October 26th - 30th

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher Character Students of the Week

All 6 of these students displayed positive character behaviors within our 8 focused traits:  

Be... responsible, respectful, kind, safe, honest, loyal, compassionate, courageous.  

Students:  (left to right) Jemenez Oswaldo (Silver), Yar Zar Kyaw (Diamond), Amanda Viel (Onyx), Stasha Brewer (Hive), Tyler Duesing (Applied Academics), and Nathaniel Borris (Karcher Bucks)

AMAZING example of "The Karcher Way"... Stasha is a member of the Hive House and Kurt Rummler told me this story about Stasha and it is to cool to not share with everyone.  Stasha is pictured above as the Hive student of the week!

The story about the missing hearing aids:

Tuesday was a great field trip day for the Hive to the Capitol building in Madison.  Upon returning, however, Matthew Gregoric realized he did not have his hearing aids.  I called the bus company hoping they could be tracked down.  Since it was near the end of the school day, I knew I probably would not hear anything until the next day.

Stasha Brewer decided to take some action on her own.  After school, she called the Capitol, talked with several people, and then finally connected with the Capitol police who had the hearing aids.  Stasha then followed up the next day - again all on her own - with the police to make sure that the Silver House would know how and where to pick up the hearing aids.  An 8th grader, wading in to the "adult world” to advocate for a friend - pretty cool stuff.

We talk about the Karcher Way and what it means all the time in our building.  This is the definition of it.

______________________________________________________________________________

Kudos

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Mike Yopp was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK!  Congrats Mike and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits. 
• Also thank you Mike for your all your time filling in for Kaylyn Waki and Stacy Stoughton!  
• The Hive and Silver field trips went very well!  Below are some pictures from the trip.  Thank you Jack Schmidt and Stephanie Rummler for leading the way for your houses.
• I have never seen so many Kringles in on place!  Great job Mike Jones and Linda Amundson with your organization and work putting together the Kringle fundraiser!
• The spaghetti dinner was a nice event Sunday night.  Thank you Mike Jones, Jack Schmidt, Alyssa Riggs, Dina Weis, Stephanie Rummler, Kurt Rummler, Amanda Thate, and Judy Heinz for helping with the event.

______________________________________________________________________________

Reminders

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• The boilers in the building will be down through Wednesday.  The goal is to be able to turn them on starting Wednesday so please keep your windows and assist with keeping the outside doors closed as much as possible on Monday and Tuesday.  
• The back elevator will be down most likely through Tuesday.
• If you would like to add a blog or website to the school website we now have a tab for you - "Parent Links" on the left side!  Linda Amundson, Kurt Rummler, and Jack Schmidt have all taken advantage of setting up their own classroom blog and they are accessible from the Karcher main page.  See any of them or myself for help if you would like to create one and have it added to the main page.
• BLT meeting on Monday @ 2:40.
• PLC meetings this week are for Standards Data Collection and Common Assessments.
• Grading window will open on October 29th at 12:00am for term 1 grades.  
• Grades for the term will be due November 5th by 3:30pm.

______________________________________________________________________________

Pictures from the week

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. Hancock's science class.

Ms. Pelnar's art class.

Mrs. Rummler's social studies class - great looks going on here!

Mr. Malewicki with our students at the last BHS home football game!

Spaghetti Dinner!  Great line workers :)

The Hive and Silver House field trip to the capital and Vet's museum (1st five pictures are the Silver house, last picture is the Hive house)

The Hive House...

Students with Ms. Fons at the high ropes course at Camp MacLean!

Article of the week:
The final segment of: Knowing your learning target  
                                                                                                                    

Knowing Your Learning Target

Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart and Beverly A. Long

The first thing students need to learn is what they're supposed to be learning.

Explaining the Criteria for Success

Success criteria are developmentally appropriate descriptions and concrete examples of what success in a lesson looks like. They are not the grades students should earn, the number of problems they must get right, or the number of times they should include something in a performance or product (for example, how many descriptive adjectives they should include in a paragraph).

