Implementing my teaching mission statement

Reflections and More To Do
This year I tried to pull together lots of different pieces of learning that I’ve had over the last few years, dig into them deeper, and be intentional about implementing them to try to design my classroom to live out my teaching mission every.

I tried to run my classroom as much as possible throughout the day as a workshop, empowering kids through work menus and choices.  I continued to use and build better self-paced learning and blended learning environments.  Because of extenuating circumstances, my class was in the middle of 2 PBL units and we were not able to complete them.  We were planning a school-wide Makerspace Monthly Challenge and also planning to build a fence for Noah’s Garden.  The thing I am most proud of is that my MA 1-2 team gamified a Social Studies unit during our PLC time to give students real life experience in trading, natural and man-made resources, regions, and supply and demand.  This was no easy undertaking but we all really thought it was worthwhile and am already thinking of a game for next year.

This goal is never-ending and will never be perfect.  Next year I want to continue the workshop models, but make them more manageable for the teacher.  I need to remember to go slow when teaching the workshop routine; model, support, and scaffold expectations and how to problem solve.  I will continue to teach thematically, bringing out Science and Social Studies concepts all through the day and continuing to reflect on Kavolik’s big ideas.  I will continue to implement PBL units (possibly another garden focus and Makerspace Monthly Challenge) with intention as well as self-paced and blended learning to meet students where they are and to help them own their learning.  I will continue with the goal of taking students TO the Makerspace once a month next  year, but I will also remember to bring makerspace materials TO the classroom (maybe in a big tub) and teach students how to manage that independently.  

One exciting next step is that I recently ordered a book called, The Curious Classroom:  10 Steps for Teaching with Student-Directed Inquiry by Harvey Daniels.  I am ready to get reading and planning for integrating his steps next year. I'd also like to collect absenteeism data to see if my attendance rate is going up because of the changes I'm making in the classroom. I also want to give a likert scale to kids 3 times per year to gauge their feelings toward each subject and school. Next year I want to create rubrics for thematic projects and also continue to be intentional when planning for learner outcomes and 21st century skills.

Beginning October 2019  Integration Phase

10/1/20 -- Decided to have spelling tests every 2 weeks this year instead of every week

10/22/19 -- Without prompting Ss are moving forward with their self-paced fall unit.  It’s so great to have
2nd graders be able to show the first graders the way.  I am not needing long for the first unit, Ss could
be done in 2 weeks but I’m giving them 3.  Need to get Level 3 geometry ready.  Ask Carrie how to copy
so I can use it.

11/6/19 — Introduced self-paced level charts.  Told kids to look at who is in group and if have questions,
ask someone in their group because they are going through it too.  2nd grade student did!  Looked up at
chart and then turned to a 1st grade student and asked for help during work time!

11/12/19

Picture of kids doing a puzzle together and a STEM challenge in class.

This is the first day it really ran the way I envisioned it.  I introduced Eiffel Tower building challenge for the
week with a 1 minute video.  I also put it on Canvas they could watch longer, but they weren’t interested
yet.  This is the first time 2nd grade boy and 1st grade girl have EVER put together a puzzle.  They really
did NOT understand the idea of making a frame or looking for straight side or similar colors but they
worked on it for 30 minutes and cheered when they finished it!  2nd grade boy and 1st grade boy used
Tangram Osmo when they finished their work time for nearly 30 minutes also.  

New ideas:  Kids DO have focus, attention, stamina, problem solving skills when it is something they are
interested in and motivated to do .  

1/2/20  Coaching Corner - 2 yoga ball chairs in the corner

Picture of 2nd grade girl waiting for a coach

1/6/20  Decided to change the format for responding to building challenges to Flipgrid.  Took some time
to learn exactly how to use Flipgrid and I think students will enjoy 1 place they can go to to see all of the
challenges and responses.  The next step is that I’d like the kids to take ownership of sharing out the
challenge with other classrooms.  Maybe talk to them next week about who they’d like to invite to the
uilding challenges and have them go to the classrooms to explain.  Maybe have the student of the week
pick the challenge?  Would like to introduce a new challenge every new work menu, so about every 2
weeks.

Bring the makerspace materials TO the kids and they will build!!

My goal was to make it to the Makerspace at least 1 time/ month this year and I announced this goal to
the class with the hopes that they would help keep me accountable.  This one was in January with a
challenge to make the vehicle go the farthest.   We DID go every month that we had school this year,
sometimes with a challenge, sometimes with just free range of the materials.  If it was getting late in the
month, 2nd grade boy was always the one to remind me of my promise.  

