KARCHER STAFF BLOG
Student's of the week for
September 6 - September 9
- Amanda Viel: (Silver House)
- We chose Amanda for showing leadership and a positive attitude throughout the school day! Way to make a strong first impression.
- Megan Smitz: (Diamond House)
- Megan has shown strong character during the first week of school. She did a great job being the leader in her science group. She handled adversity well when things didn't go her way. She did a great job of advocating for herself.
- Al Jost: (Applied Academic)
- Al has already stepped up to assist in class without being asked. Al always treats his teachers and peers with kindness and respect! He is an outstanding role model and leads by example.
- David Smitz: (Hive House)
- David exhibited Karcher character by showing kindness and respect towards his classmates in a cooperative learning situation.
- Josh Gelden: (Onyx House)
- Josh has done a fantastic job exhibiting "The Karcher Way". He is always willing to help out and he consistently has a positive attitude and a smile on his face. Thanks Josh and keep up the good work!
- Cory Flees: (Karcher Character Bucks)
- Cory is a leader in class during group work and works well with others. He is respectful to others inside and outside of the classroom.
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Kudos
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- Dustan Eckmann was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK! Congrats Dustan and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits.
- Thank you Steve Berezowitz and Marian Hancock for your hard work with student schedules this past week. We hope to be past any changes to student's schedules!
- Great idea from the PBS committee that met on Tuesday (Andrea Hancock, Hans Block, Brad Ferstenou, Barb Berezowitz, Eric Sulik, Patti Tenhagen, Stephanie Rummler, Marilee Hoffman, & Matt Behringer) and came up with the idea to hand out popsicles to students who wanted to use a KCB in the afternoon on Thursday. We had 119 students take advantage of this KCB reward! Nice job on the quick turn around and team effort to get everything ready.
- Thanks to all of the staff who have recognized students this past week with a KCB as it is your efforts to recognize students that will drive our PBS initiatives! Thank you all!
- This is a shout out to Anneke Thompson, Montessori teacher at Dyer, who was 1 of 3 teachers selected for a 3,000 dollar grant and is featured below in the September 2016 SchoolNews with some of her students! Take a second to email Anneke and congratulate her!!!
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Reminders
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- BLT Meeting - Monday, September 12 - meeting in the library starting at 2:40.
- Picture Day - Tuesday, September 13.
- Students will be called to the U-Lab in alphabetical order throughout the school day.
- Students should bring their order forms with them and hand them to the photographer at the time of their picture - please assist with reminding students about this.
- Literacy Mentors - Training on September 13.
- In room 100 at the Gateway building past the high school. Training starts at 8:00am with Tammy Gibbons - Director of Professional Development for AWSA.
- PLC Wednesday: Standards/Skills - we will be in the library as a group for this PLC.
- FNL is this Friday from 6:30 - 8:30pm. Please let Mike Jones or Donna Sturdevant know if you are able to assist with this great opportunity for students!
- MAP Testing will begin on Monday, September 19. Please see the Google Calendar for details as to the testing schedule.
- All MAP testing make ups will occur during compass time for students.
- Map Testing on Chromebooks has changed a bit from last year.
- Follow the steps below when you are ready to test. Turn on Chromebook - DO NOT SIGN IN
- Click the Apps button on the bottom left of the screen. Choose MAP Chromebook Testing App
- Below are the screen shots Scott Christensen provided us last week via email.
- Chromebook information...
- Molly Ebbers is our chromebook support within the building and our go to person when it comes to knowledge about apps and technology needs. If you have any technology questions seek Molly out :)
- Here is an image Molly put together to assist with some questions regarding headphones from last week:
- Schedule for this Friday:
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Pictures from the week
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Students navigating throughout the building in Mr. Jones's class. The students had to understand coordinates in order to know where the next clue/location was.
Mr. Behringer hanging out by Mr. Schmidt's room... looking good Matt!
