OCPS Induction & Mentoring
2018 EDITION: Volume 2 November Issue
Mentors and Beginning Teachers TOGETHER!
New Teachers, you have a direct link. Mentors your link will come via announcement the day of the event.
Beginning Teachers & Mentors Virtual Support Sessions
According to the Classroom Strategies Series, "achieving a "sense of success" depends largely on the conditions new teachers encounter at their schools - their roles on the faculty, their relationships with colleagues, the availability of curricula and resources, and the presence of supportive structures that focus the life of the school on teaching and learning "(p. 61).
This month we will focus our mentoring on the impact of collaborative inquiry and how examining student work can help to improve classroom instruction.
NOVEMBER TOPIC: Collaborative Inquiry & Examining Student Work
Collaborative Inquiry
Emotional Support
This type of support helps you as a new teacher, feel included with the staff. Take time to have lunch with your mentor, brag on your fur babies, or just talk and get to know one another. Attend school functions that are designed to build and foster the emotional and team support at the school. This is the support system you will need on the hard days or when you are having a "case of the Mondays" (a bad mood when coming to work or everything seeming to go wrong). It is okay to feel this, but don't allow yourself to live in this emotion as there are many bright spots especially when looking into the faces of our students and watching them experience an AHA moment.
Instructional Support
- Professional Learning Community: This can include the whole school and or district efforts to engage teachers in a continuous cycle of collective inquiry. This team is made up of teachers and administrators working together to improve student performance through school-wide instructional support.
- Collaboration Time with Appropriate Colleagues: Take the time to meet the school counselors, school psychologist, speech and other resource teachers on your campus. These individuals can provide specific support for a student in your class that you may have concerns about or want to ensure all levels of support are put in to place accurately. If you have meetings with these individuals, speak with your mentor to help prepare for the meeting.
- Share Educational Research: Stay up-to-date on the latest research, theory, and policies in education. Get involved in the profession. As a part of DPLC occurring at your school site, professional reading is an ongoing practice to get teachers engaged in professional readings relevant to the practice being learned.
See below for links to the virtual session and under resources, you will find the exemplary practices for mentoring and other resources.
Boogren, T.H. (2015). Supporting beginning teachers. Marzano Research Bloomington, IN.
Examining Student Work
Importance
Through an examination of student work, teachers can have a large impact on their students. Examining student work calls for the teacher to work in the PLC to clarify proficiency after the standards have been identified and deconstructed. During that time you have engaged in clarifying what proficiency looks like and what represents proficient student work. This can be achieved by clarifying the standard through the student perspective:
- What is it we want out students to learn?
- What is the evidence we expect students to generate in order to demonstrate proficiency?
- What will proficient student work look like?
- What will our assessment look like in order to gather the appropriate evidence?
Learning by Doing states that, "effective teams realize that the actual implementation of a guaranteed and viable curriculum is an ongoing process of examination and sharpening the focus on what students should know and what the learning should look like in student work" (pg. 121-122). This is especially helpful as teachers begin to implement the various close reading pieces as outlined in our District Professional Learning COmmunity (DPLC).
To extend beyond your classroom, teachers can engage in Ghost walks to explore what student work might look like in other classrooms using the Ghost Visit Protocol with a mentor.
Ghost Visits: Provides all teachers the opportunity to open up their practice by visiting each other’s classroom, when no students are around, to silently look for evidence of classroom environment indicators of standards-based instruction.
- DuFour, R. (2006). Learning by doing: A handbook for professional learning communities at work. Bloomington, Ind: Solution Tree.
November Virtual Session I
Monday, Nov 5, 2018, 07:30 AM
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November Virtual Session II
Monday, Nov 5, 2018, 04:30 PM
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Instructional Strategy: Helping Students Examine Their Reasoning
As teachers work to examine student work and connect to the standards and instruction, students can examine their reasoning for their understanding of the content presented, process, or procedures. Listed below in the resources are the key criteria and technique of utilizing this instructional strategy in the classroom. How to monitor the evidence of the strategy being used in the classroom is also added as a resource.
Purpose: The techniques used to help students examine their reasoning should verify that students can identify and articulate errors in logic or reasoning, or the structure of an argument, and explain new insights resulting from this analysis.
The teacher helps the students produce and defend claims by examining their reasoning or the logic of presented information, processes, and procedures.
Resources
Instructional Strategy
Exemplary Practices for Mentoring
STEPHANIE BIVINS MCCORMICK
Email: Stephanie.BivinsMcCormick@ocps.net
Website: www.ocps.net
Location: 445 West Amelia Street, Orlando, FL, USA
Phone: (407) 317-3200
Twitter: @ocpsPL