KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Student's of the week for

January 11th - January 15th

Mason McIntrye (Hive) - Mason was extremely responsible and kind at Outdoor Education as he often helped clan mates and assisted in clean up on his own accord.
Hannah Viol (Onyx) - Hannah displays many attributes of "The Karcher Way" on a consistent basis. She displays kindness and compassion towards others and consistently makes her school work a priority and puts 100% effort into it.
Hannah McMartin (Diamond) - Hannah is a quiet leader in her classes. She leads by example and works very hard.
Robyn Shuemate (Applied Academics) - Robyn is a true example of "The Karcher Way"! She works hard and is always considerate of others. She always leads by example!
Payton Kretschmer (Silver) - Payton is our student of the week for shooting character in the way she carries herself and how she interacts with everyone!
Frankie Giaimo (Karcher Bucks) - Frankie truly cares about his classmates and will assist with ensuring they understand the content. He really cares about his academic progress as well!

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Kudos

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Brad Ferstenou was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK! Congrats Brad and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits.
THANK YOU to Mike Jones, Donna Sturdevant, Jenny Geyso, Jake Malewicki, Lori Iverson, Alyssa Riggs, Kaylyn Waki, Amanda Thate, Bobbi Smith, Crysta Hernandez, Rod Stoughton, Katherine Botsford, Matt Behringer, and Erika Fons for helping with FNL. It was a great turn-out and the students enjoyed all the choices and the dodge ball tournament - next time we play we can't lose!

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Reminders

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January 18th - BLT Meeting
January 20th is a KCB day... students can wear a hat all day to school by using 2 KCBs. Matt will send out more details for the systemic end of things to you prior to January 20th.
January 21st is the final Thursday school day for the semester... encourage students to attend.

There will be no Thursday school on January 28th.

January 21st will be the 7th grade Character Assembly during extended advisory.

Bell Schedule for both the 21st and 22nd is at the bottom of this blog after the monthly calendars.

January 22nd will be the 8th grade Character Assembly.

*** Both assembly days the opposite grade level will be in a study hall to assist with the end of the semester needs. All applied academic teachers will be attending both assemblies so make arrangements to have your advisory covered.
Teachers - remember to check the Google document and then fill out your two Character student awards. Extra copies are with Jane in the main office.

January 26th is the end of the quarter.
January 27th is an all day in-service and an 8-4 work day.

The morning will start at BHS in the auditorium for the longevity awards from 8:00 to 9:00.
We will then be back at Karcher from 9:00 to 11:30 as building level in-service - starting in the library.

Scheduling
Literacy
Standards/Common Assessments

11:30 to 12:30 for lunch.
2:30 - 4:00 is for grading and classroom work time to finish up semester 1 and get ready for semester 2.

Starting February 1st we will begin the process of scheduling for the 2016-2017 school year.

On February 1st Eric Burling will come over to present to 8th grade, I will present to 7th grade, and Matt will be presenting to 6th grade.
Our goal is to have every student's requests and specific needed courses by February 19th.

Student Led Conferences...

On February 2nd and 4th from 2:40 - 3:30 those willing and/or able to assist with how student led conferences will look this year we would appreciate your insight as we add in some time for parents to meet with the teachers along with the student led conferences. So, if you are able we will be meeting regarding student led conferences in the library on the 2nd and 4th. All are welcome!

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Pictures from the week

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7th grade students dissecting owl pellets in Ms. Berezowitz's and Ms. Hancock's science classes.

Wrestling... having a great season!

Pictures I forgot to post from ODE or from our 8th grade students who stayed back at Karcher.

Article of the week: Continuation from the last few weeks...

Chapter 1. Learning, or Not Learning, in School

Better Learning Through Structured Teaching: A Framework for the Gradual Release of Responsibility, 2nd Edition

by Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey

When the Importance of Gradual Release Became Real for Us

The gradual release of responsibility instructional framework has been around for decades, and we have long used it with both the education students in our preservice classes and our public school students. But we can remember very specifically when we fully grasped its importance. The two of us were in Las Vegas at a conference. We were staying at the Venetian Hotel, a very nice place to stay. Doug had a cell phone on his hip, the old kind of cell phone that did one thing only—it made phone calls.

While we were walking through the lobby, Doug's phone rang. As he tried to answer it, it fell from his hip into the Venetian's lagoon, and down the drain it went. Given that Doug couldn't imagine a weekend without a cell phone (even one that couldn't do anything fancy), we took a taxi to the local Sprint store. Doug's plan was to exercise his insurance policy and get a free replacement phone.

The salesperson at the Sprint store saw the situation differently. Wanting to make a new sale, he directed Doug away from the "old school" phones and toward the new, high-tech models. "You need a phone that is more intuitive," he told Doug. "One that has e-mail, an address book, a calendar program, and that can search the Web." Doug assured him that no, he did not need any of these things. The sales guy—we'll call him Steve—was very persistent and noted that the newer phones also sent text messages. Doug had never sent a text message in his life, nor had the need ever arisen. But Steve was skilled. He said, "You know, the young people all send text messages. It's the new way of communicating." Doug wants to be a young person, so out came his credit card. Within minutes, he was the proud owner of a Treo 650. As Doug watched, Steve the salesperson demonstrated the phone's various fancy features. Doug felt pretty proud of his high-tech purchase.

About an hour later, back at the hotel, the new phone rang. There it sat, buzzing away, but Doug didn't know how to answer it. It didn't flip open like his old phone had, and there wasn't any obvious button labeled "Answer." Frustrated, we both got back in the taxi and returned to the Sprint store.

Of course, Doug couldn't bear to tell Steve the sales guy (who seemed to be about 12 years old) that he didn't know how to work the phone. He just held it up and said, "I think it's broken." Steve immediately took it out of Doug's hand and started working the phone.

Doug was suddenly struck by a wave of guilt. Turning to Nancy, he said, "How many times have I modeled comprehension for my students only to take back the task when they had difficulty?" What Steve the sales guy did, and what Doug recognized as something he was prone to doing himself, is a violation of the gradual release of responsibility instructional framework. When learners experience difficulty and confusion, they need guided instruction, not more modeling. Frustrated learners already know that their teachers can complete the tasks; they've seen their teachers do so several times over. What a frustrated learner needs is direction and practice, with scaffolding in place to ensure success.

Back at the store, Doug turned to Steve and said, "I really don't need another model. I need some guided instruction. Can I hold the phone while you talk me through the operation?" Steve was a little puzzled, but he obliged. He guided, prompted, questioned, and cued Doug on how to use the phone. (Nancy got so caught up in the experience that she decided, on the spot, to buy a new Treo 650 as well.)

Of course the combination of focused instruction and one guided instructional event did not ensure that either of us could use our new technology independently. What we needed now was the opportunity to practice without the teacher (in this case, Steve) providing cues. As Doug said to Nancy, "I'm too embarrassed to ask him how to do it again. We'll have to figure it out." Well, figure it out we did, slowly and over time. That night at dinner at the Capitol Grill, we sat across the table from one another sending text messages. We collaborated, problem solving as we went.

Over several weeks, with much practice and peer support, we both incorporated this new technology into our lives. And the process helped us grasp, definitively, that everything we know how to do well, we learned through this process of modeling, guided practice, collaborative learning, and independent application. The gradual release of responsibility instructional framework became real to us then, and we've both used and advocated for it ever since.

Conclusion

Structured teaching requires that teachers know their students and content well, that they regularly assess students' understanding of the content, and that they purposefully plan interrelated lessons that transfer responsibility from the teacher to the student. The theory that guides this type of teaching, the gradual release of responsibility, can also be conceptualized as shown in Figure 1.5, which highlights the framework's recursive structure and the ways in which teachers might vary its four instructional phases to optimize learning.