Mindfulness and Zones of Regulation

 Why do you want to focus on this area for your ICDP?

It seems in past years we have focused more on academics and how to teach reading with best practice. Our school has really focused lately on mindfulness and in order to be effective with mindfulness I wanted to start with myself and learn some skills to practice. I am hoping that these skills will be helpful personally and professionally. 

What are you wanting to change about your practice and how will that impact student learning?

I want to be able to help students stay in the green zone of the Zones of Regulation. I also want to have some skills to fall back on when I am feeling overwhelmed and dysregulated.

What school/class data shows this is an area of concern for you?

Our school has used SABRS in the past but has moved to DESSA to collect SEL data on students. Last year was a difficult year for students and teachers and teaching, in general, has become more challenging.

What do you see as your topic for research?

The topic for my research will be "mindfulness" with a large part of my focus on the book, Mindfulness for Teachers by Patricia A. Jennings.

How will this topic enhance and support student learning?

I am hoping to learn strategies to keep myself in the 'green zone' on the 'Zones of Regulation' chart. As I learn strategies, I will share with students when they are dysregulated. This will help students their whole life, personally and academically, as they learn to regulate themselves.

Where will you look for resources on this topic?

Meg Friederes, Emily Kruse, Erin Murphy and the book, Mindfulness for Teachers by Patricia A. Jennings. Zones of Regulation Chart, Randi Davis, classroom yoga cards, Kristi Kenealy

How will you know you improved in this area? What evidence will you have?

When I am able to regulate myself when I am overwhelmed and stressed, and when I am able to help students regulate when they are dysregulated. 

Increasing Students Reading Abilities with Guided Reading

 

Royalty Free Clipart Image of a Student in Class Reading With a Teacher. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-09-2009, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=193887&tl=photos. Accessed 21-09-2021.

During the 2021-2022 school year, I will be focusing on Guided Reading for my Individualized Career Development Plan (ICDP). I chose this topic for a variety of reasons. First, my guided reading block and literacy time is a strong passion of mine. It is my favorite time of day with my students and I enjoy building reading skills with my students. Another reason I chose this topic is because literacy instruction and reading skills for students is an important part of their education. It is essential that students can read and comprehend a text not only at school but in their life as well. 

Last year we added Literacy Footprints to our guided reading block along with Jan Richardson’s Word Study but this is the first full year using the Literacy Footprints in the classroom. For my ICDP during the 2020-2021 school year, I focused on word study, so I believe this will be a continued study from that practice just a year ago. As a building, we had 94% of students that made one year growth or were at or above grade level for last year. This is an important success. This year, I have five out of nineteen students that are coming into first and second grade reading below reading level. I would like to move those five students up to grade level and also continue to progress my current at level students as well. 

I will be taking a class with Jennifer Burns once per month that will serve as my research and new learning to help enhance and support students in guided reading instruction. I will continue to use my text from Jan Richardson in both word study and guided reading as well to support my instruction for students. I will know if students have improved by analyzing running records as well as end of the year leveling this spring. This data will be my evidence of student achievement in my classroom.

Differentiating in Canvas for Independent Work

Image by ClipartMax (Canvas Logo)

I want to give more structure and have more check points in my classroom. I want to still incorporate self-paced math but having the classroom foundation of student accountability in order to progress through the standards appropriately. This summer I rearranged the scope and sequence of my math content with specific dates of when different standards were to be taught.  For example 5.NBT.5 multiplying whole numbers is a three week unit. All essential standards has a corresponding unit packet and students will continue to work through these packets (usually) in a self-paced manner. 

What happens when students finish the packet will look different this year.  Instead of continuing to the next essential standard, I am working an "Independent work" section on canvas that students will have different enrichment and extension opportunities. I am going to use my ICDP as time to research the best methods of designing the Independent work unit packets as well as the extension activities that students will be doing. 

