Teaching and Learning Times
December 2016 Edition
Learning For All
In this edition:
Core Belief: We Believe in Learning Communities
Curriculum Corner
- STEM in QCSD
- Next Generation Science Standards
- Holiday Shopping: STEM Toys
What's Happening
- Save the Date: January Professional Development Day January 20th
- Elementary Social Studies and RELA Camp Outs
- Digital Portfolio PLC
Promising Practice
- American Reading Company Literacy Leaders Conference 2016
Books and Blogs
- What's Math Got To Do With It?
- How To Learn Math
- Classroom Management for Art, Music, and PE Teachers
- Cosmic Kids Yoga
- 7 Habits of Happy Kids
- How's It Going?
Technology Tips
- G Suite Training Built into G Suite (Formerly known as Google Apps for Education)
- Canvas Time-savers: Announcements ===> Set it and forget it!
- SchoolWires Time-savers: Web Page Templates ===> Contact Your Teacher
Core Belief: we believe in learning communities in which members discuss, explore, and learn together.
Our second core belief is that we believe in learning communities in which members discuss, explore, and learn together.
The word community is often thrown around casually but we have made it part of our core beliefs to help establish, maintain, grow communities of practice focused on learning. Being a part of a community means that all members provide equal value and lend their unique talents and voices. As a member of many communities (our classrooms, our schools, our district, and the larger community we serve) our responsibility to one another is to find ways to speak openly, to share freely, and to learn and grow daily.
Curriculum Corner
STEM in QCSD
Next Generation Science Standards
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are K–12 science content standards. Standards set the expectations for what students should know and be able to do. The NGSS were developed by states to improve science education for all students.
A goal for developing the NGSS was to create a set of research-based, up-to-date K–12 science standards. These standards give local educators the flexibility to design classroom learning experiences that stimulate students’ interests in science and prepares them for college, careers, and citizenship.
LittleBits
Dot and Dash
Save The Date: Friday January 20th Professional Development Day
Elementary RELA, Science, and Social Studies Update
Elementary Science and Social Studies is currently in year 2 of the curriculum cycle, and Elementary RELA is in year 1 of the curriculum cycle. As we continue to work through the process of curriculum revision, two of our goals are to:
Effectively communicate transparently
Elicit teacher feedback
Back in September, we asked elementary teachers to respond to three different surveys regarding their attitudes and perceptions of current curriculum and resources. Each of the three surveys garnered around 50% participation. The results of the three surveys can be found below:
The shared perspectives from the surveys have afforded us some important insights into teacher beliefs about the state of RELA and Social Studies. As you know, good questions always lead to more questions. In the month of December, Chad Evans, Erin Oleksa, and Greg Lesher will be camping out in buildings (see the dates and times below) in order to provide teachers the opportunity to ask questions, provide feedback, and share perspectives regarding Elementary RELA curriculum and resources (which are in year 1 of the curriculum cycle) and Elementary Science and Social Studies (which are in year 2 of the cycle) . There will be elementary Science and Social Studies resources the district is considering available for you to explore as well. While we will not be making significant changes to the curricular topics/ themes, it is evident that we need updated resources, experiences, curriculum documents, and assessments for our students and classrooms.
We hope that you will consider taking a few minutes to stop in and share, ask questions, and explore when they are in your building:
- Wednesday December 7 from 8:30am-4:30pm Quakertown Elementary Conference Room
- Friday December 9 from 8:30am-4:30pm Neidig Elementary Conference Room
- Monday December 12 from 8:30am-4:30pm Trumbauersville Elementary Conference Room
- Friday December 16 from 8:30am-4:30pm Pfaff Elementary FishBowl
- Monday December 19 from 8:30am-4:30pm Richland Elementary Conference Room
- Tuesday December 20th from 8:30am-4:30pm Tohickon Valley Elementary Multi Purpose Room
Digital Portfolio PLC
Essential Questions:
How do student driven digital writing portfolios promote continuous and intentional reflection and improve writing?
Driving Questions:
How do student driven digital portfolios impact student growth and achievement?
