SIF Notes

As we prepare for a new year, many of us are helping our principals with the Continuous School Improvement Plan. I thought it might be helpful to include a list here of some resources that will help your school teams on the CSIP. The resources below are directly related to the HISD CSIPs and are resources that the district used in revising the SIP for 2007-2008.

SMART Goals
“The Power of SMART Goals: Using Goals to Improve Student Learning” (Anne Conzemius, Jan O’Neill) (All of your PLC leaders need a copy of this book. It contains detailed information on developing SMART goals within each team — based on data — and on developing a pattern of meetings to achieve the work as efficiently and effectively as possible. Highly recommended.)
“The Handbook for Smart School Teams” (Anne Conzemius) (A powerful resource that can help develop the team leadership skills of all of your instructional team leaders — department chairs, SLC coordinators, content area lead teachers, assistant principals. I have purchased a copy of this book as well as the one listed above for all of our teacher-leaders and administrators. Includes a CD with lots of great templates and resources for planning.)
“Building Shared Responsibility for Student Learning” (Anne Conzemius, Jan O’Neill)
Data-Driven Decision-Making & Multiple Measures of Data
“Data Analysis for Continuous School Improvement” (Victoria L. Bernhardt) (expands on what school administrators will learn in the district training)
“The School Portfolio Tool Kit: A Planning, Implementation, and Evaluation Guide for Continuous School Improvement” (Victoria L. Bernhardt)
“The School Portfolio: A Comprehensive Framework for School Improvement” (Victoria L. Bernhardt)
“Using Data To Improve Student Learning In High Schools” (Victoria L. Bernhardt)
“Using Data to Improve Student Learning in Elementary Schools” (Victoria L. Bernhardt)
“Using Data To Improve Student Learning In Middle Schools” (Victoria L. Bernhardt)
“The Example School Portfolio: A Companion to the School Portfolio, a Comprehensive Framework for School Improvement” (Eye on Education,)
“Data Wise: A Step-by-Step Guide to Using Assessment Results to Improve Teaching And Learning” (Harvard Educational Pub Group) (not used by the district, but a great supplemental resource for school teams.)
Intervention Plans and PLCs
“Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (Book & CD-ROM)” (Richard Dufour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many) (Contains CD with reproducible planning tools — the district is using portions of this book in our training. Highly recommended for every member of your instructional leadership team.)
“Whatever It Takes: How Professional Learning Communities Respond When Kids Don’t Learn” (Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Gayle Karhanek) (Contains a great example of one school’s Intervention Pyramid with information on how they developed it.)
“Professional Learning Communities at Work: Best Practices for Enhancing Student Achievement” (Richard Dufour, Robert E. Eaker)

“Professional Learning Communities at Work Plan Book” (Richard DuFour) (A great resource to give to all of your teachers — it’s a year-long weekly plan book with information on every page about collaboration, planning, interventions, assessment, etc. I purchased copy to examine and I was so impressed that I have ordered one for every member of our faculty.)

I wish you all the very best this summer and I hope your 2007-2008 school year planning goes smoothly!

Technorati Tags: assessment, best practices, classroom instruction that works, curriculum, education, HISD, instruction, interventions, leadership, learning, PLC, Rick DuFour, School Improvement, SMART Goals, teaching

I have completed the podcast from the discussion we held at our last meeting.You can listen to this podcast here.

The presentations and video clips referred to in the podcast are located at:

Karl Fisch’s “Did You Know?”
Scott McLeod’s version of “Did You Know?”
Karl Fisch’s “What If?”
Jeff Han at TED

Additional background information is located here.

Thanks for listening!

In order for students to be successful in the 21st century, it is imperative that schools shift their focus from teaching to learning. Teaching implies something that teachers do and learning implies something the students do and are changed forever.

In today’s society there is a need for the people in the workforce to be able to take information and not only process it but create a new idea. There is not a cattle call for those that can recall facts but what creative, innovative ideas do you bring to the table.

What does this mean in terms of instruction? Students must be taught process- the how of something. How to listen for important information and how to combine two or more ideas. What does it look like in the classroom? Students writing, students collaborating on a project, students debating, students teaching a concept. Where is the teacher? Guiding the process, correct misinformation, asking guiding questions helping students scaffold their own learning.