"I can" statements, like those pictured on p. 67, are a great way to explain success. Another useful strategy is to ask students to examine work samples that represent various levels of quality and discuss what makes some samples better than others. Teachers can also use rubrics to define the elements of a successful performance or product and describe various performance levels for each element. An especially powerful way to do this is to have students apply a rubric's organized criteria to work samples with various levels of quality. Then ask students to explain their decisions using the language in the rubric. When students know the success criteria, they can be mindful of what success looks like as they use the rubric to guide their learning.

Empowering Every Student

Armstrong teachers began embedding learning targets into their lessons in October 2009. Now, almost a year and one-half later, shared learning targets guide lesson planning, formative assessment, and classroom walk-throughs. But the most impressive transformation is that of students into full learning partners. Now that students know where they are going, they are more motivated to do the work to get there.

It's just this simple. Do we want classrooms full of empowered, self-regulated, highly motivated, and intentional learners? If we do, then it is time to own up to the obstacles that educators create by withholding the very information that would empower learners. Students cannot regulate learning, use thoughtful reasoning processes, set meaningful goals, or assess the quality of their own work unless they understand what success looks like in today's lesson.

Calendar for October and November:

October 19th - 23rd

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher Character Students of the Week

All 6 of these students displayed positive character behaviors within our 8 focused traits:  

Be... responsible, respectful, kind, safe, honest, loyal, compassionate, courageous.  

Students:  (left to right) Katelyn Deephouse (Onyx), Cyrue Shine (Diamond), Ryan Koeppen (Karcher Bucks), Alex Peterson (Applied Academic), Cora Anderson (Hive), Megan Way (Silver)

______________________________________________________________________________

Kudos

____________________________________________________________________________________________

• Nicolas Buendia was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK!  Congrats   and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits. 
• Thank you Jenny Geyso, Molly Ebbers, and Patti Tenhagen for all of your time and a great PLC lesson for our staff on Wednesday.  Your planning and preparation for our literacy professional development is very appreciated!
• Marilee Hoffman for taking our student counsel to Camp MacLean on Monday - awesome opportunity and team building experience for students!
• Thank you Grace Jorgenson for stepping up and being willing to take on Thursday school.  
• I want to give a HUGE appreciation to all of our aides for your flexibility and collaboration as we work through all of the changes with your schedules.  
• Thank you Mike Yopp for assisting as Kaylyn Waki's long-term sub.  You did a GREAT job and I enjoyed being in your classroom.  We will see you this week in Stacy Stoughton's room!
• Welcome back Kaylyn Waki!  I am sure you enjoyed your time with Casen.  Let any of us know if there is anything you need to feel "caught up" and "up to speed" for the school year.  
• THANK YOU ALL for the the luncheon and gift card on Friday.  The food was awesome!  I am truly blessed to be working with such a collaborative, reflective, and fun staff.  As we continue to work together throughout our first year Matt and I look forward to continuing to learn and grow with all of you to help benefit the students here at Karcher.  Thank you for making Matt and I feel welcomed to join the Karcher team :)

______________________________________________________________

Reminders

___________________________________________________________________________________________

• Staff Meeting on Monday, October 19th at 2:40.  I apologize for this schedule change and hope you will understand.  The meeting will be short 10-15 minutes.  
• PLCs - we will be meeting in the library with our advisory teams going over the DRTA literacy tool everyone will be using for the iTime literacy lessons on October 26th and 27th.
• Flu Shot October 20th from 2:00 to 5:00 @ Dyer. 
• Huddle Time:
• Conferencing with students - 10-15 minutes with each student setting goals for the rest of the term.
• Other students should be SSR or working on any homework they have.  
• Huddle time sheets you can use if you would like:
• Huddle Time Goal Sheet
• Huddle Time Discussion Questions
• SLOs - you will have some time on November 5th (half day in-service) to work on your SLO.  They will be due on November 9th.  Please see the document I placed in all of your EE folders I sent to you last week - the document explains what everyone needs to complete and when.  
• Kim will be gone for a Skyward Conference on October 19th and 20th.  
• October 20th (Hive) and October 22nd (Silver) have field trips to Madison State Capital and Vet's Museum.
• Picture re-take day is October 21st.  The all-call will be utilized to call students to the U-Lab.  If students are needing re-takes because their initial picture is disliked or if they missed picture day these students should come to the U-Lab when their alphabet letter is called.  
• October 25th is the spaghetti dinner fundraiser from 4:00 - 7:00 in the cafeteria.  See Mike Jones for details or last weeks post.  