How do student driven digital portfolios help students take ownership of their learning?
How do student driven digital portfolios promote writing across the curriculum in different styles and genres?
Superintendent’s Goal:
Research and develop plan for implementation of electronic student writing portfolios K-12 for implementation in 2017-18.
For the 2016-2017 school year, a PLC has been organized to explore the impact of digital writing portfolio's and sharing resources, ideas, and lessons learned moving forward. Look for more information in the Spring.
Promising Practice
American Reading Company Literacy Leaders Conference 2016
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhem presented on the topic Reading Complex Non-Fiction Grades 6-12.
Dr. Jeffrey Wilhem shares: All nonfiction is a conversation between the writer and the reader, an invitation to agree or disagree with compelling and often provocative ideas about some aspect of the world we live in. At the end of the day, it’s our responsibility to decide if the argument is sound.
In Wilhem's book, Diving Deep Into Nonfiction he discusses that students need to be on high alert when reading as well as highly curious about how texts work and what they mean, as they learn to notice direct statements of principle, calls to attention, ruptures, and readers’ rules of notice:
· Notice the topics and the textual conversation: Who is speaking and how might he or she be responding to another’s ideas? What is the idea that gives “heat” to this text?
· Notice key details: What attracts my attention? How does the author signal both direct and implicit statements of meaning? How does the author use the unexpected? How can I interpret patterns of key details to see overall meanings?
· Notice varied nonfiction genres: What are the essential features of this kind of text? How does the author employ them? What effects are they designed to have on the reader?
· Notice text structure: How does the author structure the text to connect details and ideas? What patterns of thought does the author use along the way?
Click on the link to learn more about the Rules of Notice and applications to use in the classroom tomorrow! Reach out to Kelly Cramer or Erin Oleksa for more information.
Books and Blogs
What's Math Got To Do With It? By: Jo Boaler
How To Learn Math
Greg Says: These are free online courses for students,teachers and parents in understanding how to learn math best. The work is all about how to obtain a growth mindset in the area of mathematics.
- Expectations
- Language
- Time
- Modeling
- Opportunities
- Routines
- Interactions
- Environment
While some of what Richhart advises is common sense, much of his text challenges us to think differently about the purpose and vision for school and how each of these forces can be used to reshape the learning experiences for our students and for us as educators.
Classroom Management for Art, Music, and PE Teachers
Kelly Says: Part 5: Bad Days and Tough Classes, reminded me that its ok to slow down and restart a classroom routine if it isn't working with a particular class of students. Part 6: Final Words, was empowering. This chapter reminded me of the importance of presence, the love and excitement of the content we share with students and the freedom we have to teach!
Cosmic Kids Yoga
Cosmic Kids Yoga offers free yoga and mindfulness videos for children. Videos can be found at varying lengths and themes. Some yoga videos actually take the children through a retelling of favorite children's books like Eric Carl's The Hungry Caterpillar!
Yoga, mindfulness and relaxation designed specially for kids aged 3+, used in schools and homes all over the world.
Kelly Says: My own 7 year old enjoys these short videos. They are engaging and sometimes just the 'brain break' she needs! Click on this link to view a 1 min video! Cosmic Kids Yoga is for parents, teachers, and guidance counselors of elementary aged students.
Click to Subscribe: http://bit.ly/cosmickidsyoga and get a new video every Monday!
• Instagram your yoga heroes so they feature in our monthly yoga heroes video #cosmickidsyoga
• Try the Zen Den mindfulness meditations - http://bit.ly/1oGCLEa!
• Learn to teach kids yoga free - http://kidsyogacrashcourse.com
• Find out more about Cosmic Kids! http://cosmickids.com
7 Habits of Happy Kids
Kelly Says: I read The 7 Habits of Happy Kids at home this past summer with my 10 and 7 year old. The 7 Habits give our family a common language, tools, and goals, when working to be our best selves. It is not usual to hear my say at home, early bed time tonight, we need to sharpen our saws! The 7 Habits of Happy Kids is for parents, teachers, and guidance counselors of elementary aged students. Click here to learn more about teaching leadership at home with your own children.