Ques. #1: I thought the Consultancy Protocol was excellent to used for this exercise. I believe the presenter got some very good feedback and I learned from her as well.

Ques. #2: I think the use of the technology demonstrated by Jeff Han in the classroom would be awesome. Using that in conjunction with/or instead of manipulatives is the path were on to teach students in the 21st century.

Ques. #3: We need to find out what kids need first! After we find out, we have to give it to them. I do not believe it’s difficult to find a way to give students the foundation or basic information that they never got and integrate that with new information through the use of technology.

Ques. #4: I plan to bring my own skills in this area to the campus, provide information via email, professional development or teacher mailbox and encourage and guide critical conversations about this area. I’m sure there are teachers on my campus that would welcome this dialogue!!

After viewing the video “Did You Know” by Karl Fisch our group discussed today, at our SIF meeting, that educators need to teach problem solving to students as opposed to skills and facts.  However, we feel that there is a pool of essential skills and facts that need to be taught but are not sure what they are.  We are not concerned that technology will replace jobs because historically we see that technology is creating jobs.

Linda Trendell/ Lee High School

Robert DeKanter/ Chavez High School

Alma Webber/Worthing High School

Yvonne Friday/Madison High School

Esmelda Bruce/Sam Houston High School

Feel free to post a comment to share your thoughts, reflections, and new learning from today’s SIF meeting. You can post a comment to this post, or you can write your post by logging in to our blog. Here are a few questions to help you structure your thoughts:

What are your thoughts on the process of developing our intervention plans?

What thoughts do you have regarding student learning in the 21st century? What thoughts do you have after viewing the “Did You Know” and the Jeff Han video?

How can we balance the long-term goal of preparing kids for THEIR future while also surviving in today’s accountability culture? (Scott McLeod’s question)

What do I need to do personally to become a more effective leader in this area? (Scott McLeod’s question)

“My doctrine is this, that if we see cruelty or wrong that we have the power to stop, and do nothing, we make ourselves sharers in the guilt.”
– Anna Sewell

Resources:

http://stopcyberbullying.ning.com/
http://www.cyberbully.org/
http://www.csriu.org/
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/
http://stopbullyingnow.hrsa.gov/
http://www.safeyouth.org/scripts/teens/bullying.asp
http://www.kidshealth.org/parent/emotions/behavior/bullies.html

Technorati Tags: stopcyberbullying

Some of you may have seen the video titled “Did You Know?” that has been circulating through the HISD email recently. If not, here is a link to the video being circulated (edited and reformatted by Scott McLeod), and here is a link to the original version that was created by an educator named Karl Fisch. I want to make some comments about this video (which I first saw in September when it started making the rounds across the blogosphere), and I also want to draw your attention to a few other interesting videos that complement Karl Fisch’s original message…

A Guiding Question for you while you view these videos — How might you use these to generate discussions about School Improvement among your school Leadership Team? Among your faculty? Among your students?…

Related Reading… (if you haven’t read any of these yet, you should…)
“The World Is Flat [Updated and Expanded]: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century” (Thomas L. Friedman)
“The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life” (Richard Florida)
“The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition for Talent” (Richard Florida)
“A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future” (Daniel Pink)
“Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything” (Don Tapscott, Anthony D. Williams)

Technorati Tags: change, Christian Long, Did You Know, education, innovation, instruction, Karl Fisch, learning, School Improvement, Scott McLeod, teaching, technology, Web2.0, Wikinomics

Read the rest of this entry »

I attended the TCEA 2007 Conference in Austin, Texas this week and I’m posting a few of the things that “caught my eye” over the past three days.

Click below to read more about what I learned, what I saw, and what thoughts are now running through my head related to edtech…

Technorati Tags: edtech, education, innovation, instructional+technology, learning, TCEA, technology, Web2.0

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m more convinced than ever that the advisory period is the best oppportunity for us to begin to establish those “critical” relationships we need to have with our students.

At the SLC conference in CA this morning, lots of really important ideas were presented that I hope to put in place with an advisory period team when we return to Waltrip. These I share below.