• Here is a list of email addresses everyone can use to assist with emails being sent to the correct/necessary people.
• kmsteachers@basd.k12.wi.us  
• (teachers, counselors, admin)
• kmsaides@basd.k12.wi.us  
• (all special education aides)
• kmsblt@basd.k12.wi.us  
• (BLT team and admin)
• kmsspedstaff@basd.k12.wi.us  
• (sp. ed., Erika Fons, & Stephanie Schmidt)
• diamondadvisory@basd.k12.wi.us  
• (next four - advisory teams)
• hiveadvisory@basd.k12.wi.us
• onyxadvisory@basd.k12.wi.us
• silveradvisory@basd.k12.wi.us

___________________________________________________________________________

Pictures from the week

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Ms. Pruszka's class working on utilizing Google Forms and understanding the use of surveys.

Mr. Ferstenou and Mr. Rummler with the 8th grade girls basketball team on Thursday night.  Both of our teams (7th grade/8th grade) won!  

Article of the week:  
The below reading is the next section of the article: Knowing your learning target  

Knowing Your Learning Target

Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart and Beverly A. Long

The first thing students need to learn is what they're supposed to be learning.

The Power of Meaningful Sharing

Learning targets have no inherent power. They enhance student learning and achievement only when educators commit to consistently and intentionally sharing them with students. Meaningful sharing requires that teachers use the learning targets with their students and students use them with one another. This level of sharing starts when teachers use student-friendly language—and sometimes model or demonstrate what they expect—to explain the learning target from the beginning of the lesson, and when they continue to share it throughout the lesson. Here are two powerful ways to do that.

Designing a Strong Performance of Understanding

The single best way to share a learning target is to create a strong performance of understanding—a learning experience that embodies the learning target. When students complete the actions that are part of a strong performance of understanding, they and their teachers will know that they have reached the target.

When introducing the lesson, the teacher should explicitly share the learning target for the day and explain how each of the tasks that are part of the lesson will lead students toward that target. Remember the lesson on Jane Eyre? Consider this lesson introduction:

Today we will learn more about how Brontë uses her characters to explore the theme of being unwanted. Remember, a theme is an underlying meaning of the story. Yesterday, we examined Jane Eyre's life experiences as they relate to the theme of being unwanted. Today we will do the same for Adele, Mr. Rochester's ward. As you read, find examples of Adele being unwanted, unloved, uncared for, or forgotten. Then, in your learning groups, discuss your examples and your reasons for choosing them. At the end of class, use your notes to draft a short paragraph that answers the question, How does the character of Adele deepen Brontë's theme of being unwanted in the novel Jane Eyre?

Note how the teacher explains what students will learn that day and how each task explicitly connects to that target. If students perform all of these actions, they will better understand how Brontë uses her characters to explore the theme of being unwanted. The tasks clearly lead students to the target, and the students can see how each task leads them to their goal. A strong performance of understanding helps students understand what is important to learn, provides experiences that will help them learn it, and gives them a chance to observe their growing competence along the way.

Calendar for October & November:

October 12th - 16th

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher Character Students of the Week

All 6 of these students displayed positive character behaviors within our 8 focused traits:  

Be... responsible, respectful, kind, safe, honest, loyal, compassionate, courageous.  

