January 23, 2017

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher 2016-2017 School Calendar


Student's of the week for 
January 9 - January 13

• Hope Heiligenthal: (Diamond) 
• Hope is always following classroom expectations and is engaged in classroom activities.  She is always willing to answer questions and read out loud. She is a great example of a person who follows the Karcher Way.
• Elizabeth Stoffel: (Hive) 
• Elizabeth was outstanding at Outdoor Ed as a clan leader, continually leading her group in a positive and compassionate manner.
• Cody Benzow: (Elective) 
• Cody always puts forth his personal best effort. He is kind and respectful of others, he is also very helpful to both teachers and peers. Cody provides a perfect example of how to put the Karcher Way into practice. Keep up the good work!
• Benjamin Rummler: (Silver) 
• Benjamin is always willing to lend a helping hand and reportedly is "bursting with the Karcher Way".
• Ryder Beth: (Onyx) 
• Ryder has done an outstanding job showing responsibility with getting his work in! He is a great example of the Karcher Way.
• Heather Carroll: (KCB) 
• Heather is a polite young women who always strives to do her best. She is respectful, responsible, kind, loyal and honest. She demonstrates courage by volunteering in class, even when she is not sure about the answer. Keep up the great work Heather.

Student's of the week for 

January 16 - January 20 

• Melana Nebert: (Karcher Character Bucks) 
• Melana has taken responsibility for her missing work and puts forth a lot of effort both in and out of school to get caught up. Her hard work has been paying off and she is making a great addition to the classroom.
• Erin Torpy: (Silver) 
• Erin puts 100% effort into everything she does. She is a fantastic student and person!
• Trinity Zelechowski: (Hive) 
• Trinity did an exceptional job on her language MAP test and continues to show excellent effort in class. She is always kind and compassionate to her peers as well.
• Dina Flores: (Diamond) 
• Diana consistently works to her potential and is diligent about having work completed on time. She is a respectful and responsible student that exemplifies the Karcher Way.
• Bailey Hickey: (Applied Academics) 
• Bailey always volunteers to help in class, is kind to her peers, and models The Karcher Way! 
• Marissa Post: (Onyx) 
• Marissa is a conscientious worker who willingly helps her peers. She has a positive attitude every day and goes above and beyond expectations. A great example of the Karcher Way.

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Kudos

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• Mary Blankenship was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK for January 9 - January 13!  Congrats Mary and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits. 
• Jenny Geyso was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK for January 16 - January 20!  Congrats Jenny!
• Congrats to the following staff as they will receive longevity awards this Tuesday!  Thank you for your leadership within our building and within the district and for consistently acting like a goose!!!  BASD is truly a great place to work and the rest of us feel honored to be able to work with all of you being recognized.  Thank you for your time and service to BASD!!!  .  
• Erika Fons - 30 years of service
• Marilee Hoffman - 30 years of service
• Katherine Botsford - 15 years of service
• Andrea Hancock - 15 years of service
• Jeri Nettesheim - 15 years of service
• Matt Behringer - 10 years of service
• Katie Newholm - 10 years of service
• Jack Schmidt - 10 years of service
• Congrats to the wrestling team and to Coach Wallace for a great season!  They finished this past week and had a great year!  If you see Coach Wallace thank him for all of his time this year and for coaching our wrestling teams for 16+ years!   
• Girls volleyball started this week!  Thank you Mike Jones, Stacy Stoughton, Alyssa Riggs, Kris Thomsen, and Kaylee Longoria for your time and support as coaches to our middle school volleyball girls!  And thank you Barb Berezowitz for taking on the intramural girls volleyball players on Fridays!
• Thank you to Wendy Zeman, Ashley Parr, Amanda Thate (along with Heather Mielke, Ellen Johnson, and Joy Kueny) for your time this past Tuesday talking through what changes we can make 5-12 in the area of math intervention to ensure we work to close the opportunity gap for our special education students.  I truly appreciated your participation and willingness to assist with thinking outside the box in order to assist our students!  
• Awesome email sent to Alyssa Riggs this week from a parent, thought I would share with the whole staff!  This was in response to a very positive email Alyssa sent home letting Trinity's parents know the growth she has made this year on MAPs and in general - Thought I would share as the parent speaks highly of Karcher staff ... her comments are 100% true! 
• Parent Responding back:  Thank you so much!! I am so extremely proud of Trinity, she has come so far! I really believe she is succeeding because of the teachers at Karcher that believe in her. Not only is Trinity so competitive but the staff at Karcher has been so amazing as her cheerleaders! The flash cards you made were absolutely perfect! That was a great visual for Trinity, so Thank you Mrs. Riggs for  cheering my daughter on to become something really great! 