1st and 2nd grade MA teachers worked to gether to create a game to address Social Studies standards. 
It was called Community Survivor and involved natural resources, scarcity, regions, and trading. We
implemented the game for 4 days before spring break.

Other goals/ ideas
Summer 2019 - plan for integrated Science and Social Studies
Year Long - implement 1 PBL project
Year Long - pick out big concepts, revise year-long theme essential questions and big ideas and implement
Year Long - revise math canvas units and implement a spelling self-paced unit
Year Long - continue to evaluate use of blended learning in the classroom

9/2019 Research Phase

When I began to think about how to fit it all together I decided I needed to reread more deeply the Susan Kavolik book about Integrated Thematic Instruction.  There are SO many important ideas in this book and some new key take aways and applications that I began to use right away were;

1. Kavolik opens the books with a list of mismemes about education.  The one that stuck with me the most is; "Acquisition of Knowledge and Skills is the goal of education" instead Kavolik believes . . .
The purpose of Public Education is the Perpetuation of Democracy - our country would be better served by schools that produce caring, intelligent, wise citizens who willingly engage in the work of a democracy, rather than schools that produce graduates that do well on isolated subgoals.  The main goal is to show Ss how to connect learning with the real issues of their surroundings, than solve problems. Education for citizenship, teachers need to orchestrate opportunities for doing the real work of a community. I believe Kavolik would support Project Based Learning and Authentic Intellectual Work.

2.  Focus on a year-long theme, continue to come back to the essential questions and key points often.  I've done this for nearly 18 years, but this year would be more than ever.  To do this I first had the theme wall in a corner of the room and decided that it wasn't easily accessible to students or myself so I moved it front and center to the whiteboard by our whole group area.  I put up big concept words for each essential question and have taken pictures to make our learning more visual.  We talk about it almost daily and I intentionally plan for the connections to theme more than I have before.

3.  Kavolik focused a lot on the importance of relationships with students, another reason for me to slow down and make sure I'm continuing to do the essentials of Capturing Kids Hearts in my classroom everyday.

4.  Kavolik devoted a chapter to teaching life skills, many of which are our Nevada Learner Outcomes.  I had all of them on my year long plan to teach except pride.  Need to think more about this one.

5.  Kavolik suggests eliminating regular schedules with their specified time blocks. I've begun to blend my literacy and math work times to give students choice about the tasks they complete. I use a work menu that allows students to make choices and practice responsibility and prioritizing. I began the year with a station rotation model, but sooner than years before, we quit the rotation model and moved to the work menu. We've had to have lots of discussions about work time expectations and practice those again and again.

Some things I need to continue to grow at;
1.  Dig deeper into writing key points and inquiries and assessment of them.

Lasting thoughts from the book; Anything less than preparation for life is a waste of both student and teacher time and effort.

Other resources I used this year:

Summer/ Fall 2019 - reread Susan Kavolik’s ITI: The Model, Integrated Thematic Instruction

Nevada PhD - writing workshop session with Amanda and Debbie
Summer 2019 - PBL training
Nevada PhD - Canvas session by Carrie HIllman and Joe Wakeman to learn about badgr and mastery pass

Nevada PhD - Makerspace session with Carrie Hillman

Teach Outside the Box - Enlightening Young Engineers blog
Fewer Things Better by Angela Watson
Best Practices at Tier 1 - Daily Differentiation for Effective Instruction by  Mike Mattos
Teach like a Pirate  by Dave Burgess

11/17/20 ICDP Goal Creation and Why

A few years ago on a TLC professional development day, we began to learn about creating a teaching mission statement and given time to create a draft and share it with colleagues for feedback.  For years it sat in a frame on a shelf in my classroom.  I looked at it when I'd have a bad day to remember the big picture and what my "why" was.   This year I decided to focus my ICDP goal on trying to live out my teaching mission because the last few years I've been attending professional development on SO many great strategies and models and trying to make them all fit has been such a struggle.  This got me to take a step back and begin to think about what I believe is most important and this led me back to my teaching mission statement.  This statement is the lens that will help me decide what is valuable to have and use in my classroom and what to begin to do less of and even leave out. This is the first blog post of my journey toward living out my teaching mission statement.

