Wolcott's What's Up
Office of Teaching & Learning Update 1.11.2017
#OneWord2017
Yearly, around the globe educators and others choose "One Word" to focus their actions in the classroom and in life. Learning about, and falling in love with, the idea on Twitter several years ago I began my own "One Word" goal setting.
Last year my #oneword was PROGRESS. I tried to focus my actions around making daily progress and recognizing the progress in others. I am astonished by how much I feel it helped me. I truly felt better about myself but also more grateful for working with such talented and inspiring colleagues.
Along my yearlong journey, I stumbled across another book I absolutely love... The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile. Among the insights in the book was one very powerful piece of research:
- The greatest predictor of work place happiness is one's ability to recognize personal growth and progress.
What I quickly learned is that workplace happiness has nothing to do with accomplishing goals- as there will always be more work to do- but in recognizing growth. It is the daily incremental growth and progress made and feeling the success associated with each that leads to happiness.
With that said, please take some time to reflect on your progress as an educator over the past quarter, semester, year, several years. Are you a better educator now? If you are not sure, come see me. I will tell you how I have seen and noticed each of you grow and excel. I couldn't be more proud of what I see from my vantage point.
Teaching and Learning Updates
January 13th School Improvement Day
I know most teachers this time of year would prefer to stay in their classrooms and spend time planning rather than spend a day in the Jefferson gym listening to a speaker. I also know, with the ebbs and flows of the school year, mid-January is a time of stress due to grades coming and this dreary weather doesn't help.
So what can we do when we are required by the Regional Office of Education to have staff development training on this mid-January day?
How about a mid-year celebration? That's exactly what we have planned for Friday!
Our speaker, LaVonna Roth, is an internationally recognized keynote speaker, consultant and author, bridging how the brain learns (and thinks), with people’s incredible intrinsic skills and talents (how they S.H.I.N.E.) is her deep passion. Her goal is to help individuals become more confident in who they are, and for them to use that aptitude in making a difference within their school communities.
Over 25,000 educators, students and organizations have benefited from LaVonna’s wealth of practical, applicable, and down-to-earth strategies and insights to the most common and frustrating educational, behavioral and issues. These effective strategies are a direct result from years of research, as well as, firsthand classroom, consulting and life experiences.
LaVonna presents interactive and engaging workshops, and has done so across three continents. She is the founder of the Ignite Your S.H.I.N.E. initiative where every person is encouraged to ignite their S.H.I.N.E. and use those gifts to illuminate the world. http://www.igniteyourshine.com/
To stay with LaVonna's S.H.I.N.E. acronym, The teaching and learning team will have #d68shines photo-booths set up around the gym, some summer time fun music and an extra special afternoon snack surprise to honor, celebrate, and thank all you for what you do each day to help our student's excel.
We hope you enjoy this re-energizing and rejuvenating day and enjoy the learning and sharing that will be part of the day's event.
SEE EMAIL FOR COMPLETE SIP DAY SCHEDULE
Science Update
Last year a Next Generation Science Standards Curriculum team began meeting to look at and discuss next steps. After some initial meetings and gathering of information, it was determined that our district's first step should be to spend some time learning about the standards, practices, cross cutting concepts and the components of an effective science classroom environment in the 21st century. Thus, this school year was designated a LEARNING YEAR.
Over the past 6 months we have had over two dozen teachers take part in the NGSS Online Internal University course, sent numerous teachers to workshops and conferences on the topic and spent many hours talking with the administrative team and instructional coaches about the implementation of NGSS. Additioanlly, administrators have spent time talking about NGSS implementation with colleagues in other districts and with state and national consultants. Further, the JJHS science department has completely rewritten their curriculum to meet the new demands. We are making progress!!!
With that said, six themes have emerged for us as a district as a result of all that we ahve done:
1. Classroom environment/climate is key to the implementation of NGSS and student's long term love of science. High levels of curiosity, discovery and discussion are musts in an NGSS classroom. Students need to wonder how or why something takes place, explore, question each other, try and fail and learn through doing rather than being told how or what. Teacher monologue, little dialogue with and between students, the memorization of specific facts, the use of study guides, etc are are not aspects of a successful NGSS classroom. A problem/project-based learning environment is essential.
2. Relevance and real world application are crucial. Trying to accomplish number one with improper materials is not going to ignite the motivation within students to learn the facts and underlying core concepts of NGSS, let alone get excited about being scientists themselves.
3. Don't try and implement a new NGSS curriculum in one year. A layered approach to accomplish numbers one and two above should be put in place if we truly want to restructure our science classrooms into the environments needed for today's learners. The necessary shifts will not happen overnight. Professional development and implementation should be layered so teachers are not overwhelmed, which quickly leads to falling back into old habits. Slowly integrating NGSS into existing curriculum and phasing in over several years is the recommended path.
