NCVPS eLC Team Time - October 2013
Your steps as your eLC teams work asynchronously then live.
Weekly Plan!
Welcome back!
This month we will dive deeper into the Three Pillars and begin to analyze how these are producing student data.
Thank you again for the time you spend here each week!
Week of October 7 (Week 1)
There will be three REFLECTIONS this week!
Review!
Teaching through effective feedback from an involved and engaging teacher is one of the distinctive ways NCVPS is different from other online learning options.
A teacher's instructional feedback is where we go BEYOND the grade!
Your feedback on every assignment should be:
SPECIFIC
DIRECTIVE
CONNECTIVE
THE RIGHT TONE
Reflect (Reflection #1 October tab) on your team's Google doc the benefits for students that you have seen as you have been providing feedback that is Specific, Directive, Connective, and the Right Tone.
Reflect (Reflection #2 October tab) on your team's Google doc on what you do well concerning feedback. What are you proud of? Maybe you can offer a best practice here for how you approach or tackle feedback or just something you know you have great success with when it comes to feedback.
Moving forward
We know that your feedback is based on student performance and that's when the cycle kicks in. You leave feedback in response to your students' performance and they continue their learning based on your feedback. So let's think about what you learn about your students' learning as a direct result of your feedback. Think about this cycle of learning.
Reflect (Reflection #3 October tab) on your team's Google doc on how you have seen this learning cycle in action. Choose one student perhaps and share briefly how your feedback cycle provided you with information you needed to further direct this student's learning.
Week of October 14 (Week 2)
Last week we reviewed Pillar 1: Teaching through Effective Feedback. We then connected our practice to what we are learning about student learning through the feedback cycle.
This week our focus is Pillar 2: Teaching through Effective Announcements / Learning Blocks.
There will be four REFLECTIONS this week!
Review!
Our goal is to make sure our Announcements / Learning Blocks have THREE PIECES each day.
- Instruct
- Celebrate
- Inform
Since the Three Pillar training, one of the common themes from some of our teachers has been this: it is too hard to recognize students daily or it means nothing when we recognize students daily.
There is great power in meaningful celebrating a student or students each along with providing quality instruction.
Reflect (Reflection #1 Week 2 October tab) on your team's Google doc the benefits for students that you have seen as you have been celebrating students.
Reflect (Reflection #2 Week 2 October tab) on your team's Google doc the challenges you have faced as you work to celebrate students meaningfully each day.
We learn so much from each other so let's spend the rest of our time talking about best practices.
Reflect (Reflection #3 Week 2 October tab) on your team's Google doc what you do well when it comes to celebrating students in your announcements. Where do you gather your information? Do you use student successes in their learning or information you gather from your weekly connections? How do you make the celebrations meaningful?
Finally, let's spend a few moments thinking about how you craft the instructional piece of your Announcements / Learning Block. This is the part of your work where you truly use student data to customize and determine what instruction students need for the next day.
We focused on Celebrating and Instructing this week - we didn't talk about the importance of Informing, but that area seems to be very natural to everyone. Thank you for your time this week! Be sure to read the responses of your team!
Week of October 21 (Week 3)
Last week we reviewed Pillar 2: Teaching through Effective Announcements / Learning Blocks.
This week our focus is Pillar 3: Teaching through Synchronous Relationships.
There will be three REFLECTIONS this week!
Review!
Pillar 3 is the CORE Pillar as it defines who we are as a school. We are here because of our students. We want to be a learning option for them to meet the different and varied ways that students learn most effectively today. But truly, it is ALL about the relationship.
Reflect (Reflection #1 Week 3 October tab) on your team's Google doc the benefits for students that you have seen as you have been contacting your students weekly.
Reflect (Reflection #2 Week 3 October tab) on your team's Google doc on what you do well concerning student connections and building relationships. What are you proud of? Maybe you can offer a best practice here for how you approach or tackle weekly connections or just something you know you have great success with when it comes to communication.
There are challenges in contacting students weekly. Let's spend some time thinking proactively about what challenges we face and what strategies we can employ to meet those challenges. Try to focus on a challenge that is within your control.
Reflect (Reflection #3 Week 3 October tab) on your team's Google doc the main challenge you are facing with weekly student connections. Why do you think this is a challenge for you?
Thank you for your time this week! Be sure to read the responses of your team!
Week of October 28 (Week 4)
Before your Live eLC time, please try to go back to Week 3 and read the successes and challenges your team members wrote about.
For your Live eLC time, take some time to share the challenges each of you face and spend some time talking about what strategies or solutions can be in place to help meet those challenges.
At the end of the meeting, there is one final Reflection (Week 4 on the October tab) to capture how you may be able to tackle your own challenge based on the eLC discussion.
Thank you again for your work, and coming up in November, we are moving forward with how we capture student data to individualize instruction.