Math Interventions

 

This year I am focusing on improving the math interventions we are doing with our students that fall below proficiency.  The data shows that we have a significant number of students that have not made benchmark the last 2-3 times that we have taken the FAST aMath test and the ISASP test.  These students will be receiving an intervention through the program DreamBox for tier 2 interventions and Project Numeracy for tier 3 interventions.

Image by dreambox

My research will be about what the expected growth is for students that spend 15-20 minutes a day or 75-100 minutes a week and how the program works to determine the skill gaps for each student.  I will analyze the data provided through DreamBox to see if our students are making the expected gains.    

I will analyze data on a weekly basis to make sure the program in being used with fidelity.  Ultimately the goal is to fill gaps that will help the students to make benchmark on the FAST aMath test and lessen the number of kids needing a tier 2 intervention.  

Formative Assessments Aligning with Summative Assessments

Algebra equations. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 05-02-2020, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=1828578&tl=photos. Accessed 20-09-2021.

 My ICDP goal this year is to work on improving formative assessments to align with my summative assessments.  Over the last few months, we have worked on creating power standards in the math department to really focus on what our students need to know in each class.  I am confident with the summative assessments I have created and have those leveled.  I am focusing on creating more formative assessments to help the students get feedback along the way as they work towards demonstrating understanding of the material.  Formative assessment is so important in so many ways, but especially in a math class, as many of the math topics build on each other.  

 

Another part of my goal as I work on formative assessment is to help students learn the purpose behind formative assessment, as well as how to take the feedback from a formative assessment in use it to seek out help, find additional resources and process what things they are already good at and where they can improve.  One strategy that I have tried already includes talking about how if a team misses free throws in a game, they are most likely going to work on free throws at practice the next day.  One struggle that I think students are having, based on results that I have seen so far, is taking the formative assessment and using it to get better.

 

I have done a little bit of work with formative assessment, so far, including using Google Forms (as a quiz, with immediate feedback), tickets in/out the door, and student use of JamBoard while solving problems.  I will continue to use the resources, but am also hoping that through my research and continued coaching conversations and work with staff that I will discover some additional ways to help meet students needs and help empower them to be successful.

Writing Stronger, Yet Weaker

 

Image by Unsplash (thoughtcatalog)

Have you ever had a moment of reflection that made you wonder why something has changed so drastically?  Well, I have been reflecting on how student writing has become stronger yet so much weaker.  Students are becoming better with the meat of the story, but they are struggling with the language standards.  This seems disheartening to me.  I pondered the possible reasons why this might be so.

After reflecting, I keep coming back to my lack of teaching language in isolation.  I wondered if student's writing would be better putting back my daily oral language routine. That leads me to "NoRedInk". It is a program that teaches skills in isolation.  So, I have decided to put it to the test this year. 

NoRedInk is connected with the Iowa Standards.  Is the premium version worth the money?  Will it improve student performance?  I will be looking at some different webinars within the "NoRedInk" platform and follow up with some research that will either support or debunk teaching grammar in  isolation.  

Participation and Engagement

 

Teacher studying school books in class with high school kids. Stock Photo. Clipart.com School Edition, Vital Imagery Ltd., 01-03-2019, https://schools.clipart.com/download.php?iid=1585346&tl=photos. Accessed 20-09-2021.

My plan for the year is to improve student participation and engagement in my classroom.  Two years ago Meg read the book Total Participation Techniques and asked me to do a coaching conversation with her on how she was going to implement some of the strategies in her classroom.  I found our conversation to be very interesting and decided to read the book myself.  My plan was that this would be my ICDP last year, but Covid and Canvas took more of my attention and focus, which was necessary for the time.

 

I believe many of the strategies in the book will pair nicely with formative assessment, which is a piece of our building goal this year.  By having more students fully engaged in the task, I will (should!) be better able to assess who is understanding the information and who is confused. If I can successfully redirect and reteach in the moment, ideally more students will understand the information and be able to pass standard assessments the first time, which will lead to less need to reassess.  I don't have good hard data from the past on reassessment.  I could try to dig in and find what we were working on before we ended 2020 with Covid.  For sure, I can compare first semester to second since all of my classes repeat.