Watauga Weekly
January 11-15, 2016
What's Up This Week:
TOY NOMINATIONS - JAN 11-15
Monday, Jan 11
7TH Girls Basketball vs. N. Ridge @ WMS
7th Boys Basketball vs. N. Ridge @ N. Ridge
HHS Counselors Registering 8th grade (Crook)
Tuesday, Jan 12
8th Girls Basketball vs. N. Ridge @ N. Ridge
8th Boys Basketball vs. N. Ridge @ WMS
Wednesday, Jan 13
Did you know...January is National Soup Month!
Thursday, Jan 14
All Day ARDS
Scoliosis Screening through PE classes
Friday, Jan 15
End of 1st semester!
Activity Night 4:00-6:00
*Word Within a Word*
micro (small) micron, microscope, microwave, microphone
hydro (water) hydroplane, dehydrate, hydrant, hydrogen,
photo (light) photograph, photometer, photon, photogenic
pan (all) panorama, panoply, pandemic, pantheism, pantheon
penta (five) pentagram, pentagon, pentameter, pentathlon,
tele (far) telescope, telephone, telekinesis, telepathy
vid (look) video, invidious, evidence, provide
omni (all) omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
ex (out) exit, except, excise, exculpate, exorbitant
poly (many) polyphony, polygamy
Let it SNOW *** Mrs. Boyd, McLain and Samuelson's classes made snow!!
TEACHER DUTIES
CAFETERIA AM - ADAMS
AUDITORIUM AM - COX
200 HALL AM - BARWINKEL
300 HALL AM - BREITINGER
WARRIOR WAY PM - CROOK
PARKING PM - CUMBIE
Does a Growth Mindset Make Students Better Math Problem-Solvers?
“Having a positive mindset in math may do more than just help students feel more confident about their skills and more willing to keep trying when they fail,” reports Sarah Sparks in this article in Education Week. “It may prime their brains to think better.” Recent neuroscientific research at Stanford University is showing how students’ beliefs about math learning can produce more efficient brain activity. Lang Chen and his colleagues studied elementary students’ brains with fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) and found that those with a “growth” mindset about math did better at spotting correct and incorrect math problems than those with a “fixed” mindset, even after controlling for differences in IQ, age, working memory, reading level, and math anxiety. The brains of students with high positive-mindset levels had greater activity and faster, smoother connections in the areas associated with quick recall of facts and math problem-solving.
“This is very, very exciting,” said Stanford professor Carol Dweck (who was not part of this research project). “My hunch is that often in the fixed mindset your mind is preoccupied with ‘Is this hard?’ ‘Will I look smart?’ ‘What will happen if I don’t do this?’ ‘I’m not good at math,’ instead of getting that brain ready to do it.” It’s analogous to warming up a car on a cold morning before driving off – the engine is primed to work more efficiently. The key insight from this research is that the brain isn’t compartmentalized, with motivation separate from math problem-solving. “The emotion and thought structures in the brain are totally entwined, totally docked in the brain,” says Mary Helen Immordino-Yang at the University of Southern California. “If you are trying to do math and worrying about whether you are going to fail or not, rather than the process of doing math… that is not deep learning.”
Chen and Jo Boaler (also at Stanford) are hard at work on figuring out how to help students shift from a fixed to a growth mindset. “Mindset can change quite a lot across age and grade level,” says Chen, “so we really want to see how that change can relate to different brain functions and different math achievement.”
“In Math, Positive Mindset May Prime Students’ Brains” by Sarah Sparks in Education Week, December 9, 2015 (Vol. 35, #14, p. 6), www.edweek.org
Future Dates and Info
Jan 18 - FLEX DAY
Jan 19 thru 21 - TOY Nominated Teachers & Staff Notified
Jan 19 - PLC Training "Unpacking Standards"
Jan 20 - Report Cards
Jan 20 - Gt Testing (Library & Labs)
Jan 22 - Fine Arts Recruitment 9:00-11:00
Jan 25 thru 29 - VOTE FOR TOY
Jan 26 - DATA Assemblies
Jan 27 - LOL Mtg. 7:30 am
Jan 27 - GT Testing (Labs)
Jan 28 - All Day ARDS
TWEETER of the Week:
Thank you to Colleen Zitzman for her participation in this week's campus Twitter Chat.
You can join each Tuesday at 8:00pm. Questions can be found in the Digital Learning News sent by Mark Thomas each week.
Questions? See Tosh or Christine. (@birdville_DL)
#FabWMS
***Weekly Winners park in Houston's spot until June!***
(Don't forget to send Ms. Houston your Twitter handle when you join.)
Science Funny...
And when our NEW labs are ready: the fume hood will work!
(Just kidding- they work now. ;))
English Funny .!?
Math Funny +-%#
History Ha-Ha...
Parking Space WINNERS
The winners for the coveted parking spaces are…………DEANNA BOYD and LYNN BREITINGER!!!
Congratulations!!
TEKs OBJECTIVES
- Here is an example of what your posted TEKs Objectives should look like...
- Mrs. Huff has ordered Command Hooks and metal rings in order to post the verbs. She currently has a few available to hand out. Please see her...
- Ms. Houston is working on "verb posters" and the "What are we learning today?" posters. Please let her know if you need a 2nd copy of the "verb posters" because you teach multiple preps.
- Mrs. McGaughy and Mrs. Cumbie will have the "Interacting with the Standards" video soon to share with PLCs and email to the rest of us!
TAGT on Demand
TAGT On Demand is now open for teachers who are interested in getting started on their annual 6-hour update for 2016-2017. If there are teachers who did not complete their 30-hour or the 6-hour update for this year, they may also continue working on that task. District guidelines require that it be completed by December 31 each year, but the logins BISD paid for will be available until June 30. Please finish hours for this year as soon as possible. Courses are being posted in Workshop as quickly as possible once teachers submit their certificates to Katie Waldrip.