Students:  (left to right) Josie Smith (Diamond), Katherine Picazo (Applied Academics), Jonathan Payant (Karcher Bucks), Scott Darville (Silver), Andrew Gehrke (Hive), and not pictured Joe Zuliger (Onyx)

___________________________________________________________________________

Kudos

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Mike Jones was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK!  Congrats Mike and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits. 
• Thank you all for calling individual families to encourage them to come to conference in order to assist all of our students.  
• FNL was a success on Friday night with 153 students in attendance!  Thank you Mike Jones for all of your organization to get FNL ready and thank you to the following staff members for helping chaperone and provide such a positive experience for students.  Mike Jones, Matt Behringer, Marilee Hoffman, Jack Schmidt, Jeri Nettesheim, Wendy Zeman, Rod Stoughton, Jacob Malewicki, Brad Ferstenou, Donna Sturdevant, Jenny Geyso, Kurt Rummler, Stephanie Rummler, Kathyrn Botsford, Amanda Thate, Crystal Hernandez, Renee Hisey, Grace Jorgenson, Barb Berezowitz, and Steve Berezowitz!

______________________________________________________________________________

Reminders

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Parent/teacher conferences are from 4:00 to 7:00 Monday, October 12th.  Conferences will be held in everyone's individual classroom.
• Flexisched has been reset for the next three weeks.  We will be doing intervention, ALLs, and SSR for all THREE weeks.  The "5th" week for enrichment will be November 12th and 13th due to the half days the week before.  
• Your Educator Effectiveness folders will be shared with you this week.  I was going to send them last week but minor tweaks were still being done.  Expect your folders to be shared with you this week.
• October 19th to 23rd 8th grade students will be called to the health office for their vision screening.  If they wear corrective lenses please make sure they wear them throughout this week.
• October 21st is picture retakes.

Field Trip Dates:

• October 13th - Student Counsel field trip to Camp MacLean.
• October 20th the Hive House will be going to Madison to the State Capital/Vets Museum.
• October 22nd the Silver House will be going to Madison to the State Capital/Vets Museum.
• October 25th is our Outdoor Education spaghetti dinner night here at Karcher in the cafeteria.
• Time:  4:00 - 7:00
• Cost:  8 dollars per ticket with 5 year-olds or younger eating for free.
• Pre-tickets can be purchased from any 8th grade student or Mr. Jones (mjones@basd.k12.wi.us)
• A 50/50 raffle and silent auction will be onsite!
• Proceeds go to Outdoor Education and other field trips for our students

______________________________________________________________________________

Pictures from the week

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pictures from Camp MacLean with Ms. Fons's team building group.

Pictures from FNL :) 

Article of the week:  
The below reading is the next section of the article: Knowing your learning target  
                                                                                                                   

Knowing Your Learning Target

Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart and Beverly A. Long

The first thing students need to learn is what they're supposed to be learning.

Beginning to Share

When teachers in the Armstrong School District began sharing learning targets with their students, their early efforts were tentative and in consistent. Not all teachers tried it, and some who tried did not share targets for every lesson. Some simply paraphrased instructional objectives, wrote the target statements on the board, or told students what they were going to learn at the beginning of a lesson. Yet, even their exploratory attempts became game changers. When teachers consistently shared learning targets in meaningful ways, students quickly became more capable decision makers who knew where they were headed and who shared responsibility for getting there.

At Lenape Elementary School, for example, teachers and administrators marveled at the immediate effect of shared targets and how quickly those effects multiplied. Principal Tom Dinga recalls a visit to a 1st grade classroom during the first week of sharing learning targets. The teacher, Brian Kovalovsky, led the class in discussing the learning target for the math lesson that day—to describe basic shapes and compare them to one another. When he asked his students how they would know when they hit that target, one 6-year-old replied, "I'll be able to explain the difference between a square and a rectangle."

Invigorated by the changes they were witnessing, teachers and administrators used e-mail, peer coaching, peer observations, focused walk-throughs, and professional conversations to share what was working in their classrooms and buildings and supported these claims with evidence that their students were learning more and learning smarter.

Students are now more actively engaged in their lessons as full-fledged learning partners. Because they understand exactly what they are supposed to learn, students take a more strategic approach to their work. Students have the information they need to keep track of how well a strategy is working, and they can decide when and if to use that strategy again. In other words, students not only know where they are on the way to mastery, but also are aware of what it will take to get there.

