Edgerton Weekly #15
December 18, 2015
Thank You Team 6 for leading our December Nest Fest!
January is REmonth!
Think of the first week back after winter break as the beginning of school year...re-teach the signal, take a break, and other routines to re-align behavior with the classroom rules. Review how students show “Eagle Pride” in all areas of the school. We also want to reconnect students to their Hopes and Dreams and to each other as a classroom community. Here's the power point that Jakky led us through last year to kick of REmonth: Reconnecting Power Point. Included you will find a sample of what the first week back could look like in your classroom, reconnecting activities and other ideas.
There was also some great information on Interactive Modeling from Responsive Classroom. This might also helpful as we head into RE-Month after winter break. Teaching Children to Check Their Own Behavior. Happy REmonth!
Equity In All We Do-Domain 5 Reflective Conversation Reminder
Marshall Memo~ Richard Stiggins on Formative Assessments
There was an interesting article summary in the Marshall Memo from Richard Stiggins on Formative Assessment. I've shared part if it below with you.
In this Education Week interview with Catherine Gewertz, assessment expert Richard Stiggins identifies three common misconceptions:
1. That annual standardized tests improve teaching and learning (only formative assessments have the potential to do that, says Stiggins);
2. That formative assessment is an event (it’s actually a day-to-day process to give students and teachers a stream of information for next steps in learning);
3. That assessment results often discourage students (“Good formative assessment keeps students believing that success is within reach if they keep trying,” says Stiggins).
Ideally, he continues, formative assessments do three things: (a) clarify the learning target for students; (b) tell them where they are with respect to the target; and (c) provide insights on how they can close the gap. “Do you see where the locus of control resides?” asks Stiggins. “It’s with the student.”
Stiggins describes his observation of a high-school English teacher working with her students to establish criteria for a term paper they’d just been assigned. First she gave students a copy of an exemplary term paper, had them identify what made it so effective, and had them synthesize the characteristics. Then she passed out a poorly written paper and went through a similar exercise. “OK,” she said, “let’s talk about the differences between these two papers. What was it about the good paper that differentiates it from the bad paper?” This discussion, and small-group work that followed, produced a consolidated range of quality on several essential criteria they should be aiming toward in their own papers – their own rubric!
Link to the 2015-2016 Weekly Updates
Here is a link to all the 2015-2016 Weekly Updates. I thought it might be helpful to have them all in one place in case you want to go back and find information.
Advice from Kid President
December is usually a harder month for us educators. It’s not an easy job, right?! Here's some advice from Kid President. It's a list of 20 things we should say more often.