4. There are many new textual resources being developed. Although Illinois has adopted NGSS, only half of all states have made this change. This has led most major textbook and resource developers to slowly produce high quality materials. Despite what you may hear from textbook representatives, objective leaders in the field of science do not feel any fully aligned materials are available at this time.
5. Take it slow. Yes, most science adoptions in the past have followed the traditional approach of buy textbook, implement the next year. NGSS needs to be treated differently-- see numbers one, two and three above.
6. Take it slow. Yes, go slow. To a person, every so-called NGSS expert I spoke to personally stressed this point of going slow- real slow. They insist taking time to fully set up the proper classroom environment filled with curiosity, discovery and discussion, and ample time for staff to learn each component of the NGSS: practices, core ideas, and cross-cutting concepts.
NGSS Next Steps: So how will we move forward slowly while still making progress?
We have purchased a science resource, Defined STEM (DS) from Defined Learning. DS is an incredible resource based upon the problem-based learning model, designed with the help and guidance of Jay McTighe. Many of you have studied Grant Wiggins and Jay's, Understanding By Design (UBD), curriculum development model. This curriculum design model has many features similar to the Rigorous Curriculum Design model we use hear in District 68.
As part of our NGSS Implementation, a problem/project-based learning (PBL) training program will be provided to all instructional staff serving students in regular education classrooms. Art, Music and PE teachers will not take part in this training.
Elementary Teacher Launch Details
January/February:
- Principals and instructional specialists will work with teachers to complete modules 1 and 2 of the PBL training program.
- Principals and instructional specialists will also begin taking part in an advanced PBL training course.
- Defined STEM staff will align our current District 68 science curriculum and the new NGSS Standards, as adopted by Illinois, to their materials.
March 3rd County Institute Day:
- Staff will receive an overview of the Defined STEM website, the videos, etc and have time to explore within the site. This interactive webinar will be led by Defined STEM staff.
- After the webinar, staff may choose to complete modules 3 and 4 of the PBL training or continue to explore the Defined STEM program and look for ways to incorporate into current instruction.
April/May:
- Staff will complete the final 2 modules of the PBL training, if not finished on March 3rd.
- In order to further learn the program, staff will choose one performance task and teach that task to students. This activity will enable teachers to become more comfortable using Defined STEM and understand strengths as well as limitations.
- At the May School Improvement Day, grade level teams will meet, discuss their experiences with Defined STEM, look at the curriculum alignment document developed, and choose one performance task that will done commonly across the grade level during the 2017-2018 school year.
2017-18 School Year:
- Staff will be required to complete the one common grade level task determined in May. Staff will be encouraged to complete more tasks if interested.
- Further staff training on PBL and NGSS will occur throughout the year.
- Core curricular resources, if available and of quality, will be reviewed.
- NGSS enhancements will be made to current science instruction.
- NGSS training will be offered onsite for staff ready to move forward at a more brisk pace.
2018-2019 School Year:
- Staff will be required to complete one common grade level task per trimester.
- Core curricular resources, if available and of quality, will be reviewed and purchased.
- NGSS enhancements will be made to science instruction.
- NGSS training will be offered onsite for staff ready to move forward at a more brisk pace.
- A full NGSS curriculum will be written for implementation in the 2019-2020 school year.
Please Note: Due to departmentalization at Jefferson, the launch of DS will be on a different timetable being developed with Dr. Schmidt and Mr. Warnke.
WOOP Goal Setting
WOOP is a scientifically proven tool that helps us change our behaviors for the better and achieve our goals.
It stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan.
And it’s basically the combination of two tools called mental contrasting and implementation intentions.
The “Wish”, “Outcome”, and “Obstacle” part of the technique comes from mental contrasting and the “Plan” part comes from implementation intentions.
WOOP = Mental Contrasting (WOO_) + Implementation Intentions (___P)
Both of these tools alone are already highly effective.
They’ve both been proven in many scientific studies to have a medium to large impact on actual behavior and significantly increase the likelihood of people achieving their goals.
To learn more about this process and how you can use at the student level, check out the WOOP video and Toolkit for Educators linked below.
#d68i2challenge Winners- November/December
November/December:
- Audra Krabel, Goodrich
- Stephanie Weber, Goodrich
- Miguel Castillo, Sipley
- Erin Valentour, Meadowview
- Cheryl Duffy, Meadowview
- Vicki Wright, Meadowview
- Kelly Warner, Goodrich
- Toni Senese, Murphy
- Mirielle Strasser, Murphy
- Lisa Mack, Willow Creek
Reminders
- Continue Significant 72 Activities
- Plan a Passion Period activity this month so students can learn a little more about yo
- Take a minute to reflect upon and celebrate the progress you have made as an educator this year.
Greg Wolcott
Email: wolcottg@woodridge68.org
Website: www.wwodridge68.org
Location: 7925 Janes Avenue, Woodridge, IL, United States
Phone: 630.967.2035
Twitter: @GregJWolcott