Calendar for October:

October 5th - 9th

KARCHER STAFF BLOG

Karcher Character Students of the Week

All 6 of these students displayed positive character behaviors within our 8 focused traits:  

Be... responsible, respectful, kind, safe, honest, loyal, compassionate, courageous.  

Students:  (left to right) Cody Benzow (Diamond), Romelia Machuca-Puebla (Hive), Allison Ament (Onyx), Molly Fox (Applied Academics), Alexis Yambor (Karcher Character Bucks), Dora Rios (Silver)

______________________________________________________________________________

Kudos

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

• Barb Berezowitz was chosen as the KCB STAFF OF THE WEEK!  Congrats Ellen and thank you all for continuing to reinforce our 8 character traits.  Ellen, please come to the main office to receive your prize!
• Thank you to Andrea Hancock and Barb Berezowitz for organizing the school forest field trip. The students really enjoyed it!
• Thank you Kim Moss for setting up the start of the Biggest Loser competition.  18 staff members are involved.  Bring it on everyone!!!
• The advisory team (Jack Schmidt, Alyssa Riggs, and Patti Tenhagen) along with Matt Behringer did a nice job organizing the advisory day with the Danish students.  Thank you also to Stephanie Rummler for allowing me to participate with your advisory that day.
• Thank you Chuck Runge for your work with our students in the Burlington Area School District.  Good luck with your new endeavors.
• Thank you to Kurt Rummler, Kathryn Botsford, Rod Stoughton and Jack Schmidt for having Connie Zinnen (and Jackey Syens in Jack's and Rod's room) and myself in your classrooms to work on the district literacy walkthrough tool.  Though you didn't know we were coming, I appreciated your continuation of your lessons and the ability for us to improve our walkthrough template.
• Our first reward day for KCBs was a good start to the use of our KCBs.  45 students took advantage of the free items they could receive with KCBs at lunch time last week.

______________________________________________________________________________

Reminders/Information

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

• I will not be in the building until 2:15 on Monday as I will be at Dyer for the special education aide interviews - Matt will be in the building all day on Monday.  I will be back for our staff meeting.  
• Make sure you schedule students for Flexisched on Monday and/or Tuesday for this Thursday/Friday.  The remaining students will then be moved to SSR on Wednesday.  After iTime on Friday the schedule will be reset for the following three weeks.  Please start thinking about what you plan on doing for the enrichment week...
• Either curriculum based (with what you are teaching right now) or The Karcher Way based - needs to be approved by Matt or myself.
• Monday, tomorrow, we have a staff meeting.  We will be going over parent-teacher conferences and Educator Effectiveness - start time is 2:40 in the library.
• Wednesday's PLC is for Standards/Common Assessments - these PLCs are in your classrooms.
• FNL is this Friday from 5:00 to 7:00.  We have over 15 staff members assisting... awesome!  
• See Mike Jones or Matt Behringer if you would still like to help.
• (I will not be able to attend as it is my PhD weekend)
• October 12th is parent/teacher conferences from 4:00 to 7:00.  
• Picture retakes will be on October 21st.
• Madison State/Capital/Vets Museum field trip is schedule for:
• October 20th - Silver House
• October 22nd - Hive House
• Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser is on October 25th from 4:00-7:00.
• 8 dollars per ticket, 5 year-olds and under are free, 50/50 raffle, silent auction, carry-outs and walk-ins are encouraged.
• Pre-ticket sales - see an 8th grade student or Mike Jones.
• Cross-Country meet Monday @ 3:30 @ BHS.
• Girls basketball game on Tuesday @ 3:30 @ Karcher.

______________________________________________________________________________

Pictures from the week

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

The following pictures are from the 7th grade trip to the school forest... it was a perfect day!

Article of the week:  This article really helps us understand the need to convert our standards into "I can..." statements for students - the important work we are doing with some of our PLC time.

Knowing Your Learning Target

Connie M. Moss, Susan M. Brookhart and Beverly A. Long

The first thing students need to learn is what they're supposed to be learning.

