidays around the globe can be found in our HSD’s Commemorations Google Site (bookmark it!) and Commemorations Calendar.
For questions or lesson support, please reach out to your Humanities TOSAs: Maricruz Acuña (Elementary), Carissa Fleming (Secondary), or Yessica Hardin-Mercado, Equity, Access and Engagement TOSA.
Multilingual Programs
We are excited to share the first edition for this school year of our DLP quarterly newsletter. In this issue, you will find staff and community members nominated to the spotlight, updates about the Diverse Educator Pathway program and the expansion of DLP at the PreK Level. Hope you enjoy this edition.
Special thanks to Angela Admiza, Brandon Hernandez Roman and Floricel Negrete Cardenas for their contributions! Please share with your DL families!
Coffee Conversations
This month, we sit down for a conversation with Rick Robinson:
OUR PURPOSE
Support educators with digital curriculum and technology integration in the classroom. Our hope is to provide HSD staff with tech integration ideas, info and updates via quick digital media that is easily accessible at your convenience. Everything we share works with current HSD tech.
PRIZES! PRIZES! PRIZES!
Level up your tech integration skills by playing Tech Integration BINGO! This month’s BINGO is all about the Peardeck! Staff can submit completed Kami BINGO game boards for a chance to enter the raffle and win fabulous prizes (wireless keyboards & mice, ring lights, Rocketbooks, presentation clickers, vlog rig, Kami gear, stickers and more).
Congratulations to our November Kami App BINGO Raffle Winners:
Prize 1- Kami Swag Bag: David Ball (Glencoe)
Prize 2- Ring Light: Brian Pendergrass (HillHi)
Prize 3- Wireless Keyboard with Touchpad: Ken McCoy (Imlay)
Click the link to play: Tech Integration BINGO!
(submit your BINGO card through the link on the Kami board for a chance to win).
TECHTIPS
Bite-sized tech integration ideas, info and updates via quick digital media that is easily accessible at your convenience. Everything we share works with current HSD tech.
Teaching Resources: Teaching & Learning 2.0
Link to site: Teaching & Learning 2.0
Teaching Language to Access Learning
Language Central
Three Ways to Scaffold Language for Access to Learning
Academic Vocabulary
Language Objectives
Instruction: Professional Development
Are you looking for ways to gain more knowledge and understanding connected to your work? We have some great professional development opportunities for you! Check out our one stop shopping Teachflix professional development site! We have resources and offerings for all staff.
PK-12 Searchable PD Playlist
All PD offerings are presented on the Teachflix Searchable PD Playlist
Teachflix navigation video: Learn What's Next: Using the Searchable PD Playlist
Extended contract offered for after school synchronous PD sessions on the playlist
A chance to win prizes for attending after school synchronous PD sessions
Access Prior PD Sessions (uploaded with presentations and recordings)