Motivating Difficult Students

How do you get those unmotivated students want to learn and do their best?  That was my ICDP goal this year.  To find strategies to "light a fire" under kids who show no excitement or desire to finish work...even in first grade.  I read a couple books, attended a conference, and participated in a blog to find that magic answer.  My findings consistently said the greatest motivator teachers can use with these difficult students is to build relationships with them.  By connecting with students, sharing in their interests, and building their trust, they will intrinsically want to perform well.  This was all very similar to our training with Capturing Kids Hearts and something I felt I have strived to achieve every year I have taught.  While I appreciated discovering even more strategies to connect with my students,  I didn't find any to motivate my targeted difficult students.  I resorted back to giving rewards for completed work, praising the smallest of efforts, using other students as models, and sharing successes on SeeSaw, along with contacting parents and having students finish work at a less desirable time of the day.  We all have those 2-3 unmotivated students in our room every year.  How do expert teachers find ways to make these students want to learn and do their best?

Personalized Learning- Not What I Thought It Was!!!

Personalized Learning- Not What I Thought It Was!!!

How Climbing the Mountain led to a deeper understanding and a whole new goal!

by:

Kate Wieczorek 

Nevada Middle School

8/9 Math and Learning Team Coach

Base Camp:

Heading into my research and first coaching conversation this fall, my ICDP goal was to continue to create a personalized learning/self paced math setting in my two new courses. (I moved up from 6th grade into 8th and 9th grade).   I was going to create a unit in Canvas for 8th grade that used videos I personally made and gave the students more voice and choice in how they learn new material and how they demonstrate their knowledge. 

However, the more I researched true personalized learning and the more I participated in the personalized learning book studies, I realized my prior knowledge of what personalized learning is was actually not correct! What I currently do as self paced math is differentiated/individualized learning...and on the path to personalized....but not quite there yet!

I learned there are many steps I should really take to actually prepare students for true personalized learning before I worry about creating units.  My research took me in a totally different direction and I modified my goal for the year.   I stumbled upon a book which is a companion/sequel to the book we were reading in our book study.  I ordered How To Personalize Learning which became my “go to” tool I needed to move forward in my learning.

My main focus/goal turned to really understanding what the book refers to as the PDI chart: the differences between personalization, differentiation, and individualization.  I also planned to learn how to create a Personal Learner Profile and Class Learning Snapshot to implement in my classroom next year.

 The Climb:

I had two big “a-ha” moments during my research.  The first was that voice and choice does not mean the teacher creates a menu and the students pick from it.  In my head, if I was allowing them to pick  a worksheet or a Buzz Math, I was allowing for voice and choice.  This is not the case in actual personalized learning.  It is still teacher centered because I am the one creating the choices. 

The second “a-ha” moment was how much more there is to a Personal Learner Profile.  We tend to place ourselves in categories about how we learn based on traditional learning styles.  For example you will hear people say they are a visual or auditory learner or that they need to physically write things down to remember them.  This may be true..this may be PART of how we learn….in certain situations.  But if we classify ourselves as this “type” we may be selling ourselves short and limiting our capabilities.  What students really need to know about themselves is how they access learning, engage with learning, and express what they learned.  Saying you are a “visual” learner might be only referring to how you access your learning.  Students need to think about all three areas of learning and see a bigger picture.

In the essence of time, since I had changed my goal completely, I decided to not let perfection get in the way of progress!   I wanted to develop a formal Personal Learner Profile similar to the ones I found in the books during my research.  I wanted to have a nice tidy tool to formally administer to the group and develop a Class Learning Snapshot to guide my planning for the rest of the year.

That was not going to happen with time allowed to still integrate this year.  So I decided baby steps were better than quitting! 

I  focused on one section of learners.  This group of students seemed to be struggling the most with the 8th grade material and had the most gaps in proficiency in the 6th and 7th grade math standards.  I wanted to help guide them in study habits/strategies and to help them get to know themselves as learners so they could be more successful in high school courses.

I stepped outside of my teacher centered comfort zone and had them help me design the unit we would be working on for the next few weeks.  We brainstormed “how they learn best” but also broke it down into the categories of access, engage, and express as a Learner Profile would.  I pushed them to dig deep!  We did journals, small group conversations, and one-on-one reflective conversations at the beginning, during, and at the end of the unit.  

It was great to see the self awareness increase.  Engagement levels were much higher when the students felt the ownership of the class.  They asked for things such as smaller groups, more variety in activities, allowing them to research math games/puzzles based on the standards we were working on to create the menu of choices, doing verbal assessments rather than written, and flexible seating/room assignment (since I had a co-teacher and could use two different spaces).  However, I specifically required them to try different settings and methods...not just the one they thought fit them best.

