Birdneck Briefing
Week of 11/20/17
Upcoming Dates and Events the Week of November 20-22
National Family Week
Monday, November 20 - 2nd Grade Plan Day
Monday, November 20 - 3rd Grade to Sandler Center
Wednesday, November 22- Adjusted Dismissal 12:10 p.m.
Thursday and Friday November 23 and 24- Thanksgiving Holidays
This is your Captain Speaking!
We have had a lot of amazing thing happen around here lately. If you didn't see the news piece on our 5th grade student's demo with his wheelchair soccer team, it is a "must watch". Visit http://wavy.com/2017/11/03/birdneck-elementary-student-kicks-past-his-disability/ to see the video. The way Devin advocates for himself and shares his goals with his colleagues, parents and teachers is exactly what student agency is all about. Hopefully the Birdneck Morning News you were able to hear about the two trophies our fifth graders brought home last week from the Air and Space Museum. I'm so proud of students and for our teachers creating these opportunites.
I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving break and are able to spend some time to relax while you enjoy your families.
Captain Out,
RV Yoshida
Why Students Forget—and What You Can Do About It
By Youki Terada
September 20, 2017
Our brains are wired to forget, but there are research-backed strategies you can use to make your teaching stick.
The Forgetting Curve
We often think of memories as books in a library, filed away and accessed when needed. But they’re actually more like spiderwebs, strands of recollection distributed across millions of connected neurons. When we learn something new—when a teacher delivers a fresh lesson to a student, for example—the material is encoded across these neural networks, converting the experience into a memory.
Forgetting is almost immediately the nemesis of memory, as psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered in the 1880s. Ebbinghaus pioneered landmark research in the field of retention and learning, observing what he called the forgetting curve, a measure of how much we forget over time. In his experiments, he discovered that without any reinforcement or connections to prior knowledge, information is quickly forgotten—roughly 56 percent in one hour, 66 percent after a day, and 75 percent after six days.
5 Teacher Strategies
When students learn a new piece of information, they make new synaptic connections. Two scientifically based ways to help them retain learning is by making as many connections as possible—typically to other concepts, thus widening the “spiderweb” of neural connections—but also by accessing the memory repeatedly over time.
Which explains why the following learning strategies, all tied to research conducted within the past five years, are so effective:
- Peer-to-peer explanations: When students explain what they’ve learned to peers, fading memories are reactivated, strengthened, and consolidated. This strategy not only increases retention but also encourages active learning (Sekeres et al., 2016).
- The spacing effect: Instead of covering a topic and then moving on, revisit key ideas throughout the school year. Research shows that students perform better academically when given multiple opportunities to review learned material. For example, teachers can quickly incorporate a brief review of what was covered several weeks earlier into ongoing lessons, or use homework to re-expose students to previous concepts (Carpenter et al., 2012; Kang, 2016).
- Frequent practice tests: Akin to regularly reviewing material, giving frequent practice tests can boost long-term retention and, as a bonus, help protect against stress, which often impairs memory performance. Practice tests can be low stakes and ungraded, such as a quick pop quiz at the start of a lesson or a trivia quiz on Kahoot, a popular online game-based learning platform. Breaking down one large high-stakes test into smaller tests over several months is an effective approach (Adesope, Trevisan, & Sundararajan, 2017; Butler, 2010; Karpicke, 2016).
- Interleave concepts: Instead of grouping similar problems together, mix them up. Solving problems involves identifying the correct strategy to use and then executing the strategy. When similar problems are grouped together, students don’t have to think about what strategies to use—they automatically apply the same solution over and over. Interleaving forces students to think on their feet, and encodes learning more deeply (Rohrer, 2012; Rohrer, Dedrick, & Stershic, 2015).
- Combine text with images: It’s often easier to remember information that’s been presented in different ways, especially if visual aids can help organize information. For example, pairing a list of countries occupied by German forces during World War II with a map of German military expansion can reinforce that lesson. It’s easier to remember what’s been read and seen, instead of either one alone (Carney & Levin, 2002; Bui & McDaniel, 2015).
Keep us in your prayers!
Kim Bargnesi's father unexpectedly passed away at home this week. Please keep her and family in your thoughts prayers this week.
Donations For Kids and Classrooms
First Presbyterian Church and Great Neck MS Guidance have re stocked our School Supply Closet. Please help yourself to whatever you need for your students.
First Presbyterian Church has also provided us with new underwear, socks, and pants for our students in need. They are located in our Coat/Clothing Closet (inside the old Guidance Suite). And students from Cox High School have donated a multitude of gently used clothing, coats and shoes for our students. You can access the Coat/Clothing Closet throughout the school day or email me any specific requests.
Lastly, don’t forget to come by the former Guidance Suite and pick up your box of Kleenex and bottle of hand sanitizer that was generously donated by First Presbyterian Church for each of classrooms.
Nancy H. Reckling, M.S.W.
Shout Outs!
SHOUT OUT and THANK YOU to Joan for being amazing!! I emailed her about getting some LLI kits for my kids and literally- in less than an hour- she came and talked to me about it and within minutes went and got me the kit she had!!! Thank you SO much for dropping what you were doing and helping me Joan! It made my week! I’m so excited to use this program with my kiddosJ <3
Great Job 5th grade students at the Air and Space paper airplane competition.
Hats off to Mrs. Robinson for leading an excellent chorus performance!!!
Reminders
-Mandatory Employee training found at https://vbschools-va.safeschools.com/login due at the end of the first 9 weeks.
-Greet your students at the door each day!
-implement Morning Meeting and student goal setting in your classrooms.
-Social committee dues to Vanessa Dominguez
-Join our PTA.
-Have Fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
2017-2018 ANNUAL MANDATORY EMPLOYEE TRAINING (AMET)
Based on your job title, your assigned courses will be listed on your personal SafeSchools Training home page under “Mandatory Training.”
A target completion date of Feb. 16, 2018, has been established. Thank you for your assistance in this endeavor.
Completion Date: February 16, 2018
Go to our website at http://www.vbschools.com
Click on Staff
Click on Mandatory Training (AMET)
Join our PTA
IMPORTANT REMINDERS
Join the PTA! Our goal is to have 100% Staff participation!!!!!!!!!
Support Birdneck Elementary students by joining the PTA. Don't miss out on the benefits from joining the PTA. Receive over $300 in savings... all for just $5 for a membership. Check out the PTA website at http://birdneckpta.weebly.com/
BIRDNECK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BIRDNECK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
BIRDNECK MISSION
The mission of Birdneck Elementary is to dedicate ourselves to the success of all children, preparing them to meet today's expectations and tomorrow's challenges.
BIRDNECK VISION
Children are our future. We are dedicated to their success.
BIRDNECK BELIEFS
We believe in a collaborative community in which teachers, administrators, students, and parents work together for student success.
We believe in creating a safe, nurturing, and positive environment in which all students can strive for excellence and achieve their individual potential.
We believe we will prepare our students for success by providing 21st century learning and developing within our students critical thinking, effective communications and problem solving skills.
Website: http://www.birdneckes.vbschools.com/
Location: 957 South Birdneck Road, Virginia Beach, VA, United States
Phone: 757-648-2120