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Reminders

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• Monday, January 23 - Staff Meeting  - Literacy Mentors
• This staff meeting will be time to look over your goals with your literacy mentors and work towards developing a short term goal you want to work on between now and spring break.  Please bring your literacy goal sheet (in your mailboxes) to your literacy mentor's classroom. 
• Tuesday, January 24 - All day inservice starting at the high school at 8:00 in the auditorium.  (8:00 - 4:00 workday) 
• 8:00 - starting in the BHS auditorium 
• Special Music Performance
• Longevity Awards
• State of the District Update
• Safety in our schools
• 9:30 - 10:30 - Technology Session
• 10:45 - 11:45 - Technology Session
• For these sessions you will have the ability to select where you want to go.  Click HERE for the sessions.
• 11:45 - 12:45  - BASD luncheon Chili Challenge!
• 12:45 - 4:00 - Classroom Preparation Time 
• Wednesday, January 25 - MAP Data PLC
• We hope the MAP window can be closed by Monday afternoon so that we can run all the building level reports.  
• I will provide all of you with all the MAP data as in the past to analyze and look over for this PLC.  Folders will be shared with you once we are able to access MAP for them.  
• Friday, January 27 - Bullying Afternoon Assembly with the high school DRIVEN students.  See the schedule below - if you have any questions please reach out to Matt Behringer.  
• Email about Friday from Matt:
• We are excited to welcome our Driven students next Friday.   The focus of their lesson will be empathy/Bullying.   They are 10th-12th grade Leadership students and they will be doing breakout in advisory and they are very excited and have been practicing for the last month.  Please remember they are not professional teachers so please help them when you see fit and when calling on volunteers.   Students will need chrome books and they will be using google slides on the promethean.  They will be sharing this with you and introducing themselves before Friday.    Let me know if you have any questions and here is the template of the day.   
  
  
  
  

  KARCHER SECOND

  
  

  Driven Arrival Time:12:30

  
  

  Meet with Student Leadership team in Gym 12:30-1:00

  
  

  Karcher gym 1:00- 10 minutes

  
  

  Leave for advisories

  Breakout Sessions 1:15- 45 minutes

  Return to gym @ 2:00

  Closure in Gym 2:05- 2:15

  Buddy Bench Presentation 2:15-2:25 Gwen Busch

• Friday, January 27 - Friday Night Live (FNL) from 6:00 - 8:00pm.  
• Please let Mike Jones or Donna Sturdevant know if you can assist for the evening!  
• Activities this time:  61 foot obstacle course, Dodgeball, Basketball, video games, ping pong.
• 2 dollars, 2 canned goods, or 2 KCBs for students to get in!  Spread the word!!!

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Pictures from the week

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Congratulations to the Karcher Geography Bee Champion Tyler Smith!!! He won the school wide competition and now moves on to attempt to qualify for the State Level Bee held in Madison in the spring.

Congratulations, also go to second place winner Evan Richmond and third place Al Jost for the Geography Bee!  

Here is the dance team from this past Friday night... they performed during the half time of the varsity girls basketball game at BHS!  

7th grade science worm dissection!  

Girls volleyball started this week!

Wrestling finished their season this week!  They had a GREAT year and we are all proud of their accomplishments throughout the season!

Article of the week: Here is the second half of last weeks article...

Starting Strong

Ben Curran

Establishing the "what" and the "why" in the first 10–15 minutes pays high dividends.

Direct or Indirect? That Is the Question

Once you've planned how you'll ground students in their learning objective and purpose, it's time to plan the next 7–10 minutes of the lesson, when students start working on "the how." Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, you'll need to either show them how to do the work or set up a way they can figure out how to do it on their own. Let's explore two possible instructional methods of many: direct instruction and indirect instruction.

If your goal is to teach students a discrete skill, such as diagramming a sentence, direct instruction may be the best choice. Direct instruction involves "all eyes on you," the teacher, as you model, demonstrate, and talk through your own thinking. Such a presentation is often referred to as a mini-lesson or called the "I do" portion of an "I Do-We Do-You Do" approach. Throughout the lesson, the responsibility of thinking and working shifts gradually to the students, but in the beginning, you're doing the work.

However, if you want students to synthesize different information and draw on multiple skills—to put the pieces together themselves—a more indirect approach, in which students engage with content to construct understanding on their own, is best. This type of lesson often begins with a task that students engage in, usually collaboratively, and then moves into a group discussion, with students sharing their answers and synthesizing what they learned.

To decide between direct and indirect instruction, ask yourself whether you're teaching a discrete skill. If so, direct instruction may be more useful; if not, use an indirect approach.

Consider a 6th grade language arts teacher planning a unit that emphasizes comparing and contrasting texts in different genres but with similar themes. Early in the unit, she wants to teach the explicit skills of identifying a theme and finding details in a text that convey that theme. Opening the first lessons in the unit with direct instruction will build students' ability with these skills. Toward the end of the unit, she'll want students, on their own, to identify a theme common to multiple texts and compare and contrast texts that share that theme. So she should plan for a more indirect approach.

Essentials for Direct Instruction

Direct instruction is an opportunity to let students see into your brain to help them better understand the concepts they will be working on and prepare them to do the work. It also allows you to develop students' metacognition. If direct instruction suits your needs best, keep the following essentials in mind. During a mini-lesson, you should be modeling, thinking aloud, and demonstrating. Your talk should be declarative, rather than interrogatory; this is your chance to explain things to students. Too often, teachers jump into asking students questions about how to solve a problem or complete a task before they have explained how to do it. How can students explain how to do something when we haven't yet shown them how? You can ask me what the first step in repairing a lawn mower engine is, but I'm not going to know the answer unless you show me what to do first.

It's important to decide exactly what discrete skill you will demonstrate to students, what example of using that skill you'll model, and what you'll say during the 7–10 minutes (no longer) that you'll be giving direct instruction. Select an example that will clearly show your students how to apply this skill and that ties to your lesson's objective. Write this example as part of your plan, including key talking points you want to mention in your think-aloud that will cover the important concepts you want students to understand. These talking points might include questions that students should ask themselves and ideas you want to be clear in their minds. Just keep in mind that this is a minilesson. It should be helpful to students, but brief.

Direct Instruction in Action

Let's go back to our 6th grade language arts teacher. She's decided to teach a lesson that revolves around the skill of identifying how a poem's theme is conveyed through particular details. The basics of her plan might look like this:

Text: "If—" by Rudyard Kipling

Skill to model: How to identify details and phrases in a poem that support your decision about its theme. (Yesterday we determined that the theme of "If—" is that self-awareness and control are necessary for success.)

Explanation: To identify elements of a poem that support its overall theme, read each line carefully. Consider how the ideas, images, or language of that line connect to the theme.

Think-aloud: Explicitly note how each quoted portion supports and connects to the theme—and show students how this task is relevant to their lives—saying things like,

• "In the line 'If you can dream—and not make dreams your master,' I think the speaker is reinforcing the idea of self-control because a person with self-control will not let their dreams take over; this would lead to not achieving success, only thinking about success."
• "Think about what we're doing here in terms of making an argument or supporting an opinion. Have you ever tried to convince someone of something? You have to give details to support your opinion, right? This is the same thing: These lines support the theme."

Essentials for Indirect Instruction

Often, you'll want to start a lesson with students launching into a task without much (if any) instruction, applying skills they've learned through previous direct instruction. Such lessons are often structured with an introduction to the task, followed by students doing the task and then discussing and reflecting on what they learned. It may seem that this type of lesson requires no planning: Just provide the task and let kids dig in. You certainly could execute the lesson that way, but planning in advance will increase its effectiveness.

Task selection is key. A high-quality task—one that ensures students will learn what you want them to—should be aligned to standards, intellectually engaging, and accessible to all. Try for tasks that have more than one solution and more than one "entry point" so all learners can engage with the task on some level.

Once you've identified your task, plan how to introduce or frame it for students. Write down key things you want students to know and be thinking about as they begin their work. It's important to not say too much, however, so that students will still think on their own. The more you say about the task, the more you'll be thinking for students. Frame it just enough so students can get started.

If students are going to work on the task in pairs or small groups, think about how to set up these groups. Being strategic about grouping can go a long way toward ensuring that all students are successful. Some teachers like to mix groups by ability level; others prefer more homogeneous groups. Consider carefully what's best for your class and this project.

Finally, identify scaffolds or supports you can provide for students (or groups) who struggle as they begin the task. What prompts might you ask the strugglers? What points of clarification might support their work? Thinking about which misconceptions might arise, where students might get off track, and what parts of the task might be especially challenging will help you plan scaffolds in advance.

Indirect Instruction in Action

Imagine that our language arts teacher wants a later lesson in her unit about theme to center around a student task. Here's what might be in her plan:

Frame: "Today we'll work in groups to put together all this learning we've been doing. You will have two texts, a story and a poem. Your job is to answer this prompt: What are the themes of these two texts? How are the themes similar? How are they different? Use particular details from each text to support your answer.Remember, the key is to use details to support and explain your answer. Be sure to answer all parts of the prompt."

Groupings: Mix students by their comfort level with identifying theme and details.

Scaffolds: If students can't find a difference between two identified themes, have them phrase the themes differently and then find differences. If students struggle to explain how particular details support a theme, talk with them to help clarify their thinking, or encourage them to find different details.

Three Simple Questions

If these suggestions for planning seem overwhelming, you might simplify things at first by thinking about three questions as you consider an upcoming lesson:

• How can I ground students in the lesson's context and purpose?
• Is a direct or indirect approach best?
• What few statements or questions do I need to script in advance so that the first 10–15 minutes of this lesson are productive?

You'll quickly find that you become more efficient with each lesson beginning that you plan. And you'll find your students more engaged and accomplishing more—thanks to a solid start.