Grandview C-4 School District
THE C&I Focus
C-4 Instructional Priorities
Over the past two years, the C & I Team has been on a mission to identify the instructional priorities of the district. We asked ourselves, we asked teachers, we asked principals, we asked parents, we asked students - and all of us had a different answer. Alarming, right? So, what are they, really? While we’re still not sure, we’re merging the discussions and thoughts from across the district with CCSS, all that lies ahead in equipping students with “21st Century Skills”, and borrowing from the BIG IDEAS and essential skills thought processes, and this is where we’ve grown to thus far. (Click on the picture to reveal each instructional priority.)
What do YOU think? Share your thoughts at comments@grandviewc4.net as we continue to work together to focus our vision, learning, and work into our GC-4 Instructional Priorities.
Oh yeah, and here’s another one for future pondering….What does “21st Century Skills” mean to you??? Simple question, complex answer. Stay tuned.
- Your C & I Team
Things I'm Learning...from Lisa
As we move further into the school year and curriculum and instruction take center stage, I’m still continuing to think about the importance of relationships. Of course don’t get me wrong, what we teach and how we teach are vitally important. But, as Linda Jordan (International Center for Leadership in Education, @RigorRelevance) reminded us at our September C & I Day, “You can’t get to Quad D on the rigor and relevance framework without the 3rd R – relationships. Culture trumps strategy every time!”
This continues to be reinforced through my “Twitter Stalking” (see the first edition of the C & I Focus for that explanation – I’m still regularly stalking), where there are constant reminders about the importance of remembering “who” we teach – in addition to the “what” and “how”.
From @AngelaMaiers, a story about Tim Chace, Principal at East Greenwich High School, who took a great idea and a simple Google form to put “Mattering” on the schedule. One of our own GC-4 principals saw the same article and has incorporated this idea, with great results! Here’s the link to how it works:
RELATIONSHIPS MATTER. Is it on the schedule?
I was hooked by the title of @MrMatthewRay’s blog,“A Story About A Parent”. Check out the parent’s comments, which left him speechless and feeling “less like a cog and more like an engine.”
RELATIONSHIPS MATTER. Have you told someone THEY matter?
And then there’s one of my favorite “Stalkees” @DennisSparks, who has a lot of wisdom about teaching and leadership. Dennis talks about an “overlooked attribute of good teaching is the quality of relationships teachers have with their students.”
RELATIONSHIPS MATTER. Do our students know THEY matter?
Linda Jordan reminded us that, “Culture trumps strategy – every time.” YES, the transformations which MUST occur in our district and schools are looming, complex, and many moments (days, weeks, months, years) seem overwhelming. Honestly, some days I don’t know whether to try harder or to just give up. (Wal-Mart is always hiring greeters, right? But I do love office supplies. So maybe I have a future lining up beautiful supplies on store shelves…) And then I stop the madness and remember that -
Shaping My Thoughts about Instruction
In the first C&I Focus publication, I wrote about my interest in creativity and how it “connects” to student success in and outside of school. I believe that educators can nurture student creativity and innovation and so I have challenged myself to learn more about the characteristics of creative work and how creativity might become a part of student expectations. I found some helpful information in the February 2013 Edition of Ed Leadership. I hope you find it informative and that perhaps it sparks ideas about including creativity in the work you do with students.
Criteria for Creativity
Educational Leadership, February 2013 | Volume 70 | Number 5
Creativity is not a synonym for clever, humorous, artistically pleasing, enthusiastic, or persuasive. Those are all great qualities that we can assess in their own right, but we shouldn't confuse them with creativity. As early childhood educator Lilian Katz once railed, "Creativity is not animals with long eyelashes!"
Rather, criteria for creativity should match what we expect in creative work: originality and high quality.
Creative students:
- recognize the importance of a deep knowledge base and continually work to learn new things.
- are open to new ideas and actively seek them out.
- find source material in a wide variety of media, people, and events.
- organize and reorganize ideas into different categories or combinations and then evaluate whether the results are interesting, new, or helpful.
- use trial and error when they are unsure how to proceed, viewing failure as an opportunity to learn. (Brookhart, 2010, pp. 128–129)
The first four characteristics lead to qualities in the work that we can observe, assess, and provide feedback on. For example, are the source materials varied? Are ideas organized in a fresh way and uniquely suited to the problem or product? The last characteristic—using trial and error—is about the student's approach to learning and may or may not show itself in the finished work.
A Rubric for Creativity
If all of these first four characteristics are in play in an assignment, then a rubric like the one in Figure 1 (p. 31) may support teachers and students in assessing creativity (Brookhart, 2013). The rubric describes four levels of creativity—very creative, creative, ordinary/routine, and imitative—in four different areas—variety of ideas, variety of sources, novelty of idea combinations, and novelty of communication.