How's It Going?
Lynne says: How's It Going? by Carl Anderson is a book that provides teachers with a practical structure for conferences in which the students play a major role in the conference. Roles of the teacher and the student in the conference are laid out simply and easy to implement in any classroom at any grade level. Don't let the cover fool you this is not just for elementary classrooms.
Technology Corner
G Suite Training Built into G Suite (Formerly known as Google Apps for Education)
Canvas Time-savers: Announcements ===> Set it and forget it!
Why does this feature exist?
Perhaps you know that the first few days of this week you will be too busy to create an important announcement you would like to be displayed in Canvas on Thursday. Create the announcement first thing on Monday morning before your day (and busy week) gets going and delay the posting for Thursday at noon. You won't even need to be logged into Canvas, and your announcements will post by itself while you're at lunch!
Any examples?
- Elementary Classroom Teachers: In September, create announcements reminding parents and students about fall conferences, music concerts, field day, or field trips. Set the delay-posting on each announcement for the week before its event and Canvas will do the remembering for you :-)
- Middle School Teachers: Do you have all of next week's homework planned by the preceding weekend? Create a separate Canvas announcement for each day of the week before the weekend and delay each posting for their respective day of the week to post at 3:15 PM. Every day Canvas will post the announcement for you. Students will have their homework reminder in your Canvas class that night, and parents with access to your Canvas class will know what to ask their kids about that night's homework right when the kids get home!
- High School Teachers: Do you have an assignment coming up with multiple components and progress check-ins? You know your timelines in advance so set delay-posting announcements that will automatically display in Canvas when a.) those note cards are due, b.) when the first draft is due, c.) when the bibliography is due and so on. Create the announcements and set their delay-posting for the day before to remind your students about upcoming deadlines. Help them stay on pace to finish according to your expectations.
Using delay-posting to create and delay-post several different announcements during one Canvas login session will help you add those time-saving minutes up. For more information, take a look at the Canvas Capable: Communication module in the Canvas Training Course. On the Announcement page of this module you will find resources to learn more about Canvas Announcements and how to set delay-posting.
SchoolWires Time-savers: Web Page Templates ===> Contact Your Teacher
- contact information,
- a way to learn more about their child's teacher,
- a class materials list and
- where to learn more about Canvas
Although this information can be listed inside of Canvas there is a time at the start of every school year when students and families don't even have access to Canvas yet. Displaying this information on SchoolWires will certainly be helpful.
To save you time there are ready-to-use SchoolWires templates you can use to create your website in a jiffy! Whether you're looking to build your website from the ground up or just looking to update and simplify, watching the video below will help you out. This month's SchoolWires video features how to create a Contact Your Teacher web page in your SchoolWires teacher web site using the Contact Your Teacher template. Click here to watch these direction in action and start using SchoolWires templates today.
Login to SchoolWires like you login to Canvas or your QCSD laptop:
username = firstnameinitial + entirelastname
password = currentQCSDnetworkpassword
More about the G-Suite (Formerly Google Apps for Education)
QCSD Systems Log In's
Having trouble keeping up with the changes? Check out this document to help. (it is still being updated as of 9/9/16)
What do you want to read and learn more about?
Who makes up the Office for Teaching and Learning team?
Dr. Kathy Winters- Director of Elementary Programming
Mr Tony Carty- Supervisor of Prof. Dev., Assessment, and Blended Learning
Mr. Greg Lesher- Supervisor of S.T.E.M.
Ms. Erin Oleksa- Supervisor of Literacy and Fine Arts
Mrs. Kelly Cramer- Instructional Coach
Mr. Chad Evans- Instructional Coach
Mrs. Lynne Morgan- Instructional Coach
Mr. Todd Silvius- Instructional Coach
Mrs. Mary Carol Swanson- Administrative Assistant
Email: otl@qcsd.org
Website: http://www.qcsd.org/domain/1557
Location: 100 Commerce Drive, Quakertown, PA, United States
Phone: 215-529-2006
Twitter: @qcsdotl