 We definitely need to have a student focus group in a fishbowl type setting where we listen to their experience of advisory so far and what we can do to make it better.

 From here, we need to have a team that develops a vision aligned with our SIP.  Since we in four career academies, we need to decide if we should develop a vision in our academies or as a whole school.  Needs to be part of the “team” conversation.

 Oncw we have a clear vision that addresses

• What will it look like?
• What will it feel like?
• What will it sound like>
• How will it make a positive difference in the lives of our students?

we need to write some SMART goals that will get us there in developing our Action Plan.

 Some of the questions that need to guide our discussions are:

• Who will take Leadership Role 
• Who will coordinate the  logistics i.e. scheduling students,  times/day(s)
• Who will decide/coordinate the content?
• What professional development will be needed?

One idea I particularly liked was Senior Seminar where seniors meet at times as a whole group with counsleors, academy principals and senior advosor and at other times in their academy with their counselor and academy principal as the facilitators.  This would free up lots of teachers so that we could have smaller advisory groupings.  Something worth pursuing.

 

More later…………………

 

Cynthia

Here are a few resources that teacher leaders such as department chairs, PLC team leaders, and SLC coordinators may find helpful:

“The Handbook for Smart School Teams” (Anne Conzemius)

“Learning by Doing: A Handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (Book & CD-ROM)” (Richard Dufour, Rebecca DuFour, Robert Eaker, Thomas Many)

“How To Thrive As A Teacher Leader” (JOHN G. GABRIEL)

“Developing Teacher Leaders: How Teacher Leadership Enhances School Success (Corwin Press)” (Frank Crowther, Stephen S. Kaagan, Margaret Ferguson, Leonne Hann)

“Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice” (Charlotte Danielson)

In the last SIF meeting, someone asked about research regarding grading and zeros. Here are some resources.  Let me know if they help.

• There’s an article in the current Ed Leadership (Jan 2007) “Improving the Way we Grade Science” which has some interesting ideas as well.

 

• Try research by Tom Gusky, University of Kentucky and Rick Stiggins.  They both address this issue.

 

• Douglas Reeves’ “The Case Against the Zero” in the December, 2004 Phi Delta Kappan is an exceptional argument regarding exactly this. You can access the article via his web site once you’ve registered (free) at http://www.makingstandardswork.com/ResourceCtr/index.php#articles

 

• Rick Wormeli’s recent title, Fair Isn’t Always Equal, speaks compellingly to the ‘power of zeros’ in his chapter on grading.

• Try these sites:
  http://mastersacademyonline.com/article-zeros.htm
  http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleGround/Articles/February2006/Article1
  4/tabid/809/Default.aspx
  http://teachers.net/mentors/high_school/topic7795/1.23.07.20.48.58.html
  http://teachers.net/gazette/MAY02/page.html
  http://whatitslikeontheinside.blogspot.com/2005/07/power-of-none.html
  http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20050309/EDUCATION/103090029&SearchID=73270
  728706141
  http://www.maa.org/SAUM/maanotes49/84.html

  They all address the issue of Zeros.  Zeros kill incentive and give kids an
  excuse to quit.  When I was a principal my instructions to the teachers was
  to give no grade at all until the work was completed.  Therefore the work
  and learning was the goal.  The grade was required by the board of
  education’s grading policy.  It was a tough issue at first.

• On the subject of homework, try Alfie Kohn’s, “Abusing Research: The
  Study of Homework & Other Examples,”  Phi Delta Kappan, September
  2006.  You’ll get the article on-line if you google the title.

Penny for Your Thoughts…ways to overcome communication barriers:  Think of these words when responding:  power, management, time, dissemination, prima donna, nay sayer, pessimistic story teller, etc.

This is my very first blog and due to time constraint, I hope it won’t be my last. :-)  The SIF Network is totally awesome!!!  You guys are some of the most intellectual and creative professionals that I have come to truly respect and admire.  Okay, I’m working on a Valentine gift; anyway, I’ll blog you soon with real information…perhaps?!

Hello World!  This is my first blog post.

 I intend to you use this blog to model technology and to share the use of techonology to my team at my school.