Moving Forward

The following are my comments at our teacher welcome back day, with the theme of "Moving Forward."

             When I consider the theme of “Moving Forward,” the first questions that comes to my mind is “How fast are we going, and where are we headed?”

              In our District, Curriculum and Instruction is moving rapidly towards 21^st century teaching and learning. PUSD is actually on the cutting edge of innovative practices across the state.  In other areas, we are moving a bit more slowly--careful and methodical.  An old proverb says “If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.”  What we have accomplished in the past year is setting us up not to go fast, but to go far.

              We are moving forward with several new curriculum implementations.  First, our TK-6^th grade teachers are training today in a brand new Language Arts curriculum.   This will allow greater consistency for students across our district and more effective collaboration amongst teachers.  Our 7-12 English teachers are infusing their lessons with non-fiction text through Scholastic news.  Math instruction within our district, from TK all the way through 12^th grade, is a leader in our region with Eureka Math, Math Links and the move to Integrated at our high schools.  Our Social Studies teachers are using new, more current and relevant supplemental curriculum for Geography called Choices.  Our freshman year Social Studies requirement has been updated and now requires freshman to complete the semester long “Success 101” course.  Our Science teachers at the elementary level are completing groundbreaking work with Outdoor core alignment to the Next Generation Science Standards and our high school science teachers are considering implementation of integrated science.  Our CTE teachers are considering how to make their courses up to date and relevant to the needs of students through the Career and Technical Education grant.  All this while considering greater educational options for students through alternative education and Plumas Academies. 

              We are focusing on how technology can enhance teaching and learning through higher student engagement and personalized learning.  We are rolling out a 1:1 computing program with two teachers per site.  If you are one of our teachers participating in this rollout, please stand.

              We have two amazing instructional coaches who have cutting edge training and research in effective coaching and instructional practices.

              We also have some amazing Principals in our district.  Six out of seven have been on the job for one year or less, but they are excited and energized to be a part of making our schools great places for students, parents, staff and our communities.

              We have been able to do all of this because of your collaboration and teamwork. We have amazing teacher leaders among us. Working with your sites, CAIS, and Vertical teams, you help inspire and encourage one another in being the very best teachers we can be.  If you are one of those leaders, please stand.

              So, I’ll say it again.  If you want to go fast, go alone.  If you want to go far, go together.  I want to thank you all for your spirit of collaboration. Across disciplines, across communities, your sense of teamwork and dedication to our students make this a great district to be a part of. Thank you for the work you do on a daily basis with your students, with your colleagues, with parents, and with me. Together, we’ll go far…it’s just as Dr. Seuss promised in Oh the places you’ll go, “We’re off to great places, today is our day, our mountain is waiting, so get on your way.”            

Coding with Sphero

Coding with Sphero

I have been wanting to do this since I came back from CueRockStar Admin at Skywalker Ranch.  I had the privilege of being inspired and learning from amazing faculty and colleagues.

I was very inspired by @awelcome who made a video about Sphero in the classroom.  So much so that I, well, copied him.

His video:

What's the line?  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery?

Well, here it is.

Thank you to two teachers who let me come in and disrupt their classroom at this very busy time of year to try this out with students. 

Lessons learned?

• A quick, whole class mini lesson on rotation and angles is very helpful before getting started
• 4 students is a stretch around one iPad, five + is too many (we only have two Spheros as of now)
• Until we get more, a well structured rotation is important.  It would be great to have students using code.org and rotating through stations.
• If I had more Spheros, say 4, I would set up stations and challenges while kids are still learning.  Maybe one corner is a square, another is a sequence of movements and color changes, one is free choice, etc...
• Kids pick up quickly!  After teaching them the basics, let them go, do and create!

The best part of this is the spreading the love of coding and tech.  I learned from #cuerockstar, came back and did it with kids in two classrooms.  My amazing instructional coach was with me (btw, that's another blog post- don't we all need a coach), who then went the next day and did it with a classroom in another school in our district.  Spreading like a wildfire, or maybe like a waterfall.

Next steps- more Spheros and training for teachers!

#FinishStrong

From my weekly update:

#FinishStrong

Only 9 days of school left!  It will be a busy nine days including field trips, assessments, celebrations and graduations. 

I saw this and thought it was great- top 10 ways to finish the schoolyear strong (I’ll tweet it to ya’ll on Twitter).  (http://www.teachercast.net/2016/05/29/top-10-cuerockstar-ways-finish-school-year-strong/)  # 1 from Jon Corippo, Sandbox New Material.  At a time when teachers can’t possibly do one more thing, how about doing something differently, or something that you may want to try out next year.

For me, two very kind QES teachers are allowing me to come into their classrooms this week to try out robotics and coding with kids.  My goal- to determine if this something we want to expand next year.  I’ll be bringing my two Sphero’s in and working with groups of students.  Thank you to tech all-star Will who will be coming with me, as well as IC Yvonne.  Could it be a total disaster?  Yes.  Could it be awesome and lead to great things for kids?  We’ll see.  What a great time to try.  I’m hoping for something like this:

Know Thy Impact

If you're familiar with the work of John Hattie, you know he has done a meta-analysis of 1200 studies of what works for students.  The good news.... very little of what we do harms students.  Most everything done will increase student achievement.  That's great, right?  Well, what we should be asking ourselves is, what works best?  