I had students do a “quick check” every Monday where they completed the same problems each week on the three main standards we were working on.  This allowed me to monitor academic growth.  I also had them reflect on how their choices the previous week impacted their learning.  I had students report to me what while they thought they liked learning on the computer and with games best, in reality their quick checks went better if they worked one on one with me and verbally explained their learning.

Almost To The Top:

It was working!  It was a TON of work...but it was working!

This was not the goal I started with.  It was not even fully the new goal I wanted to change to.  But it was progress and I grew!  I could be a “poster child” for the Climbing the Mountain process! 

My next steps are to reach the summit by continuing my research and creating a tool to use next year so my students can write their own Personal Learner Profiles.   I will be presenting my findings and ideas during Nevada PhD in the fall.   I am looking forward to continuing my learning and would be happy to share my ideas with anyone interested! Feel free to contact me at kwieczorek@nevadacubs.org any time!  

Proficiency Scales > Rubrics: My Journey of Climbing the Standards-Based Grading Mountain

Eleven years. One-third of my life. Thousands of students taught. Crazy to think I have been doing this little thing called teaching for so long.  By this time, I have taught both high school and middle school. Language arts, math, and science. I should have this whole thing down by now, right?  I should know how to give effective feedback to help students grow as well as understand what their level of understanding is with ease. Heck, I had been doing Standards Based Grading for more than half of my teaching career and I felt like as a teacher it was now time to share my knowledge with others.

As a coach for my fellow teachers, I felt it was important this year to pilot what standards-based grading might look like as our middle school planned for full SBG implementation in  Fall 2019. Like riding a bike, I thought this was going to be easy. But as I embarked on the adventure of creating solid rubrics for students, parents, and other staff to effectively use to gauge understanding, I quickly was humbled.

I should start by saying that not only am I in a district that highly supports teacher growth, but I am surrounded by colleagues that challenge me to grow.  It was a combination of some trainings and questions from peers, that lead me to believe that while I understood the philosophy of standards-based grading, I had yet to implement it with fidelity within my classroom walls.  I thought the next step in my journey was rubrics; if I know what I am assessing, then it should inform what I should be teaching. Bam, done! However, as I began to learn more, I quickly realized I needed to shift my focus from rubrics to proficiency scales.  If you are not sure of the difference between these two: rubrics are specifically assigned to a task, project, assessment etc. It is about the end product, however, proficiency scales are focused on the standard and identifying what it would look like or sound like if a student grasped the concept. While I am sure educational researchers have far more eloquent definitions, this is how I, Jacki Kooistra, interpreted the information.

This newfound distinction created an eye-opening moment for me; I often talk to my students about what being a scientist might look like or sound like, or what a good teammate may look like and sound like; why not apply this concept to my standards?  This led to a more thorough dissection of my standards. I forgot about the activities or the end results, and just asked myself, “if anyone were to look at this, how will they know if a student was successful?” As a good teacher always does, I reflect and modify my assessments every year, which often changes what my rubrics look like; but by creating the proficiency scales I can apply the levels of understanding to any potential activity in the future.

So how does this work:

·      First, I determined what a level three, or proficient level of understanding, meant for that standard. What should my students know or be able to do if they grasped this concept?

·      Then I determined a level two.  What is the foundation knowledge that students need to know to achieve a level three with more time? This is considered a basic level of understanding.

·      Finally, I determined if a student took this concept to the next level.  If a student knew the concept well, where could they take it next, what could they do with their knowledge?

While this may appear simple, many hours were invested to shift my brain, because naturally, I kept coming back to lessons or labs that I could incorporate.  I had to retrain my brain and how I look at lesson planning. I am happy to say I have created proficiency scales for all of my standards and was able to finish the year reaping the benefits of my labor.  During my last couple of units, I could easily use my proficiency scales to create new assessments and rubrics that directly tied to the levels of understanding I had developed. This allows for my grading to be more focused on feedback that encourages growth by highlighting strengths and weaknesses.  I then work backward from there to find or modify lessons that fit into my end goal.

Next fall my proficiency scales will be made available to the students and parents at any time, so if they were to ever have a question of what students are learning about in 8th-grade science, it is easily accessible and written in kid and parent-friendly language.  This holds myself accountable to providing engaging learning experiences tied to the standards, as well as students accountable to meet the expectations.

I look forward to continuing to work with colleagues to help them grow and implement proficiency scales within their classrooms; while also creating richer opportunities for my own students.

Remember as a teacher, you are growing and learning right along with your students.  When we begin to know more, we do more. Don’t seek perfection, because there is no end destination in growth, it is a lifelong journey.

Jacki Kooistra

Nevada Middle School

8th Grade Science/Learning Team Coach