Google is here.....and it's not just about the email
No doubt you have heard a great deal about our migration to Gmail for district email service over the past month. This is a necessary step to ensure that we continue to have an up-to-date and reliable email service that supports communication and collaboration in the district. Gmail is going to more than meet those needs, but it's what our migration to Google will do for us instructionally, and in support of our C-4 Instructional Priorities that has me most excited!
In addition to email, the Google Apps for Education Suite comes with a core of powerful tools that support teaching, learning, and moving towards student-centered classrooms. Although it will take us some time to get there, I believe you will soon find these tools to be powerful allies in your efforts to increase communication, collaboration, creativity, and critical thinking in your classroom.
Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides can be powerful tools for communication, collaboration, and presentation during a problem/project based learning activity. These tools allow students and teachers to collaborate simultaneously on the creation of documents, spreadsheets, and presentations. These documents can be accessed from anyplace and on virtually any device. Teachers can monitor student progress and/or join in the collaboration. Below are some of the benefits of Google Apps for Ed.
- Anytime, anywhere access - Google Apps works in any browser on any computer, which means you can access your email, calendars, and documents from school or at home.
- No flash drives required with documents and files stored in Google Docs.
- Students can easily collaborate with students from other classes, buildings, schools, districts or even different countries, working together on group projects.
- Teachers can be involved throughout the whole assignment process providing comments and feedback directly in the documents.
- Students can develop an e-portfolio of work throughout their years at the school.
- Through websites, calendars, and email, parents can stay informed about the latest assignments and activities.
These tools can be adapted for use at all levels and in all subject areas. I look forward to sharing more with you about the power of these tools once we have completed our Gmail conversion. If you need any assistance with our Gmail conversion, please do not hesitate to contact us for assistance or check for answers on our Gmail training website.
Please check out the short, creative promotional video below. It does a good job of showcasing some of the potential Google Apps offers us, as we continue to look for ways to meet the needs of our 21st century learners with technology.
Student Collaboration
In the last C&I Focus, my thoughts centered on developing our Professional Learning Network (PLN), those individuals we collaborate with, and call upon to exchange ideas. Now my thoughts are taking me to the classroom and how we structure the learning so students are doing the work. We know the individuals doing the work are the ones doing the learning and understanding - so how are we making sure it is the students?
As we prepare Grandview students for College and Career Readiness, we all understand they will have to be able to collaborate with one another and solve “real-world” problems. The English Languages Arts Common Core Standards emphasize the importance of students collaborating with their peers to reach for higher levels of rigor and relevance in the educational setting and the workplace.
So how are we teaching our students to collaborate and build their network for learning? We have to teach them how to collaborate and work together to be successful. Click on the video link to watch how a high school history teacher instructs her students to engage with one another for learning.
Reading Like a Historian: Turn to Your Partner
A method that will help students strengthen their collaboration skills and understanding is called Partner Talk, as described by author, Cathy Allen Simon. This strategy gives students an active role in their learning and scaffolds the learning experience for each of the students.
For Partner Talk to be effective in the classroom, there are five steps that must be executed by the teacher:
Plan
Plan specific times during the lesson when Partner Talk will be used to engage students and increase understanding. Prepare the questions students will discuss and ensure that they promote higher order thinking. Place the questions on sticky notes in the text to indicate when/where they should be asked. In order to properly scaffold the material, the questions should build on one another.
Pose
Before posing the questions to students, make sure that you have strategically paired up students so that they can have thoughtful conversations.
Have students sit in a position that enables them to see eye-to-eye, be it in chairs, or on the floor. Additionally, be sure to give an indicator as to which partner should start the discussion by talking first, or allow the students to choose ahead of time.
Wait
Give students an adequate amount of time to process the question that has been asked (generally 10-15 seconds). Questions that require higher order thinking skills are complex and require adequate wait time. While students are processing the question, along with their answers, be sure to repeat the question (in a different way, if possible) and provide appropriate supporting questions and scaffolds.
Monitor & Feedback
Remind students to take turns talking and listening to one another’s thoughts. Listen to students’ responses as you make your way around the classroom to check for understanding. As you listen to students talking to their partners, provide feedback and clarify misunderstandings that students may have (by asking simplifying questions, as appropriate). At the end of the students’ discussion time, choose a few students who seem to have mastered the concept and have made good connections. Ask them to share their thoughts and responses with the entire class.
Write
After students finish talking with their partners, they can reflect on their thoughts and understanding by writing about their discussions and what they learned. Teachers can use this writing as a formative assessment to gauge which students have mastered the concept and built adequate connections.
Reference: Retrieved September 25, 2013 from Read Write Think website: http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/using-partner-talk-strengthen-30954.html
The Focus on Special Education
As we are rapidly approaching the end of the first quarter and teachers are making more referrals for the FOCUS program I wanted to share information on the “gifted learner”. The article below helps teachers understand the difference between a child who is bright and one that is gifted. The information included in the article and graphic organizer could also be used as you prepare lessons that extend learning for students in your individual classes.
Bright Learners and Gifted Learners