John Hattie stipulates the average effect size is .4 for all strategies/interventions.  So, if the proposed intervention has less than .4 of an effect size, we could probably do better. 

In Hattie's recent work, The Politics of Collaborative Expertise, he focuses on knowing thy impact.  (https://www.pearson.com/content/dam/corporate/global/pearson-dot-com/files/hattie/150526_ExpertiseWEB_V1.pdf)

Based on Hattie's work, Deb Masters has four questions we should be asking in our schools:

(http://visiblelearningplus.com/content/know-thy-impact-4-questions-help-you-pin-down-what-children-are-really-learning)

1. Does your school discuss, in detail, precisely what you want the impact of any changes to be?

2. Do your teachers have common conceptions of progress?

3. Do all educators in the school believe their main role is to evaluate their impact? 

4. What is the impact of teaching in your school and how do you know?

It should be the basic expectation that we expect a year's worth of growth from a year's worth of education.  That is the minimum.  And that makes sense, right.  Take kids from where they are, add a year of school, and you get a year of growth.

If this is the basic expectation, we should be focusing on a growth model, not simply a percent of students who have attained proficiency.  Wouldn't it be better to right our school goals that all kids will attain a year's worth of growth?

In order to do that, we have to know our impact- whether it is in the instructional strategy that is used in a particular moment, an overall schoolwide intervention strategy or in professional learning.

So, what is your impact?

#KidsDeserveIt

Future Ready Students

I started this video project at #CUERockstar admin and have had the chance to reflect, collaborate and fine tune.  This is my vision for future ready students.

What are we doing?

• Establishing pathways
• Inspiring creativity
• Learning everyday
• Using text
• Mapping the forest
• Expecting excellence
• Thinking critically
• Working collaboratively
• Teaching concepts
• Writing analytically
• Applying learning
• Using technology
• Reading across the curriculum
• Creating content
• Using digital tools
• Becoming makers
• Learning to code
• Inspiring potential
• Unlocking possibilities
• Gaming to learn
• Solving problems
• Making dreams come true
• Teaching today...with the tools of tomorrow
• I can do it, You can do it, We can do it, and it's worth it.
• @kristymwarren

We're missing the point

We have to think differently and use tech differently.  We can't apply the same teaching strategies, and simply do them on the "computer."

For example, instead of using iPads simply as typing tools to word process, let's up the ante and use them for storyboarding, or to create a podcast, or to make a movie.  Let's make our students producers of digital content!

Some tips on how to upgrade a traditional storyboard lesson where students draw pictures in squares, and then write content below to summarize a story.

Here's a link to 11 Storyboarding Apps to Organize and Inspire Young Writers

Even simpler, just make a Keynote- insert pictures from the web with text and you're done.

Let's use our iPads and tech for what they can be- a way to create and share, not simply to type and print.  If we don't we're missing the point.

3 things I learned at CUE RockStar

A week ago, I came back from two wonderful days at Skywalker Ranch for the CUE Rockstar Admin conference.  I'm sure I  annoyed all those around me with the great things I learned and all the things I wanted to do.  (I did come back and drive my sphero BB8 around our district office, had others do the KooKooKangaroo, and got active on our District's Facebook page)  Some call this the conference "high," but this was not a high I was going to let go of.

So, a week later, three things have stuck with me.  What I find interesting is that I didn't attend a "session" on any of these.  These were all things I learned from side conversations, reflection and being around creative and innovative people.

1. Beyond 1:1.  Many schools and districts have rolled out 1:1 programs with a variety of devices, some successful, some not.  However, the real conversation we should be having is about the student learning and creating that students do with the technology.  We really should be talking about having a variety of devices (learning tools) for students to choose from.  Maybe a classroom will have 10 iPads, 10 Chromebooks and 10 laptops.  Students would be able to choose their tool based on the outcome.  Need to do a podcast?  Maybe the iPad is the way to go.  Need to create a presentation with Google slides, maybe the Chromebook will be the tool for the day.  Or need to crunch some data in Excel, then go for the laptop.  Yes, we are a ways away from students knowing how to use all of these tools, or are we?

2. Don't wait for the teachers.  Are teachers necessary in the classroom, absolutely.  However, there is so much new technology, no way can one person hold all of the knowledge and be responsible for disseminating that knowledge to students.  Let's not wait to train teachers in every possible new technology.  If we give kids the devices or tech (Spheros, drones, 3D printers, etc...) and let them learn, design and create, they will figure it out.  Will they need to work together and collaborate?  Yes.  Will they need to think critically?  Yes.  Will they need to be creative? Yes.  Will they need to think critically?  Yes.  Will they make mistakes?  Yes.  Isn't that all part of the learning process.

3. Tell your story.  This has two parts- tell your story through digital storytelling and social media.  Yes, I did go to Adam Welcome's Digital Storytelling session as well as his blogging session (that's how this got started), and he was amazing.  But telling your story through social media was a thread that all faculty used and stressed.  Kids and teachers are doing amazing things in our schools- tell the story and get the good news out there!

So, those were the big things.  I also learned many great tips and tricks such as

• Google calendar appointment slots
• Inserting images into Google slides
• KooKoo Kangaroo
• lots more!

Thanks CUE Rockstar!