Weekly Coaching Communication
Make it a great day -- every day!
06 - 10 November 2017
Hats off to you!
Here's the past week's amazement:
- Thank you Halane Cummings for an outstanding homeroom lesson that resulted in letters, thoughtfulness, compassion, and the Pledge of Allegiance back in our school. Teachers -- thank you for acknowledging Halane's and our students great work:
Thank you, Halane, for a meaningful homeroom activity. [The seniors] willingly wrote letters and took pride in it. They asked me to play patriotic music in the background. I sat down and wrote a letter with them. I had one senior girl who stayed after 5 minutes to finish her letter. We have some awesome kids.
As for the juniors who had a lesson on attending Boys or Girls State, I had 4 boys all talking about writing an essay when hey got to my 3rd block class. You've inspired a few already! THANKS, HALANE.
As a PBIS committee member, these "lessons" that small groups are creating for Wednesdays are turning out much better than I would have dreamed. Keep making a difference in the topics you choose and their impact on our students! ~Beth Larson
I agree with Beth. My whole group did the same. Good choice Halane. ~Jane Goodall
Ditto ~Randy Chamberlain
My 9 freshmen asked why don't we say the pledge any more. Then stood up and said it. We do have respectful students that care about our country. U-S-A ~Jason Jaquette
Jason - that warms my soul! Way to go! ~Cathy Fisher
I concur! Students took this task seriously. Many have family members who have served or are serving. The letters looked great! ~Tina Herring
My students also took this seriously. I told them about my godson/nephew that served in Iraq. I like the ideas about the Pledge. Thanks Halane. ~Tina Hogan
- Thank you teachers and data team leaders for some awesome conversations and representation of our district when Dr. Ryan Wise, Iowa legislators and the school board members visited our school to view the data team process.
- Myles Bach is KCRG TV9 Athlete of the Week.
#nobetterplacetowork
Pope's Professional Learning -- Sharing to Build Capacity
Dr. Joe Sanfelippo, Creating a Culture of YES!
Joe -- as he is called at his school -- offered several platforms to consider in how to build the culture in a school (from the leader, to the students in the school, to the teachers); however, one of the most inspirational moments came from a Jason Silva video: "We have a responsibility to awe. . ."
Joe captures this responsibility in building a culture based on looking at what is in front of him, his school, his students, his teachers; not what surrounds him or his school or his teachers.
By capturing the moments of awe in his school and telling the story through social media, a culture of permanence is created. Using social media offers the transparency that does not warrant a need for questions from the outside -- a lack of transparency allows the outside to develop its own story of what they think is happening. Providing the transparency, "flattening the walls of the school" and "allowing our students to speak" for us (the administration, teachers, and support staff), creates the reality of what is in front of us, not what is around us. In those moments, we can awe our students, we can awe ourselves.
Ideas from Jim Knight
*High-Impact Instruction (2013) is the title of the book by Jim Knight that the four Instructional Coaches are currently reading. Each week when we meet, we discuss the contents of the reading and its application to our coaching practice.
Learning maps are the focus of our chapter this week. In the Standards-Based Learning Playbook teachers received on Friday, 03 November, a leaning map for SBL was one of the resources. The map was created last spring after a professional learning session with Knight. After in-depth discussion and review with the SBL Task Force, the map was set for release to the staff; however, the caveat of a "living document" is necessary to understand that what is in the learning map is not set in stone, and revisions are a necessary part of any learning map.
The learning map is a nice complement to a teacher's pacing calendar and proficiency scale, as it provides the clarity necessary for students to be successful while studying the unit because the map provides a larger picture of where the learning is going and reinforces the purpose for why the skills and knowledge should be learned.
Knight provides several different types of learning maps, depending on the purpose of the map:
- Mind Maps -- webs of words or shapes filled with words that flow out from the center of a page in a way that naturally extends whatever is being explored (brainstorming, clustering of ideas, note taking).
- Concept Maps -- hierarchically organized relationships communicated through line labels.
- Order Routine -- identify important information to be organized into a graphic organizer, such as sequence maps, compare contrast maps, problem-solution maps, and or descriptive maps.
- Thinking Maps -- cognitive processes designed to help people think, such as
- Circle Maps -- how are you defining a concept and in what context?
- Bubble Maps -- what are the attributes?
- Double-Bubble Maps -- how are these alike and different?
- Tree Map -- how are things grouped together?
- Brace Map -- what are the parts of the physical whole object?
- Flow Map -- what was the sequence of events?
- Multi-Flow Map -- What are the causes and effects?
- Bridge Map -- is there an analogy between these two ideas?
If you would like to explore the use of learning maps and or see some of the examples in Knight's book, please let me know.
Coaching Schedule -- see Google Calendar for specific "Busy" times **schedule subject to change**
Monday, 06 November
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
- 2:00 - 3:00 PM Blended Asynchronous Webinar
Tuesday, 07 November
- 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM IC/Program Lead MTG
- 12:30 - 1:15 PM IC/Principal MTG
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
Wednesday, 08 November
- 10:00 - 11:00 AM Blended Learning ZOOM MTG w/ Beth Swantz (GWAEA)
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
- 3:30 - 5:00 PM DTL Coaching Session -- Focus on Step #2
Thursday, 09 November
- NGSS D-3 Standards w/ Science Team @GWAEA 33rd ST Facility ALL DAY
Friday, 10 November
- 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM IC Mtg -- High-Impact Instruction Book Study
- 8:30 - 10:30 AM IC Team w/ Program Leads Task Mtg @ Primary
- Serve Teachers & Students
- Research & Resources
ARCHIVE LINKS
Click on the link to access 2015-16 prior weekly communications.
Pope's IC Weekly Communication Archive & Index 2016-17
Click on the link to access 2016-17 prior weekly communications.
Pope's IC Weekly Communication Archive & Index 2017-18
Click on the link to access 2016-17 prior weekly communications.
Contact Information
Center Point - Urbana CSD
Email: epopenhagen@cpuschools.org
Phone: 319-849-1102+91015
Twitter: @Epopenhagen