Ms. Geyso's ELA class utilizing some silent sustained reading time in the library.
Ms. Zeman's students utilizing their chromebooks for a math formative assessment.
Students in Ms. Sturdevant's science class developing an experiment and collecting accurate data.
Student's in Ms. Weis's science class working through the experimental method and the importance of observations.
Students in Ms. Pelnar's art class creating their own perspective drawings.
Students in Ms. Waki's class participating in a getting to know each other activity.
The next four pictures are students in Ms. Jorgenson's math class working through stations.
Students in Mr. Sulik and Ms. Fulton's ELA class working on their own person Ode...
Article of the week: Second half of last week's article...
What to Do in Week One?
How to open the door to a successful teaching-learning dynamic.
Know Your Students Well
We can't connect with students we don't know. To provide them with meaningful learning experiences and to construct a supportive classroom community, we need to know them.
"Selected Things to Know About Your Students" (p. 15) lists just some of the areas that can affect learning. A single teacher won't be able to gather data in all these areas, of course, so we should make information gathering a full-year process, and consider dividing it up among departments in the school and posting it to a secure, confidential profile system maintained by the guidance department. In addition, many teachers find it helpful to include the following activities in the first weeks of school.
Invite parents to comment. In 2003, Deb Bova shared a simple strategy on the MiddleWeb listserv that exploded worldwide—sending home an open-ended invitation on the first day of school that says, "In a million words or less, tell me about your child." In my own experience and that of other teachers who have tried it, this strategy garners insights regarding students that conventional parent surveys don't often provide. Parents find the prompt engaging; many comment that they've never been asked to write something like this before.
Invite students to write—as their parents. Tell students, "Write a letter from your parent to the teacher describing you." When people write under a pseudonym, it's often freeing. We include things we might normally filter. In the years I used this activity, students made statements like, "If it's important to remember, please write it on the board or screen. Otherwise, Jerry doesn't think it's important." "Micah has Hebrew school on Sundays and Wednesdays, so he probably won't do homework on those days." "It drives Carla crazy when there's nothing creative, so don't be boring." and, "Lena finds sweat stains under teachers' armpits revolting, so please keep them dry or don't raise your arms."
Caution students when writing such letters to stick to factors that affect their classroom learning. They should not reveal anything too confidential or personal. If they want to share personal information, they should first get their parents' permission or maybe even ask the parents to share it themselves.
Offer "Best Way for Me to Learn" cards. Students fill out an index card with their name and everything they can think of that helps them learn. Using these cards over the years, I learned that students wanted me to use high-contrast colors on dry erase boards, to provide more than two examples when explaining something, to speak more slowly, to allow students to drink water or juice in class, to switch who was doing the teaching sometimes (resulting in more student-led instruction), to identify online tutorials covering the same material I was teaching, and to make sure my homework wasn't busy work "just to look like a tough teacher." I also learned that many students get frustrated with group projects. All helpful to know.
Spend time in shared efforts. One of the best ways to get to know students and build strong connections is to share time in complex or work-intensive activities. Spending a full day early in the school year hiking a mountain with students, for example, forges strong teacher-student relationships, especially as you help one another navigate narrow boulder passes at higher altitudes. Witnessing our students outside normal classroom and school contexts reveals something closer to their true selves. It's gold.
Sponsoring a student club, sport, or extracurricular activity (school newspaper, TV station, or literary magazine) or joining students in a small on-stage or behind-the-scenes role in the school musical are excellent ways to create esprit de corps. In such experiences, we recognize the value in one another and in working together. We can't help but be loyal to one another and invested in one another's success. For students—and for teachers—this is often a pleasant surprise.
Practice Empathy
Students feel connected to teachers whom they perceive as understanding them. To inhabit another, however, we must inhibit ourselves—subordinating our own knowledge and perspectives for a moment and embracing the other's world. This takes practice. We can begin the school year focusing on these few empathy-building steps:
- Make home visits and observe students' roles in the family and who they are at home.
- Sit in students' desks and see the room from their point of view, and adjust lessons and visuals accordingly.
- Ask students to explain their thinking verbally, in writing, or as they teach a classmate. Understanding, or lack thereof, is quickly revealed in these processes.
- Recognize our own intellectual bias. "It's so clear in my own head; why isn't it clear in Kiki's head?" we reason. "Everyone else learned it this way, so it must be something wrong with Kiki. She's not trying hard enough." Effective teachers look through the first-timer's eyes as they plan and deliver instruction. They catch misconceptions before they fester, perceive helpful connections and clarifications for students, and avoid teaching today's lessons through automated verbal memory from their years of expertise in the topic.
- Attend to students' essential human needs. Indifference to basic health does not engender goodwill. So be attentive: Are students hydrated, well-fed, and rested? Are they moving enough to get oxygen to the brain? Do we need more lighting, fresh air, or different seats? Can everyone see the display area? Do all students have equal access to the tools this lesson requires?
- Avoid over-generalizing about students. English language learners, for instance, vary widely in language proficiencies, educational background, need for support, creativity, and more; treating them all the same undermines teacher-student relationships and students' learning. Affirm students as the individuals they are, not the limited stereotypes invoked by our limited experience. The Thai student in 5th period is not the official spokesperson for everyone from Thailand. The student with ear buds seemingly fused into his ears may not be trying to block out the world by listening to his favorite hip-hop artists, but instead listening to thoughtful podcasts of great poetry, gaming strategies, or speeches from his religious leaders. The student with purple hair may be a happy, well-adjusted rule follower who just happens to like purple hair.
We're In This Together
Face it: We can only do our jobs as teachers if students do what we ask of them. On any day, students can refuse to participate or can even get up and walk out. In some classrooms, cooperation is tenuous at best, but in successful classrooms it's on solid ground. Teaching is done with students, not to them.
To create that mutual ethos, teachers and students employ civil discourse that honors what each group brings to the table. When disagreeing, we demonstrate that we've heard and understood the other's point of view. We don't diminish one another with derision. We assume that at any given moment in the lesson, both of us—teacher and student—are probably doing the best we can. If we wrong each other in some manner, we apologize and try to make amends.
Both of us want respect for our efforts and our individual natures; we want to be accepted and to matter to others. As teachers, we show respect by being knowledgeable in our fields and in how to teach them, by following through on our promises, and by finding ways to make curriculum content meaningful to students. To show respect to us, students do the class activities and assignments, follow our classroom rules, and make sincere efforts to learn course content without complaint.
Mutuality is not just helpful to students; it's also invigorating to teachers. We are more willing to invest in students when we feel connected to them. We get excited as we plan lessons for particular individuals, take satisfaction in responding to student work and providing helpful feedback, and enjoy students' "aha!" moments when we've really made the connection. This is why we went into teaching in the first place; it's where we find the strength to work hard all day and late into the evening and then get up the next morning and do it all over again.
Yes, student, you exist. I accept all that you are, and I value time in your company. You will commit to being the best version of your maturing self, just as I will commit to being the best version of my maturing self for you. We'll achieve our goals together. Now, I see that your name is "Ellie." Is it short for something? Tell me more. You are a person worth knowing.
Selected Things to Know About Your Students
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References
Rimm-Kaufmann, S., & Sandilos, L. (2016). Improving students' relationships with teachers to provide essential supports for learning. Retrieved from American Psychological Association website
Scherer, M. (1998, December). Is school the place for spirituality? A conversation with Rabbi Harold Kushner. Educational Leadership, 56(4), 18–22.
Sparks, S. D. (2016, April 26). Emotions help steer students' learning, studies find. Education Week, 35(29). Retrieved from www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2016/04/27/emotions-help-steer-students-learning-studies-find.html
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