One of Toni Taladay's students walked into Lenape Elementary School wearing a colorful tie-dyed shirt with a tiny bull's-eye shape in the lower front corner. That small design caught the eye of his classmate, who exclaimed, "Look, Joey, you're wearing a learning target!" In the Armstrong School District in southwestern Pennsylvania, learning targets are everywhere: in lesson plans, on bulletin boards, in hallways—and as this story illustrates—firmly on students' minds.

What Is a Shared Learning Target?

If you own a global positioning system (GPS), you probably can't imagine taking a trip without it. Unlike a printed map, a GPS provides up-to-the-minute information about where you are, the distance to your destination, how long until you get there, and exactly what to do when you make a wrong turn. But a GPS can't do any of that without a precise description of where you want to go.

Think of shared learning targets in the same way. They convey to students the destination for the lesson—what to learn, how deeply to learn it, and exactly how to demonstrate their new learning. In our estimation (Moss & Brookhart, 2009) and that of others (Seidle, Rimmele, & Prenzel, 2005; Stiggins, Arter, Chappuis, & Chappuis, 2009), the intention for the lesson is one of the most important things students should learn. Without a precise description of where they are headed, too many students are "flying blind."

The Dangers of Flying Blind

No matter what we decide students need to learn, not much will happen until students understand what they are supposed to learn during a lesson and set their sights on learning it. Regardless of how important the content, how engaging the activity, how formative the assessment, or how differentiated the instruction, unless all students see, recognize, and understand the learning target from the very beginning of the lesson, one factor will remain constant: The teacher will always be the only one providing the direction, focusing on getting students to meet the instructional objectives. The students, on the other hand, will focus on doing what the teacher says, rather than on learning. This flies in the face of what we know about nurturing motivated, self-regulated, and intentional learners (Zimmerman, 2001).

Students who don't know the intention of a lesson expend precious time and energy trying to figure out what their teachers expect them to learn. And many students, exhausted by the process, wonder why they should even care.

Consider the following high school lesson on Jane Eyre. The teacher begins by saying,

Today, as you read the next chapter, carefully complete your study guide. Pay close attention to the questions about Bertha— Mr. Rochester's first wife. Questions 16 through 35 deal with lunacy and the five categories of mental illness. The next 15 questions focus on facts about Charlotte Brontë's own isolated childhood. The last 10 items ask you to define terms in the novel that we seldom use today—your dictionaries will help you define those words. All questions on Friday's test will come directly from the study guide.

What is important for students to learn in this lesson? Is it how to carefully complete a study guide, the five types of mental illness, facts about Brontë's childhood, meanings of seldom-used words, or facts about Mr. Rochester's first wife? Your guess is as good as ours.

Constructing a Learning Target

A shared learning target unpacks a "lesson-sized" amount of learning—the precise "chunk" of the particular content students are to master (Leahy, Lyon, Thompson, & Wiliam, 2005). It describes exactly how well we expect them to learn it and how we will ask them to demonstrate that learning. And although teachers derive them from instructional objectives, learning targets differ from instructional objectives in both design and function.

Instructional objectives are about instruction, derived from content standards, written in teacher language, and used to guide teaching during a lesson or across a series of lessons. They are not designed for students but for the teacher. A shared learning target, on the other hand, frames the lesson from the students' point of view. A shared learning target helps students grasp the lesson's purpose—why it is crucial to learn this chunk of information, on this day, and in this way.

Students can't see, recognize, and understand what they need to learn until we translate the learning intention into developmentally appropriate, student-friendly, and culturally respectful language. One way to do that is to answer the following three questions from the student's point of view:

1. What will I be able to do when I've finished this lesson?
2. What idea, topic, or subject is important for me to learn and understand so that I can do this?
3. How will I show that I can do this, and how well will I have to do it?

The online-only figure at www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/books/el_201103_brookhart_figure1.pdf illustrates this process with examples for younger and older students. Carefully tailor your descriptions to your students' unique developmental levels, cultures, and experiences. A learning target should convey to your students what today's lesson should mean for them.

Calendar for October: