sábado, 27 de octubre de 2018

October 29, 2018

KARCHER STAFF BLOG


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Kudos
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  • Thank you to Eric Sulik, Wendy Zeman, and Sue Bekken for all of your work and efforts for the extended advisory and Cooper/Waller activities this week.  At times this is a thankless role as there is so much planning and behind the scenes that they are needed to finalize and take care of so please take time this week to thank them for their time and commitment to our advisory curriculum and to our students!  Thank you!  
  • Thank you to all staff for a truly amazing afternoon with our Cooper and Waller elementary students.  Our students were very prepared, responsive to their elementary kiddos, and did a fantastic job representing Karcher Middle School.  Thank you all of your efforts!!!  
  • And kudos to our staff or your efforts during our full day inservice.  Thank you for ensuring you worked diligently on your Essential Skills throughout the morning, for doing a great job participating during the safety simulation, and for your planned work that you all used in the afternoon.  Our hope is having larger chunks of time to do our necessary work is utilized and appreciated.  
    • Though the simulation was a difficult simulation to have to participate in, as it is not something anyone really wants to do, you all did a great job and were very responsive in each scenario.  If there is anything you have thought about after the debrief please do not hesitate to talk to Ryan or I about it.  
Video this week...

Great video that makes us reflect and think about the whole child and to work to be proactive in our approach to behaviors and not always reactive with consequences... 

(Link to the video)

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Information/Reminders
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  • Arrival time reminder for certified staff:
    • Just a reminder that your expected arrival is no later than 7:00am.  At 7:05 please be cognizant of being in the hallways by your classroom to assist with monitoring students both in the halls and in your classrooms.  
  • Those who are utilizing Skyward to clock in and out each day:  
    • Please remember to clock in at your scheduled time in the morning and again at your scheduled time at the end of the day.  If you needed to stay for any reason past your schedule time you need to indicate the reason in the comment section within Skyward.  
    • Those who are full time need to punch in and out for lunch time daily.  There might be days here and there that your lunch break is cute short due to assisting students but overall there should be consistency with your time sheets.  
  • Remind101 
    • We would like everyone to sign up for our Karcher Admin Remind101 account.  The purpose for this account is to be able to get messages to all staff members in the event we would need to for Karcher.  We will be using this for our fire drill this coming week so that everyone understands how it works.  
    • To sign up please text @247693 to the number 81010
    • You do NOT need to download the Remind App. After you sign up, you will receive messages from Karcher Admin via text message. You can also reply to the number once we send a message, which will only go to admin, not the entire group. This method will be used in emergency situations, drills, or necessary information to communicate with staff.  

This week:  
  • Huddle week this week for extended advisory.
    • Students will rotate to their academic teachers throughout the week for Huddle time. Special education teachers should join their co-teaching partners throughout the week. 
    • Students in iTime reading intervention will be pulled or with Fulton, Riggs, or Ebbers throughout Huddle time this week.  
    • Huddle time is a great time to give students time to catch up on their work and ensure they understand their iReady data and grades so far.
    • Below are the hours for the rotation within our academic classrooms:

    7th grade
    8th grade
    Monday
    1st hour 
    2nd hour 
    Tuesday
    3rd hour 
    4th hour 
    Thursday
    5th hour 
    5th hour 
    Friday
    6th hour 
    7th hour 
  • Monday, October 29 - Technology Committee Meeting from 3:45 - 5:15 in the Tech Lab.
  • Tuesday, October 30 - PBS Trick or Treat!
    • Brad Ferstenou and Stephanie Rummler will be coming around to classrooms in the afternoon.
    • Stephanie will be coming to 7th grade classes 6th hour.
    • Brad will be coming to 8th grade classes 7th hour.
    • For one KCB, students can draw from a deck of cards to receive a trick or treat.  If they draw a number card they receive a piece of candy.  If they draw a face card, they will receive a "trick". 
    • If you have any small, random items you have in your room they could use for a trick to hand out to students.  So... if you have anything small to donate please give your donated items to Brad or Stephanie by Tuesday before noon.  
  • Wednesday, October 31 - iReady Training for Academic, Special Education, and Interventionists. This training will be just for Karcher and by grade level.
      • HERE is the bell schedule for Wednesday. The reason for the schedule adjustment is to reduce the number of aides needed and allow every teacher to still have time with their classes.
      • We will have 2 subs coming in to cover the ALLs throughout the school day... so... they will cover all of the ALLs for both grade levels. This has already been taking care of for the day.
      • There will be no extended advisory on Wednesday due to the need to change the schedule.
      • Training times:
        • 7th grade will be from 7:30 - 10:30
        • 8th grade will be from 11:30 - 2:30
        • Location: 21st Century Lab
  • Friday, November 2 - 7th grade Field Museum field trip. 
    • Questions see Katherine Botsford or Brad Ferstenou
  • Saturday, November 3 - BASD Referendum meeting @ the District Office @ 10:45am.
  • Tuesday, November 6 - End of term 1!
  • Tuesday, November 6 - Start of iTime rotation with the set groups given to you based on iReady data.
    • These groups will stay set through December 14.

Pictures from the week!
Cooper/Waller visit!





































I had a meeting with other middle school principals in the area and we met at the new 5-8 middle school in Muskego. Below are some pictures of their spaces. They are a house concept so the classrooms were centered around pods throughout the building.






Picture after Safety Simulation



By -

sábado, 20 de octubre de 2018

October 22, 2018

KARCHER STAFF BLOG


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Kudos
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  • Kudos to Mike Jones and Donna Sturdevant for a job well done with the Kringle orders for our 8th graders for Outdoor Education!  It is a lot of behind the scenes work to get everything organized and, as always, you did a great job with it all!  Thank you to Kurt Rummler and Jack Schmidt for helping as well with the unloading of the Kringles along with students from ALL to help Mike and Donna out!  
  • Thank you to Kim Moss, Jane Peterson, and Pam Bauer for a nice lunch for Ryan and I on Tuesday for "Bosses Day" - very much appreciated and was nice to have lunch with you guys!  
  • Thank you staff for the gift card as well, we feel fortunate to work with all of you!  
  • And thank you to all of our teachers for your time and efforts this past Tuesday night with parent/guardian/teacher conferences.  Thank you for taking the time to meet with those that attend as many mentioned that they appreciated the conversations you were having with them and liked the academic focus coupled with the behavioral side.  

Article this week to piggy back off of last week's article... 

12 Steps to Get Students Talking
Lorraine Jacques
As a beginning math teacher, I thought that student discourse happened when they answered my questions or asked me questions. Then one day I asked my students an interesting question, and it was like a Ping-Pong match erupted in my room. One student answered, another disagreed, and then the rest of the class chose sides and began debating back and forth! The level of engagement and thinking was incredible and wow, did we have fun!
In trying to replicate this kind of student talk, I have learned that the tools, lesson structure, and topic do not matter. What the teacher does to encourage discourse and communicate high expectations for the level of discourse matters. Consider yourself a maker of experiences more than a giver of knowledge, and train students to question authority and expect answers from each other. It sounds complex, but from research and my work with teachers, I offer 12 small steps that will help teachers transform their classrooms into centers of student discourse.
1. Answer questions with a question.
A teacher's instinct is to answer questions, but this action moves the responsibility of understanding from the student to the teacher, and very little learning occurs. Likewise, when teachers answer every student question, it conveys that correctness is more important than reasoning. It's a conversation killer. When the teacher answers a question with another question, however, several things can happen. The teacher's question clarifies or scaffolds the issue for students. Student responses reveal their thinking (Louca, Zacharia, & Tzialli, 2012). The entire exchange serves as a conversation starter for the rest of the class, especially when they are invited to participate ("What do the rest of you think?"). And finally, students learn that they need to actively engage in the lesson, because the teacher will not "save" them by providing all of the answers.
2. Always ask for more.
Two or more answers to a question allow you to initiate a discussion. Natural follow-up questions include asking students to justify their answers or provide evidence, asking students to critique another's reasoning, and asking what conditions would be required for each of the answers to be correct. Students have learned that a correct answer is like a period at the end of a sentence. By keeping the conversation open, students with "correct" answers may feel unsettled (Didn't I resolve this question with my right answer?). Using this strategy lets students know that teachers expect more than correctness and that defending their positions will make the right answer even stronger.
3. Don't fear silence.
When teachers first try to incorporate more student discourse in the classroom, they encounter silence. This silence doesn't indicate that students are unable to answer; rather, they are waiting for the teacher to answer. Don't give into the silence and answer your own question; be brave. Silences make students uncomfortable, too. Waiting for students to speak shows them that you expect and require active engagement.
4. Put on a poker face.
A smile can communicate correctness, a pause in transcribing student responses can signal error. Maintaining a "poker face" is probably the most difficult aspect of encouraging student discourse, but it may be the most essential. If teachers want students to rely on reasoning more than authority for correctness, teachers cannot give any indication of their thoughts.
5. Provide time and tools.
If we want students to be thoughtful about what they are saying, then we need to give think time before expecting them to share their ideas (Staples, 2007). We also need to remember that we are asking students to consider ideas that they probably have not experienced yet (Gee, 2013). So, in addition to time, teachers need to provide students with tools they can use to create the experiences needed to formulate an idea. Allowing students time to create a diagram or to get manipulatives from a common area enables students to explore their ideas, and maybe experiment a little, so that they can have more thought-out ideas to share.
6. Give them something to talk about.
Just like during everyday conversations, students cannot have interesting discussions if they do not have something interesting to consider. Open-ended questions and complex activities encourage multiple approaches to a topic, which in turn encourage students to discuss and reason about their ideas. Such tasks also encourage teachers to ask higher-order questions, because the tasks require higher cognitive demand (Ni, Zhou, Li, & Li, 2014). For example, providing students (working in groups) with depth maps of local lakes and asking them to estimate the volume results in lively discussions about different approaches each group might use.
7. Don't tell me; tell your peers.
When the teacher walks around the room while students work in groups, students often turn to the teacher to share an idea or ask a question. Instead of making yourself the audience for students' ideas and questions, redirect students to ask or share with each other. "Don't tell me; tell him/her" reinforces the importance of collaborative learning. Of course, you can remain nearby to listen to the conversation that ensues!
8. Recognize good reasoning.
Even when the answer is wrong, recognize attempts at good reasoning. Many students shut down when their ideas are immediately critiqued. This can have a ripple effect, discouraging other, less confident students from engaging. Finding something specific to acknowledge about a student's ideas sends the message that you are interested in their thinking and effort, not just right answers. After this recognition, solicit ideas from the class. For example, if a student uses images to think through a question or problem, you might tell them, "Sketching the scenario was a useful approach here. What do the rest of you think of this method?" Other students will likely identify the problems in the student's idea and discuss it in a way that helps everyone understand better.
9. Make participation comfortable and inclusive.
When people are truly engaged in a discussion, they do not want to raise their hands and wait to say what they are thinking. They do not always want to stay quiet, and they prefer to be eye-level with the person they are talking to. The same is true for students. Allowing open discussion, letting students be a little louder than usual, and positioning oneself at their level are simple techniques that teachers can employ to encourage students to think and talk freely. To engage quieter students, teachers can project a discussion forum or chat room on the board and allow students to send responses from their personal devices.
10. Let go of ego.
Students may be reluctant to offer ideas or to disagree with another student because they fear looking foolish in front of their peers. Students may have trouble hearing someone disagree with their ideas because some of their identity may be attached to being "right." Teaching students to discuss ideas in a detached manner removes their egos from their ideas. For example, prefacing an argument with "I think" instead of "it is" or prefacing a counterargument with "I disagree" instead of "that's wrong" lightens the tensions students may feel when discussing a complex idea in class (Horn, 2008). When working in groups, students also need to learn how to ask each other for help. Simply stating, "I don't understand this," often gets ignored by the group. Training students to ask each other specific questions, such as "How did you get this answer?," helps the group members understand what kind of help the questioner needs (Webb, 2008).
11. Show students some appreciation.
When students are engaged in discourse, they are engaged in difficult work. Appreciating their hard work encourages the students to do it again. A teacher could end a lesson with a simple statement like, "Today was fun! Thank you!", and the students will leave feeling rewarded. Public recognition also shows appreciation for the students' work, because it tells them that the community values their efforts. Teachers can have students produce items that demonstrate their ideas and display them publicly.
12. Observe other teachers outside your subject area.
I was a math teacher. I learned how interesting experiences can drive discussion by watching students do inquiry-based science labs. I learned the importance of open-ended questions from a literature class. I saw how a chat room engaged quiet students from a social studies class. The most powerful way to learn how to engage students in meaningful discourse is to watch how other teachers do it. Each subject has its own strengths for promoting student talk; observing those strengths in action lets us consider how to adapt techniques for our own students.

By the time I became a department chair, student discourse occurred regularly in my classroom. Helping the teachers in my department achieve true discourse in their classrooms is how these 12 steps began. I found that teachers were more likely to have small successes when they had small, specific techniques to work on. Simply by answering questions with a question, my teachers were able to solicit meaningful responses from students, and then use those responses to develop fuller conversations. It takes time, but these small steps, practiced persistently, pay off.
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Information/Reminders
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  • Book Club during ALL is starting this Tuesday!!!!!! 
    • Students participating in the book club will report to ALL and be members of the C day ALL group for about 6 weeks.  The first 15 minutes they will stay in ALL to work with staff, then after about 15 minutes Karen will have them come into the library for the book club.  So they will be in book club for about 25 minutes only on C days.  
    • Book they will be reading:  Murder on the Orient Express 
    • Karen will send out the list of students in each period and what ALL period they usually have.  Then note that for the next 6 weeks (we think) they will then all have ALL with the C group in order to participate.  We will not be changing their schedules they will just be changing when they have PE versus when they have ALL in order to participate in the book club! 
      • Hour 1 - 4 students participating
      • Hour 3 - 4 students participating 
      • Hour 6 - 5 students participating
    • We are just starting this is grade 8 for right now with the plan to try it in both grades.  
    • If there is any overlap with library time for ELA we will figure that out as it happens!
    • See Karen with any questions!  
  • "Bring Your Lessons to Life"
    • Did you know we have virtual reality devices in the library at Karcher!     
    • Currently there are 10 devices at Karcher but the high school as a larger set that can be borrowed in the event you would like to use them for your class.  
    • Let Suzanne Dunbar know if you want her to help find a VR experience that fits in with your curriculum.  At BHS, Suzanne has loaded the experience and then guide students through the VR/360.  
    • Click on the link to find a list of the different  VR/36O
    • What is a VR Experience?
  • The process for FLMA leave has been cleaned up a bit... the new documents are located on our BASD website (noted below):  
    • https://www.basd.k12.wi.us/staff/staffdocuments.cfm
  • Chromebook checkout...
    • We have decided, at this time, to not allow students to checkout chromebooks on Fridays for the weekend.  So please note that you can give slips Monday-Thursday for students to use their chromebooks at home but not over the weekend at this time. If a student uses their chromebook inappropriately at home they will be added to the "no chromebook home" list in the library.  

  • Monday, October 22 - Extended Advisory week 
    • Please take a look at the plans for our activities this week, including an afternoon assembly on Thursday for our Cooper/Waller visit and activities!  
  • Monday, October 22 - Staff Meeting from 2:40 - 3:00 
    • Going over week's plans along with SLO and PPG information.  
  • Monday, October 22 - District MTSS Committee Meeting @ 3:45 - 5:15 in our Karcher library.  
  • Tuesday, October 23 - Picture retake day.  
    • If you missed pictures from last time please make sure you get in on Tuesday for your picture.  These pictures will be the pictures used for our website for each staff member.  
    • The photographer should be set up in the library starting at 7:30 and will most likely be gone by the afternoon.  So try to get in to the library sometime in the morning if you missed pictures last time!  
    • Students will be called over the announcements to report to the library for picture retakes or for those absent on picture day.  
  • Tuesday, October 23 - Special Education Department Meeting 
    • 2:40 - 3:15 in the small conference room. 
  • Wednesday, October 24 - iReady PLC 
    • We will be talking about your groups for iTime and ensuring everyone knows what they should be focused on and where to find it for your iTime planning.  
    • Elective teachers please use this time for prep as you are losing some prep this week with extended advisory.  
  • Thursday, October 25 - Afternoon Assembly Cooper/Waller
  • Thursday, October 25 - BASD Referendum Meeting
    • Karcher library @ 7:00pm
  • Friday, October 26 - Full Day Inservice (8:00 - 4:00 work day)  
    • Teachers:  
      • From 8:00 - 11:00 this time is set aside for you to work on your Essential Skills.  You determined what you need to focus on during our PLC time so please ensure you remember your focus and use this time to make some movement with your Essential Skills.  
      • 11:00 - 12:30 - Safety Simulation 
        • The police department will be in the building to simulate a similar experience to the last one at the high school.  We will start in the library to go over things for everyone to know and practice during the simulation.  
      • 12:30 - 1:00 - lunch 
        • We will get subs from Subway for all of staff for lunch on Friday!  
        • If you feel like making a dessert to share you are more than welcome to bring one to share!  
      • 1:00 - 4:00 - Teacher work time 
        • Things to think about using some of this time for is your iTime planning, SLOs, and/or your PPGs or anything else you feel you need time this time for.  
    • Any special education aides or other support staff that would like to attend the safety simulation from 11:00 - 12:30 are welcome to attend.  This is not mandatory but if you are available and want to attend you are welcome to attend.  
Looking ahead:  
  • Huddle week will be October 29 - November 2
    • Students will rotate to their academic teachers throughout the week for Huddle time. Special education teachers should join their co-teaching partners throughout the week. 
    • Students in iTime reading intervention with Ebbers, Riggs, and/or Fulton will not be in your Huddle time groups.  
    • Huddle time is a great time to give students time to catch up on their work and ensure they understand their iReady data and grades so far.
    • Below are the hours for the rotation for our academic teachers:

7th grade
8th grade
Monday
1st hour 
2nd hour 
Tuesday
3rd hour 
4th hour 
Thursday
5th hour 
5th hour 
Friday
6th hour 
7th hour 
  • Wednesday, October 31 - iReady Training for Academic, Special Education, and Interventionists. This training will be just for Karcher and by grade level.
    • Ryan and I will work on a schedule that will not impact the building as much for this day... to minimize the number of subs but to also minimize missed time with students.
    • There will be no extended advisory on Wednesday due to the need to change the schedule.
    • Training times:
      • 7th grade will be from 7:30 - 10:30
      • 8th grade will be from 11:30 - 2:30
    • We are going to try to create a schedule where 7th graders are in electives from 7:30 - 10:30 and 8th graders are in electives then from 11:30 - 2:30. This will change our bell schedule for this day and shift hours around as well. Then 7th grade academics will take place after 10:30 and 8th grade academics would all be in the morning before 11:30. We will make sure everyone's lunch is in the schedule, etc as well. Just trying to minimize the need for as many subs and reduce missed time with students.
    • We will still get subs for ALLs as we will need some for that. I will email you to put in for a sub in Ready Sub once we figure out the schedule.
  • Friday, November 2 - 7th grade Field Museum field trip.
  • Saturday, November 3 - BASD Referendum meeting @ the District Office @ 10:45am.
Photos from this week!
Students engaging in a mini lesson with Grace Jorgenson.

Students receiving guidance from Ms. Geyso for their reading journals relating to their literature circle books.  

Literature circle books... providing student choice.  



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