This week, as I had the opportunity to get to know a few of our 7th grade students a little better, I quickly re-learned a few things:
1. Executive Functioning Skills (or the lack of them): Watching students try to organize their backpacks (which we can now see how unorganized they are with the clear backpack), figure out what items they need for each class and manage to get there on-time was a bit of a struggle for a few students! We remember that research shows us that females do not fully develop these skills until they are 20-22 and males are closer to 25 (some research is showing that a male brain doesn't fully stop developing until the age of 40!) Our students are going to need modeling for how to stay organized, manage their time, prioritizing work and even staying focused for long periods of time. Here are a few tips for helping our students:
* Do not give big assignments with one deadline that is several days away - instead, break up long assignments into chunks and do many checks to help make sure students are on track.
* Give students time to get organized at the end of the period - help them write on their calendars due dates or put papers in folders, etc.
* Model for them how to prioritize and give them feedback
* Be patient!
2. Relationships Matter: My second encounter was with a young man that was trying to keep this football equipment with him all day long. Obviously, it was not in a clear backpack and needed to be kept in the office. I approached this young man with a light request of please taking his bag to my office or the teacher's lounge. He was not excited about this request and our conversation went south very quickly! Instead of arguing with him, I asked him to go to my office (I knew this would give both of us time to get back in our executive brain state!) After a longer than expected conversation in my office (and some encouragement from Mr. James) we were able to get him to comply. Mr. James was familiar with the student from the elementary and told me that the student is from a high poverty home and when you try to "take things away" from him he gets upset fast! (Ruby Payne 101!!) Mr. James' information was really helpful. It was a good reminder for me about the importance of working hard to develop relationships and learning to understand our students. I think my goal for this year is to make it to a junior high football game soon and work hard to tell him hi everyday in hopes to learn more about him. I hope by building a relationship with him that I can build trust and the next time we have an encounter it goes much better! It is just one more way we can keep our students feeling safe!
I am sure I will be "schooled" many more times this week as I work with more students! Please feel free to share your stories too, so I can learn quicker! :-)
Important Information:
Classroom Visits - Phil and I have been working to visit your classrooms! We have enjoyed all of our stops so far - so many great things happening!! Just a few reminders of items we will be looking for:
1. Learning Objective: Last year we worked hard to learn how to write and post a learning objective for each period/subject for the day. Remember a good objective will do the following:
- Explain what the student will learn that day in the classroom
- Be written in student-friendly language
- Will clarify how the learning will be demonstrated or measured
Examples:I can write an effective introductory paragraph for an argument.
I can compare and contrast meiosis and mitosis and represent my work in a Venn Diagram.
I can solve/complete problems using ratios.
2. Classroom Expectations: I have heard many great conversations about the classroom expectations that were developed on the 2nd day of school. Posting those expectations as a visual in the classroom is important! If you would like us to make your class list(s) as posters, please let us know and we are happy to do this for you! Looking forward to seeing your lists!
Faculty Meeting - Reminder of our Faculty Meeting on Tuesday, August 20th at 7:20 a.m. in the high school library.
Swivl - Through a grant, we were able to purchase several Swivl Robots to be utilized in the classroom. Basically, this tech tool is specifically developed to help you video tape your class lesson. An ipad sits on a swivl base that allows the video camera to follow the teacher around the room - it even has speakers that can be set to pick up student conversations as well. It is a great tool to use to help you tape and post a lesson for students that may miss class or to video tape yourself for continuous improvement. My son, Justin, has figured out how to use the tool. He is available to help you set it up anytime! Here is a quick video to show you how it works! (Don't mind my messy house!) Video LINK
Professional Development: Just a reminder that September 3rd will be a Virtual Day for students and a Professional Development day for teachers. We are working on a full schedule of training that will include school safety protocols, RISE/SLO support, Ready Math Training for junior high math teachers and more. If you need help coming up with work for students, please let us know and we will be happy to help you! We will continue to send more details out in the next couple of weeks.
INView - The IDOE is launching a new website that would allow the public to see different data points for each public school in Indiana. Not only will families and community members be able to look up information about our academic achievement, attendance rate, school environment (which includes discipline data) and eventually financial information, but they have made it very easy for individuals to compare several schools. The data is very interesting. We are most disappointed in our attendance data and have questions about our discipline data and how it is pulled from Skyward. Just like always, data is just a way for us to reflect on our school and always strive for improvement. If you would like to view this new tool, you can find it HERE.
Classroom Coverage: As you are aware, if you have a day where you need to leave one or two periods early the contract allows for you to take off without taking a sick/personal day in an emergency. If you utilize this option, I am asking that you please do not ask assistants to cover. The assistants have very important roles and when you pull an assistant, you are pulling a resource from a student. Please find a willing, fellow teacher that has a prep period during that time. Thank you!
Classroom Coverage: As you are aware, if you have a day where you need to leave one or two periods early the contract allows for you to take off without taking a sick/personal day in an emergency. If you utilize this option, I am asking that you please do not ask assistants to cover. The assistants have very important roles and when you pull an assistant, you are pulling a resource from a student. Please find a willing, fellow teacher that has a prep period during that time. Thank you!
Important Dates:
Monday, August 19 - IReady Meeting for 7th & 8th grade ELA/MA Teachers 11:45 Jason Barnett's Room
Tuesday, August 20th - Faculty Meeting 7:20 a.m.
Wednesday, August 21st - AP Teacher Meeting 7:20 a.m. High School Library
Tuesday, August 27th - RTI Meeting 7:20 a.m.
Athletic Dates can be found on Event Link!
Good luck to all our athletic teams as they will participate in season openers this week! Go Commodores!!
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